AustLit

'What really happened to the ex-servicemen in Australia when they returned to civil life?
The truth of their stories in peacetime is as shocking as the war they faced. In fact, the line separating the living from the dead was, at times, not clear at all.
Many soldiers returned to celebrations, such as the great march in Melbourne on St Patrick’s Day 1920, but celebrations were followed by a period of long silence. ‘Disappointment crowded in on disappointment’ especially concerning First Nations Diggers. Mistakes were made as well as achievements attained.

'While much has been written about Australians in the Great War battles which resonates in the national consciousness, less has been published about Anzacs in civilian life. The truth of their stories in peacetime is neglected. There are silences. Memories have been lost that cry out. Author John Ramsland, draws on his extensive and detailed research to bring to life stories exposing the struggles and successes.' (Publication summary)

'Some AIF men had a rendezvous with death in the ‘silence in the summer night’, but many were to survive only to face ‘the thudding of the guns’, again and again until 11 November 1918 at 11am. Their stories were about ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances. They endured physical and psychological horrors.

'This volume by historian John Ramsland is packed with unusual stories of a deeply personal nature: gripping, frequently harrowing and sometimes chilling. They are bought vividly to life from when the first shot was fired until the last bullet and, then, beyond to the aftermath. Such studies are first-hand, meticulously researched and comprehensively analysed.

'From the life stories of historical figures, known or unknown, celebrated or forgotten, the author elegantly crafts an anthology of epic heroism in WWI. In it, he chronicles the harsh reality of it all; he creates a strong picture of living conditions for frontline soldiers in the South Pacific, Gallipoli, the Western Front and Palestine.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'The versatile and gifted Douglas Grant was stereotyped in the media as the Black Digger with a Scottish accent. He was much more than that. Well educated by White parents who rescued him from an 1886 massacre in the frontier wars, Douglas became an engineering draftsman, woolclasser, charismatic public speaker and storyteller. In the 1st AIF he fought bravely on the Western Front, was wounded and taken prisoner in the Battle of Bullecourt. Noting he was well-educated, German authorities made him the inmate-in-charge of the large Half Crescent Prison Camp for Muslim and Hindu soldiers. He saved many lives by negotiating for ritual foods and medical supplies. Returning home, he went through hard times and adventures, but always maintained his great sense of humour about life.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'A fascinating look at the troubled life story of wartime bravery, the price of fame and of a serious breakdown that lasted two decades.

'During the 1950s Paul Brickhill, an Australian fighter pilot, prisoner of war and author wrote, without a doubt, the best iconic stories of the RAF in wartime Europe - all tour-de-force books based on brilliant research which today remain unfaded. Most are still in print. Paul Brickhill may have been forgotten, but not his books and not the classical feature film versions derived from them.' (Publication summary)

'Arthur Wheen was the most daring, resourceful signaller in the 1st AIF. His extraordinary exploits in the epic Battles of Fromelles, Polygon Wood, Villers-Bretonneux and Péronne are told as well as his subsequent career as a Rhodes Scholar. In 1929 he became the first and best translator of Remarque's classical German war novel All Quiet on the Western Front that became an international bestseller and a Hollywood film in 1930. 

'On the other side of No Man's Land Wheen's experience paralleled incidents in the book. In the midst of the horrors of Fromelles, Wheen showed conspicuous bravery in laying and repairing telephone lines under extremely heavy fire across No Man's Land where there was indescribable loss of life. At night he volunteered to search for the wounded and showed fine courageous spirit in rescuing many under intense machine-gun and rifle fire. He wrote: 'The Morning Star is Quenched with Blood.' (Publication Summary)

This article’s purpose is to examine the formative years – culminating with his frontline service – of an Australian First World War veteran. The intention is to reveal how they influenced his subsequent life and helped to re-define his persona as an anti-war pacifist, expatriate scholar and prominent translator. The study uses a life-study or biographical approach drawing from a rich vein of primary and secondary sources – personal correspondence, unpublished and published war records and other contemporary documents. How he came to translate into English Erich Maria Remarque’s significant novel Im Westen nichts Neues to make it a phenomenal commercial success worldwide is explored as the pinnacle of his scholarly life and as a major contribution to the literature of disenchantment with war. [From the journal's webpage]

'A hundred years before backpacking became popular, and even before the jolly swagman went Waltzing Matilda, Theodor Müller shouldered his swag, left his home and spent nineteen years travelling the Australian outback with no more than what he could carry.

Arriving in Sydney in December 1857 from his home in Switzerland, Müller roamed the sparsely settled regions of Australia, travelling as far north as Brisbane, west to Mudgee, south to Gundagai. Sleeping beneath the stars, finding work where he could, and observing this wild new land, Müller returned home eventually to write his memoirs - Neunzehn Jahre in Australien. This current edition has been translated into English and expanded, with maps, illustrations and historical insights, to bring Müller's trailblazing adventures to full and vibrant life.' -- back cover of The Swiss Swagman (2007).