In October 1918 the Australian Army Corps in France broke the supposedly impregnable Hindenburg Line, carrying the neighbouring armies eastward with it in the last great counteroffensive of the war. In the preceding seven months it had taken 29,144 German prisoners and 338 guns, and had recaptured 116 towns and villages. For the first time…
The Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) was formed in 1903 by amalgamating the nursing services of the colonial-era militaries. It was initially set up as a Reserve to provide a pool of trained nurses. It operated in peacetime as an auxiliary unit, with little consideration of how well it integrated with the remainder of the…
At the time of the First World War there was little understanding of what today is termed post-trauma stress disorder (PTSD). Returned soldiers often suffered lingering psychological damage which, although largely unrecognised, was at least as debilitating as physical injuries. Doctors were generally reluctant to diagnose a patient with shell shock, attributing their condition to…