"To win through safely would mean honour and achievement, on the other hand to fall would mean an honourable end."
Last goodbyes, personal reflections and contemplations on the meaning and reality of war form part of the accounts of Australians on the eve of battle on 24 April, 1915.
Brigadier General John Monash was one of many who wrote a last letter home: “In the event of my going out, you are to believe that I do so with only one regret, which is, the grief that this will bring to you and Burt and Mat. – For myself, I am prepared to take my chance … to win through safely would mean honour and achievement, on the other hand to fall would mean an honourable end. – At best I have only a few years of vigour left, and then would come decay and the chill of old age, & perhaps lingering illness.”
Alan Henderson wrote home of the national significance of the event he was to take part in. “It is going to be Australia's chance and she makes a tradition out of this that she must always look back on. God grant it will be a great one. The importance of this alone seems stupendous to Australia while the effect of success on the war itself will be even greater"
Apcar Leslie De Vine recorded the mood of those around him “The men were very light hearted & gave cheers for the Colonel & the Major, special tea tonight. Bully beef & egg The men were specially bellowing [?] at teatime & sang all the time & kicked up an awful noise…”
Charles Bean, Australia’s Official Correspondent wrote a sobering diary entry: "It’s a great gamble the whole thing really – a lot of bits of metal in the air; just a chance whether you stop one or let it pass. A lot of men at one end of a machine throwing things into space with a deadly swiftness without the least idea what is going to be the effect of each discharge: It may mean a tragedy in some little cottage home in Tasmania … a lot of Australians – boys …will be left lying in Turkey."
The Memorial has one of the largest digitised collections of personal papers from the First World War available online. The collections, during this centenary of the Gallipoli landing, give insight into the thoughts and experiences of Australians on the eve of one of the momentous events in Australia’s history.