Cpl Ben Roberts-Smith VC on MMM (lessons to the liberals)

Part 1


Part 2


I really do think it's time for Australian primary school children to learn Australian history as they did when I and previous generations learned, perhaps they wouldn't be so prepared to trash Australia's traditions and what we have here in Australia

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them

Lest We Forget

Why is this day special to Australians?

When war broke out in 1914, Australia had been a federal commonwealth for only 13 years. The new national government was eager to establish its reputation among the nations of the world. In 1915 Australian and New Zealand soldiers formed part of the allied expedition that set out to capture the Gallipoli peninsula in order to open the Dardanelles to the allied navies. The ultimate objective was to capture Constantinople (now Istanbul in Turkey), the capital of the Ottoman Empire, an ally of Germany.
The Australian and New Zealand forces landed on Gallipoli on 25 April, meeting fierce resistance from the Ottoman Turkish defenders. What had been planned as a bold stroke to knock Turkey out of the war quickly became a stalemate, and the campaign dragged on for eight months. At the end of 1915 the allied forces were evacuated, after both sides had suffered heavy casualties and endured great hardships. Over 8,000 Australian soldiers had been killed. News of the landing on Gallipoli had made a profound impact on Australians at home, and 25 April soon became the day on which Australians remembered the sacrifice of those who had died in the war.

Although the Gallipoli campaign failed in its military objectives, the Australian and New Zealand actions during the campaign left us all a powerful legacy. The creation of what became known as the “ANZAC legend” became an important part of the identity of both nations, shaping the ways they viewed both their past and their future. (more)

Tomorrow morning at around 4:30am, and at services later in the day, millions of Australians will gather at their local cenotaphs to remember.


Here is their spirit, in the heart of the land they loved; and here we guard the record which they themselves made. Charles Bean 1948.



ANZAC Day, AWM 2012

UPDATE:

A Tribute to ANZAC Day
With their hair a little whiter, their step not quite so sure
Still they march on proudly as they did the year before.
Theirs were the hands that saved us, their courage showed the way
Their lives they laid down for us, that we may live today.
From Gallipoli’s rugged hillsides, to the sands of Alamein
On rolling seas and in the skies, those memories will remain.
Of airmen and the sailors, of Lone Pine and Suvla Bay
The boys of the Dardenelles are remembered on this day.
They fought their way through jungles, their blood soaked desert sands
They still remember comrades who rest in foreign lands.
They remember the siege of old Tobruk, the mud of the Kokoda Trail
Some paying the supreme sacrifice with courage that did not fail.
To the icy land of Korea, the steamy jungles of Vietnam
And the heroic battle of Kapyong and that epic victory at Long Tan.
Fathers, sons and brothers, together they fought and died
That we may live in peace together, while at home their mothers cried.
When that final bugle calls them to cross that great divide
Those comrades will be waiting when they reach the other side.
Ken Bunker
http://www.anzacday.org.au/anzacservices/poetry/tribute.htm

Please read this

Go over to Kev's place and read this...

Anzac Day Helicopter crash Wellington NZ

Three people are dead and one is seriously injured after a fatal crash of an Iroquois military helicopter north of Wellington.

TV NZ

Anzac Day - Dawn Service 25/4/10

Ninety-five years after the Gallipoli landing we remember...

I've just arrived home from the Anzac Day Dawn Service. It’s warm and overcast, and in town it’s foggy. I thought I could get a nice photo of sunrise on Anzac Day, but it was not to be.

The crowd at the Dawn Service was great to see. It's a small country town and there were easily over 100 people there.

The homily was wonderful. The Reverened spoke of love, and what it is, and how a special love of comrades and country is what has given us our freedoms, and that such hard-won, costly freedoms should not easily be given away. I’m going to see if I can get it, but I suspect it was only with a few notes and “off the cuff”.

I should carry a notebook with me, to write down my thoughts.

After the Dawn Service the local RSL hosts a Gunfire Breakfast. At the breakfast all serving and ex service members are welcome to eat a breakfast prepared and supplied by the local Lions group. Bacon, eggs, snags, baked beans, bread, tea, coffee, rum. Yes, rum. It is a tradition that rum is provided for addition to coffee for/with breakfast after the Dawn Service.

Reading some of the information in the links I provided yesterday about Anzac Day I was surprised to see that Australia is unusual in its War memorials and commemorations as we not only remember the dead, but celebrate and honour those who came back. British War Memorials are only dedicated to those who fell. In Australia any town which had representatives in any war has a war memorial.

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)

Menin Gate at Midnight, by Will Longstaff (click here for more info, and here for larger image.)

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.

Last Australian F111s flying tomorrow

Tomorrow will be the last time Australians will see their F111s flying, they will be participating in the fly-past at the Brisbane Anzac Parade tomorrow.

The F111 has served Australia well.

I'll miss them.

From The Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton).

Story 2.

Nasho News, Queensland - June 2009, PDF Page, actual page 3.