“All wars are
civil wars, because all men are brothers.” - François Fénelon
ANZAC Day,
celebrated on the 25 April is probably Australia’s most important national
occasion. The day marks the anniversary of the first major military action
fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. ANZAC
stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The soldiers in those forces
quickly became known as ANZACs, and the pride they took in that name endures to
this day.
In 1914, when WW1
broke out, Australia had been a federal commonwealth for only 13 years. The new
national government was eager to establish its reputation among the nations of
the world. In 1915 Australian and New Zealand soldiers formed part of the
allied expedition that set out to capture the Gallipoli peninsula in order to
open the Dardanelles to the allied navies. The ultimate objective was to
capture Constantinople (now Istanbul in Turkey), the capital of the Ottoman
Empire, an ally of Germany.
The Australian
and New Zealand forces landed on Gallipoli on 25 April, meeting fierce
resistance from the Ottoman Turkish defenders. What had been planned as a bold
stroke to knock Turkey 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. Over 8,000 Australian soldiers had been killed. News of the landing
on Gallipoli had made a profound impact on Australians at home, and 25th
of April soon became the day on which Australians remembered the sacrifice of those
who had died in the war.
Although the
Gallipoli campaign failed in its military objectives, the Australian and New
Zealand actions during the campaign left us all a powerful legacy. The creation
of what became known as the “ANZAC legend” became an important part of the
identity of both nations, shaping the ways they viewed both their past and
their future.
The End
After the blast
of lightning from the east,
The flourish of
loud clouds, the Chariot throne,
After the drums
of time have rolled and ceased
And from the
bronze west long retreat is blown,
Shall Life renew
these bodies? Of a truth
All death will
he annul, all tears assuage?
Or fill these void
veins full again with youth
And wash with an
immortal water age?
When I do ask
white Age, he saith not so, -
“My head hangs
weighed with snow.”
And when I
hearken to the Earth she saith
“My fiery heart
sinks aching. It is death.
Mine ancient
scars shall not be glorified
Nor my titanic
tears the seas be dried.”
Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Owen,
the son of a railway worker, was born in Oswestry, Shropshire, England, on 18th
March, 1893. He was educated at the Birkenhead Institute and at Shrewsbury
Technical School, and worked as a pupil-teacher at Wyle Cop School while
preparing for his matriculation exam for the University of London. After
failing to win a scholarship he found work as a teacher of English in the
Berlitz School in Bordeaux. Although he had previously thought of himself as a
pacifist, in October 1915 he enlisted in the Artists’ Rifles. Commissioned as a
2nd Lieutenant, he joined the Manchester Regiment in France in January, 1917.
While in France
Wilfred Owen began writing poems about his war experiences. In the summer of
1917 Owen was badly concussed at the Somme after a shell landed just two yards
away. After several days in a bomb crater with the mangled corpse of a fellow
officer, Owen was diagnosed as suffering from shell-shock. While recovering at
Craiglockhart War Hospital he met the poet Siegfried Sassoon. Owen showed
Sassoon his poetry who advised and encouraged him. So also did another writer
at the hospital, Robert Graves. Sassoon suggested that Owen should write in a
more direct, colloquial style.
Over the next
few months Owen wrote a series of poems, including Anthem for Doomed Youth,
Disabled, Dulce et Decorum Est and Strange Meeting. Sassoon introduced Owen to
H. G. Wells and Arnold Bennett and helped him get some of his poems published
in The Nation. Owen also had talks with William Heinemann about the publication
of a collection of his poems. In August 1918 Owen was declared fit to return to
the Western Front. He fought at Beaurevoir-Fonsomme, where he was awarded the
Military Cross. Wilfred Owen was killed by machine-gun fire while leading his
men across the Sambre Canal on 4th November 1918. A week later the Armistice
was signed. Only five of Owen’s poems were published while he was alive. After
Owen's death his friend, Siegfried Sassoon, arranged for the publication of his
Collected Poems (1920). He is considered to be one of the greatest English war
poets.
All killing in war is tragic but Wilfred Owen being killed by machine-gun in November 1918 seems even more tragic. I had forgotten (or never knew) that it was Siegfried Sassoon who arranged for the publication of his Collected Poems two years after Owen's death. Thank you, Siegfried.
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