Anzac Girls

Have so far thoroughly enjoyed this offering of nurses serving in World War I. The emphasis on their personal lives has meant that it has not been necessary to dwell on the actual battle scenes and the horrors that entailed. Was hard to follow who was who in the first two episodes but it became a lot clearer after that. The development of the relationships over the episodes means it is a continuing story rather than just an episodic one and this has kept us waiting for the next chapter (episode). We will be sorry to see this excellent period drama end next week at episode 6. This has been a sterling effort by the producers and an ensemble cast using minimal sets and sometimes ordinary outdoor settings. The series also gives an insight to how the allied armies behaved in that conflict.

I don't fully understand why some reviewers thought the script and dialogue was cringeworthy. I have just finished re reading and cataloguing in excess of 150 letters written to my grandma from Gallipoli, Egypt and the trenches of France during WW1, most of them from my grandfather, and several of his "cobbers". The series script echoes a lot of these letters' dialogue and terminology - taking leave in "old Blighty", referring to the enemy as "fritz", and so many Aussie terms and phrases from that era - bonzer, cobber, doing the trick, doing their bit for King and Country, kiddo, and many more. The dialogue could have been almost copied from my grandpa's letters. Loved the series.

I loved this series and didn't want it to end (not the war, I was well ready for it to end, but not the acquaintances with these phenomenal women). This series is brilliantly told and performed. It is the story of five real women who served the Australian and New Zealand war effort as nurses, researched through their journals and letters, at the time. The actors fully embody their characters and win our hearts. From the fledgling excitement of their new postings to the decent into the midst of the horrors of war, their tales are told. Greg Haddrick, Executive Producer, summed up this 6 hour limited TV series rather nicely, "...after watching it you have experienced the pointlessness of war and are left with a feeling that human compassion and decency toward each other is more important than many other things in life." I can't speak highly enough of this production, it just did everything right. I give it a 10 (brilliant) out of 10. {Historical War Drama}

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'.

Having had two great uncles fought in World War 1, and having a great grandmother who was a nurse in France, I have to say my anticipation was not disappointed. These young actors were superb portraying the young soldiers and nurses from that war. The script is amazing. The story moves at a good pace without any boring bits.

I wanted to correct some of the misconceptions that have been expressed here. Someone mentioned the nurses flirting with the soldiers. Really, of course they would have. They were teenagers and young men and women and healthy ones at that with all the hormones of any young healthy generation. Of course they were Bible trained with good morals but temptation was always going to be a problem for them in a foreign country.

And as far as the language was concerned. I knew these people as the older generation in my life and they spoke just like that. I felt like I was watching them as youngsters. The cast did such a good job of convincing the audience that they were from a past age. I also love the way Harry read poetry. That was a great pastime for people of that time who often recited poetry as a form of entertainment to others. There was no tv or radio then. I loved this series. I think it was spot on and everyone should watch it as at least to learn about a historical bunch of brave young people facing one of the world's greatest catastrophes, the First World War. Watch it. You might just learn something about courage and perseverence. I did.