ANZAC day.

by zeb 9 Replies latest social current

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  zeb

  The 25th April in Australia and New Zealand is called ANZAC day. The word is from Australia New Zealand Army Corp.

  On this day are commemorated the lives of those lost in war. The 25th April is the day in 1915 that the forces under incompetent commanders landed on the coast of Turkey at a place called Gallipoli or Galliboli in Turkish, in an effort to force Turkey out of the great war.

  The landings were an unmitigated blunder. In the months that followed only a tiny piece of Turkey was ever held and eventually a retreat was organised. This action was the only one done soundly. Not one life lost.

  Many thousands of Anzacs were killed in that campaign and the survivors were sent on to the killing fields of Europe and many more lost before the armistice of 1918. Any US soldier who fought at Bellieau Wood did so along side Australian 'diggers'.

  In the second world war once again Anzac forces fought to defend against Nazi and the Imperial Japanese forces with some many thousands more lost before that war too ended. The Japanese POW camps were places of brutality and starvation or more would have survived.

  We could add, Malaya, 'confrontation' with Indonesia (1960's) and Vietnam (60's to early 70's) where Australia again lost hundreds dead and from where veterans are still suffering from PTSD.

  More recently Iraq and Afghanistan.

  So if you hear of the word ANZAC you now know now where it is from.
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  Pete Zahut

  So if you hear of the word ANZAC you now know now where it is from.

  And how Anzac biscuits came about.
  
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  karter

  My grandchildren went to the dawn service today wearing my fathers medals.

  Karter.
  
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  prologos

  The heroism, the sacrifices for the delusion of Empires. Where have all the flowers gone? Abraham Martin and John?
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  kaik

  WWI seems so long time ago but... My grandfather fought it in the last year in 1918 when he was drafted as a teen on Italian front line. My great-grandfather (grandpa from my mom side) was an Austrian officer, already retired in 1900s when he was called in once Austria-Hungary run out of soldiers. He survived the war, but his son, who was also teen did not. I agree with prologos, it was delusion of imperial government in Austria when it started the war.
  
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  Esse quam videri

  '...Johnny Turk had prepped himself well. He rained us with bullets and shot us with shell. In five minutes flat we were all blown to hell. He almost blew us back to Australia....We stopped to burn our dead. We burned ours and the Turks burned theirs and we started all over again...'
  
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  fulltimestudent

  eqv - It's a great song, and the full version makes it clearer that the 'Anzac glory' about a wonderful war perverts the truth. And the stupidity and cupidity evident in the public and 'secret' deals that the British and French made during and after the war, deals that reflected their view of the world, are still killing people in West Asia right now.

  Here's the full version:

  Esse quam videri : '...Johnny Turk had prepped himself well. He rained us with bullets and shot us with shell. In five minutes flat we were all blown to hell. He almost blew us back to Australia....We stopped to burn our dead. We burned ours and the Turks burned theirs and we started all over again...'

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E22gszljklc
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  fulltimestudent

  There's one more song that will probably be played around the pubs in OZ today. Its more topical, but has the same bitter edge.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Urtiyp-G6jY#t=262
  
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  fulltimestudent

  Only one more post, before bitterness at the betrayal of so many dead and hurt consumes.

  This is a poem by Australian poet, Dame Mary Gilmore, socialist, atheist and a fighter for worker's rights and more, expressing her bitterness at the British government's betrayal of Australian soldiers at the fall of Singapore in February 1942.

  Singapore by Dame Mary Gilmore
  They grouped together about the chief
  And each one looked at his mate,
  Ashamed to think that Australian men
  Should meet such bitter fate!
  And black was the wrath in each hot heart
  And savage oaths they swore
  As they thought of how they had all been ditched
  By "Impregnable" Singapore.

  The 'she in the third verse, was Britain.

  
  

  But what's different? Just think of the poor bastards that died in ancient Israel. They too were betrayed by their glory seeking masters like Joshua, Saul and David .

  
  
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  jaydee

  .......Go Pies........