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many victories against the Ottoman Empire and prompted their leader
Harry Chauvel writing to his wife “ my men put up a performance which
is beyond all precedence”.
However, by 1918 even on the Western Front, the AIF soldiers had
developed, from their experience, and the knowledge of Australian
officers like General Monash, a more strategic and disciplined approach
that was still able to incorporate the ANZAC spirit. This ANZAC spirit
was developed through four years of adversity on the Western Front and
mate-ship generated in regional Australia, on long and exciting training
camps in Australia, on the long trips from Australia to Europe and Egypt
and in adventurous times in their overseas destination. It is important to
note that the AIF’s most important successes were at Villers Bretonneux
and Hamel and in the defence of Amiens under the leadership of an
Australian general, John Monash, towards the end of the war when they
applied lessons from experience and sacrifice learnt on battles on the
Western Front.
Tre
nch warfare in Europe was the final determinant in the development
of the ANZAC spirit. The horrors and adversities of the war in Europe
meant that you had to rely on your mates to survive and in some cases
a piece of shrapnel “took out” your mate standing next to you while you
weren’t even touched. This element of luck made your mate even more
precious.
Two other factors further strengthened this spirit; 80 percent of AIF
soldiers were single, meaning they had a different mind-set to any
group of married men, and being more highly paid than other allied
soldiers meant they had the means to “play up” more than other soldiers.
While conscription numbers had decreased in 1917/18, the AIF of 1918
was a different force from the AIF that left Australia in 1915. Gallipoli
had been an initial influence in this transformation, but Northern Europe
with its great losses ensured a more sober spirit amongst the AIF. As Les
Carlyon
The Great War
(Page 634) indicated, the AIF were more
respectful of their leaders “natural leaders ……...whose authority came
from who they were rather than badges of rank’. In many cases the
“Privates had become Captains” much more experienced in trench
warfare and aware of the need to protect the lives of those under their
command.
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