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den"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
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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. :)