Those we forget - Australia's WW1 casualties higher says new book

The official Australian casualty statistics suffered by the men of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF)  in the First World War are seriously wrong, with significant inaccuracies and omissions, this new book argues.
Groundbreaking research exhaustively examining over 12,000 individual soldiers' records has revealed that hospitalizations for wounding, illness and injury suffered by men of the AIF are five times greater than officially acknowledged today. 
As a proportion of its fighting force of men who were actually exposed to a theatre of war, Australia’s army suffered more deaths, more hospitalizations for wounding and more hospitalizations for illness and injury than the armies of Britain, Germany, France, Canada or the United States. Winning this war came at too high a cost for this young nation; for Australia, the First World War was indeed a pyrrhic victory.

But it does not finish there.
Of those Australian soldiers who survived, more than half of them were discharged medically unfit. Of those who were not discharged medically unfit, 60 per cent of them applied for pension help in the post war period; so four out of five servicemen survivors were damaged or disabled in some way. Of those who did not survive, it is now estimated that 62,300 died (+/- 400), approximately 550 by their own hand, mainly in 1919 and 1920, and a further 8000 men would die a premature death due to war-related causes in the post war years.
As we approach the Centenary of Anzac in 2015 it is important that re-assessments such as this are made. It brings us all closer to a fuller and proper appreciate of the reality of the suffering caused by the First world War - both on the battlefield and afterwards.

This new book is by David Noonan, its title is Those we Forget and it is published by Melbourne University Press. It costs $60. 

For The Age's article on this new book, click here.
To order the book, click here. 

The official Australian casualty statistics suffered by the men of the Australian Imperial Force in the First World War are seriously wrong, with significant inaccuracies and omissions.
Groundbreaking research exhaustively examining over 12,000 individual soldiers' records has revealed that hospitalisations for wounding, illness and injury suffered by men of the AIF are five times greater than officially acknowledged today. - See more at: https://www.mup.com.au/items/138445#sthash.3G1Od6lB.dpuf

The official Australian casualty statistics suffered by the men of the Australian Imperial Force in the First World War are seriously wrong, with significant inaccuracies and omissions.
Groundbreaking research exhaustively examining over 12,000 individual soldiers' records has revealed that hospitalisations for wounding, illness and injury suffered by men of the AIF are five times greater than officially acknowledged today. - See more at: https://www.mup.com.au/items/138445#sthash.8X5j3QCR.dpuf