ANZAC Day Photo Gallery (Lest We Forget)

Various | 25th April 2008

[naturalman1975]

I've just returned from my local March and service and am watching the main Melbourne March on television. I thought some people here might appreciate seeing these images.

[naturalman1975]

Protected ... members of the Australian National University (ANU) Battalion form a guard around a roadside war memorial during a dawn service ceremony in the town of Braidwood, about 90 km east of Canberra.

Across the generations ... the Anzac Day dawn service at Brisbane's Shrine of Remembrance in Anzac Square.

Stirling support ... . Jack Rogers, 2, made his way from his home in the suburb of Stirling to attend Adelaide's dawn service.

Pilgrims ... Australian visitors gather at Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli peninsula, northwestern Turkey, as they wait for the dawn service

Family unit ... Di Hodkin, left, poses with her father Richard Henwood Marshall, a veteran of the battle of El Alamein and the WWII Syrian campaign, and her daughter Lorinda in Sydney.

Paying her respects ... Queensland Governor Quentin Bryce said we find new meanings in the achievements of the brave young who fought on the first Anzac Day.

Solemn ... Helen Heathcote takes in the Anzac Day commemorations in Adelaide.

Flag of our fathers ... a boy wears his family medals as he watches the Sydney Dawn service.

Armed services ... the three branch representatives salute the Cenotaph in Sydney after laying wreaths to remember RAN, RAAF and RAN personnel.

Proud to serve ... Wal Scott-Smith, a World War Two veteran, now in his late 80s stands in front of the Cenotaph in Sydney's Martin Place.

Brave few ... Neville McCowen, now 90, travels each year to the Sydney dawn service from Tamworth.

Early start ... Vietnam veteran John Everingham has a beer at 7am at The Grand Hotel in Sydney after the dawn service in Martin Place.

Honour ... Major General Mark Kelly, AO, Land Commander Australia, delivers the Anzac address in Sydney.

Half mast ... the Australia flag in Sydney's Darling Harbour flies at half mast as a mark of respect to the nation's fallen.

Sunrise ... rain threatened in Adelaide but the skies cleared to the relief of the thousands attending the city's dawn service

Standing tall ... Prime Minister Kevin Rudd stands to attention as he is greeted by the Honour Guard at Sydney's Cenotaph.

Awaiting orders ... a veteran waits for the Sydney dawn service to commence in Martin Place.

Youth ... "Anzac Day lets us celebrate the Australian tradition of mateship," Hobart schoolboy Stewart Jackson, 9, said today.

Music ... the members of the military band stand ready in Sydney's Martin place.

Noel Hall, aged 94, in Melbourne remembers the bravery of his fallen comrades on the Kokoda Track.

[neodad]

Thank you for posting this. My grandfather flew B-17s down under during the war. Good to see the pictures.

[txroadkill]

When I was a young man I carried my pack
And I lived the free life of a rover
From the Murrays green basin to the dusty outback
I waltzed my Matilda all over
Then in nineteen fifteen my country said Son
It's time to stop rambling 'cause there's work to be done
So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun
And they sent me away to the war
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As we sailed away from the quay
And amidst all the tears and the shouts and the cheers
We sailed off to Gallipoli

How well I remember that terrible day
How the blood stained the sand and the water
And how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter
Johnny Turk he was ready, he primed himself well
He chased us with bullets, he rained us with shells
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
As we stopped to bury our slain
We buried ours and the Turks buried theirs
Then we started all over again

Now those that were left, well we tried to survive
In a mad world of blood, death and fire
And for ten weary weeks I kept myself alive
But around me the corpses piled higher
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over tit
And when I woke up in my hospital bed
And saw what it had done, I wished I was dead
Never knew there were worse things than dying
For no more I'll go waltzing Matilda
All around the green bush far and near
For to hump tent and pegs, a man needs two legs
No more waltzing Matilda for me

So they collected the cripples, 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 pulled into Circular Quay
I looked at the place where my legs used to be
And thank Christ there was nobody waiting for me
To grieve and to mourn and to pity
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As they carried us down the gangway
But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared
Then turned all their faces away

And now every April I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me
And I watch my old comrades, how proudly they march
Reliving old dreams of past glory
And the old men march slowly, all bent, stiff and sore
The forgotten heroes from a forgotten war
And the young people ask, "What are they marching for?"
And I ask myself the same question
And the band plays Waltzing Matilda
And the old men answer to the call
But year after year their numbers get fewer
Some day 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 you pass the Billabong
Who'll come-a-waltzing Matilda with me?

[mylife]

Good onya mate! http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2006643/posts?page=1

[Per-Ling]

I spent about a month on the HMAS ANZAC last year, while she was in the PG. Hell of a ship, hell of a crew. Couldn’t quite get into their fascination with australian rules football, although I gave it a good college try.

[Eagles6]

Good post. Thanks.

[Dundee]

I didn’t march this year as I’ve got an awful flu that I didn’t want to give to any of the old diggers.

*-*-*-*-*

This prayer was written by the late Petty Officer H B Shipstone of HMAS SYDNEY - 1941. It is read each year at the HMAS SYDNEY Memorial Service in Carnarvon at the Quobba Memorial, overlooking the ocean where SYDNEY went down.

Let me live, O Mighty Master,
Through this war. Yet if I’m slain
Tasting triumph and disaster
Joy, and not too much of pain
Let me roam the raging waters
For a while to love and laugh
And when I’m beneath the ocean,
Let this be my Epitaph -

There sleeps one who took his chances
In that war-crazed tragic hell
Battled luck and circumstances,
Loved and laughed, but fought and fell
Victor, then he did no crowing
Wounded, then he did not wail;
Cursed and swore, but kept going,
Never let his courage fail.

He was fallible and human,
Therefore loved and understood
By his fellow men and women
Whether good, or not so good.
Kept his spirit undiminished
Had a laugh for every friend,
Fought for freedom till it finished,
Lived, loved, laughed, until the end.

[Dundee]

I can’t remember if ANZAC did beer issues up there (some ships did, others didn’t).

From the Battle of Hamel on July 4, 1918 to Iraq and Afghanistan today. We stand shoulder to shoulder with America.

[penelopesire]

Thanks for posting the pics! Thanks to your country for being a loyal friend to America and a beacon for Freedom throughout the world!!

[Per-Ling]

Why yes, yes she did! As a US sailor, it was quite strange having a beer after work on a vessel, but can’t say it took me long to get used to...

[bboop]

I second that. Three cheers for Australia!

[truthguy]

The Australians have always been my favorites. They are perhaps our best ally. The get it. They also know how to have fun!

[Dundee]

As an officer, I never got a beer issue at sea (by tradition, only sailors get beer issues at sea, officers aren’t allowed to).

We do make up for it once we get alongside though.

[Levante]

I always think “how cool” that the slouch hat is part of the Australian Army dress uniform!

[XR7]

BTTT

[norton]

From '68/69,
Diggers,
Glad you were there.

[Kathy in Alaska]

The Band Played Waltzing Matilda

[Kathy in Alaska]

ANZAC DAY, April 25th

Last Post

Come home! Come home! The last post is sounding
for you to hear. All good soldiers know very well there
is nothing to fear while they do what is right, and forget
all the worries they have met in their duties through the
year. A soldier cannot always be great, but he can be a
gentleman and he can be a right good pal to his comrades in
his squad. So all you soldiers listen to this - Deal fair by all
and you'll never be amiss.

[billphx]

Thanks and God bless!