Unlike other official histories which have been aimed at military staff, Bean intended the Australian history to be accessible to a non-military audience. The relatively small size of the Australian forces, enabled the history to be presented in great detail, giving accounts of individual actions that would not have been possible when covering a larger force. Bean devoted over 100 pages to the Battle of Fromelles, a relatively small action intended as a diversion during the Battle of the Somme, which lasted one night and involved the 5th Australian Division. Fromelles was also the first time that the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF) saw action on the Western Front and was very costly for the Australians, with 5,533 men killed, wounded or captured.
Volumes
C.E.W. Bean studying Army documents while working on the official history in 1935
Volume I – The Story of Anzac: the first phase, C.E.W Bean, 1921
Volume II – The Story of Anzac: from 4 May, 1915 to the evacuation, C.E.W Bean, 1924
Volume III – The Australian Imperial Force in France: 1916, C.E.W Bean, 1929
Volume IV – The Australian Imperial Force in France: 1917, C.E.W Bean, 1933
Volume V – The Australian Imperial Force in France: December 1917 – May 1918, C.E.W Bean, 1937
Volume VI – The Australian Imperial Force in France: May 1918 – the Armistice, C.E.W Bean, 1942
Volume VII – The Australian Imperial Force in Sinai and Palestine: 1914 – 1918, H.S. Gullett, 1923
Volume IX – The Royal Australian Navy: 1914 – 1918, Arthur W. Jose, 1928
Volume X – The Australians at Rabaul, Seaforth Simpson Mackenzie, 1927
Volume XI – Australia During the War, Ernest Scott, 1936
Volume XII – Photographic Record of the War
Other volumes
The three volumes of the Official History of the Australian Army Medical Services, 1914–1918, mostly written by Arthur Butler, are also considered by the Australian War Memorial to be Volumes XIII, XIV & XV of the Official History.
Volume I – Gallipoli, Palestine and New Guinea (2nd edition, 1938) first published 1930
Volume II – The Western Front (1st edition, 1940)
Volume III – Special Problems and Services (1st edition, 1943)
Following the publication of the final volume, Bean compiled Anzac to Amiens, a condensed history in one volume aimed at the general public, which was published in 1946. This was followed in 1948 by Gallipoli Mission which detailed how he and his team had researched what had happened in Gallipoli.
See also
Military Operations – 29-volume British official history of the war on land, edited by Brigadier-General Sir James Edmonds, part of the 109 volumes of the History of the Great War based on Official Documents by Direction of the Committee of Imperial Defence (1922–1949).
References
Bean, C. E. W. (1970). "The Writing of the Australian History of the War of 1914–1918: Sources, Methods, and Some Conclusions". In Higham, R. D. S. (ed.). Official Histories. Essays and Bibliographies from Around the World. Kansas. State University Library Bibliography: 8. Manhattan, Kansas: Kansas State University Library. OCLC 500573764.
Dennis, Peter (1995). The Oxford Companion to Australian Military History. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-553227-9.
Hirst, Megan (1999). "Narrative In The War Histories Of C. E. W. Bean" (PDF). Access: History. II (2). Brisbane: University of Queensland. ISSN 1440-8449. Retrieved 30 August 2008.
Stanley, Peter. "Charles Bean and the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918". Australian War Memorial. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
Stanley, Peter (2004). "Bean's History". Wartime (25). Canberra: Australian War Memorial/Media Marketing Group. ISSN 1328-2727.
External links
Australian War Memorial: PDF versions of Volumes I to XI