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Australians at War: Why did men go to war?

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Australians at War: Why did men go to war?

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Attribution: From the Australian War Memorial: Chromolithograph on paper by Harry Weston. February, 1917.

Identification: A poster with a seven men beating back a fire, and another man standing lazily (hands in pockets) smoking a pipe.

The expectation was that men would be the heroes and defend the nation. The man in the forefront is being shamed for his inaction, and almost accused of making the situation worse because he is currently smoking (incendiary device).

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Attribution: From the Australian War Memorial, Recruitment Poster by William Brooks Co Ltd.

Identification: The poster shows a man smiling in the waves. The text clearly implores that men need to go to arms: "GO AND HELP".

This source implies that it is negligent for men to 'play' while the war raged on. It is a direct call to go serve in the trenches.

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"War belongs, no doubt, to an imperfect stage of society; it has a side of pure brutality. But it is not all brutal. Wordsworth's daring line about "God's most perfect instrument" has a great truth behind it. What examples are to be found in the tales here retold, not merely of heroic daring, but of even finer qualities—of heroic fortitude; of loyalty to duty stronger than the love of life; of the temper which dreads dishonour more than it fears death; of the patriotism which makes love of the Fatherland a passion. These are the elements of robust citizenship. They represent some, at least, of the qualities by which the Empire, in a sterner time than ours, was won, and by which, in even these ease-loving days, it must be maintained."

Attribution: Deeds that Won the Empire, W.H. Fitchett (1900).

Identification: This quote emphasis that war engages "heroic fortitude" and "loyalty".

The drama of Fitchett's quote is apt to describe a romantic, adventure novel but is in fact referring to war. It representes a generation attitude to war as a place for adventure.

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"It was a great fight where we were getting out of the boats and a good many got shot but a bayonet charge soon shifted the Turks and things got pretty lively
Private John Croft, 3rd Battalion, 5 May 1915"

Attribution: Private John Croft (1915)

Identification: Croft refers to war as "A great fight" and "lively".

This quote describes a "great fight" and depicts an adventurous engagement. Croft references that lives were loss, but quickly goes back to the liveliness and excitement of warfare. In reading this, the audience is intended to notice the atmosphere of the war, rather than the fatalities.