Anzac Day dawns. We acknowledge the heavy costs endured – the loss of life, the broken bodies and broken minds. We reflect, remember, and respect. There will be no big public gatherings this year – mercifully perhaps. Because these sometimes include elements of naivety that make us cringe.
Anzac Day, of course, commemorates all our war dead. But this year perhaps we will reflect mainly upon the Great War. For the Covid-19 crisis reminds us that in 1918-1919, as the mechanised killing dwindled, the influenza pandemic kept killing. The tragedies were linked. The pandemic’s source is debated: the army camp at Étaples in France? US soldiers from Kansas? Virtually conscripted Chinese labourers from the captured German colony of Qingdao? In any case, war hugely inflated the disaster. The underfed everywhere, already victims of the war’s blockades, became victims of the pandemic. The global poor perished – in tens of millions.
All through the war, the apothecaries of Armageddon had insisted on one cure-all: victory. It turned out to be powerless.
Thus, by 1919, the dash to war in 1914 was seen to have launched a truly protracted calamity. Looking back, the poet Philip Larkin imagined that the simple faiths that spurred on the Great War for four years had been exploded – forever. ‘Never such innocence again,’ he predicted.
Was he right? Sadly, over recent years, our Anzac Days have often seen naiveties from Australia’s Great War revived.
A taste of this must suffice. For example, on the second anniversary of the outbreak of war in August 1916, Dr Kelly, RC Archbishop of Sydney, offered High Mass. ‘Ours is a defensive war,’ he sermonized. Our dead ‘would have a special crown among the saints in heaven. There was no death more glorious than that of the one who laid down his life for his country and his God.’ ‘There is a blessing for the sword, the banner, and for the warrior,’ he told the faithful, some in uniform. ‘God will gird our soldiers with strength and give them sinewy arms, and our enemies will be brought under us.’ Catholic Anzacs should ‘imitate the Crusaders,’ and then ‘the blessings of God would be poured down upon them and upon their arms.’
This – as industrialised warfare pulverised Australian life around Pozières. This – just three months after the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement to divide up the bulk of the Ottoman Empire between Britain and France.
Do we rise above such murderous innocence today?
The crowd attending the ‘National Ceremony’ for Anzac Day at the Australian War Memorial in 2018 found on the program the century-old hymn ‘O Valiant Hearts’, which includes the stanza:
Proudly you gathered, rank on rank, to war
As who had heard God’s message from afar;
All you had hoped for, all you had, you gave,
To save mankind – yourselves your scorned to save.
Our soldiers heard ‘God’s message’ and fought simply ‘to save mankind’? It was gob-smacking.
It was not a momentary lapse. During the recent ‘Anzac Centenary’, simplicities often trumped complexities. The war was depicted as a great awakening, in which Australia was born again, through youthful blood sacrifice. All the difficult questions about purposes were evaded.
Parliamentary speeches shone with childlike innocence. Prime Minister Abbott proposed a motion marking the ‘Centenary of Anzac’ in parliament in May 2015. He shunned all talk of futility, ending his flag-waving speech with a pledge to remember ‘the just cause for which they fought.’ Hockey lamented that Australia ‘lost its sense of innocence’ in the carnage. Not judging from the naive speeches that followed. Most dwelt fixedly upon how Australians fought, before cataloguing the projects in their electorates that were soaking up the half-billion dollars allocated for the centenary – some sublime, some ridiculous. One MP assured the parliament that the ‘Lego display’, part of the ‘Anzac Centenary children’s tour launch’, was ‘actually really profound.’
War-is-hell narratives loomed large, but these only added to the lustre of military achievement. Hyperbole jostled with hyperbole. The Anzacs who charged as ordered and died by the hundreds at the Nek and Lone Pine were killed in a battle space ‘about the size of a football field’, or ‘about the size of three tennis courts’, or ‘roughly the size of two tennis courts’?
Why? What was the purpose, ‘the just cause’? No one came near the truth: that in 1915 thousands of Australians died in an under-resourced imperial campaign to take the Straits and Constantinople for Tsarist Russia (as promised by Britain under the secret Straits and Persia Agreement of March 1915); success would have seen the Russian Prince Gregory Trubetskoi installed as High Commissioner of Constantinople.
Turnbull eschewed jingoism, but kept up the blue-eyed innocence. He welcomed French President Macron to Sydney’s Anzac Memorial on 2 May 2018. What was the war about? In his speech, Turnbull quoted approvingly 2nd Lieutenant Frank Bethune, a clergyman, speaking at a troopship-deck service in March 1916: ‘We know what we have come for, and we know that is right.’ The war was raging because ‘the Germans invaded a peaceful country.’ Australians fought ‘to say that this thing shall not happen in the world so long as we are in it.’
So, in 2018 as in 1916, the outbreak and prolongation of the First World War supposedly had nothing to do with the carving up of the colonial world; nothing to do with the imperial protectionist schemes to crush German commerce; nothing to do with the gambler-politicians’ search for punitive indemnities; and nothing to do with the callous rebuffing of all chances to end the war by diplomatic negotiation. No, Australia was at war in a great act of international philanthropy. British, French, Russian, Italian, and Japanese imperialism fought alongside us to cleanse the world of the wickedness of German imperialism.
Here is the innocence of suckling babes, masquerading as red-poppy respect for the troops. We should ask: does it really honour the ever-youthful dead to repeat on Anzac Day the same wolf-upon-lamb naiveties about the Great War’s purposes that were peddled during the conflict?
During the centenary, conservatives frequently attempted to exploit Anzac politically. In October 2018, Dr Nelson, AWM Director, singled out News Limited for praise three times in a short interview on Sky TV to launch the ‘Anzac Spirit Coin Collection’. Right-wing media grandstanders, whose political lives are devoted to championing an acquisitive individualism, hailed the Anzacs for their collective and egalitarian spirit – without choking. War is the nectar of hypocrites.
The returning men of the AIF often said things best. For example, Sergeant Archie Barwick was loyal and proud, and expressed no regrets. But in his diary in late 1918, he confessed to insurgent thoughts: ‘never no more for me, the only time I would fight again is in defence of my own country, I would never go out of “Aussie” again seeking stoush, I have had my fill of it.’
Perhaps today, our private Anzac remembrances can be more in keeping with the spirit of the troops – those who urged after the Great War that, in future, any choice for war must be incontrovertibly a last resort, and incontrovertibly defensive. Giving the choice for war to parliament would be a good start.
Douglas Newton is a retired academic and historian. He has published on the history of Britain, Germany, and the First World War. His most recent book was Hell-bent: Australia’s Leap into the Great War (Melbourne: Scribe, 2014).
Douglas Newton is a retired academic and historian. His new book has just been published, Private Ryan and the Lost Peace: A Defiant Soldier and the Struggle Against the Great War (Sydney: Longueville Media, 2021).
Comments
12 responses to “Thoughts for Anzac Day. ‘Never such innocence again.’”
Not sure if you’ve noticed. Dawn Services are Christian religious services. There’s priests and prayers etc. Of course they would mention God.
And part of a politician’s role is to be the cheerleader. No where in the world will you find a serios mainstream politician bag their national myths.
In reply to Bruce Cameron may I hope in the next federal election we debate the defence of Australia and elect a Government that reflects the opinions shared here in P & I. Some issues that I see include war powers reform, support for international law not the US in its denial of legal norms, a real strategic plan to defend Australia not just spend for US expeditions abroad, support for the UN and its agencies including WHO. As an ALP member I may attend the pre – election national conference for a sense of the policy that addresses my list. Security has to be about the real world not just more money for arms.
Douglas,
A wonderful thought.
I was pleased in a way that the Pandemic truncated the nonsense speeches we usually hear each Anzac Day from politicians, who with very rare exception, have never served in a war.If they had, maybe they would think twice before sending young impressionable lads off to war as you remark, at the behest of our ‘great and powerful friends’.
My Uncle, Colin Wilson was wounded on the Western Front in 1917, sent back to England to recuperate, was returned to France only to be killed soon after. We visited and paid our respects at his grave, fortunately before the idiotic decision to build yet another ludicrously expensive monument to that stupidity under the Abbott Government . I agree that the decision to expand the AWM is yet another expensive folly.
This morning at dawn, my family joined me at the flag pole in our front garden as we remembered the young chaps who were conscripted with me and sent off with our ‘reg’ mates to Vietnam. I still mourn the loss of a fellow medic, L/Cpl. John Francis Gillespie (RAAMC), 8th Field Ambulance , who was killed when his “Dustoff” Chopper was shot down over the Long Hai Hills, an enemy sanctuary , less than 20 milometers from the 1 ATF at Nui Dat. Since the end of our engagement in October 1971, more than half a dozen of our mates have died prematurely, some from suicide. All the remaining members of our Unit have medical or psychological conditions stemming from our war service.These conditions extend to our children and grandchildren. That fact is the often unmentioned casualty of war . While right wing aligned governments love to glorify war as a glorious sacrifice to defend freedom and democracy etc. as outlined in your commentary, they fight tooth and nail to reduce or deny us benefits to help us and our families cope with the legacy of war. The fights we veterans have had with the bureaucracy that is the DVA are legend. Many have given up – hence the high suicide rate with veterans.
Maybe in a way the Pandemic has had a positive impact . Maybe people can ask themselves do we really have to have these displays of jingoism and nationalistic patriotism each Anzac Day? I ask readers can we rather reflect on the stupidity and useless sacrifice of young men and women for what end?
Lest we forget.
I’m with sergeant Archie Barwick. Having spent a year in Vietnam as an army doctor, and having witnessed the complete devastation of the country and the appalling way our forces treated the local populace, I returned home determined never to take part in any military adventure overseas. In similar vein, since the glorification of Anzac day ramped up by Howard and Abbot and the vast amount of our money spent on “memorials” here and abroad, I have lost interest in Anzac day and haven’t attended any service since then.
These sentiments will be echoed by the descendants of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers from the various colonies who received little remuneration or even recognition. The lack of recognition by the ‘good guys’continues today.
Despite the half-billion dollars spent to mark the centenary of the end of WW1, the Government persists in spending that much again on a wholly unnecessary demolition and re-build of part of the AWM. The time for public comment has just been extended by four weeks; the project was never one of any purpose but self-aggrandisement. Surely this expenditure must be stopped.
Excellent detail, Douglas.
“Giving the choice for war to parliament would be a good start”.
Not really in today’s climate. As any Australian would know, America whistles, we drop what we are doing, hitch up our uniforms and go wherever we are told.
After WWII, have they been wars that impacted Australia in any way?
No.
Boer War; First WW; Second WW. ..all UK driven. Since then, all for US hegemony, now with 700+ US bases worldwide, wars in many geographies over oil or expansion and control and the killer of millions worldwide through inhumane sanctions.
Were they wars that were important for the safety of our families?
No
Were they warst in our geographic area?
No
Did we do anything to contribute to the war starting?
No
“Giving the choice for war to parliament would be a good start.”
Again, once a politician is comfortable in his/her seat, staying there is the key. That’s why so many corrupted politicians vote against Palestine, vote against the “international rule of law”, subjecting themselves to corruption to consolidate their positions. That’s why on almost all issues in 2002, all parties are identical, voting the same and mouthing the same pathetic excuses for their actions or lack of actions(except for decent Independents and some Greens).
There was a time when Parliamentarians answered to the voters. The Party system puts paid to any level of independence for any politician and always will. How many Melissa Parke’s have we seen walk into parliament in 50 years? How many Bob Carr’s have had the same respect in the role of Foreign Affairs Minister? Downer? Hardly. East Timor ring a bell?. The US compliant Bishop and now the feckless Payne?
No more needs to be said.
Foreign Affairs. It’s a direct line from the offices of Trump and Pompeo, those that call our tune, word for word. And our weak leaders love it!
So until we break our connection to the bullying, inhumane and arrogant USA and become an independent nation (giving countries like China credit and respect for their achievements over the past 75 years)…and make an effort to be friends, discontinue taking advice from the likes of ASPI, the military/industrial sponsors for world wars and elect then independent politicians into a parliament not controlled by parties, the Anzac Day we all know so well will continue to find the ranks of marching troops on 25th April onwards increasing as the years go by, as the US-led wars continue, one after the other, while we continue to serve this same corrupt USA as an obedient lackey. We have done this for the past 60 years.
Let us make Anzac Day just ANZ Day and put into effect what is needed to make Australia an independent country while thinking positively about a future, free of conflict.
Unlike Mannix, Kelly was gung ho. Not a shred of Irish nationalism there.
The great irony that I see in the cult of Anzac is that the class which has so successfully appropriated it and sought to share in the ideals and qualities which they say it represents have, in reality, no right to do so, especially if experience of captivity on the Burma- Thai railway is anything to go by.
The behaviour of our Officer class, many of whom had spent time inter war in right wing paramilitary groups, was despicable – paid under the Geneva Convention and not required to work, there is yet no record of an officer volunteering to take the place of a man unfit to go out. On the contrary, a class system prevailed and officers pilfered from the food stores that they administered, took the best and the most food and commandeered garden beds painfully prepared by other ranks to augment their meagre rations. The differential death toll was enormous – officers in single digits, other ranks in the thousands. Some COs handed men over to the Japanese for punishment or informed them of attempted escapes. One contemptible example returned to Australia and an OBE.
Such bastard behaviour did not extend to MOs (Medicos) who had to defer to Combat Officers anyway. “Weary” Dunlop was ashamed when a group of British officers who shared a compound and who proposed a pooling of wages to help the men, threatened to move to another area after Australian officers refused to chip in.
An honest airing of that chapter might dispel come of the cloying sentimentality and the hypocrisy that we have to endure every April.
I urge readers to listen to “Song for Grace”. I wrote it based on a verbatim account of World War I, told to me during WWII by my mother, concerning her three Anzac WWI brothers. She was the most anti-war person I ever met; she could not stand the name Churchill, who typified all of Mr Newton’s wonderfully objective appraisals above.
My song is on ITunes.
Thank you for an article that should be read and discussed in every school room, sadly the article’s valuable information will go unread by the mass of the population who have chosen to endorse the heartwarming image of ‘youthful blood sacrifice’.
Thanks for this, Douglas. Speaking at Lone Pine in 2015, PM Abbott listed ‘country, empire, king, and the ideal that people and countries should be free’ as components of the cause the Anzacs may have served. Abbott went on to say, however, that ‘duty, loyalty, honour and mates’ were ‘the virtues that outshine any cause’. No need to think, even about platitudes; mateship cuts through it all, mates!
“Perhaps today, our private Anzac remembrances can be more in keeping with the spirit of the troops – those who urged after the Great War that, in future, any choice for war must be incontrovertibly a last resort, and incontrovertibly defensive. Giving the choice for war to parliament would be a good start.”
The last sentence would have to be the classic ‘sting in the tail’. Presumably the unsaid part is the assertion that the Australian Government is so tied to the US that our Parliament (and therefore we as a nation) has had, and will have, no say in whether or not to become involved in recent wars and those in the future.
There is no doubt that we cannot dwell solely on the past, ie reflect only on the selfless deeds of servicemen and women who have sacrificed themselves on behalf of their nation in the years up until now.
We must always honour this service and ensure that it is never forgotten. We must also maintain our faith with those who have put themselves in harm’s way and build on it for the benefit of our nation and our countrymen. It is this latter obligation which needs our utmost focus. Not to do so would devalue the sacrifices.
The defence of our nation and its national interests is, and always has been, solely in the hands of Parliament (ie. the Australian people). Only if we are all apathetic to the nation state tensions around us, can we elect a government whose foreign policies we either don’t support or care about.
If this is were to become the situation … we deserve what we get!