Hell-bent: Australia's leap into the Great War.

• Jurisdiction: New Zealand
• Date: 01 May 2015
• Author: McGibbon, Ian

HELL-BENT

Australia's leap into the Great War

Author: Douglas Newton

Published by: Scribe, Melbourne, 2014, 344pp, A$32.99.

Last August we commemorated the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. As self-governing Dominions of the British Empire, Australia and New Zealand were involved in this conflict by King George V's declaration of war on Germany late on 4 August 1914 (UK time, but 5 August in the Antipodes). Neither had any say in the decision for war, which was made by the King's ministers in London. Like New Zealand, Australia had no problem with this situation, accepting that the foreign policy of the empire was in the hands of the British government. They responded with patriotic fervour. Within weeks both had expeditionary forces ready to take part in the fighting on the Western Front, or wherever else the British authorities decided. After concentrating at Albany, Western Australia, the combined forces left in a 38-ship convoy on 1 November 1914, heading across the Indian Ocean for the Suez Canal. The expectation of many that the war would be short was sadly misplaced. Before the guns fell silent four years later, 18 million would die, an average of 11,000 a day. More than 60,000 Australians would fall--along with 18,000 New Zealanders.

With the outbreak of war, Australia pledged its support to the last man and the last...