GALLIPOLI – reflection one month on
Monday, May 26th, 2008Well, ANZAC Day in Gallipoli was definitely an experience of a lifetime and one I would encourage any Aussies and Kiwis, even Turks and Brits to attend (oh and the French), as all of those countries lost men fighting for their freedom, and ours.
We travelled on the Lets Go bus down to the Galipoli peninsular and due to the very early start, to try and beat traffic, our leader Fahrid was giving a generally good speech abou the history of the war, however he was going about it the long way and as many people were asleep, he restarted it later when he’d woken up everyone (clicking noise in mic!) so I think I heard like four hours of the same speech… anyhow I did hear some very interesting things at times which was great. I never really studied history at school, and primary schools only really cover the discovery of Australia, so it was good to hear all about the war and from a turkish person giving both the Turkish and Australian sides of the story. We toured around the peninsula and the memorial sites and then went to the war history museum before heading to the BBQ and then back to ANZAC Cove at about 5pm to find our spots for the night. WE thought we had arrived quite early, 12 hours before the service, however pretty much all the grass area was already taken up with people and after searching around a group of girls from our tour bus (Q or 124) settled into a position in the grand-stands. Not the most comfortable 12 hours, however, when you think what the soldiers went though everyone stopped complaining pretty quick. The area was pretty well set out, albeit a bit small for the crowds of people who continued to arrive well into the night/morning. The toilets were constantly cleaned, there were food and drink stands and clothing/blankets for sale; I bought a singlet with the ‘words’ of General Ataturk, to weep not for your sons, for they are resting on friendly land… (I’ll copy the actual wording as it’s quite nice and I was surprised I never learnt about it). All throughout the night, which was freezing (literally below zero) there were interviews with veterans, screenings of various interviews and shows commissioned for ANZAC day and the AUS/NZ military and airforce bands keeping everyone entertained with the songs that soldiers would have listened to prior to setting off for Turkey. My favourite was ‘run rabbit run rabbit run run run, don’t give the farmer his fun fun fun, bang bang bang went the farmer with his gun, so run rabbit run rabbit run run run’!
Apart from the screenings and entertainment, I think generally, everyone had a sense of quiet and realised we were standing and/or lying on hallowed ground; above the place where thousands of men died and where their blood stained the same soil. ANZAC Cove is really quite beautiful, but it’s still so easy to visualise the hardships faced by the soldiers as the cliffs look so daunting; with years of erosion showing too.
TBC
lijadana