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Sprintcyclist

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Re: Anzac Day
Reply #15 - Apr 25^th, 2009 at 9:21pm

What I felt toady was ANZAC day was not to just remember those who had fallen in Gallapolli.

There have been many battles since then.
There have been many ANZACs who have fallen since then.
There have been many ANZACs who have not fallen since then.
There are many ANZACs who are standing in the same place for us today.

This morning was for all of them.

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oceanz

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Re: Anzac Day
Reply #16 - Apr 25^th, 2009 at 10:47pm

Sprintcyclist wrote on Apr 25^th, 2009 at 9:21pm:

What I felt toady was ANZAC day was not to just remember those who had fallen in Gallapolli.

There have been many battles since then.
There have been many ANZACs who have fallen since then.
There have been many ANZACs who have not fallen since then.
There are many ANZACs who are standing in the same place for us today.

This morning was for all of them.

^^ what he said. www.bigfooty.com/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif

Anzacs is much more than Gallipolli...

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&&Jade Rawlings on Cousins " He makes our team walk taller..a very good team man , Ben Cousins"

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locutius

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Re: Anzac Day
Reply #17 - Apr 27^th, 2009 at 2:33pm

Forgive the misquoting but I am going completely from memory but there was a Tele-movie? about 20 years? ago called ANZACS and there was a poem that I think captured the surrealism of many returned servicemen. I don't know the title if there is one and I may have forgotten a verse or two.

They ask me where I've been,
And what I've done and seen.

But what can I reply,
Who knows, It wasn't I.

It was someone just like me,
Who went across the sea.

And with my head and hands,
Killed men in foreign lands.

Though I must bear the blame,
Because he bore my name.

Most of us who have fathers and uncles and brothers who served in wartime will recognise this sentiment. I knew one that grew old, and he always missed his mates that didn't.

I think ANZAC day is good day to remember the Turks and the British. Putting aside the criminal incompetance of the British High Command, the British infantry suffered horrendous losses at Gallipoli.

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« Last Edit: Apr 27^th, 2009 at 2:41pm by locutius »

I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives.

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NorthOfNorth

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Re: Anzac Day
Reply #18 - Apr 27^th, 2009 at 4:53pm

Already here but worth repeating...

excerpt from TWO GRAVES IN GALLIPOLI

E. M. Forster (1922)

Scene: the summit of Achi Baba, an exposed spot, looking out across the Dardanelles towards Asia and the East. In a crevice between the rocks lie two graves covered by a single heap of stones. No monument marks them, for they escaped notice during the official survey, and the heap of stones has blended into the desolate and austere outline of the hill. The peninsula is turning towards the sun, and as the rays strike Achi Baba the graves begin to speak.

...

FIRST GRAVE: It will make our heap of stones for ever England, apparently.

SECOND GRAVE: It can scarcely do that to my portion of it. I was a Turk.

FIRST GRAVE: What! A Turk! You a Turk? And I have lain beside you for seven years and never known!

SECOND GRAVE: How should you have known? What is there to know except that I am your brother?

FIRST GRAVE: I am yours...

SECOND GRAVE: All is dead except that. All graves are one. It is their unity that sanctifies them, and some day even the living will learn this.

FIRST GRAVE: Ah, but why can they not learn it while they are still alive?

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