3.1 Australians on the Western Front

Students will:

• develop an understanding of the significance of the Western Front to WW1.

• explain the contribution of Australian soldiers with reference to ONE battle on the Western Front. 

• evaluate the contribution of a significant Australian to WW1. 

Task 2: Understanding the Western Front 

Refer to the worksheet below to learn about the significance of the Western Front. 

Task 3: Analysing primary source material 

Watch the clips from http://aso.gov.au/titles/collections/awm-western-front and discuss how useful these are as sources (i.e. what do they tell us, what can we tell about social attitudes, conditions at the front etc.?) 

Task 4: Australian contribution to battles on the Western Front.

Australia was involved in 29 battles on the Western Front. Nine Queensland Battalions served on the Western Front over 33 months. One of the most significant of these battles was the Battle of the Somme. 

 a) Go to the following link and your teacher will model read the following passage. Please read along and answer the following questions:

Click Link 

• In what way were the living conditions an improvement for soldiers than Gallipoli.

• What were some of the fighting conditions Aussie men suffered? 

• How many casualties were lost in the 6 weeks campaign? How did that compare to their losses at Gallipoli? 

Task 5: Historical Skills: Significance.  Historical significance is often regarded as involving judging why a particular person or event is remembered and why another is not, it is this aspect of reasoned and evaluative judgement about historical significance that makes history writing differ from being simply a record of past events. 

Extension Task: Significant Individual- Sir John Monash 

Watch the Video and write a short reflection explaining why Sir John Monash is regarded as a significant Australian.