Australian Soldiers Research Articles

The repeatability of stride time variability, regularity, and long-range correlations

BackgroundDetrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) and sample entropy (SE) measure the long-term correlations and regularity of gait patterns, respectively, having previously been used to identify participants at risk of falling, previous history of injury, or patients with motor diseases. Since these measures are more sensitive to gait impairment than linear measures (e.g., the standard deviation [SD] of stride time), they can be potentially used in military medicine to identify soldiers at risk of injury. However, clinometric properties are yet to be established. Research QuestionWhat is the repeatability of DFA, SE, and traditional linear measures of stride time variability (SD and coefficient of variation [CV]) under various load and speed constraints? MethodsFourteen Australian Army trainee soldiers (age: 25.6 ± 5.9 y, height: 1.74 ± 0.08 m, body mass: 77.2 ± 15.1 kg, service: 1.5 ± 1.8 y) attended three sessions over two weeks, completing four 12-minute walking trials on an instrumented treadmill in each session. Participants walked with a combination of 0 kg or 23 kg loads at a self-selected or 5.5 km/h speed. Heel contacts from the right foot were identified using treadmill-embedded force plates. From 512 stride time intervals, linear (SD and CV), and non-linear (DFA and SE) measures were obtained. To assess the between-session repeatability, intraclass correlations (ICC 2,1) were employed. Results and SignificanceThere was poor-to-moderate repeatability for the SD (ICC: 0.357–0.545) and CV (ICC: 0.371–0.529). DFA showed poor-to-moderate repeatability (ICC: 0.013–0.504), while SE had poor repeatability (ICC: 0.133–0.226). Previous studies have shown that differences of > 0.19 in DFA and > 0.66 in SE can differentiate between healthy and pathological gait. These values are greater than this study's reported standard error of measurement, indicating that clinically meaningful changes may still be detectable despite low repeatability.

Command Responsibility in the Brereton Report: Weakened Accountability and the Threat to Rights, Freedoms, and Reputation

While the Brereton Report found that there was credible information that Australian soldiers committed numerous war crimes, it stated that no commander above patrol level should bear criminal responsibility. The wide spectrum of standards adopted for command responsibility in international law means that there is some basis to argue that applying the Brereton Report’s standard would comply with Australia’s international obligations. However, this standard does not offer the best balance of upholding high criminal justice standards and ensuring convictions are ‘deserved’, while deterring serious violations of rights during armed conflicts, such as the right to life and freedom from torture. In addition, a failure to address the scepticism that no Australian commander above patrol level is legally accountable raises questions of adherence to the rule of law. It may impact on Australia’s standing and its perceived commitment to international criminal justice.

The Agreement between Wearable Sensors and Force Plates for the Analysis of Stride Time Variability.

The variability and regularity of stride time may help identify individuals at a greater risk of injury during military load carriage. Wearable sensors could provide a cost-effective, portable solution for recording these measures, but establishing their validity is necessary. This study aimed to determine the agreement of several measures of stride time variability across five wearable sensors (Opal APDM, Vicon Blue Trident, Axivity, Plantiga, Xsens DOT) and force plates during military load carriage. Nineteen Australian Army trainee soldiers (age: 24.8 ± 5.3 years, height: 1.77 ± 0.09 m, body mass: 79.5 ± 15.2 kg, service: 1.7 ± 1.7 years) completed three 12-min walking trials on an instrumented treadmill at 5.5 km/h, carrying 23 kg of an external load. Simultaneously, 512 stride time intervals were identified from treadmill-embedded force plates and each sensor where linear (standard deviation and coefficient of variation) and non-linear (detrended fluctuation analysis and sample entropy) measures were obtained. Sensor and force plate agreement was evaluated using Pearson's r and intraclass correlation coefficients. All sensors had at least moderate agreement (ICC > 0.5) and a strong positive correlation (r > 0.5). These results suggest wearable devices could be employed to quantify linear and non-linear measures of stride time variability during military load carriage.

The semiotic remediation of hardtack biscuits during World War One

This study offers the first detailed examination of the materiality of World War One hardtack biscuits – a dense biscuit made from flour, water and salt, which was a key component of ration packs for both Australian and British soldiers. It is specifically concerned with the types of repurposing – or acts of semiotic remediation – that take place, their broader sociocultural functions and the semiotic resources drawn upon to make meaning. Using a combination of multimodal analysis and archival research, it identifies five key acts of semiotic remediation by soldiers – declarations of ownership, letters, diary entries, photo frames and objets d’arts – which showcase hardtacks as unique, unmediated resources for understanding WW1 experiences. It also notes the frequent use of humour as a coping mechanism, as well as the important memorialisation function of hardtacks, acquiring symbolic values disproportionate to their everyday value for bereaved families. Hardtacks, thus, stand as a testimony to the resourcefulness of humans in trying circumstances, holding a wealth of knowledge on the aestheticisation of war that no living person possesses.

Where is Palestine in the Anzacs’ Palestine Campaign? Israel and the Struggle for Indigeneity in Commemorative State Practice

At the end of the second decade of the twenty first century, Israel has sought to align itself with a range of Indigenous struggles both to conceal the ongoing nature of settler-colonialism and to attempt to position the Zionist-state project as an indigenous one. This article examines one instance of this trend, in the recent commemorative events surrounding the centenary of the Palestine Campaign, a military campaign fought by Australian soldiers during World War I. The article argues that official Israeli commemoration of this campaign, and the recent foregrounding of the role of Aboriginal servicemen in it, is an example of Israel’s indigenous diplomacy, which aims to occlude Palestinian presence and history in their ancestral lands. It argues that this practice ultimately does not serve the purpose it is intended to fulfil, but merely delays the work of imagining a just future in Israel/Palestine.

The test–retest reliability of physiological and perceptual responses during treadmill load carriage

PurposeUnderstanding the test–retest reliability of physiological responses to load carriage influences the interpretation of those results. The aim of this study was to determine the test–retest reliability of physiological measures during loaded treadmill walking at 5.5 km h−1 using the MetaMax 3B.MethodsFifteen Australian Army soldiers (9 male, 6 female) repeated two 12-min bouts of treadmill walking at 5.5 km h−1 in both a 7.2 kg Control condition (MetaMax 3B, replica rifle) and a 23.2 kg Patrol condition (Control condition plus vest) across three sessions, separated by one week. Expired respiratory gases and heart rate were continuously collected, with the final 3 min of data analysed. Ratings of Perceived Exertion and Omnibus-Resistance Exercise Scale were taken following each trial. Reliability was quantified by coefficient of variation (CV), intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC), smallest worthwhile change (SWC), and standard error of the measurement.ResultsMetabolic and cardiovascular variables were highly reliable (≤ 5% CV; excellent-moderate ICC), while the respiratory variables demonstrated moderate reliability (< 8% CV; good-moderate ICC) across both conditions. Perceptual ratings had poorer reliability during the Control condition (12–45% CV; poor ICC) than the Patrol condition (7–16% CV; good ICC).ConclusionsThe test–retest reliability of metabolic and cardiovascular variables was high and relatively consistent during load carriage. Respiratory responses demonstrated moderate test–retest reliability; however, as the SWC differed with load carriage tasks, such data should be interpreted independently across loads. Perceptual measures demonstrated poor to moderate reliability during load carriage, and it is recommended that they only be employed as secondary measures.Graphical abstract

The Composition of the Imperial British Forces in the Anglo-Boer War, 1899–1902: A Military and Socio-Historical Overview

The British forces that served during the Anglo-Boer War (also known as the South African War) of 1899–1902 were an amalgam of several different types of soldiers. These men came from varying geographic and socio-economic backgrounds, and had different reasons for enlisting. This article discusses the composition of the British forces during the war, and adopts a military and socio-historical approach to understand who served in South Africa and why. To this end, the different types of British soldiers are looked at as separate (but ultimately intertwined) groupings, including regular (or career) soldiers, British volunteers, colonial volunteers, and “non-white” combatants. This represents a wide-viewed perspective of the British military system during the late-Victorian era. Keywords: Anglo-Boer War, South African War, British Empire, British Army, British Soldiers, Australian Soldiers, Canadian Soldiers, New Zealand Soldiers

Somewhere in France: Language, Place and Remembrance in Australian Soldiers’ Periodical Culture

An exploration of the thesis that while for contemporary Australians Villers-Bretonneux is the main ‘lieu de commémoration’ (place of remembrance), for the First World War diggers, ‘lieux de mémoire’ (sites of memory) were created from a much wider and varied list of place names— places where they had been, and fought, Villers-Bretonneux being for them just one of many. Focusing on the 1918–1929 period, this article explores the Australian experience and memory of the First World War by analysing how the concept of place was constructed within trench journals and returned soldier periodical print culture.

Stitchers of Instagram

Stitchers of Instagram

Art as a Source for the History of War: James McBey’s Long Patrol Images and Emotional Responses to the Sinai Campaign

Visual sources, capturing aspects of life silenced or left untold in textual accounts, have the potential to offer new, historical understandings of the individual experience of war. During World War I, official war artist James McBey created a series of images of Australian soldiers – Cameliers – on reconnaissance in the Sinai Desert. This article reads a selection of those images, arguing that what they signified and the emotions they aroused can be retrieved historically by considering their multiple contexts. These include not only the social, political, and military environments, but also the cultural imaginaries which the artist shared with his audiences.

Historical epidemics of scrub typhus in Queensland and Papua New Guinea.

Undifferentiated febrile diseases (e.g., Mossman fever) from northern Queensland were eventually partially attributed to mite-transmitted rickettsial infections known as scrub typhus or tsutsugamushi fever. Scrub typhus became a major medical threat to military operations in Papua New Guinea during the Second World War and killed more Australian soldiers than malaria in the pre-antibiotic era. Further investigations showed scrub typhus to be an occupational disease of rural workers in north Queensland especially around Cairns and Innisfail. Occasional small epidemics of scrub typhus still occur during military exercises in Queensland, but as scrub typhus is not a reportable disease, its presence in the civilian community is largely unknown. Increased use of serological testing in patients with fever and rash illnesses after exposure in northern Queensland is likely to show that scrub typhus is a modern infection that remains treatable with antibiotics once it is identified.

Reading Anzac Religion and the Sacred: The Bible as a Central Text and Artefact of Australian Soldiers' Experience of the First World War*

This article demonstrates the resilience of religious traditions and practices among Australian soldiers, and the need for caution about presuming connections between the experience of modern war and secularisation. A core argument is that the Bible should be understood as a central text and cultural artefact of Australian soldiers' experience of the First World War. The pocket New Testament was the most widely possessed book among Australian soldiers, and probably the most read and valued. For many it offered profound religious, moral, and emotional consolation. For others it possessed talismanic qualities, conjured home associations, or became an “object of memory.” Communal reading practices made Testaments prominent in the aural experience of war, but such practices could also elicit antipathy towards religion. Taken together, these findings inform scholarship on the mentalités and material culture of Australian war experience, challenging the longstanding scholarly and popular myth of the secular Australian soldier. Additionally, the article breaks new ground in situating Australian experience within a substantial international scholarship on the crucial role of religion (both official and popular) among soldiers of all combatant nations. Partly due to its majority Protestant population, Australian soldiers' Bible possession and usage resembled that of Anglo‐Saxon and German Protestants.

Impact of a 5-Week Individualised Training Program on Physical Performance and Measures Associated with Musculoskeletal Injury Risk in Army Personnel: A Pilot Study

To examine the feasibility and effect of an individualised and force-plate guided training program on physical performance and musculoskeletal injury risk factors in army personnel. Pre-post, randomised control. Fourteen male and five female Australian Army soldiers were randomised into two groups and performed 5-weeks of physical training. The control group (n = 9) completed standard, group-designed, physical training whilst the experimental group (n = 8) completed an individualised training program. Physical (push-ups, multi-stage fitness test, three repetition maximum (3RM) for squat, strict press, deadlift and floor press), occupational (weight-loaded march time), and technological assessments (two-leg and one-leg countermovement jumps (CMJ), one-leg balance, one-arm plank) were conducted prior to and following the training period. Comparisons between groups and changes within groups were conducted via Mann-Whitney U tests. Compared to the control group, the experimental group exhibited a significantly smaller improvement for weight-loaded march time (-0.7% ± 4.0% vs. -5.1% ± 3.0%, p = 0.03) and a greater improvement for deadlift-3RM (20.6% ± 11.9% vs. 8.4% ± 6.8%, p = 0.056). All other outcomes were similar between groups. Visually favourable alterations in the two-leg CMJ profile with no reports of injuries were noted for the experimental group. Individualised physical training was feasible within an army setting and, for the most part, produced similar physical, occupational and technological performances to that of standard, group-designed physical training. These preliminary results provide a foundation for future research to expand upon and clarify the benefits of individualised training programs on long-term physical performance and injury risk/incidence in active combat army personnel.

Reliability of Force Plate Metrics During Standard Jump, Balance, and Plank Assessments in Military Personnel.

Prevention of musculoskeletal injury is vital to the readiness, performance, and health of military personnel with the use of specialized systems (e.g., force plates) to assess risk and/or physical performance of interest. This study aimed to identify the reliability of one specialized system during standard assessments in military personnel. Sixty-two male and ten female Australian Army soldiers performed a two-leg countermovement jump (CMJ), one-leg CMJ, one-leg balance, and one-arm plank assessments using a Sparta Science force plate system across three testing sessions. Sparta Science (e.g., total Sparta, balance and plank scores, jump height, and injury risk) and biomechanical (e.g., average eccentric rate of contraction, average concentric force, and sway velocity) variables were recorded for all sessions. Mean ± SD, intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs), coefficient of variation, and bias and limits of agreement were calculated for all variables. Mean results were similar between sessions 2 and 3 (P > .05). The relative reliability for the Sparta Science (ICC = 0.28-0.91) and biomechanical variables (ICC = 0.03-0.85) was poor to excellent. The mean absolute reliability (coefficient of variation) for Sparta Science variables was similar to or lower than that of the biomechanical variables during the CMJ (1-10% vs. 3-7%), one-leg balance (4-6% vs. 9-14%), and one-arm plank (5-7% vs. 12-17%) assessments. The mean bias for most variables was small (<5% of the mean), while the limits of agreement varied with most unacceptable (±6-87% of the mean). The reliability of most Sparta Science and biomechanical variables during standard assessments was moderate to good. The typical variability in metrics documented will assist practitioners with the use of emerging technology to monitor and assess injury risk and/or training interventions in military personnel.

In Our Neighbours' Soil Our Anzacs Sleep

The Sarawak Heroes Memorial Park in Kuching contains a black marble plaque, installed on 29 August 2016, honouring the Australian military personnel who died during the Indonesian Confrontation with Malaysia. Incomplete records however, led to this plaque containing minor errors and omissions. Three years later, as a member of the South Australia and Northern Territory Branch of the National Malaya and Borneo Veterans Association of Australia Inc, I was invited to deliver a commemorative address for Malaya-Borneo Veterans Day in Kuching on 29 August 2019. This presented the opportunity to extensively research the fallen, and a new plaque was installed prior to this ceremony. My address, included here, drew attention to the 50 Australian fallen from the Malayan wars who remain buried overseas, acknowledging Malaysia and Singapore for looking after our ‘Anzacs’. In particular, of the Australians who died during Confrontation, I noted that eight died in Sarawak (while a further three died after being evacuated from Sarawak). This paper includes this commemorative address, followed by an analysis of the circumstances of each of the eleven Australian defenders of Sarawak in 1965-66 who lost their lives. Concluding this research, the graves of the Australian fallen in Kranji Military Cemetery in Singapore were visited and photographed in December 2019, including the four Australian soldiers who died in Sarawak and remain buried overseas. The significance of the 2019 ceremony in Kuching has been heightened by the inability of veterans to schedule any further reunion visits because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Review: Maadi: The Making and Unmaking of a Cairo Suburb 1878–1962

Review: <i>Maadi: The Making and Unmaking of a Cairo Suburb 1878–1962</i>

Australian Foreign Policy during the World War II

The article is related to the establishment of Australian foreign policy tradition and becoming of Australia as a subject of international relations. The significant role of the dominions during First World War Great and their help for Great Britain victory, intensified their struggle for independence. As the result of long-term efforts, dominions reached the proclamation of the Balfour Declaration in 1926 by London, which was later confirmed by the Statute of Westminster (1931), which established the authority for dominions for an independent foreign policy. The development of Australian foreign policy before and during World War II was analyzed. The evolution of the relations of the Australia and Great Britain in the context of the events of the World War II is traced, in particular the peculiarities of the allied relations of the two countries. There is shown the regional dimension of the World War II within the Asia-Pacific region, in the context of Australia and the United States actions against Japanese aggression. There are analyzed the peculiarities of external threats effect on the transformation of the Australian foreign policy strategy, in particular in the national security sphere. The main threat for Australia in that period become Japanise aggressive and expansionist policy in the Asia-Pacific region. A lot of Australian soldiers and military equipment were sent to Great Britain to support traditional allie. But in actual strategic situation in Europe there were great doubts that British troops and the navy would be able to effectively help Australians in case of an attack by Japan. Politics of national security and defense of Australia in the context of its participation in World War II is considered. In the conditions of real threat of Japanese invasion, as well as the lack of sure to receive necessary support from Great Britain, the Australian government start to find a military alliance with the USA. There were identified the key implications of World War II for Australian socio-economic system.

“A Man's Lot”: Marriage, Military Service, and the First World War

The study of personal experiences of British and Australian soldiers during the First World War can be further developed through a discrete analysis of married men's interactions with wartime masculine ideals. This article seeks to provide a preliminary insight into such interactions through the case‐study of two officers serving on the Western Front in 1916 and the correspondence they wrote to their wives throughout their military service. British Lieutenant Max Shaw and Australian Lieutenant Cecil Mills both voluntarily enlisted and served in France in 1916. Once they departed their homes to commence training, they immediately began corresponding with their wives, which can be seen as attempts to mediate a clashing sense of domestic and military loyalties. As these men transitioned from a civilian to a military lifestyle, their lingering domestic identities and the importance of their marriage within their sense of manhood continued to influence their adoption of a military identity.

‘Upholding the Cause of Civilization’: The Australian Death Penalty in War and Colonialism

The abolition of the death penalty in Queensland in 1922 was the first in Australian jurisdictions, and the first in the British Empire. However, the legacy of the Queensland death penalty lingered in Australian colonial territories. This article considers a variety of practices in which the death penalty was addressed by Australian decision-makers during the first half of the 20th century. These include the exemption of Australian soldiers from execution in World War I, use of the death penalty in colonial Papua and the Mandate Territory of New Guinea, hanging as a weapon of war in the colonial territories, and the retrieval of the death penalty for the punishment of war crimes. In these histories, we see not only that the Queensland death penalty lived on in other contexts but also that ideological and political preferences for abolition remained vulnerable to the sway of other historical forces of war and security.

Stigma, shame and family secrets as consequences of mental illness in previous generations: A micro-history approach.

In this article we evaluate micro-history as a method for investigating the meaning of stigma, shame and family secrets through generations. We present micro-histories of two Australian soldiers who developed mental illness years after serving in World War 1 and were committed to a psychiatric hospital where they died. Data were drawn from publicly available records and interviews with family members. The contrasting stories held by the families of each man illustrate the transmission of stigma and secrets through families. We explore possible reasons for the differences between the families related to the wider literature on stigma and mental health and show why the family stories people present should be considered social constructions rather than facts. We also address ethical issues that arose during the research, and which have relevance for researchers investigating sensitive or potentially stigmatising topics.