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April 25th is ANZAC Day

For those who don't know it's the Australian, and New Zealanders' Day of Remembrance for those who fought/died in WW1.

It's referred to in Eric Bogles's And the band played Waltzing Matilda, and the sentiments, still dear; after almost 100 years, in both places, are perhaps best summed up in the first stanza of, For the Fallen

They shall not grow 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


The campaign, for which they are remembered, was Gallipoli. A tragic waste, in a war of tragic wastes; no matter how needful it may have been, the way in which it was waged was horrid. Gallipoli has the glory of putting it into stark clarity, in some way which Ypres, the Somme, Vimy Ridge, Passchaendale, Chateau Thierry, didn't manage.

Would that we could find that trick, the one we thought; for a brief moment, we'd managed, to end all wars. But we haven't, and odds are we won't.

So, we have Armistice Day, and Memorial Day, and all the other days.

Today is ANZACDay

Lest we forget.

Date: 2009-04-25 05:20 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] niamh-sage.livejournal.com
I've always loved the words of Kemal Ataturk (from the Ari Burnu Memorial at Gallipoli):

Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives .... You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehemets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours ... you, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away 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.

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