News from around the globe that the newspapers seldom print

Disclaimer and fair comment

While I agree with most of the material passed on I may not be in agreement with all. However there is much we can learn from some that we disagree with. Remember it was once thought that the earth was flat.

It is left to your judgment to determine what you agree with and what to act upon.

• The word ANZAC is derived from "Australian & New Zealand Army Corps".
• All Australians who serviced overseas were volunteers.
• Roughly half of the ANZACS at Gallipoli were born in either England or Ireland.
• Had it not been for the courageous defence of their homeland by the Turks led by an outstanding General Attaturtk the ANZACS may have reached their objective.
• As a result of the fierce but honourable fighting on both sides these former enemies have established a lasting spirit of camaraderie.
• Finally do not judge the "Turks" who have migrated to this country as many of them appear to be Gypsies.

Below is an extract from "Friends of the 2nd Infantry Battalions" written by Charlie Stevens.

As I now look around me at the Hotch Potch of alien faces - a direct result of a corrupt multicultural immigration program I cannot help but wonder what our next ANZACS will be like. First we had the cream of our manhood massacred in two world wars leaving behind the shirkers to propagate their own kind. Added to this we now have a sea of alien faces intermixing and breeding who knows what.

GOD help us for our politicians are not!

A moment in time with the 2^nd Infantry Battalions

90 years ago. The Battle of Lone Pine commenced on 6 August 1915. The following is an extract from "Nulli Secundus, A History of the Second Battalion, A.I.F. 1914 -1919 "pages 142 to 147.

The eventual muster parade was indeed a sad affair, showing, as it did, the ranks of a proud battalion which had mustered a thousand strong in April, and had since been reasonably reinforced, depleted to a meagre 152 weary and battle-stained men. Not until then did the survivors realise the dreadful price that had been paid for the grip on Lone Pine. Of a total of twenty-two officers and 560 other ranks who had entered the fight, no less than twenty-one officers and 409 other ranks had become casualties, and ninety-five per cent of these casualties were due to bombs, machine gun and rifle fire, only the remaining five per cent, suffering from shell fire. Well may Bean, the historian, describe it as "the severest hand-to-hand fighting in which the A.I.F. was ever engaged."

Col. Brown, who left the 2nd to command the 3rd when Scobie returned, was also killed while leading his battalion. Precise details as to what had happened to all of those who had become casualties were of course impossible to obtain while the fighting continued, but on the night of the 8th the officers were accounted for, six being killed, one missing and fourteen wounded. Capt. Nash, missing, was afterwards found to have been killed. Of the six N.C.O.'s whose promotion to commissioned rank was notified during the battle, one was killed and three were wounded, and the apparent discrepancy in the official figures is due to the fact that these six did not enter the battle as officers, but became casualties as such. Actually there were seven officers surviving after the fight. At this juncture, with respect to the severity of the fighting, it is interesting to make a comparison between the 1 st Brigade's casualties at Lone Pine and the losses during their first major operation in France, Pozieres, in July, 1916. The brigade went into Pozieres with its battalions practically at full strength, and after a week's heavy shelling and fighting lost fifty-one officers and 1,850 other ranks. At Lone Pine the battalions were only from fifty to seventy-five per cent in strength and the brigade casualties were 63 officers and 1,691 other ranks, but if the strength of the two reinforcing battalions, the 7th and 12th, be added, they would make the total up to approximately the 1 st Brigade strength at Pozieres, but when their casualties are added they make the total for Lone Pine eighty officers and 2,197 other ranks. In addition, up to the commencement of Lone Pine, only 383 shells had been fired at the Turks in that battle, while during the first three days of the Pozieres engagement 34,858 shells were fired on to the German position there.

Assuming that the Turks at Lone Pine and the Germans at Pozieres threw over at least an equal number of shells in reply, the savagery and intensity of the hand-to-hand fighting at the former place can be appreciated. If the 1 st Division had lost heavily at Lone Pine, the Turks themselves, by their own admissions later, had suffered even more severely, one division losing nearly 7,000 men in five days, 5,000 of these being lost near The Cup. Thus the object of this tragic feint had been fully achieved; the Turks had been at first deceived as to its real purpose, and later, when it appeared to constitute a serious threat to their left flank, had thrown in their reserves there, as was intended by the British High Command, leaving their reserves so depleted that none was immediately available to make a counter-thrust to an attack in strength on a distant vulnerable part of their line. Had the subsequent operations, to which Lone Pine was a mere prelude, been brought to fruition, the whole story of Gallipoli, and, indeed, of the war as a whole, would have been vastly different. However, no subsequent events could detract from the merit of this performance by the Second and the other battalions which were involved, and it remains on record as the bloodiest and most vicious tussle in a long series extending over a period of three and a half years of the Second's fighting experience.

After a fight of this sort individual distinctions would perhaps appear invidious. Some individuals have been mentioned, as their outstanding acts were placed on record by those who survived, but in the early days of the A.I.F., with so very small a percent­age of officers or men who had actually seen any real active service, there was not much thought given to the matter of decorations, and the general procedure of recommendation for them was to a great extent unknown. Among a body of men with high standards of conduct in the field, many deeds which in later years would have been recognised as outstanding acts of bravery, were merely accepted by them in their inexperience as being probably the usual thing in war, and which no lack of personal courage would have deterred them from doing themselves, though a lack of initiative may have. Again, many men died after performing acts of conspicuous gallantry, and many others who were witnesses of heroic deeds did not survive to relate them, but such must always be the case in an action where casualties are severe. At all events, decorations awarded in Gallipoli to the rank and file were, in most cases, except for V.C.'s, long deferred before the announcements were made.

Since only one decoration, the V.C., is awarded posthumously, Col. Scobie received merely a mention in despatches, but his reputation as a leader and a fighter will long outlive any memory of a decoration.

Major Cass was later awarded a C.M.G., as well as being twice mentioned in dispatches for his own leadership and the Second's performances. Herrod, in addition to his duties as signals officer, carried out a great deal of valuable work, acting really during the fighting as liaison officer between the senior officers and between the officers in charge of the posts. As a fact, every officer, N.C.O. and man who shared in the fighting was worthy of the highest commendation.

Early in the battle General Walker recognised the difficulties and the value of the 1st Brigade's work, and on August 7 issued a special Divisional Order: - "The General Officer Commanding congratulates the 1st Infantry Brigade on its gallant and successful attack yesterday on the enemy's positions known as Lonesome Pine. He is proud to think that for a period he had the honour to command such a brigade, whose determined onslaught he witnessed with feelings of great pride.

"The 1st Infantry Brigade has, by yesterday's action, added fresh laurels to its name and has once again avenged the death of its gallant first commanding officer. General Walker congratulates Colonel Smyth upon the smoothness with which all his plans worked, and upon his calm, confident command of the operation."

After the Second had been relieved on the afternoon of the 8th the Turkish counter­attacks continued, extending right throughout the night of the 8th-9th, but failing to make any impression on the garrison. By this time the Turks had realised that Lone Pine was a diversion, and that the main attack was elsewhere, so that they could not afford the reserves necessary for further attempts at recapture of the ground taken by the 1st Brigade.

The main operation, whose objective was the capture of Sari Bair, was known officially by that name, the Battle of Sari Bair, and as such was granted to the Second as one of its battle honours, but the Australian units which were engaged in the Lone Pine diversion insisted on the words being inserted in small letters after the official name, since Sari Bair conveyed nothing to Australians generally, while Lone Pine had become a household word.

No story of the action would be complete without reference to the fortitude of the wounded, many of whom persisted in remaining to, give what help they could until totally incapacitated, whether by crawling to recover bombs or sandbags from the slain, cleaning rifles and ammunition, or keeping some kind of slow match burning at which bombs might be lit. Those who were beyond giving help did their best to, drag themselves out of the way to give freedom of movement to others, and bore their sufferings without complaint. The difficulties of evacuation were very serious, and many of them had to wait a long time before receiving attention.

Bean says of the Lone Pine effort: - "The blow which had been dealt by the 1st Australian Division was thus a terrible one. And, precisely because it was so heavy, and delivered at so vital a point, this 'demonstration' was certainly the most effective within the experience of infantry commanders of the A.I.F. It drew upon itself the whole of the immediate Turkish reserves, and for three days monopolised Essad Pasha's attention." Finally, in his dispatch to, the War Office, Sir Ian Hamilton officially reported of the action: -

"Lone Pine was taken and held. The Turks were in great force and very full of fight, yet one weak Australian brigade numbering at the outset but 2,000 rifles and supported by only two weak battalions, carried on the work under the eyes of a whole enemy division, and maintained their grip upon it like a vice during six days' successive counter­attacks. High praise is due to Brigadier-General N. M. Smyth and his battalion commanders.

"The irresistible dash and daring of officers and men in the initial charge were a glory to Australia. The stout-heartedness with which they clung to the captured ground in spite of fatigue, severe losses and the continual strain of shellfire and bomb attacks may seem striking to the civilian - it is even more admirable to the soldier.

"From start to finish the artillery support was untiring and vigilant. Owing to the rapid, accurate fire of the Second New Zealand Battery under Major Sykes, several of the Turkish onslaughts were altogether defeated in their attempts to get to grips with the Australians. Not a chance was lost by these gunners, although time and again the enemy's artillery made direct hits on their shields. The hand-to-hand fighting in the semi obscurity of the trenches was prolonged and very bitterly contested.

"In one corner eight Turks and six Australians were found lying as they had bayoneted one another. To make room for the fighting men the dead were ranged in rows on either side of the trench. After the first violence of the counterattacks had abated 1,000 corpses, our own and Turkish, were dragged out from the trenches. For the severity of our casualties some partial consolation may be found in the facts, first, that those of the enemy were much heavier, our guns and machine guns having taken toll of them as they advanced in mass formation along the reverse slopes; secondly, that the Lone Pine attack drew all the local enemy reserves towards it and may be held, more than any other cause, to have been the reason that the Suvla Bay landing was so lightly opposed, and that comparatively few of the enemy were available at first to reinforce against our attack on Sari Bair. Our captures in this feat of arms amounted to 134 prisoners, seven machine guns, and a large quantity of ammunition and equipment."

1945 - 60 years ago. The 2/2 Australian Infantry Battalion was in action in Australian New Guinea when the war in the Pacific came to an end on the morning of 15 August 1945 when the Emperor of Japan announced that Japan would accept the Allies' ultimatum to surrender. The Japanese surrender came in the wake of the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The day is recognised as VP Day (Victory in the Pacific).

Charlie Stevens