Insight
into an Undercover War
Insight
into an Undercover War
During World War I, a lot of major changes were happening socially, economically, and even personally to all those involved. These changes were hard for not only the everyday folks but the soldiers as well. Francis James Mack gave an insight into exactly what it was like during the daily life traveling as a soldier throughout World War I. He addressed many issues that came as a shock to an Australian man journeying through England and France. Then the question that comes to mind when reading his letters is: How do these changes affect a person in relation to changes in daily life, how the world can be changed so dramatically, and the underlining tension that exist even when all seems to be fine?
Francis James Mack gave insight into the war and what the real issues were instead of what the government thought was an issue. Francis set really high expectations of certain places based on what he would read instead of going to a place with an open mind. A true testament to what the mindset of people who lived in this time is from Francis said, “That’s a thing which struck us as peculiar, girls doing all sorts of jobs, walk down the street and you would see a window cleaner.” (Francis James Mack). It is interesting to see the turn away from what is usually the norm to this brand new way of life. By sharing, in his letters that women are doing everything it showed that he noticed that this was not necessarily a bad thing but something that came with the war. The war was taking all the men away from their daily work and women had to step in and fill gaps caused by the war. War had caused a shift in the social order because of all the men having to depart from their homes leaving the women behind to fill in their shoes. Women were doing jobs, that had it been before the war would have never happened. It was something that had to happen because if they didn’t do it, who else will? All the men fighting an endless war and their jobs not being covered gave women a whole new level of importance. They now had to do the job of a man and women in a household with them being the only leader to guide their family through this difficult time.
While traveling, he wrote about how much harder it was in England during this time. He addressed that he used to think that life was hard in Australia but to him England was torture for a solder. He had pointed out that “No soldier allowed in any public eating house or place of amusement after 10pm, only see eatables between the hours of 7am till 8am, 10am till 10:45am, 4:30pm till 9pm.” Just reading how very different things can be when a war is taking place. The same luxuries that you do not think of as important or minor are taken away. Francis realized just how much was being taken away because when it came to religious holidays they were still working. Francis had heard many other soldiers saying that the end of the war was in sight but honestly you can never really know for sure if something is going to really end. You can also tell from his letters that he misses home and would not mind leaving the horror of the war for a weekend with his family. Just from this statement you can tell that he has a strong family background. Also, he cares very much for them and he wants nothing but the best for them. But the changes that are happening right before his eyes are actually changing the way he is viewing life. The amount of courage that is needed for a soldier in the war is very large.
Breaks from all the horror and gore are much appreciated and it was very obvious that Francis enjoyed them. In a war, such as World War I, a lot of things were moving in a whole new direction. Life as many people knew it as either altered or completely destroyed. Life was very hard on the soldiers especially. Some of them became very home sick and it sometimes would get in the way of being a soldier. In other cases, they would be perfectly healthy but as what occurs in a war, they get fatally wounded and don’t make it to the next day. Francis was on the list of many soldiers who lost their lives fighting for their country. It is a very hard thing when you lose a son in such a brutal way. Not to mention how young most of the soldiers are and it becomes hard to decide whether the war did a good establishment when you are hurting over such a big loss.
During the war, for those who lost loved ones fairly early knew what it was like to feel true pain. Not only was the pain something that had to be endured but on top of all of that they had to find a way to move on without that person. Having to start their lives new with one less family member because they had became one of the wars many victims. You would think at such a price that was given by each family who lost a member it would be high enough to get rid of this horrid war and that peace would try and be made. But like all wars they do not have an end or a beginning really. It may be declared over but there is always someone who cannot let go of what the end result is and they are the ones who want more fighting until they get there way. That is how wars are followed by more wars because in this world everyone wants to be right and honestly that can never happen. Due to the fact that we all have very different ways of thinking about the world and what we see as justice and truth can vary depending on a large scale. And even though this is an obvious fact many people fail to see this truth. And because everyone is blind and unwilling to see the truth, war will always be around and will never cease to exist. World War I was only the beginning of many wars such as physical combat, social wars, cultural wars and even daily personal wars.
Although, Francis never made it back home, he always had a good outlook on the things he was surrounded by. It was interesting to see how he found some positive in every place he was stationed. Finding that slither of peace and happiness in a sea of confusion and unrest is something that gives hope to the individual. The time period in which these letters were written gave a person who is from the current time period such as me an insight into what life was like. It is hard adjusting to change and being able to adapt to what you now must get use to being your life. To find hope in a place where all around you, you see nothing but destruction, pain, and unrest. How is one to even begin to think about happiness when a fellow soldier is lying with his life leaving his body in your arms? It is impossible for an outsider to even begin to think about happy times when in these kinds of condition. But what is able to be seen by our eyes is that the happiness that they envisioned was their only way to hold on to the humanity that they had left inside of them. These changes affect a lot of people differently but the Australian population had a very different view on how this war affected them.
Now the underlining drama and unsettlement was not shown to the public’s eye. The unrest was covered up by the wartime censorship and the history written after the war. But not all was well between Australians and the British. There was tension that was evident in films and television shows that would portray the British officers in a bad light. They were viewed as being responsible for unnecessary sacrifices and that the Australians were the leaders of mutiny against them. With the war being over you would think that people wouldn’t try to brew up another one but that is exactly what was happening. The center of this controversy between these two countries was the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC). It is all due to the fact that the memory of this endeavor is being sabotaged and the history isn’t showing the whole story and what really happened. The Australians were outraged at the way the British were portraying the ANZAC landing. In their histories they said that even though some of the soldiers faltered and didn’t stand strong, most of them stood firm because they did not want to disappoint their fellow soldiers.
This ANZAC controversy of 1927 showed that there was a problem with nationalist histories and the way words can be manipulated. It is a good example as to why we should not fully have faith in what is written from the past because not all of it is straight facts. Most of the time things are left out. The story can be altered to fit the person or place where the story is coming from. All of the contradictions that would make a story untrue or become questionable are wiped out as if it did not happen at all. Although this controversy was focused on Australia’s outrage toward British histories, this is not a fresh wound. Australian relationships between Britain and even America were strained and tension was between the two. This is only more evidence to the fact that it may not have been just the histories that Australia was mad about something that has ran deep in the relationships between different countries.
The existence of tension after such a tense war such as World War I really brings into perspective what is really seen as important. You realize that some things that are put out in the open aren’t always what matters to officials or the leaders. Changes in the world were something that was being introduced and took hold of the way people not only viewed their society but also how they participated in this new world. Soon after these changes took place women were stepping into male jobs, having to take care of the family and the profession to take care of their families. But even with all the changes that came with the war, after its end it still did not change the tension in the air. The reason behind that is because even though the war with the physical fighting was over, there was still unrest between two countries over what really happened in history. It may seem silly but it is something that cause dissention between these two countries and made it difficult to ever end the war. Change can be deceiving even in the most extreme cases.
During World War I, a lot of major changes were happening socially, economically, and even personally to all those involved. These changes were hard for not only the everyday folks but the soldiers as well. Francis James Mack gave an insight into exactly what it was like during the daily life traveling as a soldier throughout World War I. He addressed many issues that came as a shock to an Australian man journeying through England and France. Then the question that comes to mind when reading his letters is: How do these changes affect a person in relation to changes in daily life, how the world can be changed so dramatically, and the underlining tension that exist even when all seems to be fine?
Francis James Mack gave insight into the war and what the real issues were instead of what the government thought was an issue. Francis set really high expectations of certain places based on what he would read instead of going to a place with an open mind. A true testament to what the mindset of people who lived in this time is from Francis said, “That’s a thing which struck us as peculiar, girls doing all sorts of jobs, walk down the street and you would see a window cleaner.” (Francis James Mack). It is interesting to see the turn away from what is usually the norm to this brand new way of life. By sharing, in his letters that women are doing everything it showed that he noticed that this was not necessarily a bad thing but something that came with the war. The war was taking all the men away from their daily work and women had to step in and fill gaps caused by the war. War had caused a shift in the social order because of all the men having to depart from their homes leaving the women behind to fill in their shoes. Women were doing jobs, that had it been before the war would have never happened. It was something that had to happen because if they didn’t do it, who else will? All the men fighting an endless war and their jobs not being covered gave women a whole new level of importance. They now had to do the job of a man and women in a household with them being the only leader to guide their family through this difficult time.
While traveling, he wrote about how much harder it was in England during this time. He addressed that he used to think that life was hard in Australia but to him England was torture for a solder. He had pointed out that “No soldier allowed in any public eating house or place of amusement after 10pm, only see eatables between the hours of 7am till 8am, 10am till 10:45am, 4:30pm till 9pm.” Just reading how very different things can be when a war is taking place. The same luxuries that you do not think of as important or minor are taken away. Francis realized just how much was being taken away because when it came to religious holidays they were still working. Francis had heard many other soldiers saying that the end of the war was in sight but honestly you can never really know for sure if something is going to really end. You can also tell from his letters that he misses home and would not mind leaving the horror of the war for a weekend with his family. Just from this statement you can tell that he has a strong family background. Also, he cares very much for them and he wants nothing but the best for them. But the changes that are happening right before his eyes are actually changing the way he is viewing life. The amount of courage that is needed for a soldier in the war is very large.
Breaks from all the horror and gore are much appreciated and it was very obvious that Francis enjoyed them. In a war, such as World War I, a lot of things were moving in a whole new direction. Life as many people knew it as either altered or completely destroyed. Life was very hard on the soldiers especially. Some of them became very home sick and it sometimes would get in the way of being a soldier. In other cases, they would be perfectly healthy but as what occurs in a war, they get fatally wounded and don’t make it to the next day. Francis was on the list of many soldiers who lost their lives fighting for their country. It is a very hard thing when you lose a son in such a brutal way. Not to mention how young most of the soldiers are and it becomes hard to decide whether the war did a good establishment when you are hurting over such a big loss.
During the war, for those who lost loved ones fairly early knew what it was like to feel true pain. Not only was the pain something that had to be endured but on top of all of that they had to find a way to move on without that person. Having to start their lives new with one less family member because they had became one of the wars many victims. You would think at such a price that was given by each family who lost a member it would be high enough to get rid of this horrid war and that peace would try and be made. But like all wars they do not have an end or a beginning really. It may be declared over but there is always someone who cannot let go of what the end result is and they are the ones who want more fighting until they get there way. That is how wars are followed by more wars because in this world everyone wants to be right and honestly that can never happen. Due to the fact that we all have very different ways of thinking about the world and what we see as justice and truth can vary depending on a large scale. And even though this is an obvious fact many people fail to see this truth. And because everyone is blind and unwilling to see the truth, war will always be around and will never cease to exist. World War I was only the beginning of many wars such as physical combat, social wars, cultural wars and even daily personal wars.
Although, Francis never made it back home, he always had a good outlook on the things he was surrounded by. It was interesting to see how he found some positive in every place he was stationed. Finding that slither of peace and happiness in a sea of confusion and unrest is something that gives hope to the individual. The time period in which these letters were written gave a person who is from the current time period such as me an insight into what life was like. It is hard adjusting to change and being able to adapt to what you now must get use to being your life. To find hope in a place where all around you, you see nothing but destruction, pain, and unrest. How is one to even begin to think about happiness when a fellow soldier is lying with his life leaving his body in your arms? It is impossible for an outsider to even begin to think about happy times when in these kinds of condition. But what is able to be seen by our eyes is that the happiness that they envisioned was their only way to hold on to the humanity that they had left inside of them. These changes affect a lot of people differently but the Australian population had a very different view on how this war affected them.
Now the underlining drama and unsettlement was not shown to the public’s eye. The unrest was covered up by the wartime censorship and the history written after the war. But not all was well between Australians and the British. There was tension that was evident in films and television shows that would portray the British officers in a bad light. They were viewed as being responsible for unnecessary sacrifices and that the Australians were the leaders of mutiny against them. With the war being over you would think that people wouldn’t try to brew up another one but that is exactly what was happening. The center of this controversy between these two countries was the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC). It is all due to the fact that the memory of this endeavor is being sabotaged and the history isn’t showing the whole story and what really happened. The Australians were outraged at the way the British were portraying the ANZAC landing. In their histories they said that even though some of the soldiers faltered and didn’t stand strong, most of them stood firm because they did not want to disappoint their fellow soldiers.
This ANZAC controversy of 1927 showed that there was a problem with nationalist histories and the way words can be manipulated. It is a good example as to why we should not fully have faith in what is written from the past because not all of it is straight facts. Most of the time things are left out. The story can be altered to fit the person or place where the story is coming from. All of the contradictions that would make a story untrue or become questionable are wiped out as if it did not happen at all. Although this controversy was focused on Australia’s outrage toward British histories, this is not a fresh wound. Australian relationships between Britain and even America were strained and tension was between the two. This is only more evidence to the fact that it may not have been just the histories that Australia was mad about something that has ran deep in the relationships between different countries.
The existence of tension after such a tense war such as World War I really brings into perspective what is really seen as important. You realize that some things that are put out in the open aren’t always what matters to officials or the leaders. Changes in the world were something that was being introduced and took hold of the way people not only viewed their society but also how they participated in this new world. Soon after these changes took place women were stepping into male jobs, having to take care of the family and the profession to take care of their families. But even with all the changes that came with the war, after its end it still did not change the tension in the air. The reason behind that is because even though the war with the physical fighting was over, there was still unrest between two countries over what really happened in history. It may seem silly but it is something that cause dissention between these two countries and made it difficult to ever end the war. Change can be deceiving even in the most extreme cases.
Bibliography
Primary Source
Mack, Francis J. "ANZAC Memories "The Letters of Francis James Mack"." ANZAC Memories. N.p., 6 Aug. 2001. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. http://www.worldwar1.com/sfanzav1.htm Dates: 27th January, 1917; 8th April, 1917; 1st February 1918; 5th February, 1918; 19th May, 1918; 27th May, 1918; 15th June, 1918; 21st June, 1918; 7th December, 1918;
Secondary Source
Thomson, Alistair. “History And ‘Betrayal’: The Anzac Controversy.” History Today 43.1 (1993): 8. Academic Search Premier. Web.15 Apr. 2014
Mack, Francis J. "ANZAC Memories "The Letters of Francis James Mack"." ANZAC Memories. N.p., 6 Aug. 2001. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. http://www.worldwar1.com/sfanzav1.htm Dates: 27th January, 1917; 8th April, 1917; 1st February 1918; 5th February, 1918; 19th May, 1918; 27th May, 1918; 15th June, 1918; 21st June, 1918; 7th December, 1918;
Secondary Source
Thomson, Alistair. “History And ‘Betrayal’: The Anzac Controversy.” History Today 43.1 (1993): 8. Academic Search Premier. Web.15 Apr. 2014
ANZAC MemoriesThe Letters of Francis James Mack
Francis James Mack wrote this primary
source, he wrote this due to his journey during the World War I who happens to
be a soldier. He began to write this in January 27 1917; he wrote this in England
27th January, 1917. Candahar Barracks Tidworth England. 8th
April, 1917. France. 2-1-18. France. 2-5-1918. France. May 19th,
1918. France 27-5-1918. France 15-6-1918, France 21-6-1918, Froggie Land 21
Sand Bag Rd Boggie Hill 12-7-1918, 18 July 1918, France July 30th,
“Trocadero” High Street, West Maitland N.S.W 23.8.18, this primary source are
letters and the reason why this was written was because this is based on his
actual life style during his young days while attending the World War I. He
wrote these letters specifically to his family members but the majority of
those letters were sent to his mother and his father and they were sent to
Australia. He would write letters about how his day went and he wrote plans
during the “program” which I like to call it and he would draw them up on a
storyboard to his family. He felt like this was the best way to plan
communications and present himself such as the usage of letters to plan the
sequence of his lifelong journey. This was written into many occasions and that
was to discuss that he had received positive and negative experiences during
the war. Many soldiers were found themselves in a deep hole that they couldn’t
grasp and therefore they couldn’t handle the pressure of the real war. As you
read forward to these letters not all of these letters are from Francis, one of
the letters were sent to Mrs. Mack who is Francis’s mother and Army Chaplain
informs his mother that his son past away and just wanted to tell her by
respect and wanted his mother to know that Francis is in a better place now. This is relevant to my topic because during World War I, a lot of major changes were
happening socially, economically, and even personally to all those involved.
Excerpt from Primary Source - From the Army Chaplain to his mother:
France July 30th Dear Mrs Mack
I am writing to tell you of the death of your son Cpl F J Mack. He was brought in here (61CCS) quite early on Monday morning, wounded in the abdomen. Everything possible was done for him and during the day he seemed to maintain his strength, but towards evening he grew weaker/ died about 8.30pm. I was with him two or three times during the day and again shortly before he died.
It may be of comfort to know that I buried him this morning in a quiet little graveyard far from the noise of battle. His grave is well cared for and will be marked with a cross.
May God comfort you in your trouble and grant to him eternal rest.
I remain Yours very Truly
Revd. G.R.Boycott Chaplain (CofE) 61st C.C.S
The significance of this excerpt was to show how the changes were hard for not only the everyday folks but the soldiers as well. Francis James Mack gave us an insight into exactly what it was like during the daily life traveling as a soldier throughout World War I. He addressed many issues that came as a shock to an Australian man journeying through England and France. Unfortunately he died in the end and that was the end of Francis James Mack's journey who will never be forgotten by his loved ones.
Excerpt from Primary Source - From the Army Chaplain to his mother:
France July 30th Dear Mrs Mack
I am writing to tell you of the death of your son Cpl F J Mack. He was brought in here (61CCS) quite early on Monday morning, wounded in the abdomen. Everything possible was done for him and during the day he seemed to maintain his strength, but towards evening he grew weaker/ died about 8.30pm. I was with him two or three times during the day and again shortly before he died.
It may be of comfort to know that I buried him this morning in a quiet little graveyard far from the noise of battle. His grave is well cared for and will be marked with a cross.
May God comfort you in your trouble and grant to him eternal rest.
I remain Yours very Truly
Revd. G.R.Boycott Chaplain (CofE) 61st C.C.S
The significance of this excerpt was to show how the changes were hard for not only the everyday folks but the soldiers as well. Francis James Mack gave us an insight into exactly what it was like during the daily life traveling as a soldier throughout World War I. He addressed many issues that came as a shock to an Australian man journeying through England and France. Unfortunately he died in the end and that was the end of Francis James Mack's journey who will never be forgotten by his loved ones.
Gallery
This is relevant to my topic because it just shows the environment that they were placed in during World War I. This picture can give us a little take on what they had to go through on a daily basis in the Trench Warfare.
In this photo you can see they are taking action in the Western Front during World War I and this happens to be one of the most tenacious battles that they have fought against. They carry signalers and connecting telephone lines during the battle of Zonnebeke and it just shows us how they would prepare themselves and adjust and adapt in a hurry under these brutal conditions.
In the World War I the Australian soldiers had to attach a coulor patch around the shoulder to show who they represented. The upper part of the patch showed what legion the troops were in, the lower part of the patch signifies what unit they were in.
This shows the mutual respect that these soldiers have towards one another and showing that they truly care about their brothers. This was located in ANZAC and this is similar to James Mack's experience as he was slowly dying.