"Lieutenant D.G. Armstrong (former bank clerk from Kyneton, Victoria), thought that the war would be great opportunity to prove his strength and to show that he was not a coward..."I am going to have a try for the war ... I think I ought to go, they want all they can get and ... I think it’s the greatest opportunity for a chap to make a man of himself, those that come back from this war will be men of the right sort that anybody would be proud of."Corporal R.E. Antill, (former cabinet maker from Windsor, Victoria), joined up because he was eager to shed German blood..."... I am itching to get a dig at a few Germans ... we have all got the war fever ... I am too excited to give my mind to writing..."However, after experiencing the horrors of war, Coporal Antill was not so blood thirsty..."I honestly say I will be highly delighted when this war is over for it is simply terrible, for to see your pals shot down beside you..." and "The first night ... I tried to get a couple of hours rest, and where I was I could not shift my position so I had to use a dead man’s legs for a pillow."Many Australians enlisted in the army with the wrong impression of what war would be like. Many thought that it would be glamourous and exciting, but the reality was that they were living in filthy trenches, alongside their dead comerades, who couldn’t be burried in the rush. Austraians joined the war with ignorance. Most of the Australian soldiers enlisted to support Britain because they were not aware of the full extent of war....
