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 Letters
to The Leader
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Newspapers
during both World Wars carried heavily censored accounts of the
victories and defeats of the bloody conflicts, but it was in the
letters sent home to family and friends that some of the day to day
doings of the servicemen were truly revealed ...
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The
extracts from letters and articles published in the Leader are a small
sample of what appeared. Some of the letters were written
directly to the newspaper; others were forwarded for publication by the
relatives here in Preston and Northcote. Given there was a
time
lapse of up to three weeks beween a servicemen being killed and
relatives advised, several letters appeared after the death of
the
writer. The articles are grouedp in approximate
chronological order to maintain the atmosphere of the time as the war
progressed.
The Whalley Brothers At War
The
local Leader newspapers were established in 1888, the
Preston and Northcote editions being identical except for the masthead.
At the outbreak of the war, the papers wer published by the Whalley
brothers, (John Stott and Richard James) and local readers were
uniquely fortunate that the proprietors were touring Europe when war
was declared. The paper was able to print
a number of
on-the-spot reports while their rivals could only rehash material from
the larger daily papers or issue their own somewhat uninformed
editorials ... Top
The
Letters
Calm
Before The Storm
After leaving Australia,
for virtually all men the first camp back on
land was in Egypt to recover from the sea voyage and to undergo further
training. For many, it was a chance to catch up with old
friends from
home, for others, a chance to let their hair down in the unfamiliar
surroundings. Letters and articles on the Broadmeadows Camp
and experiences in Egypt before the landings at Gallipoli saw the first
real casualties ...
The
Voyage Over
(see also The Ships)
For
virtually all of the Australian-born men that volunteered, the sea
voyage to the front lines via Fremantle, Colombo and Egypt was their
first venture outside of Australia (and for many, probably
Victoria). After the initial excitement, several
weeks at
sea on a crowded troopship would quickly have become monotonous, but
there were some moments of interest ...
The Gallipoli Landings
Sunday,
April 25, 1915 saw the fateful landings in the
Dardenelles. Compared
to later years of the war, the number of Australian troops engaged was
moderate, and given the conditions under which they fought and
administration problems, it is probably not surprising that few letters
appeared, virtually all of them some months after the fighting ...
In the Middle East
The
tragedy of Gallipoli and dreadful conditions of trench warfare of the
Western Front in France and Belgium tend to dominate the histories of
Australia's participation in the First World War, but an equally
important battle ground in the Middle East, especially Palestine, saw
Australian troops in action protecting British interests in Egypt and
the Suez Canal ...
The Olde Country
Australia
was, in 1914, an almost exclusively Anglo-Saxon nation with strong
links to the "Old Country". Embarking for the Western Front gave
Australian servicemen a chance to see the sights of the
country that
many still called home ...
The Home Front
Although
war news dominated the daily newspapers, life still went on for
those in Australia and servicemen at the front still had their
view on events in Australia, especially the referendums held in
November 1916 and again twelve months later on compulsory
conscription ...
Small Mercies
Most
families kept up a constant supply of letters and parcels to their men
folk at the front. Just how may articles were lost under the trying
conditions will never be known, but those little treats that go through
brightened many a serviceman's day ...
1916 The Somme
After
several months of relative quiet in France and Belgium, June 29, 1916
saw the commencement of a major offensive on several fronts that
collectively became known as The Battle Of The Somme. Over 1200
Australians died on the first day of fighting alone, hundreds of them
posted as missing and their bodies never recovered ...
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