"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
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
no subject
Date: 24 Apr 2004 18:00 (UTC)no subject
Date: 24 Apr 2004 18:07 (UTC)It's the day we Aussies and Kiwis remember our war dead, the way you do on Armistice Day.
no subject
Date: 24 Apr 2004 18:09 (UTC)Kemal Ataturk was the general in charge of the Turkish forces at the time, and became the first leader of post-Ottoman Turkey.
no subject
Date: 24 Apr 2004 20:25 (UTC)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)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)Re: Anzac Day
Date: 24 Apr 2004 18:41 (UTC)Re: Anzac Day
Date: 24 Apr 2004 19:10 (UTC)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)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)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)Re: Anzac Day
Date: 24 Apr 2004 19:56 (UTC)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)Re: Anzac Day
Date: 25 Apr 2004 17:15 (UTC)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)Re: Anzac Day
Date: 24 Apr 2004 19:54 (UTC)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. :)
no subject
Date: 24 Apr 2004 20:22 (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 25 Apr 2004 00:42 (UTC):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.
no subject
Date: 24 Apr 2004 20:42 (UTC)The last ANZAC
Date: 25 Apr 2004 00:34 (UTC):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 17:38 (UTC)Re: The last ANZAC
Date: 25 Apr 2004 18:00 (UTC)Alec Campbell (died 2002).....
The previous entry relates to the last New South Wales link with the Gallipoli campaign.
no subject
Date: 25 Apr 2004 05:27 (UTC)http://www.livejournal.com/users/aldon/74121.html
no subject
Date: 25 Apr 2004 17:37 (UTC)