Full Description
They were airbrushed out of history. Official historian Charles Bean claimed the first Australian ashore at the Gallipoli landing on 25 April 1915 was an infantry officer. But Bean wasn't there, and a bunch of Australian and New Zealand army engineers were. Even today, the army is reluctant to accept that sappers were among the very first ANZACs ashore.
This is the untold story of World War I Australian and New Zealand sappers-combat engineers-with extracts from their diaries. They were always in the vanguard, clearing defences, and building bridges, roads and walkways, usually under fire, for the troops who followed. At Gallipoli, strafed by machine guns and targeted by snipers, they dug trenches and tunnels to advance on the Turkish defences. On the Western Front, they burrowed under the German lines to plant massive explosives. In Egypt they demolished a Turkish railway in a day.
From Gallipoli to the sands of the Middle East, to the blood-soaked battlefields of France and Belgium, engineers put down their tools to also fight as combat soldiers at every major battle and campaign, often with heroic feats of astonishing courage. Three sappers stole a giant field gun from under German noses at Amiens. Sappers were classic larrikins, indefatigably practical men who don't take kindly to bureaucracy. Typically under-appreciated, two were cheated of their well-earned VCs by a British general after they, working alone, tricked a German platoon into surrendering.
'Sappers are the unsung heroes of the First World War and this book helps bring them back into the limelight where they belong.' Will Davies, Beneath Hill 60
'From the shores of Gallipoli to the tunnels beneath Hill 60, this is the extraordinary saga of the Australian army engineer of World War One, the story of those who make and break, everywhere.' Phillip Bradley, author of Inferno
'It has taken 111 years for true stories to appear in a book adequately honouring sappers in World War I - you will remember these heroes forever'. Colonel Sandy MacGregor MC (rtd)
'An excellent insight into the role of the Field Engineers as part of the combined arms team in World War I' Brigadier Mick Say DSC, Head of Corps, Royal Australian Engineers
Contents
A Note from the Authors
Preface The First Anzacs
1 Everywhere
2 A call to arms
3 Bodies on the beach
4 Digging in
5 The Western Front
6 Mud, blood and battle tanks
7 The equaliser
8 Bullecourt, barbed wire and bangalores
9 The big bang
10 Trains and tanks
11 Aussies go all-in
12 No picnic for the POWs
13 Behind the lines
14 Up, up and away
15 Revolutions and reinforcements
16 The tide turns
17 Stealing the Amiens Gun
18 Sappers hit their straps
19 Meanwhile, back in the Middle East . . .
20 The war to end all wars
Authors' notes
Acknowledgements
Glossary
Bibliography
Notes
Index
