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100 years of ANZAC day

Discussion in 'Other Discussions' started by Melanie, Apr 25, 2015.

  1. Melanie

    Melanie Active Member
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    Well, as an Australian transplanted to New Zealand, I was keen to participate in this anniversary of remembering the sacrifice of Australian and New Zealanders in WW1 and subsequent conflicts. My NZ born granddad joined the AIF in West Australia and was in the second landing at Gallipoli. He survived but with an arm rendered useless by a bullet in the nerve plexus. His younger brother who had stayed in NZ joined the Otago Mounted Rifles and saw service in Passchendale. He, too survived. Other extended family were not so fortunate, a Scotsman of which my fathers family went forth to NZ,joined a Scots regiment and was killed in Europe aged 20, and so it goes on.

    At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them!
     
  2. kyredneck

    kyredneck Well-Known Member
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    I read somewhere that the Gallipoli campaign is where Australia and New Zealand both gained recognition worldwide.
     
  3. Melanie

    Melanie Active Member
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    In a sense Kyredneck, but in the hideous catastrophe that was Gallipoli, the young colonials became United as nations rather than regarding Britain as " mother" . There were others involved in Gallipoli of course, and Turkey saw I think about 90 000 young men slaughtered. It is very sobering to realise this and Turkey has always been generous in honouring our war dead as they were buried there or not...a lot there was simply not enough to bury, bones appear quite regularly on what is essentially a mass grave.
     
  4. Rolfe

    Rolfe Well-Known Member
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    People are quick to forget (which seems to be the case in America, unfortunately). One hundred years is not that long ago.
     
  5. Melanie

    Melanie Active Member
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    Rolf...you are right. The WW1 vets have all gone now, the ANZAC tradition has encompassed all the nations war dead and this will ensure the longevity of this solemn day of remembrance....it will fade when there is no more war.....
     
  6. Rolfe

    Rolfe Well-Known Member
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    There are many, many towns in (Western) Europe in which there stands memorials to locals who died in that conflict. The French, German, British, and Belgians particularly felt the loss. I have noticed that in the U.S. there does not seem to be as many, though the impact was not felt here as much. Having said that, in my Wisconsin town, there is a memorial remembering our locals.
     
    #6 Rolfe, Apr 25, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 25, 2015
  7. rsr

    rsr <b> 7,000 posts club</b>
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    It has often struck me how generous both sides were in paying respect to all those who served. There are many ANZAC cemeteries and monuments in Gallipoli, which a national park and as important to Turkish history as Gettysburg or Valley Forge or Normandy would be to Americans. Can you imagine monuments to the British, the Confederates or the Germans placed in those locations shortly after the war? (Yes, there are Confederate monuments at Gettysburg, but almost all were placed a half-century after the battle.)

    The Aussies also have a memorial to Ataturk in Canberra not far from the Australian War Memorial. It commemorates remarks that Ataturk is supposed to have made in 1934 (but probably didn't) on the occasion of a big commemoration at Gallipoli.
     
  8. Melanie

    Melanie Active Member
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    Rsr, I am not familiar with the Canberra thing, but there is certainly a magnificent poem by Ataturk about the foreign war dead at Gallipoli....I cannot imagine anyone reading it for the first time does not cry...( darn, I am all weepy now).

    But yes, every nation and many many towns and villages world wide have a monument to their dead sons and husbands and fathers. It is always heartening to those who from far afield fighting for freedom are remembered in the little towns ...
     
  9. rsr

    rsr <b> 7,000 posts club</b>
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    It is a fine bit of writing, but it's not likely that it's Ataturk's. But neither the Turks nor the ANZACs want to dispute it, so it has become part of the tradition.
     
  10. Melanie

    Melanie Active Member
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    Rsr ......the sentiment is beautiful., and yes if the poem is by someone else so be it!
     
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