The impact of War is visible in every community across this nation, memorials erected to commemorate the Fallen, they continue to be the focus of our nation on ANZAC DAY, reminding us, the privileged descendants of a generation who volunteered for the adventure of a lifetime, see the world and come home and spin yarns around campfires.
Reality though was very different, the new war was fought with chemical weapons, air planes, and new machine guns that could decimate a Battalion in a matter of seconds. It was a war that was fought with artillery and bombs that could obliterate a complete town and any who lived within it. It was a warfare that our little nation had not thought possible, and it was even fought on our doorsteps, a war had its core reason the inequities of wealth in nations, colonialism and the Industrial Revolution and the broadening of democracy, free speech, and education.
Our Nation and the also our neighbour across the Ditch, were only new and small populations, and our casualty rate had a far greater impact on this nation than any other. The loss of these volunteer men and women, would leave communities back home with fewer people to do the jobs, families without uncles, or aunts, fathers or mothers, and children who would hear the stories of these brave and very loved and missed essential elements to family.
Our family have two brave young brothers, one not quite of legal age to join and the other just there, they joined the Light Brigade and fought in Palestine and then the Western Front., Michael Percy Dwyer never returned home, and his brother Thomas Dwyer , returned, and even though awarded the Military Medal, was a broken and damaged young man, like every other soldier or nurse. They had been through the gates of hell and watched the Industrialised warfare slaughter and destroy everything in its path, it left they debilitated by injuries (the visible and not visible), damaged lungs from Mustard Gas, the nightmares that terrorised their sleep each and every night from from their return until their last breathe, and lack of knowledge on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which is what they returned with and how this manifested itself in each soldier.
Young, excited adventurers left our shore and what returned was a dark and wounded shadow. So the yarn spinning that was left those who returned, were not the stories of fabulous cities, spectacular scenery or of happy friendly people, no instead it was silence, because some could find no words to describe what they witnessed, for others a mere mention of a battle would reduce them to tears, for some the locked the memories down so deep in their minds that it hardened them emotionally, and eventually it would seem out. Many just stepped back into old jobs, and worked their hearts out, till the end of their days, raising families and leaving the nation richer for their efforts,
Griffith is a prime example of those returning men and women and Solider Settlement Blocks, gifts from a thankful nation and Government, a small parcel of land that would become our home in the future.
But there is also shadow that this involvement in the War and at the level we were involved. with Australians being involved in all theatres of war, it meant our soldiers were exposed to more deaths and injuries per capita than the armies of Britain, Germany, France, Canada or the United States. For a small nation, when 4 out of every five soldiers is a casualty that becomes tragedy,
The loss in each community was significant, it impacted on family farms, local stores, factories, govt agencies. The ongoing cost of the war would increase over time, the medical care of the casualties of war, those with visible problems, and over time the unfurling mental health issue of breakdowns, violence and a myriad of other systems that slowed or stopped these giants who walked among us.
Some figures that give an indication of why our little nation paid a higher price for its participation.
David Noonan 'Those We Forget ": Recounting Australia Casualties of the First World War, MUP, 2014) identified that because Australians were involved in nearly every theatre of war, they were exposed to more than every other nation, this resulted in more deaths, more hospitalisations for wounding and more hospitalisations for illness and injury. While we may have won the War, this little emerging nation lost some of its brightest, and over time the cost supporting this brave and generous group of men and women who went off to battle, would grow exponentially the cost of which was met by a very small population.
Noonan believing that the figures used by Charles Bean, the official war historian, did not reflect a true impact the war had on it's returning army and nation, he also believed by examining the medical records of the returned soldiers over a longer period of time we would learn the full impact of the War on the Soldiers, their Families and the cost this had on a developing nation, so that we today can fully appreciate the significant impact that the Great War had on our returning soldiers, but how that continued to impact far longer than anywhere else in the world. Our young soldiers went off seeking adventure, but returned with a far sadder taleWe owe much to that generation of Men and Women, those that went to war, and those that stayed home. The impact of that war has been multi - generational, not only affecting the generation that experienced it first hand, but also those that followed, the hidden costs of medical support, and the impact the loss of life, the debilitating illness that affected those who returned and how that changed forever many communities .The gap, created by that Soldiers death was not filled, but was patched over by those who remained and picked up the extra workload, no time to grieve and no grave to site beside, diner tables with places set for family members who lie beautifully tended war graves across Western Europe, Palestine, and Gallipoli.
- The population of Australia in 1914 was 4,948,990
- Military Enlistment of those who were prepared to serve overseas, 376,000
- Men of the AIF served in a theatre of war. - 308,000
- Official Records have 60,000 as being killed
Noonan applied the Internationally recognised standard to hospitalisations (including Illness and Injury) the actual were five times greater than officially acknowledged:
- Australia only records wounding admissions and omits illness and injury. - 155,000
- Hospital Admissions 750,000 admissions for approximately the 308,000 men of the AIF who served in a theatre of war.
- Hospitalisations due to wounding were higher than that officially acknowledged too, climbing to 208,000 admissions (+/- 500), 30 per cent of which were admissions due to shell shock.
- Of those Australian soldiers who survived, more than half of them were discharged medically unfit.
- Of those who were not discharged medically unfit, 60 per cent of them applied for pension help in the post war period; so four out of five servicemen survivors were damaged or disabled in some way.
- Of those who did not survive, it is now estimated that 62,300 died (+/- 400), approximately 550 by their own hand, mainly in 1919 and 1920, and a further 8000 men would die a premature death due to war-related causes in the post war years.
The grief that settled its black veil across the nation is still very real and present today as names of Fallen are read each ANZAC Day at every memorial, each name you hear belongs to a family, and a community, tears roll down cheeks, because these people are very real to us, and also how that loss impacted on our families journey. The song reminds us that we owe as individuals and as a nation a debt of deep greatudute to those who serve,
Lest we Forget
ReferencesThose we forget : recounting Australian casualties of the First World War / David Noonan.
Carlton, Victoria Melbourne University Press, 2014
Australian War Memorial https://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/ww1/
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