In Praise of the ANZACs
At the beginning of November each year, red poppies begin to appear in the lapels of many of the people you meet in the street. Pop a coin in the box, and help yourself to a flower.
As you walked in to the library, did you notice the display of red books? Did you glance at the poppy theme and think “They’ve got the date wrong, Remembrance Day isn’t in April!”
The display is about remembering Vimy Ridge Day on April 9. April also holds another remembrance day, but in New Zealand and Australia, we don’t call it that.
April 25th is the anniversary of the landing of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps at Gallipoli, Turkey in 1915.
A joint force of Australians and New Zealanders had been assembled in Egypt, ready to join the allied campaign to capture the Gallipoli Peninsula. The force was nameless. A 21 year old sergeant serving in NZ headquarters took the first letter from each of the words Australia New Zealand Army Corps – the ANZACs were born and the term was cemented in military history.
We come together on Anzac Day to pay tribute to and remember those who have served our countries during times of conflict and crisis, and to reflect upon their selfless sacrifice.
To all Australians and New Zealanders Anzac Day is a tradition, paid for in blood and celebrated in our freedom. It is a day in which not only do we salute the Anzacs, but in paying tribute to them, we also take the opportunity to invigorate our national spirit and pride.
On April 25 1915, a group of volunteer Australian and New Zealand soldiers found themselves wading ashore before dawn at a small beach on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey. Many of these men were only teenagers, some as young as 16. All were anxious to prove their courage and national identity.
Over the eight months following the landing, those young Anzacs underwent a 'trial by ordeal'. In excess of 36,000 Australian and New Zealand soldiers were killed or wounded at Gallipoli. New Zealand’s population was only around 1 million at that time and to lose nearly 3,000 young men was a human toll that set the country reeling.
But in those terrible battles, young Australians and New Zealanders earned a reputation for self-reliance, for mateship, and for courage.
One particularly legendary tale of the Anzac spirit, involves a young medic and his donkey.
He had enlisted simply as John Simpson and he, along with his donkey began carrying wounded Anzacs down the hill to the casualty clearing stations. He became respected and revered by the other Anzac soldiers.
In the time Simpson served there, the pair brought more than 300 wounded down the hill, seemingly invincible to the Turkish machine gun fire, snipers and shrapnel.
One of the most asked questions among the Anzac troops was: "Has that bloke with the donk stopped one yet?"
John Simpson Kirkpatrick (his real name) lasted 24 days at Gallipoli before he was killed by enemy guns. He was 22.
This story and other experiences at Gallipoli drew each nation together and established their national characters. The standards that they set and the Anzac spirit, have been handed down ever since to all the soldiers, sailors and airmen who followed them, from WWII to the present day Middle East peacekeeping operations. Over the past 95 years this spirit has, like a taper touched to tinder, sparked and flickered and flamed with a life of it’s own. “It” has become an almost tangible quality found in the hearts of all men and women who have fought and defended us against tyranny and oppression.
As New Zealand prepares to honour its war dead – those who were the Anzacs of the past, it is important that we should also honour those who are Anzacs of the future. The courageous and gallant men and women who have put their beliefs in a 'just and peaceful' world before their own self-interests and all too often, their lives.
I have stood on the beach at Anzac Cove in Turkey. I have stood there at sunrise, on the spot where thousands died, and a nation was born. I have stood there and felt the spirit of the Anzacs.
As you walked in to the library, did you notice the display of red books? Did you glance at the poppy theme and think “They’ve got the date wrong, Remembrance Day isn’t in April!”
The display is about remembering Vimy Ridge Day on April 9. April also holds another remembrance day, but in New Zealand and Australia, we don’t call it that.
April 25th is the anniversary of the landing of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps at Gallipoli, Turkey in 1915.
A joint force of Australians and New Zealanders had been assembled in Egypt, ready to join the allied campaign to capture the Gallipoli Peninsula. The force was nameless. A 21 year old sergeant serving in NZ headquarters took the first letter from each of the words Australia New Zealand Army Corps – the ANZACs were born and the term was cemented in military history.
We come together on Anzac Day to pay tribute to and remember those who have served our countries during times of conflict and crisis, and to reflect upon their selfless sacrifice.
To all Australians and New Zealanders Anzac Day is a tradition, paid for in blood and celebrated in our freedom. It is a day in which not only do we salute the Anzacs, but in paying tribute to them, we also take the opportunity to invigorate our national spirit and pride.
On April 25 1915, a group of volunteer Australian and New Zealand soldiers found themselves wading ashore before dawn at a small beach on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey. Many of these men were only teenagers, some as young as 16. All were anxious to prove their courage and national identity.
Over the eight months following the landing, those young Anzacs underwent a 'trial by ordeal'. In excess of 36,000 Australian and New Zealand soldiers were killed or wounded at Gallipoli. New Zealand’s population was only around 1 million at that time and to lose nearly 3,000 young men was a human toll that set the country reeling.
But in those terrible battles, young Australians and New Zealanders earned a reputation for self-reliance, for mateship, and for courage.
One particularly legendary tale of the Anzac spirit, involves a young medic and his donkey.
He had enlisted simply as John Simpson and he, along with his donkey began carrying wounded Anzacs down the hill to the casualty clearing stations. He became respected and revered by the other Anzac soldiers.
In the time Simpson served there, the pair brought more than 300 wounded down the hill, seemingly invincible to the Turkish machine gun fire, snipers and shrapnel.
One of the most asked questions among the Anzac troops was: "Has that bloke with the donk stopped one yet?"
John Simpson Kirkpatrick (his real name) lasted 24 days at Gallipoli before he was killed by enemy guns. He was 22.
This story and other experiences at Gallipoli drew each nation together and established their national characters. The standards that they set and the Anzac spirit, have been handed down ever since to all the soldiers, sailors and airmen who followed them, from WWII to the present day Middle East peacekeeping operations. Over the past 95 years this spirit has, like a taper touched to tinder, sparked and flickered and flamed with a life of it’s own. “It” has become an almost tangible quality found in the hearts of all men and women who have fought and defended us against tyranny and oppression.
As New Zealand prepares to honour its war dead – those who were the Anzacs of the past, it is important that we should also honour those who are Anzacs of the future. The courageous and gallant men and women who have put their beliefs in a 'just and peaceful' world before their own self-interests and all too often, their lives.
I have stood on the beach at Anzac Cove in Turkey. I have stood there at sunrise, on the spot where thousands died, and a nation was born. I have stood there and felt the spirit of the Anzacs.
"This day of days again we keep -
In memory of those who sleep
Away beyond the quiet sea …
Away in far Gallipoli.
'Tis Anzac Day - 'tis Anzac Day …
Our soldier comrades far away,
They died in war - that we in peace
May live and love that war may cease".
(Unknown author)
In memory of those who sleep
Away beyond the quiet sea …
Away in far Gallipoli.
'Tis Anzac Day - 'tis Anzac Day …
Our soldier comrades far away,
They died in war - that we in peace
May live and love that war may cease".
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