Anzac Day Address: Kandahar Airfield, Southern Afghanistan, 25 April 2012
ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) inexorably connected Australia and New Zealand with these words:
It was eighteen minutes past four (5:48am Afghanistan time) on the morning of Sunday, 25th April [1915], when the first boat grounded... the men leapt into the water, and the first of them had just reached the beach when fire was opened on them from the trenches on the foothills which rise immediately from the beach.1
This ANZAC action occurred at Gallipoli, Turkey, which is approximately 4000 kilometres north-west of Kandahar. In the next five days, more than 850 Australians and almost 150 New Zealanders died, following sustained fighting which ...2
... will go down to history, when Australian [and New Zealand] brigades stormed, in the face of fire, tier after tier of cliffs and mountains [which were] apparently ... impregnable ... It is hard to distinguish between the work of the brigades. They all fought fiercely and suffered heavily.nothing...could take away from the Australian and New Zealand Infantry the fame of last Sunday’s fighting.3
Eight months later, when the Gallipoli campaign ended, more than 50,000 Australians had fought, sustaining over 28,000 casualties; some 56 per cent of their force. In addition, 8500 New Zealanders fought with more than 7400 casualties; a staggering 87 per cent of their force.4 In approximately 260 days of fighting at Gallipoli, 120,000 soldiers died, including 80,000 Turks and 44,000 ANZAC, British, Indian and French troops; this equates to almost 500 deaths each day.5
Today, it is with great pride and honour that you, as the daughters and sons of ANZAC stand this dawn, in the service of your nations, on the critical crossroads of southern Afghanistan.
To your north-west in July 1880, a British force of 2700 fighting troops was defeated at Maiwand, resulting in the loss of 1000 British and 5500 Afghan lives, and the awarding of two Victoria Crosses.6
To your north-east in 1897, a young Winston Churchill, as a 23-year-old journalist, was attached to the Malakand Field Force in the Swat Valley, as Britain fought rebellious Pashtun tribesmen, on the then northwest frontier of British India.7
Also to your north-east, more than 2000 years ago, at Qalat, the Dari word meaning ‘faithful place’, General Alexander the Great built a castle during his advance to India. Since then, nearly every military force has used it, including the British, the Russians, the Taliban and now Afghan National Army and Coalition soldiers.8
ANZAC Day also commemorates the 330,000 Australians from a population of 4 million, who served overseas in World War I. Of these nearly 60,000 died, 152,000 were wounded, and 64 were awarded the Victoria Cross.9
Approximately 103,000 New Zealanders served overseas during World War I, some 10 per cent of New Zealand’s 1 million population. A total of 18,500 New Zealanders died, nearly 50,000 were wounded, and eleven were awarded the Victoria Cross.10
We remember the courage, initiative and teamwork of Australian and New Zealand soldiers in all wars. We remember the more than 102,000 Australians and more than 30,000 New Zealanders who have fought and died in war across the world.11 To paraphrase Charles Bean, we remember a familiar refrain in the hearts of our soldiers:
Life was very dear, but life was not worth living unless they could be true to their idea of Australian [and New Zealand mateship].12
ANZAC Day is not about glorifying war; it is about honouring ordinary citizens who were asked to perform extraordinary service for their country, and who did so willingly at the greatest of costs.
We honour those who were injured or disabled in the tragedy of war.
We remember those who suffered as prisoners of war, and those who died in captivity.
We remember those civilians who serve and have suffered in all wars, especially our civilian colleagues who gather with us this morning.13
We remember staunch friends and allies, especially the fifty-nation International Security Assistance Force serving here in Afghanistan. We remember the 32 Australian, six New Zealand, and almost 3000 Coalition personnel who have died in Afghanistan since 2001.14
We remember the Afghan people who have suffered, and continue to suffer in this conflict.
Our Service men and women have gifted us their magnificent heritage. May we and our successors prove worthy of their sacrifice.15
We will remember them.
About the Author
Brigadier Chris Field is serving in Headquarters Regional Command – South, Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Endnotes
1 Charles Bean, ‘The first report Commonwealth of Australia Gazette No. 39’, Prime Minister’s Department, Melbourne, 17 May 1915, <http://www.anzacsite.gov.au/1landing/bean.html> accessed 12 April 2012.
2 Ibid; ‘Encyclopedia – Australian fatalities at Gallipoli, Australian War Memorial, <http://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/gallipoli/fataities.asp> accessed 12 April 2012; ‘New Zealand’s Anzac dead, 25 April 1915’, Ministry for Culture and Heritage, <http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/anzac-day/fatalities> accessed 14 April 2012.
3 Bean, ‘The first report Commonwealth of Australia Gazette No. 39’.
4 ‘The Gallipoli Campaign’, Department of Veterans’ Affairs, 25 April 2009, <http://www.dva.gov.au/news_archive/Documents/090327_GallipoliCampaign.p…; accessed 12 April 2012. At Gallipoli Australia suffered 8709 killed, 19,441 wounded. New Zealand suffered 2721 killed, 4752 wounded.
5 ‘The Gallipoli campaign’. The Gallipoli Campaign, land operations, was fought 25 April 1915 and 9 January 1916. The ANZACs departed by 20 December 1915. CEW Bean, ‘Chapter IX, The Expedition to the Dardanelles’ in Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, Volume I – The Story of ANZAC from the outbreak of war to the end of the first phase of the Gallipoli Campaign, 4 May 1915 (11th edition, 1941), pp. 169, 171, 172, 175, 201. How was this military misadventure conceived? In the stark words of Australian World War I historian, Charles Bean: ‘through a Churchill’s excess of imagination (to seize the Dardanelle Straits and capture Constantinople), a layman’s ignorance of artillery (if forts were valueless against big land-guns [in France], how could they withstand the enormous guns of the [Royal] navy?), and the fatal power of a young enthusiasm to convince older and more cautious brains, the tragedy of Gallipoli was born.’ Churchill, who was only thirty-nine years of age, was possessed of a ‘brilliant, restless intellect and a passion for adventure’.
6 ‘British Empire: Forces: Campaigns: Afghanistan: Maiwand 1880’, <http://www.britishempire.co.uk/forces/armycampaigns/indiancampaigns/cam…; accessed 13 April 2012. In July 1880 a British force of 2700 fighting troops commanded by Brigadier George Burrows was defeated at Maiwand, resulting in the loss of 1000 British and 5500 Afghan lives, and the awarding of two Victoria Crosses (Sergeant Mullane and Gunner Collis)
7 ‘Winston Churchill on the Tribal Territories’, Frontline, 3 October 2006, <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/taliban/tribal/churchill.html> accessed 13 April 2012. In 1897, Winston Churchill was attached for about six weeks to the Malakand Field Force in the Swat Valley as Britain fought rebellious Pashtun, or Pathan, tribesmen in the region—at the time, the northwest frontier of British India.
8 ‘Alexanders castle still has military uses in Afghanistan’, The Official Website of US Air Forces Central, 12 June 2010, <http://www.centaf.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123209079> accessed 13 April 2012. It is estimated that Alexander the Great’s castle at Qalat was built between 330–327 BC.
9 ‘Boer War to Vietnam’, <http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/explore/defence/conflicts.aspx> National Archives of Australia, accessed 15 April 2012; ‘Encyclopedia Enlistment statistics and standards First World War’, Australian War Memorial, <http://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/enlistment/ww1.asp> accessed 15 April 2012. ‘Victoria Cross for Australia’, It’s an Honour, <http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/honours/awards/medals/victoria_cross.cfm&…; accessed 18 April 2012. Australian Victoria Cross recipients World War I: Albert Jacka, John Hamilton, William Dunstan, Leonard Keysor, Hugo Throssell, Frederick Tubb, William Symons, Alexander Burton, Wilbur Dartnell, Alfred Shout, William Jackson, Arthur Blackburn, Martin O’Meara, John Leak, Claud Castleton, Thomas Cooke, Jørgen Jensen, Roy Inwood, George Howell, John Dwyer, Robert Grieve, John Carroll, Harry Murray, James Newland, Frank McNamara, Mick Moon, Bede Kenny, Walter Peeler, John Whittle, Clarence Jeffries, Frederick Birks, Percy Cherry, Patrick Bugden, Lewis McGee, Charles Pope, William Joynt, Arthur Hall, George Ingram, Philip Davey, Bernard Gordon, Maurice Buckley, Walter Brown, Albert Borella, Thomas Axford, George Cartwright, William Currey, Henry Dalziel, Stanley McDougall, Dominic McCarthy, Alby Lowerson, Joseph Maxwell, Percy Statton, Clifford Sadlier, John Ryan, William Ruthven, Edgar Towner, Percy Storkey, Lawrence Weathers, Blair Wark, James Woods, Alfred Gaby, Alexander Buckley, Robert Beatham, Robert MacTier.
10 ‘New Zealand and the First World War’, <http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/ww1-overview>, Ministry for Culture and Heritage, accessed 15 April 2012. New Zealand Victoria Cross recipients World War I: Leslie Andrew, Cyril Bassett, Donald Brown, James Crichton, Samuel Forsyth, Samuel Frickleton, John Grant, Reginald Judson, John Laurent, Henry Nicholas, Richard Travis. ‘NZ Victoria Cross winners’, <http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/victoria-cross/nz-vc-winners>, Ministry for Culture and Heritage, accessed 18 April 2012.
11 Overseas campaigns for Australian deployments include: New Zealand 1860–61, Sudan 1885, South Africa 1899–1902, China Boxer rebellion 1900–01, First World War 1914–18, Second World War 1939–45, Malayan Emergency 1948–60, Korean War 1950–53, Indonesian Confrontation 1962–66, Vietnam War 1962–72, Malay Peninsula 1964–66, Thailand 1965–68, The Gulf War 1990–91, Somalia 1992–93, East Timor 1999-present, Afghanistan 2001-present, Iraq 2003–09, and the Solomon Islands 2003–present, plus various peacekeeping missions throughout the world.
12 Charles Bean, Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, Volume 1 – The story of ANZAC, The official history of Australia in the war of 1914–18, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1981, p. 607.
13 Charles Bean, ‘ANZAC Requiem’, 1944, quoted in ‘Their Spirit, Our History’, Department of Veterans Affairs and Australian War Memorial, <www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/anzac/theirspirit.pdf> accessed 17 April 2012. This ANZAC Requiem includes the poignant paragraph: ‘We remember those who fell amidst the valleys and ridges of Gallipoli, on the terraced hills of Palestine, in France and Belgium, on the sands of the North African desert, amidst the mountains and olive groves of Greece, Crete and Syria, in the skies over Europe, in Singapore, in the jungles of Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands, in Korea and Vietnam, in later conflicts and in peacekeeping, in the skies and seas in many parts of the world, and on our own soil and in our sea lanes’.
14 ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’, <http://icasualties.org/oef/> accessed 18 April 2012.
15 Bean, ‘ANZAC Requiem’.
