One hundred years ago

[Patrick Cox]

At dawn on April 25th 1915 on a narrow beach at Gallipoli a legend was born. At this time thousands of Australian and New Zealand soldiers came ashore on a beach at Gallipoli. Because of the terrain and the high advantage the Turks had they never moved off the beach and thousands paid with their lives before being evacuated in December 1915.

 

These brave soldiers became known as ANZACS and the bay known as Anzac Cove.

 

For The Fallen

 

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,

England mourns for her dead across the sea.

Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,

Fallen in the cause of the free.

 

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal

Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,

There is music in the midst of desolation

And a glory that shines upon our tears.

 

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 contemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

 

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;

They sit no more at familiar tables of home;

They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;

They sleep beyond England's foam.

 

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,

Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,

To the innermost heart of their own land they are known

As the stars are known to the Night;

 

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,

Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;

As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,

To the end, to the end, they remain.

[paddler]

They will never be forgotten.

[boetie]

Lest we forget. I went to the dawn service this morning at Tweed Heads, I've never seen such a turn out, there were thousands there for the 5am service on the harbour. Nice one Pat.

[allan prewett]

Flying over it now with my daughter and my son who has recently joined the armed services has his first service.

Pity it could not get the memorial treatment like PNG.

Allan

[chumley]

The only comment I will make is that Australian and New Zealand troops should not have been there in the first place.

 

A classic example of so called friends dragging their friends into a conflict against an enemy that really wasn't an enemy but happened to be a friend of the enemy of Australia and New Zealand's friend.

 

There are no winners in war and it should now be put to bed for another 100 years (or more). 

[Krono]

I think you may of missed the biggest point here chumley.

The whole idea of Anzac Day is not to glorify war as a lot of people think but to remember the loss and waste of lives not just on the allies side but on both sides so that the same thing does not happen again.

Lest we Forget.

 

Ken

[Ripcord]

Chumley, as a veteran of military service, I will say that I really don't appreciate your comments.  I know you did not mean to be disrepectful, but let me offer you this perspective:  These guys went and answered the call.  I am sure, 100 years ago, nobody asked them what their personal convictions were as to which wars to fight and where.  They were men in uniform, doing their service to the flag, and they went.  And they gave all. Just like other Australians and New Zealanders have done in other faraway places over the last 100 years.

 

There are no winners,and I'll be the last one to glorify it, but there damn sure are a lot of good young people that deserve a moment of respect, free of debate from why and how. Had it been my name up on that granite wall, I would not want some guy discounting the price I paid. I'm just as gone, and my family is just as broken.

[Patrick Cox]

Please gentlemen. This post was not intended to start an argument. It is posted out of respect for several of my ancestors who gave their lives at Galli[oli and on the Western Front in France and Belgium. I would appreciate if you took your arguments and disrespectful comments elsewhere otherwise I will ask the mods to delete this thread.

 

Also if may interest any of you I, like my father have worn the uniform for my country. My father suffered injuries in the Middle East and passed away as a consequence in 1969.

[Taph]

WE shall remember them

 

Taph

[Bassman]

Yes, there are really no winners in war, the majority on both sides suffer. My wife and I went to Gallipoli four years ago but not on Anzac day and for 364 days it is a very quiet and reflective site; in my opinion a better time to visit the peninsula. Orbx is now a global site so one cannot expect everyone to understand Gallipoli's effect on Australians and New Zealanders. Also there were a lot of other British colonies involved that are only just starting to be recognised. In Australia and New Zealand, it is a time of reflection on the total futility of the Gallipoli campaign and indeed World War One. It has also become a focal point to recognise the sacrifices of men and women who have given their service and lives with best intentions of protecting our various life styles. It in no way glorifies war but concentrates on the sacrifices made by both sides; that is why it is also so important to the victors, the Ottoman Turks who modern day Turkey also remembers their fallen. Turkey's first president Ataturk acknowledged both his own soldiers AND the defeated soldiers. I wont go into it here but if you want to know an example of a humble victor just read his words to the mothers of the enemy, us.  I am a member of Vatpac, and as is our custom, we did a commemorative flight over the Gallipoli peninsula as our small way of reflecting upon the tragedy that wars are, even when necessary. Lest we forget.

[chumley]

My apologies gentlemen. I certainly wasn't trying to be disrespectful and certainly not offend, just present a contrary viewpoint.

 

My grandfather served in World War 1 at Passchendaele where he was a victim of mustard gas. His life was saved by a German doctor and he lost half of one lung and a third of the other. He suffered in one way or another for the rest of his life and my Dad served in the RAAF in the latter years of World War 2. 

[birdguy]

When I was stationed in Thailand during the Vietnam War I was a bomb loading crew chief for an F-105 wing.

 

I would cruise the ramp in my pickup checking on my load crews.  I kept a cooler full of soft drink to hand out to my troops while they were working.

 

One afternoon as the pilots were pre-flighting their Thuds for the afternoon missions one of the young pilots, Lt. Shively, flagged me down and asked me if he could have a drink.  I handed him a can and he said, "Thanks sarge, I'll buy you a ber when I get back."

 

He never made it back.  He got shot down over Hanoi and became a POW for the rest of the war.

 

That evening I went to my hooch and started this poem.  And since then I added a verse for every war my country seems to want to get involved in.   The last verse always remains the same.         

 

The Forgotten Soldier
                            
                            1 
I'm the forgotten soldier of World War I.       
I donned my helmet, and shouldered my gun      
To fight the war to end all wars,             
To cleanse the world of all it's sores.      
My body lies in Flander's Field.              
They say I died for freedom's shield.         

                            2
I'm the forgotten sailor of World War II.
I boarded my ship with the rest of the crew,
To make the World a place of peace,     
To make this war, and all others cease. 
My body's at the bottom of the Coral Sea.
They say I died for liberty.            

                            3
I'm the forgotten Marine of the Korean War.  
In the name of peace our guns did roar.       
To stop the hated commie red............      
'For Freedom!' our beloved leaders said.      
My body fell on Pork Chop Hill.               
They say I died for Freedom's Will.           

                             4
I'm the forgotten Airman of Viet Nam.     
I flew my plane, and dropped my bomb.      
To stop the vicious Viet Cong,            
To keep a land from going wrong.          
By body lies near Hanoi City.             
They say I died, so we'd be free.         

                             5
I'm the forgotten trooper of Middle East.
I drove my awesome, armored beast               
Across that oil-rich desert sand              
To stay a tyrant's bloody hand.               
I was buried with but a moment's pause,       
They say I died for our nation's cause.       

                             6
I’m the missing peacekeeper from the Balkan war.
I did my duty, and a little more,
To thwart a leader I did not know
In a far of place called Kosovo.
And when the beating of my heart did cease,
They said I died in the name of peace.

                               7
My body fell in Afghanistan
When I left that chopper and began
To run for cover that was not there
In that patch of sand that was so bare.
In a day or two I’ll be hardly missed
They’ll say I died to stop a terrorist.

      8

I was part of coalition that went to Iraq
To give a people their nation back.
To bring a tyrant to his knees,
To confiscate his WMDs.
I was killed in an ambush near Al Salmain
They’ll say my death was not in vain.

                                9
We're the forgotten grunts of a war unknown.   
We'll be called to duty, for it's been shown 
That we must fight the statesmen's wars,     
In far off places - on foreign shores.       
Our bodies will fall on some glorious mission.
Tell them we died for a politician!  

 

Noel

[Iain Emms]

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."

 

cheers

Iain

[Frankie_2]

When it comes to Gallipoli, I'm almost immediately thinking of the song "Cliffs of Gallipoli" by one of my favourite bands "Sabaton":

 

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOCe2Y7iVF8

 

I saw them live some years ago and the atmosphere when they played this song was just great, with everybody in the crowd singing along perfectly. I am sure everyone was remembering the fallen when they played it.

[VH-KDK]

Lest we forget.

 

 

When I was stationed in Thailand during the Vietnam War I was a bomb loading crew chief for an F-105 wing.

 

Poignant post Birdman.

 

Great poem which sadly will have many verses added to it over time.

 

Might I ask where in Thailand you were posted as I spend time in Tahkli most years at my step son's house.

[birdguy]

I was at Tahkli also.  355th TAC Fighter Wing. 

 

Lt. Shively came home after the war and became an attorney in Washington.  He died a few years ago.  I never did get the beer he owed me. 

 

http://www.veterantributes.org/TributeDetail.php?recordID=1041

 

Noel

[lawrence aldrich]

Just to add a note.....

The idealogies,politics and politicians rersponsible for war must always be disassociated from those who are tasked

with fighting in them.

Those same idealogies, politics and politicians are seldom, if ever, casualties of it.

It seems that the only casualties are always from the ranks of those who did not start it and did not want it.

We have called this parody "defense" for about the last 10,000 years, and the end is nowhere in sight.

[birdguy]

Right on Lawrence.  As veteran of 26 years of military service and having served directly in two wars (Korea and Vietnam) I am probably as anti-war as anyone.  Those who have read my previous replies on war gaming can attest to that. 

 

But those who are called to go out and participate in these wars are the opposite of those who start them.  While the warmongers who send them out deserve our derision those who are sent out deserve no less than our respect.

 

Noel

[Patrick Cox]

Mods can you please close this thread. I has gone way off what I intended when I posted.

[Tim Harris]

OK, I think this topic has run its course