History Folio – Sydney Frederick James Farrell

https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/search

UNSW Australia (2020). The AIF Project. [online] Available at: https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/search [Accessed 5 Mar. 2020].

Annotations:This website allows us to receive basic information about our soldier like their occupation, religion, address and age. It helps us to begin to understand how their daily life would have been before they had been marched off to war. From what we see here we can infer that Sydney had a life before the war as he had his mother and a job as a brickmaker. We can also see that he signed up towards the beginning of World War 1 and survived the duration of the war from 1914 to 1918.

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https://www.awm.gov.au/people/roll - search

Australian War Memorial. awm.gov.au. (2020). Search for a Person. [online] Available at: https://www.awm.gov.au/people/roll-search [Accessed 8 Mar. 2020].

Annotations: This site allows us to gain an insight of when Sydney Frederick James Farrell embarked, where he embarked from and the ship he embarked on. It allows us to learn that he serviced for Australia throughout the full duration of the war as he embarked in 1914 on the 20 th of October and the war ended in 11 November 1918.

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https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au

History Folio – Sydney Frederick James Farrell

National Archives of Australia (2020). Record Search. [online] Available at: https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au [Accessed 6 Mar. 2020].

Annotations: On this site we gain access to primary sources from Sydney Frederick James Farrell’s enlistment papers and service record. This allows us to gain a significant amount of information about the complexion and history of Sydney before, after and during the war. From these papers we can infer that Sydney was a confident, courageous and strong man as he was promoted twice throughout his war service. We can also infer that the conditions of living in the war were poor as Sydney received a foot infection which shows that trenches attracted bacteria and infection. Here we can see he was wounded 22nd of September 1915 and transferred to a ship which sailed him to St Patricks hospital in Malta. This also shows us other instances where he was wounded and what happened to Sydney throughout the war. Furthermore, he was wounded in action 4 times and from this we can infer that even though he survived the war he was probably affected by the wounds he received for the rest of his life back home.

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https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/awm4/

Australian War Memorial. awm.gov.au. (2020). Australian Imperial Force unit war diaries, 1914-18 War. [online] Available at: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/awm4/ [Accessed 8 Mar. 2020].

Annotations: This website shows the Australian Imperial Force unit war diaries from the years 1914 to 1918 during World War 1. These diaries allow us to know where all brigades and battalions were and what they were doing at each time. From the evidence in these war diaries we can see that soldiers received little rest and they were constantly fighting and if they weren’t they were moving to another battlefield, training or injured. We can see that the brigades and battalions were very active and we also see accounts of what was happening on the battlefield.

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History Folio – Sydney Frederick James Farrell

http://trove.nla.gov.au/?q&adv=y

National Library of Australia. (2020). Trove. [online] Available at: http://trove.nla.gov.au/?q&adv=y [Accessed 8 Mar. 2020].

Annotations: On this website there are many primary sources from the time of the war in photograph form. These allow us to see what the soldiers uniform looked like and the what the living conditions were during the war. It allows us to see that they were simply out in the wilderness and they slept in small basic cramped tents, receiving little privacy. We can also see that there would not have been much to do and soldiers camping out waiting for time to pass would have suffered from boredom and some soldiers are photographed smoking in these images. We can also see that the conditions for the soldiers weren’t the best and quite unhygienic.

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https://www.awm.gov.au/advanced-search

Australian War Memorial. (2020). awm.gov.au. [online] Available at: https://www.awm.gov.au/advanced-search [Accessed 4 Mar. 2020].

Annotations: This website shares basic information about Sydney Frederick James Farrell. It tells us his service number, conflict, rank and date of embarkation. This shows us that Sydney started fairly early in the war as he embarked on 20th October 1914 which was near the start of World War 1.

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History Folio – Sydney Frederick James Farrell

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10th_Battalion_(Australia)

Wikipedia. (2020). 10th Battalion (Australia). [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10th_Battalion_(Australia) [Accessed 6 Mar. 2020].

Annotations: Wikipedia contains a significant amount of detail about the 10th Battalion. We are informed of everywhere the battalion fought and went. They go into significant detail of the plans of the Gallipoli campaign and the battles that the 10th Battalion was involved in on the western front. It also contains primary sources in photograph form. From this we can infer that Sydney was part of some complex and gruesome battles. One of these photographs shows an image of the Anzacs in a trench in Gallipoli (pictured below). From this we can infer that this region has a very mountainous, dry, hot terrain meaning it would have been a hard battle as there were many ridges and high points which were an advantage against the Anzacs including Sydney.

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https://www.britannica.com/event/First-Battle-of-the-Somme

Encyclopedia Britannica. (2020). First Battle of the Somme | Forces, Outcome, & Casualties. [online] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/event/First-Battle-of-the-Somme [Accessed 7 Mar. 2020].

Annotations: This website contains details and information about one of the main battles of the Western Front for Anzacs including Sydney, the Battle of Somme. This website includes information on the series of attacks led in the Battle of Somme against the Germans and the amount of casualties on both sides. There is also an image (pictured below) that shows the advancements that the French and their allies (including Anzacs, English, Canadians and Indians) made against the Germans during this battle.

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History Folio – Sydney Frederick James Farrell

https://cdn.britannica.com/s:700x500/57/135157-050-F09D61E4/French-soldier-trench-Somme-World-War-I.jpg

Primary Source (photograph):

Photograph 1916. A French Soldier in a Trench At The Battle Of Somme. [image] Available at: <https://cdn.britannica.com/s:700x500/57/135157-050-F09D61E4/French-soldier-trench-Somme-World-War-I.jpg> [Accessed 8 March 2020].

Annotation: This image shows a French soldier in the trench at the battle of Somme. We can see the destruction to the surrounding area and the awful state that this environment is in. From this image we can infer that World War 1 was a gruesome war which used heavy destructive artillery which would not only obliterate men but the environment too. We can also see yet again the poor conditions the soldiers worked in. We can also see that it was not only the population of people after the war that suffered the environments where the fighting was done also suffered. We can see that the job of a soldier was very tough considering the tough environment and that the conditions they were in were unsanitary. Soldiers also would have faced a lot of stress as they had no idea what strategy the enemy would offer and they would know that if they did one wrong move their life would be lost with little meaning to their name than the rest of bodies of men that died.

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