Assessment of the Methods Used by the Australian War Memorial
The Australian War Memorial fulfils its aims by commemorating through
understanding. It promotes awareness of war through an extensive
historical collection of relics, a multitude of dioramas and hundreds
of historical accounts concerning all military conflicts that common
Australian soldiers have been associated with. As a result an
illustration of actual warfare is presented, not a romanticised ideal
so often related to military conflict. Through this, the memorial
establishes remembrance which in turn commemorates those that gave the
ultimate sacrifice for their country. Yet the memorial also honours
those that offered their lives through both symbolism, which is
evident in all buildings, and the commemorative area.
Throughout his extensive travels throughout battlefields of Europe and
Gallipoli as Australia's official war correspondent throughout the
First World War, Charles Edwin Woodrow Bean gained an insight to the
life of a fighter, be he a common soldier or high ranking General.
With this knowledge he established a dream to construct a war memorial
that would, 'explain to Australians what their men had done and what
they experienced in the war.' With this vision he asked not
historians, but the soldiers themselves to amass relics that they
found suitable in representing the war. By the Great War's end, tonnes
of material were shipped back to Australia, and they formed the
backbone in conveying the history of Australia's involvement in war.
Yet Bean, often recognised as the father of Australia's National
military museum, aimed to also 'set aside a place in Aust...
... middle of paper ...
...very one of its goals and more than satisfies Charles
Bean's description of the building as, 'Here is their spirit, in the
heart of the land they loved, and here we guard the record which they
themselves made.'
Bibliography
1. CEW Bean, Anzac to Amiens: A Shorter History, Halstead Press,
Sydney, 1946
2. M Mckernan, Here is Their Spirit: A History Of The Australian War
Memorial, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, 1991
3. KS Inglis & J Brazier, Sacred Places: War Memorials In The
Australian Landscape, The Miegunyah Press, 1998
4. P Dennis, J Grey, E Morris, R Prior & J Connor, The Oxford
Companion To Australian Military History, Oxford University Press,
Melbourne, 1995
5. For The Fallen, 2004, http://www.anzacs.org/fallen.html
6. The Australian War Memorial, 2004, http://www.awm.gov.au/
Many soldiers who come back from the war need to express how they feel. Many do it in the way of writing. Many soldiers die in war, but the ones who come back are just as “dead.” Many cadets come back with shell shock, amputated arms and legs, and sometimes even their friends aren’t there with them. So during World War I, there was a burst of new art and writings come from the soldiers. Many express in the way of books, poems, short stories and art itself. Most soldiers are just trying to escape. A lot of these soldiers are trying to show what war is really like, and people respond. They finally might think war might not be the answer. This is why writers use imagery, irony and structure to protest war.
Hypothesis: The Australian public made a significant contribution to the war efforts from 1939 to 1945, through sacrifices on a personal and national level. The determination of the Australian people in bringing their loved ones home safely, created strong relationships between the community, which in many cases, are still prevalent in Australian society to this day.
On the 14th of September 1914 executive council of the Australians Journal Association appointed Charles as the official war correspondent with the AIF troops (Australian Imperial Force). He was then honorarily given the ranking of a captain and then followed in the footsteps of the Australians infantries campaigns.
The years since the Battle of Vimy Ridge may have passed quickly, but the legacy of the Canadians whose accomplishments were great in that pivotal First World War battle lives on. Many people claim to this day that Canada came of age as a country on those hard April days in 1917. At first, through the meticulous planning of the battle, the world saw a nation capable of working together and making decisions as a team. Afterwards, with the range of technical and tactical innovations involved in the attack, the world saw a strong nation unafraid to protect and defend. In the end, through great sacrifice the world bore witness to the birth of the Canadian legacy. To conclude that the nation was born on April 9th 1917, on the Artois plains is to deny over three centuries of history during which the ancestors of millions of Canadians devoted their lives to building the country. This is why the Battle of Vimy Ridge wasn’t the birth of Canada itself, but the birth of our legacy- the ‘true’ origin of our nation.
The soldiers are remembered for maintaining courage and determination under hopeless conditions. The ANZAC legend owes much to wartime correspondents who used the Gallipoli landing to generate a specifically Australian hero. Among the many reports, which reached Australia, were those of Ashmead-Bartlett. His Gallipoli dispatches described Australians as a 'race of athletes ... practical above all', whose cheers, even in death, 'resounded throughout the night'. Ashmead-Bartlett helped in...
The assistance that the war veterans receive in Canada today is considered one of the best in the world. With assistance programs that provide support to the veterans in the form of attentive health care, health insurance, health related travel expenses, assisted living, career training, rehabilitation, financial benefits, and much more. But, this wasn’t always the case with the Veterans Assistance Commission in Canada. Very little was done prior to WW1, for the war veterans. Even though much difference was promised and greater commitments were made by the Canadian government during and after the First World War, it still was not nearly enough. Pensions were denied to deserving candidates, assistance was provided to many in a form that was nowhere near enough to start a new life, and because of the great depression it was even harder for the veterans to make a living.
Although, most of it is accounted by the war itself, the suffering of many Australian veterans had much to do with...
Bean, C. E. W. (2010). The ANZAC book (3rd ed.). Sydney: University of New South Wales Press.
The Vietnam War was one of the most controversial wars in history, perhaps because it was one of the first wars to be documented, filmed and shown on television for most of the public to see, judge, feel and eventually protest against. This essay will discuss the varying experiences of Australian veterans upon their return to Australia from Vietnam. In my opinion, I do believe that the Australian soldiers of the Vietnam War were treated horribly when they got back from Vietnam. Opposition Leader Arthur Calwell and many Australian families who had to fight in the Vietnam War believed that it was a bad idea to send troops. Families watched their men and boys leave for Vietnam as soldiers and came back as disrespected veterans.
On February 6, 2016, I had the privilege of being a chaperone for Byron Elementary School 5th grade class in Byron, Georgia on a trip to Washington D.C. However, when the students and I began to tour the different memorial sites at in Washington D.C. we came across a lot of sculptures, but the one sculpture that I felt was amazing was the Marine Corps Memorial. The Marine Corps statue was designed in honor of the men and women that served in the Marines during World War II, who gave their lives to protect the United States during the war since 1775 (Marines, 2016). The sculpture is known as the Iwo Jima Memorial, which we visited outside of the Arlington National Cemetery, which is located in the Arlington Ridge Park. The sculpture is adjacent to the Potomac River from Washington D.C.
In a 1944 magazine article, Eleanor Roosevelt claimed that American “women are serving actively in many ways in this war [World War II], and they are doing a grand job on both the fighting front and the home front.”1 While many women did indeed join the workforce in the 1940s, the extent and effects of their involvement were as contested during that time as they are today. Eleanor Roosevelt was correct, however, in her evaluation of the women who served on the fighting front. Although small in number due to inadequate recruitment, the women who left behind their homes and loved ones in order to enlist in the newly established Women’s Auxiliary Army Corp (WAAC), and later the Women’s Army Corps (WAC), were deemed invaluable to the war effort.
Good morning members of the Mt Gravatt show society. Did you know that World War Two is known as the most destructive war in history? It killed over 60 million people and had a lot more far-reaching impacts than any other wars. Published in 1988 in Inside Black Australia, an anthology of Aboriginal poetry, “The Black Rat” by a famous author and researcher, Iris Clayton, was a poem inspired by her father, Cecil, who fought in the war. The poem describes the depressing life of an Aboriginal soldier who helped off the German army at Tobruk at the time. The message in the poem is that the Aboriginal soldiers did not receive the benefits that European soldiers received, like farming lands after the war ended. This tells how unjust the European society was in Australia’s history.
The Anzac spirit is not defined by any simple term; it is defined by the acts of valour and heroism of a person or group of Australians. The first Australian to be recognised with the highest award of bravery was Sir Neville Howse after the Boer war in South Africa (1900). The Highest medal available to troops, The Victorian Cross is awarded to a person who “in the presence of the enemy, displays the most conspicuous gallantry; a daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice; or extreme devotion to duty.” Howse was once again sent to fight for his country in World War 1 where he demonstrated his Australian clout for the second time in war. Howse demonstrated the Anzac attitude throughout his whole life leading him to things like serving as the Commonwealth Minister of Health. Howse demonstrated the values of someone worthy of the Victorian Cross through everything he did, thus allowing a spark of the soon to be dubbed Anzac spirit to be kindled and kept alight throughout the rest of Australian
It is clearly seen that during the early half of the Nineteenth Century, many people and groups of people promised many things to others for support in wars or revolutions. Most of these promises were never meant to be kept, nor where they kept. As seen in these documents, Russia, Mexico, and the Middle Eastern territories of the Ottoman Empire all experienced turmoil during this time. England and France had their eyes set on Ottoman land for after World War I, whereas Mexico was dealing with their own revolution and Russia was experiencing their own political change.
Bombs being fired, grenade pins being pulled, guns being shot, and land mines exploding are the sights and sounds of World War II. World War II was a historical moment for the whole world that should never be forgotten. World War II dealt with issues that had to be smoothed over after World War I. After a twenty- year hiatus, World War II began between the Axis powers, and the Allied powers. World War II should be remembered because of the bravery of the soldiers, the uniting of countries, and the patriotism of soldiers.