A GRUNTS VIEW

A Diggers viewpoint of being at the sharp end. Gained while serving with 3 Platoon - 'A' Company -7 Battalion (Infantry) Royal Australian Regiment, as a Rifleman in Australia's then longest ever war - in South Vietnam.  

Chapter 1 - Page 7 - Updated MARCH 2011 - Next Page:- Memorial Page 8/35

This Site Salutes The ANZACS

THOSE WHO HAVE GONE BEFORE. THOSE DIGGERS WHO CREATED THE LEGEND.

THOSE DIGGERS WHO FOUGHT ON MANY A BATTLE FIELD IN THE SERVICE OF AUSTRALIA.

AUSTRALIAN COMMONWEALTH MILITARY FORCE.

THIS IS AN ORIGINAL WORLD WAR ONE BADGE. Also called the "Rising Sun".

SUBJECTS ON THIS PAGE

ANZAC Name & Initials
ANZAC LEGEND
Diggers
For the Fallen - The ODE
Two Minutes Silence
Poppies
The ANZAC for this page
List of ANZACs for the Site

 HOMEPAGE

THE RISING SUN

The Rising Sun, was worn on the turned up side of the Slouch Hat. A smaller Rising Sun badge was worn on each side of the neck, on the collars of the battledress jacket, in Worlf War One.

"Australia" in metal words was also worn on the top of the sholders, pined on each epaulet. Also the buttons of the battle dress were closed with buttons that had a map of Australia imprinted in the metal.

ANZAC LEGEND

Something I have wanted to do for a long time in regards our ANZACS is now on this page. The concept of this page and on each page of the site, is to detail the incredible acts of soldering that individual Diggers carried out in support of their fellow soldiers or Battalion. Some to die, some to be recognised with the award of a Victoria Cross.

I hope to encourage those who read my Homepage to go and find out more of the real story of those who built the ANZAC Legend. Many of these actions will be about Diggers in WW1 and to save a little time I am using information from a great book that tells of these incredible soldiers. If you have any interest in the ANZACS this book is not to be missed:-

Dr John Laffin: Guide to Australian Battlefields of the Western Front, 1916-1918.

I have been given permission to use extracts from the book they are noted with:-

Copyright symbol © and his initials DJL.

ANZAC NAME & INITIALS  

The ANZAC name came from a simple process of the Army wanting to have a short word that would represent the Armies sent to Gallipoli. This took place during the planning for the attack on Galliopli.

The General looked at the forces under his command and took the initials of these words; 'Australian and New Zealand Army Corps'to create the imortal word A.N.Z.A.C.  

When it was used it was used with the the intials forming the word 'ANZAC'. Many items on the Gallipoli peninsular were named using the ANZAC word. For example the Soldiers became known as 'ANZACS' or ANZAC Soldiers. Those who landed on 15th April 1915 at Gallipoli regarded themselves as the "Orginals". The place they landed became known as 'ANZAC COVE. And so on, until the very word ANZAC became an every day part of the Australian language in World War One.

The ANZACS had all that infront of them early in 1915 when they set off from Australia believing they would soon see action in France against the Germans. In fact they were sent to Egypt to train and then on to Galliopli to fight against the Turks.

The Australian solders with their New Zealand counterparts landed on the shores of Galliopli on the morning of the 25th April 1915. A date now held sacred in Australia. It became known as ANZAC DAY.

This day and date is used every year to commemorate and honour all those who have served this Nation in Uniform.  In particular those who went to War, and those who Fall on foreign lands.

The Day that the landing was commemorated first in London in 1916. More than 2000 Australian and New Zealand "Diggers" marched through the streets of London on 25th April 1916, one paper called them "The Knights of Galliopli".  

DIGGERS

  The Australian soldiers are also called "DIGGERS".

While they did refer to themselves as ANZACs at Galliopli in 1915, it was not until they started their service in France did the Soldiers begin to also identify themselves as "DIGGERS". This name has stuck through out the 20th Century and all Soldiers have been known as Diggers.

The wars and conflicts that Australian Diggers have served include:- World War One, World War Two, Korea, Malaya, Borneo, Vietnam, Cambodia, Ranwanda, Somalia, East Timor, Gulf War, Afghanistan, Iraq.

FOR THE FALLEN:  THE ODE

The ODE comes from the poem by Laurence Binyon called For The Fallen, it was first published  in the Times newspaper in London in 1914.

They went with songs to the Battle They were young, Straight of limb, True of eyes,

steady and aglow, they were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,

They fell with their faces to the foe

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

WE WILL REMEMBER - LEST WE FORGET

TWO MINUTES SILENCE

SILENCE for two minutes is included in the ANZAC ceremony as a sign of respect. Observation of the silence occurred at 9am in Adelaide 1916, on the first Anniversary of the landing.

Edward Honey, an Australian living in London during World War One, working as a journalist is credited with creating the idea. He sent a letter to the Evening News of London, which was published on May 8th 1919, appealing for five minutes of silence to be observed while celebrating the first anniversary of the Armistice.

The 11 hour, of the 11 day of the 11 month!

POPPIES

An early use of Poppies by Australians was in 1940 in North Africa, in Palestine. At the Dawn Service each soldier put a poppy on the stone of Remembrance. The story of the Poppy really started during the second battle of Ypres in 1915.

Colonel John McRae was in charge of a first aid post and during a lull in the battle wrote a poem which was published under the Title "IN FLANDERS FIELDS".

Later the Poppy became the inspiration of Poppy Day, but John McRae a professor of Medicine at McGill University in Canada before the war, did not live to see it. Badly wounded in 1918, he died in a military hospital near Boulogne. He is buried in the Canadian War Cemetery at Wimereux. On each Remembrance day the local branch of the Royal British Legion lays a wreath of Poppies on his grave.

When the AIF first formed in Victoria the basic camps needed water and a local contractor called 'Furphy' and sons. As the drivers moved from camp to camp they picked up all the gosup and rumors and of course the stories became so fanciful that all rumors became known as 'Furphies', until the real truth was known. Even today 'furphy is used in Australian Armed Forces.

THIS SITE SALUTES THE ANZACS

THIS SITE SALUTES THE ANZACS THOSE WHO HAVE GONE BEFORE. THOSE DIGGERS WHO FOUGHT ON MANY A BATTLE FIELD IN THE SERVICE OF AUSTRALIA.

THIS PAGE SALUTES THE ANZAC.

LANCE CORPORAL BERNARD GORDON VC

AWARDED the VICTORIA CROSS.

41st BATTALION AIF. During a series of attacks on the German line orchestrated by General Monash in August 1918, the 41st Battalion part of the AIF was involved in fighting in difficult country along the banks of the Somme as the Australians headed for Curlu.

Enemy posts in Fargny Wood were very troublesome until Lance Corporal Bernard Gordon made several forays against them. Single-handedly he captured two officers and sixty one other enemy, together with six machine guns. Curlu was taken the following day after stiff fighting and Gordon was awarded the VC. 27 August 1918 at the Somme, France. © DJL

List of ANZACS listed on this site

LT RUPERT MOON VC - Page 2

CPL GEORGE HOWELL VC Page 3

PTE WILLIAM CURRY VC - Page 4

PTE ROBERT MACTIER VC Page 5

LCPL BERNARD GORDON VC - Page 6

 SGT PERCY STATTON VC Page 7

LT LAWRENCE McCARTHY Page 8

CPL FRANCIS SHAW DCM Page 9

Page 10