As we approach ANZAC Day, Australia is one of two nations that commemorate ANZAC Day, New Zealand is the other.

As such it’s important that with each passing year, we who remain behind in relative freedom, remember the sacrifices of those who had borne the brunt of war.

New Australians to our shores would often ask, why is Gallipoli so important to Australians? The answer is a complex conglomeration of national sorrow, grief, loss, and remembrance that transformed the military defeat into an iconic status.

For Australians and New Zealanders, modern historians will describe it as the birth of two nations and the foundation of ANZAC to legendary status. One that will always echo down the ages to all those who take up the mantle of the warrior and continue the ANZAC traditions forged at Gallipoli.

Back track to some two thousand years ago, when bronze age ships sailed to Troy (Dardanelles) millennia before the arrival of the ANZACS to do battle with the Trojans.

A time when the Trojans monopolised the trade routes to the Black Sea using the Dardanelles straits to their advantage and thus sparking a ten-year war.

Their opponents were Bronze Age Mycenean Greek warriors who had heeded the call to arms by their warrior King, Agamemnon. However according to Homer, the ten-year war revolved around a woman that historians refer to as Helen of Troy. So the story goes, that Helen of Troy who lived in Pellana, Laconia, Greece was abducted or seduced by the Trojan prince Paris and taken to Troy.

Fast forward to 1914 where strapping bronze looking young men from Australia and New Zealand, stormed the beach at Gallipoli.

Although the landing did not go as planned, the landing occurred about a mile north of the designated beaches. An error of judgement which may have saved lives of many. Turkish machine guns nests cleverly installed with the assistance of their German military advisers trained their guns upon the ANZACS, as they made their way to the breach. The ANZACS faced the storm of bullets with such ferocity and courage that they put aside any sign of fear from the lead raining upon them, not wanting to let down their mates. Jumping into the shallow waters of Gallipoli, the ANZACS made their way towards the beach, eager to demonstrate their best in front of their comrades.

The ANZACS who had heeded the call from the old country, Britain, without any second thoughts, joined the fray that was to become World War One.

The ANZACS built a legend that is true to this day, they were ruthless, reckless, brave and courageous in battle and compassionate when the battles were over. Many a time an ANZAC could be seen offering first aid to an enemy combatant, a smoke or even a meal after the battle had ended. Truces were adhered to once the heat of battle was over to locate and bury the dead where they lay. Both sides knew that the rotting corpses and the stench attracted insects, vermin and subsequently the decaying flesh would rot, creating a platform for infections and epidemics of biblical proportion.

On the day the ANZACS landed, Major Duncan Chapman, an Australian Army officer with the 9th Battalion and 45th Battalion of Australian Imperial Force during World War I, was the first man to step ashore at the Gallipoli landing with the 9th Battalion, 3rd Brigade on 25 April 1915. Following the attack on the beach front, Captain William Annear, 11th Battalion, of Subiaco, Western Australia was the first man to be killed after a difficult climb from the beach to Plugge’s Plateau at Gallipoli.

At the end of the first day some 2,000 soldiers had been killed or wounded.

As the battles raged on the ANZACS had to contend with poor and unappetising food, flies, extreme weather conditions, lice, rotting corpses, lack of water, heat, dysentery, poor latrine management, epidemics, infections, shell shock (PTSD), lack of rest, cramped and unsanitary conditions, constant noise from the barrage of heavy weapons, lack of sleep, disease, the daily death of mates and in some cases, poor leadership.

The Turkish defenders under the leadership of Mustapha Kemal and his German advisers held the high ground. The high ground with its many ridges, well concealed fortifications, difficult terrain and its steep landscape were one of the causes that led to the campaign being a failure and the subsequent withdrawal from the peninsula.

Gallipoli was to prove very costly for both sides.

After months of bitter fighting, the last ANZAC to leave the shores of Gallipoli was Fred Pollack who only narrowly escaped being left behind. A campaign devised by Winston Churchill of opening the Dardanelles using warships to Constantinople, which failed and followed up by Sir Ian Hamilton being given the poison chalice of taking the heights by a force of arms. A very costly and ill thought out campaign.

One wonders whether Sir Ian Hamilton could have devised a better strategy had he been passed the Greek battle plan for the Dardanelles which had been offered and proposed to him prior to the landings.

Students of military history may know the answer.

The ill-fated Gallipoli campaign would cost the allies, 73,485 British and Irish soldiers, 27,000 French soldiers, 8,700 Australians, 2,779 New Zealanders, 458 Pacific Islanders, 1600 Indian soldiers and opposing them, 87,000 Turkish soldiers died, defending their country.

It is of interest to note that although the majority of Australians who fought at Gallipoli were of Australian birth, there was a sprinkling British, Irish, First Nations peoples, Italian, German, Greek, Chinese, Kiwis and other nationalities.

One old soldier said that “Once in the service, you were treated as an equal; you had the same options for pay. When you are in the trenches, you don’t have the option of disliking the person behind you,” The author can attest to that, it is so true to this day; there was no discrimination during his service.

The Australian Hellenic Memorial in Kings Domain. Photo: Supplied

The legend of the ANZACs was not forgotten back home in Australia and New Zealand.

Families grieved for their lost sons buried overseas, their sorrow felt deep within their hearts and out of that sorrow a longing to commemorate their loss was borne out of a desire to remember their sacrifices.

Families eager to hear and read the numerous stories and messages, written back home to loved ones, told only part of the legend of the ANZAC warrior.

From Gallipoli to this day, ANZACS of the future carried the torch and the legends associated with Australian warriors in battle. On the battle field, promises that their mates would look after their mates’ families if they did not survive. As a result, the formation of Legacy and the Returned Services League (RSL) were formed to assist the families who had lost their loved ones on the battle fields of Gallipoli and that of the western front. The citizens of Australia and New Zealand’s outpouring of grief was such that many just could not cope with the loss of their youth in such a short time.

Busts of diggers, memorials, were to be found in almost every town in Australia and those of New Zealand. In 1934, the Shrine of Remembrance was officially opened by Prince Henry, the Duke of Gloucester (son of King George V) attracting a crowd in excess of 300,000 souls, who’d come to pay their respects to the fallen.

Since that time, every RSL in Australia would stop and the ODE be heard in solemn silence. On the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month, all traffic in all the cities and town in both countries would come to a standstill and observe one minutes silence.

For those unfamiliar with the ANZAC legend, the beautiful island of Lemnos, located in the Aegean Sea, not far from the Dardanelles became a major base for the Allied forces involved in the battles at Gallipoli. Today, Australians of Greek heritage have erected a memorial to those who fell at Gallipoli.

The HANZAC Memorial, at Pellana, Laconia, Greece, the home of Helen of Troy, is the site of another memorial to the ANZACS, built to commemorate those ANZACS who took up the mantle and died during WW2.

The HANZAC memorial at Pellana, Laconia, Greece; the home of Helen of Troy. Photo: Supplied

This memorial was built by many volunteers, many who had served with the Australian Defence Force. Four other memorials dedicated to the ANZACS may also be found at Canberra, Melbourne (near the Shrine of Remembrance, The Albert Park Lemons memorial, and the memorial at the Monastery at Northcote in Victoria.

Peter Adamis is a Writer/Journalist and Social Media Commentator. He is a retired Australian military serviceman, Industry organisational, Environmental & Occupational (OHS) & Training Consultant within the parameters of domestic and international political spectrum. Find his website at abalinx.com