The First Anzacs (The Incredible Untold Stories of Aussie Combat Engineers in WWI)

The untold story of the Australian sappers - army engineers - in World War I.

They were airbrushed out of history. Charles Bean claimed the first Australian ashore at the Gallipoli landing on 25 April 1915 was an army officer, but he was wrong. Even today, the military hierarchy is reluctant to accept that of the 16,000 men who landed that fateful day, the first Australian soldiers ashore were in fact army engineers.

This is the first book about the Australian sappers - army engineers - who fought in World War I. They were usually in the vanguard, clearing defences, building bridges and other roads for the troops who followed. At Gallipoli they used grappling irons and ropes to dismantle the Turkish defences - under enemy fire. On the Western Front, they tunnelled under tunnels into the German zone to lay massive explosives. In Egypt they demolished a Turkish railway in a day.

The First Anzacs takes us from Gallipoli to the sands of the Middle East, to the blood-soaked battlefields of France and Belgium. They were engineers, and they also fought as combat soldiers in their own right, present at every major battle and campaign, often with deeds of great courage. Sappers were classic Aussie larrikins, indefatigably practical men who don't take kindly to bureaucracy. There are plenty of great stories, including the three who stole a giant field gun from under German noses at Amiens, and how they sourced drinking water for thirsty men and animals of the Light Horse Brigade in the Battle of Beersheba.

'An excellent insight into the role of the Field Engineers in World War One' Brigadier Mick Say DSC, Head of Corps Royal Australian Engineers