This year the ANZAC Day Dawn Service at Gallipoli commemorated the centenary of the landing there of the Australian and New Zealand Imperial Expeditionary Forces at ANZAC Cove on the 25th April 1915.
Welcome to our team space. A key part of this project is sharing the work done ‘behind the scenes’. Learn about digital tools and technologies. Explore online sources relating to World War One.
This year the ANZAC Day Dawn Service at Gallipoli commemorated the centenary of the landing there of the Australian and New Zealand Imperial Expeditionary Forces at ANZAC Cove on the 25th April 1915.
In the words of historian Peter Hart
These were pointless attacks and if they typified any British trait it was a lunatic persistence in the face of the obvious.
Survivors of the Australian 13th, 14th & 18th Btn’s attack on the 22nd, joined into 4th Brigade for a 2nd attempt on Hill 60. Again they were joined by the NZ Mounted Rifles, 9th and 10th Australian Light Horse, Connaught Rangers, Ghurka Riflemen, Welsh Borderers and New Hampshires. The battle lasted into the night as both sides struggled desperately - and paid dearly.
The 18th Battalion volunteers — raised mainly from the Sydney area, including Mosman — were described as ‘great big cheery fellows, whom it did your heart good to see.’ Within 48 hours of landing at Gallipoli, 50% of them were either dead or wounded. A few days later 80% of the 760 men who started the battle had become casualties.
One hundred years ago Light Horse regiments attacked well-entrenched Turkish positions at “The Nek.” Their fate — charging into certain death — lives large in the Australian psyche. Among those killed that day was Major Thomas Harold Redford of Holt Avenue, Mosman.
“Anyhow, I have commanded an Australian Division for nine months…”
We can only surmise as to the mental processes of Maj. General Bridges as he slipped in and out of consciousness. He may have remembered his life experiences and those closest to him, memories of time spent with his family and friends around Sydney’s foreshores, in particular his posting to Middle Head.
Help us transcribe diaries, letters and honour rolls.
View our list of local, web-based WWI commemoration projects in Australia. Do you know more?
Add a project by completing this form