An Australian Bias

The Anzac Legend is subtitled - “An Australian Bias”. This is because I’ve concentrated on the story from the Australian perspective. I guess this is because my major source for information was Bean’s Australian Official War History. I have written the book as an alternate version of that book. A graphic presentation which may be more attractive to a broader audience then a mostly text based history. It is in many ways a summary of the Official History, presented graphically and with a more chronological timeline.

A British Square

I’m a fairly pro-Australian sort of fellow, and can’t speak highly enough of the place. I guess you could say I’m biased. I wanted to tell about the background of the country, and the formation of the 1^st AIF (Australian Imperial Force). If I was to go into detail on the other countries involved, it would have meant  telling the stories of at least five other countries i.e New Zealand, Britain, India, France and Turkey. If I decided to write the story from the perspective of one of these, in all fairness, I should do the others. So I decided not to go down that path and concentrated on telling the story of only one. The one I’m fondest of.

As Australians we are often accused of forgetting about the NZ in Anzac. At times this may be true, but there are also many other countries (mentioned above) which can accuse us of forgetting their contribution. I have no intention of fobbing anybody off, but the limitations of the book have meant that the details of some aspects, and participants, are reduced.

I have concentrated on the story I wanted to tell, which is the story of the landing at Gaba Tepe by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.