This book consists of the words of ordinary Australian soldiers. Ditties and poems have been tossed about from one soldier to another, sometimes even from one war to another, since before the ANZACs landed at Gallipoli.
For twenty-five years Graham Seal has been interviewing and corresponding with old soldiers and their families, recording songs and verses that survive only in their memories or on treasured scraps of paper. He has also scoured trench newspapers, diaries and letters - and the lost chapters of 'The Anzac Book', compiled on Gallipoli - to find them.
'Echoes of Anzac' is not a history of war, but rather a unique collection of the songs, verses and yarns that have been sung and spoken by Australian troops from the Boer War through to Vietnam. They come from trenches, dugouts, ships and fighter places, from POW camps and the home front, and most have never been published before.
They tell of bravado and boredom, camaraderie and courage, fear and homesickness. Most are laced with black humour. Some are bawdy, some sardonic and some heartbreaking. Together the tell us, as clearly as words can, what it is like to face an enemy at war.
Contents:
Preface
An Anzac's Cooee
Before Anzac
The Great War 1914-1918
- The Call to Arms
- Gallipoli, Egypt and Palestine
- Lost Chapters of 'The Anzac Book'
- The Western Front
- Anzacal
- The Two Home Fronts
- The Peace
The Good War 1939-1945
- All In
- The Middle East and the Mediterranean
- New Guinea and the Islands
- The Brisbane Line and Beyond
- Diggerese
- The Home Front
- Bless 'Em All!
The Longest War
- Cold Wars
- The Light Green
- The Home Front
- Hot Peace
Unknown Soldiers
Notes
Sources and Further Reading
Index of Titles / First Lines
