1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910793474203321

Titolo

The AIF in battle : how the Australian Imperial Force fought, 1914-1918 / / editor, Jean Bou

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Carlton, Vic. : , : MUP Academic Digital, , 2016

ISBN

0-522-86866-5

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource

Disciplina

940.40994

Soggetti

World War, 1914-1918 - Participation, Australian

Australia History, Military 1914-1918

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Includes index.

Nota di contenuto

Intro; Title; Copyright; Contents; List of Contributors; Editor's note and Acknowledgements; List of Abbreviations; Maps; Introduction; 1 Cavalry Combat: Mounted Warfare in Palestine; 2 The Battalion: The AIF Infantry Battalion and its Evolution; 3 Indirect Fire: The AIF's Artillery and Mortars on the Western Front; 4 The AIF's Commanders: Learning on the Job; 5 Over the Western Front: Air Power and the AIF; 6 Below Ground: The AIF's Mining Operations; 7 'Nightly Suicide Operations': Trench Raids and the Development of the AIF 8 From the Somme to the Salient: The AIF and its Battles, 1916-19179 'Backs to the Wall': Australians on the Western Front, January-June 1918; 10 The AIF and the Hundred Days: 'Orchestration' for Tactical Success in 1918; Appendix A: Infantry Battalion Organisation Diagrams; Appendix B: Artillery Organisation Diagrams; Index

Sommario/riassunto

By the end of the First World War the combat formations of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) in both France and the Middle East were considered among the British Empire's most effective troops. While sometimes a source of pride and not a little boasting, how the force came to be so was not due to any inherent national prowess or trait. Instead it was the culmination of years of training, organisational change, battlefield experimentation and hard-won experience;a process that included not just the Australians, but the wider British imperial armies as well. This book brings together some of Australia's foremost military historians to outline how the military neophytes that



left Australia's shores in 1914 became the battle winning troops of 1918. It will trace the evolution of several of the key arms of the AIF, including the infantry, the light horse, the artillery, and the flying corps, and also consider how the various arms worked together alongside other troops of the British Empire to achieve a remarkably high level of battlefield effectiveness.