ANZAC Day

Members of the Australian Armed Forces

If there is one thing I have noticed about Australians it is that they are never quite certain what to do with holidays when they have them. Australia Day was celebrated more akin to President's Day than it was to the Fourth of July, and even Easter passed us by with only the slightest of notice given to it by the locals. However, I think I have discovered a holiday that the Aussies do seem to actually celebrate with all the pomp and ceremony an American may expect, ANZAC Day.

Taking place every April 25 (which this year just so happened to be the day after Easter), ANZAC Day commemorates the sacrifice of the ANZAC (Australian New Zealand Army Corp) forces at the battle of Gallipoli at the outset of World War I. The battle was planned as a bold strike to knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war, but the plan proved too bold. The battle quickly turned into a stalemate that dragged on for eight months (because in WWI eight months was what you called a single battle.) At the end of 1915, the Allied forces were finally evacuated after both sides had suffered heavy casualties and endured great hardships. The Allied casualties included 21,255 from the UK, an estimated 10,000 dead soldiers from France, 8,709 from Australia, 2,721 from New Zealand, and 1,358 from British India.

Overall in those days, Australia had a population of fewer than five million. Of that population 416, 809 Australians enlisted for service in the First World War, (representing 38.7% of the total male population aged between 18 to 44,) and over 60,000 were killed. That means that the Australian casualty rate (proportionate to total embarkations) was 65%. That was the highest of any country who participated in the Great War. There was not a town, city, or small Aussie farming station that did not lose someone to the trenches of Europe. This high casualty rate is due mostly to the fact that the British seemed to have a propensity for putting Aussie troops at the front lines of most major conflicts. It almost seemed like England had a strategy that called for their own troops to hide behind the Australians.

However, all mustard gas clouds have their silver-linings, for as the tragedies of World War I and specifically the hardships of the Gallipoli Campaign gave the Australian people a new sense of national identity. As their sons, brothers, and fathers fought desperately against the Kaiser and his troops, the people at home found a new pride in what it meant to be Australian. They no longer began to see themselves as British, or as subjects of the Empire. Instead they came to understand that they were in fact something different and apart from the Brits. This national identity only strengthen during World War II, specifically when Winston Churchill ordered the 6th and 7th Australian divisions to reinforce British troops in Burma, even though Australia itself was under direct threat from the Japanese Navy. The Aussies refused and instead diverted their forces back to Australia to help in the protection of their own country. It was also during World War II that Australia and America strengthened our ties as the Australian forces fought and died side by side with members of the United States Navy and Marine Corp.

War memorials were erected all over Australia at the end of World War I, and during World War II, ANZAC day became a day of remembrance for all Australian soldiers (diggers as they are commonly called) who fought and died for Australia. Much like Memorial Day in the States it is celebrated by memorials and even a parade. There is a dawn service at 6:30 AM which is widely attended and which commemorates the dawn invasion of Gallipoli. The day also represents something more as well. it represents the forging of a national identity for Australia, and maybe that is also why this day has become so important to so many.

The Melbourne War Memorial

Unfortunately, I was not able to get up myself for the dawn service, but I was able to attend the later 1 PM memorial service at the War Memorial in Melbourne. Hundreds of Australians and veterans were gathered to pay tribute to the men and women of Australia who had died and were still fighting. It was nice to see. As in my experience, I have never known the Aussies to be highly motivated for the celebrating of holidays, but this was different. I found myself being asked by even the most lethargic of Australians if I was going to go to the war memorial and there was a feel about the day that told me it was more than just a day off of work. ANZAC day seems to be one of the most important holidays in the Australian calendar, even overshadowing the previous day's holiday of Easter.

The service itself was what you might expect. There were speeches by veterans and politicians alike. I thoroughly enjoyed the pomp and circumstance of the military honor guards and the troops ceremonially guarding the war memorial. I was even treated to a rendition of not only the Australian National Anthem, but the New Zealand National Anthem (as the NZ in ANZAC is for New Zealand.) I left the ceremony with a sense of pride and understanding of our Australian cousins and how lucky we are to have had them as allies, not only during the Great War but side-by-side with our fighting men and women today in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lastly, I of course thought of my own friends who were serving not just America but all the people of the free world by their service in the US Armed Forces. There is one in particular who I was thinking of on that day and I also found myself very thankful for his safe return from Afghanistan. He knows who is, and he knows how glad all his friends are that he is back home. All in all, it was another memorable day in Australia.