Helloooo!!!
Alright, Friday evening and am I glad the weekend is nigh! And it is a long weekend too. Monday, the 25th of April is a holiday in Australia and New Zealand.
The 25th of April is commemorated as ANZAC Day. ANZAC is the acronym for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and this day has its roots buried deep in history from long ago.
Anzac Day commemorates New Zealanders and Australians killed in war and to honour returned servicemen and women at Gallipoli during the First World War. The ceremony itself has been continually adapted to the times, but has also steadily acquired extra layers of symbolism and meaning.
War memorial window, St Andrew's Church, Cambridge.
The Gallipoli campaign, in which New Zealand made its first major effort during the First World War, had its origins in the stalemate which had developed on the Western Front by the end of 1914. Following the initial free-flowing operations, the opposing sides found themselves facing each other along a line of trenches which stretched from Switzerland to the Belgian coast. The power of the defence having already made its impact felt, statesmen in both camps were at a loss as to how to proceed. In these circumstances the need for an alternative approach was patent.
On the Allied side the search for an alternative was encouraged by the opportunities presented by superior seapower. With the German High Seas Fleet contained in the North Sea, the possibility of launching amphibious attacks on the enemy was particularly evident to the British First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill. Impatient to use British naval resources, he advanced a series of proposals, among them an assault on the Dardanelles-the nearly fifty-kilometre-long strait separating the Aegean Sea from the Sea of Marmara, which at its narrowest point, the Narrows, was less than two kilometres wide. The object would be to pass a force into the Sea of Marmara and threaten the capital of Germany's ally the Ottoman Empire.
At the War Council in London, Churchill urged an attack from the sea on Gallipoli at its first meeting on 25 November 1914. This was rejected as such an operation would be too risky but the issue was soon brought back to the foreground by developments in the war. With the Turks advancing northwards in the Caucasus, Russia appealed for action to relieve the pressure. The War Council approved the proposal on 15 January 1915.
The landings were originally scheduled to take place on 23 April, but weather conditions led to a delay of two days. Even if all had gone to plan on the 25th, the force would have struggled to secure its objectives, especially within the time allotted. But the plan was thrown into disarray even before the troops began landing. The Australian spearhead was mistakenly directed about two kilometres north of the envisaged landing place, nearer to Ari Burnu at what was later named Anzac Cove and on a much narrower front than envisaged in the plan. The reasons for this have been hotly debated over the last eighty years, with tides, faulty navigation by the landing fleet, belated changes of orders all being canvassed. An unauthorised alteration of direction northwards by one of the midshipmen commanding a steamboat, which pulled the whole line of tows in this direction, is the most likely explanation.
As a consequence the troops, on landing, found themselves confronted with far more formidable natural terrain immediately inland than they would have faced at the originally planned landing place. As they pushed inland through this difficult country of tangled ravines and spurs, the various units were split up and inextricably mixed. Only a few small, uncoordinated parties managed to reach the objective, Gun Ridge. These problems were compounded by delays in landing the remainder of the 1st Australian Division, the last of which reached shore four hours behind schedule. In the meantime, the first elements of the New Zealand and Australian Division had also begun landing soon after 9 a.m., and they became intermixed with units of the Australian division.
These deployments were made more serious by the defenders' vigorous response. In the landing zone itself there had only been two Turkish infantry companies and an artillery battery. Although these units used their dominating position to inflict substantial casualties on the invaders, they were too few to prevent the Australians from landing and pushing inland. However, exercising near Hill 971 was the 19th Division, based at Maidos and commanded by Mustafa Kemal Bey. Using his initiative Kemal rapidly deployed these forces to meet the threat posed by the ANZACs, units being thrown into battle as soon as they reached the position. A counter-attack in mid morning drove the Australians back from the 400 Plateau. Kemal then turned his attention to the right of the ANZAC position, where New Zealand troops had joined the Australians in the front line.
A fierce struggle ensued for the Baby 700 feature, but by evening the ANZACs had been forced back from it and the Nek. In this fighting about one in five of the 3000 New Zealanders who landed on the first day became casualties. The Turks had succeeded in securing the high ground. Far from rapidly gaining their initial objectives on Gun Ridge, the ANZACs found themselves in danger of being pushed back into the sea.
This is the history behind the day. I find it pretty fascinating. My interst in this history was really kindled after the barbecue we had in office this afternoon. We all stood in line to get our "rations" like the ANZACs got then. We each had been given a coupon book that granted each a portion of bread, vegetables, one biscuit and a cup of tea. We handed over the coupon to be stamped and collected our food tray and ambled off to find a shade and contemplate our next next assault. Ooops...sorry I got carried away a bit... We had the food and then got back to work actually. :-)
Talking about work, I remember now that Monday is not a day off for me after all! There is some urgent stuff I need to work on and so have to be in office on Monday. Aw shucks! Anyway, I still have two days to take it easy.
Okie folks, I shall leave you all to mull over the ANZAC campaign all those years back. To close, here is the dedication that is stated each year in a dawn service by one of the survivors from the war or a close family member, the last verse of Laurence Binyon's 'For the Fallen':
Alright, Friday evening and am I glad the weekend is nigh! And it is a long weekend too. Monday, the 25th of April is a holiday in Australia and New Zealand.
The 25th of April is commemorated as ANZAC Day. ANZAC is the acronym for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and this day has its roots buried deep in history from long ago.
Anzac Day commemorates New Zealanders and Australians killed in war and to honour returned servicemen and women at Gallipoli during the First World War. The ceremony itself has been continually adapted to the times, but has also steadily acquired extra layers of symbolism and meaning.
War memorial window, St Andrew's Church, Cambridge.
The Gallipoli campaign, in which New Zealand made its first major effort during the First World War, had its origins in the stalemate which had developed on the Western Front by the end of 1914. Following the initial free-flowing operations, the opposing sides found themselves facing each other along a line of trenches which stretched from Switzerland to the Belgian coast. The power of the defence having already made its impact felt, statesmen in both camps were at a loss as to how to proceed. In these circumstances the need for an alternative approach was patent.
On the Allied side the search for an alternative was encouraged by the opportunities presented by superior seapower. With the German High Seas Fleet contained in the North Sea, the possibility of launching amphibious attacks on the enemy was particularly evident to the British First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill. Impatient to use British naval resources, he advanced a series of proposals, among them an assault on the Dardanelles-the nearly fifty-kilometre-long strait separating the Aegean Sea from the Sea of Marmara, which at its narrowest point, the Narrows, was less than two kilometres wide. The object would be to pass a force into the Sea of Marmara and threaten the capital of Germany's ally the Ottoman Empire.
At the War Council in London, Churchill urged an attack from the sea on Gallipoli at its first meeting on 25 November 1914. This was rejected as such an operation would be too risky but the issue was soon brought back to the foreground by developments in the war. With the Turks advancing northwards in the Caucasus, Russia appealed for action to relieve the pressure. The War Council approved the proposal on 15 January 1915.
The landings were originally scheduled to take place on 23 April, but weather conditions led to a delay of two days. Even if all had gone to plan on the 25th, the force would have struggled to secure its objectives, especially within the time allotted. But the plan was thrown into disarray even before the troops began landing. The Australian spearhead was mistakenly directed about two kilometres north of the envisaged landing place, nearer to Ari Burnu at what was later named Anzac Cove and on a much narrower front than envisaged in the plan. The reasons for this have been hotly debated over the last eighty years, with tides, faulty navigation by the landing fleet, belated changes of orders all being canvassed. An unauthorised alteration of direction northwards by one of the midshipmen commanding a steamboat, which pulled the whole line of tows in this direction, is the most likely explanation.
As a consequence the troops, on landing, found themselves confronted with far more formidable natural terrain immediately inland than they would have faced at the originally planned landing place. As they pushed inland through this difficult country of tangled ravines and spurs, the various units were split up and inextricably mixed. Only a few small, uncoordinated parties managed to reach the objective, Gun Ridge. These problems were compounded by delays in landing the remainder of the 1st Australian Division, the last of which reached shore four hours behind schedule. In the meantime, the first elements of the New Zealand and Australian Division had also begun landing soon after 9 a.m., and they became intermixed with units of the Australian division.
These deployments were made more serious by the defenders' vigorous response. In the landing zone itself there had only been two Turkish infantry companies and an artillery battery. Although these units used their dominating position to inflict substantial casualties on the invaders, they were too few to prevent the Australians from landing and pushing inland. However, exercising near Hill 971 was the 19th Division, based at Maidos and commanded by Mustafa Kemal Bey. Using his initiative Kemal rapidly deployed these forces to meet the threat posed by the ANZACs, units being thrown into battle as soon as they reached the position. A counter-attack in mid morning drove the Australians back from the 400 Plateau. Kemal then turned his attention to the right of the ANZAC position, where New Zealand troops had joined the Australians in the front line.
A fierce struggle ensued for the Baby 700 feature, but by evening the ANZACs had been forced back from it and the Nek. In this fighting about one in five of the 3000 New Zealanders who landed on the first day became casualties. The Turks had succeeded in securing the high ground. Far from rapidly gaining their initial objectives on Gun Ridge, the ANZACs found themselves in danger of being pushed back into the sea.
This is the history behind the day. I find it pretty fascinating. My interst in this history was really kindled after the barbecue we had in office this afternoon. We all stood in line to get our "rations" like the ANZACs got then. We each had been given a coupon book that granted each a portion of bread, vegetables, one biscuit and a cup of tea. We handed over the coupon to be stamped and collected our food tray and ambled off to find a shade and contemplate our next next assault. Ooops...sorry I got carried away a bit... We had the food and then got back to work actually. :-)
Talking about work, I remember now that Monday is not a day off for me after all! There is some urgent stuff I need to work on and so have to be in office on Monday. Aw shucks! Anyway, I still have two days to take it easy.
Okie folks, I shall leave you all to mull over the ANZAC campaign all those years back. To close, here is the dedication that is stated each year in a dawn service by one of the survivors from the war or a close family member, the last verse of Laurence Binyon's 'For the Fallen':
"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. "
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them. "
Until the next post, adieu!
