Anzac Day: History, Parade At Popular Playground | Things To Know

Anzac Day
Anzac Day

The history of Australia’s Both Anzac Day and Wednesday’s Remembrance Day is storied. Let’s tell you what happened on those two days. On April 25, 1915, the mob hit the shore of Gallipoli and fought extraordinarily well. They left eight months after that. Less than 9000 Australian soldiers were deployed in the area.

On November 11, 1918, the guns stopped firing after more than four years of warfare. Almost 60k Australians died in the war.
In Sydney, the commemoration of Anzac Day was going slow due to the pandemic. One of the veterans did well to attract attention to the critical day.

Anzac Day
Anzac Day

“Australia was there!” he cried, waving around a stumpy sleeve. “Look at me. I have lost an arm and can fight no more, but I tell you what, boys – if I had my arm back, I’d be over there again. Now I want someone to take my place – who will volunteer?”

No-one took up his offer to talk about enlisting, let alone bowed before his sacrifice, or clapped him on the back and said, “thank you, mate.”

“No one?’ he asked plaintively. On this day, for him, no one.

One reason was that most Australians who knew what Gallipoli has represented, the actual veterans, were still on active services overseas. In Egypt, church parades were held to commemorate the landing and the lads who fell on the peninsula.

The grandest honor was given in London to the veterans in Westminster Abbey. Three thousand people have attended, including King George V, Queen Mary, Prime Minister Billy Hughes, and General Lord Kitchener, with almost 2000 Australian and Kiwi soldiers referred to as the Knights of Gallipoli.

For all of them, they considered that the worst nightmare is over and nothing as wrong as the war at Gallipoli will happen again. The second worst nightmare that struck them later led to the death of another 47k Australian soldier. The area was The Western Front in France, where they lost many soldiers’ lives.

When the war was over, the battle that gripped terrible memories in the Australian public’s imagination was won at Gallipoli. After that, Anzac day was used to remember that horrific yet brave day for Australian history.
In 2020, the Anzac Day marches in Australia and New Zealand were canceled due to the Covid -19 Pandemic.

As a result of that, Two army veterans, Bill Sowry and Terry James, gave an idea of standing in front of the driveways for a moment of silence in the memory of the lost veterans all over Australia and New Zealand. Son of a Vietnam veteran, Justin Wilbur offered to light a candle as a tribute to all the soldiers who lost their lives at Gallipoli.

He created a Facebook group named “Aussies and Kiwis for ANZACS”. Ashleigh Leckie, a Navy veteran, mixed their ideas and introduced a movement called Driveway at Dawn. The RSL and RSA later adopted this movement, Australian groups for the veterans, and renamed Light Up The Dawn and Stand At Dawn. Anzac Day in 2020 was celebrated in a different way.

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