ANZAC DAY

Anzac Cove, during the height of operations in Turkey, 1915.


Anzac Day commemorates the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I. This is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand; nowadays Anzac Day honours all those who died and served in military operations for their countries.

This day is especially honoured here on Blog STORMBRINGER.

RESPECT TO THE KIWIS

The "En-Zed" in ANZAC stands for NEW ZEALAND -






New Zealand and Australian soldiers landing at Anzac Cove, 25 April 1915.



ANZAC Certificate

"From One of The Anzacs

'Tho we've done a bit of fighting
We still got more to do
For they took us from Gallipoli
Before we got quite through
But let us hope we'll finish
Very soon, what we've begun
To wipe forever off the map
The Devastating Hun."




A New Zealander displays the flag of her country at ANZAC Cove for ANZAC Day Sunrise Memorial Service, Gallipoli.



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AUSTRALIA HONOURS THEM

Landings at ANZAC Cove, Gallipoli - 25 April 1915


A reader writes from Down Under:

Sean,

The media said today there were about 20,000 people at the Australian War Memorial at 0530 for the Dawn Service. I think is was probably about 12,000-14,000, personally. It was very dark . . .


Anzac Day Dawn Service at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT


The first Dawn service I went to at the AWM was about 1985, and there were no more than 400 to 500 present and it was held inside the Galleries of the Fallen.

Since that nadir, attendance has just kept growing. Something - I do not really understand what - is happening to my countrymen, that attendance at ANZAC Day Dawn Services and marches has grown so much since the 80s. But if you want to try and understand an Australian - attend a Dawn Service. You, of course, know this.

Always surprising to see how many busloads of people, especially school kids, are there. It had poured with rain for much of the night, but they were still there, and would have been if it was still pouring.

The media said there were about 12,000 at the march and daytime Services (1000-1200 local time), they were not far off. After my unit marched past and we got into the stands, I counted about 10,000 people visible to me. Each stand has 1089 seats, making crowd estimation simpler.

There are no more 1914-1918 veterans now, and the ranks of the 1939-1945 men are thinning. Once, we thought that mattered and the lefties celebrated the thought that ANZAC Day would sort of fade away.

Now, we know this to be untrue. As the ranks of the veterans thin, attendance rises.

I think that says something solid about my countrymen.

Mark L

Canberra



About 40,000 people gathered on a crisp, still morning for the Anzac Day dawn service at the West Australian War Memorial in Perth.




Australian soldiers fix bayonets in preparation for the assault in the Battle of Fromelles, France, 19 July 1916



The Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT

"They gave their lives. For that public gift they receive a praise which never ages and a tomb most glorious - not so much the tomb in which they lie, but that in which their fame survives, to be remembered for ever when occasion comes for word and deed." - Pericles' speech over the dead warriors of Athens


My mother took me & my brothers to see the Australian War Memorial during a visit to Canberra in 1974. We have several Australian veterans in our family; my maternal grandfather Bob Leonard had three ships torpedoed out from under him in the early years of World War I and survived, and my uncle Phillip was shot down over Charleroi, Belgium in October of 1941 - his name is engraved upon the inside of the dome in the Hall of Memory of the AWM - when I was stationed in Germany I took my family to visit his grave and we paid our respects - Sean Linnane

ANZAC DAY

Anzac, the landing 1915 by George Lambert, 1922 shows the landing at Anzac Cove, 25 April 1915


ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. ANZAC Day – 25 April – marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War.

This day special to Australians -

In 1915 Australian and New Zealand soldiers formed part of an Allied expedition that set out to capture the Gallipoli peninsula to open the way to the Black Sea for the allied navies. The plan was to capture Constantinople (now Istanbul), the capital of the Ottoman Empire and an ally of Germany. They landed at Gallipoli on 25 April, meeting fierce resistance from the Turkish defenders.

What was planned as a bold stroke to knock Turkey out of the war quickly became a stalemate, and the campaign dragged on for eight months. At the end of 1915 the Allied forces were evacuated after both sides had suffered heavy casualties and endured great hardships.


Over 8,000 Australian soldiers were killed in obscure, far-off places with strange sounding names: Suvla, Anzac Cove, Lone Pine. The Gallipoli Campaign made a profound impact on Australians; 25 April has become the day on which Australians remember the sacrifice of their honored war dead.





ANZAC Day 2010 marks the official one-year anniversary of Blog STORMBRINGER. The following is reprinted from last year's ANZAC Day post:



The Dardanelles / Gallipoli campaign of 1915 set out to capture the Gallipoli peninsula to open the way to the Black Sea for the allied navies, via the straits of the Dardanelles. The plan was to capture Constantinople (now Istanbul), the capital of the Ottoman Empire and an ally of Germany.

This was the Operation Enduring Freedom (Iraq War) of its day; what had been planned as a bold stroke to knock Turkey out of the war quickly became a stalemate, and the campaign dragged on for eight months. But while Operation Enduring Freedom actually achieved its tactical objectives, Gallipoli was a tactical and strategic defeat for Allied forces.

As First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill was credited with developing the overall strategy; the campaign's failure led to Churchill’s demotion and contributed to the collapse of Prime Minister H. H. Asquith's government.

On 15 November 1915 Churchill resigned from the government, and though remaining an MP, served for several months on the Western Front commanding the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers, under the rank of Colonel. This is the equivalent of a Bush Administration cabinet-level Secretary – or a serving Congressman - participating in a front-line capacity in the battles of Fallujah or Rumallah.

The campaign began in February 1915 with a series of naval actions in which aging British and French battleships attempted to force the straits. These actions proved disastrous after mines sank two British battleships.

Commonwealth & French forces landed at Gallipoli on 25 April against fierce resistance from the Turkish defenders. At the end of 1915 allied forces evacuated after both sides had suffered heavy casualties and endured great hardships.


A trench at Lone Pine after the battle, showing Australian and Turkish dead on the parapet


In all, the Gallipoli Campaign cost the Allies 141,113 killed and wounded and the Turks 195,000. Over 11,200 Australian and New Zealander soldiers were killed and approximately 23,700 were wounded in Gallipoli, of which some 2000+ were permanently maimed (as attested in the patriotic song ‘And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda’).

The Australian and New Zealand casualty figures represented a significant percentage of the overall military-age population:

• Approximately 40% of the available men of military age of Australia and New Zealand (about 10% of the total population of both countries) served in World War I.

• Of the total casualties 1914-1918, almost 15% of all Australians and New Zealanders killed in action (KIA) during the First World War died during a six-month time period in a very small place called Gallipoli.

By direct comparison to the current American men-of-military-age demographic, this would represent an approximate figure of 600,000-plus KIA across any single six-month period 2003 to present, in an area of operations less than 7 miles wide by 25 miles long. I have always maintained that “body count math” is a sick science that absorbs defeatists, but this ratio certainly puts our current engagements into a perspective that even the most cynical critic of the current conflict must appreciate.

References –

The Australian War Memorial website

New Zealand History Online




The memorial at ANZAC Cove, Gallipoli.


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