HISTORY

And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda

Incompetent leadership, confusion and carnage.

British troops at Suvla Bay in 1915 after the first landing on the peninsula in April (Image: National Library NZ)

This past week I’ve been listening to a BBC audio book about the decade from 1910–20. The book is primarily recordings of eyewitnesses to history that was being lived at that time. For example, first person accounts from people who were on the Titanic and the responses of political and social observers of that tragedy. The same for the Lusitania, the sinking of another “immortal” ship, which served as a catalyst to bring the U.S.and Britain into the war while simultaneously stirring anti-German sentiment here and on the Isles. The Suffragettes and the Labor movement also have their stories told by people who were there.

But the First World War takes up the largest chunk of this period with eyewitness accounts from men who fought in every battle field, from Verdun, Marne, Ypres, Somme and more. The world had never witnessed slaughter and horror on such as scale. Britain buried a million of her young men and left millions scarred. Germany, France and Russia lost millions more.

The experiences of those who fought in the trenches have been repeatedly captured in films so that we get a sense of how bad it was. The stories on this BBC audiobook really amp up the impact. The lice that lived in the seams of their clothes…