Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War?
Taken from Chiaroscuro, Melbourne award-winning poet Sandy Jeff’s new book in which she explores the tension of a world that is a place full of dark and light and where humour and sadness intermingle in a show that must go on.
The Sergeant
Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War
Well, darling, I saw the young men come into bootcamp
and being their sergeant
it was my duty to turn boys into men
into fighting men, you know
so me and some mates initiated them by
shoving a broom handle up their arse
forced slops down their throat
made them drink their own semen chucked them into a shower
and scrubbed them with a wire brush
rubbed their dick and balls and arse with boot polish
sodomised a young bloke
this is the way it is, you know, it’s a boys club
gotta let them know who’s in charge
hell it happened to me and I’m ok
yeah, I’m serving my country and doing me best to turn out real fighting men
you should be proud of me.
The Recruit
Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War?
Well, darling, first I went to bootcamp
I was taught how to kill
then I was bastardised by me superiors
they shoved a broom handle up my arse
forced slops down me throat
and made me drink semen
they chucked me into the shower and scrubbed me with a wire brush
then rubbed me dick and balls and arse with boot polish
and the sergeant sodomised me
so to get me mind off it
I gave the sheila recruits a hard time
I even secretly filmed meself banging one of them
yep, I was there to serve me country
so I went to war
and killed a lot of men
some women and children too
and ya gotta let the shitheads know who’s boss
so I raped a few of their women
it’s what happens in war
but when me mates got killed
jeeze, that was the hardest
I’m telling ya, I was shit-scared all the time
and being away from me family was hard
jeeze I was lonely
but I’m home now and I feel lousy
I think about topping meself all the time
lots of me mates have done it
jeeze I miss them
I feel so rotten
I’m telling ya tomorrow’s tragedy
from yesterday’s war
yeah, war’s a bloody bugger…a real bugger.
Men in the great war did many things that we don’t want to talk about, we’d rather see the diggers as heroes, as brave Anzacs. But there’s another untold story and that’s the story of venereal disease in the Australian Army.
The Secrets of the Anzacs: The Untold Story of Venereal Disease in the Australian Army, 1914-1919 written by Raden Dunbar reveals secrets and astonishing statistics such as the fact that during World War 1, about 60,000 soldiers in the Australian army were treated by army doctors in Egypt, Europe and Australia for venereal diseases – almost the same number of diggers who were killed during the war. Janet McCalman, author of Sex and Suffering described Dunbar’s story as ‘a timely and necessary contribution to the centenary of Anzac.’
Most of these men had been infected with venereal disease in the brothels of Egypt. In the 1880s 40,000 British soldiers landed in Egypt and stayed and were the customers of the numerous bars, brothels and sex shows. In 1914, AIF forces from Australia that were headed for England via the Suez Canal were ordered to disembark and to set up their camps close to Cairo with the result that thousands of cashed-up Australians were living very close to the infamous brothels of Cairo and very far from their families at home.
Dunbar writes that the boys had money and freedom and regularly frequented the ‘Wozza’, an irresistible and fabulous place that was really a collection of squalid run-down apartment buildings known for venereal diseases: gonorrhoea, syphilis and chancroid. Condoms were not in common use in 1915 and the healing power of antibiotics was yet to be discovered. Abstinence from sex was the only sure way of avoiding the disease with prophylactic treatments such as antiseptic ointments to be applied to the genitals proving unpopular and rubber condoms extremely uncomfortable. In 1915 gonorrhoea, syphilis and chancroid were treated with drugs made from mercury, arsenic and silver and other toxic materials.
…Claire Wright, author of The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka writes:
The Secrets of the Anzacs is a full-frontal assault on our senses and our historical sensibilities. Deeply researched and always fascinating, Dunbar helps restore the Anzac legend to something more tangible, more complex, and, oddly, more heroic.’
In this interesting book, Raden Dunbar, retired schoolteacher, principal and university lecturer and author rarely mentions the prostituted women and only briefly acknowledges the wives, girl friends and mothers of the men. His concern and interest is for the infected soldiers of whom one in ten were married. But what of the prostituted women? Why were they forced to prostitute themselves? What do we know about the sex industry in WW1? Were the women in the brothels treated for their venereal disease? What about the wives and girlfriends? Were they infected also?
I would have hoped that researcher and author Claire Wright winner of the 2014 Stella Prize would have commented on the obvious omission in Raden Dunbar’s untold story of venereal disease in the Australian Army, 1914-1919- the women’s story. In The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka, Wright researches the history of Victoria’s gold rushes and the Eureka Stockade – addressing the recording of this episode which has largely ignored the presence and influence of women on the gold fields.
Little is known about what happened to the women who worked in the wartime brothels, especially after the war ended. If it is known that 60,000 Australian soldiers got either gonorrhea or syphilis while serving, then a great many of these women also suffered these diseases.
Their story remains untold.
Categories: books, cruelty, health, history, media representation, politics, rape, reflection, sex abuse, war
Tags: Anzacs, brothels, Cairo, Raden Dunbar, The Secrets of the Anzacs
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helenlobato.com 
Actually, in the preface to ‘The Secrets to the Anzacs’ I explained how the VD epidemic in the AIF is such a big story that it was impossible for me to encompass all aspects in one book. One of those aspects that could not be included was a full explanation of the fates and circumstances of women and girls who worked in the WW1 brothels.
In the original, very long and detailed 90,000 word manuscript, I had included sections about this. However, when that manuscript was slimmed down for publication, much of this had to be cut out by the editors (along with considerable information about other aspects of the VD outbreak).
Subsequently, I’ve rectified this – to some extent anyway – by writing a story containing many of the omitted parts about the women and girls who had been trafficked into the brothels of Egypt.
That story will soon appear on the Honest History website.
Hopefully, feminist historians might be able to take a cue from this, conduct their own archival research, and produce a much bigger and longer account than I was able to write.
Raden Dunbar
My account of human trafficking and prostitution in Egypt is now on the Honest History website at:
http://honesthistory.net.au/wp/dunbar-raden-jeune-barbarine-sexual-slavery/
Raden Dunbar
I look forward to reading it
Thank you Raden
What about the wives of returned men? My grandmother was widowed due to her husband – a non-combatant officer who died from complications of syphilis. As it was not talked about, I know nothing of what medical treatment and embarrassment she may have gone through.
Ann Hurley