Wednesday, April 24, 2013

ANZAC Day

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.
For The Fallen, Laurence Binyon
Anzac Day - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I read somewhere that the Military Airlift Command terminal at Travis Air Force Base had "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" on a continuous loop during the Viet Nam War.

ANZAC Day, as I would expect both of my regular readers to know, was originally to commemorate the slaughter losses of Australian and New Zealand troops during the debacle failed attempt to open a "southern front" during the Great War, by invading the Ottoman Empire at Gallipoli, in what is now Turkey.

British, Irish, Indian, Newfoundland (not at the time formally part of Canada), and French troops also participated, but the actions of the Aussies and Kiwis are most well-known; despite the fact that both had been independent Commonwealths of the British Empire for years at the start of WWI, it is commonly held that it was the actions of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps at Gallipoli marks the true psychological and cultural birth of the two nations.

ANZAC Day is actually observed on April 25th, which is "tomorrow" for us septics*, but "today" Down Under.

***
*Septics: Cockney Rhyming Slang. I leave the meaning as an exercise for the reader...

1 comment:

NotClauswitz said...

And they did get their asses blown to hell, poor bastages...