Three 'Turn of the Century' ABC Radio Programs featuring Dr Peter Stanley discussing aspects of Australia's military involvement in war and peacekeeping throughout the 1900s

PROGRAM 1: Dr Stanley discuses attitudes to war and Australia's committment to war; Australian's went to the Boer War (South Africa) with idea that war was romantic and adventurous but during the century there was a changing view of war; men went to the Great War initially with enthusiasm but the Gallipoli campaign sobered their outlook to war; by 1939 Australians went to war to stop the Nazis and found themselves defending Australia from the Japanese; Australians became conscious of what war meant and what they were fighting for and moreover they saw their place in the world as being part of South East Asia; with the Asian conflicts Australians tried to stop the wars but didn't embrace the conflicts; peacekeeping has now become the focus of Australian attention as the century ends. END PROGRAM 1 PROGRAM 2: Dr Stanley discusses the technology of war, looking at changes in warfare; focuses on the use of machine guns, aircraft, barbed wire, snipers; the effect of this technology on casualties; changes from trench war in the First World War to an infantry war by the time of Vietnam. END PROGRAM 2 PROGRAM 3: Peter Stanley discusses the heroes of war; the Victoria Cross winners such as Neville Howse in the Boer War, Albert Jacka in the First World War, Edmondson and Middleton during the Second World War and Dasher Wheatley during Vietnam; he discusses what makes a hero and cites other noted Australians such as Teddy Sheean who died trying to save ship mates as HMAS Armidale sank, Sister Vivian Bullwinkel sole survivor from the Banka Island massacre and who endured three years as a Prisoner of War (POW), Ellen Savage the only nursing sister to survive the sinking of the hospital ship Centaur; Australians also see the 23,000 POWs from the Second World War as heroes, people like Weary Dunlop; today Australians see peacekeepers and aide workers as the new heroes as they often go unarmed in hostile regions. END PROGRAM 3