ANZAC DAY BOOK REVIEW

Australians and New Zealanders are today “celebrating” Anzac Day. I put ‘celebrating’ in quotes because it’s a very sombre affair, remembering the massive loss of life in WW1. This year, I wanted to read something relevant in the lead up to Anzac Day so here is my review of “IN GREAT SPIRITS - The WW1 Diary of Archie Barwick”.

This is a truly extraordinary book. Archie Barwick enlisted at the first soundings of war in 1914 and experienced first-hand the horrors of Gallipoli. As if that were not enough, he spent a further three years fighting the Germans in France, injured badly on a couple of occasions but otherwise surviving miraculously. Through the whole ordeal, he kept a colourfully detailed diary. As the title of this book suggests, his diary highlights the positive attitude of the Australian troops and he glowingly reports their achievements and the esteem in which they were held by the French and English, yes and even the Germans. He graphically describes the terrible mud-soaked conditions in the Somme campaign, the ravages of "trench-foot", and the frightful artillery battles, with huge shells whistling around his ears or over his head. Yet, when the weather cleared up and opportunity arose, he relished the scenery and hospitality of the war-torn France.

The following entry from 19th May, 1916, conveys something of the tragic, yet whimsical style of Archie's writing. "Today is the first anniversary of the great Turkish attack on us at Anzac. This day last year we were getting a bit of our own back, by nightfall we had slaughtered no less than 7000 Turks and taught them a very severe lesson. I wonder where I shall be this time next year; daisy pushing perhaps, or if my luck still sticks to me, home in Australia, for I don't think the war will last another year at any rate."

Wisely, the editors of this volume have left Archie's idiosyncrasies in tact. He always used the ampersand & instead of the actual word. Good things were "bonzer", the Germans were "Old Fritz", and British soldiers were "Tommies".

Some things, in the end, really did get to Archie; the long wait to be cleared of the flu when the war was over, the homesickness, the mud and snow, the thousands of dead bodies. It truly is hard to believe that anyone could survive all these things but, apparently, Archie did.

This is an unforgettable diary of a very forgettable time in history.