Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18: Vol. 1 The Story of Anzac, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, ninth edition, 1939; first published 1921
Takes the story from the outbreak of war to the end of the first phase of the Gallipoli campaign, 4 May 1915. Sets the scene for Bean’s multi-volume history and lays down markers for the later development of the Anzac story and for how Australians commemorate war in Bean’s Australian War Memorial and elsewhere. Yet Bean himself wrote, ‘The more he saw and knew of the men and officers of the Australian Imperial Force the more fully did the writer become convinced that the only memorial which could be worthy of them was the bare and uncoloured story of their part in the war.’ (preface to first edition) The full text of all 11 volumes is available digitally here.
