NOVEMBER 1 Anzac convoy leaves Albany
NOVEMBER 5 Britain and France declare war on Turkey
NOVEMBER 9 HMAS Sydney sinks SMS Emden
DECEMBER 3 Anzacs reach Egypt
1915
FEBRUARY 18 - MAY 4 1916 Unrestricted German submarine campaign
APRIL 22 - MAY 25 Second Battle of Ypres
APRIL 25 Anzacs land at Gallipoli
MAY 7 Lusitania sunk
SEPTEMBER 25 - NOVEMBER 6 Allied offensive at Loos
DECEMBER 15 Douglas Haig replaces John French
DECEMBER 19-20 Anzacs evacuate Gallipoli
1916
JANUARY 24 Britain introduces conscription
FEBRUARY 21 - DECEMBER 18 Battle of Verdun
MARCH -MAY Anzacs corps reach France
MAY 31 - JUNE 1 The naval Battle of Jutland
JULY 1 - NOVEMBER 17 Battle of the Somme
JULY 19-20 Battle of Fromelles
JULY 23 - SEPTEMBER 5 Battle for Pozières and Mouquet Farm
SEPTEMBER 15 Battle of Flers-Courcelette
OCTOBER 28 First Australian referendum on conscription
NOVEMBER New Zealand begins conscription
1917
JANUARY 31 Germany announces return to unrestricted submarine warfare
FEBRUARY 21 Germans withdraw to the Hindenburg Line
APRIL 6 United States joins war
APRIL 9 - MAY 16 Battle of Arras
APRIL 11 First Battle of Bullecourt
APRIL 16 Second Battle of Aisne triggers French mutinies
MAY 3-17 Second Battle of Bullecourt
JUNE 7 Battle of Messines
JULY 31 - NOVEMBER 10 Third Battle of Ypres
SEPTEMBER 20 Battle of Menin Road
SEPTEMBER 26 Battle of Polygon Wood
OCTOBER 4 Battle of Broodseinde
OCTOBER 9 Battle of Poelcappelle
OCTOBER 12 Battle of Passchendaele
OCTOBER 26 - NOVEMBER 10 Passchendaele captured
NOVEMBER 20 Battle of Cambrai
DECEMBER 20 Second Australian referendum on conscription
1918
MARCH 3 Russia and Germany make peace
MARCH 21 - APRIL 5 German Spring Offensive
APRIL 9 - MAY 8 German Operation Georgette
APRIL 24-25 Australians recapture Villers-Bretonneux
MAY 27-30 Third stage of German Spring Offensive
JUNE 4 Battle of Le Hamel
JULY 15-19 Final stage of German Spring Offensive
AUGUST 8 - SEPTEMBER 4 Allied Hundred Days Offensive
AUGUST 31 - SEPTEMBER 3 Allied troops capture Mont St. Quentin and Péronne
SEPTEMBER 12-18 Battle of Havrincourt-Epehy
SEPTEMBER 27 - OCTOBER 1 Allied troops pierce Hindenburg Line
OCTOBER 5 Allied troops capture Montbrehain village
OCTOBER 7 - NOVEMBER 11 Last joint Allied offensive
OCTOBER 30 Turkey signs armistice
NOVEMBER 3 Austria-Hungary signs armistice
NOVEMBER 4 New Zealanders capture Le Quesnoy
NOVEMBER 11 Germany signs armistice
DECEMBER 20 New Zealanders join occupation of Germany
GLOSSARY
5.9s: 5.9-inch (150-millimetre) German shells fired high in the air from a short gun called a field howitzer.
AIF: Australian Imperial Force—a voluntary army established to fight in the Great War.
Allies: an alliance of nations joined together for a common cause, used here to refer to the alliance between countries including: Britain, France, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, the United States and Italy.
Artillery: transportable, mounted guns that fire shells across long distances.
Billet: a private building used as living quarters for soldiers.
Breastworks: a temporary wall made from filled sandbags or wood, used to provide cover and defence.
Cavalry: a highly mobile branch of the army that attacks on horseback.
Concussion (shock) wave: a wave of air, usually from an explosion, that is so forceful it can kill.
Conscription: compulsory enrolment in the armed forces.
Court-martialled: tried by a military court.
Duckboards: a wooden boardwalk laid over muddy ground.
Fire steps: steps or ledges cut into the inside of a trench wall to allow defenders to look out or fire.
Flank: the left or right end of an army line.
Fly-blown: crawling with maggots.
Kaiser: a German title meaning emperor.
Loopholes: a small hole through a sandbag wall or pillbox, often made of metal tubing, which allows troops to observe or shoot in safety.
NZEF: New Zealand Expeditionary Force—a voluntary army established to fight in the Great War.
Pacifist: a person who is opposed to war or violence.
Parapet: a wall of sandbags at the top of a trench, used to give protection.
Puttee: a long strip of cloth wound around the leg from ankle to knee, over clothing and boots, to give protection and support.
Ramparts: a type of defensive wall.
Referendum: a democratic process in which the public votes directly to decide a political issue.
Salient: a place in the front-line where the trenches jut out to form a bulge into enemy territory, meaning that it is surrounded by the enemy on three sides.
Sap: a deep, narrow trench that allows safe movement of troops.
Shell-shock: a nervous or mental disorder brought on by the strain of war.
Shirker: a person who tries to evade military service or work.
Skipper: an affectionate nickname for an officer.
Stokes Mortar: a rapid-firing, short-barrelled gun that fires shells at high elevations across a short range.
Storm/shock troops: soldiers that are either specially trained or intended to lead an attack.
Two-up: a gambling game in which two coins are thrown in the air and bets are laid on whether they will land head or tails.
Victoria Cross (VC ): the highest British and Commonwealth medal, awarded for valour.
Very lights: a flare fired from a Very pistol, used for illumination or signalling.
WESTERN FRONT COMMANDERS
ALLIED
GENERAL SIR WILLIAM BIRDWOOD: British commander of I Anzac Corps from February 1916 to May 1918, when he was promoted to command the British 5th Army.
SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL: British officer and First Lord of the Admiralty at the start of the Great War. Demoted after the failed Gallipoli campaign, he briefly commanded a battalion on the Western Front in 1915. He returned to England in 1916, becoming minister of Munitions the following year.
BRIGADIER GENERAL HAROLD ‘POMPEY’ ELLIOTT: Australian commander of the 15th Brigade from March 1916 to 1919.
FIELD MARSHAL FERDINAND FOCH: French general appointed as the supreme commander of the Allied armies on the Western Front in March 1918.
FIELD MARSHAL SIR JOHN FRENCH: commander of the British Expeditionary Force from the start of the war until December 1915.
Lieutenant General Sir Alexander Godley: British officer who commanded II Anzac Corps from March 1916 until the end of the war.
GENERAL SIR HUBERT GOUGH: officer in charge of the British Reserve Army (renamed the 5th Army) from July 1916 to May 1918.
FIELD MARSHAL SIR DOUGLAS HAIG: war general and commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force, including the AIF and NZEF, from December 1915 until the end of the war.
GENERAL SIR RICHARD HAKING: British officer who commanded a brigade, then a division and subsequently XI Corps from September 1915 to the end of the war.
GENERAL JOSEPH JOFFRE: commander-in-chief of the French Army from 1914 to 1916.
LIEUTENANT GENERAL SIR JAMES MCCAY: commander of the 5th Australian Division from July 1916 to January 1917.
LIEUTENANT GENERAL JOHN MONASH: commander of the 3rd Australi
an Division from December 1916 to May 1918, when he was given command of the Australian Corps.
GENERAL ROBERT NIVELLE: commander-in-chief of the French Army from December 1916 to May 1917.
GENERAL JOHN PERSHING: commander of the American Expeditionary Forces from May 1917 to the end of the war.
GENERAL HENRI-PHILIPPE PÉTAIN: general who first commanded a division, then a corps and then an army before becoming commander-in-chief of the French Army in May 1917.
GENERAL SIR HERBERT PLUMER: affectionately known as ‘old Plum’ or ‘Daddy Plumer’ to his men, commander of the British 2nd Army in Flanders from May 1915 to the end of the war.
MAJOR GENERAL SIR ANDREW RUSSELL: commander of the New Zealand Division from March 1916 to the end of the war.
LIEUTENANT GENERAL SIR HAROLD WALKER: British general who commanded the 1st Australian Division from April 1916 to July 1918.
GERMAN
GENERAL ERICH VON FALKENHAYN: commander of the German Army from 1914 to 1916.
FIELD MARSHAL PAUL VON HINDENBURG: commander-in-chief of the German Army from 1916 to 1919.
FIRST QUARTERMASTER GENERAL ERICH VON LUDENDORFF: joint war-leader of the German Army from 1916 to 1918.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ZERO HOUR was only possible because of the dedication of earlier and contemporary historians, particularly the official Australian historian Charles Bean. Thanks to Les Cleveland, Harry Ricketts and Ian McGibbon for their assistance with the poems. Ali Arnold, my editor, has once again worked tirelessly to give this story life, and Clare Moleta, my partner, has given invaluable feedback and support. Thanks to everyone at Text Publishing for making Zero Hour the best it could be.
Text Publishing would like to thank the Australian War Memorial for their advice and comments on the manuscript, particularly Robert Nichols. Many thanks to historian Brad Manera for his fact-checking and careful reading of the manuscript.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Aitken, Alexander. Gallipoli to the Somme: recollections of a New Zealand infantryman. Oxford University Press, 1963.
Baker, Paul. King and country call: New Zealanders, conscription and the Great War. Auckland University Press, 1988.
Baxter, Archibald. We will not cease. Penguin, 1980.
Bean, C. E. W. The Australian Imperial Force in France, 1916. Official history of Australia in the war of 1914–1918, vol. III, 12th edn. Angus & Robertson, 1941.
——The Australian Imperial Force in France, 1917. Official history of Australia in the war of 1914–1918, vol. IV, 11th edn. Angus & Robertson, 1941.
——The Australian Imperial Force in France during the main German offensive, 1918. Official history of Australia in the war of 1914–1918, vol. V, 8th edn. Angus & Robertson, 1941.
——The Australian Imperial Force in France during the Allied offensive, 1918. Official history of Australia in the war of 1914–1918, vol. VI, 1st edn. Angus & Robertson, 1942.
——Anzac to Amiens. Australian War Memorial, 1983.
Boyack, Nicholas. Behind the lines: the lives of New Zealand soldiers in the First World War. Allen & Unwin/Port Nicholson Press, 1989.
Boyack, Nicholas & Jane Tolerton. In the shadow of war: New Zealand soldiers talk about World War One and their lives. Penguin, 1990.
Bromby, Robin. German raiders of the South Seas: the naval threat to Australia/ New Zealand 1914–17. Doubleday, 1985.
Burton, Ormond. The silent division. Angus & Robertson, 1935.
Byrne, A. E. Official history of the Otago Regiment, N.Z.E.F. in the Great War, 1914–1918. Wilkie & Co., 1921.
Carlyon, Les. The Great War. Pan Macmillan, 2006.
Carthew, Noel. Voices from the trenches: letters to home. New Holland, 2002.
Cochrane, Peter. The Western Front: 1916–1920. ABC Books, 2001.
Cutlack, F. M. The Australian Flying Corps in the western and eastern theatres of war, 1914–1918. Official history of Australia in the war of 1914–1918, vol. VIII, 11th edn. Angus & Robertson, 1941.
Dennis, Peter, Jeffrey Grey, Ewan Morris & Robin Prior, The Oxford companion to Australian military history. 2nd edn. Oxford University Press, 2008.
Downing, W. H. To the last ridge: the World War One experiences of W. H. Downing. Grub Street, 2005.
Gammage, Bill. The broken years: Australian soldiers in the Great War. Australian National University Press, 1974.
Harper, Glyn. Dark journey: three key New Zealand battles of the Western Front. HarperCollins, 2007.
Harper, Glyn (ed.). Letters from the battlefield: New Zealand soldiers write home, 1914–18. HarperCollins, 2001.
Holt, Tonie & Valmai. Battlefields of the First World War: a traveller’s guide. Pavilion, 1993.
Howard, Michael. The First World War. Oxford University Press, 2002.
Ingram, N. M. Anzac diary: a nonentity in khaki. Treharne, 1987.
Jünger, Ernst. Storm of steel. Penguin, 2004.
King, Melve (comp. Neil Frances & Doug King). Things have been pretty lively: the Great War diary of Melve King. Wairarapa Archive/Fraser Books, 2008.
Lee, A. Soldier. A. H. & A. W. Reed, 1976.
Macdonald, Andrew. On my way to the Somme: New Zealanders and the bloody offensive of 1916. HarperCollins, 2005.
MacKenzie, Clutha (ed.). Chronicles of NZEF, vol. I, no. 3, 29 September 1916; vol. II, no. 15, 28 March 1917; vol. IV, no. 45, 7 June 1918; vol. V, no. 56, 8 November 1918.
Malthus, Cecil. Armentères and the Somme, Reed Publishing, 2002
Marriot, Allan. Mud beneath my boots: a poignant memoir of the effects of war on a young New Zealander. HarperCollins, 2005.
Mitchell, G. D. Backs to the wall. Angus & Robertson, 1937.
Neiberg, Michael S. The Western Front 1914–1916: from the Schlieffen Plan to Verdun and the Somme. The history of World War I. Amber Books, 2008.
——The Western Front 1917–1918: from Vimy Ridge to Amiens and the armistice. The history of World War I. Amber Books, 2008.
Pederson, Peter. The Anzacs. Gallipoli to the Western Front. Viking, 2007.
Pelvin, Richard (ed.). Anzac: an illustrated history 1914–1918. Hardie Grant, 2004.
Phillips, Jock, Nicholas Boyack & E. P. Malone (eds). The great adventure: New Zealand soldiers describe the First World War. Allen & Unwin/Port Nicholson Press, 1988.
Pugsley, Christopher. On the fringe of hell: New Zealanders and military discipline in the First World War. Hodder & Stoughton, 1991.
Sassoon, Siegfried. The war poems of Siegfried Sassoon. Faber & Faber, 1983.
Scott, Ernest. Australia during the war. Official history of Australia in the war of 1914–1918, volume XI, 7th edn. Angus & Robertson, 1941.
Sievers, Gerald. World War One diary of Gerald Sievers. Unpublished: private collection of Patricia Lissienko.
Silkin, Jon (ed.). The Penguin book of First World War poetry. Penguin, 1979.
Stewart, H. Official history of New Zealand’s effort in the Great War. Whitcombe & Tombe, 1921.
Stinton, Harry (ed. Virginia Mayo). Harry’s war: a British Tommy’s experiences in the trenches in World War One. Conway, 2002.
Strachan, Hew. The First World War. Simon & Schuster, 2003.
Tolerton, Jane. Ettie: a life of Ettie Rout. Penguin, 1992.
Treadwell, C. A. L. Recollections of an amateur soldier. Thomas Avery & Sons, 1936.
Williams, E. P. A New Zealander’s diary: Gallipoli and France 1915–1917. Cadsonbury Publications, 1998.
Williams, H. R. The gallant company: an Australian soldier’s story of 1915–1918. Angus & Robertson, 1933.
Wilson, Patrick (ed.). So far from home: the remarkable diaries of Eric Evans, an Australian soldier during World War I. Kangaroo Press, 2002.
Wright, Matthew. Western Front: the New Zealand Division in the First World War, 1916–18. Reed Publishing, 2005.
WEBSITES
www.cambridgeairforce.org.nz
www.naa.gov.au
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br /> www.nzfpm.co.nz
www.nzhistory.net.nz
www.awm.gov.au
www.nzetc.org
www.dva.gov.au
www.cwgc.org
www.aucklandmuseum.com
REFERENCES
Footage
To see footage taken at the Somme River, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bggGLzk6cQ
Also see: http://www.ww1westernfront.gov.au/heath-cemetery/video.htmlhttp://aso.gov.au/titles/documentaries/australia-world-war-1/clip1/
Introduction
‘I personally feel…’ quoted in Boyack & Tolerton, pages 47–8
Chapter 1
‘I wouldn’t have missed…’ quoted in E. P. Williams, page 267
‘the last man and last shilling’, quoted in Bean, Anzac to Amiens, page 23
‘The lamps are going…’ quoted in Wilson, page 2
‘good fellows’, quoted in Sievers
‘to death’, quoted in Bean, Anzac to Amiens, page 213
Chapter 2
‘BLAKE—Killed in action…’ posted in The Age, 19 July 1917
‘It is an immense relief…’ quoted in Boyack, page 66
‘quite happy now that…’ quoted in Phillips, Boyack & Malone, page 268
‘has to run like blazes…’ quoted in Phillips, Boyack & Malone, page 268
‘The front line is rather like heaven…’ quoted in Malthus, page 38
‘the big-looked-forward-to day…’ quoted in Gammage, page 149
‘Australians go home…’ quoted in Bean, Vol. III, page 194
‘about six seconds after the explosion…’ quoted in Pugsley, page 68
‘and is hopful’, quoted in Bean, Vol. III, page 265
‘worked up…’ quoted in Bean, Vol. III, page 347
‘Advance Australia…’ quoted in Pederson, page 128
‘cried like a child’, quoted in Gammage, page 158
‘You won’t find a German…’ quoted in Bean, Vol. III, page 362
‘looked over the top, they saw…’ quoted in Bean, Vol. III, page 358
‘but more terrible, more…’ quoted in Downing, page 11
‘wounded and dying men…’ quoted in Bean, Vol. III, page 383
‘blurred by dust…’ quoted in Bean, Vol. III, page 417
‘in the air at a time’, quoted in Bean, Vol. III, page 420
Zero Hour Page 16