Leaders have gathered for the start of two days of ceremonies
Posted on 04/24/2005 7:19:58 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Leaders from Turkey, New Zealand, Australia and Britain have attended a ceremony to mark the 90th anniversary of the bloody WWI Gallipoli landings.
A minute's silence was observed at the Turkish memorial on the Gallipoli peninsula on Sunday - the beginning of two days of events.
Turkish jets performed an acrobatic display while battleships and frigate sailed past the Dardanelles.
More than 100,000 died in the failed allied bid to win a foothold in Turkey.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country's "excellent relations" with Australia and New Zealand "provides a fresh breeze to the souls of all those who fell martyr on this land and entrusts meaning to the lives lost there."
Sunday's services honoured British, French and Turkish troops who died.
Thousands of Australians and New Zealanders will attend services on Monday, the anniversary of the attack.
More than 11,000 Australian and New Zealand troops - known as the Anzacs - were killed in the campaign by the Allies to open a supply line to Russia.
Many historians trace the rise of Australian nationalism to the Gallipoli landings.
"What happened here became deeply etched in the collective memory of nations whose people fought here and even played a part in shaping the peoples and nations we have become," New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said.
Monday marks 90 years from the day the troops stormed ashore at Suvla on the west coast of Turkey's Gallipoli peninsula.
Stalemate
But the Allies - intending to occupy Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman empire - failed to throw back the Turkish defenders and a long and bloody stalemate ensued.
The Prince of Wales is in Turkey to take part in Monday's ceremonies.
Young Australians and New Zealanders are already beginning to fill the hotels, bars and hostels of the Gallipoli peninsula.
Over the years Gallipoli has come to be thought of by some as an Australian and New Zealand operation, says the BBC's Turkey correspondent Jonny Dymond.
But nearly 9,000 French, 21,000 British and Irish and 86,000 Turkish troops died attacking and defending the thin strip of land.
No campaign veterans are still alive, but many relatives still visit Anzac cove, named after the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who died there.
The anniversary will also be marked in Australia where every state capital is holding a parade and memorial service.
The dawn service from Gallipoli will be televised nationwide.
"Historians still struggle to understand why what was really a very costly stalemate [...] became a national legend almost immediately," Margaret Anderson, director of the History Trust of South Australia told the Australian Associated Press.
"Whatever the reasons, from the beginning, Gallipoli was hailed as Australia's national baptism of fire."
Thanks! BUMP
Ninety years on, Gallipoli campaign still grips nation's imagination
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1390180/posts
some good links to other ANZie stories
walls of lead .. filled the air
I love FR. In real life (mine anyway) nobody ever brings up Gallipoli.
Agreed, FR is a valuable archiving tool.
Thank God "they"'re on our side. ;-)
A great tool to find out about all kinds of stuff.
He did not understand it at Gallipoli and he did not understand it during World War Two when referring to Italy as the "soft underbelly of the Axis".
I doubt that.
A sparrow sits atop the hand of a statue of a Turkish soldier, symbolizing Turkey's victory over invading foreign forces during World War I. Ceremonies to mark the 90th anniverary of the battle of Gallipoli will be attended on Monday by representatives of Australia, Britain and New Zealand ahead of the 90th anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign, in which 11,000 Anzac soldiers died(AFP/Tarik Tinazay)
I've always thought he was speaking in the psychological sense. Italian morale being what it was.
If you follow the link, there are links to two MP3s, one of Joan Baez performing it, and one performance by June Tabor. The one by June Tabor is the one that I first heard.
ACCCKKK! THHHPTT! Ufortunately the links don't work. Anyone interested in hearing it, PM me.
Here's the link: "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda"
Here's the content:
Written by : Eric Bogle
From the album : Scraps of paper
Label : Flying Fish Records FF70311 (1983)
Copyright Larrikin Music, Ltd. (Australia)
|
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A "Matilda" was the name given to the pack of an australian bushman or swagman. To "Waltz Matilda" was to carry your pack around the bush. 50.000 soldiers of Australia died at Gallipoli in a stupid and pointless campaign, which was a lot for a small country like Australia. About the only thing the achieved was a belated recognition that Australia was "growing up", she was becoming a nation in her own right....
Every April, a march is held on ANZAC DAY to commemorate the Gallipoli landings during the Great War, and the dead of the other wars. Australia takes it so seriously that the pubs are closed, the only day in the year this happens. Like all memorial parades it is both moving and yet somewhat pointless and pathetic. This song was written after observing one such parade.
"This... in Australia, every year, we have... we celebrate... we remember "ANZAC DAY" -- an' it's a very important day in Australia... the whole day is given over to remembering the soldiers who died in... all the wars and... the whole day -- in Britain, in England, they have two minutes of silence once a year.
It's important in Australia, because at Gallipoli, in 1915, for the first time, the Australian soldiers had Australian officers -- before then, the Australian army had British officers.
And... by this time, it was an all-Australian army, and they did quite well... and Australia was very proud of 'em. And they engendered a great sense of national pride, back home in Australia.
The saying arose that Australia became a nation founded on the blood of our soldiers who died at Gallipoli. So... it was very important to Australia.
We have... in Britain just now.. and THEN it was "our brave boys at Gallipoli"... in Britain, just before John [Munro] and I left three days ago, it was "our brave boys in the Falkland Islands." The jingoism always remains the same... it's just the wars that are different... but they seem stupid, hackneyed phrases... which demeans the soldiers...
Right... I'll get off my pulpit... stop preaching and sing a song... I get quite heated about this subject..."
Now when I was a young man I carried me pack
And I lived the free life of the rover.
From the Murray's green basin to the dusty outback,
Well, I waltzed my Matilda all over.
Then in 1915, my country said, "Son,
It's time you stop ramblin', there's work to be done."
So they gave me a tin hat, and they gave me a gun,
And they marched me away to the war.
And the band played "Waltzing Matilda,"
As the ship pulled away from the quay,
And amidst all the cheers, the flag waving, and tears,
We sailed off for Gallipoli.
And how well I remember that terrible day,
How our blood stained the sand and the water;
And of how in that hell that they call Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter.
Johnny Turk, he was waitin', he primed himself well;
He showered us with bullets, and he rained us with shell --
And in five minutes flat, he'd blown us all to hell,
Nearly blew us right back to Australia.
But the band played "Waltzing Matilda,"
When we stopped to bury our slain,
Well, we buried ours, and the Turks buried theirs,
Then we started all over again.
And those that were left, well, we tried to survive
In that mad world of blood, death and fire.
And for ten weary weeks I kept myself alive
Though around me the corpses piled higher.
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over head,
And when I woke up in me hospital bed
And saw what it had done, well, I wished I was dead --
Never knew there was worse things than dying.
For I'll go no more "Waltzing Matilda,"
All around the green bush far and free --
To hump tents and pegs, a man needs both legs,
No more "Waltzing Matilda" for me.
So they gathered the crippled, the wounded, the maimed,
And they shipped us back home to Australia.
The armless, the legless, the blind, the insane,
Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla.
And as our ship sailed into Circular Quay,
I looked at the place where me legs used to be,
And thanked Christ there was nobody waiting for me,
To grieve, to mourn and to pity.
But the band played "Waltzing Matilda,"
As they carried us down the gangway,
But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared,
Then they turned all their faces away.
And so now every April, I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me.
And I see my old comrades, how proudly they march,
Reviving old dreams of past glory,
And the old men march slowly, all bones stiff and sore,
They're tired old heroes from a forgotten war
And the young people ask "What are they marching for?"
And I ask meself the same question.
But the band plays "Waltzing Matilda,"
And the old men still answer the call,
But as year follows year, more old men disappear
Someday, no one will march there at all.
Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda.
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
And their ghosts may be heard as they march by the billabong,
Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda with me?
I hate making relative comparisons when talking about men's lives, but we've lost ~1500 in the War on Terror, what some consider a W.W.3 of sorts, and a cause more noble and urgent than the petty quarrels of Europe last century.
That doesn't make our losses any better, but it helps make Gallipoli appear as bad as it really was. Damned awful.
The Mel Gibson film, "Gallipoli", also starring a young Aussie actor named Mark Lee, is a most excellent film. It's a modern classic, so it should be available in some video stores.
The Mel Gibson movie was excellent but I also recommend that you read Alan Moorehead's "Gallipoli". It's a very good narrative of the events of the campaign.
There is a whole lot of other stuff going on as we type to divert us from Gallipoli; eh what?
A battleship in the Dardanelles?
"A battleship in the Dardanelles?"
That's what I thought, too, but check this out:
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWgallipoli.htm
18 Battleships entered the straits.
"A battleship in the Dardanelles?"
That's what I thought, too, but check this out:
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWgallipoli.htm
18 Battleships entered the straits.
WW I battleships were much smaller than the WW II variety. The only WW I battleship still afloat is the Texas. It has a displacement of about 27,000 tons (or a little less than twice that of a DD (X) destroyer (It also has a draft of less than 30 feet and a length of less than 600 feet). The Iowa class is almost twice that at 45,000 tons, or the size of the French nuclear powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. The Iowa has a draft of almost 38 feet and a length of almost 900 feet.
Oops, I need to re-read the article!
But you know how the media is. Any ship with guns is a "battleship." Just like any small military jet plane is a "fighter", and any armored vehicle is a "tank."
Thanks for the info!
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