The First Anzacs
This is the incredible, unknown story of the Australian and New Zealand combat engineers – sappers – who were among the first in and last out at Gallipoli and how their heroic exploits throughout WWI were ignored, diminished and deliberately airbrushed out of official histories.
They were written out of the legend of Gallipoli, but Australian and New Zealand sappers were among the very first ANZACs ashore on 25 April 1915. And now their true story of our World War I sappers can be told, complete with extracts from their diaries.
The official histories claim that sappers were not among the first Anzacs ashore. And even today, the army is reluctant to accept that they were there. But sappers are always among the very first in and last out in any combat, and Gallipoli was no exception, as this book proves.
The truth is that they were always in the vanguard, clearing defences, digging tunnels, building roads, bridges and walkways, usually under fire, for the troops who followed.
At Gallipoli, strafed by machine guns and targeted by snipers, they dug trenches and tunnels to advance on the Turkish lines. On the Western Front, they burrowed under the German trenches to plant massive explosives. In Egypt they demolished a Turkish railway in a day.
From Gallipoli to the sands of the Middle East, to the blood-soaked battlefields of France and Belgium, engineers also lay down their tools to fight as combat soldiers, often with heroic feats of astonishing courage, such as to the two sappers who tricked a German platoon into surrender, but were later denied VCs.
Perhaps it’s because WWI sappers were classic larrikins, indefatigably practical men who don’t take kindly to bureaucracy. But the military hierarchy’s response was to diminish and disparage their achievements, or even claim them as their own.
However, now the truth is out. Drawing on firsthand accounts and meticulous historical research, The First Anzacs reveals the unvarnished truth about some of the unsung heroes who helped create the Anzac legend in World War I.
‘Sappers are the unsung heroes of the First World War and this book helps bring them back into the limelight where they belong.’ Will Davies, Beneath Hill 60
‘From the shores of Gallipoli to the tunnels beneath Hill 60, this is the extraordinary saga of the Australian army engineer of World War One, the story of those who make and break, everywhere.’ Phillip Bradley, author of Inferno
‘It has taken 111 years for true stories to appear in a book adequately honouring sappers in World War I – you will remember these heroes forever’. Colonel Sandy MacGregor MC (rtd)
‘An excellent insight into the role of the Field Engineers as part of the combined arms team in World War I’ Brigadier Mick Say DSC, Head of Corps, Royal Australian Engineers.
