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Military Olympics
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This film shows the opening march-past of athletes in the Inter-Allied Games held on the outskirts of Paris from 22 June to 6 July 1919. Watch for the cameramen on the left of the frame.
Competitive events were put on in 22 sports, with 1,500 men from 19 countries competing. Look out for the New Zealanders with their distinctive silver fern – and team coach Sergeant EJ Benjamin carries the New Zealand flag.
With a team of 300 competitors, the United States dominated and placed first in 19 of the 22 events. The French, Australians and Canadians all entered sizeable teams. New Zealand contributed five athletes in track and field and an eight, four and single sculler in the rowing. One athlete represented for Guatemala.
New Zealand did well, coming third in the overall rankings in the track and field (United States 92 points, France 12 points, New Zealand 6 points, Australia 5 points). The New Zealand rowing team also did exceptionally well with Darcy Hadfield winning the international single sculls and the fours and eights both gaining third place.
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Peace Loan Procession
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At the end of the First World War, Australia was in desperate need of funds. To combat this, federal Parliament announced the first Peace Loan campaign on 30 July 1919.
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Invested at Buckingham Palace
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London – 3 May 1919 – crowds gather outside Buckingham Palace in London for an investiture by his Majesty King George V. Among the nurses and soldiers receiving awards and honours is a smartly dressed New Zealand officer in his lemon squeezer hat.
On the dais are Queen Mary and members of the royal household. In front stand Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig and his Generals – Plumer and Sir William Birdwood. Winston Churchill, then Secretary of State for War, stands proudly in morning suit and top hat.
After the ceremony, the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) Depot Band march past, followed by the New Zealand Parade Commander. Behind them are the New Zealand Field Artillery – note the infantry with their rifles and bayonets. Next, the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) march past. Mounted officers of the AIF and the Australian Light Horse trot by, and the crowd cheers and waves, then the AIF band march past – they are marching easy – and are followed by the Australian infantry.
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Peace Loan - Watch for the Aeroplane
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In addition to the loss of life, wars cost money. Government campaigns encouraged Australians to support the war effort by purchasing war bonds which would be repaid with interest. After the war ended these became ‘Peace Loans’ to recover the cost of the war, including assisting returned service personnel to settle back into civilian life.
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France’s South Pacific Soldiers in Sydney
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The First World War was truly a global war. What brought this home to Australians was seeing troops from other countries, including France’s Pacific colonies, passing through their country on their way to the Front.
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The Patriot Spirit
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Troops from France’s Pacific colonies, on their way to the war in Europe, allowed Australians to display their loyalty and patriotism.
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Carving Anzac Day
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An Anzac Day cinema advertisement encouraging Australians to not only mark Anzac Day as a day of significance but to 'carve’ its meaning into the nation’s psyche.
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Lest We Forget
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Thousands of Melburnians turn out in the pouring rain in 1925, to honour the fallen of the First World War.
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Royal Decorations
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A young Prince of Wales decorates Australian soldiers in France.
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Ask Your Tailor for Anzac Tweed
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The factory weaving Anzac Tweed was on the brink of closure when it was taken over by the Returned Soldiers and Sailors Imperial League. It then employed only returned servicemen and their families.
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With the Aid of the Red Cross
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Veterans returning in wheelchairs and with missing limbs gave Australians at home their first sight of the true cost of modern warfare.
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Early newsreels: A 1915 Pathé Animated Gazette
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People went to cinemas during the war to be entertained, but moving-pictures also played an important role in providing cinema-goers with news and information from abroad. Early newsreels, or topical films, were an important part of the typical cinema programme of the time.
This film is an example of a full-length Pathé Animated Gazette newsreel that was shown during the war. It demonstrates the contents of these types of films and how they mixed serious topics with more light-hearted footage: scenes of the Algerian Native Cavalry in Flanders, a brief glimpse of King George V and Queen Mary making their way through packed London Streets to a service at St Paul’s Cathedral, the opening of a New Zealand military hospital, and Zouaves (Algerian French Infantry).
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The Empire’s Troops
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Nearly three million troops from the colonies of the British Empire served during the First World War. This film made by Pathé Freres, released in 1917 but filmed over the period 1915 to 1917, shows how broadly based the Allied forces were. We see Canadians at Salisbury Plains, Indians at Marseilles, and Australians and New Zealanders in Egypt.
Usually films of soldiers during the war are formal affairs. While the film starts off this way, with the usual scenes of training, marching and inspections, it also shows troops of all the different nationalities in a more informal mood, playing up to the camera-- including performing a Highland jig! It also shows a rare glimpse of ANZAC forces at camp relaxing in Egypt, with the spectacular backdrop of the Pyramids behind them.
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Australia Day at Burra
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This newsreel shows the then prosperous and bustling mining town of Burra, or the collection of townships known as ‘The Burra’, celebrating Australia Day on July the 30th, predating the now national celebration held on 26 January. At that time there was no nationally recognised national day, instead they usually were based around each state’s date of significance for the founding of the colony.
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The campaign that failed
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Conscription was introduced by law in New Zealand. However, Australians were able to vote on introducing conscription in a referendum in October 1916. This film was made as part of the “Vote Yes’ campaign. It shows PM William Hughes presenting the pro-conscription case, followed by messages to vote 'Yes' from well known figures such as the martyred Nurse Cavell, King George V and France’s General Joffre. Despite these efforts, however, the campaign for conscription was narrowly defeated.
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Within Our Gates
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After the outbreak of war there was a growing public opinion that all Germans in Australia were a threat to security and should be interned. In this cartoon, this attitude appears as a fear that employees of German origin are protected in government jobs.
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Australian Light Horse in the Middle East
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The Australian Light Horse Regiments are almost legendary, although accounts of their actions may be more myth than fact. This film shows some of the 6,1000 horses embarking from an AIF transport ship, along with troops. The footage also shows the Imperial Camel Corps, established in January 1916 and made up of British, Australian and NZ battalions, entering the town of Beersheba, with General Edmund Allenby who headed the British Empire’s Egyptian Expeditionary Force. He is seen here after Jerusalem’s fall into Allied hands on 9 December 1917, reading his proclamation of martial law in the nine languages of the city.
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Australian troops at the Pyramids
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Australian and New Zealand troops arrived in Egypt in December 1914. They set up Mena Camp near the Great Pyramids outside Cairo and began training in preparation for the Western Front and Gallipoli. This footage sees them exploring the extraordinary landmarks - the Pyramids and the Sphinx.
While they waited in Egypt to be deployed, the Australian and New Zealand forces were formed into the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) under the command of Lieutenant General William Birdwood. The training the Anzacs received was only rudimentary, and did little to prepare them for what was to come.
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Billy Hughes visits the AIF’s home away from home
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The First World War led to a major influx of Australians into Britain. From summer 1916 to the end of the war there were never fewer than 50,000 Australian troops present. In 1915 Horseferry Road in Westminster, London, became a home away from home for the Anzacs. The AIF Administrative Headquarters, the Australian War Records Section and the War Chest Club were located there (the Club was established to promote the welfare of all soldiers). Horseferry Road became a historically significant Australian location: it was where the Anzacs could create a community for themselves, and was filled with men wearing slouch caps and speaking with familiar accents.
In this film the Australian Prime Minister, William ‘Billy’ Hughes, doffs his top hat to the camera before inspecting soldiers at the AIF Headquarters. These visits were effective in raising troop morale, letting them know that, though far from their own country, they remained in the thoughts of those back home.
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Surgeon-General Charles Ryan, ANZAC Cove, 1915
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Surgeon-General Charles S. Ryan is shown in a casual pose outside the aide-de-camp’s dugout at Anzac Cove, May 1915.
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Percy’s First Holiday
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W.S. Percy was a favourite Australian comic opera star. This film clip shows the crowd outside Sydney’s Crystal Palace cinema for a special matinee screening of his first film, Percy’s First Holiday.
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Even Major-Generals die in battle
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The sombre 1915 funeral procession of Major-General Sir William Bridges, killed in action at the Dardenelles. Filmed in Melbourne after Bridges’ body arrived home months after his death.
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“Every one of those lads was lying dead”
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Dunedin-born Charles Duke was working in Australia as a journalist when World War I broke out. He signed up with the Australian Imperial Force, sailing with the 4th Battalion. By early August 1915 he had twice been wounded and evacuated from Gallipoli. Yet he returned to his unit and found himself caught up in the bloody offensive which came to be known the Battle of Lone Pine.
Duke wrote a detailed account of his war, and in this 1969 radio programme he gives a vivid description of hand-to-hand fighting in the trenches at Lone Pine.
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Dust in our ears, eyes, mouth, nose and everywhere
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In late 1914 the New Zealand and Australian forces were diverted from their original destination of England to Egypt. There they combined to form the ANZAC Corps that would eventually fight in the Gallipoli campaign. This film shows an activity that became a routine part of soldiers’ life - the troop inspection.
As well as the blazing Egyptian heat, the ANZAC troops had another menace to contend with – dust. Herbert Hart wrote in his diary “[t]he sand is worked into such fine dust near camp, that it now flies everywhere whenever the troops move over it. We had dust in our ears, eyes, mouth, nose and everywhere, it fell from our puggarees [cloth wrapped around the regulation sun helmets], pouches, pockets, putties [long cloth strips wrapped around the calves] or from all our clothes.”
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“What about a drop of water, Digger?”
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Water shortages were a constant problem for the thousands of men based at Gallipoli in 1915. Natural water was scarce on the peninsula and attempts to solve the problem by using water condenser units to convert sea water for drinking proved inadequate. Water supplies, often from as far away as Egypt, had to be brought in by boat and landed on the beach, sometimes under fire. Then the various containers had to be dragged over the rugged landscape to the thirsty men in their trenches.
The unidentified New Zealand veteran in this interview recalls how the mateship between Kiwis and Australians meant they sometimes gave each other preferential treatment with water rations.
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Seasick men and horses
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Twenty-three-year-old Auckland telegraphist (signaller) Cyril Bassett sailed for the war in October 1914 with the Main Body of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Cyril was on board the battleship Waimana, with the rank of orderly corporal. In this 1976 interview, he recalls that during the long sea voyage. his job was to clean up after seasick men and horses. However, in August 1915 Bassett won the Victoria Cross, the highest award for bravery in the Allied forces, for maintaining communication lines under fire during the Battle of Chunuk Bair.
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The First Anzac at Gallipoli
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Britain’s Royal Navy was in charge of landing the first Australians and New Zealanders at Gallipoli on April 25 1915. From their troop transport ships, the men were loaded into smaller boats which were towed as close to the beach as possible. The steam-powered ‘picket’ boats which towed them were commanded by teenage Navy midshipmen like 15-year-old Eric Bush, who was responsible for getting about 200 Anzacs ashore. Among the first Australians to land was Private James Bostock, who recalls how he jumped overboard and waded onto the beach at what would soon be known as Anzac Cove. Both men were recorded in 1955 for a BBC radio documentary marking the 40th anniversary of the landings.
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Distraction from the war – a day at the beach
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This brief clip from around 1914 is one of few surviving film records of Australian beach scenes from this period. Beachgoers of both sexes are seen strolling along the sand of an unidentified beach in their Sunday best. A small group playing in the shallows is all male since ‘open bathing’ (swimming outdoors) was still considered somewhat improper at this time. A glimpse of a lone skiff indicates that Australians were quick to embrace all aquatic sports, not just swimming.
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Boys of the Dardanelles
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Boys of the Dardanelles
They faced the shot and the shells
Down in hist'ry their fame will goThe patriotic ballad ‘ Boys of the Dardanelles ', composed by Australian writer and singer Marsh Little, was particularly effective for encouraging recruitment. This version was performed by the prolific English singer and recording artist Stanley Kirkby.
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Australia will be there
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Of all the patriotic songs of WW1, 'Australia Will Be There' is probably the one best known to Australians. It became the marching song of the Australian Expeditionary Forces and was used to rally the troops as they marched away from home. 'Australia Will Be There' was written in 1915 by Walter ‘Skipper’ Francis. The song quotes from ‘ Auld Lang Syne’ in its chorus and is often given its longer title, 'For Auld Land Syne - Australia Will Be There '.
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Distraction from the war - Coogee Beach
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Scenes of surf, sun and swimming at Coogee Beach, Sydney, played upon the sea as a place of recreation in stark contrast to the suffering at Gallipoli and on the Western Front. This film clip from 1915 shows the local surf lifesaving club practising with a surf reel. The foreshore is teeming with swimmers and sunbathers, as well as a good number of beach visitors dressed to the nines and content to promenade.
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Sheep dogs & medieval knights, Australian Gazette
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From a sheepdog trial to a costume parade in support of the French Red Cross – the weekly Australian Gazette newsreel captured a slice of Australian life through the war years.
This example from mid-1915 starts with a sheepdog trial at a showground, followed by shots of the British barque Inverness-Shire, dismasted by wild weather off the coast of Tasmania. The third segment (unfortunately damaged by deterioration of the nitrate film) records a parade heading down Collins St in Melbourne in aid of the French Red Cross. The clip ends with the mammoth funeral procession in Sydney for the great Australian batsman Victor Trumper.
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A rickshaw ride in Durban
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Two Australian soldiers riding in a rickshaw pulled by a local man in Durban, South Africa, is taken from a B&W glass slide. Durban was an important port during WWI as troopships from Australia and New Zealand sailed around the Cape of Good Hope. From 1916 this was a safer route than the Suez Canal as there was a risk of a submarine attack in the Mediterranean. Soldiers disembarked in Durban and the troopships resupplied the journey took up to eight weeks to and from Australia.
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Soldier’s souvenir view of Egypt
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This image (B&W glass slide) was probably taken by an Australian soldier during a break from a route (training) march. Australian troops relax under the shade of trees in Egypt. Many images taken by soldiers serving overseas in the war show more famous tourist scenes such as men seated on camels, the pyramids, the Sphinx, or in a building or busy city street. Yet this shot still gives a feel of the tourist abroad, in the relaxed lounging poses struck by many of the subjects.
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Washing the horses, Suvla Bay
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With the Gallipoli campaign at deadlock, a smaller Allied force, including Australians and New Zealanders, made an amphibious landing at Suvla Bay on the Aegean Sea to relieve pressure on the main force. Many horses accompanied the landing parties, providing vital transport for men and material. This photograph shows men washing their horses in advance of the Suvla attack, with mules, tents and other equipment in the background.