World War l
World War 1 (also known as the Great War) started on the 28th of Jan 1914 and ended on the 11th of Nov 1918. 70 million fought and 9 million died. The war was fought in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Pacific Islands, China and off the coast of North and South America. The allies won the the war which were France, Brittain, Russia ,USA, Italy, Japan, Belgium, Serbia, Romania, Greece, Portugal and Montenegro which was not all of them.
The Anzac's
Australians offered 20,000 men to fight in the war and started recruiting just days after it was declared. Most boys that wanted to be in the war got in, even if they were too young they just lied about their age on the forms. Just after a month marches were held to try and encourage people to fight in the war. In late October the army was formed and Australia and New Zealand joined together to form the 'Australian and New Zealand Army Corps'- The Anzacs. The Anzacs were on their way to Europe via the Suez Canal but they stopped in Egypt where they stayed near the pyramids ready to go to war agaisnt Turkey who sided with Germany. When the Anzacs got to Gallipoli they joined the British and French. When all the soliders were waiting in the trenches the British told them to go ahead with the war so the first lot of soliders jumped out and started to run. Most or all of them got shot and died right there not even metres away from their trenches. Even though the British got told how many soliders got killed they insisted to go ahead with it so again soliders jumped out of the trenches and the same horrible fate happened to them. This happened more and more until most soliders where dead.
On December 1915 the soliders who were left retreated, unknown to the Turks who continued bombing their empty trenches. The British had contributed 468,000 men and 33.512 where killed, 7,636 missing and 78,000 wounded. The Anzacs lost 8,000 men in Gallipoli and a further 18,000 were wounded. In that time Australia had a population of 5 million, 59,000 of those Australians died and 330,000 were wounded. 6.6% of Australians served and 17.87% of those died, which means 1.18% of all Australians died in World War 1. If you collected 100 people from 1918 one of them would have died in the war.
On December 1915 the soliders who were left retreated, unknown to the Turks who continued bombing their empty trenches. The British had contributed 468,000 men and 33.512 where killed, 7,636 missing and 78,000 wounded. The Anzacs lost 8,000 men in Gallipoli and a further 18,000 were wounded. In that time Australia had a population of 5 million, 59,000 of those Australians died and 330,000 were wounded. 6.6% of Australians served and 17.87% of those died, which means 1.18% of all Australians died in World War 1. If you collected 100 people from 1918 one of them would have died in the war.
How did it start?
On the 28th of June 1914 Archduke Franz Ferinland of Austria and his wife, Sophie Duchess were shot dead in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, one of a group of six assassins. The assassins tried earlier by bombing but it didn't kill them but it did hurt and kill others standing by. The bombing and murders of the 28th is still very controversial because it was the cause of World War 1 which could have been avoided.
England. Why Australia?
When World War 1 was declared Australians were very enthusiastic even before England declared war on Germany on the 4th of August 1914. Australia said that they would support the English Empire along with the other Commenwealth nations and almost immediately started preparing an army to send to participate in the war called the Australian Imperical Force (AIF). Australia felt like they needed to help England because only a little while before the war started Australia was not a separate country to England. We followed their law and their Queen was ours. We were a new country and in our minds we thought we should help the country that used to be part of us.
One man- Fredrick Allen Wilkinson
I researched one man that fought from World War 1. His name was Fredrick Allen Wilkinson and he was 23 years old when he joined. He was born in a place in South Australia called Bordertown. He was not married and he worked as a labourer. Frederick joined the War and filled out his registration form on the 26th of April 1916. Fredrick did not die at War but he did have to leave because he got extremely injured and could not fight anymore. Fredrick was riding on his horse but the horse got shot, the horse and Frederick were both unable to get up but the horse's leg started kicking from some sort of spasm. The horse's legs were against Frederick's back so when the horse kicked his spine broke. Because on his forms they could not say what happened without seeming like it was informal they said he was hit by a bomb. That was too far from the truth so they changed it so it said he was shot which was much closer to what happened because it was his horse that was shot. From Frederick's injury he could not stand or walk for months, all he did was lie in his bed and carve. By the time his spine was normal again he had carved a cupboard which is currently in my family's spare room.
This is the first page of his forms which is at http://mappingouranzacs.naa.gov.au/
This is the first page of his forms which is at http://mappingouranzacs.naa.gov.au/