The diary of Walter Leslie Clark covers the period from embarkation in Melbourne on 21 November 1917 until his death at Villers-Bretonneux 19 May 1918. Brothers Keith Allan Clark and Linton Charles Clark served and survived. Parents Albert Eugene and Emily Jane Clark.Narrative of one man's (relatively short) experience of war.Dark brown, soft covered notebook, with two Rising Sun badges and "On the Roll of Honour" label attached. WW1 diary of Walter Leslie Clark (6780A - 22nd battalion).Diary includes letter from CO advising parents of Walter Clark's death, and letter of sympathy from W. Holmes.ww1, western front, diaries, walter leslie clark

Letters written by Robert Robertson Rail. Sent from France and England during World War 1, the majority of letters are to his mother, with a small number to other family members.Small case of approximately 200 letters written to his family by Robert Rail (5411 - 24 Battalion, 14 Reinforcement) while on active service in WW1.ww1, letters, western front, robert robertson rail, 24 battalion

Diary details action seen at Gallipoli, Pozieres, Mouquet Farm and Passchendale. Diary may have been written (much?) later than experiences described. Incomplete, coverless notebook - commences at part of page 4, complete from page 5 onwards. Diary of William Elverd (1995 - 16th Battalion, 5th Reinforcement).ww1, western front, diaries, william augustus elverd, 16 battalion

Covers the period - with some breaks - from embarkation in Melbourne on 16 December 1916 until early 1919. Four softcover notebooks. Diaries of William Thomson (4631 - 29th Battalion, 12th Reinforcement) - one notebook contains only photographs.ww1, western front, diaries, william milne thomson, 29 battalion

Twice rejected in Melbourne for active service, Rudduck booked a passage to London and joined the King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, gaining his commission shortly thereafter. Lieutenant Rudduck lost his left arm in action in France, but following repeated requests was susequently permitted to return to the trenches, where he later died from further wounds on 5th June 1918. Ruddock's brother, Ernest, served with 57th Battalion in France.Four letters sent from Europe by Rudduck - while on active service - during April and May 1918 to his family in Dromana (Vic).joseph john rudduck, ernest rudduck, ww1, western front

Le Bizet is a village in the Belgian province of Hainaut . It lies in the district of Ploegsteert and is near the French border. This postcard was purchased by an Australian soldier during World War One. Black and white postcard showing houses in Le Bizet, Belgium in ruins after bombing during World War One. This card was purchased by an Australian soldier, probably Henry Smerdon Holmes, during World War One. chatham-holmes family collection, le bizet, belgium, ploegsteert, world war, world war 1, bombing, world war one, western front

Index, bibliography, ill (col), p.172.non-fictionOn 7 June 1917, the British Second Army launched its attack on Messines Ridge, detonating 19 giant mines beneath the German front-line positions. By the end of the day, one of the strongest positions on the Western Front had fallen, a place of such importance that the Germans had pledged to hold it at any cost. It was the greatest British victory in three years of war. The first two years of the First World War had represented an almost unending catalogue of disaster for the Australians. Messines was not only their first real victory, it was also the first test in senior command for Major General John Monash who commanded the newly formed 3rd Division and would later be hailed as Australia's greatest soldier. Messines was a baptism of fire for the 3rd Division which came into the line alongside the battle-scarred 4th Australian Division, badly mauled at Bullecourt just six weeks earlier in one of the worst defeats of the war. The fighting at Messines would descend into unimaginable savagery, a lethal and sometimes hand-to-hand affair of bayonets, clubs, bombs and incessant machine-gun fire, described by one Australian as '72 hours of Hell'. After their string of bloody defeats over 1915 and 1916, Messines would be the ultimate test for the Australians. Collapse summary world war 1914-1918- campaigns - western front, battles of messines - australian participation - 1917

Index, bibliography, notes, ill (maps), p.816.In the Trenches of Hell On 19 July 1916, 7000 Australian soldiers - in the first major action of the AIF on the Western Front - attacked entrenched German positions at Fromelles in northern France. By the next day, there were over 5500 casualties, including nearly 2000 dead - a bloodbath that the Australian War Memorial describes as 'the worst 24 hours in Australia's entire history. Just days later, three Australian Divisions attacked German positions at nearby Pozi�res, and over the next six weeks they suffered another 23,000 casualties. Of that bitter battle, the great Australian war correspondent Charles Bean would write, 'The field of Pozi�res is more consecrated by Australian fighting and more hallowed by Australian blood than any field which has ever existed . . .' Yet the sad truth is that, nearly a century on from those battles, Australians know only a fraction of what occurred. This book brings the battles back to life and puts the reader in the moment, illustrating both the heroism displayed and the insanity of the British plan. With his extraordinary vigour and commitment to research, Peter FitzSimons shows why this is a story about which all Australians can be proud. And angry.world war 1914-1918 - campaigns - western front, world war 1914-1918 - australian participation - fromelles and pozieres

Index, bibliography, notes, ill (maps), p.565.non-fictionPasschendaele epitomises everything that was most terrible about the Western Front. The photographs never sleep of this four-month battle, fought from July to November 1917, the worst year of the war- blackened tree stumps rising out of a field of mud, corpses of men and horses drowned in shell holes, terrified soldiers huddled in trenches awaiting the whistle. The intervening century, the most violent in human history, has not disarmed these pictures of their power to shock. At the very least they ask us, on the 100th anniversary of the battle, to see and to try to understand what happened here. Yes, we commemorate the event. Yes, we adorn our breasts with poppies. But have we seen? Have we understood? Have we dared to reason why? What happened at Passchendaele was the expression of the 'wearing-down war', the war of pure attrition at its most spectacular and ferocious. Paul Ham's Passchendaele- Requiem for Doomed Youth shows how ordinary men on both sides endured this constant state of siege, with a very real awareness that they were being gradually, deliberately, wiped out. Yet the men never broke- they went over the top, when ordered, again and again and again. And if they fell dead or wounded, they were casualties in the 'normal wastage', as the commanders described them, of attritional war. Only the soldier's friends at the front knew him as a man, with thoughts and feelings. His family back home knew him as a son, husband or brother, before he had enlisted. By the end of 1917 he was a different creature- his experiences on the Western Front were simply beyond their powers of comprehension. The book tells the story of ordinary men in the grip of a political and military power struggle that determined their fate and has foreshadowed the destiny of the world for a century. Passchendaele lays down a powerful challenge to the idea of war as an inevitable expression of the human will, and examines the culpability of governments and military commanders in a catastrophe that destroyed the best part of a generation. Collapse summary world war 1914-1918 - campaigns - western front, france - campaigns - passchaendaele

Index, bibliography, ill (maps), p.248.non-fictionThis abridged edition of the bestselling 'Fromelles' includes the recent discovery of the largest mass war grave since the Second World War, the recovery of the missing Diggers' remains and the names of those who have been identified, as well as the opening of the new Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery in 2010.world war 1914 - 1918 - campaigns - western front - fromelles, war graves - france

Index, notes, ill, maps, p.222.non-fictionIt would be hard to find anyone better qualified the "Sally Home of the "11th Hussars to tell the story of the Cavalry on the Western front during the First World War.soldiers - great britain - biography, world war 1914-1918 - western front - cavalry corps

Bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.245.non-fictionRetrace Australia's role in the First World War from the trenches of Somme Mud to the wider war on the Western Front. Imagine this. You are a country boy and just eighteen. The war has been raging for two years and because of your age, you have not been eligible for enlistment. Your mates, older by a few months are joining up and disappearing to the great adventure across the world in Europe. And there is forever talk of the need for reinforcements, for men like you to join up and support the Empire, Australia and your mates in the line. Such was the case for Edward Francis Lynch, a typical country boy from Perthville, near Bathurst. When war was declared in early August 1914, he was just sixteen and still at school, but like a generation of young males in Australia, there was something to prove and a need to be there. Will Davies, editor of the bestselling Somme Mud, meticulously tracked Lynch and his battalion's travels; their long route marches to flea ridden billets, into the frontline at such places as Messines, Dernancourt, Stormy Trench and Villers Bretonneux, to rest areas behind the lines and finally, on the great push to the final victory after August 1918. In words and pictures Davies fills in the gaps in Private Lynch's story and through the movements of the other battalions of the AIF provides impact and context to their plight and achievements. Looking at these battlefields today, the pilgrims who visit and those who attend to the land we come to understand how the spirit of Australia developed and of our enduring role in world politics.world war 1914-1918 - personal narratives - australia, western front 1914-1918 - australian participation

index, bib, ill (plates), maps, ports, p.863.non-fictionLes Carlyon's The Great War is the epic story of the fighting men who wove themselves into legend as part of the largest tragedy in Australian history - 179,000 dead and wounded - leaving a nation to mourn its fallen heroes in 'one long national funeral' into the 1930s and, now again, a century later. As he did with the best-seller Gallipoli, Carlyon leads the reader behind the lines, across the western front and other theatres of battle, and deep into the minds of the men who are witnesses to war. Having walked the fields of France, Belgium and Turkey on his quest for a truth beyond the myth, Carlyon weaves us a mesmerising narrative that shifts seamlessly from the hatching of grand strategies in the political salons of London and St Petersburg to the muddy, bloody trenches of Pozieres and Passchendaele where ordinary soldiers descended into a maelstrom unimaginable. australian army - history, world war 1914-1918 - campaigns - western front

index, ill, maps, p.343.non-fictionThe the compelling story of Lieutenant Joseph "Darkie" Maxwell DCM, MC and Bar, VC – the second highest decorated Australian soldier of the First World War."A flash blinds me... We are lost in a chaos of flying mud... Smoke, filth,confusion, racket! I spit and splutter and swear... Oh Christ! I think I'm flamin' well dead." This is the compelling story of Lieutenant Joseph "Darkie" Maxwell DCM, MC and Bar, VC – the second highest decorated Australian soldier of the First World War. Meticulously researched by historian John Ramsland, Maxwell's colourful life is traced from his childhood on the Hunter coalfields until his death at age 71 in a soldier's settlement home in Matraville Sydney. Maxwell was a vivid storyteller who wrote Hells Bells and Mademoiselles, telling of his experiences in the war. In telling Maxwell's story, Ramsland has uncovered many forgotten documents to piece together an extraordinary life of an extraordinary man.wold war 1914-1918 - campaigns - western front, joseph maxwell - biography

General Hobbs August 1917 Blaringham, France. Digital copy of photograph from a personal album of Lieutenant General JJT Hobbs.talbot hobbs, world war 1, 5th australian division, western front

General Hobbs with HM King George V. Digital copy of photograph from a personal album of Lieutenant General JJT Hobbs.talbot hobbs, kinge george v, world war 1, western front, aif

Generals MC Logan and Hobbs, Ham, Belgium, March 1919. Digital copy of photograph from a personal album of Lieutenant General JJT Hobbs.talbot hobbs, kinge george v, world war 1, western front, aif

Set of three brochures relating to WW1 battlefield sites in France and Belgium. Coloured and contain photographs.fromelle, villers brettoneux, remembrance trail- western front

Stone from Abbey ruins at Mont St. Quentin, captured by the 21st Battalion A.I.F. on 1st Sept. 1918 & presented to the Myrtleford Sub-Branch by the Twenty-First Battalion Association, 20th November, 1971.The Stone is from the Abbey at Mont St. Quentin, captured by the 21st Battalion, 2nd Division A.I.F., on the 1st Sept. 1918. A Battle described by General Sir Henry Rawlinson, Commander, British Fourth Army as "The finest single feat of the War". During this Battle Sergeant "Alby" Lowerson, from Myrtleford was awarded the Victoria Cross for leading several men to capture a group of enemy machine guns that were holding up the advance. The Stone was presented in 1971 by members of the 21st Battalion Association, (named on the reverse side) to Myrtleford Sub-Branch R.S.L. Stone mounted on wooden board.Board inscribed with details of the mounted stone, with the names of those present on the reverse.world war 1, ww1, 21st battalion aif, 2nd australian division, western front, mont st quentin, sgt. a.d. lowerson v.c., myrtleford rsl

Used in WW1 by German soldiers, primarily pioneer troops and NCOs. Often had their teeth removed due to negative conotations associated with allied propaganda. Many German soldiers were advised not to use the sawback bayonet as they believed that if caught with it they could be summarily executed Know as a saw back bayonet or a butchers knifeDark steel bayonet with substantial 37 cm (15 in) blade. Woodne grips are missing and steel on grop is significantly rusted. Saw back edge with 2 rows of 29 teeth, The quilion bends down toward the hanle Unlike many other bayontes this bayonet does not have a muzzel ring it instead has a long t shaped gove in the handle, Mauser avoided one since these altered the vibration harmonics of the barrel when fired, affecting accuracy. All the bayonets featured quillons that curved back towards the hilt. These were much less effective at catching the opposing blade than the forward-swept quillons used by some other nations. A small number of pioneers and certain non-commissioned officers of the German Army were issued a bayonet with a sawback edge, known as the S or m.S. ("mit Säge", with saw). Many such bayonets had their teeth ground down in response to negative Allied propaganda. There is a heavily rusted, all steel scabbardWAFFENFABRIK MAUSER A.G OBERNDORF a.N5/6 rvr, bayonet, ww1, german, western front

Holmes Family Ascot World War One memorabilia This postcard was sent from France during World War One. The writer, Gordon Spittle, enlisted with the brother of the recipient, Mary Coghill Holmes. Postcard with embroidered detail on white silk. The embroidery includes a crowned crest, and the flags of England, France, and Italy and the words "Souvenir d'Amiens".Verso "Somewhere in France July 14th '17 My dear Mary, In the first place I have to thank you for your letter of April 30th which came to hand by the last mail, and also very kindly the tin of biscuits sent per Miss B. which came to hand by the last Sunday. I also received a tin from Violet and will be writing her to-morrow and the next day it it is not to hot and muggy. I can assure you both that I appreciate your continued kindness more than words can tell, and only regret that I am unable to do something in return. Who can believe it is just two years ago since Harry & I enlisted, & the war doesn't appear to be any nearer ending than it did then, however let us hope and trust the end is not very far off, for goodness only knows how utterly tied (sic) of it we all are. His Majesty the King paid our division a visit on Thursday, & yesterday I went to Amiens for the day. Must now ring off for the present with kindest regards to your Mother, Violet, Willie and Self. From S. Gordon S." chatham family archive, chatham, holmes, harry holmes, mary holmes, amiens, world war, world war 1, world war i, world war one, gordon spittle, embroidery, france, western front, mary coghill holmes, postcard

World War IBook, paperback, sepia photo of Grace Wilson with an umbrella on Lemnosnonethe western front, gallipoli, the marquette (ship) aegean

World War IBook, Hardcover. brown. Dustjacket, black and white photo of Grace Wilson with an umbrella on Lemnosnonethe western front, gallipoli, the marquette (ship) aegean

Regimental 543 Trooper Geoff Gilbert of Northcote Victoria enlisted in the 13th Light Horse Regiment AIF aged 21. He served at Gallipoli and Egypt before the regiment moved to the Western Front in March 1916 as Corps cavalry. Steel helmets and gas masks became regular equipment as the regiment engaged in all the major actions involving the Australians. Gilbert brought his helmet home after the war as a souvenir.Rare souvenir of headwear worn by an Australian light horseman of World War 1 (1914-18). Steel helmet worn on the Western Front by Lance Corporal Geoff Gilbert 13th Australian Light Horse during World War 1 (1914-1918).helmet, 13th light horse, wwi, world war one, the great war, first world war, gallipoli, australian imperial forces, aif

Western Front Medic.uniform, ww1, army

Western Front : Transport in the Sommepicture, ww1, army

Map of the Western Front WW1maps

Western Front - trench at the Sommepicture, ww1, army

Western front Replica Uniformuniform, ww1, army