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This book of Anzac was produced in the lines at Anzac on Gallipoli in the closing weeks of 1915. Practically every word in it was written and every line drawn beneath the shelter of a waterproof sheet or of a roof of
sandbags--either in the trenches or, at
most, well within the range of the oldest Turkish rifle, and under daily visitations from the smallest Turkish field-piece.
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. |
A notice was circulated on November 11th calling for contributions front the
whole population of Anzac. Any profit was to go to patriotic funds for the benefit of the
Army Corps.
Between November 15th and December 8th, when the time for the sending in of contributions closed,
The ANZAC Book was produced. As drawings and paintings began to come in, disclosing the whereabouts of some of the talent
which existed in Anzac, a small staff of artists was collected in order to produce
head- and tail-pieces and a few illustrations; and a dug-out overlooking Anzac
Cove became the office of the only book ever likely to be produced in Gallipoli.
It was after the contributions had been finally sent in, and when the work
of editing was in full swing, that there came upon most of us front the sky the
news that Anzac was to be evacuated. Such finishing touches as remained to
be added after December 19th were given to the work in Imbros. The date
for the publication was necessarily delayed. And it was realised by everyone that this production, which was to have been a mere pastime, had now become hundred times more precious as a souvenir. Certainly no book has ever been
produced under these conditions before.
- Except for this modification in the scheme of its production, THE ANZAC
BOOK remains to-day exactly the same as when it was planned for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps still clinging to the familiar holly-clothed sides of Sari Bair.
The three weeks during which this book was being produced will be remembered by the
men of Anzac as being the period during which we were visited by the two fiercest storms which descended upon the Peninsula. During the afternoon of November 17th the wind from the south-west gradually increased to
more than half a gale, and brought with it, after dark, a most torrential thunderstorm. A day or two later this subsided, leaving a dishevelled Anzac. But the wind
swung slowly round to the north, and by November 27th it was blowing a northerly blizzard; and the next day five out of every six Australians, for the first time in their lives, woke to find a white countryside and the snow falling.
How deeply that snow impressed them can be seen in these pages-for dust, heat and flies were much more typical of Gallipoli.
The book was composed from first to last in the full prospect of Christmas at Anzac, and it remains a record, perhaps, all the more interesting on that account. The Printing Section of the Royal Engineers, especially Lieutenant Tuck and Corporal Ashwin, and Lieutenant G. L. Thomson, R.N.A.S., and certain Naval Officers helped us with some drawing-paper, ink and paints, and the Photographic Section with some excellent panoramas; but for the rest, the contributors had to work with such materials as Anzac contained : iodine brushes, red and blue pencils, and such approach to white paper as could be produced from each battalion's stationery.
The response to the committee's request for contributions was enormous, and in consequence the editors have been able to use only portions, even if they be a half or a quarter, of the longer articles and stories submitted to them -but they have done this without hesitation, rather than reject the articles altogether.
- The competitions for certain contributions resulted as follows :
- COVER- Private D. Barker, .5th Australian Field
Ambulance;
- DRAWING- Trooper W. 0. Hewett, 9th Australian Light Horse;
- DRAWING
(COMIC)- Private C. Leyshon-White, 6th Australian Field Ambulance;
- PROSE SKETCH - H. Dinning, 9th Co., Australian A.S.C.;
- PROSE (Humorous)- Second
Lieutenant J. E. G. Stevenson, 2nd Field Co., Australian Engineers;
- VERSES - Captain James Sprent, 3rd Australian Field Ambulance;
- VERSES (Humorous) - T. H. Wilson, A Co., 16th Battalion A.I.F.
- The greater number of the
contributors were private soldiers in the Army Corps. The sole "outside" contribution is Mr. Edgar Wallace's poetic tribute to the Australian and New Zealand Force, which is included in these pages with the consent of the author.
- The thanks of those particularly concerned in the production are especially due to
- General Birdwood, for his close and constant interest; to
-
Brigadier General C. B. B. White, who, though at the time burdened with most anxious duties, never failed to give some of his few spare
moments to the solving of difficulties incidental to this publication; to the
- Commonwealth authorities and the
Publicity Department in London; and particularly to
- Mr. H. C. Smart, for his untiring assistance, invaluable advice, and for the help of his outstanding ingenuity in organisation, and of the splendid business system and abundant facilities which he has created in the Australian Military Office in London; to the
- War Office and the Admiralty, and the Central News for permission to
use valuable photographs; and to
- many others, both in the A. and N.Z. Army Corps and outside it, who have given their best help to make this book a success.
- For the Staff-
- C. E. W. Bean, editor,
- Privates F. Crozier, T. Colles, D.
Barker, W. 0. Hewett, C. Leyshon-White,
- artists; A. W. Bazley, clerk the work has been a labour of love for which only they realise how little thanks they deserve.
AEGEAN SEA,
December 29, 1915. |
