25th April - Anzac Day - when we remember them

"At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."

These words are said every Anzac Day across Australia and New Zealand, and wherever Australians and New Zealanders gather for services on 25 April. 
(The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) )

The words come from the poem For the Fallen, written by the English poet and writer Robert Laurence Binyon in mid September 1914, a few weeks after the outbreak of the First World War. It was published in London in The Times on 21 September 1914 and a couple of months later in the "Winnowing Fan; Poems of the Great War" in 1914. 

Anzac Day - we will remember them

25 April is an important day on the Australian calendar. It is the day that Australians and New Zealanders across the world commemorate Anzac Day at dawn services, marches, vigils, commemorative services, by visiting grave sites and getting together with friends and family.  Not to glorify war but to remember those who served their country in wars or who lost their lives and gave the ultimate sacrifice.

The words below are from The Ode -   from the poem For the Fallen, by the English poet and writer Laurence Binyo. Please click here to learn more -  Traditions - the Ode

 "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." 

Every year we go to the Dawn Service at our town War Memorial, and each year I have noticed the numbers attending grow.  Those of us who were born in the 1950s were brought up with the stories of the World War Two years as our parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents had lived through that era.  We heard about life on the home front and about their family members who served through WW2. My husband's uncle died as a prisoner of war in Burma, and my father's uncle died in the first days of the Gallipoli campaign in WW1. After going to our Australian War Memorial in Canberra a few years ago, and putting a red poppy next to their names these two young men became more real to me, and every year at the Dawn Service I shed some tears.

  This morning's Anzac Day dawn service was no different. As we stood amongst the crowd in silence in the drizzling rain and watched the returned servicemen march down the street to the war memorial, listened to the speeches, songs, the single rifle shot, and the bugle playing the last post, my tears fell. This combined consciousness as we stood with bowed heads in silence as the rain fell was a powerful feeling.

Not only should we remember those that gave their lives, but also those who have returned home broken in body and spirit. Today there is a new generation of returned servicemen and women, battling their memories of what they have seen and experienced on modern day war fronts.

You can read more about this here - ABC Net- Young Diggers share their PTSD struggle
and The Bravery Trust

Today there is also a new generation of children who are learning about the Anzac tradition, through more recent conflicts like Vietnam, Afghanistan, the Middle East, and the ongoing war against terror. I think it is important that they learn about this history and the sacrifices that are made. Not to glorify it, but hopefully to learn about the futility and tragedies of war. Perhaps they will strive for a better way to solve international conflicts.

There are many books written about the war years. Recently I picked up two books about Anzac Day for children in our school library - 

Anzac Biscuits by Phil Cummings, with illustrations by Owen Swan, is about a little girl who makes Anzac Biscuits to send to her father on the war front. 

This is a touching story of a family torn apart by war but brought together through the powerful simplicity of Anzac biscuits as it delicately entwines the desolation of life on the frontline of war with the tenderness of life on the home front. 

And 
Reflection - Remembering Those Who Serve In War by Rebecka Sharpe Shelberg and illustrated by Robin Cowcher 

"Left! Left! Left! Right! Left! We make our way in the dark. A family journeys through the early morning darkness... A group of young men huddle in a cold muddy trench."

 This picture book is a great way to introduce children to the history of Australia and its role in various conflicts around the globe as readers connect to the story as the family attend a dawn service and Anzac Day march.

When we packed up my mother and father's house a couple of years ago, I found a tin box in my mother's bedside drawer containing letters from her brothers and a friend who served in WW2.  There are letters marked "In Active Service". Letters which have a sticker to say they have been opened by the Censor, and letters marked "Privileged" which were not opened by the sensor but the writer had to sign to say that the letter only contained private and family matters. In their letters home service men and women could not talk about where they were, where they were going, or what conflicts they had been involved in.

My mother's friend who was in the RAF based in England had handwriting which was very difficult to read, so most of it is illegible to me, but I did read at the beginning of one letter that he apologised for his hand writing and saying there was no typewriter he could use. I also noted that it took at least two months for letters to be sent from England to Australia. So a four month turn around from when the sender in Australia received a return letter.  In these days of instant communication can you imagine waiting for four months to receive a letter from your loved one? So much would have happened in that time. I know letters from home meant a lot to those serving overseas. These letters must have also meant a lot to my mother for her to have kept them all these years. 

On Sunday we went to an open day at the South West Rail and Heritage Centre Boyanup There were various people demonstrating traditional crafts such as blacksmithing, spinning, and book binding.  We saw a demonstration of Morse Code. It was fascinating to see one man transmitting messages on the Morse Code machine, and another man on the other side of the room typing the messages on a typewriter. 
This method of communication was very important throughout the two world wars.

 Morse code is a method for encoding text into a series of dashes and dots, that can be sent (transmitted) by means of sound, light or radio waves, and that can be decoded be a skilled listener without special equipment. The system is named after the American artist Samuel Finley Breese Morse who co-developed an electrical telegraph system at the beginning of 1836 . From: Cryptomuseum

Below you can see the Morse Code alphabet. If you look on the Cryptomuseum website, you can see how this alphabet was devised. (see second image below here). It really is amazing how people can learn and use this system at speed and very often under extreme circumstances. 
Can you work out the code for SOS ? 

Will you be attending an Anzac Day Service this year? Perhaps you would like to tell us about your Anzac Day in the comments.

For more information:
Australian Army - Anzac Day Tradition
Australian War Memorial 
Cryptomuseum - Morse Code
Reflection - Rebecka Sharpe Shelberg
Anzac Biscuits - Phil Cummings and Phil Cummings
 South West Rail and Heritage Centre, Boyanup
  
 Thank you so much for stopping by. I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week.

I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!

Mosaic Monday 
Life Thru the Lens 

Lifestyle Fifty Monday Linkup 
Our World Tuesday
Through My Lens 
Image-in-ing
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global
Worth Casing Wednesday
Travel Photo Thursday
The Weekly Postcard

You might also like: 

Anzac Day 2015 - 100 years 
Anzac Day goes beyond the landing in Gallipoli 
Making Anzac Biscuits 

 

25 April - Anzac Day - we will remember them - 2014

25th April - is Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand - and this Anzac day is the 99th anniversary of the landing in Gallipoli.

"ANZAC Day goes beyond the anniversary of the landing on Gallipoli in 1915. It is the day we remember all Australians and New Zealanders who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations. The spirit of ANZAC, with its human qualities of courage, mateship, and sacrifice, continues to have meaning and relevance for our sense of national identity".

 To read more please for to the Australian War Memorial web site - click here - www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/anzac/

This image is from the Shrine of Rememberance in Melbourne....
 

 All across Australia and New Zealand in cities and towns, overseas where servicemen are still serving, where Australians and New Zealanders gather, at memorials in France, and on the shores of Gallipoli  where thousands go every Anzac Day to honour and remember, even at the Australian base in Antarctica, there are Dawn Services, parades and ceremonies to remember those that gave the supreme sacrifice.

 To keep reading and see more pics, please click on "read more" .....

On Anzac Day we will remember them

25th April - is Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand.

"ANZAC Day goes beyond the anniversary of the landing on Gallipoli in 1915. It is the day we remember all Australians and New Zealanders who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations. The spirit of ANZAC, with its human qualities of courage, mateship, and sacrifice, continues to have meaning and relevance for our sense of national identity".

To read more - click here - www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/anzac/

In January we visited our national capital, Canberra. The images below are from the Australian War Memorial - it is also a museum which is an amazing place to visit - and I encourage all Australian's to visit at least once in their life time - and allow at least one whole day to see it. The museum takes you through all the various conflicts up to the present day that Australians have been involved in - and gives you an insight into what our "diggers" went through and the thousands and thousands of lives that have been lost.

On the wall of remembrance you can place a poppy next to the name of loved ones who lost their lives in war.

We found the name of my great-uncle Norman Albert Clayden who lost his life in Gallipoli on 2 May 1915 (aged 19), and
my husbands uncle, Richard Ramsden who died as a prisoner of war on 29 October 1943 in Burma (aged 23).

As they are both buried overseas, at Lone Pine in Gallipoli and at Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery in Myanmar (Burma), it was wonderful to be able to place a poppy next to their name at the Canberra War Memorial.

..........

Tomorrow morning we will go to the Dawn Service in Bunbury which is an event that happens on Anzac Day all around the country in cities and towns, overseas where servicemen are still serving, where Australians and New Zealanders gather, at memorials in France, and on the shores of Gallipoli  where thousands go every Anzac Day to honour and remember.

The statue below is a copy of one originally forming part of a memorial which was erected at Port Said, Egypt, and unveiled on 23 November 1932, to remember members of the Australian Light Horse, New Zealand Mounted Rifles, the Imperial Camel Corps, and the Australian Flying Corps, who lost their lives in Egypt, Palestine, and Syria 1916-1918.  The statue was irreparably damaged during the Suez crisis in 1956.  The remnants were brought to Australia and two bronze replicas were made, the first erected in Albany, Western Australia in 1964. The second is this one in Canberra.

The memorial in Albany has been part of my consciousness all my life - and I have always been in awe of the image that the statue portrays of the two servicemen and their horses. Albany was the place from where Australian troops left on their way to fight in World War 1. For many thousands it was the last time they were to be on Australian soil.

Also on display in Canberra was one of the bronze horse heads from the original memorial, and now forming a memorial  to "Animals in War". For those who have seen the wonderful movie "War Horse", it is heart warming that a memorial has been erected in their memory.

Update - ANZAC Day - 25 April 2012

Images from this morning's Dawn Service in Bunbury

 After visiting Canberra, and researching and learning more about Norman and Richard, I found the Dawn Service even more moving and poignant as I thought about these two young men and the circumstances under which they died so far from home and how it must have affected their mother's and families.

Following the Dawn Service in Bunbury we were blessed with this beautiful sunrise - it was a timely reminder of all that we have to be thankful and grateful for.....

My sincere thanks to Flickr contact Stewart Glasson who took the time to research and send me links from The War Graves Photographic Project - click on the link here if you want to do research of your own - War Graves Photographic Project
which has lead us to more information about Norman and Richard - including an actual photo of Richard's grave site, and information about the Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery in Myanmar and background information and history about the war years and the people who are buried there.
We sincerely thank you.