~ LEST WE FORGET ~
Respect for those that have fallen for our country!!!!!
Yup, much respect. Lest we forget
Fought for our country
Lest we forget
Lest we forget.
And even though I haven’t participated in an ANZAC Day activities I am very thankful for the freedom I have to choose how I spend my days.
In 2003 I did have the opportunity of attending the services in Gallipolli.
Lest We Forget.
1,469,456 Australians have died protecting us. Each and every one of them deserves our eternal gratitude.
^ Well said
While we remember those who have fallen for our country, lets not also forget those who still fight.
Thank you to all the diggers. Least we forget
Special ANZAC day for us. Raindrop gave the ANZAC speech at the Bairnsdale ceremony.
We were busting with pride 
Her words,
It has been said that Australia became a nation 14 years after federation, coming of age through a baptism of fire. On the morning of the 25th April 1915, Australian and New Zealand troops landed at Gallipoli, a peninsula in the Ottoman Empire, now known as Turkey. This landing on the shores of Gallipoli was the first major military operation in which Australia, as a newly federated nation, had been involved and marked the beginning of an eight-month campaign, during which tens of thousands of soldiers were killed and thousands more were wounded. The men that fought at Gallipoli became known as the Diggers and cemented in our vocabulary the word ANZAC, an acronym for the Australian New Zealand Army Corp. The Gallipoli campaign ended with the evacuation of all allied troops in January 1916 and while the ANZAC’s withdrawal from Gallipoli was well planned and executed, the campaign itself was unsuccessful.
In 1916, the first anniversary of the Gallipoli landing, officially named ANZAC Day, was observed in Australia, New Zealand and England and by troops in Egypt. During the 1920s, ANZAC Day was firmly established as a National Day of Commemoration for the 60,000 Australians and 18,000 New Zealanders who were killed during the war.
* * * *
Although the Gallipoli campaign was unsuccessful, every year on the anniversary of the first landing, two nations pause to honor the courage of those who fought and commemorate the sacrifice of those who died during the campaign. ANZAC day is not merely a date, the remembrance of and old campaign, but a national identity by which both Australians and New Zealanders* have come to define who they are. The qualities of mateship, endurance and courage forged by the ANZACs have become an integral part of our society.
In the 97 years since the tradition of ANZAC Day first began, Australia has been involved in many conflicts. World War II (1939 – 1945), the Korean War (1950 – 1953), the Vietnam War (1962 – 1973), the Gulf War (1991), the war in Iraq (2003-2011) and the war in Afghanistan in which we are currently still fighting. While these conflicts have changed the way that we commemorate ANZAC Day t has not been a negative impact. The qualities of the original ANZACs have not been weakened, rather they have been further engrained into our society. The acknowledgement of those who have contributed so much towards shaping our national identity, and those that continue to serve enriches the meaning of ANZAC Day and reminds us that we value freedom and who we are as a nation.
* * * *
One of my earliest memories of ANZAC Day is of learning about Simpson and his donkey in primary school. Hearing about the bravery and feats of this man, entirely self-sacrificing inspired in me both awe and immense sadness; sadness for the horrors men such as Simpson had to endure in order for me to be able to live in a free (and happy) country. I have never been directly affected by war. I cannot imagine what that feels like. It is for this reason that ANZAC Day and all that it stands for will forever hold a special place in my heart.
Two of my great-great uncles, Archibald Bowman and Arthur Swords fought in World War II
Archibald was a member of the Z Special Forces serving in Timor. In 1942, during his time in Timor Sapper Archibald Bowman was missing in action for four months. While missing Arch contracted an infection, strongly suspected of being Malaria and with the help of two Timorese men managed to evade being captured by the Japanese. As he became sicker, the men helping him would dig a shallow grave every day as they moved locations in order to avoid capture. The two men believed that Arch would not survive and that when he finally succumbed to his illness, the grave in which he slept would allow his body to be more easily and quickly concealed. However, defying all odds, Arch recovered. Shortly before being rescued by a British destroyer Arch was shot in the leg and the wound eventually became gangrenous. After returning to Darwin his gangrenous leg was amputated and replaced with a wooden stump. When my mother was little she and her siblings would ask Arch why he had a wooden leg and, particularly, why it had a hole in it near where his ankle should be. Arch’s response was that his leg was a mouse’s home.
Arthur, a member of the 39th Battalion was one of the first men to engage in combat with the Japanese on the Kokoda Trail. His journal entries provide brief details of his time in Papua New Guinea.
“Left Melbourne 26/12/41 by train.
Embarked “Aquitania” at Sydney and sailed 28/12/41 for Moresby, arrived 3/1/42.
Crossed Owen Stanley’s (mountain range) to Kokoda July 42.
Action against Japs.
Returned Moresby 4/9/42.
Walked over Owen Stanley’s again to Oivi and returned from Kokoda to Moresby by air transport 5/11/42.”
Known as ‘old man’ by the men with whom he served, Arthur chose mateship over rank and although he was offered the opportunity to become an Officer he declined wishing to be able to remain and serve with his mates. After the war ended Arthur was assigned to Tatura Internment Camp, a P.O.W camp in north-eastern Victoria.
* * * *
ANZAC Day is not a day to glorify or celebrate war. Rather it is a day of commemoration, remembrance and thanks. On ANZAC Day we pay tribute to all current and former members of the Australian Defence Force. We remember the men and women who have fought for our us in all conflicts; those who came home and those who didn’t. We remember the fallen of the nations who fought alongside and against us. We remember the families who are and were left behind. As long as we remember their spirit and sacrifices, they will always live.
As Australian poet Ken Bunker wrote:
With their hair a little whiter, their step not quite so sure
Still they march on proudly as they did the year before.
Theirs were the hands that saved us; their courage showed the way?
Their lives they laid down for us, that we may live today.
From Gallipolis’s rugged hillsides, to the sands of Alamein?
On rolling seas and in the skies, those memories will remain.
Of airmen and the sailors, of Lone Pine and Suvla Bay?
The boys of the Dardanelles are remembered on this day.
They fought their way through jungles, their blood soaked desert sands
They still remember comrades who rest in foreign lands.
They remember the siege of old Tobruk, the mud of the Kokoda Trail?
Some paying the supreme sacrifice with courage that did not fail. ?
To the icy land of Korea, the steamy jungles of Vietnam?
And the heroic battle of Kapyong and that epic victory at Long Tan.
Fathers, sons and brothers, together they fought and died?
That we may live in peace together, while at home their mothers cried. ?
When that final bugle calls them to cross that great divide?
Those comrades will be waiting when they reach the other side.
HEAD EM UPPPPPP!!!!
Lest We Forget.
Hope everyone had a good ANZAC day.
HEAD EM UPPPPPP!!!!
I’m a tails man myself
HEAD EM UPPPPPP!!!!
I’m a tails man myself
tails scored me some coin…. I’ve turn into a taily