The Australian War Memorial Collection. Test site
Depicts soldiers from a Pioneer unit laying a duckboard track across muddy fields in a war damaged landscape, probably in the Ypres Salient, France in 1917. The soldiers are wearing sandbags around their legs instead of puttees. A soldier's grave, a tin hat on an upturned rifle are in left foreground. The Pioneers were a battalion attached to a division, with the men were trained to carry out light engineering and infantry duties. When reproduced in the publication, 'Australian Chivalry' in 1933, this work was accompanied by the following text; ' Wooden slats nailed crosswise onto longitudinal beams to form short ladder-like lengths were known as 'duckboards'. The [duckboards]...laid down in succession as shown in this painting, became duckboard 'walks' between important points over the quagmire which at times, especially during the terrible Somme winter of 1916-17, was so deep that an unknown number of men drowned in it. The fact that the surface tracks were completely open to fire was a risk preferable to venturing across mud , but actually carrying and laying the sections was a hated task...the boards were also used on the bottom of the trenches and sometime supported on frames slightly above the floors to allow at least some of the water and slush the opportunity to drain away. Where duckboards were available and used in these situations the incidence of the medical condition known as 'trench feet' was markedly reduced'.
This large painting was completed in Scott's studio at St John's Wood, London in 1919 refers to a battle on the Somme in 1918. In the foreground a runner is depicted in muddy terain with soldiers behi
A number of submarine cables were laid between Eta Jima and various points along the coast of the mainland to provide increased telephone channels between British Commonwealth Occupied Forces (BCOF) a
Depicts a number of Soldiers in uniform seated and waiting for their food at the Company Headquarters. One soldier is smoking a pipe and another is holding a lit candle. When reproduced in 'Australia
This work depicts men carrying railway sleepers as part of the line laying party. By the time the party commenced work there would have been many men preparing the railway bed, digging out bamboo and
An upturned tram carriage lies beside the line used to transport soldiers from Mena Camp into the city of Cairo. This may have been happened during riots involving Australian and New Zealand serviceme
To provide additional signal channels between BCOF HQ on the island of Eta Jima and Kure on the mainland, BCOF Signal Section laid a multi-channel cable entailing overhead, underground and submarine c
