ANZAC Day

Today, 25 April, marks ANZAC day, a commemoration of all Australians and New Zealanders who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations around the world.

Originally, it marked the ANZAC contributions to the first major campaign they fought in: Gallipoli. The ANZAC force landed at Gallipoli on 25 April, meeting fierce resistance from the Ottoman Army.

Since the original commemoration events held in Queensland in 1916, ANZAC day has grown to commemorate all Australian and New Zealand Veterans of foreign wars.

What had been planned as a bold strike to knock the Ottomans out of the war quickly became a stalemate, and the campaign dragged on for eight months. At the end of 1915, the Allied forces were evacuated after both sides had suffered heavy casualties and endured great hardships. The Allied deaths totalled over 56,000, including 8,709 from Australia and 2,721 from New Zealand. This year marks the 110th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli.

In Australia, there is a dawn remembrance service held every 25 April. A dawn service was held on the Western Front by an Australian battalion on the first anniversary of the Gallipoli landing on 25 April 1916, and historians agree that in Australia dawn services spontaneously popped up around the country to commemorate the fallen at Gallipoli in the years after this. The timing of the dawn service is based on the time that the ANZAC forces started the landing on the Gallipoli peninsula.

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.