Anzac: the language of a legacy

[kiwi]

 Wednesday, 23 April 2008
Anzac: the language of a legacy

As New Zealand prepares to honour its war dead on the country's 93rd Anzac Day on Friday, Ian Stuart of NZPA looks at some of the names, terms and traditions which have grown from the day of remembrance.

Twenty-one-year-old soldier Keith Little had no idea of the tradition he was about to put a name to when he ordered a rubber stamp in December, 1914.

Five months before the disastrous Gallipoli campaign moulded two nations, the Wellington-born journalist-turned soldier was a clerk at the headquarters of Lieutenant General William Birdwood, the British commanding officer of the joint Australian and New Zealand force that had assembled in Egypt.

The Australasian Corps had been suggested as the name for the Australian and New Zealand soldiers preparing for Gallipoli but was rejected.

Little was believed to have come up with the name ANZAC - the Australian New Zealand Army Corps.

The name became part of military history and has become the heart of much of what the two countries stand for and what their soldiers, survivors and their families and friends went through at Gallipoli and military conflicts that followed.

In August, 1916, only a few months after Gallipoli was evacuated, a law was passed prohibiting the use of the word `Anzac' in business or trade promotions, further enshrining the Anzac legend and the sanctity of the commemoration. April 25 became a public holiday in 1921.

Some memorable terms, traditions and names include:

ANZAC DAY: Now a national holiday and a national day of remembrance for all casualties of war.

APRIL 25, 1915: The day New Zealand and Australian troops landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula and died in their thousands.

ANZAC COVE: The beach where troops landed and hugged the sand hills as Turkish defenders put up a murderous fire to drive them back.

CHUNUK BAIR: The top of the ridge which was taken briefly by soldiers of the Wellington Battalion led by Lieutenant Colonel William George Malone before the Turkish soldiers regrouped, counter-attacked and threw the New Zealanders off. The New Zealanders got further than any other Allied troops and were the only ones to see the Narrows. Malone was killed during the Chunuk Bair assault on August 8.

CASUALTIES: 2721 New Zealand soldiers died. 8709 Australians, 33,072 British, 10,000 French and 87,000 Turkish soldiers also died.

LAURENCE BINYON: The man who wrote For the Fallen first published in The Times newspaper in London in 1914, when he said his subject was war and the pity of war. His most memorable verse read:

They shall not grow 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

MUSTAFA KEMAL: The inspirational Turkish soldier who told his men he was not asking them to attack, but to die as they threw the invaders off the peninsula. He also wrote the memorable words now cast in stone on the Anzac Cove beach to his fallen enemies.

"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 Mehemets 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 lying in our bosoms and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they become our sons as well."

He was later known as Ataturk, the Father of All Turks and in 1923 became the first modern president of the Republic of Turkey.

CYRIL BASSETT: The New Zealand corporal who was the only New Zealand soldier to win a Victoria Cross for bravery on Gallipoli. He was 23 when he landed with the first wave of New Zealand troops on April 25, 1915. Four months later on August 7, as the Kiwis defended Chunuk Bair, Bassett laid a telephone line to the new position in broad daylight and under heavy fire from the Turks. He continued to repair and maintain the line day and night under the Turkish guns.

SIMPSON AND HIS DONKEY: The English medic John Simpson Kirkpatrick and his donkey Murphy, also known as Duffy or Abdul. For 24 days after April 25 Simpson led Murphy as he carried wounded soldiers down to the beach first aid stations before a Turkish soldier shot him dead. He was 22 and had enlisted with the Australian Imperial Forces in August, 1914, under the name John Simpson, believing he would get back to England after deserting from a merchant ship in Newcastle, New South Wales, in 1910.

One of the most asked questions by Anzac troops was: "Has that bloke with the donk stopped one yet?"

Simpson never won military honours for his bravery but was recommended for the Victoria Cross the month after he died and in 1967.

In another twist, one of the most famous paintings of Simpson and his donkey, by New Zealand artist Horace Moore-Jones, does not actually portray Simpson.

The painting was taken from a photograph of New Zealand medic Dick Henderson although Moore-Jones, also a Gallipoli veteran, believed the photograph was of Simpson when he painted it in 1917.

POPPY DAY: One of the oldest national appeals, usually on the Friday before Anzac Day. Poppies became the symbol of sacrifice and remembrance after French woman, Madame E Guerin, suggested artificial poppies be made by widows and orphans of dead soldiers. They could be sold to benefit veterans and destitute children of northern France. In 1921, 350,000 small poppies and 16,000 large silk poppies were bought by the New Zealand Returned Services Association. The ship delivering the poppies was delayed and instead of Poppy Day being held on Armistice Day (November 11 when World War 1 ended) it was held the following year on the Friday before Anzac Day.

DAWN SERVICE: A service of remembrance each year for the fallen, timed for dawn because on April 25, 1915, the first soldiers landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula at dawn.

THE FIRST SERVICE: In 1916 in London 2000 Australian and New Zealand soldiers marched through the city on April 25. A London newspaper called them "the Knights of Gallipoli."

NZ CONTRIBUTION: In 1914, New Zealand had a population of slightly over one million. After the war began 124,211 mobilised, and of those 100,444 went overseas. It was 10 percent of the country's population and 40 percent of eligible men between the ages of 20 and 45. Per capita New Zealand made the biggest contribution to World War 1 of any country in the dominion.

CEMETERIES: New Zealand Gallipoli dead lie in 24 cemeteries on the peninsula. Some have their names in memorials because they could not be identified or found. Others also lie in cemeteries around the Mediterranean after they were wounded on the peninsula and died after being evacuated to hospital.

EVACUATION: Anzac troops were evacuated by December 16 and British troops left Cape Helles by January 9, 1916.

GALLIPOLI SLANG: The campaign introduced several new slang words, including Abdul (Turkish soldier), Anzac button (nail used instead of a button to hold up army trousers), Auntie (Turkish broomstick bomb), Banjo (shovel used for digging trenches), Beachy Bill (Turkish gun that regularly shelled Anzac Cove), Body snatcher (stretcher bearer or member of a raiding party sent to capture Turkish prisoners), Clout (a wound), Coffin nail (cigarettes), Cricket ball (Turkish hand grenade), Digger (New Zealand tunnellers digging under enemy lines), Gallipoli gallop (diarrhoea), Gypo (Egyptian), Greyback (louse), Lazy Liz (big shell which droned overhead from HMS Queen Elizabeth), Luna Park (Cairo Hospital), Rock chewer (dry army biscuit), Short arm inspection (genital inspection for venereal disease).

- NZPA