Lost secrets of the ANZAC heroes | 60 Minutes Australia

Good evening and welcome to a special edition of 60 Minutes Ashley Vines is like most 21-year-old Ozzie men. She loves the sport of it and has big dreams. Of course, a century ago he would have been on his way to Gallipoli, which is exactly what his great-grandfather Ashley Vines Sr. would have been in the second wave landing at Gallipoli on Anzac Day in 1915? You'd think it's the kind of story that would have been well told down the family line, but for almost a century it was kept secret. secret to an incredible chance encounter, they could be our children, our brothers, our colleagues.

Imagine them a century ago as brothers in arms, one day jumping for a mark and the next dodging bullets in a trench, the thought burns deeply for Ashley Vines, 21, who is named after one of those soldiers at Gallipoli her great-grandfather in 1914 Ashley senior joined a special unit the public school company were school children one minute Anzacs the next landing the first day at Anzac Cove when blood soaked the water and the towering cliffs stood in their way the day in that the war took revenge on their world and Maj Nations, the Public Schools company was actually a private school company, students from Victoria's elite schools gathered, there were children actually in their last years of school right behind them and was a list of high performing school captains and cricket and football captains prefixed by Mr.

Duck. You can only imagine how they felt imbued with the best education without knowing anything but success, how could they not whip the enemy? He himself would have walked those same steps. and I find it quite remarkable that in four generations of Vines children attending Melbourne Scotch College today, the two youngest, Ashley and her father, Richard, are on a mission to follow in the footsteps of Ashley Vines' original school record, which shows that he was a top athlete. an 18-year-old first footballer and cricket captain, we later discovered that he was actually the vice-captain of the school in 1910, exactly a hundred years before I was announced as vice-captain, which is surprising.

Here we call on ANZAC's chief historian, Dr Michael McKernon to explain what happened after Ashley and his mates left school they initially thought, well let's stick together, well scotch boys, Norman Grammar boys, Xavier boys , etc., why don't we form a public school company? we fought together and the Scottish boys were there, as indeed was your grandfather, your great-grandfather, it's amazing what an impact war has, the impact was immediate, the announcement came on a Saturday when Melbourne Grammar were playing 40 against Xavier at the MCG , the news of the war arrived. on the ground, they stopped the game and thought, what do we do?, what happens now?, there was something much more important or, you know, that just made them forget about football completely.

The Public School Company had 119 men. They joined 21,000 Victorian recruits at Port Melbourne today. The remains of Princes Pier rise like tombstones. Now we all know that the first Australians arrived before dawn on the wrong beach and that the enemy was waiting. Ashley Vines and her public school classmates were in the second wave of landings and would have seen the dead. and wounded being carried away as they came in and Ashley Vines would have been clear that this was a mission she was not going to plan Ashley, you are no different than your great grandfather's age, imagine what that must have been like, no I can't.

To be honest, I couldn't even imagine thinking about getting off a boat with all those other Australians and almost facing certain death at first, they made good ground where there were only 200 Turks trying to stop them, but their fate was probably sealed to about two kilometers from the fighting in this small farming town yes, that's a good question and we approached Kimmel at Chuck's house Mustafa Kemal atatürk was a promising military genius who woke up his men just as the Turkish line was. about to collapse, so as Ashley Vines reaches the shore, that's right, Ataturk is waking up, but if he hadn't continued sleeping, if he had continued sleeping, I think we would say that the campaign could have been very different and this is where It turned out that he was sleeping and somewhere here he jumped out of bed and started the real defense of his homeland and he met individually, he went among the troops and they told him, but sir, we don't have bullets and he said, you have fists. you have rifle butts, just get closer and that was again remember how many Turkish men were there.

Oh goodbye, mid-morning, thousands, yes thousands, once it sets in, the Turkish counterattack is fierce and the Anzac advance is in chaos, the soldiers are separated from their units and offices they don't know what to do or where go into the chaos Ashley Vines Melbourne's elite athletes are shot He is seriously injured He loses sight in one eye He has a severed artery He will probably die, but then, in a great stroke of luck, an officer from another unit reaches him , Captain Allen Vales, and remembers Ashley, they had been at Kew Primary School together, it's a coincidence, isn't it?

He is in the same small part of the battlefield remembers him recognizing oh, you must be Ashley Vines, can I help you? They are in the heat of battle. The hill they are on, known as Baby 700, changes hands five times during the day and Alan Val's long-suffering injuries begin to drag Ashley down. towards the beach you can see the distance from here you can see how far he had to go and he must have looked horrible because he has

lost

so much blood, so begins five painful hours climbing up and down ridges and ravines, five hours of bravery of blood and vines of bullets. and Val, who probably sat next to each other during roll call as young children now struggling to survive.

I'm absolutely stunned that our mouth and your grandfather and great-grandfather would do that, yeah, I mean, I look at that, I really say, oh boy, it must happen. It's been just extraordinary, not at all, it's um, this kind of terrain seems impossible now seeing what Alan Bowers did in terms of helping Ashleigh get down to the beach, it just makes the story that much more immense, yeah, finally They reached relative safety. of Anzac Cove were exhausted but alive is an element of what I call serendipity about it, yes, it's not a coincidence, here we are a hundred years later in this story.

I, Alan, they finally recognized it and the life threat was so slim. here a hundred years ago and none of this could have been for us ashle vines survived his injuries returned to Melbourne earned a science degree and became a teacher never spoke of his time at Gallipoli and never told his family he owed him the life For another man, it wasn't until 90 years later that the Vines family heard about Robert Richard from Ellen Val. The good thing is to say that it was another extraordinary coincidence that Alan Val had a nephew, Robert, and by chance he met Bob Vines' son, Ashley, who they met at a party in 2004 and they started talking I said his name wasn't Ashley it wasn't yes and I said and he wasn't blind in one eye it was him and Bob said yes he was he

lost

one side of his eye at Gallipoli so then he said well well my uncle actually saved your father's life so that was the moment, isn't that an extraordinary thing to say to someone?

Doesn't it happen that often? I guess none of the lost Gallipoli stories ultimately made sense to Ashley's grandson and great-grandson, but more importantly, her son, when I found out that was completely out of control, thought I was in for a big surprise, so that you never asked him, you knew he had this glass eye, you knew it. He had been injured in the war, but you never asked what happened. Well, I never really knew because he didn't talk to me. Perhaps the reason Ashley didn't want to talk about that terrible Bloody Sunday lies in his yellow service record.

The trauma is described as mental deficiency due to shock, but he was luckier than one in three of the public school company, he never returned home. History is really just made up of individual stories, it's a collection of stories and this is just one story. I feel quite moved. The feeling that you know my grandfather never talked to my father about this even though he was only here for a while, but I clearly think he carried a lot of trauma in his own strange way and never talked about it, which moves me a little. you could do something as meaningful as this and not share it welcome back to 60 Minutes Graham Mitchell has been searching for a long time, in fact, most of his life he has been searching for the woman who was like a grandmother to his sister and Annelle She was short in stature but cast a long shadow when the Great War broke out and she enrolled in the Third Australian Field Hospital and Anne was a mystery to Graham until he stumbled upon a series of hidden diaries she kept throughout the war that would change Graham's life and a centurion led him to a family he never knew existed For decades a dusty old box lay untouched in a house in Queensland No one knew of the personal history it contained about the women of Gallipoli What was in those dusty old books a series of Diaries and I remember lifting the cover and looking at them and thinking and then I started reading through them and I thought, "wow, we've got some history here" and I got that fresh and excited graer Mitchell from the Sunshine Coast who discovered the writings and the wartime nurse sister photographs and Anil the Diaries bring an epic tragedy to life.

Grim stories from a field hospital near Gallipoli must be like finding treasure. Yes, an absolutely fine treasure. A fine Australian treasure. I found a treasure in an Australian woman. Why were these Diaries in your house? Well, she was. Indeed, my grandmother, this boy on the corner, I thought he should take special care and I told him that he would be mine until his mother arrived, he gave me the most beautiful smile but the next morning his bed was empty, just one more of the many that had been made. the supreme sacrifice give me a thumbnail sketch and a l-39 from Cherry Gardens in South Australia she enlisted in the First World War as a nurse and a very proud Australian she was a single woman yes she had no children well they gave her to my mom, so I guess she had one after her war service and a L took in and raised Graham's mother in extraordinary circumstances for Graham has always been a mystery now that he and his fiancée Jan will embark on the same journey as ended from Fremantle a century ago this was the starting point was the starting point, this is where it started for her and where it ended for her.

Hard, he set out every night to try to find the Southern Cross until he could no longer see it. He was definitely thinking about home now that we left Derald. Free Australia behind all our letters will be censored. Colonel Fiaschi instilled in us the mission of our work. There were no States among us, only united as a unit ready to do our best for the Empire. You and DeMille wrote in great detail. About the trip, I couldn't wait to get to the front line, which for the nurses was here on the Greek island of Lemnos, it is so close to the coast of Turkey that the nurses could hear the battles being fought on Gallipoli.

He must have walked, yes, this is it. exactly as it says in the picture, still the same, yes, like many Australians, Graham and Jen had never heard of the island of Lemnos. Its port was the starting point for soldiers going to Gallipoli fifty kilometers away, they sought help from the Greek locals and used Ann's old one. photos to retrace your steps this was a soldier's funeral but before long the death toll would rise to thousands and there would be no more time for funerals thank you very much most of the photos show a desolate and windy slope next to the port that became at the third Australian General Hospital Graeme and Jan were desperate to find him, they were taken to a deserted corner of the island, to an old farm with some dogs and goats, no one lives here in the relentless freezing wind, the facilities were primitive and that really It is extending life. primitive word that was horrible, all that remains today is a rectangle of rocks that formed a kind of base for the tents.

Hey, okay, yeah, we can say that, hello, yeah, that's amazing, a hundred years later, it's amazing, it's amazing, yeah, with that, yeah, so the beds and soldiers the nurses about 40 women in total were brought ashore in early August 1915 historian Michael McKenon says they arrived to find there was very little ready for them the tents and equipment arrived weeks after they did I think it's extraordinary to see those photographs of people sleeping the floor Oh, the hospital was designed to receive about a thousand men. I don't think it was ever less than 1200, so they had mattresses on the floor, so get a bed if you can, get a mattress if you're lucky, but otherwise, there's a piece of land there, but someone would have to having removed the rocks and there was never enough food unless you were aBritish Army officer.

Those offices that are not far away, we are eating food. These are nurses. I never understood, oh, yes, yes, that's right and of course some of them were invited to the officers' mess and saw for the first time in months fruit, chicken and meat, real meat, you know, you don't intimidate the canned beef, well, I just don't. I don't know how anyone can sit down to a hearty meal knowing full well that the nurses are getting rations and they're hungry, they're starving, they're getting half rations and it's been officially ordered that they're getting half rations and you're getting a five-plate food and yet there are no signs of insubordination in these Diaries, just a stoic factual account, the Anzac women forged the values ​​of compassion, resilience and resolve, we all suffered terribly in the cold and with all our warm clothing we could not keep warm personally.

I shivered through three sleepless nights and the agony of chilblains my two little toes were frozen and then during the day most of us just limped. I heard a boy say that when he saw me, she won't endure the winter he expressed exactly my feelings creating words in the middle of the night as cold as they were they were never close I know terribly cold and hungry and tired making me cry tears yeah , I just can't imagine the work she did here and that she got up every day and put a smile on her face because the main thing was looking after the Australian soldiers.

I couldn't have done it with this bunch of stories about guys and I'm not taking away from what guys have. done at all I wouldn't do that, but there is nothing, no, there is very little, there were men and women in the war, yes, and Danelle was one of them. We don't often hear about the nurses who played such a crucial role in the war and Anne. It was one of those I knew it was a little pocket rocket Yes, perhaps its hardest job was taking care of the young soldiers Just to see them return to the fight This morning We heard the band play It was the first Brigade on their way back to Anzac after arrest we Our sisters collect all the cigarettes, chocolates and cans of food we can and throw them at smiling faces as they pass by.

We all know that deep in their hearts they don't like to go back to everything they remember there. It makes us feel terribly sad. She was a good woman, she is a good woman, well, she is your grandmother, no, no, I loved having met her. Well, I think you could almost say she does. I think that in her eyes you understood it well, very well, after Gallipoli's sister and Annelle. she went with the hospital to the Western Front once back in Australia you think she would choose an easy life but Ann went to the frontier mining town of Khau Galli in the outback of Western Australia to work in child welfare.

It's extraordinary. I have been from Egypt Lemnos. Kalgoorlie shared her love with you and wanted to give it to a child. Many children, it turns out that one of the children she would want to give love to is your mother. Yes, there and then a completely different story took away Grahame's story, their bond and Annelle can be traced back to here, the carrot at eHome in Kalgoorlie, where Annelle gave birth to the baby that would be Graham's mother on Thursday. Graham never heard the full story, so you've been struggling to fill in the gaps, right? I would love to know how your mother came about and who I am.

The story is that your mother came into Ann's hands, yes, because her mother, your grandmother, yes, I couldn't face it, she suffered from severe postpartum depression, oh, she was baby number nine. I know she was a big family and I think Ann is just a family friend well she came up and said let me help you with what ailment yeah exactly hello we found out about this from an uncle and Aunt Graham never knew that she had, so she took cream and jam to meet them at their house, fill some gaps, yes, a suit, it seemed like she had potentially changed your life now, potentially, at least she has changed me for the better.

I am a better man for knowing her, because of who she was. what she did how she stood she is a heroine goodbye Lemnos we took away many happy memories from you I would not have liked to miss you yet I have no desire to see you again welcome back John Harris Jack to his companions he was the youngest Australian fight and die at Gallipoli, but incredibly his story has never been told when he was only 15 years old he took a rifle and a bayonet and charged the enemy at the famous Battle of Lone Pine how young Jack arrived at Gallipoli is a story of deception and a bit of The Deception of What happened here a hundred years ago is not mentioned in the history of Gallipoli.

A boy who should have been playing with the other boys at school went to war. Instead, just visualize that little boy being crushed in a trench down there. and on those, you know, skinny legs, I mean, a 303 rifle with a fixed bayonet would have been taller than him, that boy was Jack Harris from Cleveland Street Public School in Sydney, he was 15 today. His great-nephew David Keshan is about to learn that there was more than just the adventurism of children that attracted Jack to warm up the photo is a really better baby he faced there is a baby face when this boy went and enlisted how Didn't someone look at that face and say are you kidding?

That is a story that we have to discover that the story begins in the inner western suburbs of Sydney at Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Dulwich Hill nor can it separate us from the love of Christ nor tribulation nor heartbreak nor persecution Jack Harris and his fathers sat on these pews to listen to the fiery sermons of a clergyman, the Reverend Everard, born in Ireland, is latouche because I am convinced that neither the preacher of death nor the preacher of life was desperate to exchange his clerical collar for a Anzac uniform which is in Jesus Christ our Lord and swept away young Jack in his holy crusade days Latouche saw the war more as a religious struggle between good and evil, he begged the Archbishop of Sydney to allow him to go fight, the Archbishop refused, but Latouche went anyway and took young Jack Harris with him, so among all those older men we have this boy. that he had so much passion to enlist and fight that he went and did it, he didn't just think about it or push it, he actually did it.

Retired Army Major General John Cantwell fought in Iraq and then led Australia's war in Afghanistan, so there's that. He arrived at Cove, look, this is his first visit to Gallipoli, we brought him here with the Anzac historian, dr. Michael mckernon almost everyone who landed on this beach came under fire for the first time in their loss, they must have been petrified when i first encountered enemy fire, the instinct to keep going is what forces you to light only if there is a lighter. Do you have the opportunity to reflect them? You see your hand shaking and you realize what you just went through.

I am a trained professional soldier. Well, these guys are just amateurs. Literally, not much more eMeter than Jack Harris came to enlist. He said he was 18 years old. Surprisingly, his father Alfred approved of the lie and signed his consent and just seven weeks later, 15-year-old Jack was on the front line on a spectacular but deadly plateau, the only pine tree, when he arrived here, surely someone said you look pretty . Well young man, he looks like a little boy and I can only assume that the diggers simply looked after him, took him under their wing and perhaps tried to keep him safe as there was nowhere to hide on August 6th, only 12 hours after. landing on the beach, young Jack Harris was in the trenches, the man who had had him under his spell DS Latouche brought him here, to Lone Pine, at 3:30 that afternoon, a barely pubescent 15 year old boy now was in the middle of the fiercest battle that Australians have ever endured this is a matter of fists and rifle butts and clubs.

I couldn't use bullets because I was very close and they are also mixed that if they use bullets they understand the risk of shooting their own, of course, this is news. For you, isn't that Benny's order? You don't have any real knowledge. No, in this adventure, he's just amazing. Well, he just started. Come with us. This is where David Cashion's great-uncle spent the last hours of his short life. The enemies were there. Just 90 meters away, the Australians were in trenches behind the cemetery wall, just behind the cemetery wall at the back of the cemetery, and the Turkish trenches on this side, where all those memorial headstones are.

The Australians attacked first. They went into the Turkish trenches, beating, suffocating and bayoneting among those shot in the first hours Jack Harris and the man who urged him to come here even though Deshler a Sh had written to Jack's mom and dad bowing to protect him, I think he brought Jack to the front the first day. This man was so determined to fight for God that he convinced the family that this was the right thing to do, but things get worse. David makes his way to the front line, insisting that he and his men must be placed there because he wants them to. almost all men on the peninsula died the first instinct was to survive no one wanted to die but this man did because through his death Australia would be redeemed he has written about this this is not your great uncle he would not have been here I don't know I think so It wasn't for this man, that's wrong.

Hmm, I don't want to be difficult to understand. Yes, the question I have is: this is his cry. Where is John's grave? What an experience that young man had to endure. he's just a kid stepping over his fallen comrades because they were carpeted too thick and we mourned over 41 soldiers from Afghanistan, well, they were losing so many, you know minute by minute, sometimes in World War I, then how? Does a child do that? It's quite humiliating to think about this. David is your uncle John. Everyone gasps for Mille and you'll notice that the tombstone says he's 18 years old.

Yeah, and that's a good fiction, right? Yes, it's a great article the first news at Jack's parents' house came in a hard-hitting telegram Harris missing was believed dead later a Red Cross report said he had been seen lying just outside the Turkish trenches seriously injured and finally his name tag arrived when he got home they knew Jack Wouldn't they be class? How do you feel with all this knowledge that your great uncle is here and died here? It's hard to put into words to be honest. I mean, the last thing was I'm shaking from that, yeah, these are hard stories to tell, you got a great uncle that should never have been here, no, I shouldn't have been, he shouldn't have been in this country and much less on earth, well, you will say goodbye, but with greater knowledge well, I may be saying goodbye, but I take a lot with me.

Hi, I'm Liz Hayes, thanks for watching to stay up to date with the latest news from 60 Minutes Australia. Make sure to subscribe to our channel. You can also download the 9. now app for full episodes and other exclusive 60-minute content