Thousands of Aucklanders braved the wind and the rain to commemorate 94 years since the landing at Gallipoli at Auckland’s War Memorial Museum Friday.

Uploaded on Flickr by NZ Alex

ANZAC stands for Australia New Zealand Army Corps. The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps was the original ANZAC formation. It served at Gallipoli under the command of General William Birdwood and comprised the Australian 1st Division and the New Zealand and Australian Division. The Gallipoli Campaign took place at Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey from 25 April 1915 to 9 January 1916, during the First World War.  A joint British Empire and French operation was mounted to capture the Ottoman capital of Istanbul (It was still referred to as Constantinople by the Europeans), and secure a sea route to Russia. The attempt failed, with heavy casualties on both sides.

The three Australian and one New Zealand mounted brigades were employed as infantry with the ANZACs during the Gallipoli campaign. The Australian 2nd Division began to arrive from Australia in August 1915 and some battalions saw action on Gallipoli in the final months of the campaign. What is not well know is that from time to time other countries served under the collective command of the ANZACs including 7th and 29th Brigades of the Indian Mounted Artillery, Ceylon Planters Rifle Corp, Royal Navy and British and Irish Divisions.

Uploaded on Flickr by Devar

Two Countries Come of Age

This also marks the first time that the furtherest reaches of the British Commonwealth participated as peers with the United Kingdom and represented a true coming of age. The Gallipoli campaign showed that these countries, both with less than 20 years of independence could make a valuable contribution to the efforts of the British Commonwealth. The ANZAC day then is also a mark of independence for the two countries.

ANZAC day now remembers the sacrifice of all service members of both the Australian and New Zealand Defense Forces. It is held on 25th April each year and commences with a dawn service at the respective cities War Memorials. It includes veterans from the first and second world wars, ANZACs that served in Vietnam and Korean Wars, and their contemporaries that have served in numerous United Nations peacekeeping operations in the Middle East, Cyprus, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Timor, Soloman Islands, Egypt, Iraq and South Korea among many others.

Recently New Zealand’s Special Air Service (SAS) (modeled after the British SAS and equivalent to USA’s Delta Force) have been requested by the United States for special missions in Afghanistan. This will be the fourth tour for the elite force, the New Zealand SAS entered Afghanistan shortly after 9/11 2001 under British command to prepare for the eventual invasion of that country.

The latest iteration of the term ANZAC was used in September 2006 as The ANZAC Battle Group which is responsible for the UN peacekeeping efforts in East Timor called Operation Astute (which also includes Malaysia and Portugal).

ANZAC Spirit

Anzac stood, and still stands, for reckless valor in a good cause, for enterprise, resourcefulness, fidelity, comradeship, and endurance that will never own defeat. – Charles Bean

The concept of ANZAC Spirit is deeply embedded in the national character of both nations, concepts of mateship (comradeship), dignity and honour in the face of adversity. There are however criticisms of this notion that label is as masculine and exclusionary, not recognizing the contributions of other parties in the forging of nationhood. There has concerns over why should we look so eagerly for “stereo-typical reaffirmation of our character” [SMH], and that the contribution of the Gallipoli “misadventure”. These criticisms may be valid but they miss the broader point: The ANZAC spirit are ideals we celebrate each year and have been demonstrated by people that have come before us.

As people we are prone to failure, but not to celebrate these values and the ideas behind them simply because the frailty of human nature would be even worse. Not to have ideals to guide our character means we are prone to measure our actions within the confines of an individual rather that the ideals of many. We celebrate our countries because of our ideals, not of ruthless individualism, but of kinship, practicality and a collective responsiblity to each other and the world we live in.

It is something I hope as a traveling ANZAC (also read Kiwi) that we share with others on our journeys and we show to those friends who visit our shores.

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