Surviving the Great War
Australian Prisoners of War on the Western Front 1916–18

Surviving the Great War is the first detailed analysis of Australians in German captivity in the First World War.

Aaron Pegram (Author)

9781108486194, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 12 November 2019

284 pages, 28 b/w illus. 14 colour illus. 2 maps 4 tables
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.2 cm, 0.59 kg

'Pegram never loses sight of the individuals in this fine academic work that reads exceptionally well … This is a model history that should be read by all scholars and students of the Great War and it will provide new ways to understand the 3,842 captured Canadians during the war.' Tim Cook, Canadian Military History

Between 1916 and 1918, more than 3,800 men of the Australian Imperial Force were taken prisoner by German forces fighting on the Western Front. Australians captured in France and Belgium did not easily integrate into public narratives of Australia in the First World War and its commemorative rituals. Captivity was a story of surrender and inaction, at odds with the Anzac legend and a triumphant national memory. Soldiers captured on the Western Front endured a broad range of experiences in German captivity, yet all regarded survival as a personal triumph. Surviving the Great War is the first detailed analysis of the little-known story of Australians in German captivity in the First World War. By placing the hardships of prisoners of war in a broader social and military context, this book adds a new dimension to the national wartime experience and challenges popular representations of Australia's involvement in the First World War.

Introduction
1. Raising the white flag: the capture of Australian troops on the Western Front
2. The reciprocity principle: respecting and abrogating wartime agreements
3. Giving the game away: the intelligence value of prisoners of war
4. Saving lives: patriotic women, prisoners of war and the Australian Red Cross Society
5. Challenging the Holzminden illusion: myth and reality of escape in the Great War
6. Well fed and plenty of freedom: autonomy and independence in German captivity
7. Hun haunted? Repatriation, home and after
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Prisoners of war [JWXR], First World War [HBWN], Military history [HBW]