Lest we forget

Today is April 25th, ANZAC Day.

ANZAC day (for my American friends) is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand.

It is the day we remember all those who have fought for our country in battle. The date, April 25 is the anniversary of the day when the ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) soldiers first landed at Gallipoli (in Turkey) in 1915.
The ANZAC soldiers were there with the Allies to help the British capture the Gallipoli peninsula. Winston Churchill had a plan that by doing so, it would open the Black Sea to the Allies.

In reality, it became eight months of the Allied soldiers camping out on the beach in the cold and wet, being shot at and ambushed by the Turkish soldiers.
By the time the campaign ended, 21, 255 British, 10,000 French, 8, 709 Australian, 2, 721 New Zealand and 1, 358 Indians (which was then still a British colony) soldiers had died.

But it is not just a day to remember the sacrifice the men made for their country. It is a day which we commemorate what has become a huge part of the Australian national identity.

So many stories came out of Gallipoli, about Australian soldiers who had lied about their age to be able to join the war.
One of my favourites is the story of John Simpson Kirkpatrick, most commonly known just by the phrase "Simpson and his donkey". Simpson was a stretcher-bearer with the ANZACs at Gallipoli, and upon arrival at ANZAC Cove (as it is now known), he found a donkey and used that to transport injured soliders between the fighting and the camp.
After only three weeks, Simpson was shot and died, but the donkey, so well trained by now, continued on its way and got the injured men on it's back, back to where there was medical aid.

The British soliders, according to sources, were amazed at the attitude of the Australian soliders.

They waited neither for orders nor for the boats to reach the beach, but, springing out into the sea, they waded ashore, and, forming some sort of rough line, rushed straight on the flashes of the enemy’s rifles.

That was from a report about the ANZACs from 8 May 1915.

 Anzac stood, and still stands, for reckless valor in a good cause, for enterprise, resourcefulness, fidelity, comradeship, and endurance that will never own defeat.

ANZAC's came to represent all the characteristics of Australians. Stories of bravery, mateship, where everyone was equal and there were no real officers and enlisted soliders. Everyone fought alongside one another and helped one another whenever possible.

So, today we remember all those ANZACs who fought not only in Gallipoli, but in every battle since and those who represent the ANZAC spirit.

"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."

Lest we forget.