Today is ANZAC Day.
You may not celebrate it — or even know about it.
But Megan Lott and Karen Hossain sure do.
Both women moved to Westport in the summer of 2016. They met at a newcomers’ coffee at their kids’ Kings Highway Elementary School.
Megan Lott and Karen Hossain
Driving around their new hometown, they noticed the historical plaque at the Compo Road South/Post Road East traffic island.
It commemorates the April 25, 1777 landing of British troops at Compo Beach. They marched to Danbury, and burned an arsenal there. Three days later, on their way back, they fought a fierce battle with local patriots, on Compo Hill.
The cannons at the beach — installed and dedicated in 1910 — are an iconic reminder of that historic encounter.
(Photo/Wendy Crowther)
The date resonated with the women.
Megan is from New Zealand. Karen (who returned home last August) is Australian. Down Under, April 25 is ANZAC Day.
The acronym stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The holiday — celebrated annually there, honoring the men and women who served and died for their countries — is similar in spirit to Memorial Day and Veterans Day here.
Megan says “it is a deeply emotional and reflective occasion, ingrained in the cultures of both nations.”
ANZAC Day dates back to the bloody World War I Gallipoli campaign in Turkey, when over 8,000 Australians and 2,700 New Zealanders lost their lives. It became a symbol of the bravery, endurance and sacrifice of ANZAC forces.
Battle of Gallipoli
The first ANZAC Day was April 25, 1916, one year after the landing. It has since evolved to a broader remembrance of all military personnel, in all wars.
Dawn services include a minute of silence, the playing of “The Last Post” (a military funeral bugle call, and wreath-laying. Parades feature veterans, current military personnel, and scouting and school groups. Poppies symbolize all who have died.
But ANZAC Day is about much more than remembering soldiers, Megan says. “It’s about national identity and values such as mateship, resilience, and sacrifice. The spirit of the ANZACs — their camaraderie, endurance, and willingness to fight for each other and their countries — has become an essential part of the culture in both nations.”
Living in Westport, Karen and Megan had no dawn services. So early each ANZAC Day they met to remember, together, all those who died, and all those who serve now: Australians, New Zealanders and Americans.
They chose a very appropriate spot: the Compo Beach cannons.
That’s where — on that same April 25, 138 years before Gallipoli — the British landed. And where 4 days later they fled back to their ships, after meeting patriots’ muskets of resistance at nearby Compo Hill.
For Karen, ANZAC Day is particularly poignant. She lost her brother, after 7 tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq. An Australian commando, he worked alongside US Special Forces and DEA contingents.
As the sun rose on ANZAC Day in Westport, Karen placed his replica medals on the cannons.
Carefully, next to them, she laid other replica medals: her father’s, from Vietnam.
And her grandfather’s, from World War II.
It was ANZAC Day. She remembered.
Australian service medals, at the Compo cannons.
I hope we will still have Allies like these brave countrymen after this President
we fo. Russia
In memory of my two Australian great uncles, William Hay disabled at Gallipoli and John Hay,RFC, 17th victim of Baron von Richtofen (Jan. 1917). R.I.P.
A few years ago, I traveled to Sydney to visit my son who was living there. Little did I know that my visit would be extended unexpectedly due to COVID. I was in Sydney on ANZAC Day and learned what a solemn holiday it is. COVID prevented the public from anticipating in the parades and services that are held at dawn. Instead, I joined my son and my daughter-in-law along with neighbors standing outside along our street to silently observe the holiday. In the distance, we could hear the sounds of the bugle from the nearby North Bondi Beach RSL Club.
We later enjoyed ANZAC Biscuits which are made for the holiday. These biscuits are the same biscuits sent to the young men who were away fighting the war. I’ll be baking the cookies today to honor those who fought so bravely.
In 2001, my husband and I toured Gallipoli. We had the most amazing tour guide and fellow travelers… Australians and a UN peace keeper on break with his young family.
The story explained by our learned guide, an elderly man who spoke 5 languages and grew up in the area was that after months and months and fighting and each side gaining and losing ground, the soldiers would trade items with each other by throwing them back and forth into the protective trenches. Coffee, sweets and other items were exchanged. In the end, no one won.
It was a beautiful day overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, but what I remember most was the large memorial by Ataturk in 1934 that read…
“Those heroes that shed their blood
and lost their lives.
You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.
Therefore rest in peace.
There is no difference between the Johnies
And the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side
Here in this country of ours…
You, the mothers,
Who sent their sons from far away countries
Wipe away your tears;
Your sons are now lying in our bosom
and are in peace.
After having lost their lives on this land they have
Become our sons as well.”
Today I honor the Australian who saved my step-father in Vietnam by holding his head above water for hours until they were both eventually rescued. And today I will send a private note to my family in Queensland in honor of ANZAC Day.
Thank you Dan for posting.
Have never heard of this day, but what a wonderful/sad event. Bless them all.
Second medal from left sure looks like a USA Silver Star. Maybe from Vietnam?
It’s a WW2 British France and Germany Star for service in Europe between D-Day and VE Day awarded to Australian Forces. Has 6 points vs US Silver Star w 5 points.
The middle group are the ones from the Vietnam Era.
My dad was from New Zealand and served in the RAF (Royal Air Force) as the pilot of a Lancaster bomber, completing 35 missions from just prior to D Day until Oct. 1944 when he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross by the King George VI at Buckingham Palace. He died in 1959 at only 45 years of age due in part to war related trauma. I think of him all the time but especially on ANZAC Day. We’ve travelled to NZ a couple of times and what impressed me was that every little town seems to have a memorial to those who served in WW1. I looked into it and found that with a population of 1 million in 1914 almost 5% of the population were casualties; 17,000 of their soldiers died. That level of loss equates to about 500 dead from Westport.
Today is also Liberation Day (Festa della Liberazione) in Italy. It commemorates the victory of the Italian resistance movement against Nazism and Italian Fascism.
I visited the ANZAC memorial in Wellington New Zealand in January 2020.The site is located above the city center with a good view. The monuments there are very moving. One is a sculpture of a tree with metal trunks twisted together and stained glass leaves of varying colors. The plaque beside it says: They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.