Anzac Day is 100 years old

About a quarter million young men on each side were wounded and about 135 thousand died in the appallingly badly planned Gallipoli campaign that was launched by the intellectually retarded military leaders of the 'Allied' forces on April 25, 1915. It is recognized as one of the great military disasters of all time, a fiasco of massive proportions. The 100th anniversary of what henceforth was called Anzac Day, like the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide which is commemorated on April 24, is not an occasion for celebration. There is, however, something to celebrate: they fought on opposite sides, but Turks and Australians have been firm friends ever since. When Wendy and I were taken to the Gallipoli battlefields by our Turkish hosts in October 2004, we encountered several groups of young Australians, many of them high school students, and were struck by the obviously affectionate relationship between them and their Turkish hosts who also looked to be about high school age. Friendships forged between opposing sides in 1915 have become firmer in recent generations, reinforced by these visits of young Australians.

My memories of Anzac Day date from my very early childhood, probably 1931 when I was 5, soon after my mother took my brother Peter and me to live with her in a bungalow at Brighton, a seaside village separated in those days from Adelaide by several miles of orchards and vineyards.  One morning she woke me very early and dragged me unwillingly to a dawn commemoration service. Peter was too young to come with us and I resented the fact that he stayed home warm in bed, while I had to get up on this cold morning and listen to a series of men making speeches about matters I didn't comprehend. In the years that followed, I came to appreciate Anzac Day as a sacred remembrance ceremony at which we honoured those who died in the 1915 Gallipoli campaign. They included my mother's brother, my Uncle Lidie, QMS Elias Judell, 9th Light Horse Regiment, who died like so many others in an artillery bombardment from the heights above that the ANZAC forces could never conquer. ANZAC is the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.  They were the backbone of the forces at Gallipoli, and were supported by British, Indian, French, and even a tiny company of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment - now proudly but falsely claimed as 'Canadian' by our current bellicose government, which seizes upon every imaginable excuse to proclaim that Canada has always been a warrior nation.  

Another of my mother's brothers, Cedric, also served at Gallipoli; so did Wendy's father who was wounded there, and two of my father's uncles. Most families in Australia and New Zealand had members who fought at Gallipoli, and many had family members who died or were maimed there.  All are scarred by the experience.  It is true to say that the two nations, Australia and New Zealand, were born on the battlefields of Gallipoli. 

My impressions of and emotional reaction to the battlefields at Gallipoli, and some photos, are in my post on this blog, on March 10, 2012.