Contains: Battle Scarred & Game to the Last
Battle Scarred
One of the shortest lived and most battle hardened of the 1st Australian Imperial Forces battalions, the 47th was formed in Egypt in 1916 and disbanded two years later having suffered one of the highest casualty rates of any Australian unit. Their story is remarkable for many reasons.
Dogged by command and discipline troubles and bled white by the desperate attrition battles of 1916 and 1917, they fought on against a determined and skilful enemy in battles where the fortunes of war seemed stacked against them at every turn. Not only did they have the misfortune to be called into some of the A.I.F.s most costly campaigns, chance often found them in the worst places within those battles.
Though their story is one of almost unrelieved tragedy, it is also story of remarkable courage, endurance and heroism. It is the story of the 1st A.I.F. itself - punished, beaten, sometimes reviled for their indiscipline, they fought on - fewer, leaner and harder - until final victory was won. And at its end, in an extraordinary gesture of mateship, the remnants of the 47th Battalion reunited.
Having been scattered to other units after their disbandment, the survivors gathered in Belgium for one last photo together. Only 73 remained.
Game to the Last
Game to the Last reveals the story of the men who would become "one of the finest battalions which served in the war", the West Australian 11th Infantry Battalion, AIF, during the gruelling Gallipoli Campaign of 1915. The narrative follows the battalion members as they leave their homes and lives in Western Australia, embark for overseas, experience the excitement and boredom of arid and exotic Egypt, and undergo their baptism of fire in the first wave of the Australian and New Zealand landings at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915.
