Letters and Stories
Read the stories of the brave men and women who went to war
and their connection to the region.
The Middle East
‘Throughout history, mounted troops have been known as the elite men of arms and the Australian Light Horse is a part of that legendary tradition.’
Billy Sing
Two months after war had been declared, a recruitment officer overlooked the Chinese ancestry of Clermont’s Billy Sing, probably because he was a prize-winning crack shot.
The British at Cape Helles
French troops engaged in a diversionary landing on the Asiatic side of the Dardanelles.
The Turkish Offensive
Turkish May offensive: The Man with the Donkey dies and another legend is born.
Disastrous August offensive
Locked into entrenched stalemates with occasional costly but inconsequential forays, the Gallipoli campaign.
The first week
Unable to achieve their objectives on the heights of Chunuk Bair and Achi Baba, the Anzacs and the British dug in. Gallipoli.
It is not necessary to leave now. Les Australians will hold them.
Fleeing in the face of the German offensive of 1918.
A bleak winter looms
After the heat, hundreds freeze to death in trenches. ‘It has been snowing all day and my hands are like blocks of wood
Angels of mercy and brave bearers
More than 3,000 Australian civilian nurses volunteered for active service during the First World War.
A few minutes creeping
The lads from Wide Bay District in the 15th Battalion made a brilliant bayonet charge on May 9.
The first night at Anzac
Less than 24 hours after the landing, the Gallipoli expedition leader Sir Ian Hamilton was sound asleep in his cabin aboard the warship Queen Elizabeth.