A Study Guide by Robert Lewis

http://www.metromagazine.com.au

ISBN: 978-1-74295-490-5 http://www.theeducationshop.com.au OVERVIEW

The War That Changed Us (Electric Pictures 2014) is a 4 x 57 minute dramatized documentary that tells the story of Australia’s war effort from 1914-1918 through the focus or filter of six key historical characters:

• General Harold ‘Pompey’ Elliott • Sergeant Archie Barwick • Nurse Kit McNaughton • Peace campaigner Vida Goldstein • War supporter Eva Hughes • Radical socialist Tom Barker.

The series follows these six characters through their stories as told in their vivid and evocative personal testimonies — revealed in letters, diaries, speeches and newspaper articles written in the heat of the moment as the events of the war unfold at home and on the frontline. This study guide is in four parts, one for Driven by human stories, rather than the detail of military each episode. The introductory activities history, the series offers an opportunity to get close to the and summary activities are repeated each actual experience of war, and to learn how it changed the time, so if students have already seen any lives of those involved. As a result the political becomes episode of The War That Changed Us they personal and the epic everyday. We watch the series pro- can skip these and concentrate on the tagonists struggle with the opposing influences of imperial- questions and activities that are specific ism and independence, militarism and pacifism, Old World for that episode. enmities and New World utopian ideals.

The War That Changed Us uses dramatic reconstruction, location filming, expert analysis and colourised black and The places where Australians fought and the nature of war- white archive to tell a gripping tale spanning three conti- fare during World War I, including the Gallipoli campaign. nents over four brutal years. The impact of World War I, with a particular emphasis on It chronicles the rise of the Australian peace and labour Australia (such as the use of propaganda to influence the movements as well as our military role in the Great War: civilian population, the changing role of women, the con- both were theatres of war. In doing so the series honours scription debate). the heroism of those who fought and died on the battlefront and those who lived through a period of bitter, divisive The commemoration of World War I, including debates conflict, personal and political, on the home front. Along the about the nature and significance of the Anzac legend. way we learn how Australians struggled to reconcile what the war meant for them as individuals, communities and as ώώ ENGLISH YEAR 10 a nation – how it changed us. Analyse and evaluate how people, cultures, places, events, objects and concepts are represented in texts, including CURRICULUM media texts, through language, structural and/or visual APPLICABILITY choices. Biography. The War That Changed Us is a relevant resource for middle and senior students (Years 9-12) in: ώώ MEDIA ARTS YEAR 9 AND 10 SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014

ώώ AUSTRALIAN HISTORY YEAR 9 Evaluate how genre and media conventions and technical and symbolic elements are manipulated to make represen- Depth Study: World War 1 tations and meaning.

An overview of the causes of World War I and the reasons Evaluate how social, institutional and ethical issues influ- why men enlisted to fight in the war. ence the making and use of media artworks. 2 2 THE SIX CHARACTERS IN THE WAR THAT CHANGED US

He is a remarkable character who becomes Australia’s ARCHIE most famous fighting general. Through his constant stream 1 BARWICK of letters to his wife Katie to whom he tells all, we gain a rare insight into a General’s experience of war and the toll that high-command exacts. Foot soldier ARCHIE BARWICK is a tough fair-haired blue-eyed 24-year old Church of England farmer from TOM Campania, a grape-growing region in the Coal River Valley

of southeast Tasmania. Among the first to join up in August 4 BARKER 1914, he is assigned to the now legendary First Battalion. Archie serves first in Gallipoli and then in the trenches on English born, farm labourer’s son TOM BARKER is a the Western Front. Wounded several times and rising to militant activist and no stranger to trouble. As an organ- the rank of Sergeant, Archie not only survives the War, but iser for the Industrial Workers of the World and editor of leaves us with one of the most detailed, vivid and revealing its newspaper Direct Action, Barker becomes the most written accounts to emerge from it. It’s through his excep- determined and vociferous opponent of what he calls the tional sixteen volume war diary that the series builds an in- ‘capitalist war’. Drawing on his radical speeches delivered timate portrait of the horrors that engulfed young Australian on Sydney’s Domain, his editorials and articles, letters, and soldiers and the awful toll it exacts on their lives. memoirs, Tom Barker’s role in the anti-war movement on the home front and his vehement opposition to conscription KIT comes to life. McNAUGHTON 2 VIDA

Army nurse KIT MCNAUGHTON is a Roman Catholic 5 GOLDSTEIN farmer’s daughter from the small town of Little River in southwest Victoria. Bold, cheeky, eagle-eyed, Kit travels on Stylish, articulate and fearless, VIDA GOLDSTEIN is the a heroic journey from Little River to Lemnos near Gallipoli, poster woman of the revolutionary feminist movement. In then on to France, before returning to Australia. Through the decades before the war, she becomes internationally the pages of Kit’s diary, we meet the men and women famous for trailblazing the fight for Australian women’s right whose fates collide: lovers, friends, patients, servicemen to vote. As war sweeps the world, Vida turns her attention and civilians. She is a young woman with a defiant spirit, to pacifism, working tirelessly as the leader of the Women’s filled with a sense of duty and drawn by the call of adven- Political Association and the founder of the Women’s Peace ture. Kit keeps her precious diaries, three small books, with Army. This important and largely untold history is revealed her for four years. They document a voyage of self-discov- through her own words drawn from her editorials and ery, adventure, romance and burgeoning independence; articles in her newspaper Woman Voter, and in speeches as well as her strong sense of identification with both the delivered in public halls and on Melbourne’s Yarra bank. Empire and the ANZAC corps. In her diaries she details her struggle with the nursing hierarchy, the gruelling workload EVA and the bloody horrors of war. 6 HUGHES HAROLD EVA HUGHES is from the Australian upper-class and is 3 ‘POMPEY’ ELLIOTT married to a pastoralist who has mining and business interests. She absolutely defends Australia’s right and, she For 36-year old Boer war veteran HAROLD ‘POMPEY’ believes, ‘obligation’ to be part of the war. She believes ELLIOTT from Northcote in Melbourne, the decision to in King, she believes in country and she in a wife’s duty enlist is rooted in a sense of duty to defend his country to stand by her man. As the President of the Australian

and his family. The Melbourne solicitor served as a lieuten- Women’s National League, by far the leading women’s SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014 ant colonel in the peacetime militia, and is given the same association in Australia, she appeals to a sense of female rank in the Australian Imperial Force commanding the 7th obligation in an extraordinarily powerful and successful Battalion. During the War he rises to the rank of Brigadier pro-war movement. Through her speeches and articles in General. He is charismatic, controversial, volatile, forthright the Australian Women’s National League publication The and extraordinarily brave. His men know he would never Woman, we gain an authentic insight into the mighty forces send any of them anywhere he is not prepared to go him- supporting the war that dominate the home front for most self and he often seen fighting beside them in the frontline. of the War. 3 2 RECORDING YOUR IMAGE

MY IMAGE OF THESE ASPECTS IS

THE ANZACS AS SOLDIERS

AUSTRALIAN NURSES

THE NATURE OF THE WAR

THE AUSTRALIAN HOME FRONT DURING THE WAR

THE ANZAC TRADITION/ LEGEND/ SPIRIT

BEFORE WATCHING not have a strong or detailed image in your mind. Just write down what you think. You will be interested to see if your THE FILM ideas have changed after viewing The War That Changed Us. ώώ ACTIVITY 1 – RECORDING ώώ ACTIVITY 2 – RECORDING YOUR IMAGE OF THE WAR YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE WAR

What is your image of the war, and particularly these The first activity was to do with images and ideas. This ac- aspects: tivity is to do with facts. What do you know about Australia and the war? Again, do not worry if you do not know much, • The Anzacs as soldiers or think that you need to find out the correct answers • Australian Nurses before you write them down Recording Your Knowledge work-

• The nature of the war sheet on page 5. Just record what you think you know, then SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014 • The Australian home front during the war come back to these answers after watching The War That • The Anzac Tradition/Legend/Spirit — that idea of Changed Us and see if your knowledge has changed and Australian nationalism that emerged from the war and developed. which we commemorate on Anzac Day After you have watched The War That Changed Us look at Record your ideas in the Recording Your Image table above. Do these questions again and see if you would change any of not think they have to be detailed, and do not worry if you do your answers. 4 2 RECORDING

1 The First World War started in (month and year) and fin- 14 Where was the ‘Western Front’? YOUR KNOWLEDGE ished in (month and year) STARTED: FINSIHED:

2 Name 3 Allied nations: A B C 15 What was ‘Trench warfare’?

3 Name 3 enemy nations: A B C 16 Name 4 main weapons of war. What does AIF stand for? 4 A A B I C F D

5 What does ANZAC stand for? 17 Were Australian soldiers all volunteers? A Circle: Yes No N 18 Did Australia introduce conscription during the war? Z Circle: Yes No A C 19 Were people jailed for protesting against the war? Circle: Yes No 6 How many Australians fought overseas during the war A 300 000 / B 500 000 / C 750 000 20 Was voluntary war effort the main role available to women during the war? Circle: Yes No 7 How many nurses served overseas? A 4000 / B 10 000 / C 15 000 21 Did women replace men in most jobs during the war? Circle: Yes No 8 How many soldiers and nurses died? A 60 000 / B 100 000 / C 200 000 22 Did soldiers spent months at a time in the front line? Circle: Yes No 9 Name 3 main areas (countries) where they fought 23 Were the bodies of Australians who died during the war A brought back to Australia? B Circle: Yes No C 24 What is meant by ‘Anzac Day’?

10 Name 3 main areas where nurses served A B C

11 When did Australian soldiers land at Gallipoli? SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014 (date) (month) (year) 25 What is meant by ‘Remembrance Day’?

12 Which nation had the largest number of soldiers at Gallipoli?

13 How many Australians died at Gallipoli? A 4000 / B 10 000 / C 23 000 5 2 EXPLORING IDEAS AND ISSUES IN THE FILM There are four episodes to The War That Changed Us. For each episode there are 5 key aspects to consider:

• What do we learn about the six main characters? • What do we learn about the nature of the fighting during the war and its impacts on people? • What do we learn about how Australian society responded to the war? • How do the filmmakers get these aspects across to us? • Is the series a fair and accurate representation of what happened?

Work through the questions and activities for this episode below.

EPISODE 2 General Pompey Elliott and Archie Barwick are reluc- tant to leave their dead comrades behind as they withdraw from Gallipoli and are sent to France. Archie has some COMING TOGETHER respite from the war when on leave in London as he and Pompey Elliott prepare to go into battle for the first time on (1915-16) the Western Front.

This episode looks at the August offensive at Lone Pine On the home front peace campaigner Vida Goldstein is on Gallipoli, the nurses on Lemnos, and the developments banned from speaking in public halls and is attacked by a in recruiting and conscription campaigns in Australia. The group of angry soldiers as she speaks on Melbourne’s Yarra troops leave Gallipoli and go to the Western Front. Bank. News from her little brother Selwyn makes things worse when Vida learns that he has enlisted in a war she so ώώ SYNOPSIS vehemently opposes.

By the middle of 1916, the Great War has been raging Militant anti-war activist Tom Barker plays cat and mouse SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014 for nearly two years. At Gallipoli Archie Barwick and with the authorities and is jailed for twelve months for pub- Pompey Elliott are part of the only success of the disas- lishing a seditious cartoon jeopardizing recruiting. While on trous August 1915 allied offensive when they manage to the other side of the political divide conservative crusader capture and hold the Turkish trenches at Lone Pine. Nurse Eva Hughes believes the voluntary system of recruitment Kit McNaughton treats casualties from the offensive has failed to supply the number of men to win the war. She and as the campaign fails is evacuated with the retreating appeals to women to send their men forward and urges the troops and transferred to a hospital in Northern France. government to bring in conscription. 6 2 ώώ GALLIPOLI

See Figure 4 on page 8

1 The film shows the nature of the war at Lone Pine. What is the image of war that is presented?

2 There is also a focus on the Anzacs as men — what do we learn about their feelings, attitudes and behavior? Do these fit the Anzac Legend?

3 How are letters and comforts parcels important to 11 How does the war affect families? them? 12 What is the main activity of women during the war? 4 They are eventually withdrawn from Gallipoli – what are their reactions? 13 What new pressures do recruiting campaigns create in the society?

ώώ LEMNOS 14 How do anti-war activists respond? What impacts does this have on society? See Figure 5 on page 9 15 How does the government respond to them, 5 What are Kit’s nursing exeriences on Lemnos? especially through the War

6 What are her personal experiences? ώώ THE CHARACTERS 7 What does the film say about nurses as part of the Anzac tradition? The focus of the film is on the characters, and what they tell us about the war, and the war’s impacts on them. 8 Does the film present the nurses as part of the Anzac Tradition? Discuss your ideas. You might focus on one character, or you might choose to look at them all. If you focus on one character you should team up with a group of others in your class so ώώ WESTERN FRONT that between you all six characters are analysed in detail.

See Figure 6 on page 9 Look at the Character Summary and recording what you discover about the character/s you are focusing on. 9 The Australians go to the Western front. Archie gets There is a page for the Military Characters (page 10), and one leave. What do we learn about the behavior of Australian for the Civilians Characters (page 11). soldiers in England? Is this part of the Anzac legend? After you have summarized the character/s you can learn 10 Kit goes to Wimereux on the Western Front. What more about them by looking at: tensions exist between the Australian attitude and Australian Dictionary of Biography online http://adb.anu. approach to nursing and the professional British system? edu.au for Elliott, Goldstein, Barker and Hughes. What does this suggest about Australian nationalism? You could also look at the books about these characters:

Ross McMullin, Pompey Elliott, Scribe, 2008 SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014 ώώ HOME FRONT Janet Butler, Kitty’s War, UQP, 2013 Archie Barwick, In Great Spirits, HarperCollins, 2013 This episode of The War That Changed Us looks at two aspects: the impact of the war on ordinary families, and the growing tension between pro-war and anti-war activists.

7 2 SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014

FIG 4 8 2 FIG 4 SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014

FIG 5 9 2 CHARACTER SUMMARY PAGE: MILITARY

ARCHIE BARWICK KIT MCNAUGHTON POMPEY ELLIOTT

Character at the start of the episode

Their main experiences

How they behave

Their attitudes and values

Their personal qualities

The impacts SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014 of the war on them

10 2 CHARACTER SUMMARY PAGE: CIVILIANS

EVA HUGHES VIDA GOLDSTEIN TOM BARKER

Character at the start of the episode

Their main experiences

How they behave

Their attitudes and values

Their personal qualities

The impacts SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014 of the war on them

11 2 ώώ THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE FILM

Key features characterise all episodes of The War That KEY Changed Us. Discuss these key features in the table below. FEATURES

FEATURE YOUR COMMENTS

1 How does the film re-create the feeling and characteristics of the historical period?

2 How does it use both original music (such as the theme song), and historical war songs? How do the filmmakers use visual images to create the impact that they want the songs to have?

3 The historic footage has been colourised from its original black and white. Why might the filmmakers have done this? Do you think it is effective?

4 There is a great deal of dramatic re- enactment in the episode. Do you think it is effective?

5 How does the film transition between historic footage and dramatic reconstructions. Is this effectively done?

6 How does the film balance narrative with voiceovers of the actual words of the characters? Is this effective?

7 The filmmakers have limited numbers of men available for fighting scenes. Look at how they overcome this problem – consider such aspects as how the shots are framed, editing, close-ups, sound, camera angles, special effects, lighting, etc. Do you think the battle scenes are realistic?

8 Identify and discuss other creative elements in the film that you notice — such as editing, lighting, sound, special effects and cinematography.

9 The film uses several historians. What is their role? Do they help persuade you of the

accuracy of the events and characters being SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014 represented?

10 Read the information on the making of the film by the series director and writer, Don Featherstone. Do you think The War That Changed Us has achieved what he wanted it to? Explain your reasons. 12 2 ώώ Series Director & Co-Writer Don Featherstone

There have been many documentaries made about WW1 remained while adding cars, people and features from the over the years. For the 100th anniversary, we wanted to time. These evocative shots are woven throughout the make something quite different with a focus on Australia’s drama, helping to create a real sense of ‘being there’. involvement in the war. Most documentaries have focussed on battle details, international politics, the reasons behind To provide insight and context we interviewed a range of the war and other detailed political and military aspects. We expert military and social historians. Having faithfully and chose to tell the story though the experiences of six real convincingly re-created the world of 1914-18, we wanted individuals – three on the home front and three on the bat- the historians to inhabit it too. To achieve this we shot their tlefront. Their personal accounts take us through their war interviews in period locations including historical houses, – Australia’s war. Throughout the series, we reveal how the clubs and government buildings. war changes them and the country they call home. The War That Changed Us is different from most other By incorporating excerpts from the diaries, letters, speeches WWI documentaries in another exciting way - the archive and editorials by our key characters, their experience of footage is all meticulously colourised. We felt the black war provides the backbone to the story. We have chosen and white archive momentarily breaks the spell, taking the characters who’s writing is brimming with emotion, keen audience into a black and white world that never existed. If observation and honesty. They were prepared to reveal all colour film stock was available, the cameramen who filmed as they put pen to paper. Our characters don’t just tell us WW1 would have used it. WW1 happened in colour; our what they experience; they tell us how they feel about what characters experience it in colour, and so we wanted our they experience - consequently we get to know them, we are audience to experience it in the same way. By experienc- interested in them, we care about them. Our three military ing the archive in colour the audience can believe this war and nursing characters reveal how they feel about facing actually happened, the people and places are ‘real’, and death on a battlefield or in a hospital ward and we feel their because the archive is emotionally connected to our char- loss and their compassion and understand their connection acters, the audience understands their experiences more to those waiting for them on a distant shore. Through them, personally. the series is able to paint a full and detailed portrait of the war - a war seen through their eyes. Their words are not dry, But ultimately, as well as documenting our six characters’ looking back from a great distance; these are words written experience of war and the way it changed them and our at the time, in the heat of the moment, often just after a bat- country, we wanted to celebrate the heroism of all those tle, in the fog of war, or having just finished work in a blood who served. Whatever their views, they had the best inter- spattered ward. Our three home front characters words are ests of their country at heart. That is the story we wanted to written in response to political situations they experienced tell. It has been a great honour and a great responsibility to and the social realities of the time. They witness a country work on it. pulling itself together and then falling apart. Their words connect us to this dramatic period in our history with honesty Don Featherstone and insight, reverberating with the passion, despair, joy and anguish that their authors’ felt at the time. Don Featherstone co-wrote the series with historian Dr Clare Wright, based on her original concept. Recognising the stories are real, personal and immediate, we wanted to stay in the moment throughout the entire series. The stories are, in their own way, epic so the drama needed to be just as big. We wanted the series to look like a cross between ‘Downton Abbey’ and ‘The Thin Red Line’. This demanded we dramatise their experiences in a powerful, rich, believable manner.

Incorporating high production values we enter the past – a world of troopships, trenches, billets, barns, hospital wards, meeting halls, offices and print rooms, speaker’s corner at the Domain in Sydney, the Yarra bank in Melbourne, country farms and suburban houses – a huge palette of locations and sets – all absolutely convincing. SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014

We wanted to revisit the actual landscapes where our characters’ stories unfolded on both the battlefront and the home front. We filmed evocative shots in the cities and farms in Australia where our characters lived, as well as in iconic locations in Turkey, Greece and France. The shots were carefully constructed to avoid modern features and using CGI we removed any modern structures that 13 2 death standing up. Their feet are worse than any wounds. It makes you sick doing them, and they are so grateful for anything.

6th December — Have expanded to over 1,000 beds. Men lying on the ground and everything.

20th December — The last of our men have left the Peninsula. We saw the Clearing Stat. (John) march in. Only three casualties. It is wonderful hearing all about it. Grace Wilson, http://throughtheselines.com.au/2010/research/ olive-haynes.html

SOURCE 2 ON LEMNOS

Had a desperately hard time at Lemnos with food, tents, mud and sickness, as well as great troubles with Colonel TESTING THE EPISODE’S Fiaschi, who treated Nurses shamefully — No consideration REPRESENTATION OF whatever … I believe the Hospital would have collapsed but WAR for the Nurses. They all worked like demons … Letter from RHJ Fetherston in Jan Bassett, Guns and ώώ 1 THE NURSES AT LEMNOS Brooches, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1992 p50

1 The War That Changed Us presents an image of the conditions at Lemnos. Summarise this image. TESTING THE EPISODE’S

2 Look at the following extracts from accounts by nurses. REPRESENTATION OF Decide if each aspect is reflected or represented in the film. WAR SOURCE 1 ON LEMNOS ώώ 2 THE SOLDIERS’ EXPERIENCES ON GALLIPOLI 9 August — Found 150 patients lying on the ground — no equipment whatever … had no water to drink or wash. 1 The War That Changed Us presents an image of the living conditions and the nature of the fighting at Gallipoli. 10 August — Still no water … convoy arrived at night and Summarise this image, using column 2 of Table 1 on page 15. used up all our private things, soap etc, tore up clothes [for bandages]. 2 Look at the following extracts from soldiers about the living conditions and the nature of the fighting, and their 11 August — Convoy arrived — about 400 — no equip- behavior and attitudes. Summarise the main information ment whatever … Just laid the men on the ground and in column 3 of Table 1 on page 15. Decide if each aspect is gave them a drink. Very many badly shattered, nearly all reflected or represented in the film. stretcher cases … Tents were erected over them as quickly as possible … All we can do is feed them and dress their wounds … A good many died … It is just too awful — one could never describe the scenes — could only wish all I knew to be killed outright.

30th September — Snakes, moles, scorpions and centi- pedes are rife here. I search my bed every night and gener- ally manage to catch something. SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014

3rd October — Got Lemnitis, otherwise Dysentery – up all night.

5th October — Sent to No.3 Sick Bay.

30th November — Men from Suvla coming in. Most awful frost-bitten feet. They had a terrible time. Men frozen to 14 2 TABLE

1 ASPECT 2 FILM 3 OTHER EVIDENCE

Living conditions

Food

Weather

Nature of the fighting

Health/hygiene/ disease

Attitudes to the war

Attitudes to the enemy

Mateship

Anzac Spirit or Tradition

Letters/comforts

Medical treatment

Attitudes to other Allies

Attitude towards nationalism

Casualties

Outcomes of the

Qualities of the soldiers

Impact of the war on them

15 2 [Note that the spelling and punctuation in these extracts are as they are in the original.]

1 Lt C H Dakin

[I] killed my first Turk on Saturday. I was firing at a sandbag in the Turkish parapet … and, to my surprise, I saw a man jump in the air and fall. It was just this Turk’s bad luck … Anyway, this is what I am here for. Bill Gammage, The Broken Years, Penguin, Melbourne, 1974 page 104

2 Trooper I L Idriess

[I]mmediately I opened…[my tin of jam] the flies rushed [it] …all fighting amongst themselves. I wrapped my over- coat over the tin and gouged out the flies, then spread the biscuit, then held my hand over it and drew the biscuit out of the coat. But a lot of flies flew into my mouth and beat about inside…I nearly howled with rage…Of all the bas- all. After today most of our opinions on the Turks were tards of places this is the greatest bastard in the world. changed … Gammage, page 77 Gammage, page 76

3 Pte E C N Devlin 5 Private Tom Usher

They are lucky who get away from here wounded…It is You can’t imagine what it was like, the filthy conditions, quite common for men to go mad here. The strain on the and especially using those latrines with all those paper (for nerves is so severe. cleaning) blowing all over the shop. And flies! Look, you’d Gammage, page 76 open the tin and there’d be millions of them, crikey, filthy, filthy conditions …. 4 Sgt A L de Vine Harvey Broadbent, The Boys Who Came Home, ABC, Sydney, 1990, page 52

The time was taken up by making friends with the Turks, 6 L/Cpl W Francis who do not seem to be a very bad sort of chap after

… up the hill … we swarm … the lust to kill is on us, we see red. Into one trench, out of it, and into another. Oh! The bloody gorgeousness of feeling your bayonet go into soft yielding flesh - they run, we after them, no thrust one and parry, in goes the bayonet the handiest way. Gammage, page 97

7 Capt. F Coen

I have not had a wash now for 4 weeks, not had my clothes off. I accomplish my toilet with the corner of a towel steeped in a 2 ounce tobacco tin. Water for washing pur- poses is out of the question. Gammage, page 77

The wounded bodies of both Turks and our own … were piled up 3 and 4 deep … the bombs simply poured in but as fast as our men went down another would take his place. Besides our own wounded the Turks’ wounded lying in our trench were cut to pieces with their own bombs. We had no time to think of our wounded … their pleas for 16 2 12 A British Major in the Indian Mule Corps at Gallipoli

The Turks opened with shrapnel, fired in salvoes of four guns, right into the middle of the mule camp. Everybody went to ground as far as possible, but cover was inad- equate, and men and animals began to fall … the fire was deadly accurate, and before the safety could be reached eighty-nine mules and two horses had been hit; the N.C.O. of the guard was wounded, Driver Bir Singh hit in the head, and other Indians and several Australians were casualties. Many mules were killed outright, and many others lay where they had fallen, unable to rise: those had to be shot, and that evening the beach was strewn with dead animals – a pitiful sight. H M Alexander, On Two Fronts, London, 1917, pages 170-171

13 C E W Bean

You must not imagine that life in one of these year-long mercy were not heeded … Some poor fellows lay for 30 modern battles consists of continuous bomb fighting, hours waiting for help and many died still waiting. bayoneting and bombarding all the time … [the] chief oc- Les Carlyon, Gallipoli, Macmillan, Sydney, 2001, page 360 cupation is the digging of mile upon mile of endless sap [trench], of sunken road … The carrying of biscuit boxes 9 C E W Bean, journalist and official war historian and building timbers for hours daily … the sweeping and disinfecting of trenches in the never ending battle against flies – this is the soldier’s life for nine days out of ten in a A single Turk jumped up like a rabbit, threw away his rifle modern battle. and tried to escape. The nearest man could not fire as his Dispatch, Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, rifle was full of sand. He bayoneted the Turk through his 2 December 1915, page 3058 haversack and captured him. ‘Prisoner here!’ he shouted. ‘Shoot the bastard!’ was all the notice they received from 14 Trooper I L Idriess others passing up the hill. But as in every battle he fought in the Australian soldier was more humane than in his words. The Turk was sent down to the beach in charge of a … This is the most infernally uncomfortable line of trenches wounded man. we have ever been in, which is saying some for the regi- The Story of Anzac, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, ment. We are in “reliefs” now, “resting”, about fifty yards 1941, pages 258–9 back of the firing-trench. For a couple of hours, to rest our nerves, they say. There forty-eight of us in this particular 10 C E W Bean spot, just an eighteen-inch-wide trench with iron overhead supports sandbagged as protection against bombs. We are supposed to be “sleeping”, preparatory to our next watch. Stretcher-bearers are always exposed to … fire in the Sleeping! Hell and tommy! Maggots are crawling down the ordinary course of carrying out their … duty, as is everyone trench; it stinks like an unburied graveyard; it is dark; the air else. … Wherever there is a wounded man to be got, there is stagnant; some of the new hands are violently sick from the stretcher-bearers have gone. watching us trying to eat. We are so crowded that I can Official despatch, Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, hardly write in the diary even. My mates look like shadow No 79, 26 July 1915, page 1635 men crouching expectantly in hell. Bombs are crashing outside, and – the night has come! If they hadn’t been silly enough to tell us to sleep if we could I don’t suppose we

11 Colonel A G Butler, Official Medical Historian SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014 would have minded. The roof of this dashed possy is inter- mixed with dead men who were chucked up on the parapet Men who were just skin and bone; hands, arms and legs to give the living a chance from the bullets while the trench covered with septic sores; ill with dysentery; had to work in was being dug. What ho, for the Glories of War. the trenches on bully-beef, bacon and biscuits. Ion Idriess, The Desert Column, Angus & Robertson, The Australian Army Medical Services in the War of 1914-1918, Sydney, 1982, page 42 Vol 1, ‘The Gallipoli Campaign’, Angus & Robertson, Melbourne, 1930, page 352 17 2 15 C E W Bean

But one by one the men who were catching bombs were mutilated. Wright clutched one which burst in his face and killed him. Webb, an orphan from Essendon, continued to catch them, but presently both his hands were blown away and, after walking out of the Pine, he died at Brown’s Dip. At one moment several bombs burst simultaneously in Tubb’s recess. Four men were killed or wounded; a fifth was blown down and his rifle shattered. Tubb, bleeding from bomb-wounds in arm and scalp, continued to fight, supported in the end only by a Ballarat recruit, Corporal Dunstan, and a personal friend of his own, Corporal Burton of Euroa. At this stage there occurred at the barricade a violent explosion, which threw back the defenders and tum- bled down the sandbags. It was conjectured that the Turks had fired an explosive charge with the object of destroying the barrier. Tubb, however, drove them off, and Dunstan and Burton were helping to rebuild the barrier when a bomb fell between them, killing Burton and temporarily blinding 18 Sgt M J Ranford his comrade. Tubb obtained further men from the next post, Tubb’s Corner; but the enemy’s attack weakened, the Turks ‘There is no doubt war is hell, and the men who are respon- continued to bomb and fire rifles into the air, but never sible ought to frizzle for all eternity; but mind you I am just again attempting to rush the barricade. as keen on serving my country as ever, and would not miss The Story of Anzac, Vol 2, Angus and Robertson, seeing it out (or until I go out) for any consideration.’ Sydney, 1924, pages 560-561 Gammage, page 76

16 Lt D McLeod 19 Pte W E Bendrey

‘I had a narrow shave, was enfiladed in a trench but man- [The dead] … were lying everywhere, on top of the para- aged to get out of the road as a bullet caught me across pet...in dugouts & communication trenches and saps, and the back, only made a flesh wound, we gave the Turk a it was impossible to avoid treading on them. In the second hot time... I enjoy the life and like all the men am well and line the Turkish dead were lying everywhere and if a chap happy’. wanted to sit down for a spell he was often compelled to Gammage, page 73 squat on one of ‘em. Gammage, page 84 17 Pte F W Muir 20 2/Lt C D D St Pinnock About 60 in all...in silence lined up along the parapet. Suddenly a whistle blast sounded & we were over the para- You can imagine what it was like. Really too awful to write pet & towards the enemy’s trench. We fixed bayonets as we about. All your pals that had been with you for months ran tripping over our own barbed wire & other obstacles. At blown and shot out of all recognition. There was no chance first not a shot was fired by the enemy but just as the first whatsoever of us gaining our point, but the roll call after of our men reached the trench the alarm was given and a was the saddest, just fancy only 47 answered their names murderous fire from rifles and machines guns broke out. out of close on 550 men. When I heard what the result was We found the trench very strong with a firm sandbagged I simply cried like a child. parapet studded with loopholes... (and) a strong overhead Gammage, page 87 cover...with bayonets projecting... which we could not shift. In addition the Turks threw a number of bombs with good 21 Lt F H Semple effect...we were forced to retire amid a heavy fire having however put the machine gun out of action...the whole SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014 affair occupied some 10 minutes but nearly every second One of the greatest difficulties here is the shortage of man was injured the total Casualties 27 wounded 5 killed. water...I had...the first (shave) for a week and my face was Gammage, page 72 coated with the dust and grime I had got through all the recent fighting and trench digging. After I had finished the water in my mess tin...(was) muddy...and I washed my face in that and...(then) had my tea out of the same tin. Gammage, page 89 18 2 22 Maj W T Mundell 27 Lt J H Dietze

[If] Johnie Turk was to declare the war over tomorrow I The Dead were 4 & 5 deep & we had to walk over them: it would be the happiest man on earth. I’ve had quite enough. was just like walking on a cushion...I daresay you will be IF you ever catch me looking for gore again – well you can surprised how callous a man becomes: a man may have kick me. a very close chum well if somebody tells him his chum is Gammage, page 92 killed all he says is – ‘poor chap’ - & he forgets all about him’, and towards the end of the campaign an infantry 23 Capt D G Mitchell private repeated, ‘its no surprise to tell a fellow that so & so was killed last night one gets so use to hearing of death’s that the look of unconcern is all that one gets. [I am thinking of] a land of sunshine warmth and happi- Gammage, page 120 ness – a land of sweet scents and bright colours – home. But the track home is through a winding trail of smoke and 28 Sgt Cyril Lawrence blood, stench and torment. How many of us will reach there unbroken?’ Gammage, page 92 God! What a proposal to make. You Australians away back at home in sunny Australia, with your comfortable beds, your good food, your cities, your own homefolk...Think! 24 Sgt A A Barwick Just think ever so little; stir yourselves and try and imagine our feelings. Here we have been for nineteen weeks, under I shot 3 snipers dead to-day, they were picking off our poor fire every minute, living in holes in the ground, toilet sweat- fellows who were hobbling down to the dressing stations, ing and fighting, aye fighting as British soldiers here never the first one I killed I took his belt off to keep as a souvenir knew how to fight, and yet they turn around and ask us to of my first kill with the rifle. The other two I laid out beauti- choose one of these two rotten propositions...Golly it’s infa- fully I felt a lot more satisfied after that for I had got even. mous...not one single spot immune from bullet or shell, not Gammage, page 103 one single crevice where a man can say ‘I am safe’...Are we wild animals or what are we? Perhaps they are jealous. 25 Lt F C Yeardon Surely to God we have earned a holiday... Harvey Broadbent, Gallipoli The Fatal Shore, Penguin, Melbourne, 2005 page 290 A lot of our men went down, but one never stops to think of them or oneself it is just a matter of keeping a few men 29 Sister Anne Donnell together & go on so as to keep the front line intact...I used often to think what sort of feeling it would be to kill any- body, but now it is a matter of who is going under first, the In that terrible weather, with wind travelling a hundred miles Turk or yourself & you just...let him have the bayonet right an hour, and rain and sleet, all seems so pitifully hopeless... through, but ‘oh’ the misery & cruelty of the whole thing, Thousands have been taken to Alexandria (Egypt), hun- ‘but a soldier does not want any sentiment.’ The look on dreds, the boys say, were drowned because their feet were the poor devils when cornered & a bit of steel about a foot so paralysed they could not crawl away to safety in time. off in the hands of a tempary mad man, because the lust for They endured agonies. Sentries were found dead at their killing seems very strong. posts, frozen and still clutching their rifles...their fingers Gammage, page 110 were too frozen to pull the trigger. And some we have in hospital are losing both feet, some both hands. It’s all too 26 Sgt A A Barwick sad for words, hopelessly sad. Richard Reid, Gallipoli 1915, ABC Books, Sydney, 2001 page 67 I saw several men sacrifice themselves here, they went to certain death, one chap in particular I remember...we were 30 C E W Bean cashing some Turks round a little sap & they reached the bend first, everyone knew the first man round the corner was a dead one, but this chap never hesitated, he threw You must not imagine that life in one of the modern battles

himself fair at them, & six fired together, & fairly riddled him consists of continuous bomb fighting, bayoneting and bom- SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014 with bullets, that was our chance & we into them, & it was barding all the time. These ‘progresses’, ‘consolidatings’. all over in a few minutes. ‘bomb-droppings’, ‘artillery activity’, of the war reports are Gammage, page 116 the incidents in long, weary months, whose chief occupa- tion is the digging of mile upon mile of endless sap (trench) of sunken road, through which troops and mules can pass safely...The carrying of biscuit boxes and building timbers for hours daily, the waiting in weary queues, of thirty 19 2 half-dry wells, for the privilege of carrying endless water main characteristics of the time and place clearly and fully? cans for half a mile uphill...the sweeping and disinfecting of trenches i the never ending fight against flies – this is the 3 Develop historical empathy: Does it give a sense of what soldiers life for nine days out of ten in a modern battle. War it was like at the time for the people involved, and for their consists of a long series of what seems at time to be end- society? less delays, interspersed by short bursts of frantic activity. Reid, page 67 4 Present a clear and persuasive analysis: Does it establish its message by addressing fairly all main aspects of all competing points of view? 31 Sgt A A Barwick 5 Entertain and engage: Is the film constructed in a way Had a terrible fight with myself … one part of me wanted to that draws the viewer in? run away & leave the rest of my mates to face it, & the other Has it done this? Justify your view. part said no, we would stop & see it out at any cost. Gammage, page 115 CONCLUSIONS 32 Pte A M Simpson 1 Summarise what you have learned about Australia’s experience of I got [a Turk] in the neck … made me feel sick and squeam- ish, being the first man I have ever killed … I often wake up • the fighting and seem to feel my bayonet going into his neck. Ugh! It • the home front during the war. does get on a man’s nerves. Gammage, page 117 2 Go back to your original discussion of the image you had of the five aspects listed. Have you changed any of your ideas about them? 33 Lt C H Ruddle 3 Go back to your quiz answers. Have you changed any of the loss of life is appalling; rivers of blood … the trenches those answers? red with the life blood of my comrades … Sometimes I weary of it all and long for peace; it is only the fact that the 4 The title of the film is The War That Changed Us. How do safety of our loved ones, the integrity of the Empire is at you think the war changed Australia? Explain your ideas. stake that it lifts ones spirits up again, to face the roughing and the grim horrors of the battlefield. Gammage, page 93 FINDING OUT MORE MAKING A JUDGEMENT ώώ WEBSITES

ABOUT THE WAR THAT Department of Veterans’ Affairs www.dva.gov.au/com- CHANGED US AS A mems_oawg/commemorations/education/Pages/index. REPRESENTATION OF aspx HISTORY For education kits on Gallipoli, The Western Front, Schools and war, Australian Light Horse, Women in The War That Changed Us is a representation of history war, Indigenous service, Australian Flying Corps. — it is a selective version of what happened, and reflects Anzac Day Commemoration Committee (Queensland) the writers’ choice of what to include and exclude, what to www.anzacday.org.au emphasise and what to downplay, and how to present all Australian Government elements that make up the film. www.anzacsite.gov.au www.ww1westernfront.gov.au It wants to present a picture that tells the truth about www.defence2020.gov.au

Australia and the war. SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014 Books To do this successfully the film must do five things. It must: Joan Beaumont, Broken Nation, Allen&Unwin, 2014 Michael McKernan, The Australian People and the 1 Be historically accurate: Does it present all the important Great War, Nelson, 1980 and relevant facts? Peter Pedersen, The Anzacs, Viking, 2007 Bill Gammage, The Broken Years, MUP, 2010 2 Clearly establish the historical context: Does it explain the 20 2 This study guide was produced by ATOM. (© ATOM 2014) ISBN: 978-1-74295-490-5 [email protected] For information on SCREEN EDUCATION magazine, or to download other study guides for assessment, visit . Join ATOM’s email broadcast list for invitations to free screenings, conferences, seminars, etc. Sign up now at .

For hundreds of articles on Film as Text, SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014 Screen Literacy, Multiliteracy and Media Studies, visit .