Citation

Stockings C. War Hist. 2010; 17(1): 86-112.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0968344509348304

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Most countries have national myths that are usually based on inspiring narratives, concepts, or images about their collective past. Many are tied to military conflict. The purpose of this article is to investigate the obscuring potential of national mythology on interpretations of military history. It aims to do so with a focus on the influence of the Australian "Anzac legend" in shaping conventional understanding of the battle of Bardia, North Africa, 3—5 January 1941. Bardia was the first significant engagement planned and fought by an Australian formation in the Second World War and thus the first battlefield test in that war of the Anzac myth, itself born at Gallipoli in 1915. To date a flawed Anzac-oriented tradition of interpretation has substituted for real answers to the question of how the Australians could have achieved so much against the Italian garrison at Bardia, at so little cost, against what seemed to be such tall odds. From the very beginning national mythology influenced, and is continuing to influence, the proper assessment of military history.