Anzac Day

By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics and access other forums reserved for members. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today by clicking here.

Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 10:01 am

To all Australians and New Zealanders - this Friday is a day to commemorate the suffering and sacrifice of war, to salute the courage of our fighting forces past and present, and to reflect on the lessons we should have learned.

To all those from the nations who stood with us in those conflicts - we'll remember your courage and mourn your losses.

Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 10:20 am

Lest we forget. beers!

Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 10:27 am

And a toast to the truly forgotten Aussie soldiers.

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 06 Feb 2008 Posts: 720

And New Zealanders

Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 11:20 am

^^^ The reference in Wright B Hindyou's post was to a tragedy in 1945 that killed 26 young soldiers, but which was largely forgotten until recently.

We haven't forgotten the Kiwis - in the Great War they lost 15,000 soldiers killed from a population of one million (proportionally identical to Australia's 60,000 from four million); and Erwin Rommel counted the New Zealanders as the finest soldiers among the Allies - high praise indeed!

Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 11:44 am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPFjToKuZQM

Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 3:33 pm

Lest we forget. My father worked for the Aussie Army and I have a son presently training to go off to war. The most moving part of the video was the part at the end of a female Aussie soldier. My little girl has decided to join her brother in serving her country.

Edit: 7/9 pointed out my mistake.

Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 9:01 pm

Sadly,the saying that the cost of freedom is never free is all too true.
Heartfelt thanks to our ANZAC allies.

Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 10:44 pm

In 1941, Franklin Delano Roosevelt said:

Quote:

In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed. It must be achieved.

I salute those whom have stood FOR me, as well as beside me.

Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 12:28 am

Quote:

They shall grow not 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.

An excerpt from Laurence Binyon's "For the Fallen".

Lest We Forget Pretty Rose

Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 12:38 am

I will be going to the dawn service tomorrow at 5.30am and this year will be special as my dear mum is over here staying with us and is coming along too.
She is almost 89 years young and been here for almost two weeks. She goes home Saturday but we have filled our days researching our family tree. We have managed to trace back to 1665 on my grandfathers side and had quite a few surprises along the way.
Anyway, back on topic...Lest we forget!

beers!

I raise a glass to our heroes past, present and future.

Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 12:46 am

Lest We Forget Cool

Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 12:53 am

@bella-take all the notes you can.I wish I had paid far more attention than I did to my grandmother when she was alive.She may have been hazy on what was for breakfast,but the Boer war happened yesterday.I remember her stories about a prison camp on family land in Bermuda,but so much more I wish I could remember.Even when things get muddled,they can sometimes give you the clues you need to go further.Best of luck

Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 7:59 am

ANZAC Day is a bad time for me. My father died nearly 20 years ago, but come ANZAC Day I still remember him, He was a Kiwi WWII veteran from the Middle East. I remember him from my younger days when he would get up early to go to Dawn Service. Just tonight my son (now 15) said, "Dad, do you remember when we went to the ANZAC Parade in Sydney and you cried for your Dad?"

Today in the New Zealand Herald there was an article from a regular columnist who recalled his attendance at the 2005 Gallipoli Dawn Service. He quoted the words of Kemal Ataturk which are inscribed on a memorial at Anzac Cove, and I'd like to quote them here too.

Quote:

"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 Mehmets 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 in our bosom and are at peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well."

Gallipoli created a belief in their own independant nationhood in three different countries. Australia, New Zealand and Turkey.

Thank you Turkey for looking after those of our boys who stayed behind.

Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 9:24 am

Don't really have a lot to add.

For all those men and women who served to make my country what it is today - thank you.

Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 1:07 pm

Those noble words of Mustapha Kemal Ataturk are what drew me to Anzac Cove after I read about the place where they are inscribed, in a very fine book called Hell's Foundations.

That book is dedicated to the men of the town of Bury whose men suffered so much in the Dardanelles... something to remember; that 21,255 British and Indian troops and 9,874 French soldiers lost their lives there, as well as 8,706 Australians and 2,431 New Zealanders... and 87,000 Turkish soldiers, the "Mehmets".

Quote:

What these men did, nothing can alter now.
The good and the bad, the greatness and the smallness of their story will stand.
Whatever of glory it contains nothing can now lessen.
It rises, as it will always rise, above the mists of ages, a monument to great-hearted men;
And for their nation, a possession forever.

Charles Bean

Quote:

Stop traveller! Unbeknownst to you this ground
You come and tread on, is where an epoch lies;
Bend down and lend your ear, for this silent mound
Is the place where the heart of a nation sighs.

To the left of this deserted shadeless lane
The Anatolian slope now observe you well;
For liberty and honour, it is, in pain,
Where wounded Mehmet laid down his life and fell

This very mound, when violently shook the land,
When the last bit of earth passed from hand to hand,
And when Mehmet drowned the enemy in flood,
Is the spot where he added his own pure blood.

Think, the consecrated blood and flesh and bone
That make up this mould, is where a whole nation,
After a harsh and pitiless war; alone
Tasted the juice of freedom with elation.

Necmettin Halil Onan

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 06 Feb 2008 Posts: 720

In Remembrance 11th Battalion AIF

Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 5:46 pm

I salute all members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps for their brave and invaluble assistance during the two world wars.
You were magnificent.
Thankyou.

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 06 Feb 2008 Posts: 720

^^^^^
And the Boer war

Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 7:16 pm

And all other conflicts.
I do apologise.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 22 Apr 2008 Posts: 14

Lest we forget..

Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 8:25 pm

I'm working with a Kiwi this week, he reminded me that it was ANZAC day today. I'm proud to have served alongside the great troops of Aus and NZ... thanks for your efforts guys, over all the decades and all the conflicts. It's a pleasure to serve alongside you that still serve, and thank you to those that have fallen for our freedom.

Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 10:53 pm

For me grand-grand father and his son too...
Me grand-grand-father served in the Austro-Hungarian army, in the first WW.
I had the priviledge of knowing him. I was his favourite grand-grand-son.
And his son, my grandfather, was a seargent-major in the Romanian Mounted Royal Guard.