Australian Imperial Force Research Articles

Mauss on the First World War as trauma and turning point

The First World War, which has been a terrible ordeal for the two main Europeans societies in the conflict—Germany and France—and for the 8 million individuals who had been mobilized in a war of mass killing, has been also an ordeal for Marcel Mauss: deaths of members of his family, friends, and colleagues. From on September 3, 1914 to January 1919, Mauss, volunteered, has been mobilized: interpreter to a combat unit, the Twenty-seventh British Division; officer-interpreter third-class and detached Fifth Australian Division (Australian Imperial Force), etc. We may think the World War have been a trauma and a turning point in Marcel Mauss’ life and work. My paper, which is based on a considerable documentation (interviews, archives, correspondence, manuscripts), is divided in three parts: before, during, after the war.

“Politics Are Quite Beneath the Concern of the Average Billjim”: Politics and the First World War Anzacs, 1914–1918

The politics of Australia during First World War have been analysed in depth by many scholars, but little attention has been paid to the politics of the soldiers of the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF). Though often assumed to have been not interested in politics, this article demonstrates that they engaged in politics at multiple levels. They were concerned about decision making and power relationships within the AIF, in international circles and within the British empire. They were also active on a range of domestic political issues, particularly around volunteering and conscription, but also with other federal, state, and local issues. They engaged in the politics of shaping the “digger” legacy. Pre‐war ideologies, particularly on class issues and religion, were influential in shaping soldier political engagement and responses. Far from being political innocents, the Anzacs showed themselves to be interested and active in a range of political arenas.

The ‘Sunshine Song’: The Biography of an Australian Imperial Force (AIF) Soldiers’ Chorus

The deep links between music and war demonstrate the centrality of music in wartime. However, most soldier compositions are ephemeral, lost because of their topicality and limited circulation. This article explores the history and significance of the ‘Sunshine Song’, a popular chorus with Australians in World War I. It further distinguished itself by making the transition to the civilian repertoire, something few war songs accomplished, remaining in circulation until at least the mid-1960s. This article offers an analysis of its merits, and its place in history as a rare surviving successful Australian wartime chorus.

Trooping the (School) Colour

Trooping the (School) Colour

Casualties during Australian military operations in New Guinea 1914-1919.

Casualties during the occupation of German New Guinea by the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force starting in September 1914 were limited to six dead during a few initial armed clashes and the loss of RAN submarine AE-1,followed by a few years of tropical disease exposures. A dengue epidemic affected most soldiers within a month of their arrival in Rabaul. Subsequently, a malaria epidemic swept through the occupation forces in January 1915 infecting a majority of the soldiers and killing five. Malaria was eventually controlled by daily draughts of quinine solution. Diarrhoea/dysentery was a particular concern among the local contract labour force. Skin diseases were a major chronic problem of tropical service. Twenty-seven non-combat deaths over 4 years (<1%/year) were considered a 'healthy' outcome for the occupation force which consisted largely of men unfit for active service in the Australian Imperial Force. No one should under-estimate the modern requirement to protect non-immune soldiers or travellers going to Papua New Guinea for extended periods.

‘A kind of useless man’? An evaluation of AIF cooks and cookery, 1914–1918

While the Australian Imperial Force of 1914–1918 experienced a significant shift from amateurism to professionalism over the course of the war in most areas, one crucial role not yet examined in the literature on the Australian Imperial Force is that of army cook. This article argues that their role was not taken sufficiently seriously during the Great War, leaving them effectively still amateurs at the end of the war. It explores the regulations for army cooks, the processes of selection, training and monitoring, as well as their performance in camps and in the field, and draws the conclusion that the army failed to professionalize role.

Influence of weather and climate on disease in the Australian Imperial Force during the First World War

The death rate in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) during the First World War (WW1) was 18.5%, higher than rates for the UK and Canada. Around 9% of reported AIF deaths resulted from diseases and were predominantly climate sensitive. AIF hospital admissions for non-battle conditions exceeded the total number of AIF enlistments. To our knowledge, the climatic influences on these high morbidity and mortality rates have not previously been quantified. Analysing these influences provides a case study that highlights the importance in accounting for climate in determining the future health, capacity and ultimate efficacy of armed forces, particularly in a time of increasing climatic extremes. To analyse the climate-health outcomes relationship, we re-examined data available in Australia’s WW1 official war histories (OWH) by C. E. W. Bean and A. G. Butler, the Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour (ROH) and the National Archives WW1 personnel files (NAA). We then reviewed meteorological data and identified that the European 1917 winter was the coldest winter for 26 yr. We have calculated the AIF UK official morbidity figure of 77743 could be under-reported by up to 2.7-fold. European winter disease deaths exceeded summer disease deaths by a factor of 3. Over 61% of AIF disease deaths in Europe occurred during the extreme 1917 winter and the Spanish flu outbreak during the 1919 winter, whereby 69% were respiratory infections. Climate-related diseases also severely affected the AIF at Gallipoli (Turkey) and the Light Horse regiments in the Jordan Valley between September and December 1918.

Edith Blake’s War: The Only Australian Nurse Killed in Action During the First World War by Krista Vane-Tempest

Reviewed by: Edith Blake’s War: The Only Australian Nurse Killed in Action During the First World War by Krista Vane-Tempest Kirsty Harris (bio) Krista Vane-Tempest, Edith Blake’s War: The Only Australian Nurse Killed in Action During the First World War (Sydney: New South Publishing, 2021). ISBN: 978-1-7422-37398 (PB). B&W illustrations. xii + 353 pp. Reading a biography written by the subject’s family member can sometimes be an arduous duty with scant regard for fact or writing skills. Krista Vane-Tempest’s book about her great aunt is a welcome contrast. It is a pleasure to read, with careful contextualisation that will appeal to those interested in medical, nursing, and military history. Edith Blake was born in Sydney in 1885, and trained at the Coast Hospital in Little Bay, New South Wales, graduating in 1912. She enlisted with the British Army in April 1915 because 128 nurses who had applied to join the Australian Army Nursing Service were transferred by the Australian government to serve with the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve (QAIMNSR). Thus, this story has a level of importance above many histories written about Australian First World War nurses as Edith Blake was not a member of the Australian Imperial Force but one of more than 260 Australian nurses serving with the British. Blake, via Vane-Tempest, provides a curious window into a different world. The book contains delightful vignettes as Blake was an observer of people as well as activities while she nursed both on land and at sea. The excerpts from her diaries and letters are full of descriptions of Australian soldiers and nurses, reflecting a keen sense of her own nationality in a working world full of British people and systems. It reveals the strong camaraderie between nurses and doctors at their training hospital and is, in part, a history of the Coast Hospital nurses at this time; Blake’s sister Queen began training at the Coast Hospital while Blake was at war. [End Page 199] As well as recording her tourist activities and contact with family in England, Blake was a great recorder of ‘awful tragedies’ and often commented in her letters about ships being sunk or torpedoed, perhaps prescient of her later fate. As her writing sheds light on life and loss at sea, it situates the medical war at sea in the British historical narrative. She amply describes life aboard ship and brings voyages to life, in some instances providing great detail such as when describing hospital ship policies and how to deal with submarine attacks. There is valuable material in Blake’s 1915 diary and her 136 surviving letters, which build on existing knowledge and fill gaps for researchers. Life as a QA nurse, as QAIMNSR nurses were often called, differed in many aspects to that of a nurse serving with the Australian Army Nursing Service. Importantly, Australian QA nurses were in demand as they would work ‘hands-on’ at patients’ bedsides and in theatre, whereas QA nurses from many other countries supervised, spending their time at the ward desk. Blake’s service ended abruptly in February 1918 when the hospital ship on which she served, Glenart Castle, was torpedoed by a German submarine and sank, leading to her death by drowning. Herein lies the premise of the book: that Blake was the only Australian First World War nurse to die on ‘active service’. This assertion is questionable. It is known that Winifred Starling from Sydney, who trained at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and was also a member of the QAIMNSR, died by drowning while nursing on the SS Leinster which was torpedoed in the Irish Sea in 1918. Likewise, Welsh born Margaret Dorothy Roberts went to the war from Australia to serve with the QAIMNSR. She drowned when the ship Osmanieh was sunk by mines in the Mediterranean Sea near Alexandria, Egypt in 1917. There may well be others. A feature of the book is its Australian-centric nature. For example, Blake was employed in Egypt in a British hospital in support of British troops that were fighting on the Gallipoli Peninsula. The book does not concern itself with...

A broader palate? The new and exotic food experiences of the Australian imperial force 1914–1918

This article explores the new food experiences of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) during the First World War, drawing evidence from scholarly works, archives and soldier accounts. Having come from a predominantly British food culture in Australia, the AIF encountered new tastes and eating habits in the Middle East and Europe, which they experienced in dual roles as soldiers and tourists. Some soldiers responded warmly while others reacted defensively to these new foodways such as self-catering, exotic ingredients and dishes, regular dining out and new food customs. The lack of long-term impact of these novel experiences on Australian foodways is also noted.

‘A good faithful pal’: working relationships between humans and horses during the First World War

ABSTRACT There is growing scholarly interest in the history of human-animal relationships. With regards to the First World War, scholars have increasingly sought to understand the nature of those relationships throughout the international armed forces and to ascertain the contribution animals made towards various war efforts. This article focuses on relationships between service personnel and horses in the Australian Imperial Force during the First World War, and argues that relationships between soldiers and their horses varied, ranging from a strictly utilitarian approach that often resulted in the mistreatment of horses, through to a deeply caring approach that resulted in close bonds between humans and horses. As will be seen, the foundations for these differences were principally the nature of individual approaches to military service in general, and the specific nature of working relationships with horses. In addition to documenting these differences and emphasizing the importance of this working relationship, this focus on the AIF also demonstrates the need to consider and value the emotional and sentimental expressions of service personnel during the First World War.

A Second Front: Canon Garland, Chaplain Maitland Woods and Anglo-Catholicism in the Australian Imperial Force during the First World War

This article explores the work and influence of Anglo-Catholicism in the Australian Imperial Force during the Great War, based on reading the wartime correspondence of key AIF Anglo-Catholics, especially that of Canon David Garland and Chaplain William Maitland Woods. Anglo-Catholics were enthusiastic in support of the war, but simultaneously used it to promote Anglo-Catholicism and combat what they perceived to be the errors of non-Anglo-Catholic Anglicanism and the various Protestant groups, opening what might be considered a second front against these religions.

‘All was not well with the soldiers’ diet’: an evaluation of the effectiveness of official Australian Imperial Force food provisions, 1914–18

ABSTRACT Official army rations were calculated to maintain the soldiers of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) of 1914–1918 in good fighting trim. This article systematically investigates for the first time this provisioning, evaluating its effectiveness in sustaining the soldiers as fighting men. Three key unresolved areas of research are explored: the debate over whether army provisioning was more diverse and balanced than popular impressions, the degree to which conclusions drawn about provisioning at Gallipoli can be applied across all the campaigns of the AIF, and comparisons with British army provisioning. It concludes that AIF rations were physiologically and emotionally inadequate throughout the war.

Recordkeeping in the First Australian Imperial Force: the political imperative

ABSTRACT Recordkeeping systems develop under the influence of their environment. An organisation’s compilation of records, their form, content and dissemination can be in response to external factors. How the recordkeeping administration of the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF) developed, expanded and changed over time is illustrative of the influences on the creation of records. The administration of the First Australian Imperial Force, including its recordkeeping, developed in an environment of heated political debate in Australia over that nation’s participation in the war and two failed attempts to introduce conscription. Circumstances in late 1915 combined to force a reluctant Australian government to intervene in the detail of AIF records administration in Egypt despite the government’s expectation that involvement at such a level in AIF management abroad would be unnecessary. This article examines the circumstances at work in Australia that led to such an intervention. It describes the events leading to the decision and traces the causes for the decision to factors in the political, social and military context.

МОБИЛИЗАЦИЯ В АВСТРАЛИИ И ФОРМИРОВАНИЕ АВТРАЛИЙСКО-НОВОЗЕЛАНДСКОГО КОРПУСА (АНЗАК) В 1914 г.

The author studies the history of formation of the Australian-new Zealand army corps (ANZAC) formations after the beginning of the First world war. The mobilization activities of the governments of Australia and New Zealand, the reaction of societies in these countries to the world war and participation in it, the features of recruitment of the Australian Imperial Force (AIS) and the new Zealand expeditionary force, the characteristics of the corps command are studied. It shows the main events during the transport of the first convoy with ANZAC troops to training camps in Egypt in the autumn of 1914, the victory of the Australian cruiser Sydney over the German raider – light cruiser Emden during the AIS convoy. Special attention is paid to the connection of events of formation and transport ANZAC with Russia – the presence in the body of Russian emigrants volunteers, and participation in the protection of the convoy and against German raiders in the Pacific and Indian oceans warships of the Russian Navy, «Pearl» and «Askold». The article uses archival materials of the Australian War Memorial and English archives, diary entries and letters of participants of the first convoy from Australia to Alexandria (Egypt).

Soldier to civilian: the 1st Australian Division’s transition from war to peace in Belgium, 1918–1919

The signing of the armistice in November 1918 left 90,000 Australian servicemen in Europe at a loose end. For military and civil authorities, their immediate demobilisation was not only undesirable, it was also impossible. Although likely, peace with Germany had not been confirmed yet and the allies could not simply dismantle their forces and go home. Many Australians expected to take part in the occupation of Germany during peace negotiations. However, the Australian Imperial Force’s (AIF) move eastwards in December 1918 came to a halt well short of the German border. Four of the five divisions settled down for the winter in the Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse region of recently liberated Belgium. There they stayed until the end of May 1919. The near total absence of any study into this six-month period suggests that historians have considered it a void in the lives of Australian soldiers. Examining the 1st Division’s experiences between 1918 and 1919, this article challenges this notion, arguing that the time spent in Belgium not only marked the beginning of the Australians’ physical demobilisation, it was also a key moment when soldiers turned their thoughts towards their return to civilian life.

Change and continuity in combat: a statistical analysis of the officers of 5th Australian Infantry Battalion, 1914 to 1918

ABSTRACTOfficers are an underexplored aspect of the Australian experience of the First World War. Using the wealth of data available from personnel and unit records from the Australian Imperial Force, this article takes a snapshot of the officers from the 5th Australian Infantry Battalion each Christmas Day from 1914 to 1918, to explore the changes in the battalion officer cohort as the war progressed. Throughout the war there was constant turnover of officers, and the battalion needed to maintain a strength over twice its war establishment in order to sustain casualties. Given the significant number of casualties suffered this required a large regular intake of new officers. However, the demographic composition did not change much, nor was there a perfect meritocracy. For all the dynamism about the movement of officers in and out of the battalion, it maintained a relatively static demographic profile throughout the war.

Red ink, blue ink, blood and tears? War records and nation-making in Australia and New Zealand

ABSTRACTDespite the rise of comparative and transnational history writing, histories of the Great War have remained remarkably bound by the nation-state. This is especially the case in Australia and New Zealand, where there has been, arguably, a recent entrenchment of the view of the Great War as a nation-making moment. This article offers the provocation that the creation of vast numbers of records during the war did make the nation: files demanded a new bureaucracy and they made the state material. The files also became materials for historians who went on to equate the national army with the nation at war. Another foray into the archives, however, suggests that despite military files being designated national heritage, they can reveal the tensions of belonging and exclusion present during and after the war.Abbreviations: AIF Australian Imperial Force ANZ Archives New Zealand BR Base Records NZEF New Zealand Expeditionary Force

“We refused to work until we had better means for handling the bodies”. Discipline at the Australian Graves Detachment

The Australian Graves Detachment, a unit over 11 hundred men, was formed in March 1919 on the Western Front. Its mission was to exhume and re-bury the war dead in a small area of Northern France where the Australian Imperial Force had fought. While war memorialization and grief are significant fields of research in First World War studies, much remains to be written with regard to the processes of burying the millions of dead. Little, for example, has been written about the men who undertook the daunting tasks of exhuming and burying. This article seeks to contribute to this emerging area of inquiry by exploring how discipline was enforced at the Australian Graves Detachment through a range of strategies such as negotiation and care for both the men’s physical and mental wellbeing. It argues that at a time where inflexible military discipline and justice were difficult to enforce, such non-coercive forms of control proved more effective for disciplining the men than formal military sanctions. This article first examines the nature of the work undertaken by the Australian Graves Detachment. Second, it turns to the disciplinary issues which arose from the ranks. Third, the article analyses the strategies put in place by the Commanding Officer of the Detachment to maintain discipline within the unit. In particular, the article highlights how entertainment played a key role in maintaining discipline and morale within the detachment, providing the men with a wide variety of amusing activities that kept them under their officers’ watch and control. Sports, games, theatre, movies, the camera club, afternoon teas and other forms of entertainment insured that men had as little idle time as possible. Entertainment became the cornerstone of the Commanding Officer’s attempts to limit misconduct, and to ensure that the unit would complete its mission.

“The Symbol of Our Nation”: The Slouch Hat, the First World War, and Australian Identity

ABSTRACTAustralian scholars are now familiar with the tropes of the Anzac legend. This narrative describes the realisation of an Australian masculine identity, whose characteristics were forged on the Australian frontier and validated through the ordeal of battle. Though many writers contributed to this narrative, C.E.W. Bean, the official historian of the Australian Imperial Force during the First World War, is most closely associated with the popularisation of this myth, which fused frontier and martial masculinity into a national archetype.This article will examine the role of the slouch hat as a material and visual device that helped communicate the Anzac legend. While most of the scholarship that examines the construction of this narrative focuses on its articulation in prose, this narrative was also popularised through other media. Artists drew symbols of the frontier into their paintings while museum directors arranged their artefacts to support this narrative. This article will argue that the slouch hat provided an essential visual device to connect the narratives of frontier and martial masculinity through the image of the Australian soldier.

‘Doing’ masculinity: Enactments of masculinity and manliness in drawings of rifles and bayonets in the Australian Imperial Force, 1914–1918

During the First World War, a number of Australian soldiers used drawing as a way to communicate and record their experiences of active service. As a neglected body of archival material, these drawings offer unique insights into how men of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) understood and conceptualised their masculinity and manliness while abroad. In this study, I analyse depictions of rifles and bayonets in 91 drawings by Australian soldiers to explore the ways in which a number of the men of the AIF enacted militaristic and ‘working-man’ masculinity. I argue that while both of these masculinities existed concurrently in soldiers’ drawings, the bayonet was commonly used to further militaristic virtues of aggression and martial prowess, whereas the rifle tended to reassert the pre-war ideals of the working man. For the first time, Australian soldiers’ drawings fall under the gaze of the historian and they present a nuanced, sometimes contradictory, understanding of how soldiers imagined and enacted their own masculinity and manliness at war.