ANZAC
DAY
History
Anzac Day marks the
anniversary of the first major military action fought
by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First
World War. The acronym ANZAC
stands
for
Australian and New Zealand Army
Corps, whose soldiers were
known as Anzacs. Anzac Day remains one of the most
important national occasions of both Australia and New
Zealand.
This is a rare instance of two sovereign countries not
only sharing the same remembrance day, but making
reference to both countries in its name.
The
Gallipoli campaign
When war broke out in
1914, Australia had been a Federal Commonwealth for
only thirteen years. In 1915, Australian and New
Zealand soldiers formed part of an Allied expedition
that set out to capture the Gallipoli
Peninsula,
under a plan by Winston
Churchill to open the way to
the Black
Sea for the
Allied
navies.
The objective was to capture Istanbul,
capital of the Ottoman
Empire, an ally of
Germany.
The ANZAC force landed at Gallipoli on 25 April,
meeting fierce resistance from the Turkish Army
commanded by
Mustafa Kemal (later known as
Atatürk). What had been planned as a bold strike to
knock Turkey out of the war quickly became a
stale-mate, 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 and 2,700 New Zealand soldiers died. News of
the landing at Gallipoli made a profound impact on
Australians and New Zealanders at home and 25 April
quickly became the day on which they remembered the
sacrifice of those who had died in war.
Though the Gallipoli campaign failed in its military
objectives of capturing Istanbul and knocking Ottoman
Empire out of the war, the Australian and New Zealand
troops' actions during the campaign bequeathed an
intangible but powerful legacy. The creation of what
became known as an "Anzac
legend" became an important
part of the national identity in both countries. This
has shaped the way their citizens have viewed both
their past and their understanding of the present.
The
foundations of Anzac Day
On 30 April 1915, when
the first news of the landing reached New Zealand, a
half-day holiday was declared and impromptu services
were held. The following year a public holiday was
gazetted (i.e., officially
declared) on 5 April and
services to commemorate were organised by the returned
servicemen.
The date, 25 April, was officially named Anzac Day in
1916; in that year it was marked by a wide variety of
ceremonies and services in Australia and New Zealand, a
march through London, and a sports day for the
Australian and New Zealand soldiers in Egypt. The small
New Zealand community of Tinui,
near Masterton
in
the Wairarapa
was
apparently the first place in New Zealand to have an
Anzac Day service, when the then vicar led an
expedition to place a large wooden cross on the Tinui
Taipos (a 1,200 ft (370 m) high large
hill/mountain, behind the village) in April 1916 to
commemorate the dead. A service was held on 25 April of
that year. In 2006 the 90th anniversary of the event
was commemorated with a full 21-gun salute fired at the
service by soldiers from the Waiouru
Army Camp.
In London,
over 2,000 Australian and New Zealand troops marched
through the streets of the city. A London newspaper
headline dubbed them "The Knights of Gallipoli".
Marches were held all over Australia in 1916; wounded
soldiers from Gallipoli attended the
Sydney
march in
convoys of cars, accompanied by nurses. Over 2,000
people attended the service in
Rotorua.[3]
For the
remaining years of the war, Anzac Day was used as an
occasion for patriotic rallies and recruiting
campaigns, and parades of serving members of the AIF
were held in most cities. From 1916 onwards, in both
Australia and New Zealand, Anzac memorials were held on
or about 25 April, mainly organised by returned
servicemen and school children in cooperation with
local authorities.
Anzac
Day was gazetted as a public holiday in New Zealand in
1920, through the
Anzac Day Act, after lobbying by
the
New Zealand Returned Soldiers’
Association, the RSA. In
Australia at the 1921 State Premiers' Conference, it
was decided that Anzac Day would be observed on 25
April each year. However, it was not observed uniformly
in all the States.
During the 1920s,
Anzac Day became established as a National Day of
Commemoration for the 60,000 Australians and 18,000 New
Zealanders who died during the war. The first year in
which all the Australian states observed some form of
public holiday together on Anzac Day was 1927. By the
mid-1930s, all the rituals now associated with the
day—dawn vigils, marches, memorial services,
reunions, sly two-up
games—became
part of Australian Anzac Day culture. New Zealand
commemorations also adopted many of these rituals, with
the dawn service being introduced from Australia in
1939.
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