Friday 25 April, 2008 at 12:46PM (Nereus)  ::  permalink  ::  comments (2)

In 1915, Australian and New Zealand soldiers formed part of an Allied expedition that set out to capture the Gallipoli Peninsula, under a plan by Winston Churchill to open the way to the Black Sea for the Allied navies. The objective was to capture Istanbul, capital of the Ottoman Empire and an ally of Germany. The ANZAC force landed at Gallipoli on 25th April, meeting fierce resistance from the Turkish defenders. What had been planned as a bold strike to knock Turkey out of the war quickly became a stale-mate, and the campaign dragged on for eight months. At the end of 1915, the Allied forces were evacuated after both sides had suffered heavy casualties and endured great hardships. Over 8,000 Australian and 2,700 New Zealand soldiers died. News of the landing at Gallipoli made a profound impact on Australians and New Zealanders at home, and 25th April quickly became the day on which they remembered the sacrifice of those who had died in war.

Though the Gallipoli campaign failed in its military objectives of capturing Istanbul and knocking Turkey out of the war, the Australian and New Zealand troops' actions during the campaign bequeathed an intangible but powerful legacy. The creation of what became known as "the ANZAC legend" became an important part of the national identity in both countries, as well as with the English who dubbed them "The Knights of Gallipoli".

After the First World War, returned soldiers sought the comradeship they felt in those quiet, peaceful moments before dawn. With symbolic links to the dawn landing at Gallipoli, a dawn stand-to or dawn ceremony became a common form of ANZAC Day remembrance during the 1920s, and today the "Dawn Service" has become an integral part of the ANZAC Day commemorations for New Zealanders and Australians, both at home and around the world. Anzac Day is also officially celebrated in the Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa and Tonga.

"And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" is a song written by Eric Bogle in 1972, describing the futility, gruesome reality and the destruction of war (here's the youtube link - not quite sure why the vid has Canadian soldiers near the end though. I removed the embedded video - found it was sucking down CPU resources. There's also another version of the song sung by Liam Clancy). The song is a vivid account of the memories of a young Australian man who, in 1915, had been recruited into the ANZACs and sent to Gallipoli, who "for ten weary weeks" kept himself alive as "around me the corpses piled higher". He recalls "that terrible day" ... "in the hell that they called Suvla Bay we were butchered like lambs at the slaughter" ... "in that mad world of blood, death and fire". In its clear and stark retelling of the events of the battle and its aftermath, it is a passionate indictment of war in general, and notes the passing of other veterans with time, as younger generations become apathetic to the veterans and their cause. The song incorporates the melody and a few lines of "Waltzing Matilda's" lyrics at its conclusion, and is often praised for its haunting imagery of the devastation at Gallipoli, and although it apparently was written as a criticism of war, it has since become a strong symbol of the sacrifice made by the ANZAC soldiers who died on the beaches of Gallipoli.