ANZAC Day:

109 years on.

Our "little" local dawn and general services keep getting bigger every year.

The Dawn Service park was overflowing. Light mist, just for "effect" (Thank-you Bureau of Meteorology). Good speeches, excellent Army Band. Piper for the Lament and really good bugle operator. Then, the whole shebang moved a couple of blocks to a MUCH bigger park to receive the official march for the "suburb / district". Thousands rolled up. Basically a slightly expanded version of the Dawn Service, with better visibility. (And a good, combined-schools choir).

One detail: Lots of people wearing a sprig of Rosemary, which grows wild in the Gallipoli region, and many also wore a red (paper) poppy, more usually associated with Remembrance / Armistice Day. But, they were THERE for the services.

Did a battlefield tour last year and then stayed in Istanbul for 5 days. Exceeded all my expectations and I highly recommend you go if you can.

Did you enjoy a Gunfire Breakfast today Bruce?

We salute them...

My dad's replica medals mounted, I received an additional 2 last year that he was eligible for with a SW Pacific clasp so pretty stoked.
My brothers 2 are coming which has taken 18 months to get this far plus one other for him but that is not issued by the ADF but the Govt so no time limit, but I have a time limit which worries me a bit. (After my H/A 13th Sept 2020 as once you've had 1!)

"Gunfire Breakfast"?

Not this time.

Did it a few times "in service", but not lately.

Bacon, eggs and RUM: The REAL "breakfast of Champions"?

Gunfire breakfast , more rum then the march , the pub for lunch and two up after . This was the 3rd year in a row i marched for dad and myself as most times i have been in USA.maybe gallipoli next year for the 110 yr anniversary .

The movie and the bravery notwithstanding, I'd suggest it was the achievements of the ANZAC on the Western Front that should be remembered most of all.

Gallipoli was opposed by too many powerful forces in the U.K. to succeed and I've no doubt was betrayed before it even began. It's not inconceivable in fact that the likely outcome was well known to those in authority and winked at with the operation simply used for mostly political purposes. Recall that the Ottoman Turks had a long and cosy relationship with certain elements in the UK which not even the atrocities of the 1912 Balkan War or WWI seem to have affected, much less subsequent events.

Read up about Ataturk and his colleagues if you need more clues. ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Surpmil

Gallipoli was opposed by too many powerful forces in the U.K. to succeed and I've no doubt was betrayed before it even began. It's not inconceivable in fact that the likely outcome was well known to those in authority and winked at with operation simply used for mostly political purposes. Recall that the Ottoman Turks had a long and cosy relationship with certain elements in the UK which not even the atrocities of the 1912 Balkan War or WWi seem to have affected, much less subsequent events.

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It could have worked but the reality was that it didn't.

I believe that an uncle of my mother was one of the British soldiers who served at Gallipoli and survived only to be seriously wounded on the Western front a few months before the end of WW1. I don't believe that he ever spoke of Gallipoli and it only came to light when I got hold of his service record. Although it doesn't state Gallipoli by name it does state Mediterranean and the dates given in the record coincide with the Gallipoli campaign.

M.E.F. "Mediterranean Expeditionary Force" is a term I saw on a trunk full of letters once.