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Apr. 24th, 2009 08:12 pmApril 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.
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.
