ANZAC Day, 2011

ANZAC - Australia New Zealand Army Corps, formed World War I. 

ANZAC Day - In remembrance of all those who fell and all those who served...

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By the late 19th century, pakeha New Zealanders saw themselves as establishing a "Better Britain" in the South Pacific, people of British stock who saw themselves as building something better than back "Home" but who were but a generation or two at most away from "Home". It's no surprise then that in the patriotic war imagery above the English Bulldog, the symbol of the Britain, has become the War Dog of New Zealand standing astride the New Zealand ensign overlapping the Union Jack of Britain. Maori taonga have been appropriated in the form of the full face moko, tiki, and huia feathers of the Maori chief.

 

To my grandfather and his brothers who served in the "war to end all wars" - or so they were told, and to their sons and son-in-laws - to my father and uncles, who served in the next one: we have not forgotten. May we never have to send our sons and daughters to another one.

ANZAC Day 2009

For Grandpop, and his brothers, who served in the Big One.
He sold poppies for the RSA on a Christchurch Street corner
until he could no longer.
And for Uncles Eddie and Leslie who served in the Other Big One,
dodging Rommel's Panzers in the dead of night in the North African desert.

What stories you might have told if I'd been but a bit older.

In Flanders Fields

Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

The poignant story behind the poem here.

Lest We Forget - National War Memorial & Carrillion - Wellington - ANZAC Day

National War Memorial & Carrillion Tower, Wellington, 2009
Formerly the National Museum & Art Gallery, the site has become the Wellington campus of Massey University.

Lest We Forget - Lyttelton - Those Who Also Served, ANZAC Day

Their final resting place, one lasting look over the port that was their life.
Lyttelton, 2007.

In memoriam to those whose lives were shortened or traumatized by their wartime service in the years of peace that followed and to those who died while serving in the merchant marine in wartime.

And to those who dealt with the anguish and pain of never seeing sons, fathers, husbands, brothers, and chums ever again. And to those who lost daughters, wives, mothers, sisters, and friends.

Lest We Forget - The Lyttelton Anzacs, Anzac Day

The War Memorial, Lyttelton, New Zealand, 2007

To this memorial we might add those whose lives were shortened or traumatized by their wartime service in the years of peace that followed and those who died while serving in the merchant marine in wartime.

Lest We Forget - Cheviot War Memorial & Anzac Day

War Memorial
Cheviot, North Canterbury, NZ, 2009

New Zealand has one of the highest rates of war memorials per capita in the world. Every small town - even crossroads - seems to have one to commemorate the loss of its young men in the two world wars of the twentieth century. A New Zealand War Memorials register compiled by NZ History On-line has over 450 memorials listed but some are still to be added - one at least is known to be missing by this blogger.

As ANZAC Day, 25 April, approaches we remember the sacrifice of the men of Cheviot, North Canterbury in those conflicts.

Thomson Soda Caxton Co Dunedin World War One

An advertising postcard for Thomson Soda, Caxton Company of Dunedin, New Zealand, showing a First World War New Zealand army soldier musing over his discovery of a Thomson Soda bottle in the Egyptian sands.