Anzac

They were airbrushed out of history. Official historian Charles Bean claimed the first Australian ashore at the Gallipoli landing on 25 April 1915 was an infantry officer. But Bean wasn't there, and a group of Australian and New Zealand army engineers were. Even today, the army is reluctant to accept that sappers were among the very first ANZACs ashore. This...

The impact of World War I still ripples through time. In this moving and essential book, historian Patricia Skehan brings to light secret details of Anzac experiences on the Western Front. In the annals of human history, the stakes are highest in war. And in World War I, what was at stake was the future of the world. Anzac troops,...

Rachel’s in the kitchen, warm and safe. Her father’s in the trenches, cold and afraid. When Rachel makes biscuits for her father, she adds the love, warmth and hope that he needs. This is a touching story of a family torn apart by war but brought together through the powerful simplicity of ANZAC Biscuits ...

Roly, the Anzac Donkey by Glyn Harper follows Richard Henderson and his donkey Roly, who together saved many WW1 soldiers. Illustrated by Jenny Cooper, it marks the 100th anniversary of Gallipoli. Hello. My name is Roly. I'm a donkey. Let me tell you about the time during the First World War when I worked at a place called Gallipoli. I...

Orphans Bert and Frank are tragically torn apart when they are sent away to the British colonies. But when the War calls on soldiers to storm Gallipoli, will the battlefield also serve as a reunion for the two brothers? A stunning WW1 tale inspired by a true story. When Bert and Frank Barker are taken from the Children's Home in...

In the middle of the night, in the middle of the winter, in the middle of a war, a puppy was born. This fictional story was inspired by the story of Freda, a Harlequin Great Dane and mascot of the NZ Rifle Brigade during World War 1. The ANZAC Puppy is a simple story about the reality of war, hardship,...

When the Germans took thousands of Allied prisoners during the catastrophic Greek campaign of 1941, a handful of Australian soldiers escaped from prison trains in occupied Yugoslavia. What awaited them was not passage home, but a brutal underground war where the fate of a nation was at stake. Told through the eyes of two of the Australian escapees – mineworker...

The ANZACS: War Popular Penguins by Patsy Adam-Smith is a profound recollection of the First World War, capturing the harrowing experiences faced by thousands of young Australians. Gallipoli served as the final resting place for many, with death arriving so swiftly that escape or burial was often impossible. Following Gallipoli was the relentless torment of the European Campaign. To craft...

This picture book for the very young is a simple, moving look at Anzac Day through the eyes of a little girl. She goes to the pre-dawn Anzac Day service with her father where they watch the girl's grandfather march in the parade. This beautifully illustrated book explains what happens on Anzac Day and its significance in terms a young...

Meet... the ANZACs is a picture book series about the extraordinary men and women who have shaped Australia's history, including our brave Anzac soldiers. Anzac stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. It is the name given to the Australian and New Zealand troops who landed at Gallipoli in World War I. The name is now a symbol of...

By the end of the Great War, forty-five Australian and New Zealand nurses had died on overseas service and over two hundred had been decorated. These were the women who left for war looking for adventure and romance but were soon confronted with challenges for which their civilian lives could never have prepared them. Their strength and dignity were remarkable....

The 'War to end all Wars', as seen through the eyes of three young women War is being fought on a horrific scale in the trenches of France, but it might as well be a world away from sixteen-year-old New Zealander Midge Macpherson, at school in England learning to be a young lady. But the war is coming closer: Midge's...

The Unseen Anzac unveils the previously untold story of an extraordinary man and a great war photographer. Cameras were banned at the Western Front when the Anzacs arrived in 1916, prompting correspondent Charles Bean to argue continually for Australia to have a dedicated photographer. He was eventually assigned an enigmatic polar explorer — George Hubert Wilkins. Within weeks of arriving at the...

Meet a bear who is more extraordinary than most in this poignant story about the Anzac spirit, re-issued as a gorgeous hardback to celebrate its 10th anniversary. Anzac Ted is no ordinary bear. He’s got worn patches, frayed threads, missing parts and more… but that’s because he’s got an incredible story to tell. Long ago, Anzac Ted went to war...

‘I picked it up as an attractive and unusual opportunity, but read it cover to cover, smiling and laughing at CJ Dennis’ humour and insight, and from time to time, slowing down to absorb the pathos and sadness that is part of the Anzac legacy.’ — General Sir Peter Cosgrove AK CVO MC 150 years on, the voice that captured...

Australians remember the dead of 25 April 1915 on Anzac Day every year. But do we know the name of a single soldier who died that day? What do we really know about the men supposedly most cherished in the national memory of war? Peter Stanley goes looking for the Lost Boys of Anzac: the men of the very first...

Raise a glass for an Anzac. Run for an Anzac. Camp under the stars for an Anzac. Is there anything Australians won't do to keep the Anzac legend at the centre of our national story? But standing firm on the other side of the Anzac enthusiasts is a chorus of critics claiming that the appetite for Anzac is militarising our...

The people of Australia and Ireland have much in common based on genealogy and a shared heritage. The connections forged between Anzacs and the Irish in World War I have been little known until now. Jeff Kildea tells the story of Australian and Irish soldiers who fought alongside each other at Gallipoli, in France and Belgium and in Palestine. But...

The Anzac legend has shaped Australia's national identity for more than a century. Yet many experiences of war do not fit comfortably within this. In Challenging Anzac, leading historians explore some of these stories: Aboriginal activists, deserters on the Western Front, veterans who took their own lives and soldiers who became radicalised by their service. They reveal how episodes in...

Shattered Anzacs tells the untold story of thousands of Australian families who welcomed home disabled soldiers after the First World War. It offers a poignant account of the impact of physical injury and shell shock upon returned soldiers, and explores the profound and lasting consequences of disablement for their kin in the 1920s and 1930s. Drawing the reader into the...

War is traditionally considered a male experience. By extension, the genre of war literature is a male-dominated field, and the tale of the battlefield remains the privileged (and only canonised) war story. In Australia, although women have written extensively about their wartime experiences, their voices have been distinctively silenced. Shooting Blanks at the Anzac Legend calls for a re-definition of...

The First World War was the blooding of the young Australian nation. Five years after Australia's overwhelming response to Britain's declaration of war, nearly a fifth of the 330,000 Australians who served overseas lay dead. Charles Bean witnessed it all. Appointed official war correspondent with the Australian Imperial Force in 1914, he spent the entire war in Europe at the...

The untold story of courage, comradeship, and daring that captures the true spirit of the ANZACs in the air.From the freezing airfields of Scotland to the storm-lashed fjords of Norway, two squadrons of aviators from the other side of the world forged one of the most daring and effective maritime strike forces of the Second World War.In 1944, the Royal...

The First World War was only meant to last six months. When the Australians and New Zealanders arrived at the Western Front in 1916, the fighting had been going for a year and a half and there was no end in sight. The men took their place in a line of trenches that spread through Belgium and France from the...

In recent years, Anzac—an idea as much as an actual army corps—has become the dominant force within Australian history, overshadowing everything else. The commemoration of Anzac Day is bigger than ever, while Remembrance Day, VE Day, VP Day, and other military anniversaries grow in significance each year. Pilgrimages to Gallipoli, the Somme, and Kokoda are commonplace, and popular military history...

The essential companion, fully revised and updated, to the Australian battlefields on the Western Front, this new edition features: Fully updated tour itineraries, including a new dedicated Villers-Bretonneux tour Information about new memorials and museums opened since the book was first published, including the new cemetery and visitors centre at Fromelles Fully updated travel tips, accommodation listings and web resources...

Now fully revised for 2023, this is the essential and comprehensive guide to the Australian battlefields of the Western Front for anyone who wants to walk in the footsteps of the Anzacs. From one of Australia's leading battlefield historians, Mat McLachlan, Walking with the Anzacs covers the fourteen most important Anzac battlefields, including Passchendaele, Pozieres, and Bullecourt. With illustrated walking...

Russian Anzacs in Australian History by Elena Govor gives voice to a part of Australian cultural history that has remained silent until now. Extraordinarily, it was men born in the former Russian Empire who constituted the most numerous group in the First Australian Imperial Force, after those of Anglo or Celtic background—almost one thousand Russian Anzacs. This book explores the...

This book provides a comprehensive and compelling account of Australian military history before any soldier set foot on Gallipoli. It shows that this pre-1915 history has largely been forgotten. Indeed, the extent to which Australians thought about war and experienced war before ANZAC existed will surprise many readers. Starting with detailed accounts of both traditional indigenous warfare and frontier wars...

In 1915–18, ANZAC and Ottoman soldiers clashed on numerous battlefields, from Gallipoli to Jerusalem. This illustrated study investigates the two sides’ fighting men. The Gallipoli campaign of 1915–16 pitched the Australian and New Zealand volunteers known as the ANZACs into a series of desperate battles with the Ottoman soldiers defending their homeland. In August 1915, the bitter struggle for the...

Australian military history is a landscape of legends. Yet across the length and breadth of our military heritage, accuracy and objectivity are often shunted aside so that tales and myths bent on commemoration, veneration, and the idealisation of 'Australian' virtues can thrive. In Anzac's Dirty Dozen, a team of renowned historians resume the battle to expose a host of stubborn...

The Man the Anzacs Revered by Daniel Reynaud tells the story of William McKenzie, a once-famous figure among the Anzacs, celebrated for his dedicated work on Gallipoli and in France. McKenzie served as a Salvation Army Chaplain, a type of non-combatant officer who was usually regarded with little respect. Despite this, McKenzie's strong stance against booze, brothels, betting, and bad...

Discover the triumphs and tragedies of 24 heroic Australasians during WWI and WWII. Read the biographies of Anzac soldiers, as well as Air Force and Navy soldiers, medics, a spy, an ambulance driver, and a humanitarian, surviving in battles in England, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the Pacific. Anzac Heroes includes famous soldiers such as New Zealand’s double Victoria...

A newly updated, lavishly illustrated account of the ANZACs involvement in the Western Front—complete with walking and driving tours of 28 battlefields. With rare photographs and documents from the Australian War Memorial archive and extensive travel information, this is the most comprehensive guide to the battlefields of the Western Front on the market. Every chapter covers not just the battles,...

It was 1914 when Sister Alice Ross-King left Australia for the war. Nursing was her passion - all she had ever wanted to do. But Alice couldn't have imagined what she would see. She served four long years and was brave, humble and endlessly compassionate. Using extracts from Alice's actual diaries kept in the Australian War Memorial, this true story...

Who knew our soldiers had such a variety of animal companions in the two world wars? Apart from the ‘beasts of burden’ that one might expect, such as horses, mules, donkeys and camels, many battalions had mascots as well: kangaroos, monkeys, dogs, chickens, tortoises, cats... all of whom provided comfort, companionship and a welcome distraction from the war. In ANZAC...

The extraordinary story of Stan Savige - from Gallipoli marksman to WWII General and the founder of Legacy Stan Savige had been on Gallipoli for just two weeks, in the trenches firing at Turks less than 20 metres away. But Sniper's Ridge was a different proposition. Killing took on another dimension. In the flurry of trench warfare, a soldier would...

The previously untold story of an extraordinary man and a great war photographer. Cameras were banned at the Western Front when the Anzacs arrived in 1916, prompting correspondent Charles Bean to argue continually for Australia to have a dedicated photographer. He was eventually assigned an enigmatic polar explorer—George Hubert Wilkins. Within weeks of arriving at the front, Wilkins' exploits were...

A special 100th-anniversary edition. Long overshadowed by the national obsession with the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign, the breathtaking story of what really happened on the Western Front has finally been brought into the bright light of day. The ANZACs' Western Front campaign had a greater impact than Gallipoli in almost every respect: five times more soldiers served and were killed there,...

This is the largely unknown story of another Anzac force, which fought not at Gallipoli, but in Greece, during World War II. Desperately outnumbered and fighting in deeply inhospitable conditions, these Anzacs found themselves engaging in a long retreat through Greece, under constant air attack. Most of the Anzac Corps was evacuated by the end of April 1941, but many...

In 1916, one million men fought in the first battle of the Somme. Victory hinged on their ability to capture a small village called Pozieres. After five attempts to seize it, the British called in the Anzacs to complete this seemingly impossible task. At midnight on 23 July 1916, thousands of Australians stormed Pozieres. Forty-five days later they were relieved,...

Rattle your dags as fast as you can. You can't dunk me, I'm the ANZAC Biscuit Man. Award-winning author Peter Millett and acclaimed cartoonist Shaun Yeo reimagine this classic tale with a uniquely local flavour! One day, an old couple who love baking fresh biscuits discover a recipe for an ANZAC Biscuit Man. Later that morning they hear a cry...

An Anzac on the Western Front is a graphic account of one soldier's service in the First World War, based on a diary he maintained while on active service. It has been described by one senior officer as "the best soldier's story I have yet read in Australia." H.R. Williams enlisted in 1915, joining A Company, 56th Battalion AIF. With...

More than 20 years after the publication of the classic NZ story, The Bantam and the Soldier, Jennifer Beck and Robyn Belton have joined forces again to produce another heartwarming story from the First World War. This time it’s the true story of Otago’s Alexander Aitken and the violin that travelled with him on his wartime journey, bringing music and...

Rachel’s in the kitchen, warm and safe. Her father’s in the trenches, cold and afraid... When Rachel makes biscuits for her father, she adds the love, warmth, and hope that he needs. This is a touching story of a family torn apart by war but brought together through the powerful simplicity of ANZAC Biscuits.

Who knew our soldiers had such a variety of animal companions in the two world wars? Apart from the ‘beasts of burden’ that one might expect, such as horses, mules, donkeys and camels, many battalions had mascots as well: kangaroos, monkeys, dogs, chickens, tortoises, cats... all of whom provided comfort, companionship and a welcome distraction from the war. Discover these...

"He was courageous. He was ambitious. He was skilled. He was visionary. He could be ruthless. He was someone born of a new nation. But he was of a time now long past. And yet in the language of a later generation it could be said he had the 'right stuff'... Michael Molkentin captures Ross Smith brilliantly." - Andy Thomas,...

Introducing Puffin Little — beautifully designed, simple and engaging non-fiction books for young readers! Just because we're LITTLE doesn't mean we can't learn BIG facts. Have you ever wondered how the ANZACs got their name? If you're a Little Historian who wants to learn about the ANZACs, you're about to MARCH INTO THE PAST with Puffin Little!

"This year an Anzac orgy begins. A commemorative programme that would make the pharaohs envious. But commemorating soldiers is not the same as connecting with them ..." - James Brown, Anzac's Long Shadow. In Anzac's Long Shadow, James Brown, a former army officer and brilliant young thinker, describes how Australia is investing too much time, money, and emotion in the...

Gallipoli Diaries: The Anzacs' Own Story, Day by Day recounts the infamous Gallipoli campaign, a cornerstone battle for Australia, marking its first significant participation as a nation in war. This campaign, though a crushing defeat, is often celebrated as a victory due to the bravery displayed by the Australian soldiers. In this updated commemorative edition, published 100 years after the...