The First Anzacs

This is the unknown story of the combat engineers who kept World War I running. Although it has been repeatedly denied by the army, they were the first Australians and New Zealanders to land at Anzac Cove: in any combat, even today, sappers are always the first in and last out.

They were airbrushed out of history. Official historian Charles Bean claimed the first Australian ashore at the Gallipoli landing on 25 April 1915 was an infantry officer. But Bean wasn’t there, and a bunch of Australian and New Zealand army engineers were. Even today, the army is reluctant to accept that sappers were among the very first ANZACs ashore.

This is the untold story of World War I Australian and New Zealand sappers—combat engineers—with extracts from their diaries. They were always in the vanguard, clearing defences, and building bridges, roads and walkways, usually under fire, for the troops who followed. At Gallipoli, strafed by machine guns and targeted by snipers, they dug trenches and tunnels to advance on the Turkish defences. On the Western Front, they burrowed under the German lines to plant massive explosives. In Egypt they demolished a Turkish railway in a day.

From Gallipoli to the sands of the Middle East, to the blood-soaked battlefields of France and Belgium, engineers put down their tools to also fight as combat soldiers at every major battle and campaign, often with heroic feats of astonishing courage. Three sappers stole a giant field gun from under German noses at Amiens. Sappers were classic larrikins, indefatigably practical men who don’t take kindly to bureaucracy. Typically under-appreciated, two were cheated of their well-earned VCs by a British general after they, working alone, tricked a German platoon into surrendering.

‘Sappers are the unsung heroes of the First World War and this book helps bring them back into the limelight where they belong.’ Will Davies, Beneath Hill 60

‘From the shores of Gallipoli to the tunnels beneath Hill 60, this is the extraordinary saga of the Australian army engineer of World War One, the story of those who make and break, everywhere.’ Phillip Bradley, author of Inferno

‘It has taken 111 years for true stories to appear in a book adequately honouring sappers in World War I – you will remember these heroes forever’. Colonel Sandy MacGregor MC (rtd)

‘An excellent insight into the role of the Field Engineers as part of the combined arms team in World War I’ Brigadier Mick Say DSC, Head of Corps, Royal Australian Engineers