When Our Jack Went to War
Page 10
There was a general sense of excitement in 1914 when war first broke out. Armies were quickly formed. Young men longed for adventure and everyone expected the conflict to be over in a matter of weeks.
WHO WAS INVOLVED?
The opposing alliances were the Allied Powers and the Central Powers.
The Allied Powers included: Russia, France, the British Empire, Italy, the United States, Japan, Romania, Serbia, Belgium, Greece, Portugal and Montenegro.
The Central Powers included: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria.
There was great rivalry between Britain and Germany. Britain was the first country to make steamships and railway engines. But Germany was fast catching up.
HOW WAS WAR WAGED?
In the old days armies used to move from place to place and there were planned battles with clear winners and losers. This war would be different, partly because of the new weapons of mass killing that were now available.
This time Germany decided to capture Paris from the north. Then Britain joined France and they began a ‘race to the sea’ to try to gain control of the ports along the English Channel.
Within three months, both sides had dug trenches all the way from the Belgian coast, through northern France and almost to Switzerland. They stayed there for four years — gaining and losing ground in equal measure.
WHAT WAS TRENCH WARFARE LIKE?
The soldiers lived, ate and slept in trenches, which were overrun with rats and lice and the partly buried bodies of dead soldiers. The trenches were lined with sand bags and protected with barbed wire. No-man’s-land was the area between the opposing trenches.
The Germans generally built trenches on higher ground. As a result they were deeper and safer. They also had more machine guns and were able to gun down British soldiers as they advanced up the slopes. The British and French trenches were shallower and more prone to flooding.
One of the reasons for the high loss of life in the First World War was that the army commanders were still planning old-style battles, relying on sheer force of numbers to rout the enemy. They were slow to adapt to fighting with machine guns, heavy artillery and poison gas.
HOW DID THE WAR END?
In March 1918 it seemed as though Germany had won. The German Army had broken through the British and French defences and it looked like the Allies were finished. But the German soldiers were exhausted and couldn’t keep up their advance. So the British Army took advantage of the situation and advanced from France into Germany.
Germany surrendered on 11 November 1918, and an armistice was signed.
HOW MANY FOUGHT AND DIED?
65 million troops were mobilised.
More than 9 million troops died on the battlefields, and 21 million were wounded.
Many more millions died on home fronts because of genocide (organised mass murder), food shortages and ground combat.
11 per cent of France’s entire population was killed or wounded.
58,000 British troops were killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916.
More than 200,000 men died in the trenches.
The First World War saw the first known use of chemical weapons. These included mustard gas, chlorine, phosgene and tear gas. They were used to flush the enemy out of their trenches so that the guns could finish them off.
The infantry still fought with traditional weapons: rifles and bayonets. But now they had to face flame-throwers, machine guns, heavy artillery and tanks, as well as gas.
WHY DID NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA GET INVOLVED?
As members of the British Empire the politicians felt duty bound to offer their resources to help defend Britain.
Initially men between 19 and 38 were accepted into the army. Some men joined ‘to see the world’, have some adventure, to escape unhappiness, see the mother country or defeat ‘the barbaric Germans’. Others joined simply because their mates were going. Some needed a job; the army paid five shillings a day for New Zealanders and six shillings for Australians.
ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) forces were offered to the British Army to use however and wherever its commanders saw fit.
THE PRICE NEW ZEALAND PAID
In 1914–18, the New Zealand population numbered slightly more than one million people.
120,000 in total were enlisted or were conscripted.
103,000 served overseas.
550 nurses served with the NZEF.
New Zealand suffered 58,000 casualties (17,000 killed; 41,000 wounded).
THE PRICE AUSTRALIA PAID
At the time, Australia had a population of slightly less than five million people.
416,809 in total enlisted or were conscripted.
Australia suffered 216,000 casualties (60,000 killed; 156,000 wounded).
New Zealand and Australia had among the highest casualty and death rates per capita (per head of population) of anywhere in the world.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I stumbled into World War One history quite by accident, as the idea for this book evolved from a very different project.
During my research I was touched by the letters and first-hand accounts of soldiers.
I began with just one basic fact: my great-uncle John had been killed at Passchendaele during World War One. Until five years ago I had never heard of Passchendaele and I had no idea what had happened there. But the more I read, the more absorbed in the details I became, and the more admiration I developed for the brave young men who went so naïvely off to war out of a sense of loyalty, duty and even adventure.
I began to wonder what it must have been like for those who waited back home. How did they cope with the uncertainty? How did they carry on with their lives in the face of such disruption? And how did they make sense of their losses as the appalling ‘roll of honour’ grew?
As a country of less than one million people, New Zealand paid a high price for the so-called ‘Great War’.
I have no idea what my great uncle wanted to be when he grew up. I have no idea what sort of work he did before he left home. But I do know that he came from an intelligent working-class family and I’m sure he could have done much with his life if he’d been given the chance.
I liked the idea of ‘Our Jack’ having been a carpenter. Apart from being an honest, hard-working occupation, there is something symbolic about those young lads leaving their ‘nail bags’ behind. And I like to think it’s up to those of us lucky enough to have been born postwar to honour their memory by creating a country they would be proud of.
Some books that helped my research
Zero Hour: The Anzacs on the Western Front by Leon Davidson (Text: 2010)
Nice Day for a War: Adventures of a Kiwi Soldier in World War One by Chris Slane and Matt Elliott (HarperCollins: 2011)
Massacre at Passchendaele: The New Zealand Story by Glyn Harper (HarperCollins: 2000)
Dark Journey: Three Key New Zealand Battles of the Western Front by Glyn Harper (HarperCollins: 2007)
Letters from the Battlefield: NZ Soldiers Write Home, 1914–1918 by Glyn Harper (HarperCollins: 2002)
The Diary of a Young Soldier in World War 1 by Dennis Hamley (Franklin Watts: 2001)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In writing this story I am deeply indebted to many historians and authors who have written about World War One before me. I am also grateful to have had access to some published family histories in the Dunedin Public Library.
I would like to acknowledge historian Glyn Harper, whose writing has made me aware of the tragedy and importance of Passchendaele. And to all those brave young men who wrote to their families so regularly and so well.
Special thanks also to our historical advisor, Ray Grover, who gave his time and expertise to ensure the details in this book were accurate.
And to the Papers Past website, produced by the National Library of New Zealand. Your resource is invaluable.
Finally, a big thank you to Barbara Larson whose hard work and loyalt
y is always much appreciated.
Also by Sandy McKay
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Mr Tripp Smells a Rat
Eureka!
Me and Jason Ballinger
One Stroppy Jockey
Losing It
I’m Telling on You
Barry and Bitsa
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Colin Goes Bush
My Dad, the All Black
Recycled
Copyright
The assistance of Creative New Zealand is gratefully acknowledged by the author and publisher.
A LONGACRE BOOK published by Random House New Zealand
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First published 2013
© 2013 Sandy McKay
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All newspaper clippings sourced from the National Library of
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