Imagine taking the story of a single neighborhood, putting them in uniform, and sending them through the meat grinder of the Great War. That's essentially what The 28th does. Written by Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Brayley Collett, who served with them, this book follows the 28th Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force from its formation in Western Australia in 1915 right through to the end of the war.

The Story

The book tracks the battalion's journey step by step. It starts with training in Egypt, then the brutal initiation at Gallipoli. After the evacuation, the real ordeal begins on the Western Front. Collett guides us through their part in huge, terrible battles—the bloody fight for Pozières in 1916, the muddy hell of Passchendaele in 1917, and the final, desperate German offensives of 1918. It's not just about where they fought, but how they lived: the trenches, the raids, the moments of quiet, and the constant strain. The "characters" are the battalion itself, a living entity that changes as men are lost and new ones arrive. You see its spirit tested, broken, and stubbornly rebuilt, over and over.

Why You Should Read It

This book cuts through the noise of a century of war movies and myth-making. There's no Hollywood drama here, just a clear, direct account. That's what makes it so powerful. Collett doesn't sugarcoat the fear, the exhaustion, or the staggering losses. But he also shows the dark humor, the incredible loyalty between mates, and the quiet competence that kept them going. You get a real sense of the weight of command—the awful decisions officers had to make. Reading it, I wasn't just learning history; I was feeling the texture of it—the mud, the waiting, the shock of a sudden artillery barrage. It turns the vast tragedy of WWI into a human-scale story you can actually grasp.

Final Verdict

This is a must-read for anyone interested in military history or the Australian experience in WWI. It's perfect for history buffs who want primary source detail, and even better for general readers who want to move beyond textbook summaries and connect with the reality of the soldiers. It's not a light read—some of the casualty lists are hard to take—but it's an important and deeply respectful one. Think of it as the definitive, ground-level story of one group of ANZACs. Their record is here, and it deserves to be remembered.