Source Analysis

Year 9 History RRESource AnalysisSOURCE AOn the afternoon and evening of 2 April 1915, Good Friday, in the Derb al Wasa (Cairo, Egypt), Australian and New Zealand troops up to 2500 of them began sacking brothelsfuelled by rumors that pimps had stabbed soldiers. Crowds of soldiers ransacked prostitutes houses, setting fire to furniture on the street and interfering with the local fire brigade by chopping up their fire hoses(After the event)few soldiers could be found to give evidence, and much of it was contradictory. Australians and New Zealanders blamed each other.

What is this as a percentage?Ransacking-destroying, causing havocNot confirmed. Gossip in the ranks? Hyperbole (exaggeration)?The value of care for your mates taken to the extreme?Highly dangerous and destructive conduct.SOURCE E

How does the account in SOURCE A compare with this traditional view? Should be taken into context. This view perhaps shows the ideal view. No doubting that the soldiers were very brave to face the battle of Gallipoli in April 1915.On the battle front, which of these values were evident?SOURCE GWhen all is said, however, the feat which will go down to history is that first Sundays fighting, when three Australian brigades stormed, in the face of fire, tier after tier of cliffs and mountains apparently as impregnable as Govetts Leap. The sailors who saw the Third Brigade go up those heights and over successive summits like a whirlwind, with wild cheers and bayonets flashing, speak of it with tears of enthusiasm. The New Zealanders are just as generous in appreciationit may be said that the Australian Infantry has made a name which will never dieCabled report of C.E.W Bean 1915

The traditional view presented by Historian Bean. What values are present? SOURCE DIn the weeks leading up to Christmas 1914, about 20 000 Australians arrived in Egypt, the great majority for the first time(By) February 1915, 131 badly behaved men were sent home in disgrace aboard the transport Kyarr, the first of more than 1300 who would be returned over the next yearStanley, P (2010) Bad Characters

Compare the differences in values with this source:This source shows that not all of the Australian soldiers were noble and brave. It is evidence to show the alternative view of the Anzac legend.SOURCE CRecent Critics of the Anzac legend have not sought to belittle the Australian soldiers. Rather, we have argued thatBean and his successors have narrowed the range of our understanding of Anzac, and have excluded experiences that do not fit the (popular) national legendthese historians (also) neglect the ways in which the soldiers story was regulated and shaped by Anzac legend-makers.