Bad Characters: Sex, Crime, Murder and Mutiny in the Great WarAustralians have celebrated the Anzacs for nearly a century--but what do we really know of what war did to them? Charles Bean, historian of the citizen soldiers of the Australian Imperial Force, wrote that its history spanned 'the good and the bad'--but so far Australians have only looked at the good. Leading war historian Peter Stanley reveals the citizen soldiers the army regarded as its 'bad characters'. These were men who went absent and deserted, caught or concealed VD, got drunk and fought their comrades, who stole, malingered, behaved insolently toward officers or committed more serious offences, including rape and murder. This frank history--the first book on the AIF's indiscipline--shows that it became one of the war's most effective fighting forces in spite of its record for military misbehaviour. Stanley exposes, with a wealth of examples drawn from court-martial files and soldiers' letters, how the war turned some men into criminals, but also how bad characters made the AIF the superb force it was. |
Contents
| 1826 | |
| 1828 | |
| 1841 | |
SURVIVORS | 1861 |
VICTIMS | 1897 |
VETERANS | |
RETURNED | |
After the Armistice The Surafend and Shoubra atrocities Military prisoners | |
Index | |
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Common terms and phrases
47th Battalion absent AIF's Anzac Anzac Corps army army's arrested arrived attack Australian Division Australian Imperial Force Australian soldiers bad characters bastard Battalion battle became billets Birdwood brigade Britain brothels Cairo camp charge Charles Bean civilians Codford colonel commanders comrades Corps courts-martial crime David Croll death depots described Desert Mounted Corps desertion Diary Digger disciplinary discipline Douglas Haig drink drunk Egypt enlisted Eric Evans estaminet faced field punishment fighting force France French Gallipoli German Haig hospital Howell-Price infantry infected killed Langwarrin larrikin leave Lieutenant light horse London medical officers Melbourne Monash months murder NCOs Norman Nicolson offences Oswald Blows platoon police Pozieres prison prostitutes provosts ranks recorded reported returned Reveille Rupert Downes saluting self-inflicted wounds sentence sergeant Somme staff officers story Sydney told units volunteers Western Front Wilfred Gallwey Wiltshire women wrote Zealand