Military legend created
In retrospect, there is a paradox concerning Australia's defence policy on the eve of World War I. Earlier in the century politicians of all stripes were reluctant to advocate an expeditionary army. That is, one raised to be sent overseas and fight an enemy on its own ground. An electoral backlash was feared. Instead, in 1912 plans were drawn up for a combined Australian and New Zealand force if either country were invaded.
In effect, it was an embryonic plan to despatch troops overseas. Defence minister Senator G. F. Pearse, and the military chief of staff, Major C. B. B. White, were involved in developing the scheme. When war finally broke out, while no official policy for an expeditionary army for Europe existed, the template for such a force did.
With war clearly imminent, Commonwealth Treasurer, Sir John Forrest, speaking at a meeting in Busselton, WA, declared that, "If Britain goes to her Armageddon, we will go with her. Our fate and hers, for good or ill, are as woven threads."
The Leader of the Opposition, Andrew Fisher, speaking at a meeting in Colac, Victoria, famously declared that Australia would support Great Britain to "our last man and our last shilling".
The government decided to contribute an army to the Allied cause. Major White said such a force could be raised, based on earlier planning, and be ready to sail within six weeks. As a result, on August 3, 1914, the following cable was sent to the British government from the prime minister:
"In the event of war the Government is prepared to place the vessels of the Australian navy under the control of the British Admiralty when desired. It is further prepared to despatch an expeditionary force of 20,000 men of any suggested composition to any destination desired by the Home Government, the force to be at the complete disposal of the Home Government. The cost of despatch and maintenance will be borne by this government." The offer was published in the British press on August 4, just before the outbreak of hostilities.
On the home front, far from being an unpopular proposal as feared, the expeditionary army received wide support. Plans for its establishment were completed by August 8. Recruiting began two days later. The response was overwhelming. The new army was created in a month. The commander of the force was Maj-Gen. William Bridges. In canvassing a title for the army he wanted one that would reflect both its Australian and Empire facets. He also desired a name "that will sound well when they call us by our initials". He settled on the Australian Imperial Force - the 1st AIF. And so a legend of Australian military history was born.
In his The Story of Anzac C. E. W Bean gives a telling description of the first waves of volunteers. Their motives were varied, ranging from a lust for adventure, Empire loyalism, fear the Mother Country was under Prussian threat (22 per cent of the first wave of volunteers were born in the UK), a sense of duty among former British regular soldiers, revulsion at alleged German atrocities, among much else. As Bean vividly summed up: "All the romantic, quixotic, adventurous flotsam that eddied on the surface of the Australian people concentrated itself within those first few weeks upon the recruiting offices of the AIF."
Ultimately, the ranks of the army would be an uneven mix of those with experience in pre-war civil militia units, the Boer War, and untrained volunteers. The early recruits were largely from the big cities. "But within the first year," Bean recorded, "many farming districts had been deserted by almost all their young men."
In WA, the 10th Light Horse Regiment attracted the sons of just about every agricultural family in the State. They arrived with their own horses and saddlery. Tragically, half of the regiment was to be annihilated at the Nek on Gallipoli in what Bean described as "one of the bravest charges ever made".
Yet, though rural regions and occupations were represented in the AIF ranks, it is a myth that the army was largely based on such volunteers. Only about 17 per cent of the army were drawn from the bush.
Privates in the AIF were paid 6/- a day, comprising 5/- a day on active service, with 1/- per day deferred, to be paid on discharge, making them the highest paid private soldier in any Allied army. But the price they were soon to pay, in body and mind on Gallipoli - where the fledgling AIF lost 8000 killed in action in a failed campaign - was beyond any monetary calculation.
After withdrawal and reorganisation in Egypt, the AIF was despatched to the Western Front. There, it was to confront further horrors of a type that could not have been imagined in the innocent opening of World War I at home.
Having made a profound historical mark on the nation's consciousness the 1st AIF ceased to exist on April 1, 1921.
