25th April – allied expeditionary force landed on Gallipoli peninsular to subdue the Turkish guns to enable the navy to sweep away the mines so its ships could proceed to Constantinople. Australian and New Zealand Army corps of 30’000, 2000 royal marines, 20’000 British 29th. Failure of the Gallipoli campaign.
65 – London informed Australia 18th June 1915 “every available man that can be recruited in Australia is wanted”.
66 – Chief of the Imperial General Staff General Sir Archibald Murray deplored the “extreme indiscipline and inordinate vanity” of the Australians in Egypt. An inherent trait of men who know themselves to be good fighters? The men of the 8th and 10th regiment’s Australian light horse who lost 75% casualties in 4 hopeless charges against Turkish positions at baby 700 on 7th august 1915 obviously possessed either discipline or an adequate substitute for it.
67 – By mid 1916, sir Douglas haig had 60 divisions in France. 5 were cavalry, 3 from UK, 2 from India, kept permanently in waiting. 47 infantry from UK, and 4 from Australia, 3 from Canada, and 1 from NZ, with an infantry brigade from south Africa. The Somme offensive first great military operation on the western front employing exclusively the resources of the British Empire. It failed because British resources were simply not adequate to the task of overcoming the Germans on any battlefield in France. Haig called off the battle – 204’000 non British allied troops died.
68 new divisions came forward to replace the old, even the survivors ready to fight again. Empire would not be necessarily endangered by casualties or even retrievable military defeat. Haig decided as early as august 1916 that Australian troops were ignorant and their commanding officer legge was “not much good”. (600’000 men good?) “Desertion was assuming alarming proportions among the Australian troops” – to war office allow him to shoot a few. Remarkable that the rate of desertion was 4 times as high in the Australian divisions as in any other units of the British Empire. 9/1000 were imprisonment compared to 1/1000 brit, 2/1000 Canadian, NZ, SA. Australians had however lost over 20’000 at the Somme more than 3 times more than the Canadians. Australian corps had lost 9000 men per division, 8 UK, 7000 Canadians.
69 British 346 executions – 55 brits, 291 on “imperial” personnel.
Australia refused to introduce conscription, already adopted by the British and New Zealand. Secretary of state for India Austen chamberlain pressed the claim that India was entitled to “greater recognition than that she had had – she had bled herself dry at the beginning of the war to supply the deficiencies of the empire in troops, arms, and guns.
70 – Canadians assaulting vimy ridge effort was one of the most impressive military operations of the war. For a loss of over 22’000 casualties they drove a superior number of German divisions back 6 miles. Australians however to break the Hindenburg line ended in disaster – broke it under conditions in the western front many soldiers would have deemed impossible, only to be broken by a German counter attack.
73- Australian people again rejected conscription 1917. Canadians introduced compulsory military service on 3rd Aug 1916, not applied till October due to riots in Montreal, and further riots in Quebec in March and April 1918. No effect on the morale and discipline of the Canadian troops on the western front. Canadian troops acquired at the outset the reputation for being the most formidable troops in France.
74 – Liddell Hart judged Australian commander sir john monash to have “probably the greatest capacity for command in modern war”. General Von kuhl that the Canadians were the best troops the British ever had.
75 – why? Best physical specimens for fighting troops of countries that had high standards of living, outdoor work in challenging climates. Canadians best fed and best educated, climate fitted to separate strong from the weak.
77-australian corps falling apart through physical exhaustion. Mutinied briefly on 14th sept when denied a nights rest after a weeks continuous fighting.
79 – Highly effective fighting men.
81
The huge Indian army could effectively be employed only against opponents as ill-equipped and unwieldy as itself. The other colonies could only afford token contributions. Conceivable that the huge mass of colonial empire might be regarded as a positive military liability. The Canadians had provided supplies of munitions far beyond the requirements of their own armed forces: Canadian exports to the UK increased forty fold during the inter war years. Canadian factories produced 3000 aircraft and 30% of ammunition used on western front in 1917 and 18.
