LibGuides: History: World War I

Video: Gallipoli

Mark Lee And Mel Gibson deliver electrifying performances in Peter Weir's compelling story of friendship and adventure between two Australian soldiers in 1915. They cross continents and great oceans, climb the pyramids and walk through the ancient sands of Egypt to join their regiment at the fateful battle of Gallipoli. The echoes of history blend with the friends' compelling destiny as they become part of a legendary World War I confrontation between Australia and the German-allied Turks.

Production Year: 1981

Duration: 1:50:00

Video: An Accidental Soldier

On the Western Front in WWI, an Australian on the run finds unexpected love with a grieving farm wife who tries to protect him from the war that shattered both their lives.

Production Year: 2013

Duration: 1:31:41

Video: In Their Footsteps: Private George Hannaford - Western Front, WWI

Join Kristy on her first major overseas trip as she brings the missing pieces of her family's history back to life and tries to understand what it meant to serve amid the mud and mayhem of the Western Front; as she follows in her Great Grandfather Private George Hannaford's footsteps. Serving as a runner on the Western Front during World War I required courage, commitment and, if you were to survive, a significant amount of luck. After all, 60,000 Australians were left behind on the Great War's battlefields. George Hannaford certainly had courage - he was awarded the prestigious Military Medal for his extraordinary efforts running messages between the front line and commanders at the 1917 Battle of Polygon Wood.

Production Year: 2011

Duration: 43:01

Video: In Their Footsteps: Ronald and Ernest Cavalier - Gallipoli, WWI

Gallipoli is Australia's most commemorated battleground, etched deeply into the national psyche. It is also woven deeply into Josh Cavalier's family story; both his grandfather and great grandfather fought among those unforgiving beaches and cliffs. Now, Josh, a 30-year-old IT technician from Shepparton, VIC, will fully comprehend what they endured and why it has left such an imprint on his family and his country.

Production Year: 2011

Duration: 44:49

Video: ANZAC - The Lost Stories

60 Minutes reveals the untold stories that will change the lives of four Australian families:

The boy soldier, Jack Harris - our youngest soldier to fight and die at Gallipoli.
The kindergarten mates who stumbled across each other on the battlefield, one saving the other's life. Their story was secret until a life changing meeting by their descendants nearly 100 years later.
The secret diaries of an Australian nurse, and how their chance discovery leads her grandson to meet his family for the first time a century on.
The Aussie surgeon who incredibly fought for both the Turks - and the Australians.

These are the unknown stories of Australian sacrifice, service and mateship - the amazing lost stories of ANZAC.

Production Year: 2015

Duration: 56:11

Fiction books in the LRC

1915 by Sally Murphy
ISBN: 9781743622483
When Australia throws its support behind Britain in its fight against Germany, young teacher Stan Moore is one of the first to join up, swapping the classroom for adventure in Europe. But the 11th Battalion is sent with the newly formed Anzac Corp to Gallipoli where Stan is confronted by the hard lessons of war.
1917 by Kelly Gardiner
ISBN: 9781743622506
The German planes patrolled in hunting squads. They flew fast fighting craft streaking across the sky in tight formation. The greatest of them was the Red Baron, the deadliest ace on the Front. He'd shot down twenty-one of our planes in a single month. And now we were right in his firing line. The war in France rages in the skies, and support for the war in Australia turns cold. Alex flies high above the trenches of the Western Front, while a world away his sister Maggie finds herself in the midst of political upheaval. Somehow, both must find the courage to fight on.
War Horse by Michael Morpurgo
ISBN: 9781405226660
Joey the horse recalls his experiences growing up on an English farm, his struggle for survival as a cavalry horse during World War I, and his reunion with his beloved master.
The invisible war: A tale on two scales by Ailsa Wild
ISBN: 9780992587253
An illustrated science-history graphic novel exploring parallel experiences during WWI. The story takes place on two different physical scales - the macro-scale, from the point of view of a Victorian nurse supporting troops in the trenches of the Western Front - and simultaneously on the micro-level, from the point of view of the gut microbes which fight to keep her body alive when she contracts dysentery. This fictional story is based on accurate scientific and historical facts, in consultation with academic experts from Australia, France, UK and the USA.
Eleven Eleven by Paul Dowswell
ISBN: 9781408826232
Set during the final 24 hours before the armistice at 11 a.m. on 11th November 1918, the story follows a German storm trooper, an American airman and a British Tommy. Their destinies converge during the death throes of the first ever conflict to spread across the globe. War becomes incredibly personal as nationality and geography cease to matter to each of these teenagers on the Western Front, and friendship becomes the defining aspect of their encounter. But who will live and who will die before the end of the day?
My mother's eyes: The story of a boy soldier by Mark Wilson
ISBN: 9780734410894
After the First World War breaks out, William lies about his age and joins the army a few weeks before his sixteenth birthday. He's soon sent to the battlefields of France and his letters home reveal how what he thought would be a great adventure turned into a tragedy.

Biographies and non-fiction in the LRC

The Anzac Girls by Peter Rees
ISBN: 9781760293291
By the end of the World War I, 45 Australian and New Zealand nurses had died on overseas service, and more than 200 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. Using diaries and letters, Peter Rees takes us into the hospital camps and the wards, and the tent surgeries on the edge of some of the most horrific battlefronts of human history. But he also allows the friendships and loves of these courageous and compassionate women to shine through and enrich our experience.
Soldier Boy by Anthony Hill
ISBN: 9780141003306
On 28 June 1915, young James Martin sailed from Melbourne aboard the troopship Berrima - bound, ultimately, for Gallipoli. He was just fourteen years old. Soldier Boy is Jim's extraordinary true story, the story of a young and enthusiastic school boy who became Australia's youngest known Anzac. Four months after leaving his home country he would be numbered among the dead, just one of so many soldier boys who travelled halfway around the world for the chance of adventure.
Crack Hardy by Stephen Dando-Collins
ISBN: 9781742755731
This is the true story of three Australian soldiers, the Searle brothers. One brother was killed at Gallipoli, another on the Western Front. One came home a decorated hero. The Searle boys had to crack hardy, as they fought in one grueling campaign after another - from the first wave of the Gallipoli landings to Lone Pine, from Ypres to Messines and Hill 60 in Flanders, to bloody Somme battles at Mouquet Farm, Bullecourt, and Hamel, with their brothers and mates falling all around them.
Voices from the Trenches by Noel Carthew
ISBN: 9781864367447
As 1914 drew to a close, little did anyone in Australia know that four years of warfare lay ahead. Mothers could not forsee the anguish they would suffer, nor wives and sweethearts their heartbreak. Young men had little idea of the grim reality of war as they marched off to do their patriotic duty for King and country.
Letters Home by Doug Anthony (Editor); Margot Anthony (Editor)
ISBN: 9781742371375
An extraordinary insight into the war experiences of a very young man, and the relationship between a son and his mother during the horrors of Gallipoli and its aftermath. Sapper Hubert Anthony was a very young man of very humble beginnings when he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in October 1914 as a 17 year old.
Somme Mud by Edward P. Lynch; Will Davies (Editor)
ISBN: 9781741664522
Private Edward Lynch was just 18 when he enlisted in the army. When he returned to Australia almost three years later, he wrote Somme Mud, a vivid account of the horrific realities of trench warfare from an ordinary infantryman's point of view: the traumatized soldiers and ravaged landscapes, the curious mixture of hatred, empathy, and admiration for the equally naive enemy soldiers, the disillusionment and the camaraderie.