To my NZ and Australian friends I charge my glass. (Not forgetting the Turkish, French and UK soldiers who died there).
To the grand uncles I never knew because of the war- such is life.
Kemal Ataturk, 1934
This always prompts the memory of a picture, the beheading of a hands behind the back,on his knees blindfolded Anzac by sword wielding Japanese officer looming over him,weapon raised.
(Stands.Salutes.)
You tube version of the Pogues playing ´And the band played Waltzing Mathilda´ here
Rather than a video of the band playimg, the visuals are all pictures from the time.
My great-grandfather was an ANZAC. He landed at Gallipoli on the 25th April, 1915. I have a copy of his diary from the time, here are those 3 days worth of entries.
From the diary of Sapper H. G. Watson, 2nd N.S.W. Signal Troop, 2nd Light horse Brigade. A.I.F.:
To me, having read the diary from the optimistic young man at the start of the diary, it is the April 26 entry that breaks my heart. On ANZAC day ‘Gil’ Watson grew up faster than had ever imagined.
He was eventually wounded and evacuated to England, where he volunteered again for France, where he was wounded again and evactuated, where he volunteered a third time, and joined the A.F.C. and became a top ace.
Robinc308- is your relatives diary available- or does it have a copyright on it?
The original is held by the Australian War Memorial in Canberra (along with his medals, and some other memorabilia). I have a photocopy of the original, which I have been working to transcribe (my great-grandfather had truly terrible handwriting: presumably being in the trenches and shells falling around him didn’t help).
It has not been published or anything, just around the family.
Any chance of a copy when you do transcribe it?
I’ll check my grandma doesn’t have an issue (since it’s her father’s), but I don’t see why not. Just don’t hold your breath, I’ve been very slack about it, and have been working on it off and on (more off than on) for 2 years… (and a huge chunk is “removed by order of the censor”). It’s only his diary from the Gallipoli campaign: he ends by promising to start a new diary in France, but we don’t have that one.
To all you friends and strangers in Oz and NZ, I raise my glass.
A tip of the hat to the memory of all the ANZAC personnel, and here’s hoping those able to will enjoy a quite drink tomorrow.
I’ve come to love my adopted, sunburnt country.
Off to bed, dawn service tomorrow.
Lest we forget,
G
Just gone midnight here in Sydney.
For the Turkish, British, Australian, and New Zealand fallen…
Lest We Forget.
And Garius, thank you for posting those words from Ataturk. It is probably the most beautiful of all pieces of writing of that type. It never fails to bring a lump to my throat.
Thank you so very much robinc308for sharing the excerpt from your great-grandfather’s diary. It was very moving and a wonderful reminder.
My grandfather was in France at the tail end of WW I and kept a minimal diary while he was there. On November 11 I like to read the transcription I made a few decades ago, especially the very touching entry for 11/11/18. The attitude in the short diary also went quickly from cocky youth to solemn ponderings.
In the US I find that WW I is pretty much ignored for the more recent conflicts. It is understandable, and I do not mean to downplay more recent sacrifices, but I don’t see the point of recognizing other service at the expense of World War I.
In 1995 I was in Washington, D.C. on November 11. The Korean War memorial was 4 months old and there was a lot of activity as they set up chairs, speaker’s platform, etc. for a big remembrance event. There was activity at the nearby Vietnam Memorial as well. A short distance up the National Mall is the memorial for World War I. Nothing happening. Totally ignored except by me when I stopped there to say a remembrance prayer for my grandfather and other veterans.
Like I say, I can understand how the older events fade away as the veterans die off, but that does not mean I have to like it. This is why Anzac Day is so wonderful. I’m sorry to confess that before this thread, Anzac Day was just a note on the calendar that I would see and think “OK, something about Australia and New Zealand. They’re cool.” I didn’t know the background. Thank you one and all for fighting my ignorance and thank you to those who made their varied sacrifices.
I have a copy of the diary my grand uncle (one of them) wrote at Gallopoli. It deals mainly with the food and the situation- nothing about the fighting. Sadly, after being wounded and invalided out, he rejoined after the losses of a916 and was killed in the last battle that his unit fought in WW1.
In regards to Mycroft- it is sad that the history and scarifices pass. I still recall an Anzac Day Parade in Brisbane in the early 1980’s which was the first with no veteran of the Boer War present. The horse being led along with the light horsemans boots reversed will always stay with me.
I always read the war memorials I find here in Australia. In small towns, I think - my God, my God…it must have been almost all of this town’s young men, and they never came home. What happened to their mothers and fathers, their daughters and sons, their wives and girlfriends? How did this small town ever recover, with no sons to start families and carry on?
I’ve just been reading some broader Australian history having read most of the early days histories, and including some WWI things, and the total number of young men lost in such a sparsely populated young country, how ineffably, horribly, terribly sad.
Again, lest we forget.
Gleena
I sang at our annual Anzac Day requiem mass this morning. It was very moving, as usual.
From the fighting on Pine Ridge:
Four years later when the Australian Historical Mission visited Galliopli, skeletons of men in the rags of Australian uniform lay scattered in threes and fours down the length of Pine Ridge… Here where the tide of the advance ebbed and left them, they lay, until four years later, an Australian burial party interred them. They needed no epitaph. It was enough that they lay on Pine Ridge."