Anzac Day marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. The acronym ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, whose soldiers were known as Anzacs. Anzac Day remains one of the most important national occasions of both Australia and New Zealand. This is a rare instance of two sovereign countries not only sharing the same remembrance day, but making reference to both countries in its name.

Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, and is commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I. It now more broadly commemorates all those who died and served in military operations for their countries. Anzac Day is also observed in the Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa and Tonga.

In 1915 Australia along with its Allies (Britain, France and Russia, Italy, and Japan) was at war, fighting the Central Powers (Germany, the Ottoman Empire aka Turkey, and Austria-Hungary). When most people think of WW1 they think of fighting Germans in the trenches across France however Russia was also under attack from the Turks in the Caucasus. To aid their plight the Allies hatched a plan to distract Turkey by attacking the Gallipoli Peninsula, on Turkey's Aegean coast. Once the peninsula was taken the Allies would be able to take control of a strait of water called the Dardanelles and lay siege to Turkey's main city, Istanbul (then Constantinople).

Australian and New Zealand troops then training in Egypt were tasked to participate in the attack. On April 25, 1915, the Australian troops landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula on what they had been told was a nice friendly flat beach. Instead, they found that they had been landed at the incorrect position and faced steep cliffs and constant barrages of enemy fire and shelling. Around 20,000 soldiers landed on the beach over the next two days to face a well organised, well armed, large Turkish force determined to defend their country - and led by Mustafa Kemal, who later became Ataturk, the leader of modern Turkey. It is said that Ataturk just happened to be holidaying in the area and took control of the Turkish forces right at the last moment. Thousands of Australian men died in the hours that followed the landing at the beach that would eventually come to be known as Anzac Cove.

What followed was basically a disaster. The Aussies hung in for several months however could make little headway against the Turks. They had nowhere to go and no real hope however they dug in tenaciously and absorbed whatever the Turks threw at them. Many thousands of Aussie and Kiwi soldiers died, not only from the battle but from disease brought about by the poor living conditions. However from this disaster was born the image of the Aussie Digger, a brave and laconic battler, betrayed by the mother country but facing impossible odds with humour, courage and mateship.

Eventually the ANZAC troops were withdrawn from the peninsula having accomplished nothing. Those that survived went on to fight on other fronts but it was at Gallipoli that the legend was born.








Tags: anzac day