PRINCIPALS MESSAGE
It was around 4.30 in the morning on 25 April 1915, the first soldiers of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (the ANZAC’s) landed in the Ari Burnu area on the Gallipoli Peninsula. On the same morning, soldiers from Britain, France and their colonies launched assaults at nearby Cape Helles and Kum Kale.
The Allies were determined to destroy the heavily armed forts overlooking the Dardanelles to allow a naval fleet to enter the Sea of Marmara and then bombard the Ottoman Turkish capital of Constantinople that we now know as Istanbul. They hoped this would force Turkey’s surrender and therefore ease the pressure on Russia and deprive Germany of a major ally.
Historians estimate that some 2000 Australians were killed or wounded on 25 April, on that single beach landing, but there are no precise casualty figures for that day. Corporal Jason Coulter from Ballarat landed in the second wave with the 8th Battalion and provided his account of the fighting that followed in his diary:
Landed at Gallipoli Peninsula, Gaba Tepe, on Sunday 25th April under heavy shell and rifle fire. Got straight into action – and it was hell – God how the shells poured over us while the bullets from the enemy rifles poured into us – what a day of sorrow, men shattered to pieces and oh the sight and the sorrow – poor fellows left out on the field to die all through a wet cold night – many missing this morning, officers dead … God knows how many left tonight but we must go on and on till we beat them.
Like many of the Anzacs, Jason Coulter did not survive Gallipoli. He died of gunshot wounds on 10 August 1915, three months after arriving. Young Australians lied about their ages to be involved in this conflict – thinking they would see the world and escape the boredom of life at home. So many never returned and those that did had seen things that broke them.
For eight months the Anzacs hung on to their positions on the ridges and gullies above Anzac Cove, against the odds. Being shelled and machine gunned relentlessly. They could not go forward but they stood strong and the Turks could not force them back into the sea.
I have been touched by war - My father served in the Navy for 6 years and in the Korean War, and my Grandfather was imprisoned by the Japanese in the fall of Singapore in Changi Prison for three years. He returned mentally unstable.
We do not celebrate war, for in the end there are no winners, all are effected and the costs significant for families and loved ones and indeed countries.
What we do recognize is that Australia was a country barely 15 years old and men went to support the war of the Mother Country (England), but one which did not effect us, we chose to go. As a result of our commitment the war in Africa was won and led to the defeat of the German armies.
But nobody was the winner.
WAR - From the 1st of January 1900 to the 31st December 1999 a war was taking place somewhere around the world on EVERY SINGLE DAY. For 100 years
Over the recent weeks we have seen a massacre of innocent people in a mosque in Christchurch and the worse massacre of innocent people at churches in Sri Lanka.
And I ask you – WHY?
We celebrate our fallen heroes in the role of protecting our country, but have to be saddened and perplexed by the useless carnage of so many that happens today. Families torn and lives wasted.
As Catholics we turn to peace and tolerance as a way of life. We forgive. Surely this is a better path than we have seen lately.
Here at John Therry we have had some people wanting to sort out issues with others with violence. I ask you to think of people that you really respect and hold high – I bet they do not use violence to solve their problems. As Marist people - we can be better than that.
I ask you - Can you be better than that??
Lest we ever forget.