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Australia's Role In Ww1 Essay

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World War One began on the 28th of July 1914, triggered by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary. This was the first major large scale war. It had many theatres of war, including: The Western Front, The Eastern Front, Gallipoli and The War at Sea. Britain declared war on 4 August 1914, and Australia’s Prime Minister Joseph Cook pledged our full support. The outbreak of war was greeted with much enthusiasm in Australia and our first taste of action was when the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force took over German New Guinea at Toma on 17 of September 1914, but the more significant battles involving Australians were Gallipoli, The Western Front and The War at Sea The Australian troops had a role in most battles of World War One, however Australia’s most …show more content…

Upon landing, the 16th Battalion were 1000 strong. Overnight on 2nd of May, they lost 8 officers and 330 men. By roll call on the 3rd of May, only 9 officers and 290 men answered. This gruelling battle consisted mainly of trench warfare. George Herbert Bourne was an Australia soldier deployed at Quinn’s post, Gallipoli, in May 1914. As can be read in Sources 1 and 2, George lists his struggles in an extract from one of his letters, ‘We have now been here under fire for almost three weeks. We were shelled while being landed in The Torpedo boat – the landing beach is constantly being shelled & we have been bombed, sniped etc. practically ever since.’ (George Herbert, 1914). Following Gallipoli, The Western Front was the most famous theatre of war. All the battles were in France and Belgium, and were once household names in Australia—Fromelles, The Somme, Bullecourt, Messines, Passchendaele and Villers-Bretonneux. ‘Of the more than 295,000 Australians who served between March 1916 and November 1918 in this theatre of war in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), 46,000 lost their lives and more than

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