"Australians and their packs - 25th April 1915" Topic

I'm going to paint some Australians for the landings at Anzac Cove and I'm wondering about their equipment. I read a quote in Peter Hart's book Gallipoli that the first wave dumped their packs on the beach. I also came across two quotes in Peter Liddle's book The Gallipoli Experience Reconsidered about seeing packs etc on the beach afterwards.

HäT's ANZAC Infantry link have no packs but they have their haversacks in different positions. My question is which is right for modelling the landings? Would the Diggers have had time to rearrange the haversack on their webbing to be carried on their backs as in 'battle order' or would they have advanced inland and fought the Turks in 'marching order' minus the large packs (like the figs in HäT's BEF set link which I'm also painting for this project?)

I am reasonably sure that I saw a TV program which said that they dumped their equipment on landing.

You could try contacting Hylands Bookshop as one of the people there knows a fair bit about WW1 or would know who might know.

link

Thank you thehawk. I too am sure that the first wave dumped their packs on the beach. I have been looking at photos on the IWM and AWM websites and some of them show soldiers from units that arrived later in marching order moving inland. Considering that the initial landings were done around sunrise maybe no one took any photos. Thing is I can't find any photos of those units (3rd Brigade) from later in the day.

I read the book Great War Tommy by Haynes Manuals to see how easy or difficult it would be to rearrange the equipment but I'm still not sure. If anyone else has any ideas I'm all ears. I still have the Turks to paint first.

Ditching the valise(large pack) isn't complicated, but is time consuming. You have to remove your web equipment and disconnect the top from the buckles on the braces and the equipment straps from the tails on the ammo pouches. If you have mate helping you, you don't have to remove your web equipment.

Thank you GuyG13. It didn't look easy to set the equipment. When I said that I still wasn't sure after reading the Haynes book I meant that I wasn't sure what the Australians did with their haversacks after dumping their packs. Apologies for being ambiguous.

Rereading the quote in Peter Hart's Gallipoli after reading your post in which you mentioned it being time consuming to rearrange the equipment got me thinking.

"We climbed the beach and lay doggo for a few seconds while everyone took off his pack and got a breather, then round a winding precipitous path up, up, up we charged."

So I'm inclined to believe that once they were moving inland the men were looking like the figures in this HäT set: hat.com/Othr9/Sander140P.html.

That make sense.

Here is some more information on the web. The pictures in this use the early braces: PDF link

karkeeweb.com/1908main.html

Thanks for the links, looks like a good site.