Anzac to Amiens: A Shorter History of the Australian Fighting Services in the Great War

Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918 #1-12

by C.E.W. Bean

Genres: War, History, World War I, Nonfiction

567 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1946

About the author

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_...

Official historian of Australia's involvement in World War I.

C.E.W. Bean (Charles Edwin Woodrow Bean)wrote the first 6 volumes of the Official History.

The official history has been digitised and is available:
http://www.awm.gov.au/histories/first...

Reviews

[Jenny Kirkby]

I can't say I'm into war history and so found it very dry. But I did learn some interesting things about WWI and Australia's involvement. It was also interesting finding out a bit about how the war affected life in Australia and I was blown away to know how many lost their lives in particular battles and how that affected the numbers they tried to recruit each month. Dry but wow!

[Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was expecting that this would be a rather dry and stoic account of Australia's participation in World War 1. My assumption proved to be false, the book turned out to be a very evocative and sympathetic account of the soldiers experience. It is indeed a very sobering history, no glory in these pages just suffering and courage in the face of near certain death. May such events never occur again and may this be a reminder of the awful cost of war.

[Pei-jean Lu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had hoped to finish this by Anzac Day as it would have made the experience of reading this book all the more poignant, but that wasn’t to be. I wasn’t in any way though disappointed with this book as it brought back vivid memories of being on the western front in France and Belgium only this time seeing it through the eyes of the Australian troops who were there

[Shaun Major · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bean is a product of his time but you cannot deny his scholarship, his research skills and his faith in his country and countrymen. A far lighter read than his monumental twelve volume history, it lacks the detail of those extraordinary books but provides a surprisingly well joined up narrative of the entire war in a very pacy way. An amazing read.

[Mark Nichols · Rating 5 out of 5]

Authoritative and high-level history of the ANZACs across WWI. Nice to read after Storm of Steel to get very different points of view.