Anzac Day

[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

Comments

Re: Anzac Day

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

Thanks for demonstrating my point that it was not a minor skirmish.

Re: Anzac Day

[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...