Lest We Forget

(steve)

Beware! Serious history lesson below. Proceed with caution.

April 25th was ANZAC day here in Australia. A day to remember and honour the past and present members of Australia's armed forces. The original ANZACs (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) were a combined force of Aussies and Kiwis put together to fight in World War I against the Ottomans. The force landed at Gallipoli along the portion of present day Turkey known as the Dardanelles. Unfortunately, the Turks were prepared and a seige resulted. After a brutal 8 months, the ANZACs were evacuated after losing over 8000 soldiers. Even though defeated, the ANZAC action was significant to Australia since the country had only had an independent federal government for 14 days prior to departure (previously directly ruled from the UK). Naturally, the Aussies took immense pride in their first serious entry into world politics. A good movie called Gallipoli (starring an '80s pre-nutjob Mel Gibson) tells the story beautifully, including a powerful Private Ryan-esqe ending.



Naturally, ANZAC day is a national holiday, so we took the day off. Our commemoration consisted of walking downtown to watch the ANZAC parade. The parade marchers were made up of representatives of active or retired military units with a liberal dose of local marching bands in between. We saw WWII, Korea, Vietnam, various UN missions, Afgan, and Gulf War I and II vets marching proudly together. Before the parade, organizers gave out Aussie flags to everyone along the route, and we were offered sprigs of rosemary by a nice man standing next to us. Upon inquiry, no one provided a satisfactory explanation for the rosemary, offering only "it's tradition." A quick internet search found that rosemary is traditionally known as a symbol of remembrance and, of direct significance to ANZACs, found to grow all over the Gallipoli peninsula. Two prominent parade members were riderless horses ("Lone Chargers") with boots reversed in stirrups to honor Boer War and WWI vets posthumously. Within the band ranks were a large number of bagpipes, and the boys from Homebush Boys High (still makes us laugh). We must have heard Waltzing Matilda played 10 times. The parade route ended at the ANZAC memorial in Hyde Park.



We watched the parade for more than 3 hours, and finally left when we couldn't feel our feet (yet before the marching was complete). There were other significant events, held nationwide, like wreath ceremonies and services. To cap off our ANZAC day commemoration we walked to a pub like all good Aussies to watch rugby and drink beer.