Description
Title: Diggers in France – The Lives of Australian Soldiers on the Western Front
Author: Travers, Richard
Condition: Mint
Edition: 1st Edition
Publication Date: 1994
ISBN: 9780733323423
Cover: Soft Cover without Dust Jacket – 406 pages
Comments: Australia maintained an army of around 150,000 men and women in France during the First World War. The diggers, many of them veterans of the heroically doomed Gallipoli campaign, preferred France: “There were no girls to talk to on Gallipoli, and no beer, white or red wine,” wrote a Sergeant Denning. In 1916 and 1917 the diggers fought in many of the toughest battles – The Somme,. Fromelles, Pozieres, Bullecourt, Messines and Third Ypres. They suffered terrible casualties under the impetuous command of British generals who believed that losses were “the price of victory”. But in 1918 they formed a single Australian corps under the command of General Monash and played key roles in the battles that led to ultimate victory – at Villers-Bretonneux, Hamel, Mont St Quentin and Peronne.
Diggers in France not only compelling describes the diggers at battle in the front line, but also their lives away from the front when wounded or on leave. Incredibly, in places the front line was only a thousand metres from rest areas where they could enjoy a coffee; it was possible to be in the trenches one day and in London the next. Paris was closer still.
Richard Travers, a lawyer and author, has skilfully combined letters, diaries, biographies and autobiographies, as well as forty-five on-the-spot photographs, to graphically bring alive the experiences of the young diggers who offered their lives in the service of their country on the western front.
