Saturday, April 24, 2010

ANZAC Day - AWM

Tomorrow is ANZAC Day, I'll be attending the Dawn Service at 4:28am, and then the Gunfire Breakfast with the local RSL members.

For The Fallen

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not 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.


They mingle not with laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England’s foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)


This is the tribute to the Anzacs by Kemal Ataturk

Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives...
you are now lying in the soil of a frendly 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

Kemal Ataturk Memorial, Canberra.

In the above Kemal Ataturk memorial link King George Sound is mentioned. I've been to Albany in WA. King George Sound was where the soldiers sailing from Australia to the First World War had their last glimpse of Australian soil. This memorial is there. It is beautiful. I have photos of it, but this is from a better angle. More information here on King George Sound's Desert Mounted Corps Memorial, more commonly known as the Light Horse Memorial.


To learn more about ANZAC Day, visit the Australian War Memorial site.

More information here, too. A lot to read!

This site is great, too. It's last update seems to have been in 2006 - he needs help to record all the war memorials at his site - I can not find an address for him/her. I hope he notices my visit and contacts me! Australian war memorials are unusual, we commemorate not only those who died, but all who went to war.

War memorials honour people, not war.

These deeds
Which should not pass away
Names that must not wither.

5 comments:

wayne Job Broadford Victoria said...

Thank you Kae for your remembrance post. I'm a hermit but I do shed a tear in silence.

kae said...

Wayne
If you read all the info it should keep you out of mischief for a long time.

I love that painting of Menin Gate, I've seen it at the Australian War Memorial and it is haunting. Magic how the artist has captured the ghosts.

I must go to Canberra next time I'm in Sydney, and I must go to Yarrangobilly Caves, I haven't been there for over 30 years. Saw a program about the Yagby caves and really had an urge to go back. Many happy memories of early family caving trips there.

wayne Job Broadford Victoria said...

Have a gentle day tomorrow princess.

SezaGeoff said...

I have been to the Menin Gate, and seen the Last Post played there as it has been since the First World War. The gate contains the names of those in Flanders with no known grave, so my great great uncle who fell at Armentiers and is buried at Lille does not appear, but I always get a little misty-eyed when I see that painting.

kae said...

Hi Seza
I have seen the painting in The Australian War Memorial in Canberra, the photos do not do it justice.