Talk:2nd Battalion (Australia)

Additional detail added RE final actions on the Hindenburg line

Rupert I found your article on the 2nd Battalion AIF inspiring and it encouraged me to read more on the subject of the Australian forces and their bravery on the battlefield in WW1. Throughout your article there are details of the battle, details of the officers and details of small incursions such as the action at the bluff,the winning of a VC by Private Bede Kenny and the tragedy of the patrols of May 2nd. Their final battle of the war at the Hindenburg line was historic and their achievement,and their achievement of the combined allied forces was incredible. I felt that this needed more detail as it was their final action of the war and there are incredible exploits of bravery right up to the last moment of their time at the front. There is a photo of a dead German machine gunner at his post near Hargicourt, taken in France, on the 19 September 1918, the day after the battle, that may be related to the action that I added. It can be found halfway down the page on . Hargicourt and Hesbécourt are only a few Kms apart and as yet I found no reference in the wall diaries of the other Australian battalions involved in this action that disproves this. I'm not an historian but I believe that history should record not only the event and the leaders/officers but also the detail, particularly detail that Humanises the actions of those involved, particularly those who display and quantify how brave these men were. I felt that this small addition was a continuation of the references made earlier in your article as described in paragraph 1 of my reply. You are the author and I respect your judgement.However I feel history is made by people not just events. With regards Brian Clark — Preceding unsigned comment added by Beacluck (talk • contribs) 23:42, 25 September 2015 (UTC)

References

G'day Brian, thanks for the link and comments. Overall I agree with you, most certainly about the human side. I have seen what war does to people. I have lost close friends and seen others come back permanently changed. There is a huge cost to the individual. That said, the reason I reverted your addition is because it adds undue weight to a single, and in the scheme of things (when compared to the battalion's service throughout the war as a whole) relatively minor, event. While it would most certainly be appropriate to discuss this in a book about the unit, this is meant to be a (reasonably) short encyclopedia entry. There were 58 Military Medals awarded to members of the battalion, if we were to cover the actions that led to these and the 20 Military Crosses and 21 Distinguished Conduct Medals members of the battalion received, the article would probably be long. Regards, AustralianRupert (talk) 10:44, 26 September 2015 (UTC)

I think Rupert is correct on this. The scale of the conflict these men were involved in meant that there would have been many actions of a similar nature just within the ranks of this battalion (not to mention the AIF), so only mentioning one of them in detail would be undue weight. Likewise covering them all would result in a article that was simply too big (and probably too unwieldy to allow a meaningful narrative). It is great to see an interest in the actions of these men but unfortunately the place to recount their deeds in anything other than a broad brush is elsewhere in my opinion. Anotherclown (talk) 11:09, 26 September 2015 (UTC)