ANZAC  Veteran’s Landing.

Dressed in their own colours, red, green and blue the ships cast an enquiring eye towards Alexandra basking in the sun. The scale and activity beyond our view offered a sense of coming excitement. A march to Cairo perhaps remained a possibility, but Limnos and Gallipoli intervened and the fleet sailed steadily north. On arrival the ships hid behind islands, as anxious eyes viewed rope ladders swinging from iron rails waiting for the given time. Warships were to tow the boats to their correct destination. Butterflies danced in empty stomachs as the minutes ticked by.

All was quiet until a spark from the ship’s funnel like a conductor baton orchestrated Turkish fire. A shell went straight through the funnel, but strangely failed to explode. The order was given and one by one with packs held high we crept ashore. Edging through rowing boats we ran towards the hill. The landing turned out to be a mile east from the correct position.

Slowly step by step we edged up the hill, a hill so steep that many troops fell and rolled down again. Half way up we fell upon a Turkish trench whose occupants immediately put their hands up and were taken back down to the beach. Heavy fire at hill’s top drowned out all communication; casualties were high, shrapnel flying in every direction.

Moving around a small ridge we eventually came across a small gully that enabled us to dig ourselves in for the night. As the sun rose our position came under heavy enemy fire, but somehow we were able to hold off any Turkish advance. After two days of continuous fire the lack bandages forced us to evacuate the wounded back down to the beach. Causalities were heavy, having landed with seventy officers and one thousand men our force was reduced by seventy percent.

One morning after I set off to collect water and rations, but had only travelled thirty yards or so when an explosion behind me blew my companion who I had been talking to, to pieces. Slowly we were forced back down the hill and in order to avoid being driven into the sea continually had to dig new and deeper trenches. Turkish’s bodies piled up along with our own so an armistice was called to bury the dead. Only tall troops of at least six foot went out to bury their companions, after taking their wallets for identification they laid their sleeping mates in shallow graves.

Many men broke down among the mixed shrapnel of needle pellets and spasmodic fire and we would have to carry them back down to beach.

Winter was a problem; only sea water remained as we munched on stale weaveled biscuits and dreamed of home. Then there were flies in their millions, bluey-green in colour that came to claim the dead bodies. There were body lice and competitions were held to see who could remove the most from the seams of our grey flannel shirts.

Sickness was worse than casualties, but Elgar played on. Mistreatment was considered very wrong by both sides, Turks respected Australian soldiers there was no hatred from anyone. We would exchange bully beef for cigarettes much to our officers’ dislike.

Lone Pine was the fiercest battle you would ever see in your life. A lone pine stood guard over the hill. We were ordered to attack at 5.30am. Next morning the Turks counter attracted, we never saw much of the British; they just stood there and would not dig a deeper trench without orders from above. Over five days 2000 Australian troops were lost, while the Turks suffered 5000 dead .

December saw heavy snow; many of the men had not seen snow before so this was a treat. Lord Kitchener arrived to OK the withdrawal. All discussion was kept top secret, the men were in poor condition and were not told about the evacuation until the last moment.

Three weeks later the withdrawal started. We had received Christmas cake that was greatly enjoyed by all on the beach. The silence lasted two to three days, no shots were fired. These silence days were held every few days, two days, then three days, one day and so on to confuse the Turks. When the night came no one was allowed to talk, parties were taken down to the beach, socks worn over their boots. It was thought the casualties would be higher than the landing, no one had any experience in such an evacuation. Rifle fire continued with a water device so the Turks assumed we were still in trenches. From Anzac cove a pier was built from a barge covered with onion bags to deafen any noise as the blue water darken with rain.

Over 1000 killed every month, it took twenty four hours to become a veteran. It was an example of how a nation was able to look after itself. A glorious failure, we did what we needed to do, to support Britain.

 

These recollection were recorded by Australian veterans who were there.

THE FUTURE OF PRIMARY SOURCES.

Disappearing primary sources.

I can’t remember as a child ever making any association between a country’s postage stamps and their political landscape. Slowly as you grow older you become aware of a Europe that has moved from pre-war tranquillity to one of an aggressive nature. The appearance of Adolf Hitler's image on stamps, overprinting of countries names, or new currencies denominations herald a more impermanent present.  

When I turned eight, I inherited my father stamp collection containing stamps from countries that no longer seemed to exists, some with over printed names of new masters who had imposed their rule militarily or other political reasons. Stamp collecting has a larger agenda beyond its revenue role for respective government. It is in a way a primary source to reinforce new historic situations, a visual history of events that outlive their own time.

Sadly current societies march towards the electronic age is discarding many of the tangible links to the past such as the disappearance of postage stamps. Recorded history no longer written by hand, but by the touch of a finger on a computer. Unlike the written account recorded by witnesses of events in physical form, our primary source is open to alteration by other hands without necessarily any consultation with the original author.

Whether such ‘histories’ will be considered primary sources of information by future generations remains an open question. It is possible that history as we now understand it may be a thing of the past. Will we be left only with the current edited electronic interpretation of what may be considered suitable. I’m not sure that the world will be bester served by such an outcome.

Armenian Genocide and Anzac Day.

The Inconvenient Armenian Genocide.

With the one hundredth anniversary of the ethnic cleansing of the Armenian population in 1915, it is refreshing to hear a world leader in the form of Pope Francis describe these appalling events for what they were. How numerous Turkish Governments continue to refer to the death of 600,000 to 1,500,000 million people as a mere tragedy is beyond belief. Driven from their home at gun point, old men, women and children forced to walk half way across the Near East to a location in the Syrian desert without food or water is not the action of a civilised people. Little wonder few survived their experience, many shot, raped and killed in route. To rub salt into the wounds of the Armenians their homes were then declared abandoned by the Government   who subsequently sold them for their own profit.

The recently published book ‘An Inconvenient Genocide’, by Geoffrey Robertson Q.C. analysis the evidence, Laws of Genocide, and details of these events and leaves any fair minded reader with only one conclusion. Likewise the German Government of the day despite numerous reports from missionaries, consuls and other foreign representatives chose to disregard the information and made no attempt to put a stop to the slaughter. This charade has gone on for one hundred years and needs to stop. In Turkey anyone who raises the question is prosecuted with a likely jail sentence. What is the Turkish Government afraid of reparation why the denial, they accept that these events happened but refuse any responsibility.

The Australian, American and British Governments are no better, they likewise refer to these events as a tragedy, how one can call the forced death of 600,000 to 1,500,000 people a tragedy is beyond belief, yet this is what I believe our Foreign Minister Julie Bishop remarked. These Governments don’t wish to upset the Turkish relationship which they consider more important than the closure of the cleansing for the descendants of their lost forbearers.

One would have hoped that both our Prime Minister and his Foreign Minister could have had the decency to attend the one hundredth commemoration in Yerevan while in Turkey for Anzac Day. After all it is only next door and the fear of the Allies landing in Gallipoli prompted the Turks to round up the Armenians for fear they may assist the Western Allies on day before the landing. Still we should not expect our political masters to study history.

Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's founding father.

Lee Kuan Yew.

Singaporean public lament over the death of their founding patriarch is understandable. Lee was a leader of remarkable talent in taking Singapore from an important British colonial transport hub to a first world identity in one generation.

Given Australia’s current floundering government with no inspiring leader of any political persuasion in sight, any thoughtful person would be forgiven for thinking that perhaps authoritarian government has many advantages in advancing ordinary peoples living standards.

There will be many who throw their hands up in the air in dismay at the very suggestion that dictatorial authority is compatible with democratic rule, but in Singapore’s case the result is only too plain to see. I’m old enough to remember Singapore in the early 1950s when I first visited the island. Admittedly south-east Asia was still in recovery mode after the defeat of Japan in World War Two, but even then Singapore was nowhere as economically deprived as its closest neighbours Indonesia and Malay. It’s fortunate geographical location always ensured a certain degree of prosperity in terms of world trade, but still it was a long way from first world.

Despite the multi-ethnic composition of the population where each group to some extent was always anxious to advance their own tribal interests, Lee was able to unite them into a cohesive whole no mean feat when compared to the history of its neighbours. The Chinese cleansing in Indonesia and several years of armed conflict in Malay. This most ability to unite was probably  Lee's greatest achievement, the ability to unite people in a complementary vision of their future without which progress in any field is neigh impossible. Admittedly harsh measure were from time to time employed, but there is no doubt the majority of Singaporeans enjoyed eventually a higher standard of living that made the policy worthwhile.  

Strangely in the fifties Lee was considered in conservative circles to be a communist, while today the left of politics consider him to be a right wing dictator, both sides perusing their own political agendas neither  seeming able to see real benefits in Lee’s  rule, each focusing instead on some restrictive aspect of his government. Many western governments historically have over the years   discredited their political adversaries in similar manner, while they no longer jail them as in the pas they are often fairly loose with the truth, freely discrediting their personalities.

Despite some of Lee’s questionable policies, his achievement have been remarkable taking Singapore’s GDP to levels not obtain in Australia or many other western first world countries. Turning the island state into a powerhouse of Asian affairs. Singapore will surely miss his guiding hand.

First World War, Begining of the Modern World.

Reflections on World War One:

 

As 2014 draws to a close, the centenary year that saw the beginning of that blood bath World War 1, it seems opportune to look back and consider those macabre events. To evaluate and analyse, whether the world has learnt anything from those experiences over the last one hundred years. Apart from the trauma many combatants experienced for the remainder of their lives, the senseless killings of thousands by long range artillery, death by injury and disease, the war saw the recreation of modern day Europe and the Near East. Empires fell, Russian, German, Austrian/Hungarian and Ottoman existed no more. The map of Europe was redrawn; Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Ukraine and other smaller states once more appeared on the world map. The seeds of the current conflict in the near east were created with arbitrary borders showing little concern for the ethnic and religious beliefs of the inhabitants. Armenia despite all the good intentions of the Allies was driven from its historic homeland.

Reading through the diaries, soldiers’ letters, political slogans and speeches of the major players leave any impartial enquirer with a sense of the futile nature of war. Looking back, it seems the great hope of that age still remain unfulfilled today. History teaches us that greed and the pursuit of national self- interest always win. Reading a letter written by Valentine Fleming [ Grandfather of Ian Fleming, author of ‘James Bond’ novels.], who at the time was serving on the Western Front, the letter was written to Winston Churchill who later experience firsthand the hardship of trench warfare. Reading the letter it is impossible not to visualise the reality of a technical conflict. Fleming informed Winston of ‘the absolutely indescribable ravages of modern artillery fire, not only upon all men, animals and buildings within its zone, but upon the very face of nature itself. Imagine, he wrote ‘a broad belt, ten miles or so wide, stretching from the Channel to the German frontier near Basle, which is positively littered with bodies of men and scarified with their rude graves; in which farms, villages and cottages are shapeless heaps of blackened masonry; in which fields, roads and trees are pitted and torn and twisted by shells and disfigured by dead horses, cattle, sheep and goats, scattered in every attitude of repulsive distortion and dismemberment.’ A zone continually made ‘more hideous by the incessant crash and whistle and roar of every sort of projectile, by sinister columns of smoke and flame, by the cries of wounded men, by the piteous calls of animals of all sorts, abandoned, starved, wounded’.

Without being judgemental is it possible consider this new technology of conflict heroic? Firing an artillery shell from distances of up to 75 miles to kill combatants and civilians alike is not heroic. This is not to suggest that there were not many heroic acts carried out during the war, simply that such acts should be acts of personal valour and courage not impersonal killing.

It is hard to believe that any thinking person with knowledge of the carnage of this war, ten million soldiers dead would not understand the urgency for a better mechanism to resolve national political ambition .President Wilson’s fourteen points outlined in his January speech to the United State Congress in 1918 seems a good starting point many of these ideas were incorporated into the Treaty of Versailles,  but unbelievably the Senate failed to vote for the USA to become a member of the  League of Nations. Not that other political and military leaders on all sides had seemed to have  been in any hurry to advance the cause of peace through the war. As the Treaty was formed on the assumption that the US would be a  member its absents ensured to a great extent that the League would not be the success many hoped.

Wilson’s fourteen points outlined in his speech, suggest Diplomacy and treaty making should be ‘frank and in public view’. That freedom to navigate the high seas assured for all. Economic barriers removed and equality of trading conditions established among all nations. That the interests of all people whether colonial or not given equal weight in terms of sovereignty. Military armament to be reduced, all nationalities within the Ottoman Empire assured of a secure sovereignty and autonomous development. All nations guaranteed political independence, no matter how large or small. All fine ideas, but how many have been implemented over the last 100 years. It is a sad comment on humanity’s priorities that many of Wilson’s ideals are still just that, ideals. Would the current chaos in the Near East still exist if it had not been for national greed? Unfortunately the First World War resolved very little in how to build a better world. Hopefully as we remember the sacrifices made one hundred years ago over the next four years, serious thought will be given to all these outstanding issues or was it all only a dream.