THE SHRINE OF REMEMBRANCE
The Shrine of Remembrance located in the Kings Domain on St Kilda Road, is one of Melbourne’s most recognized landmarks and is also the most visited war memorial in Australia. It was designed and built as a memorial to the men and women of Victoria who served and those who died in the Great War of 1914 – 1918 and armed conflicts and peacekeeping duties since.
The Shrine of Remembrance was built between July 1928 and November 1934 in remembrance of the 114,000 men and women of Victoria who served and those who died in the Great War of 1914-1918 – 89,100 of them served overseas and 19,000 did not return.
Sometimes when we investigate what happened in the past, we may find different versions of the same event. Here is one of them.
THE ANZAC LEGEND
SENT AS BOYS, NOT ALL RETURNED MEN
Just before dawn, on that first Anzac day of landing, the boats carrying 1500 men were moving through the darkness, towards the shoreline. All was silent, here were whispers of apprehension and the splash of oars.
Ahead of them, two searchlights briefly penciled the sky, then disappeared. Still silence. The leading boats then felt the jolt that comes when a boat touches shore. The first Anzacs jumped out. A yellow beacon flared to the south and a single shot was heard. Then several more. And as the boats further out come in, the fire broke upon them from the heights above. The silence and waiting were over. They were now about to face a war of hell.
COURAGE EDURANCE DUTY
AND ABOVE ALL MATESHIP
There are now no living Anzacs who were there on that first day. The last survivor Ted Matthews an Australian signaler, died in December 1997. There are only a few remaining of the Anzacs who subsequently served there during the Gallipoli campaign. So few left who experienced, who can personally recall the long months of stalemate, of attack and counter attack on pieces of hillside that were given soldiers names. Yet the story of those months and of all that they involve, lives in our national histories and collective memories.
For Anzac is not merely about loss. Its is about courage and endurance, duty and love of our country but most importantly, mateship. These were qualities and values the pioneers had discovered in themselves. This was not the Anzac’s bloodiest campaign of that war. The casualties in France overwhelmed those of Gallipoli. But it was the first. And it was heroic even in failure. And what makes it unique is that it was here the people of our countries Australia and New Zealand, found their nationhood. Before the war who ever heard of Anzac.
The campaign failed, but the men were not defeated. There is a crucial difference. A triumph of daring and initiative, over 35,000 Anzacs were evacuated during the eleven December nights, with barely a casualty. With their boots ruffled, the last of them came down from the heights to the beach on 20 December, and into the boats that took them in darkness and silence back to waiting ships.
STRETCHER BEARERS
Consider the difficulties of providing medical treatment to sick and wounded soldiers under these conditions. Think about what was involved in collecting the wounded from the battlefield and taking them down to the beaches to be evacuated in the hospital ships which waited offshore. To give you some idea of the difficulties and dangers the stretcher-bearers.
Their bravery was quite equal to any heroism shown on the field of battle. The Turks shot at anything that moved, sparing not even the wounded on stretchers. They had been told by the Germans that the Australians were cannibals.
It is impossible to say which battalion landed first, because several landed together. The Turks in the trenches facing the landing had run, but those on the other flank and on the ridges and gullies still kept up a fire upon the boats coming in shore, and that portion of the covering force which landed last, came under a heavy fire before it reached the beach.
The Turks had a machine gun in the valley to the left, and this seems to have been turned on to the boats containing the Twelfth Battalion….Two stretcher-bearers of the Second Battalion who went along the beat during the day to effect a rescue were both shot by the Turks. Finally a party waited for dark and crept along the beach, rescuing nine men who have been in the boats two days, afraid to move for fear of attracting fire. The work of the stretcher- bearers all through a week of hard fighting has been beyond all praise.
Throughout the battle the men of the Australian, New Zealand and British Army Medical Corps, along with the battalion stretcher-bearers, worked night and day to the point of personal collapse. Some died as they tried to carry the wounded down from the heights. Corporal William Rusden saw two lots of stretcher-bearers shot within minutes as they worked their way down the valley.
Whilst it is Turkish land, it has become a sacred site of our nations, and we are united with those young Anzacs who were left there so long ago. We reflect at momuments, designed to preserve their memory, designed to live on forever. For there as well as here, their spirit walks abroad.
