Poppy Anzac Day

Today is Anzac day in New Zealand and Australia. These are the poppies the beans wear to show their support.

93 years ago at dawn, on the 25th of April 1915, New Zealand and Australian troops were sent to Gallipoli, a rough and ruggered part of the coast, to attack the Turkish troops and try to capture an important shipping route through the Dardenelles. Many casulties were suffered on all sides and on this day we remember all who went to fight for us.

My mum has been to visit the battlefields and graveyards that dot the coast at Gallipoli, it was hard to read the headstones of boys of 16 and 17 who died so far from home. If you want an idea of what it was like there, there is a movie from the 1980s with Mel Gibson (back when he was cute, and not so much of a drinker), that captures the time pretty well.

In Gallipoli there is a large memorial that faces out onto the beautiful sea below, carved onto it are some wonderful words that say:

Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives… you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets where they lie side by side here in this country of ours… You the mothers who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears. Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. Having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.
—Mustafa Kemal