Abstract
For many Australian soldiers travelling overseas during the First World War, the experience of trying to communicate with those who did not speak English would prove difficult. Their letters, diaries, and trench periodicals reveal various aspects of Australian soldiers’ experiences of the First World War: their knowledge of and attitudes towards others, their management of military-civilian encounters, their imagining of ‘friends’ and ‘enemies,’ and their construction of identity around language. This chapter provides an overview of Australians’ experiences of language, from their first trip to Egypt to their time on the Western Front. It outlines some of the key ways in which Australians encountered others through language and how they made sense of these encounters.
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Notes
- 1.
Cyril Lawrence, letter, 21 June, 1916, in Peter Yule (ed.) (1987), Sergeant Lawrence Goes to France (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press), p. 1.
- 2.
Julian Walker (2017), Words and the First World War: Language, Memory, Vocabulary (London: Bloomsbury), p. 44.
- 3.
Hilary Footitt (2012), ‘Introduction’, in Hilary Footitt and Michael Kelly (eds), Languages and the Military: Alliances, Occupation and Peace Building (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan), pp. 1–11, here p. 4.
- 4.
Santanu Das (2018), ‘Entangled Emotions: Race, Encounters and Anti-colonial Cosmopolitanism’, in Santanu Das and Kate McLoughlin (eds), The First World War: Literature, Culture, Modernity (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 240–61, here pp. 242–43.
- 5.
Notably a number of works in the Palgrave Studies in Languages at War series, such as Hilary Footitt and Michael Kelly (2012), Languages at War: Policies and Practices of Language Contacts in Conflict, Hilary Footitt and Simona Tobia (2013), ‘Wartalk’: Foreign and the British War Effort in Europe, 1940–47, and Julian Walker and Christophe Declerq (eds) (2016), Languages and the First World War: Communicating in a Transnational War.
- 6.
Krista Cowman (2016), ‘The … “parlez” Is Not Going Very Well “avec moi”: Learning and Using “Trench French” on the Western Front’, in Walker and Declerq (eds), Languages and the First World War: Communicating in a Transnational War (Houndmills: Palgrave), pp. 25–43, here p. 25.
- 7.
Sandrijn Van Den Noortgate (2016), ‘Caught in the Crossfire: Interpreters During the First World War’, in Walker and Declerq (eds), Languages and the First World War: Communicating in a Transnational War (Houndmills: Palgrave), pp. 98–112, here p. 100.
- 8.
Craig Gibson (2014), Behind the Front: British Soldiers and French Civilians, 1914–1918 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
- 9.
Julian Walker, Words and the First World War, p. 28.
- 10.
Craig Gibson, Behind the Front, p. 147.
- 11.
Pauline Georgelin is currently completing a thesis looking at the experiences of French-Australians during the First World War, ‘For Noble and Valiant France’: French-Australian identities during the First World War’ (University of Melbourne).
- 12.
John F. Williams (2003), German Anzacs and the First World War (Sydney: UNSW Press), p. xv.
- 13.
John F. Williams, German Anzacs and the First World War, p. 5.
- 14.
Harry Cadwallader, Letter, 15 Feb 1916, ‘Letters from the Great War 1914–1918: Private Henry (Harry) Thomas Cadwallader No 4160, 7th Battalion’, AWM PR01199.
- 15.
Julian Walker, Words and the First World War, p. 31.
- 16.
Craig Gibson, Behind the Front, p. 149.
- 17.
See AWM 250, Personal Effects Cards. For a longer discussion of this, see Amanda Laugesen (2012), Boredom Is the Enemy: The Intellectual and Imaginative Lives of Australian Soldiers in the Great War and Beyond (Abingdon: Ashgate), pp. 39–40.
- 18.
Chaplain Lieutenant-Colonel James A. Gault (1920?), Padre Gault’s Stunt Book (London: Epworth Press), p. 162.
- 19.
Edward L. Moore, Diary entry, 22 January 1915, in Gallipoli to the Somme: The WWI Diaries of Sapper Edward L. Moore (Harkway, Vic.: Self-published).
- 20.
Moore, Diary entry, 7 April 1916, in Gallipoli to the Somme.
- 21.
Reg Telfer (1996), Dad’s War Diaries 1915–1919 (N.P.: Self-published, Claire Taplin), 15 August 1917.
- 22.
Duffell, letter, 3 April 1916, in Gilbert Mant (ed.) (1992), Soldier Boy: The Letters of Gunner W.J. Duffell, 1915–18 (Kenthurst: Kangaroo Press), p. 34.
- 23.
Smythe, diary entry, 16 August 1915, Anzac History World War I Letters from the Trenches, Smythe Family Letters, http://www.smythe.id.au/letters/
- 24.
Smythe, diary entry, 2 April 1916, Anzac History World War I Letters from the Trenches, Smythe Family Letters.
- 25.
Smythe, diary entry, 8 April 1916, Anzac History World War I Letters from the Trenches, Smythe Family Letters.
- 26.
Smythe, diary entry, 7 June, 13 June 1916, Anzac History World War I Letters from the Trenches, Smythe Family Letters.
- 27.
Smythe, diary entry, 11 July 1916, Anzac History World War I Letters from the Trenches, Smythe Family Letters.
- 28.
Smythe, diary entry, 15 July 1916, Anzac History World War I Letters from the Trenches, Smythe Family Letters.
- 29.
Smythe, diary entry, 24 October 1916, Anzac History World War I Letters from the Trenches, Smythe Family Letters.
- 30.
Smythe, diary entry, 5 February 1917, Anzac History World War I Letters from the Trenches, Smythe Family Letters.
- 31.
Smythe, diary entry, 23 October 1917, Anzac History World War I Letters from the Trenches, Smythe Family Letters.
- 32.
Smythe, diary entry, 23 November 1918, Anzac History World War I Letters from the Trenches, Smythe Family Letters.
- 33.
The Kia Ora Coo-ee 2:4 (15 October 1918), p. 13.
- 34.
The Kia Ora Coo-ee 2:4 (15 October 1918), p. 13.
- 35.
AWM, 1DRL/615, Letter from 1129 Private C. R. Armstrong, Lager No. 255, 409 Heilsburg, East Prussia, 2 October 1918, Box 1, Folder 2, Chomley Papers.
- 36.
AWM, 1DRL/615, Letter from Private J. T. Wright, n.d., Box 1, Folder 6, and Letter from Private A. L. R. Hanton, 30 January 1918, Box 1, Folder 3, Chomley Papers.
- 37.
AWM, 1DRL/615, Letter from Private J. T. Wright, n.d., Box 1, Folder 6, Chomley Papers.
- 38.
Laugesen, Boredom is the Enemy.
- 39.
John F. Williams, German Anzacs and the First World War, p. 66.
- 40.
Cyril Lawrence, diary entry, 2 April 1916, in Peter Yule (ed.), Sergeant Lawrence Goes to France, p. 1.
- 41.
Smythe, letter, 14 January 1915, Anzac History World War I Letters from the Trenches, Smythe Family Letters.
- 42.
Bean, diary entry 8 August 1915, in Kevin Fewster (ed.) (2007), Bean’s Gallipoli: The Diaries of Australia’s Official War Correspondent (Crows Nest, NSW: Allen and Unwin), p. 189.
- 43.
Albert E. Coates, diary entry, 19 October 1915, in Winifred Gherardin and Walter Gherardin (eds) (1995), The Volunteer: The Diaries and Letters of A.E. Coates No. 23 – 7th Battalion, 1st AIF, First World War 1914–18 (Burwood, Vic.: W. Graphics), p. 83.
- 44.
Albert E. Coates, diary entry, 19 October 1915, in The Volunteer, p. 83.
- 45.
Rowan Webb (1993), ‘Coates, Sir Albert Ernest (1895–1977)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography (National Centre of Biography, Australian National University) http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/coates-sir-albert-ernest-9772/text17269, published first in hardcopy 1993, accessed online 2 May 2019.
- 46.
Albert E. Coates, diary entry 9 April 1916, letter 7 June 1917, in The Volunteer.
- 47.
Albert Coates and Newman Rosenthal (1977), The Albert Coates Story: The Will That Found the Way (Melbourne: Hyland House), p. 22.
- 48.
The Queensland Digger 3:3 (1 August 1927), pp. 5–6.
- 49.
Jacqueline Dwyer (ed.) (1985), Wartime Diaries and Letters of Jacques Playoust or ‘Seven Aussie Poilus’ 1914–18 (Sydney: Self-published), p. 2.
- 50.
Jacqueline Dwyer (2017), Flanders in Australia: A Personal History of Wool and War (Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing), p. 193.
- 51.
Eric Berti (2015), ‘Jacques Playoust (1883–1947): Poilu and Pillar of the Sydney French Community’, in Eric Berti and Ivan Balko (eds), French Lives in Australia, (Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing), pp. 294–318, here p. 304.
- 52.
Jacqueline Dwyer, Flanders in Australia, p. 228.
- 53.
See AWM record.
- 54.
Eric Berti, ‘Jacques Playoust (1883–1947): Poilu and Pillar of the Sydney French Community’, p. 308.
- 55.
Jacqueline Dwyer, Flanders in Australia, p. 194.
- 56.
Jacqueline Dwyer (ed.), Wartime Diaries and Letters of Jacques Playoust or ‘Seven Aussie Poilus’ 1914–18, p. 85.
- 57.
Drane, diary entry, 15 December 1914, Complete Anzac Gallipoli War Diary by T.E. Drane http://bushroots.com/wp/2009/06/extracts-from-anzac-gallipoli-war-diary-by-tedrane/
- 58.
Drane, diary entry, 15 December 1914, Complete Anzac Gallipoli War Diary.
- 59.
Joan Beaumont (2013), Broken Nation: Australians in the Great War (Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin), p. 60.
- 60.
John Baensch, diary entry, 25 November 1915, in (1993), War Diary 1915–1916 (Geelong: Geelong Historical Society), p. 20.
- 61.
McConnell, letter, 10 February 1918, in Dorothy Gilding (ed.) (2012), Letters from the Front (Sydney: Horizon Publishing Group), p. 109.
- 62.
Davison, letter, 18 June 1916, in Daphne Elliott (ed.) (2013), Arthur James Russell Davison: From Private to Captain in the 17th Battalion 1915–1918 (Adelaide: DPA Publishing), p. 99.
- 63.
Stewart, diary entry, 12 August 1916, in Margaret Wilmington (1995), Alfred Robert Morison Stewart: Diaries of an Unsung Hero (Luddenham, NSW: Self-published), p. 141.
- 64.
Tuck, diary entry, 9 September 1918, in Gertrude Kirby (ed.) (1989), The War Diaries of Stanley Thomas Tuck 1917 and 1918 (Geelong, Vic.: Self-published).
- 65.
The Reveille, 2:5 (January 31, 1929), p. 18.
- 66.
The Queensland Digger (1 June 1927), p. 27.
- 67.
Amanda Laugesen (2015), Furphies and Whizz-bangs: Anzac Slang from the Great War (South Melbourne: Oxford University Press).
- 68.
Item from Honk, 29 August 1915, reprinted in David Kent (1999), From Trench and Troopship: The Experience of the Australian Imperial Force 1914–1919 (Alexandria: Hale and Iremonger), p. 152.
- 69.
Lawrence, diary entry, 24 March 1916, in Peter Yule (ed.), Sergeant Lawrence Goes to France, p. 1.
- 70.
Bendigonian, 9 September 1915, p. 9.
- 71.
John Brophy and Eric Partridge, Songs and Slang of the British Soldier: 1914–1918 (London: Scholartis Press, 1930).
- 72.
Demasson, letter, 19 March 1917, in Rachael Christensen (ed.) (1988), To All My Dear People: The Diary and Letters of Hubert P. Demasson 1916–1917 (Fremantle: Fremantle Arts Centre Press), p. 141.
- 73.
The Kookaburra, 2 (July 1917), p. 5.
- 74.
Daily News (Perth), (22 April 1922) p. 11.
- 75.
The Queensland Digger, (1 June 1927), p. 25.
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Laugesen, A. (2020). Cross-Cultural Communication and the Experiences of Australian Soldiers During the First World War. In: Laugesen, A., Gehrmann, R. (eds) Communication, Interpreting and Language in Wartime. Palgrave Studies in Languages at War. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27037-7_2
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