RSL Book of WWI

[John Gatfield]

Just letting forum members know that this book is now available in shops throughout Australia and from online retailers. I'll leave it to others to review and comment, but the link below describes it pretty well - more than 100 stories and experiences written by Australian WWI veterans for the various RSL magazines. From recruitment through all campaigns (Egypt,Palestine, Gallipoli, Western Front, air war, navy, nurses) to repatriation.

http://www.booktopia.com.au/the-rsl-book-of-world-war-i-john-gatfield/prod9780732299651.html?bk_source=Criteo

[John Gatfield]

First month of sales and more than 2000 copies have been sold with a full promotion yet to come. I've been very gratified to receive congratulations from so many people. I understand reviews are about to appear in mainstream media shortly. This is WWI in the words of those who were there.

[1st AIF]

Has much of it been published before or is it previously unpublished stuff except for in Reveille?

[John Gatfield]

The content is all taken from Reveille (NSW), The Queensland Digger, Mufti (Victoria) and The Listening Post (WA) - so all unpublished other than in the various RSL magazines from about 1920. The Queensland stories are interesting because the RSL in Queensland doesn't hold copies of their magazine from the 1920s onwards (lost in flood damage) and I spent days in the State Library in Brisbane to collect those.

[The Scorer]

Amazon only have the Kindle version, which is available to download for £8.99.

There's four copies of the paperback available from Abe Books. The cheapest is from within the UK at £21.15 including postage; then two from Australia at £34.90 and £40.40 including postage; and finally one from the USA at £47.30 including postage.

[John Gatfield]

This collection of stories contributes
much to the commemoration, over the
next four years, of the centenary of
battles and of those who fought.
The sounds of the Great War now
resound most stridently in the words
of soldiers. We don’t necessarily learn
much from the words of politicians and
generals. It is in this contrast that may
lie one explanation for the revival of
interest in the Great War over the past
30 years: because we hear the stories
through both the lyrical and the prosaic;
through the factual and the descriptive;
but mainly through the words of people
who were there as if they are names
frozen in time.
This book then, is a collection of
stories (104 of them), taken from
various publications of the RSL,
“written by Diggers for Diggers”.
The editors have done a fine job in
commemorating those who served
through personal stories told by the
participants. Rear Admiral Doolan
writes in his thoughtful preface:
“They record the excitement and
horrors of battle, the extraordinary
courage of ordinary men and women
and the irrepressible larrikinism of
boisterous young men . . .”
Jackie French, Senior Australian of the
Year for 2015, has recently written in
praise of this story-telling genre:
“Stories are the richest legacy we can
leave – because our stories connect us,
as families, friends, communities and as
a nation.”
The editors’ selection of stories
is well considered. They range
chronologically from the capture of
German New Guinea (“The First
Away”) to the Gallipoli campaign
(most memorably “Stretcher-bearers at
Anzac”) to the Western Front. Sapper
Smith’s diary at Fromelles is stark.
On this one Wednesday night, 19 July
1916, 5533 Australian soldiers were
killed, wounded or captured. It was, as
historians have written, “the worst 24
hours in Australia’s entire history.”
Then there are interludes when, among
the unimaginable tragedy, there is time
to stage the “Melbourne Cup” (“An
Australian Race Meeting in France”).
There is time for a touching tribute.
Private Desmond Tomkins’s “A Gallant
Conscientious Objector” tells the story
of 18 year old Tomkins’s friend, the
scholarly Reverend Digges La Touche,
killed at Lone Pine on 6 August 1915.
There is now a plaque in Sydney’s
St Andrew’s Cathedral in memory of
Lieutenant La Touche. Tomkins’ simple
description of Digges’s last moments
still has much emotional force:
“When the whistle blew, Digges led
his platoon forward to a hail of rifle and
machine gun fire. Seconds later Digges
was dead . . .”
There are 16 pages of photos but in
some ways, they’re not needed. The
words paint the picture.
So, let the words sink in as the
storytellers come back to life again, 100
years after the stories happened.
Then, go out and retell the stories!
James Rodgers

[Dolphin]

An excellent collection of first-hand accounts, well worth reading.

Gareth