My first contact with Australia was the tv show "Skippy" which I saw as a kid in the seventies and then in the eighties of course "Crocodile Dundee" which was even here in Germany a blockbuster. Afterwards I read a lot about Australia but had no time to travel to your continent as it cannot be done in a one or two week trip from Europe. But last year I read the script of my grandfather from World Ware I in the hell of the French battles. And it was really a tragedy for all participants of WWI and WWII to serve in those conflicts. The only way to survive in those slaughterhouses was indeed a kind of becoming "mates" within their different troops in the battles. But the reality of these battles have been so dreadful that nowadays people cannot imagine what happened in those times. And thinking that young men from Australia travelled around the half of the world to fight in two futile World Wars is outrageous as the descendants of the responsible persons for both World Wars are still in power.
My Grandfather was one of the young diggers who sailed all the way around the world to fight in a war that was not his and for a cause that he soon realised was a joke. He was 16 on enlistment, 17 when he embarked, celebrated his 18th, 19th and 20th birthdays in the mud of France and Belgium. As a Pioneer, he saw the worst of it. First into an area, wait for the infantry and then move onto the next shit fight. He was a telegraph operator and sharpshooter, so was a fairly high priority target for the Germans.
His brothers both fought in the Light Horse, Percy from Gallipoli through to the Palestine uprising in 1919 and Edgar joined in 1917 when he was himself only 17.
Despite their involvement in the shit show, they never held it against the German people. They hated the British high command, not the Germans. Blamed them for their losses, and realised the lads on the other side probably felt the same about their commanders. In that spirit, therefore, they fought hard but without malice, and taught me that you could fight without hating your enemy.
What was most outrageous is that the King was the Kaiser's nephew, and whilst the men were dying in the trenches, they would have nice family gatherings.
I think that the stories of Aussies playing cricket with the Turks on the cliffs of Gallipoli and the Brits playing Soccer with your lads over Christmas, 1914, shows the lack of antipathy each side had for the other and is indicative of the fact that, if not for politics, we could have gotten along just fine with your mob.
I say a prayer for all those who fought, in both wars, on whatever side, every Anzac Day for the simple fact they were all doing as they thought was right, and doing it to their best ability.
Mein Freund,
As you can see from my name, my background is in many ways similar to yours.
My grandfather was killed in a British air raid/bombing during the second world war.
Yet here I am, an Australian who gave an oath to The Queen Of Australia.
I think that loyalty to your mates is one of the most important things in any situation, especially when your life depends upon it.
Life has taught me that.
I have learned the hard way. Again, this is nothing in comparison to what all went down during The Great War, which was labelled the war to end all wars, yet it was the catalyst to another world war.
The sad part in all this, when we talk about "war" is that too many people don't or just won't understand anything from a soldiers point of view, views based on personal experiences. The good thing for them is that they can't understand, because they have never been in the hot zone.
We could talk about this for days and still not change anything.
Tschüss