Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber's Note:

Obvious printer errors have been corrected. Hyphenation has been rationalised.

The flagship of the Expeditionary Forces, here identified as the Orverto, is elsewhere identified as the Orvieto.

Small capitals have been replaced by full capitals. Italics are indicated by _underscores_.

[_Frontispiece_: THE BATTERED "EMDEN" AFTER GOING ASHORE ON COCOS ISLAND.]

AUSTRALASIA TRIUMPHANT!

WITH THE AUSTRALIANS AND NEW ZEALANDERS IN THE GREAT WAR ON LAND AND SEA

BY A. ST. JOHN ADCOCK

WITH 36 ILLUSTRATIONS

Strong Mother of a Lion line, Be proud of these strong sons of thine.

TENNYSON

LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & CO., LTD., 4 STATIONERS' HALL CT., E.C.

_Copyright_ _First published, January 1916_

AUTHOR'S NOTE

It is too soon to attempt the telling at large and in detail of all that has been done by Australia and New Zealand in the Great War. There is much that has, for military reasons, not yet been revealed; and what has been told has come to us from various sources in more or less fragmentary fashion, so that one must read several accounts of the same event in order to get anything of an adequate idea of it. All I have done here is to collate such documents as are available and gather together a connected narrative, not only of the actual campaigning, but of the spiritual and mental experiences the Australasians have passed through since August 1914, the way they have faced this crisis in their history, and the effect the war has had on their national life. I have drawn on official documents, on the dispatches of Sir Ian Hamilton, the reports of the various correspondents of our English and the chief Australian and New Zealand newspapers, on the speeches of public men and letters of private citizens, and on a few conversations I have had with some of the wounded Anzacs whom I have met in these latter days about London. In all which I have been little more than an enthusiastic and, I hope, faithful compiler, endeavouring to set down as vividly as I could the impressions I formed from my reading and hearing of these things, and trying occasionally to guess, according to my lights, at the spirit and inner significance of this wonderful uprising of our Australasian kinsfolk–at the ideal for which they are fighting with such glorious heroism and for which so many of them have ungrudgingly laid down their lives. Some, who have had no hand in the fighting, have very confidently criticised both the Commander-in-Chief who has led these gallant soldiers in the sternest of their battles and the Government that has been responsible for the campaigns they have undertaken; but I have not ventured to compete with such critics, chiefly because I accept the judgment of the sturdy New Zealander who said to me, discussing the nagging diatribes of a certain newspaper: "It's all fluff. If these fellows knew a little more they wouldn't have so much to say."

A. ST. J. A.

CONTENTS

PAGE

BRITONS ALL 1

CHAPTER

I. MAKING READY 3

II. PATROLLING THE PACIFIC 15

III. THE TRIUMPH OF THE "SYDNEY" 25

IV. EN ROUTE FOR EGYPT 33

V. CHRISTMAS AT THE PYRAMIDS 43

VI. THE FIGHT FOR THE SUEZ CANAL 51

VII. THE EPIC OF THE DARDANELLES BEGINS 59

VIII. THE DARE-DEVIL ANZACS 73

IX. THE AUSTRALASIAN IDEAL 91

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

THE BATTERED "EMDEN" AFTER GOING ASHORE ON COCOS ISLAND _Frontispiece_

_Facing page_

FRENCH MEN-OF-WAR AND AUSTRALIAN TROOPSHIPS IN SUEZ CANAL, PORT SAID 4

MEN OF THE AUSTRALIAN LIGHT HORSE IN CAIRO 5

NEAR THE PYRAMIDS: THE CAMP OF THE AUSTRALIANS, AGAINST WHOM NO
GERMAN-TRAINED TURKISH ARMY CAN BE SUCCESSFUL 12

"STRANGERS IN THE LAND OF EGYPT" 13

FOOTBALL IN CAMP AT ABASSIA 13

WITH OUR COLONIAL TROOPS IN EGYPT 16

AUSTRALIAN ARMY FIELD-KITCHENS MARCHING PAST AT A REVIEW OF TROOPS
IN EGYPT 17

A SMALL PORTION OF THE ARMY IN EGYPT 20

THE AUSTRALIAN TROOPS IN EGYPT 21

FROM DIFFERENT POINTS OF THE COMPASS 21

THE HORSE LINES AT ABASSIA, EGYPT 28

THE AUSTRALIAN REMOUNTS DEPOT AT ABASSIA 28

OUR TROOPS IN EGYPT 29

WITH OUR TROOPS IN EGYPT 32

AN AUSTRALIAN SCOUT IN THE EGYPTIAN DESERT 33

CAMP OF THE AUSTRALIANS AT MUDROS BAY 36

SULTAN OF EGYPT VISITS THE DARDANELLES WOUNDED 36

SECOND DIVISION LEAVING MUDROS BAY WITH AUSTRALIANS
ON THE FORE DECK 37

THE LAST SERVICE ON BOARD THE "LONDON" FOR THE AUSTRALIANS 44

THE DARDANELLES–AUSTRALIANS AND BLUEJACKETS ON A TRANSPORT 45

AN AUSTRALIAN LANDING PARTY FOR THE DARDANELLES 52

AUSTRALIANS PREPARING TO DISEMBARK AT THE DARDANELLES 53

AUSTRALIANS LANDING NORTH OF GABA TEPE 53

THE DARDANELLES–AUSTRALIAN TROOPS AT THE LANDING 60

AUSTRALIA'S SPLENDID CORPS OF MOUNTED AMBULANCE MEN (1) 60

THE BRAVE AUSTRALIANS 61

AUSTRALIA'S MOUNTED AMBULANCE MEN (2) 61

THE DARDANELLES–SOLDIERS TAKING THEIR HORSES FOR A BATHE 68

GENERAL BIRDWOOD, IN COMMAND OF THE AUSTRALIANS
AT THE DARDANELLES 69

AUSTRALIA'S MOUNTED AMBULANCE MEN (3) 76

THE DARDANELLES–MEN BATHING AFTER RETURNING FROM AN ATTACK 77

HEROES FROM THE DARDANELLES 84

HEROES OF THE DARDANELLES 85

THE DARDANELLES OPERATIONS 92

THE DARDANELLES–AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND TROOPS IN A
RAVINE 93

_Britons All!_

_In times of peace, when every wind blows fortune to them still, John Bull and all his kindred disagree, as families will: With wrath and hate in wild debate they shout each other down, And split up into parties for the People and the Crown; But if a foe would part them, he is never long in doubt– It's "Rule Britannia!" only, and they join to throw him out._

_When the struggle's once begun
And the flag aloft is run,
We're Britons then and brothers all until that fight is won._

_Beyond the Cheviots Sandy guards the Scotsman's separate fame: He won't be called an Englishman–he scorns the very name! And Pat across the Channel, in an island of his own, And Taffy, who's a Welshman, would as nations walk alone; Yet all the four shall stand four-square–one party and no more, And that a family party, when a foe is at the door._

_Scot and Irish there is none,
Welsh and English count as one,
We're Britons then and brothers all when once the fight's begun._

_Let Britain in an hour of need her rallying bugle sound– Her sons 'neath Australasian skies, on far Canadian ground, By India's streams or Africa's, shall hear, where'er they roam, And, drawn from all the ends of earth with kindling thoughts of home, Shall arm and answer to the call and come where danger lours To stand beside us in the name that's theirs as well as ours._

_Side by side shall sire and son
Hold the Empire they have won:
We're brothers now and Britons all until the fight is done._

1 MAKING READY

AUSTRALASIA TRIUMPHANT! WITH THE AUSTRALIANS AND NEW ZEALANDERS IN THE GREAT WAR