The Creation of the Anzac Legend

The First World War is remembered most clearly by Australians for the public grief it caused; for the new sense of national consciousness it created among the Australian population; and most significantly, for the legend of Anzac which it generated. The Gallipoli Campaign is widely recognised as the trigger of the legend, but it has also been spread by many famous historians. Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett once enthused: "The Australians...rose to the occasion. Not waiting for orders, or for the boats to reach the beach, they sprang into the sea, and forming a sort of rough line, rushed at the ene…