Official Website of Anzac Jack - www.anzac-jack.com

Oral histories have become increasingly popular over recent years - a medium to personalise war time experiences by linking reminiscences and letters to the historical narratives of battle. Oftentimes, a personal experience dislodges a correspondent’s telling of the encounters they understood to have occurred. Official history tells it straight. But war is about people and their involvement. And thus oral history fills a much needed gap in the historiography of war. Jack Moore’s letters provide a valuable addition to the historiography. Through dedication and persistence, his son, Jack Moore Jnr, has unearthed a sheaf of letters that allow us, the reader, to experience first hand the trials and tribulations of a soldier at war. But there is more to this story than a mere personal experience. It is a story that connects two sovereign nations fighting for a common cause and, by doing so, reinforces the bond established between Australia and New Zealand on the beaches of the Gallipoli peninsula that was to become the ANZAC spirit. As he neared Australia on his way home at the end of the war, Moore reflects: “As a New Zealander fighting in the AIF, I have been adopted by them as one of their own and I count this as a great privilege.” The bonds were and are real and enduring, and are manifested today in the close ties between Australia and New Zealand in all walks of life. Jack Moore, a New Zealander born in Paeroa of Irish stock, happened to be in Australia where he was employed as a mechanical engineer when war was declared in 1914. As with like 25 year-olds, he volunteered in situ and the story unfolds from there. He tells of his journey to Egypt, his service on Gallipoli Peninsula, the months he spent in Malta recuperating from his wounds, and his subsequent service in Egypt and France. His experiences are related through letters he sent to his mother in New Zealand and latterly to his half sister. His letters tell of the exciting times “Great was our joy and relief when at 2pm we heard by wireless from the [HMAS] Sydney that she had intercepted the Emden ..” and the poignant times “My worst experience was while I was talking to one of my mates, a shell burst over us, one bullet hit me in the neck and, as I put my hand up, my mate fell into my arms, shot through the heart.”. The descriptions of history through his eyes are revealing and at the same time emotive. He reveals just enough to give the modern reader an impression of the privations he suffered, but he is somewhat stoic in not going in to the detail that we in the 21st century tend to seek. Perhaps that is just as well, for we see Jack as a soldier doing his duty with true dedication and to the best of his ability. That he died at a relatively early age 12 years after the war’s end is a sad culmination of a tough life in tough times. Had he lived, he just might have been able to elaborate further on his time in hospital, or his deeper thoughts of what lay behind his receiving the Distinguished Conduct Medal, or his real impressions of serving as a non commissioned officer as a qualified engineer. But that has been left to his son, whose determination to publish these letters is to the advantage of both Australians and New Zealanders. Letters were the chief means of communication in the wars of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and we are the beneficiaries of these letters. We have yet to see whether there has been as much personal correspondence from the battlefields in the limited wars from the end of World War Two. I think not. So we will all be the wiser from reading Jack Moore’s account of his service on Gallipoli, in Egypt and France. It is an unfortunate trait of war that his experiences in Egypt and France were heavily censored, and we are left to our own devices to determine the exact locations of his service and the units with which he served. My own experience as a New Zealand Army Officer serving in support of the Australian forces in Vietnam, and later serving as an Australian Army officer in Canberra has clearly shown to me the everlasting mutual bond that has endured for 90 years, unites the two countries, and is the hallmark of the ANZAC experience. Paul Henderson, the New Zealand poet, wrote: Sometimes I think of those whose lives touch mine Too briefly; who, by a look or word, show me A little of what lies beneath, but, leaving then Because we are trained to silence, they are shut away.1 Jack Moore jnr has opened the door to reveal what lay beneath his father’s experience, a father whom he knew for only a short time. The experience is no longer shut away. This book is a treasure trove of life that we can never hope to really appreciate, but that we must understand if we are to make this world a better place for our children. Lieutenant Colonel Brian Hewitt (Retired) New Zealand and Australian Army Canberra October 2004