We're halfway through the Centennial of 'The Great War', which our President, back then, labeled 'The War To End All Wars'
Modelers like me, all over the world, try to recreate in miniature the technology of World War I. So many new things were introduced: giant dreadnoughts, submarines, gigantic artillery pieces, and tanks. And especially airplanes: the whole world had perhaps a few hundred of them before the war broke out. By the time it ended, over a hundred THOUSAND of them had been made and deployed in every conceivable role.
What's beyond our abilities to recreate: what these great advances in technology were used for. Rolling barrages along hundred-mile fronts; poison gas warfare; unrestricted submarine attacks on every ship on the high seas; total blockades as economic warfare raged among whole huge empires; shelling and bombing of cities far behind the front lines. Something especially new and disastrous: civilians were previously noncombatants as long as they weren't directly in the path of battling armies. But now they could now be shelled and bombed anywhere, even at home hundreds of miles away from any battlefield. Those incredible advances in technology were purchased with rivers of blood shed by millions of people. It's hard for us to even contemplate, much less understand.
But the producers of 'Anzac Girls', and the author of the book on which this series is based, at least try to convey some of this heroism and suffering.
Mobilization of all the resources of all the combatants resulted in unprecedented carnage and consequent large numbers of casualties. So the need for medical services also reached levels never before imaginable.
This miniseries tells the story of five young women from Australia and New Zealand who volunteered for nursing duty with their expeditionary forces. They were young and full of energy and idealism
and of course had no clue whatsoever what they were getting themselves into. But who did? Certainly not the fighting men they had to try to put back together, in enormous numbers, after an endless stream of battles. "I'm so sick of this bloody war!" one of the nurses blurts out, after yet another man under her care succumbs to his wounds despite her best efforts. And this is 1916. We viewers knew there were still two years to go
participants in the Great War must have thought it would never end.
These episodes are mostly drama, with a little romance creeping in here and there. With youthful hormones running in such emotionally-charged conditions, how could there not be? But the budding attachments are just as fragile as the forward tent-housed 'hospitals' the Anzac girls work at, and the war wrecks everything indiscriminately. Some of the wrecking is just psychological: strain and burnout and personal loss and trauma. But some of it is flaming physical fury: there are several horrific scenes within these episodes. One occurs at a forward casualty station. When the nurses arrive, the camp commander reassures them that the railroad marshalling yard – a legitimate military target—is easily more than a hundred yards away! A night bombing raid—with big German bombers fleetingly, terrifying visible directly overhead—show how insignificant that separation is. While cringing at the scene, you can't help but make the connection to the 'Doctors Without Borders' trying to cope with the multitude of wars we have nowadays. Each may be small compared to the Great War, but there are so many of them, and the medical personnel get bombed, along with their patients, just like back then
Over the course of the series, the nurses move around: from a decent hospital in Cairo, to an unequipped island near the Gallipoli invasion, later to the Western Front, near the Somme River valley. Watching their skilled perseverance, as they actually save large numbers of men who would certainly have died otherwise, is inspiring enough. Watching them exhibit physical and moral courage in the midst of catastrophes is almost beyond belief.
This miniseries can't be said to be enjoyable, but it's certainly well done. All the production values are high. My wife Sandy and I watch lots of dramas on PBS, but have never before seen any members of the cast of 'Anzac Girls'. It's produced with the cooperation of the national film boards of Australia and New Zealand, however, so the actors and actresses may be experienced players in the film industry there. In any case, everyone does a fine workmanlike job of portraying the drama and trauma of serving in 'The War To End All Wars'.
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