While Gallipoli has often held sway in Australian consciousness of engagement in the Great War, it was the Somme Offensive that wreaked the greatest havoc on our troops. Australia's experience of the horrors of trench warfare on the Western Front came with the Battle of Fromelles (Fleurbaix) on 19 and 20 July, 1916. On the first day, 1,219 Australians were killed as part of a diversion designed to draw German attention away from reinforcing their defences on the Somme.
"Anthem for Doomed Youth" by Wilfred Owen: Read by Sean Bean, Remembering World War 1, Channel 4, http://www.channel4.com/programmes/remembering-world-war-i/