If I might beg a moment of your time · 8:44pm Apr 24th, 2013

This blog may not mean all that much to those living outside of Australia or New Zealand, but today, the 25th of April is ANZAC Day

ANZAC Day is a day of shared celebrations in memory of those men from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who fought in World War 1 in general, and those who were at the battle of gallipoli specifically.

Gallipoli was a battle held in Turkey in 1915, lasting about 8 months of constant seige. It was meant to be a quick assault to knock Turkey out of the war, and it may have worked if the landings had occured on the right beach. Bad tides and unfamilliar terrain caused the bulk of forces to land on a beach far away from the intended landing zone, resulting in them beaching on a far more heavily fortified spit. By the battles end, slightly over 10,000 Australian and New Zealand soldiers had been killed, among the 53,000 total allied casualties for the Gallipoli campaign.

The retreat from Gallipoli in 1916 is considered one of the ANZAC's finest moments however. Despite estimates of 50% casualties, a highly organised retreat occured and thanks to several well timed ruses and the innovation of technologies such as a timed, self firing rifle to fool the Turk forces into thinking that the trenches were still manned, the entire force managed to evacuate from the beach with only two casualties.

Dawn services and generally held, and many people will make the journey to Turkey to hold a vigil at ANZAC Cove, where the actual battle of gallipoli took place. The cove was officially renamed as such by the Turkish government in 1985 as part of reparations between the nations involved.

More recently it has evolved to be a day of appreciation for all returned and currently active service men and women, thus I would like to ask you to join me in a moment of reflection in honour of those who have fallen in the defence of their country. Their sacrifice should never be forgten