Letters and Stories

Read the stories of the brave men and women who went to war

and their connection to the region.

No solid mass of bullets

About 200 ships, one of the largest armadas in history, gathered at Mudros Bay.

Verdun

The battle of Verdun was one of the longest costly battles in World War I.

Suvla Bay

Despite facing only light opposition, the landing at Suvla as part of the August offensive was hopelessly mismanaged.

Wonderful endurance and self-sacrifice

Before the war, I never dreamt that just average men could do so well.

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.

The Nek

Below to the right lay the Australian trenches at The Nek, the narrow strip of flat land about the size of a football field.

At the fork

‘Men passing the fork in Monash Valley used to glance at the place (as one of them said) as a man looks at a haunted house.’ – Charles Bean.

Pozieres : July - August 1916

‘… we realised at last that we were at war …’

The Turkish Offensive

Turkish May offensive: The Man with the Donkey dies and another legend is born.

Letter tells of daily blunders

‘I hope whoever started this war will be punished for it. Australia has lost a lot of her best men.’

Periscopes and Rifles

The periscope rifle devised by Lance Corporal William Beech after five of his comrades were killed in the Turkish May offensive.

Indigenous Attitudes

‘Too Dark for the Light Horse’

These continual frontal attacks

Two brigades of Australians and New Zealanders were taken from Anzac Cove to Helles for the Second Battle.

On the loss of your son James

Dernancourt, a village on the River Ancre in France, was the scene of desperate fighting during the German offensive.

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.

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