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The Great War
(World War One)

The War to End all Wars

First World War

The Great European War

la Guerre de 1914-1918

Der Weltkreig

.........whichever way you look at it this was one great slaughter...

This site is a tribute to the men who sacrificed their lives in World War One.

The Great War was a personal tragedy on a scale the world had never seen before. Many countries squandered the lives of their younger generation of men basically for nothing......the war was fought fiercely for nationalistic and imperialist purposes. Men on all sides thought they were fighting for God and the force of righteousness.

The war was vicious, often fought without compassion and fought over minor issues of territorial and economic control. The egocentric and imperialistic demands of men such as Emperor Wilhelm 1 of Germany were indefensible. The strategy of politicians and Generals to sacrifice tens of 1000s of men for small useless tactical reasons was immoral and unjustifiable. Who wins in a war where the vast majority of fit and healthy men have been sacrificed for nothing? What sort of society do we end up with when men's lives are worthless. The war of attrition was an empty strategy of ethically bankrupt, morally corrupt men who could see no further than propping up their own position in society with the dead bodies of others.

The war was so senseless that when the leaders of the nations involved finally decided that the political costs were too high they arranged a ceasefire in 24 hours and cynically continued to waste the lives of their men right up to 11am on the 11th of November 1918. Men died in pointless assaults in the last hours just to maintain the reputation of the commanding officers and to retain national pride. The fact that the War could just be called off like that in a day shows how senseless the entire war was......in the end it was not a question of national survival, but maintaining the status quo and the establishment. How different the Second World War would be!

This site aims to present in a small way some of the mass of material printed about the war at the time in an effort to keep history alive. If we do not acknowledge our history we will continue to repeat it...and within 20 years the world was at it again, and it still has not abated. Many of the areas of conflict in the world owe their cause to the flawed outcomes of the First World War.....ie. the carve up of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East and the Balkans, the Russian Revolution, the dismemberment of Germany, the break up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the rapaciousness of Japan in the Far East, the isolationist policy of the US, the failure of the league of Nations.....etc.

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Australia in the Great War

Australian military history overview - The First World War

The German Possessions in New Guinea

The Sinking of the Emden

Australia in the Great War - The Story told in Pictures

Gallipoli - the campaign overview

11 Battalion RWAR - among the first ashore

ANZACs - The Gallipoli Landing

ANZAC - CEW Bean reports on the landing

The Attack on Lone Pine

ANZAC - Ashmead-Bartlett reports on the attack on Gaba Tepe

Ashmead Bartlett's explosive letter to Prime Minister Asquith

General Monash reports on the Evacuation of ANZAC

Australian War Memorial Gallipoli Tour 2007

Gallipoli images and texts

Australian War Memorial Western Front Tour 2007

Australians on the Western Front images and texts

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The Bowmen of Mons

WW1 photo Gallery

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World War One Movie DVD

If you are interested in military history some Ozebook CDROM facsimile EBOOKS on the First World War are available here

More First World War Books in digital format available here

The Anzac Book - The book of Anzac was written in the trenches of Anzac at Gallipoli late in 1915. Nearly every word was written and every line under fire. Day and night, during the whole process of its composition~ the crack of the Mauser bullets overhead never ceased. At least one good soldier that we know of, who was preparing a contribution for these pages, met his death while the work was still unfinished.

The ANZAC Book was to have been a New Year Magazine to help this little British Australasian fraternity in Turkey to while away the long winter in the trenches. The idea originated with Major S. S. Butler, of the A.N.Z.A.C. Staff. On his initiative and that of Lieutenant H. E. Woods a small committee was formed to father the magazine.

Germany's High Seas Fleet - by Admiral Reinhard Scheer 1920 - profusely illustrated in this new edition available only on CDROM. This edition of Admiral Reinhard Scheer's memoirs is a transcript of the original English version which was published in 1920.

In December 1914, Scheer became chief of the Third Squadron of the High Seas Fleet. and in January 1910 replaced Admiral von Pohl as chief of the High Seas Fleet. In that capacity, on May 31, 1916, he commanded the fleet at Jutland. He led the German fleet into the battle of Jutland, one of the great naval battles of this century. The Germans refer to Jutland as The Battle of the Skagerrak. In the battle, the German fleet out fought the Royal Navy with superior gunnery and tactics.

Admiral Scheer was a strong supporter of unrestricted submarine warfare a tactic which ultimately brought the USA into the war making Germany’s defeat inevitable, something Admiral Scheer denies, blaming Germany’s defeat on internal weakness. His attitude shared by others inevitably led Germany into an even more devastating war.

Germany"s High Seas Fleet in the World War is not a history of the German navy in World War 1, it is rather a history of the Imperial fleet stationed in Germany which challenged the British Royal Navy for control of the North Sea. This is one of the principal books on naval operations in World War 1.

The Old Sixteenth - being a record of the 16th Battalion AIF during the Great War 1914-18 - Published by the 16th Battalion Association 1929. Illustrated 274pp. Battle Honours - Landing at ANZAC, Sari Bair, Pozieres, Bullecourt, Messines, Ypres, Polygon Wood, Hamel, Amiens and the Hindenburg Line. The Sixteenth Battalion was recruited in Western Australia and South Australia.

And a full listing of World War One Books and Unit Histories available on email or CD ROM is available here.......

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