BOOK WW1 44TH BATTALION WESTERN AUSTRALIAN INFANTRY BN ANZAC UNIT HISTORY

“EGGS-A-COOK !” The Story of the Forty-Fourth.Bn A.I.F. War-as the Digger Fought It By Captain C. Longmore.

184 pages, including photo's and maps. Recent official reprint of the original unit history.The 44th Battalion was raised in February 1916 and moved to France eight months later. The author claims that one of the Battalion's Lewis gunners did the damage which sealed the fate of the Red Baron, and an appendix is devoted to this episode. The odd title derives from the nickname given to this and other units of the 3rd Australian division which wore the same “fried-egg' cloth arm flash. This is the story of the fighting 44th.

For Australia the First World War remains the most costly conflict in terms of deaths and casualties. From a population of fewer than five million, 416,809 men enlisted, of which over 60,000 were killed and 156,000 wounded, gassed, or taken prisoner. In general terms with Australian unit histories the quality of authorship is very good, most of them share the common strength of making plentiful mention of the individual officers and men who served, fought, died, was wounded, or taken prisoner, or who came safely home at the end of it all. They are a prime source for genealogists and military historians.