This interesting extract comes from "Saving the Channel Ports" by Lieutenant WD Joynt VC 8th Battalion AIF and gives an insight of how the Australians thought of themselves and how others thought of them.
The Spirit of the Australian soldier
Many have remarked on the high morale of the Australians in battle at this time when they were worked so continuously and suffered such heavy casualties and fatigue. Particularly impressive was their willingness to return to the firing line after only very short periods of rest and carry out fresh attacks with enthusiasm. This was at a time when their only reinforcements consisted of the returning sick and wounded from the hospitals in England. Their cheerfulness and eagerness when ordered to attack again with such weak forces - units down to about a quarter of their normal strength - was a source of wonder as to what inspired them. One answer to this question was the Diggers pride. He knew he was definitely doing something to win the war. He had proved his ascendency over the Hun, whom he invariably defeated. He knew the enemy was frightened of him and would run before him. He was a volunteer, not a conscript, and had enlisted of his own free will to go to the help of the Mother Country, and now he was showing the Britisher that the blood he had inherited from his ancestors still ran true. He had a tradition of loyalty to the maxim that one Britisher was as good as two foreigners and so, while still able, he would carry on building up for Australia a reputation as a fighting man.
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