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"Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives... You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours... You, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well."

Kemal Ataturk


They shall not grow old
As we that are left grow old;
age shall not weary them
Nor the years condemn:
At the going down of the sun
And in the morning
We will remember them
Lest we forget

Laurence Binyon

Date: 24 Apr 2004 18:00 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] i-harobed.livejournal.com
I'm sorry ... I don't know what Anzac Day commemorates. Can you explain, please?

Date: 24 Apr 2004 18:07 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dewhitton.livejournal.com
On this day in 1915 the Australia & New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC), along with British and other Commonwealth troops, stormed ashore at the Dardenelles in an abortive campaigne to get Turkey out of WW1. After 11 months of horriblness we withdrew in what has been described as the most successful retreat in modern history.

It's the day we Aussies and Kiwis remember our war dead, the way you do on Armistice Day.

Date: 24 Apr 2004 18:09 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dewhitton.livejournal.com
By the way

Kemal Ataturk was the general in charge of the Turkish forces at the time, and became the first leader of post-Ottoman Turkey.

Date: 24 Apr 2004 20:25 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] i-harobed.livejournal.com
Thanks for the info. Ataturk's statement is beautiful and infinitely sad.

Here in the U.S. (sorry, forgot to tell you where I was earlier but you figured it out), Armistice Day is also called Veteran's Day, in order to honor all who have fallen in war. And we have Memorial Day at the end of May for the same purpose; that one arose from a much earlier tradition, called Decoration Day, which honored those lost in the American Civil War, a sad chapter indeed.

Anzac Day

Date: 24 Apr 2004 18:10 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bobbain.livejournal.com
Anzac Day represents a fairly minor (but bloody) skirmish between Australian and New Zealand troops during World War I. It was a British campaign with Australian and New Zealand forces sent to attack a heavily Turkish fortified section at Gallipoli Cove.

It was a bloody defeat but is an event of historical importance as it was the first time that troops of the newly formed "Commonwealth of Australia" (founded 1901) proved themselves in battle.

Re: Anzac Day

Date: 24 Apr 2004 18:36 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zibblsnrt.livejournal.com
I wouldn't call half a million killed and wounded a minor skirmish, but...

Re: Anzac Day

Date: 24 Apr 2004 18:41 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dewhitton.livejournal.com
We can blame Winston Churhill for it. He loved that "Soft Underbelly Of Europe" theory. It cost him his job at the Admiralty, but he tried it again a few years later.

Re: Anzac Day

Date: 24 Apr 2004 19:10 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bobbain.livejournal.com
half a million ?

The official figure with regards to the number of Australian's killed in the Gallipoli skirmish is 8,709 over a period of some months.

The number wounded was around 18,000.

The number of Australians killed in World War I was about 62,000.

The body count is very close to the body count in Iraq...

http://www.iraqbodycount.net/ (currently between 8,918 and 10.769.


Re: Anzac Day

Date: 24 Apr 2004 19:25 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] oceansedge.livejournal.com
Every life lost is significant.

It's easy to forget that in the bean counter's number books, and the details of 'acceptable losses'

There is a story of an old man walking on the beach tossing stopping every few feet to toss a starfish into the sea. A young man walking observing him stopped him and asked what he was doing. The old man replied that the star fish would die if they didn't get back into the water, so he was throwing them back in. The young man was astounded and replied that it was such a huge beach, and there were so many star fish, the old man couldn't possibly make a difference. The old man, thought about it for a moment, picked up another star fish and threw it into the surf, "Made a difference to that one."

Re: Anzac Day

Date: 24 Apr 2004 19:46 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bobbain.livejournal.com
it is also forgotten that soldiers (on the right side) die in the cause of "freedom and liberty". The enemy die because they are tyrants (or the unthinking puppets of tyrants).

We live in freedom. This freedom comes at the cost of sacrifice and the associated glory of those who died

...or so I'm led to believe

Re: Anzac Day

Date: 24 Apr 2004 19:45 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zibblsnrt.livejournal.com
You do know there were more countries involved at Gallipoli than Australians, right? They weren't exactly alone, nor were they simply shooting themselves.

Re: Anzac Day

Date: 24 Apr 2004 19:56 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bobbain.livejournal.com
Indeed. As the skirmish took place on Turkish soil I have a hunch there some Turkish people pulling the triggers.

I have walked along the beach at Gallipoli. As I understand it the British chose a more congenial spot. It was essentially a British blunder.

http://users.netconnect.com.au/~ianmac/gallipol.html

Allied deaths 50,000
Allied casualties 250,000
Turkish casualties 300,000

Re: Anzac Day

Date: 24 Apr 2004 19:59 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zibblsnrt.livejournal.com
Thanks for demonstrating my point that it was not a minor skirmish.

Re: Anzac Day

Date: 25 Apr 2004 17:15 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bobbain.livejournal.com
:Thanks for demonstrating my point that it was not a minor skirmish.

I consider it a "minor skirmish" not from the number of people injured (which can range from something as minor as a scratch to a lost limb) but with regard to the fact that "Gallipoli" is just one event in the four years of World War I and isn't remembered at all in countries such as the United Kingdom where the term "In Flander's Fields" conjures up emotions, but where "Gallipoli" is mostly an "unknown".

Being born in and from the United Kingdom the realities of World War II have far greater significance. Against the backdrop of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the use of nuclear weapons in warfare "Gallipoli" is a memory confined primarily to this part of the world (as evidenced by an earlier contributor to this LJ entry) and of primary significance with respect to Australian/(NZ) national identity rather than an event of universal significance to be remembered into the 22nd Century and beyond...


Re: Anzac Day

Date: 25 Apr 2004 09:04 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kittiwake.livejournal.com
So that would be half a million then, wouldn't it?

Re: Anzac Day

Date: 24 Apr 2004 19:54 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tropism.livejournal.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Gallipoli#Casualties

More like 44K dead on the allied side, with more than twice the number wounded, and 87K dead on the Ottoman side, with 164.5K wounded.

That's not particularly a skirmish. :)

Date: 24 Apr 2004 20:22 (UTC)
From: [personal profile] pipibluestockin
"ANZAC" is an anacronym for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

There are reasonable enough explainations down below - although so far nobody has added that the survivors from Gallipoli were then thrown in to the trenches in France.

Or that we got used as shock troops (thrown into the front line by the British)

Or that neither country, Australia or New Zealand had a particularly large population at the time - comparatively speaking we lost a lot of young men.

---

Over the years since WWI, ANZAC Day has been our day of commemoration to those that have died in all wars. From the Boer War (pre-WW1) to Vietnam.

Date: 25 Apr 2004 00:42 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bobbain.livejournal.com
:Over the years since WWI, ANZAC Day has been our day of commemoration
:to those that have died in all wars. From the Boer War (pre-WW1) to Vietnam.

I recall during the 1970's the "true ANZACS" arguing that those who served in Vietnam weren't "part of the club". This created considerable hostility among those who served in Vietnam.

I heard the radio broadcast this morning and it was devoted to ALL Australian soldiers, noting their service in Vietnam but also in Iraq, countries to the north of us and in obscure (to me) countries in Africa.

The last ANZAC

Date: 25 Apr 2004 00:34 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bobbain.livejournal.com
:But as year follows year, more old men disappear;
:Some day no one will march there at all.

http://www.ozbird.com/AnzacPageThree.htm

------------------------------

The last original ANZAC - Ted Matthews - has died aged 101.
"His death removes the last New South Wales link with the most defining moment in Australia's history" Prime Minister John Howard said.

He blamed the Gallipoli fiasco on "bloody fools" of the British Empire and believed war was pointless.

-------------------------------

http://www.anzacs.org/campbell.html

Alec William Campbell
26 Feb 1899 - 16 May 2002

The last entry in the roll of honour for Gallipoli was finally made on Thursday, 16th May 2002, when Alec Campbell, the last Anzac and last surviving participant of the Gallipoli campaign, died of pneumonia, aged 103. With his loss Gallipoli ceases to be a part of living memory and has truly become, as John North referred to it, 'a country of the mind'.

Re: The last ANZAC

Date: 25 Apr 2004 18:00 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bobbain.livejournal.com
:i'm confused; which one of them was actually "last"?

Alec Campbell (died 2002).....

The previous entry relates to the last New South Wales link with the Gallipoli campaign.


Date: 25 Apr 2004 05:27 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] oceansedge.livejournal.com
This one amazed me.... nice job by the author of the post...

http://www.livejournal.com/users/aldon/74121.html

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