ANZAC Day
Anzac Day, due to be commemorated in a couple of days, is one of great significance in Australia and the most important of national commemorative occasions.
It marks the anniversary day of the countries' first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. They came together as Australian's and New Zealanders and were dubbed the ANZAC's, Australian New Zealand Army Corps, a name that lives on still, through great national pride and the legacy left by those men over a hundred years ago.
Gallipoli 4:29am, 25 April 1915
The ANZAC landing on the beaches of Gallipoli was a disaster orchestrated by inept British leadership. Put simply, it failed. Troops were landed a mile away from the intended assault-point, were confronted with an unfamiliar narrow beach, towering, almost vertical, cliffs and thousands of well-entrenched and armed Turks in defence. src
They landed though, in the thousands; Brave (and bloody scared) Australian's and a small element of New Zealanders, and they attempted to do what they were sent to do more fearful of letting down their mates than of any harm befalling them personally.
At the end of that day 754 Australians and 147 New Zealanders were dead and some 2,000 more were injured below those cliffs of Ari Burnu, and yet they came on, driven by the orders of the British Generals and a deeply-ingrained personality trait of never giving in - The Australian way.
The Gallipoli campaign's objective was to capture the Dardanelles and Constantinople (now Istanbul), removing Germany's ally and allowing the allies to march inland against Germany from the East. The Germans had swept across Western Europe and were now in an entrenched stalemate in France and Belgium fighting a war of attrition.
The British planned to take Turkey (who were allied with Germany) and then have the ANZACS (mainly Australian Light Horse Troopers) sweep through Europe to Germany...It was bold but probably would have won the war reasonably quickly. Visions of fast-moving cavalry attacks filled the minds of the Generals, and they envisaged a quick end to the war.
The Gallipoli Campaign lasted 10 months, 3 weeks and 2 days. The ANZACS were repelled and the British Command withdrew. It was a disaster that cost thousands of lives, and achieved nothing.
It was a crushing loss, however it galvanised this country, brought it together like nothing ever had. We had an identity, forged in the heat of battle, through thousands of our fathers, sons and brothers, many of whom gave their lives in Gallipoli and other campaigns.
A legend began that day, the ANZAC legend, and its legacy has stayed with the country to this day.
Since that initial day, each year on the 25th of April, Australia commemorates ANZAC Day, the landing on the Gallipoli Peninsular, all wars we have fought in and the service men and women who did so.
As the sun crests the horizon the country gathers at war memorials around the world to remember, and to commemorate, the ANZAC legacy.
Memorials popped up only months after the 25th April landings, proudly, the first in Australia in my own State of South Australia only four months after the landings. The tradition of ANZAC Day began when ANZAC soldiers marched through London to Westminster Abbey to a service attended by the King and Queen commemorating their landing at Gallipoli.
The Australian Prime Mnister of the Day, Billy Hughes said: “Soldiers! Your deeds have won you a place in the Temple of Immortals!” - This statement, the tone of the words, have remained undiminished over a hundred years later.
I attend the Dawn Service in Adelaide every year. It means a 4am wake-up and travel to the city, the State war memorial, where I join several thousand others in a ceremony to commemorate the occasion, then head to the Light Horse memorial for that ceremony and then attend the following ANZAC Day march through the city.
This year the event has been cancelled due to fears over the flu and people are being encouraged to stand in their own driveways at dawn and take some time to commemorate in isolation. People around the country are preparing their own events as such, including me.
At dawn on Saturday 25th April I will be out the front of my house, flying the Australian flag at half-mast, and taking a moment to remember those first ANZAC's and every Australian who has served, or continues to serve, to this day. To accompany my commemorations I will play the last post, at full volume, at 6am on my bluetooth speaker.
Click below to hear it.
As a patriot ANZAC Day means a lot to me. As someone who has lost people in war, and to PTSD post-war, commemorating this day is important. It gives me a chance to remember the sacrifices so many have made so the rest of the population can have the peace and quiet to sleep through the ANZAC Day commemoration without a care in the world. It also gives me a chance to shed a tear for those who are not with us.
There'll be no peace and quiet in my street on Saturday morning though, the bugle will honour the sacrifices of our fighting men and women, not just the Australian ones, but all around the world, who take it upon themselves to do what most cannot, or will not. I'll commemorate the day as usual, albeit a little differently, and won't feel at all sorry for doing so.
At the going down of the sun...
I crouched in a shallow trench on that hell of exposed beaches... steeply rising foothills bare of cover... a landscape pockmarked with war’s inevitable litter... piles of stores... equipment... ammunition... and the weird contortions of death sculptured in Australian flesh... I saw the going down of the sun on that first ANZAC Day... the chaotic maelstrom of Australia’s blooding.
I fought in the frozen mud of the Somme... in a blazing destroyer exploding on the North Sea... I fought on the perimeter at Tobruk... crashed in the flaming wreckage of a fighter in New Guinea... lived with the damned in the place cursed with the name Changi.
I was your mate... the kid across the street... the med. student at graduation... the mechanic in the corner garage... the baker who brought you bread... the gardener who cut your lawn... the clerk who sent your phone bill.
I was an Army private... a Naval commander... an Air Force bombardier. no man knows me... no name marks my tomb, for I am every Australian serviceman... I am the Unknown Soldier.
I died for a cause I held just in the service of my land... that you and yours may say in freedom... I am proud to be an Australian.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised.
Be well
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