[bigbrowndog]

At 11.00 am today Australia paused to remember those who have made the supreme sacrifice in all wars. I wonder what they would think of us as we are today?
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Remembrance Day
The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month: Remembrance
Roll of Honour with poppies

Roll of Honour with poppies,
Australian War Memorial
Image courtesy of the Department of Veterans' Affairs

The first 'day of Remembrance' was observed in 1919 throughout the Commonwealth. Originally called Armistice Day, it commemorated the end of hostilities (the signing of the armistice) which occurred on 11 November 1918. It came to symbolise the end of the war and provide an opportunity to remember those who died.

After the end of World War II in 1945, the Australian and British governments changed the name to Remembrance Day. Armistice Day was no longer considered to be an appropriate title for a day which would now commemorate all war dead.

In October 1997, then Governor-General of Australia, Sir William Deane, issued a proclamation declaring:

11 November as Remembrance Day and urging Australians to observe one minute's silence at 11.00 am on Remembrance Day each year to remember the sacrifice of those who died or otherwise suffered in Australia's cause in wars and war-like conflicts.

The end of the Great War 1918

In Victoria Street a group of Australian 'boys' accompanied by a band and their girls decorated in red, white and blue, were swinging down towards Whitehall to the huge delight of all spectators... In Whitehall we got blocked, but what did it matter? We danced on the buses, we danced on the lorries, we danced on the pavement, we shouted, we sang... the office boys and girls at the War Office yelled to their companions across the way; we cheered and cheered again and again, while the Church bells rang out a peal of jubilation...
Sir Evelyn Wrench, 'Struggle', 1914-1918 in They Saw it Happen 1897-1940, compiled by Asa Briggs.

It's no wonder Australian soldiers were dancing in the streets of London: 11 November 1918 marked the end of the bloodiest war the world had seen.

Although Australia had become a nation in 1901, at the outbreak of war in 1914 its loyalties still lay with Britain. The Australian government had committed itself to supporting the British war effort and Australian men volunteered to fight and die on the battlefields of Europe, Turkey and the Middle East.

Of the Australian population of 5 million, 300,000 young men went to the Great War. Of those, 60,000 died and 156,000 were wounded or taken prisoner.
Australia's involvement in World War 1
Australia's Anzacs

Australian troops earned a reputation for their gallantry and courage under dreadful conditions, and they were often used by the British command as the first wave of an assault, leading to heavy casualties. Nearly 8000 Australian men died in the Dardanelles campaign; 800 at Lone Pine - the most famous of the Gallipoli battlegrounds.

The experience was no better for the Australians on the Western Front. The Front ran for more than 750 kilometres, from the English Channel to the French-Swiss border, and was marked by irregular rows of trenches. The names of the places and battles fought there are part of the collective Australian memory - the Somme, Pozieres, Ypres, Villers-Bretonneux, Bullecourt, Amiens, Passchendaele, the Hindenburg Line - 10,000 Australians dying at Bullecourt, nearly 23,000 dead on the Somme.
The Somme: a 'ghastly giant mincing machine'

The official war historian C.E.W. Bean wrote of the Australian engagement at the Somme, that the men 'are simply turned in there as into some ghastly giant mincing machine'.

After the fighting, British poet John Masefield walked the battlefield:

There was a cat eating a man's brain...they were shovelling parts of men into blankets.
PhD thesis, Security: an Australian genealogy, by Anthony Burke

Diggers: brave volunteers all

Unlike many of its Allies, Australia did not conscript its soldiers to fight in the Great War - all Australian diggers were volunteers. But conscription was an issue in the Australian political arena with Prime Minister William (Billy) Hughes sending Australian voters to two bitterly fought referendums.

Although the 'no' vote to conscription was successful on both occasions, the 'no' wins were narrow ones. The 1916 referendum recorded a 64,549 majority for 'no' and the December 1917 referendum recorded a win for the 'no' case of 149,795.
Said official historian C.E.W. Bean of the Australian diggers:

Yet at heart even the oldest Australian soldier was incorrigibly civilian. However thoroughly he accepted the rigid army methods as conditions temporarily necessary, he never became reconciled to continuous obedience to orders, existence by rule, and lack of privacy. His individualism had been so strongly implanted as to stand out after years of subordination. Even on the Western Front he had exercised his vote in the Australian elections and in the referendums as to conscription, and it was largely through his own act in these ballots that the Australian people had rejected conscription and that, to the end, the A.I.F. consisted entirely of volunteers. He was subject to no death penalty for disobedience or failure to face the enemy.
'The Australian Imperial Force in France During the Allied Offensive, 1918' reprinted in The Australian: Yarns, Ballads, Legends, Traditions of the Australian People, edited by Bill Wannan, Australasian Book Society, Melbourne, 1958, pp. 31-32.

Stories from the Great War

The Great War continues to define the Australian tradition of mateship - Gallipoli, Simpson and his donkey, the charge of the Lighthorse at Beersheba - all of these reinforce the narrative of mateship, endurance and courage which dominates the way non-indigenous Australians explain their culture.
Lest we forget
Search for more information about:

* Remembrance Day
* The First World War

Related Culture and Recreation Portal stories:

* ANZAC Day
* The Last Post

Ceremonies of remembrance

* Remembrance Day - national ceremony
* Remembrance Day - State ceremonies

Australian WW1 resources
Traditions of remembrance

* Leaders of Anzac
* How the tradition of poppies for remembrance began
* Returned Services League

Personal stories of Australian diggers

* Albert Edward Vinall
* Albert Jacka - V.C., M.C. and Bar
* Brigadier Sir Murray W.J. Bourchier
* Private H. E. Broun (No. 3769, 19th Battalion, AIF)
* Private Russell George Bosisto
* Sir John Monash
* Trooper Peter Kerr
* The assassin of Gallipoli, Trooper William "Billy" Sing
* Thomas William Glasgow

Australian WW1 references

* 1918 Australians in France - online exhibition from the Australian War Memorial
* Australian War Memorial: World War 1
* Australian Victoria Cross recipients
* First World War Official Histories: Charles Bean
* Charles Bean
* Department of Veterans' Affairs
* First AIF Order of Battle 1914-1918
* Gallipoli - movie directed by Peter Weir
* Office of Australian War Graves
* Request the military dossier of a family member who participated in WW1
* Simpson and his donkey
* The Australian Light Horse Association
* War Records in Family History Research

General WW1 resources

* The Great War
* The Great War Society
* The War Times Journal: the Great War
* The Western Front: a summary and maps

^ Go to Top

[rgsiii]

I went to Gelibolu/Gallipoli once and it was quite moving. I was amazed at the steepness of the ascent in many places and the narrowness of the actual beaches. Some very brave men fought and died for a few metres of land.

In Flanders Fields by John McCrae:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

[bigbrowndog]

Cheers and thank. Both my grandfathers were Lighthorse Men. My Father's Dad was at Gallipoli then was shipped to Egypt then onto France.He often spoke well of the Turkish and German troops but held resentment towards the English Officers who wasted ANZAC Troops in the early days of the war before they were under Australian Officers.

[Mr. Toad]

Originally Posted by rgsiii

I went to Gelibolu/Gallipoli once and it was quite moving.

x2. From a strategic standpoint, the fight seemed to be an exercise in meaningless stubbornness without a serious goal or clear plan for victory (although I have read that if the battle had been pressed harder in its first day or days, it would have been a crushing defeat to the Turks, who also fought admirably). When you are there and appreciate the loss of so many young lives on both sides, it makes you want to not speak or be spoken to for a few very respectful hours. And I'm a Yank!

Originally Posted by rgsiii

In Flanders Fields by John McCrae:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

To me, this poem is the opposite of a prayer for peace.

[rgsiii]

My maternal grandfather was a sargeant in the US artillery during The Great War. He participated in the Meuse-Argonne offensive.

The only WWI artifact I have from him is this brush. He apparently dealt the horse teams--coming from rural west Tennessee this would have been natural for him.

[rgsiii]

Originally Posted by Mr. Toad

To me, this poem is the opposite of a prayer for peace.

I don't think it is either--this would be more in that line.

Wilfred Owen
Dulce Et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.

GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

[Mr. Toad]

Originally Posted by rgsiii

I don't think it is either--this would be more in that line.

Wilfred Owen
Dulce Et Decorum Est

Indeed.

[Gold Boy]

Lest we forget...

We should never forget.

[rgsiii]

Originally Posted by Mr. Toad

..... When you are there and appreciate the loss of so many young lives on both sides, it makes you want to not speak or be spoken to for a few very respectful hours. And I'm a Yank!

Since I am in the process of moving, my pics are boxed and I can't find my picture of this inscription. It is very touching and you see large numbers tourist from Yeni Zelanda and Avustralya on the battlefield.

"Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives…you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace.

There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side in this country of ours…

You the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now living in our bosom and are at peace.

After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well".

Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk)

[roscoFJ73]

Originally Posted by Mr. Toad

x2. From a strategic standpoint, the fight seemed to be an exercise in meaningless stubbornness without a serious goal or clear plan for victory (although I have read that if the battle had been pressed harder in its first day or days, it would have been a crushing defeat to the Turks, who also fought admirably). When you are there and appreciate the loss of so many young lives on both sides, it makes you want to not speak or be spoken to for a few very respectful hours. And I'm a Yank!



.

Its always been my personal view also.
I cant help but get the feeling the powers to be have always used the solemness of the occasion to draw attention away from the serious tactical blunders they made.

[robchad]

Originally Posted by Gold Boy

Lest we forget...

We should never forget.

x2 could not agree more

[-Macca-]

Originally Posted by Gold Boy

Lest we forget...

We should never forget.

X 3.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

[Lupdog]

I'm in awe of those who fought and gave their lives for what we take for granted today.

Lest we Forget.

[bigbrowndog]

http://user.online.be/~snelders/thennow/thenanzc.htm
http://www.photonet.com.au/Gallipoli/
http://www.anzacsite.gov.au/5environment/index.html
http://users.netconnect.com.au/~ianmac/gallipol.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atat%C3%BCrk
Australia and Turkey both grew from the ashes of this turmoil, Turkey to become a new nation and for Australia to form its own national identity. I remember My Pop describing the Turkish soldiers as " Pretty decent chaps who smoked terrible cigarettes and who were as worried about being shot by their own officers as being shot by us."