THE SPIRIT OF ANZAC

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16577, 28 December 1915, Page 7

THE SPIRIT OF ANZAC

UNDISMAYED AUSTRAIJANS. WHAT MAKES THEM GO ON? [ GABA TEPE, October 21. What is it takes them on? It is the AiW '"i tralians I am speaking of, not the New Zealand era, in this article, writes Captain C. E. * Bean, commonwealth official correspondent with the Australian Expeditionary Forces. There are very interesting and quite , clearly-marked differences between the'two. Tho New Zealander is more urbane, less of a child of Nature lhan the Australian. He > has carried on, too, persisted to the very end. - It may be patriotism that sustains him at . • the last—l do not know. I have not had • quite tho same opportunity for knowing him. But with our Australians—what is it ? Yob know they started out sick men to that Lone' Pine assault. The men who made the < were actually weak with the prevailing sick-' . j ness and hard work, and over 100 days' con- , '' tin nous existence in the trenches over the "■ '■ parapet of which they went. >< It has been publicly stated bv the com- ■' in an d er-i n -oh ief that the health of the troops ' in Gallipoli was not satisfactory, and 90 I suppose there can be no harm in saving. that this battle occurred iwt.at the timp when ' that sickness was at its \ worst. The sur-■ *, geons commonly said, before the August battle was foreshadowed, that, if the men were called upon to keep up anv long, sustained effort, they thought it would 'He beyond their physical powers to do it.. Those' men have rested now, and so there is less reason for obecuring the prophecy. Besides,' -* they proved it quite untrue. They love a fight. But what was it .> made them go on? I do not mean when they scrambled over the parapet and made for the Turkish trench and'tore their way , 1 into it through the head , cover. But at the end of the second or third day. when t la they had fought,without sleep in those same ' narrow trcnches until the whole world seemed a dream, and they scarcely knew whether it was real or a delirium. Often no doubt it was a little of both. Two-' :_y thirds of each battalion had been wiped - \ out, and there could have seemed no proa-' ■ >'* pect before any man except that of wounds 1 "* or of death, and that in the most, appalling . surroundings. The dead were .vsf. in the trcnches, and the whole place was 1-i filled with stench and vermin, eo that men were physically sick. What wfis it that, •-* carried each individual on? 1 .1 NO LOVE OF FIGHTING. It was certainly not love of the fight.-" ? The Australian loves a fight, I will s,wear,v -. ",v as much as any man alive. In spite of a > great deal of nonsense which is writtenabout it, however, fighting is a gome of,' which even its lovers soon tire. I re- i ' r " member one morning, about the beginning"- , of June, when the Turks took apart of 1 ■/ a trench at Quinn's Post, and the 15th Bat-« talion went over the top just after day->. ,fr break and charged theni across the deadliest ■ ■ • ,*• area in Anzac. There was no love of fightr Z ing in it—not even the wildest - romancist , f that ever wrote a noval could pretend that.' . '■/ The 15th had endured a month of thes6 ' H deadly trenches at their worst period when !; there was no peace at all there, but a con- '' : ,l tinuous strain almost every hour of the - 1 ~'' l 24. There was probably not a man in it' "is just then but was heartily sick of fight-- - "335 ing, and would have been .quite oontent ' -{4 never to fight again—at any." rate not until ' . next time. Moreover, they did not hate' , ! 'fi the Turk. This was after the big Turkish"attack of 19th May, and they rather;' respected'the Turk than otherwise. Yet the' ■ -',j. men of that battalion were determined that - whatever it cost the trenfch should be re- -j taken by them. WHEN THE HEAVENS FALL. } If they were fighting on Australian soil - it would be: patriotism. It, was patriotism that carried along the 2nd Brigade across a y thousand yards of deadly heath at Helles, £ when there, were strangers on either side of * them and behind them. Patriotism is a v i strong motive with Australians, and no doubt the strongest motive with some of -ti them here eyen to the last. But in these <- '•*,> extremities, when every other motive seems v >to be exhausted, and each man is left to ? 'f himself to _ face a hopeless outlook, when ,'iu the world is spinning and the heaVens seem to be falling in, which is the last idea, that , '' £ filters through to the distracted, over-tired, 1 ■ <c over-strained mind in that fierce trial? I" may be wrong, but I do not think it is sheer ■ - patriotism which makes these men gO' ~. straight on. „," V Of oourse,- the weaker men are swept on- ■ - by the stronger. A good part of the men 1 .yy in any force always go into action with their '' minds ready to be made up for them by tha ; will of the man next door. They would not realise it, even if you told them so j but . V it is a palpable' fact, ,especially m the case , of a proportion of tl?e younger men. Their,, will is not really in their, own bodies bat in , the body of the man next to them—of the, t nearest strong man whoever he happens to , be, —and they will do as, he does. If he ; goes'on they will go on; if he turns they . . turn; if he drops they are ,apt to become confused. The valuable man is that strong,' . independent-willed man who in. the case of , 1 these troops constitutes a big proportion, ..- fortunately, and who will go on till his job.J is finished, whatever the man beside him y rtay do. . . j '<- And why does lie do it? He is the man .... j ir. who goes into battle fully accepting the probability of death. _ "The lltn - has done splendidly," I N said to one of ~f - the the men of that battalion on the morn; ! .»i ing after a brilliant night attack. "Yes. and the 28th will get the hurrahs for it, he answered immediately. The 28th *7as a battalion which at that moment was just .■ - about leaving his native town, and m a* . ,r? month or two would arrive at the front. >• J , It is not the expectation of winning the,'; , applause of his own people which is. the " spirit from -within that nourishes these - strong men in their extremity. What is it? •" P THE GOOD WORKMAN. ' I have again and again thought it out,, ■ I fancy it is the truth within the themselves. A man suddenly wakes up in the grey of the morning to find that ne is faced by the prospect of instant death, as' his regiment has to charge out to Quinn's. , He does not in the least wish to die. He doe 3 not want to charge. I do not know y that even the reputation ;of his regiment— dear as it is—would make him actually ;V fj want to confront that prospect. But to 1 ■ . belong to a battalion wnich had to oall' in another battalion to do its work for it— ' to be the sort of .man who having -.et his ' . hand to a job has not the grit to carry it out—to live through all the years after- < - :-i wards and think that he had started, on ,this I handiwork as a soldier and had not, the * , courage to complete it—that is tho prospect he cannot face. Life is very dear, but life' is not worth living on those terms—it is • , =i,i not worth living unless you can live .it as " r Hi what an Australian considers to be a man. ' , " which is to say a man having set his hand to a task carries that task through until it . is finished. Ho is a great, true, loyal man—loyal, I / .' mean, to his Australian manhood. I may be deceived, but I think that is why when ' all hope and help is vanishing, when the - end confronts him, and tho world seems to be toppling and the heavens fall in, its ruins will" strike him undismayed. _ .