Original subtitles

(THEME MUSIC)

(LIVELY MILITARY MUSIC)

The 'ANZACS' is a television first in Australia.

It will take 400,000 feet of film and nearly three years

for the Burrowes Dixon Company to complete the series.

The story will trace the lives

of a group of soldiers in the 8th Battalion

from the time they left Australia to the time the survivors returned home.

It's a penetrating account of Australian soldiers in war.

It will span five years of unforgettable history,

70 years after the event took place.

Do any of you blokes know anything about music?

Well, uh... (Clears throat) ...l've studied a little, sir.

Good. You and your mate - shift that piano into the officer's mess.

Get on your way!

First lesson - never volunteer for anything.

Well, 'ANZACS' is uniquely relevant to modern-day Australians

for two reasons.

It tells us so much of what we were,

and indicates, therefore, what we have become.

It is a story about ALL Australians,

about ordinary Australians, called upon to do extraordinary things.

This is the story of everyman,

not the story of a couple of self-selecting heroes -

those one or two people destined by history to perform great feats.

This is the exact opposite.

This is you and me. It's everyman.

Performing under impossible odds,

against... circumstances which should've driven sane men crazy.

Ladies and gentlemen, Great Britain has declared war on Germany.

MAN: Not before time either, Rupert.

Australia, New Zealand and Canada

have announced they will be raising forces immediately.

NARRATOR: At the outbreak of the Great War in 1914,

there were many who expected Australia

to raise a ragtag and bobtailed army

not fit for anything other than garrison duties.

There's going to be a war!

I will not have a Barrington skulking in the outback

while the mother country's in peril!

By 1918 the critics were either silent

or openly expressing their amazement that such a small force

could have had so dramatic an impact on the war in Europe.

It had been said that Australians lacked discipline,

and therefore could not make good soldiers.

I don't need to be reminded that Australians are in France.

There are already reports of theft, disorder.

It's South Africa all over again.

South Africa? Yes, the colonial hooligans.

Lf, by discipline, they meant the outward trappings

so beloved of European generals,

then the critics were right.

The volunteer Aussie was openly sceptical

about things like saluting for the sake of it.

He reserved this for people he respected.

And that didn't include the major part of the British officer class.

You two men - stand fast there!

Don't you salute in your army?!

Not a lot.

We used to, but we're trying to give it up.

(COMICAL TUBA MUSIC)

(GUNFIRE) Fire!

They did have another sort of discipline

which was far more effective -

never let your mates down.

Cover me!

This meant that in the shock of battle,

and shock is the right word applied to World War I,

they stuck close together, and were hard to break.

Other armies were just as courageous,

but none had the degree of confidence and cohesion

that comes from knowing that you can count on your mates.

Bluey!

Add one other thing.

Leaders were selected from men who had already proved themselves,

regardless of social background,

for Australians would follow no other sort.

Of course, the Anzacs never considered themselves

anything other than civilians in uniform.

The British High Command never understood the Australian attitude

until 1918, when they started to,

A - stop the Germans from winning the war,

and B - won the decisive battle.

And they only, at the last moment,

realised that the best battle discipline

on the whole of the Western Front was... were the Australians.

These characters who created problems behind the lines,

who, uh... were seen to, uh... not stamp up and down the place,

and yet in battle they were totally cohesive.

These qualities came directly from Australian society

and marked the AIF as distinct among all other groups in Europe.

At the end, when they had suffered the highest casualty rate

of any British contingent,

they were able to strike a series of blows

which led to the collapse of the German Army.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC)

(JOVIAL ACCORDION MUSIC)

(Sings) Apres la guerre est finie

Tous les soldats sont partis

Estaminet avec vin ordinaire

Apres la guerre...

The casting of 'ANZACS' presented problems on two levels.

First, to find a supply of young actors

capable of carrying so many roles.

To our joy, that proved easy.

Second, and much more important,

finding a cross-section of types

capable of portraying all of the variety of the men of the 1 st AIF.

Men as different as, for example, the character of Martin Barrington,

the son of a western district squatter.

Very upper-class.

And then all the way to Roly Collins -

urban, Catholic, working class - a boot mender.

Probably the most difficult character, though,

was that of the quintessential Australian larrikin.

That one type of Australian

that seems to represent to all of us what we would like to be.

There is, of course, a type in existence - Paul Hogan.

When John was writing 'ANZACS',

he had Paul Hogan in mind for Pat Cleary,

but in those early days, we didn't dare think that we could get him.

Well, as events turned out, we did.

And in landing Paul for the role of Pat Cleary,

I think we breathed a truth into the characterisation of the first AIF

that would have been rather appalling had we not achieved it.

(Men shout)

Bad luck for the kid, and Dale, he's a big winner.

I'm not playing a German general, I'm playing Pat Cleary,

and he's a typical Aussie larrikin.

He's the kinda bloke that organised the two-up

and the chook raffles and the sly grog.

And got supplies to the front

that the blokes couldn't get through the normal channels,

and never treated the war seriously at any stage.

Therefore, he's an important character

because all those World War I diggers,

and II, and Vietnam, and anywhere else,

weren't all serious, dedicated, kill-or-be-killed soldiers.

Who said it then?

I dunno. Someone behind me somewhere.

Who gave you permission to speak?

You did. You said, "What did he say?"

Silence!

And it was that attitude that carried them through

a lot of unbelievable conditions.

They refused to take it seriously,

and the Pat Clearys of that era

were the ones that made the Australians different

to the rest of the troops of the Empire.

And they stamped the Aussie digger on, you know, world warfare anyway,

and on Europe, as a unique sort of character.

Loot! Here! Loot?

No, we're minding it for General Haig. See, his name's on the bottle.

How you say? Bull!

(MILITARY MARCHING DRUM PLAYS)

One of the first departments to be employed on a television series

is the art department.

They are responsible for the look of the series.

For the research, we spent lots of time

in the War Memorial in Canberra.

All of the art department, wardrobe and costume people went down there,

went there for a fortnight.

And I think we looked at about 100,000 various stills down there

to find various points we were looking for.

For example, a field phone,

a French village - before and after a barrage of artillery.

So we bought lots of those back, then pieced them all together

to give us a basic idea of what we needed.

(MARCHING MUSIC)

A battlefield resembles nothing so much as a garbage dump.

So the art department raided the local tips

to collect a fascinating pile of junk.

As the Great War was the first motorised war,

it was necessary to reconstruct a fleet of vintage cars and trucks

from the ground up.

One of these trucks actually made its appearance on the Somme in 1916.

More and more, the countryside began to resemble parts of France.

A group of farmhouses received the final touch of instant ageing.

This is called 'dressing the battlefield'.

The art department became experts in selecting the right piece of debris.

Likewise, the iron men of the construction department.

And so the fields of despair were built up.

This is a reconstruction of the area around Passchendaele in Flanders

after the winter rains had set in, in 1917.

500,000 British and dominion troops fell in the great push,

only to be denied victory

as the battlefield reverted to the swamp it had once been.

(TENSE MUSIC)

Well, it's my opinion that by a number of circumstances -

some accidental, some perhaps intellectual,

fashionably intellectual -

that we've been robbed of a large part of our heritage.

Uh, every nation could be proud of what the first AIF did.

In fact, it is a saga.

A saga that deserves the status of a legend in anybody's history.

Yet, who knows about it in Australia?

It somehow got lost in the '30s with the war weariness.

There were other factors -

the diggers themselves never talked about France.

But I do blame historians, school teachers, for robbing us.

I think... it's a strong word, but I say robbing us of this heritage.

It is hard to avoid superlatives when looking at the 1 st AIF.

Marshall Foch certainly didn't.

FOCH: Although our task was never easy, it was made less difficult

by the patriotism and passionate valour of the Australians,

which serve as an example to the whole world.

You saved Amiens.

You saved France.

When I saw the battlefield, um... several things struck me.

Above all, what I realised was that I'd carried

an Australian sense of distance to the battlefields.

That to us, driving 100, 200, 300 kilometres is just nothing.

And what struck me, driving out of Amiens towards Villers-Bretonneux

was... just how short that distance was.

It was... only a few kilometres,

and I suddenly realised that, in fact, how many people had died

but yet, what a very, very small area, um, the whole war occurred in.

Kate, in amongst the shambles of that retreat,

were some men who hadn't lost their self respect.

Men who were looking for someone to focus their courage.

Now, what? Would you expect me to walk out on that?

Bloody hell.

There's gonna be more unprincipled men

left alive at the end of this war than the other kind.

So?

So why should my man be one of?

Oh, yours, huh?

Yes. Mine.

(LIVELY MILITARY MUSIC)

NARRATOR: Someone once said

that war was nine-tenths boredom and one-tenth sheer fright.

Well, film making is a bit like that.

Except that, mercifully,

the fright is mostly replaced by intense activity.

There are long periods when setting up takes place -

when everything, people and objects, all have to be in the right spot.

In 'ANZACS', we rarely shot with only one camera.

Our record was nine.

So here we are on a nice summer's day in July 1916.

The boys, in high spirits, are about to leave their friendly village

to march south to the Somme, where fate awaits them.

In 1984, however, Murphy's law prevails.

A horse rears from the noise of our melodic troops.

The animal is quickly soothed by our producer, and the scene continues.

(Soldiers sing) Who's the little girlie by your side?

I've seen you with a girl or two...

So much of 'ANZACS' involves not just simply the battles.

In fact, I suppose that one could say that

no more than 10% of each episode concerns a particular battle.

What it is more about is the men, and the women behind the men,

in France, in England, and at home here in Australia.

We see their friends and relatives, their wives and lovers.

We're concerned to know what motivates the men,

what they have left, and what, hopefully, they will come home to.

And we need to know also what sacrifices were made at home

by people left behind.

How can they bear it?

They depend upon one another.

They have a fierce brotherhood in which each sustains the other.

It's something approaching the Christian ideal.

Ironical, isn't it, that war should produce that?

(SNAPPY OLD-TIME MUSIC)

(Soldiers sing) Mademoiselle from Armentieres, parlez-vous?

Mademoiselle from Armentieres Parlez-vous?

Mademoiselle from Armentieres She hasn't been kissed for 40 years

Inky-dinky, parlez-vous?

Is this number four section?

It was till you got here.

No, I was a real McCoy soldier. I never fired a shot in anger.

I was on, like, third line reserves to go to Vietnam,

so I know all about... well, not all about,

but I'm an old digger, myself.

I'm in sympathy, and, uh... and that was useful in this series,

because I was never a stranger to the weapons or the uniform,

or the discipline, or the boredom,

which goes on with the army, except when you're being shot at.

Don't shoot! Don't shoot!

They're Australians!

Bullshit.

I cannot just stand by while Haig presents another butcher's bill!

NARRATOR: It is a cruel and wasteful business.

The diggers knew that at first hand.

But they also knew it had to be fought.

But on conditions.

Such as?

That each step of the offensive be a success before he can go on.

(TENSE MUSIC)

"They died in vain,"

cried the intellectuals from their studies after the war.

In fact, they're still saying it.

Commonsense is often a quality lost in the process of higher education

and the commonsense of the average digger

told him clearly he was defending a society

quite different to the one the German generals had in mind.

(Whispers) You disgraceful woman!

You know Martin would've done anything for Dick. Anything.

And where do you think Martin is now?

In some safe place behind the lines?

(PIANO PLAYS)

The variety of music in 'ANZACS' was quite amazing.

Things ranging from ballroom music

and sort of Australian country aristocracy, if you like,

to elegant dinner parties involved, to English clubs.

To, uh... Gallipoli, where you've got lots of...

...l've tried to add quite a few Turkish overtones,

which sort of tell you roughly where you are,

to obvious war themes.

There's three different love themes, there's three romantic interests.

A hell of a range.

In creating the music, it comes from different areas.

I tend to try and go on location a lot,

talk to actors, actresses, as far as how they feel about a character,

which helps me as far as

putting their musical feeling into perspective.

Obviously looking at the pictures are the most inspiring,

because you have something to work with,

as far as sight and sound

and feeling of how the scene is... is meant to go.

It's then up to you as a composer

to try and work out how you can enhance it, or how, if necessary,

sometimes you may want to completely change

the direction of the scene, musically.

(Sings) I wore a tunic A dirty khaki tunic

And you wore your civvy clothes

We fought and bled at Loos while you were on the booze

Booze that no-one here knows

You were out with the wenches while we were in the trenches...

WOMAN: Mademoiselle Fifi, Mademoiselle Colette,

et Mademoiselle Claudine.

While we were attacking up along the Pozieres Road.

(CROWD CHEERS)

Are they all for me, Pat? Yeah, happy birthday, Pud.

(Chuckles)

(SEDUCTIVE MUSIC)

G'day.

Well, the main difference between 'ANZACS'

and most mini-series that I've done is it's just enormous.

The fact that there's a huge cast and crew -

double unit for most of the 15 weeks.

It just meant transporting people and recreating the First World War

is not easy through special effects - it's just enormous.

Being a film about the First World War,

of course, there was quite a few battles in there

ranging from as many as 800 people in one scene,

storming across a hill to where a battle had taken place,

and following it on five miles ahead were, of course, hard.

We covered areas of trench warfare, as in Lone Pine,

where the Australians stormed Lone Pine,

only to find Turks looking up at them.

And they took that Lone Pine.

It was one of the greatest military achievements of the time.

We did sections like Lone Pine too in the mud,

and that was extremely difficult,

because you always had a lot of people to control

and a lot of special effects, 'cause of the bombs and things.

And placing those was very hard.

(PENNY WHISTLE MELOD Y PLAYS)

Quick! We're going to run in here! Come on!

Two section - how many here?!

Got heaps of your boys - they're over this side.

AMENTA: The hours that we worked were very long,

so it required a lot of discipline from the cast and crew.

When you're putting in 12 to 14 hours a day in the rain and the mud,

you all have to keep together.

Of course, there's three directors doing it,

and the crew had to adjust for each director.

(MILITARY MUSIC)

BURROWES: The story of 'ANZACS',

insofar as Gallipoli is concerned, is easily understood.

It was a small, contained campaign

involving a pretty insignificant number of people,

compared to the Western Front.

I think it's almost a national laziness

that enables us to deal with Gallipoli.

But the Western Front is altogether different.

(EXPLOSIONS, TENSE MUSIC)

(DISTANT EXPLOSIONS CONTINUE)

How are we gonna go in this?

I don't know.

Not a gang of Abduls, Flanagan.

It's the bloody German Army out there.

I don't see how they can be better than Johnny Turks.

Course they bloody are.

This line hasn't advanced in a year and a half.

BURROWES: The battles in France and Belgium

involved millions and millions of men -

armies from all over the world, professional armies.

The Australians had only 300,000 over there,

yet they were as significant as any other national force

in forcing the final victory.

But the path to that victory

has defied historians, pretty well of all nations.

NARRATOR: By the time the Anzacs arrived there in 1916,

millions of men were entrenched from the North Sea to the Swiss border,

and the enemies faced each other

across a narrow gap called no-man's-land.

Not short of guns here, Sarge.

The side who could work out

how to cross this space, then break through,

would win the war.

This war is in the balance.

The Federal Cabinet have been told by London

that if the reinforcement rate is not stepped up

they may have to disband one of our divisions.

Perhaps instead they should think about conserving our soldiers.

Spoken like an armchair strategist.

Rupert! No!

My knowledge of the casualties comes painfully, at first hand.

Anyway, what are we arguing about?

This war changes a lot of things.

A couple of questions, Sir Douglas.

From the map, the Pozieres position

looks less than a mile wide.

The concentration of artillery in that small space

must be very heavy indeed.

Perhaps the heaviest of the war.

And our casualties must inevitably reflect this.

In 1916, the British threw 500,000 partly trained men

against the Germans on the Somme

into a storm of artillery fire not equalled since.

In a narrow space of a few miles,

battalions were pulverised by a million shells,

and the gain was only two or three miles.

It is all too possible that we may lose this war.

The Germans have broken through on two fronts now.

Breakthrough, you say?

The German generals had planned for 30 years

to knock out France

with a sweep through Belgium to Paris.

They almost succeeded.

But they had overlooked the development of modern weapons -

the magazine rifle, the machine gun

and the high explosive shell.

These weapons gave enormous power to the defenders.

That, gentlemen, is why there's a continuous trench

from the North Sea to the Swiss border.

As long as the machine gun's intact,

neither side can cross no-man's-land.

Our enemy, the German Army,

is extremely skilful in their use of it.

Their gunners are hand-picked.

And they use them like this.

(GENTLE MUSIC)

Mmm. Yes, please.

(Laughs) All in good time.

(Chuckles) No, not that.

I mean a cigarette.

Smoking?

Sister Baker, you are a loose, loose woman.

(Laughs)

Aren't you the lucky one, then?

(Laughs)

So how long's this been going on for?

Oh, since you seduced me.

In the 'ANZACS', the basic weapons

were the Mauser rifle, the Lee Enfield rifle,

uh, belonging to the two major warring factions,

plus their associated machine guns.

Uh, on set at any one time

we probably had 300 Lee Enfields, 45 Mauser rifles,

some 8 machine guns, a dozen pistols,

all of which were firing.

The major problem, of course, was keeping them clean, functioning,

had to go any time for any scene.

Unload.

Basically, with the machine guns,

there was no difference whether they were regular soldiers or actors.

They still needed instruction.

The regs are just not used to those type of weapons.

They handle the latest ones fine.

The working action of the Maxims, the Lewis guns, had to be explained.

They know the basics, they've got the best grounding,

but just that little bit of work was required.

(Cries softly)

And I was so close. If only I'd looked around.

No, no.

No, I've seen as much death as you have.

It did change a lot for women, the war,

because for the first time they were asked

to go to the battlefields to actually work with the soldiers.

And they were about, you know, at times,

20 miles away from the guns and the fighting.

So that put a large responsibility on the women

to be a lot tougher.

Nothing's gonna be the same after all this.

May as well face up to it now.

MEGAN WILLIAMS: Well, I think the biggest challenge in playing Kate

was the fact that...

I mean, I'm not a 1914 woman,

and she had to be,

and yet she had to be stronger than most 1914 ladies really were

to make her a viable character for us.

And that was the challenge -

keeping her in period but keeping her much stronger

than possibly somebody would have been in that time.

(TENDER MUSIC)

Uh, it goes on the left hand.

Oh!

Damn you, Martin.

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

Not here, not...

Luv, the war's almost over.

Another push, the Germans will be... Shh.

(LIVELY MUSIC AND APPLAUSE)

SONG: How you gonna keep 'em down on the farm?

After they've seen Paree?

How you gonna keep 'em away from Broadway?

Jazzin' around and paintin' the town...

Hey! Pat! Oh!

PAUL HOGAN: The biggest impression I got

is there's not enough of a legend of the Anzacs.

All we ever heard about World War I was Gallipoli.

That's all we've ever made films on

and all you learnt about at school,

and that's where the boys got beat.

There's another four years of the war after that

where the true Anzac legend was born.

Bloody counterattack. (Shouts) Forward at the double!

The filming of 'ANZACS'

presented special effects problems both old and new.

Uh, the old ones - producing large numbers of explosions

close to actors, a lot of actors, a lot of extras.

Sometimes as many as 300 people on the set,

plus crew, plus observers coming in from time to time.

Lots of people on set who weren't familiar with explosions

and with working near them.

This required an approach that, uh, would ensure safety

without slowing down the filming of the project.

We were filming 10 hours of war for television

in the amount of time that would normally be taken

for about 90 minutes of feature film.

And therefore we had to work fast and efficiently

and still take no chances with people's safety.

The biggest challenge for me was becoming a soldier...

...for the series.

But luckily, before the shooting commenced

we had a two-week workshop period

which was basically a military reorientation exercise

so that all the actors could become familiar with the weapons involved,

military etiquette, how to give and take an order,

battle formations, etc.

And also we were given lectures

on how specific battle scenes that the series deals with

were staged both geographically and strategically.

So I was very lucky, as all the actors were,

to have that period to become adjusted to the life of a soldier.

MAN: Spread out!

(GUNFIRE AND EXPLOSIONS)

Keep the line!

(MILITARY PARADE MUSIC)

NARRATOR: In 1917, the British went over to the attack again,

this time in Ypres.

It became another murderous artillery battle,

and just when it seemed to bog down,

the Anzacs' divisions went in

and won a series of brilliant victories.

The Germans, it seemed, were at the end of their tether.

But it was too late in the season.

The rains came down

and the whole area, churned up by shellfire,

reverted to the bog it had once been.

Men drowned in flooded shell holes.

I have a lot of empathy now with what those guys went through.

I never really thought about it before.

I've never done World War I history.

But now...

We only went through a minor amount of the action

that those guys went through,

and we had blankets to wrap around ourselves after each take,

whereas those guys had to stay out in the cold and the mud and the crap.

I don't know how they did it.

I don't know how those men survived.

I don't know a damn thing about you anymore.

How can you say that?

Well... when I came here you didn't kiss me.

You didn't even say hello.

That's for after the war. We've got to finish it first.

Why 'we'?

You mean 'you', personally.

Maybe I do. I mean...

Just like me.

Go to hell, Marty.

Mrs Baker, you can't do that!

Can't do what?

Well, put temptation in the way of our fine young men.

Temptation?

Strong liquor's an evil thing.

It destroys homes and families.

You wowsers give me the willies.

Who are we sending all this stuff to?

A bunch of fighting men

or a pack of lily-livered bloody sissies?

(LIVELY MUSIC)

SONG: Hello, hello Who's your lady friend?

Who's the little girlie by your side?

I've seen you with a girl or two

Oh, oh, oh, I am surprised at you

Hello, hello Stop your little games

Don't you think your ways you ought to mend?

It isn't the girl I saw you with at Brighton

Who, who, who's your lady friend?

My job as stunt co-ordinator on this series

was to break down the... break down the scenes that required the action,

put the right bodies in there who could do the action,

look after the artists at all times

to make sure they were comfortable and safe

when they were hurling themselves from trench holes...

...from trenches to shell holes, etc, and across the barbed wire.

Make sure that the whole shoot worked safely,

the action worked convincingly.

It has to look realistic.

Even though it's a fantasy, it still has to look realistic,

because the public buy realism.

And basically my position

was to put this action onto the screen with the director.

When training stuntmen

and SAPs - these are stunt action personnel

who are apprentice stuntmen -

one has to get involved with them and show them how it is done.

They have to act, especially when it comes to hand-to-hand fighting

or using props, i.e. Rifles or missiles, anything like this.

They've got to know how to, as we say in the business, wear them.

So if I was to hit anybody with a prop, with an instrument,

they have to know how to sell it.

And it's showing them how to sell it.

And with new people, when you teach them stuntwork,

you get an experienced stuntman to get stuck into, say, myself

with fists and boots.

You sell it and then look at their faces.

NARRATOR: In 1918, the Germans

were able to bring back their army from the Russian front

following the Revolution.

These fresh troops faced a French Army slowly recovering

and a British Army bled white at Ypres.

The Germans saw their chance and took it.

They struck on the Somme, where tired divisions were resting.

The British front lines disappeared under a storm of shells,

and the German storm troops skilfully worked their way to the rear.

The front trembled and broke up.

The Germans were heading for Amiens and victory.

The odds have swung dangerously in Germany's favour.

It's obvious they intend to go for a knockout blow at an early date.

I trust that whatever the future holds

we will both be able to say

we did all in our power to guard against a catastrophe.

In the wild emergencies of the German offensive

in March and April 1918,

when the Germans came within an ace of winning the war,

the five Australian divisions,

which consisted of only 10% of the British forces,

held over 30% of the line.

And they stabilised it,

particularly at a place called Hazebrouck -

who's heard of that? -

and a place called Villers-Bretonneux.

Some people have heard of that.

And they stopped the Germans winning the war.

The war had yet to be won, but that was another story.

NARRATOR: Australians marched up through a broken army

and roads clogged with refugees.

On seeing them, many of the French civilians

turned around and went home,

for they remembered les Australiens from 1916.

We do not worry now. It is safe to go home.

The diggers met the German spearhead in open country

near the village of Villers-Bretonneux.

In a series of swirling engagements

the enemy was stopped and then sent reeling.

The crisis of the war was over.

France was saved.

Then, at last, the Australian divisions

were grouped together under the command of General Monash.

Monash was described by a British historian

as "a first-class general in charge of first-class troops".

From today, the five Australian divisions

will be grouped into one army corps

with an Australian commander.

This has taken nearly four years to achieve.

From now on, we fight side by side.

NARRATOR: The combination was irresistible.

He struck first at Hamel,

and broke a German division in 90 minutes.

Then, a month later, with the whole corps,

he repeated the exercise at Amiens.

Monash combined, as no other, his men, planes, tanks and guns

with the aim of both winning, and conserving soldiers.

Amiens was the greatest victory of that war.

The Australians and their Canadian neighbours

broke through for five miles on the first day.

The beleaguered Allies took heart

at this stunning turn in the fortunes of war.

A general advance began

and the Germans sued for peace in October.

DIX ON: It was said by the Germans themselves

that this was the black day of the German Army.

Now, this was something extraordinary from a small force of the 1 st AIF,

particularly in the sense of the casualties

they'd already taken.

It's another little-known fact

that they had the highest casualty rate

of any of the British contingents in the First World War.

Yet, right at the end,

they were able to strike a decisive blow,

and from that day, the German Army didn't stop retreating.

(SOLEMN MUSIC)

The 'ANZACS' is about the ordinary Australian

who, when called upon, did extraordinary things.

He should not have been forgotten for so long,

but then, he didn't write books about himself.

He disappeared thankfully back into civilian life,

for he was always a civvy in uniform,

even though, paradoxically, one of the best soldiers ever seen.

He rarely spoke about that terrible war,

and only emerged once a year on Anzac Day.

Even for this he was often criticised,

as if meeting your surviving mates and remembering your dead ones

was somehow being pro-war.

He mostly shrugged,

knowing that fools have as much right to exist as any other

in the society he defended.

In 1978, a small group of old men,

all veterans of the AIF,

approached Amiens Cathedral

on the 60th anniversary of the end of the Great War.

As they entered this huge place,

they were touched to find the cathedral packed in their honour.

If Australians forget, the French don't.

The archbishop quoted from an address

their mates had heard over half a century ago.

"We bow to messieurs les Australiens

"for the magnificent deeds you did

"in those days now happily at an end.

"The soil of France is transformed

"to a new divinity by your sacrifices.

"In the whole of history,

"we cannot find an army more marvellous in its bravery.

"And in the war, there were none who contributed more nobly

"to the final triumph."

When armies to the right and left of them crumbled,

as they did in 1918,

somehow this depleted band forged a decision for that war.

And... we should be told of it.

These guys, the original Anzacs, the World War I fellas,

they were the... they had the spirit and the courage

that we all think we've got.

If 'ANZACS' has one clear task,

it is to make Australians feel immensely proud of themselves.

It is to see themselves...

...in a new light, in a confident light.

In a triumphant light,

but not in a bragging or tub-thumping light.

Just think of it.

A few thousand Australians travelled 12,000 miles

across to another continent

and decisively affected the outcome of the struggle over there.

But more important than that,

they brought to it the qualities of the land that had bred them.

And these were, and I still believe are, unique,

and this is what Australians should be reminded of.

'ANZACS', I hope, will also cause all of us

to never again look at the diggers marching on Anzac Day

and fail to understand.

I hope like hell

that the next time anyone out there sees the diggers

that they will know these men

and that they will love these men

for what they did, for what they were,

and for what they still are.

(LIVELY MARCHING MUSIC)