So it’s ANZAC Day again, it seems to roll around so fast these days. A day on which we remember the sacrifice and gallantry of our soldiers who served in that futile piece of military grandstanding known as Gallipolli. In these days of know-it-all commentators and left-leaning media it is common to decry the Gallipolli tradition and point to all the errors that were made and the overall lack of impact that the landings and subsequent battles had.
But surely this isn’t the point. Few, if any nations have a military history that is filled with only successes. Indeed, the greater the nation the more it seems that they have been defeated in battle at least as often as they won.
No, the point of ANZAC Day surely, is that our soldiers left our shores as a disparate bunch of raw recruits and returned a strong, united and respected fighting force. Iron is forged in the heat of the furnace and a nation’s mettle is most surely tested and proved in the heat of battle. Despite not achieving a military victory at ANZAC Cove, the Australian and New Zealand forces went on to Europe where the qualities of fighting spirit and battle-hardened stamina made them the infantrymen of choice when the toughest fighting in the trenches of France and Belgium needed to be done.
So we pause today to remember and to express our gratitude to the men who forged a nation’s reputation in that most extreme of furnaces, that of war. In whatever way you choose to commemorate the day, at least pause for a while and be grateful to those young men who raised this nation from obscurity and placed it at the forefront of the world stage.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
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.
teza51 says
Well said Phil, Noeline and i go to the dawn service most years and i have to say that the numbers seem to be growing each year we go and it is heartening to see so many young ones there with mun and dad.
Phil Hall says
Thanks, mate.