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Tomorrow, April 25th, is ANZAC Day, and it is arguably Australia's most important national occasion. It marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The soldiers in those forces quickly became known as ANZACs, and the pride they took in that name endures to this day.
The term ANZAC originally meant someone who fought in the Gallipoli campaign of the First World War and later it came to mean any Australian or New Zealander who fought or served in the First World War. During the Second World War, ANZAC Day became a day on which the lives of all Australians and New Zealanders lost in war time were remembered. The spirit of ANZAC recognises the qualities of courage, mateship and sacrifice which were demonstrated at the Gallipoli landing in World War One.
Commemorative services are held at war memorials throughout Australia and New Zealand at dawn on 25 April, the time of the original landing. Later in the morning, further commemorative services and marches are held in cities and towns all over both countries. The services are solemn and people turn out in huge numbers to pay their respects.
I never miss the Dawn Service here, even though it means having to be up and about by 4.30am. It's especially significant where I live as the tradition of the Dawn Service actually began here in Albany on April 25th, 1923. It was conducted by a Church of England clergyman, Reverend Arthur Ernest White, who was serving as one of the padres of the earliest ANZAC's to leave Australia with the First AIF in November 1914. The convoy was assembled in Princess Royal harbour and King George Sound at Albany. Before embarkation, at four in the morning, he conducted a service for all the men of the battalion. When White returned to Australia in 1919, he was appointed relieving Rector of St John's Church in Albany. It was a strange coincidence that the starting point of the AIF convoys should now become his parish.
The memory of his first Dawn Service those many years earlier and his experiences overseas, combined with the terrible loss of lives and injuries, inspired him to honour permanently the valiant men (both living and the dead) who had joined the fight for the allied cause. "Albany", he is quoted to have said, "was the last sight of land these ANZAC troops saw after leaving Australian shores and some of them never returned. We should hold a service (here) at the first light of dawn each ANZAC Day to commemorate them."
So it was that on ANZAC Day 1923 he came to hold the first Commemorative Dawn Service.
As the sun was rising, a man in a small dinghy cast a wreath into King George Sound while White, with a band of about 20 men gathered around him on the summit of nearby Mount Clarence, silently watched the wreath floating out to sea. He then quietly recited the words: "As the sun rises and goeth down, we will remember them".
Tomorrow, at 5am, we will gather at the Desert Mounted Corps Memorial on top of Mt Clarence for the 86th Dawn Service. From this spot, you get an amazing view out over the Sound as the sun rises. The service will be brief and solemn, and the most moving moment will be when we all gaze out to sea as The Last Post is played and imagine what it must have looked like all those years ago (November 1, 1914) when thousands of Australian and New Zealand troops were assembled on board 38 ships, waiting in the Sound to set sail for the battlefields of Europe. It truly is an incredibly moving, spine tingling moment.
Later in the morning I will attend the Anzac March and Service at the war memorial in town, proudly wearing one of my beloved late father's war service medals (he saw action in WW2). I will honour his memory, and the memory of all Aussie and New Zealand men and women who gave their lives in war for the cause of freedom.
LEST WE FORGET
The Desert Mounted Corps war memorial on top of Mount Clarence, Albany ....
History of the Gallipoli Campaign (for those who are interested) .....
Australia and New Zealand were at war from 4 August 1914 when Britain declared war on Germany. Both Australia and New Zealand enthusiastically supported Britain and the other allies - France and the Russian Empire against the Central Powers (Germany, the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary) when the Ottoman Empire entered the war on 29 October 1914.
The plan was that the Allied fleet (British and French) pass through the Dardanelles Straits to lay siege to Constantinople (now Istanbul) to help the Russians. It was intended that the navy seize the Turkish batteries on both sides of the Strait, sweep away the Turkish mines and allow the Allied fleet safe passage through the Dardanelles. The initial British war plans against the Ottoman Empire in Turkey did not involve a land invasion of Turkey at Gallipoli. The need for such a major landing in force at Gallipoli was only finally endorsed after the failure of the great naval attack on the Dardanelles defences of 18 March 1915.
As part of the larger Imperial Force, the ANZACs were brought in from training in Egypt to participate in the Gallipoli landings. The ANZACs comprised the 1st Australian Division and the composite New Zealand and Australian Division. Unlike the European armies of the period, the Australian Imperial Force was formed from volunteers. Most of the volunteers came heeding duty's call. Others looked for excitement or were escaping drought conditions at home.
The ANZACs landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula at dawn on the 25th April and met fierce resistance. Instead of finding the flat beach they expected, they found they had been landed at an incorrect position and faced steep cliffs and constant barrages of enemy fire and shelling. Around 20,000 soldiers landed on the beach over the next two days. They faced a well organised, well armed, large Turkish force determined to defend their country - led by Mustafa Kemal, who later became Atatürk, the leader of modern Turkey.
Fighting on Gallipoli soon settled into a stalemate. The ANZACs and the Turks dug in - literally - digging kilometres of trenches, and pinned down each other's forces with sniper fire and shelling. Thousands of Australian and New Zealand men died in the hours and days that followed the landing at that beach. The surviving diggers, as the Australians called themselves, hung on waiting for reinforcements. The stalemate ended in retreat with the evacuation of the ANZACs on 20 December 1915. By then, 8,141 had been killed or died of wounds and more than 18,000 had been wounded.
The landing at Gallipoli was seen as a story of courage and endurance amongst death and despair, in the face of poor leadership from London, and unsuccessful strategies. War correspondents, such as Charles Bean, hailed the Australians and New Zealanders for their dash in attack and doggedness in defence and the ANZAC legend was born.
"It is a legend not of sweeping military victories so much as triumphs against the odds, of courage and ingenuity in adversity. It is a legend of free and independent spirits whose discipline derived less from military formalities and customs than from the bonds of mateship and the demands of necessity."
.... Former Prime Minister of Australia, Paul Keating, at the Entombment of the Unknown Soldier at the Australian War Memorial, 1993.
The term ANZAC originally meant someone who fought in the Gallipoli campaign of the First World War and later it came to mean any Australian or New Zealander who fought or served in the First World War. During the Second World War, ANZAC Day became a day on which the lives of all Australians and New Zealanders lost in war time were remembered. The spirit of ANZAC recognises the qualities of courage, mateship and sacrifice which were demonstrated at the Gallipoli landing in World War One.
Commemorative services are held at war memorials throughout Australia and New Zealand at dawn on 25 April, the time of the original landing. Later in the morning, further commemorative services and marches are held in cities and towns all over both countries. The services are solemn and people turn out in huge numbers to pay their respects.
I never miss the Dawn Service here, even though it means having to be up and about by 4.30am. It's especially significant where I live as the tradition of the Dawn Service actually began here in Albany on April 25th, 1923. It was conducted by a Church of England clergyman, Reverend Arthur Ernest White, who was serving as one of the padres of the earliest ANZAC's to leave Australia with the First AIF in November 1914. The convoy was assembled in Princess Royal harbour and King George Sound at Albany. Before embarkation, at four in the morning, he conducted a service for all the men of the battalion. When White returned to Australia in 1919, he was appointed relieving Rector of St John's Church in Albany. It was a strange coincidence that the starting point of the AIF convoys should now become his parish.
The memory of his first Dawn Service those many years earlier and his experiences overseas, combined with the terrible loss of lives and injuries, inspired him to honour permanently the valiant men (both living and the dead) who had joined the fight for the allied cause. "Albany", he is quoted to have said, "was the last sight of land these ANZAC troops saw after leaving Australian shores and some of them never returned. We should hold a service (here) at the first light of dawn each ANZAC Day to commemorate them."
So it was that on ANZAC Day 1923 he came to hold the first Commemorative Dawn Service.
As the sun was rising, a man in a small dinghy cast a wreath into King George Sound while White, with a band of about 20 men gathered around him on the summit of nearby Mount Clarence, silently watched the wreath floating out to sea. He then quietly recited the words: "As the sun rises and goeth down, we will remember them".
Tomorrow, at 5am, we will gather at the Desert Mounted Corps Memorial on top of Mt Clarence for the 86th Dawn Service. From this spot, you get an amazing view out over the Sound as the sun rises. The service will be brief and solemn, and the most moving moment will be when we all gaze out to sea as The Last Post is played and imagine what it must have looked like all those years ago (November 1, 1914) when thousands of Australian and New Zealand troops were assembled on board 38 ships, waiting in the Sound to set sail for the battlefields of Europe. It truly is an incredibly moving, spine tingling moment.
Later in the morning I will attend the Anzac March and Service at the war memorial in town, proudly wearing one of my beloved late father's war service medals (he saw action in WW2). I will honour his memory, and the memory of all Aussie and New Zealand men and women who gave their lives in war for the cause of freedom.
LEST WE FORGET
The Desert Mounted Corps war memorial on top of Mount Clarence, Albany ....
History of the Gallipoli Campaign (for those who are interested) .....
Australia and New Zealand were at war from 4 August 1914 when Britain declared war on Germany. Both Australia and New Zealand enthusiastically supported Britain and the other allies - France and the Russian Empire against the Central Powers (Germany, the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary) when the Ottoman Empire entered the war on 29 October 1914.
The plan was that the Allied fleet (British and French) pass through the Dardanelles Straits to lay siege to Constantinople (now Istanbul) to help the Russians. It was intended that the navy seize the Turkish batteries on both sides of the Strait, sweep away the Turkish mines and allow the Allied fleet safe passage through the Dardanelles. The initial British war plans against the Ottoman Empire in Turkey did not involve a land invasion of Turkey at Gallipoli. The need for such a major landing in force at Gallipoli was only finally endorsed after the failure of the great naval attack on the Dardanelles defences of 18 March 1915.
As part of the larger Imperial Force, the ANZACs were brought in from training in Egypt to participate in the Gallipoli landings. The ANZACs comprised the 1st Australian Division and the composite New Zealand and Australian Division. Unlike the European armies of the period, the Australian Imperial Force was formed from volunteers. Most of the volunteers came heeding duty's call. Others looked for excitement or were escaping drought conditions at home.
The ANZACs landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula at dawn on the 25th April and met fierce resistance. Instead of finding the flat beach they expected, they found they had been landed at an incorrect position and faced steep cliffs and constant barrages of enemy fire and shelling. Around 20,000 soldiers landed on the beach over the next two days. They faced a well organised, well armed, large Turkish force determined to defend their country - led by Mustafa Kemal, who later became Atatürk, the leader of modern Turkey.
Fighting on Gallipoli soon settled into a stalemate. The ANZACs and the Turks dug in - literally - digging kilometres of trenches, and pinned down each other's forces with sniper fire and shelling. Thousands of Australian and New Zealand men died in the hours and days that followed the landing at that beach. The surviving diggers, as the Australians called themselves, hung on waiting for reinforcements. The stalemate ended in retreat with the evacuation of the ANZACs on 20 December 1915. By then, 8,141 had been killed or died of wounds and more than 18,000 had been wounded.
The landing at Gallipoli was seen as a story of courage and endurance amongst death and despair, in the face of poor leadership from London, and unsuccessful strategies. War correspondents, such as Charles Bean, hailed the Australians and New Zealanders for their dash in attack and doggedness in defence and the ANZAC legend was born.
"It is a legend not of sweeping military victories so much as triumphs against the odds, of courage and ingenuity in adversity. It is a legend of free and independent spirits whose discipline derived less from military formalities and customs than from the bonds of mateship and the demands of necessity."
.... Former Prime Minister of Australia, Paul Keating, at the Entombment of the Unknown Soldier at the Australian War Memorial, 1993.
) ....
