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THE DIGGERS – The Australians in France during WWI
Patrick MacGill
In this small ebook, are but nine chapters which give an Australian perspective of their time spent on the Western Front in France.
The imperishable deeds of the Commonwealth’s glorious soldiers, least of all the Australians, or Diggers, have carved for themselves a deep niche in the topmost towers of the Temple of the Immortals. The story of the valour of the Diggers will live throughout the ages, and future generations of Australians will speak of them as we do of all the heroic figures of antiquity. Their valour has covered Australia with a lustre that shines throughout the world, so that her name, which in 1914 was little known, by 1918 had become a household word in the mouths of all the peoples of the earth.
The Great War made Australia—a young community without traditions—a nation, acutely and proudly conscious of its nationality. Upon that day some hundred years gone, when in the grey of early dawn the first Australian soldier leapt upon an unknown shore and in the face of a murderous fire scaled the heights of Gaba Tepe—a feat of arms almost unparalleled in the history of war—the young Australian Community put on the toga of nationhood, and in one stride entered on a footing equal to any other nation in the family of free nations of the earth. Gallipoli—scene of that most glorious attempt which though falling short of the promised success, lost nothing of its greatness—thy name is and forever will be held sacred to all!
When Gallipoli had been given up as a forlorn hope, the soldiers of the Commonwealth were relocated to Europe’s Western Front, when in the Spring of 1918 the great German offensive pressed back and by force of numbers broke through the sorely tried British line, the Australian divisions were hurried down from the North and rushed up to stem the German armies.
The story of the battles fought by the Australians before Amiens is amongst the most thrilling in the history of this great world conflict. Here the fate of civilization was decided. The great German army, marching along the road in column of route, like the armies of Napoleon a hundred years before, reached the crest of high land overlooking Amiens, and with but a few miles between them and the key to Paris, were held up by a veritable handful of Australians, later reinforced as the rest of the Divisions came to hand. It was the turning of the tide; the fighting raged around Villers-Bretonneux, but the car of the German Juggernaut rolled forward no more. An impassable barrier had been set up beyond which the enemy could not pass. But the young soldiers of Australia, not satisfied with arresting his onward march, began to force the Hun back; at first slowly, and then faster and faster, until in the great offensive of August 8, when along with four Divisions of Canadians and two British, they swept him back in headlong rout, nor gave him pause until breaking through the vaunted Hindenburg line they stood victorious at Beaurevoir.
The deeds of these brave men will remain forever fresh in the minds of the Commonwealth and Allied nations. Australia has reason to be proud of her war effort; she has done great things; but she has paid a great price. That a small community of just five million recruited and sent 330,000 men twelve thousand miles across the seas, is a great thing. The number dead—57,000—with total casualties—289,723—show how great the price Australia paid for Liberty.
Indeed, it was the “new” colonies of South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Canada which paid a heavy price in war dead. But it would only be another 21 years before they would be asked to pay yet again.
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Download this FREE book via our StreetLib store at:
https://store.streetlib.com/en/patrick-macgill/the-diggers-the-australians-in-france/
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HASHTAGS: #advance, #Allies, #Americans, #Amiens, #Anzac, #attack, #Australians, #barrage, #battalion, #battle, #bayonet, #Beaurevoir, #Boche, #British, #Cambrai, #Canadian, #canal, #children, #cold, #colonies, #commonwealth, #cross, #Dardanelles, #Diggers, #divisions, #empire, #enemy, #engineers, #fighting, #France, #GabaTepe, #Gallipoli, #Germans, #GreatWar, #graves, #guns, #Hamel, #Hindenburg, #home, #Huns, #Kiwis, #liberty, #machinegun, #NewZealanders, #officer, #Peronne, #shells, #shelling, #soldiers, #Somme, #south Africans, #steel, #struggle, #tears, #trenches, #troops, #tunnel, #villages, #VillarsCarbonnel, #VillersBretonneux, #WWI, #WesternFront, #weapons, #world, #worldwar,
We have just passed the mid-point of November and our top four books are racing away from the rest. The top four books are:
MAORI FOLKLORE – 23 Maori Myths and Legends
Download link: https://goo.gl/DYYtzS
Collated and translated by Sir George Grey, Governor of New Zealand from November 1845 – January 1854 and again from December 1861 – February 1868. You will find legends and stories like: The Children Of Heaven And Earth, The Legend Of Maui, The Legend Of Tawhaki, Rupe’s Ascent Into Heaven, Kae’s Theft Of The Whale and many, many other Polynesian myths.
SCOTTISH FAIRY AND FOLK TALES – – 85 Scottish Children’s Stories
Download link: https://goo.gl/JS11f2
Compiled by Sir George Douglas, contains not just fairytales but also tales of kelpies, brownies, stories of animals – foxes, crows, frogs and stories of mermen and comic tales as well.
MY OWN STORY – THE EMMELINE PANKHURST STORY
Download link: https://goo.gl/ygzgsA
Of note was the fact that the closing paragraphs of this book were written in the late summer of 1914, when the armies of every great power in Europe called upon their citizens, and the citizens of their colonies, to mobilised for savage, unsparing, barbarous warfare against one another, against small and unaggressive nations, against helpless women and children, and against civilisation itself.
“There can be no real peace in the world until woman, the mother half of the human family, are given liberty in the councils of the world” – Emmeline Pankhurst.
OLD PETER’S RUSSIAN TALES
Download link: https://goo.gl/B7ASZh
20 illustrated Russian folk and fairy tales retold for young people and the young at heart. The tales are a good sampling of Slavic folklore. The stories in this book are those that Russian peasants tell their children and each other.
Possibly of more importance and with a degree of irony and poignancy to the reader is that most of these stories were recorded in Russia in camps, and at the side of the road, from soldiers as the Russian Imperial Army marched to the front to engage the Germans during WWI.
At this point we would like to thank you for your patronage and support.
It will soon be 100 years since the cessation of hostilities which brought WWI to an end on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th Month of 1918. Abela Publishing author, Richard Marman, author of the McAlister Line has put together a montage of images he sketched during the creation of McAlister and the Great War, book 2 in the McAlister Line which makes for interesting viewing.
Click the link to to view the video: https://www.facebook.com/McAlistersAdventures/videos/361380441267388/?t=2
McAlister and the Great War is available as a paperback and in multiple eBook formats.
PaperBack (on Amazon): https://www.amazon.com/McAlister-Great-War-Line/dp/1925833038/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1539017047&sr=1-3&keywords=McAlister+and+the+Great+War
eBook (in ePub, Kindle & PDF) : https://folklore-fairy-tales-myths-legends-and-other-stories.stores.streetlib.com/en/richard-marman/mcalister-and-the-great-war-book-2-in-the-mcalister-line/
The McAlister Line is a series of books tracing the exploits and adventures of the McAlister Family from Southern England through their relocation to Australia in the 19th C and their involvement in WWI and WWII. The story really picks up when Danny McAlister escapes from a draconian boarding school in Australia and travel’s North into the Northern Territories. He then crosses the Gulf of Carpentaria to Indonesia and then onto French Indo China where he becomes involved in the war in the region – the forerunner to the Vietnamese war.
The McAlister line is a fast paced action and adventure series for lovers of the genre and a enthralling read for young adults. All the books in the series can be found on Amazon or at https://mcalisters-adventures.stores.streetlib.com/en/
Herein are 119 satirical cartoons published in Punch between 1890 and 1915 which focus on the growing threat of war in the years preceding and during the first two years of the GREAT WAR.
The cartoons are grouped into the following categories:
- The Days Preceding the War
- The Struggle
- Uncle Sam
- The Comedies of the Great Tragedy
- Women and Children First
- The New Rake’s Progress—Unser Kaiser
- The Raider
- The Unspeakable Turk
- Italia!
The cartoons encompass all the Allied nations and most of those aligned with the Central Powers. The sea war also features the antics of both navies and of course the sinking of non-military liners.
During the war the media swung into action in effect becoming an Allied propaganda machine. In addition to Punch, Dutchman Louis Raemakers was also proactive in this media. Raemakers cartoons were so effective that he and his family had to flee the Netherlands when the German High Command offered a reward for his capture.
Working in London he continued to publish his cartoons mainly in The Times and even went on a promotional tour of the USA. It was thought that his many works, which can be seen in the eBooks Raemakers Cartoons of WWI – vols. 1 & 2, was partly instrumental in changing the opinion of the American public towards involvement in the “European” war.
The effect of these cartoons on rallying public opinion before and during the Great War was incalculable and the propaganda machine continued to play a major role in the conflicts following the Great War.
Format: eBook – ePub, Kindle/Mobi, PDF
Download Link: https://folklore-fairy-tales-myths-legends-and-other-stories.stores.streetlib.com/en/various/punch-cartoons-of-the-great-war-119-great-war-cartoons-published-in-punch/
Low and brown barns, thatched and repatched and tattered,
Where I had seven sons until to-day—
A little hill of hay your spur has scattered….
This is not Paris. You have lost the way.
You, staring at your sword to find it brittle,
Surprised at the surprise that was your plan,
Who shaking and breaking barriers not a little,
Find never more the death-door of Sedan.
Must I for more than carnage call you claimant,
Paying you a penny for each son you slay?
Man, the whole globe in gold were no repayment
For what you have lost. And how shall I repay?
What is the price of that red spark that caught me
From a kind farm that never had a name?
What is the price of that dead man they brought me?
For other dead men do not look the same.
How should I pay for one poor graven steeple
Whereon you shattered what you shall not know?
How should I pay you, miserable people,
How should I pay you everything you owe?
Unhappy, can I give you back your honour?
Though I forgave, would any man forget?
While all the great green land has trampled on her
The treason and terror of the night we met.
Not any more in vengeance or in pardon,
One old wife bargains for a bean that’s hers.
You have no word to break: no heart to harden.
Ride on and prosper. You have lost your spurs.
G. K. Chesterton 1917
From POEMS of the GREAT WAR raising funds for the Royal British Legion (the equivalent of the Returned Servicemen’s Association or Veterans Association)
http://abelapublishing.com/poems-of-the-great-war–1914-to-1918_p28280158.htm
HEAR FROM THE HEROES of WWI THIS REMEMBRANCE DAY
As most of you know, this November is the centenary of WWI. It is only right that we remember the circa 10 million soldiers, from both sides of the barbed wire, who perished during this conflict; not forgetting the 6 million civilians who also died during The Great War.
In remembrance of WWI we have published 3 books, 1 book of poetry by the most prominent English poets of the day and 2 books by Louis Raemakers.
33% of the net profit from the sale of these books will be donated to the ROYAL BRITISH LEGION.
Louis Raemaekers
A bit of history about Louis Raemakers – whom many of you have probably never heard of. Raemakers was a Dutch cartoonist who drew cartoons for newspapers during the war. His cartoons were so effective, and to the point, that the Germans stated “When we win the war, Raemakers will be tried as War Criminal” or words to that effect. The German High Command even placed a 12,000 guilder reward, $250,000 in today’s money, for his capture, dead or alive (proving words and images can be as effective as bullets, bombs and shells.) This forced Raemakers to flee to England. The first two books in the series are displayed in our November newsletter (link below) with the third to be published in the next few weeks. Samples of the cartoons can be found on each book’s pages.
COMING SOON
RAEMAKERS CARTOONS of the GREAT WAR vol. 3
If anyone knows of similar cartoon works of WWI in German, please do let me know, as I would love to publish these as well to give balance to the catastrophe that was WWI.
ALSO READ INTERVIEW WITH TERRY HAYWARD
Author of the Jack Delaney Chronicles.
Author Terry Hayward
“My newest published book is “Aphrodisiac” which continues the cause of the anti-poaching lobby and is the 4th book in the series. The story tells of Rhinos that are being poached from a Private Game Reserve and Jack Delaney and his team are called in to put a stop to this blight.”
SOUND BITES from Terry’s interview:
“In my youth I was a top swimmer and had my eyes set on Olympic glory when South Africa was expelled from the Olympic movement for its racist apartheid policies.”
“I was fired as Chaplain to Westville Prison, Durban, South Africa when I went public and highlighted the corruption.”
DOWNLOAD a free e-story – ARA AND SERAMIS from the book ARMENIAN POETRY AND LEGENDS
Download from http://www.potn.co.uk/images/abela/ARA%20and%20SEMIRAMIS.pdf
READ THIS NEWSLETTER ONLINE @ http://us6.campaign-archive1.com/?u=c41d269606581b96d6bf339c4&id=4c17696aab
Folklore and Fairytales - Free Stories for Children 