The First World War is remembered most clearly by Australians for the public pain it caused; for the new sense of national consciousness it created among the Australian population; and, above all, for the Anzac legend it engendered. The Gallipoli Campaign is widely recognized as the trigger for the legend, but it has also been spread by many famous historians. Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett once enthused: "The Australians... rose to the occasion. Without waiting for orders, or for the boats to reach the beach, they threw themselves into the sea and, forming a sort of rough line, charged towards the enemy trenches... The courage shown by... the wounded Australians will never be forgotten... I have never seen anything like these Australians before... there was no finer feat in this war than this sudden landing in the darkness and storming the heights" Comments like this, and others from Ashmead-Bartlett's journalist ally, CEW Bean, sowed the seeds of the Anzac legend. The accuracy of their comments cannot be denied as they actually landed with the troops! Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The stereotype of the World War I soldier as an exceptional fighter, a larrikin, distrustful of authority, resourceful, funny, and, above all, loyal to his comrades, is deeply rooted in popular culture. In Bean's first volume on the Gallipoli campaign, he states: "To be the kind of man who would surrender when his comrades trusted in his steadfastness; to be the kind of man who would fail when the line, the whole force and the the Allied cause required his resistance; having made it necessary for another unit to do the work of his own unit... - this was the prospect these men could not face... life was not worth living unless had not remained true to their idea of ​​Australian manhood." Bean is known to have done "more than anyone else to create the ruling legend of the Anzac". However, it could easily be argued that there is more to the Anzac legend than the superior fighting quality of the Australian troops. The other component is the incompetent leadership of the British, their allies in the First World War. Australians were said to have what was called a "special relationship" with Britain, where they thought they were incredibly superior. On the other hand, not many could argue against this fact. MR Foot, a British historian, said: "The Anzacs... were probably man for man, the most impressive fighters this century has ever seen!" How the Anzac legend was created, perpetuated and exploited has been one of the main questions posed to historians of the First World War. Most say the root of the problem is the reporting done by Bean and Ashmead-Bartlett. These specifically helped introduce the legend to the public. The process by which the Anzac legend developed its particular form began with the Gallipoli campaign of 1915, where Australian involvement was noted by almost all who saw it. Arriving at Anzac Cove for the first time, the troops hoped to knock Turkey out of action. of the war, and thus get rid of the Russians. They also hoped to open a new front across the Balkans to attack Austria-Hungary. Besides these, the main aim of the campaign was to prevent Bulgaria from joining the Central Powers and knocking Austria-Hungary out of the war, leaving Germany isolated. However, these plans failed for a variety of reasons. The soldiers were not