1917 The First World War

The First World War, known to many as ‘The Great War’ was a war of vast proportions. Its origins were extremely complex, its impact on military operations was revolutionary and its extent of destruction was horrifying. In Australia, around 416,809 men enlisted , of whom more than 61,532 were killed and 156,000 wounded, gassed, or taken prisoner . A nation that had been meticulously built over 176 years was torn apart by a single war. But, as horrifying as ‘The Great War’ was, is it possible to select a single year of profound tragedy? Was 1917 the worst year of this tragic war for Australia and Australians or, is this statement a mere attempt at consolidation, one hundred years after the devastation of 1917? The statistics of The First World
On the 4th of August 1914, Britain declared war against Germany. Australia, being a colony of the British Empire, was automatically also at war. Thousands of men rushed to volunteer to fight for their mother nation with most being accepted into the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). Australian troops were sent straight to Egypt to be trained and to fight against the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East. After four and a half months of training in military camps near Cairo, the Australian men departed by ship for the Gallipoli peninsula, along with troops from New Zealand, Britain, and France. On 25th of April 1915, members of the AIF landed on Gallipoli in Turkey. This began the well-known battle on the shore of Gallipoli now known as ANZAC cove, which ended in December 1915 when troops withdrew from the coastline. For the next two years of
We do not classify Australia by its economic standings nor economic growth, we classify Australia by its individuals-a nation defined by its people. In the same way, we cannot name a year the worst of WWI because each individual, each citizen of Australia will have a different year that was their worst. For the young, brave soldier who watched almost every single member of his battalion (the 53rd battalion) die beside him on the front lines at Fromelles in 1916, that year will be his worst. No death toll or vast number of casualties of the years before or after will compare to what he saw that day. When looking back upon WWI, think not of the war itself, think not of a single year, think not of the death tolls or statistics of battle. Instead think of the people, the men who so naively stepped into battle, think of the women who lost their loved ones, think of Australia as a nation of individuals who all suffered in years of a hideous war. Perhaps then, we will finally be able to see war as something too brutal to classify and too dark to speak lightly of. A disturbing reality of suffering, cruelty and