ANZAC Day
Last week, here in Australia and elsewhere in the world we commemorated ANZAC Day.
A.N.Z.A.C stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and is commemmorated on April 25th as it marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during World War 1, fourteen years after Australia celebrated federation. The soldiers in these forces became knows as “ANZACS”.
Why do we commemmorate an action such as the Gallipoli landing which was a resounding military failure?
Well, we’re not CELEBRATING Anzac Day, but commemorating the sacrifices made by millions of young men (some of them as young as 16) who left their homes, their farms, their families to travel to the other side of the world to fight a war that they thought would ensure the safety of their country.
With the benefit of time, it’s hard to imagine how these young men thought that Australia or New Zealand faced any threat in real terms from the war in Europe, but we need to understand the power of imperial influence in our newly federated country. In 1915, although now no longer a mere colony of the British, Australia was a very young country and people regarded Britain as the “mother country”. Given that Britain was under threat, of course, it was considered that all Commonwealth countruies faced the same threat, and therefore were responsible for defending democracy. It’s hard to imaging that enormous response happening now in the same circumstances.
The ANZAC ‘legend’ was born of the bravery and sacrifice of these young men (8000 Australian soldiers were killed and thousands more wounded) facing a formidible enemy with little hope of victory, but with a spirit of mateship and support for each other.
April 25th was officially named “ANZAC Day” in 1916 and was marked by memorial services throughout Australia and a march through London. It has grown to represent the sacrifice of all subsequent soldiers who have fought since that first landing at Gallipoli and has become a day of national commemoration.
WHT AM I TELLING YOU ALL OF THIS?
I always attend the local dawn service on ANZAC Day and year by year am surprised by the intensity of my reaction. Yes, I had a grandfather who fought both at Gallipoli, on the Somme and latter in WW2, I have uncles and other relations who fought in WW2 and Vietnam, but luckily for my family, they all came home, although as always they were irrepairably damaged by their experiences…………..
For some strange reason, as I stand at the local memorial each April 25th, with waves crashing on the beach only a few metres away, watching the dark night sky gradually lighten with the dawn and listen to the bugle sound the “Last Post”, my eyes fill with tears, my heart vibrates inside my chest and I feel so connected to those young men who lept from their boats and ran towards the beach on foreign soil, not knowing what lay ahead.
I can’t explain why I feel like this…………..to be honest I can’t explain why I feel compelled every year to attend the Dawn service………….but I do.
Once the service is complete, I always walk home along the beach. This year, I walked down to the end of the jetty and watched the sun peak over the hills. I sat, surrounded by water and looked up at the sky, where the cresent moon was still clearly visible with Venus twinkling above it and I thought about how it must have been for the Turkish soldiers, waiting up on the hills and looking down at the boats landing full of soldiers ready to invade their country.
I can’t really explain the depth of emotion I felt, sitting there in the cold with the waves lapping at my feet, but I can tell you I felt so connected to ALL of those young men and women who over the years have been “packed off” to fight for their country, ignorant of the diplomatic and political ramifications of their deployment.
The message in all of this is that we so often use our youngest, fittest and brightest as “cannon fodder” for the failure of politicians and diplomats to negotiate human outcomes to human problems. Whole generations have been sacrificed in every country around our world over the centuries because of greed, power and corruption. When are we going to come up with a way of negotiating our differences that doesn’t require this ultimate sacrifice? WHY CAN’T WE ACKNOWLEDGE OUR DIFFERENCES AND LEARN TO LIVE TOGETHER, INSPIRED BY OUR DIVERSITY?
I think this is the reason why every Anzac Day, I spend time reflecting on all of that lost potential…………..and praying that we find a way to stop it ever happening again!