bundy

Has anyone been over to Turkey for the Anzac Day services? Mr Bundy has his heart set on going this year and I'm trying to find out more info about it.

dugongs

Get hold of a copy of TNT - there are loads of organised trips for aussies and kiwis in the UK.

http://www.tntmagazine.com/uk/

bundy

Done that, but there are so many that it's a bit daunting to know which are the good tours and which are the dodgy ones, so I was hoping that someone with some experience of this could chuck in a few pointers.

But thanks for the advice!

OzTennis

I haven't been bundy but quite a few relatives went in 1915 (some didn't return). Onour last flight back from Australia (because of the war in Iraq) we went straight over Istanbul and looking down we could see the Bosphorus etc and I was wondering where Gallipoli was. It is amazing to see 2 continents at the same time and to see how spread out Istanbul was (I could even pick out Galatasaray's ground). I thought it was poignant that Steve Waugh had taken the Australian cricket team to Gallipoli the last time they came out for the Ashes tests in the UK (puts sport in perspective I reckon).

Getting back to Mr B and his hopes on visiting, I would guess that Quest, Austravel, Flight Centre, Bridge the World etc would have experience in organising trips there for other Aussies.

http://phobos.astro.uwo.ca/~sshorlin/matilda.html

And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda
- by Eric Bogle

Now when I was a young man I carried my pack
And lived the free life of the rover
From the Murray's Green Basin to the dusty outback
I waltzed my Matilda all over
Then in 1915 my country said "Son,
It's time you stopped rambling, there's work to be done."
So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun
And they mached me away to the war

And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As the ship pulled away from the quay
And amidst all the cheers, flag waving and tears
We sailed off for Gallipoli

And how well I remember that terrible day
How our blood stained the sand and the water
And of how in that hell that they called Souvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter
'Johnny Turk' he was ready, he'd primed himself well
He rained us with bullets and he showered us with shell
And in five minutes flat he'd blown us all to hell
Nearly blew us right back to Australia

And the band played Waltzing Matilda
While we stopped to bury our slain
We buried ours and the Turks buried theirs
Then it started all over again

And those that were left, well we tried to survive
In that mad world of death, blood and fire
And for ten weary weeks I kept myself alive
Though around me the corpses piled higher
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse-over-head
And when I awoke in my hospital bed
And saw what it had done, well, I wished I was dead
Never knew there was worse things than dying

For I'll go no more waltzing Matilda
All around the green bush far and free
For to hump tent and pegs a man needs both legs
No more waltzing Matilda for me

So, they collected the wounded, the crippled, the maimed
And shipped us back home to Australia
The legless, the armless, the blind, the insane
The proud, wounded heroes of Souvla
And when our ship pulled into Circular Quay
I looked at the place where my legs used to be
And thanked Christ there was no one there waiting for me
To grieve and to mourn and to pity

But the band played Waltzing Matilda
As they carried us down the gangway
But nobody cheered, they just stood there and stared
Then they turned all their faces away

So now every April I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me
I see my old comrades, how proudly they march
Reliving old dreams and past glories
And the old men march slowly, old bones stiff and sore
They're tired old heroes of a forgotten war
And the young people ask "What are they marching for?"
And I ask myself the same question

But the band plays Waltzing Matilda
And the old men still answer the call
But as year follows year, more old men disappear
Some day no one will march there at all

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll go a'waltzing Matilda with me?
And their ghosts may be heard as they march by that billabong
Who'll come a'waltzing Matilda with me?


OzTennis (no smiley for this one)

bundy

Thanks for that OzTennis. Although we covered WWI in depth at school, we never learnt anything about Gallipoli, so it's only through Mr Bundy that I am getting to know a bit more. I've just bought a book on it, so I'm hoping that will help. A great number of my relatives fought and were killed in Flanders, so I can sympathise with Mr Bundy's wish to go out there are pay his respects. Only problem is that we might have left it to late to book, which is a shame.

bundy

And thanks for this too. Sobering, isn't it?

Pollster

Was trying to remember the tune, and found this link with a bit of chat on it too....

http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/matilda.html

bundy

Thanks for that Pollster - Mr Bundy will appreciate that link too.

OzTennis

Exactly bundy. Can you believe the same man, Eric Bogle (from Peebles, Scotland, moved to Adelaide in the 70's) wrote another very sobering song about the Green fields of France. Many versions have been recorded - it was a number 1 for the Fureys.

How do you do young Willie McBride,
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside,
And rest for a while 'neath the warm Summer sun,
I've been walking all day and I'm nearly done
I see by your gravestone you were only 19
when you joined the great fall-in in 1916
I hope you died well and I hope you died clean
Or young Willie McBride was it slow and obscene.

Did they beat the drum slowly did they play the fife lowly
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
Did the band play the Last Post and Chorus
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest

Did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined
Although you died back in 1916
In that faithful heart are you forever 19
Or are you a stranger without even a name
Enclosed then forever behind a glass frame
In an old photograph torn, battered and stained
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame.

Did they beat the drum slowly did they play the fife lowly
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
Did the band play the Last Post and Chorus
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest

The sun now it shines on the green fields of France
There's a warm summer breeze makes the red poppies dance
And look how the sun shines from under the clouds
There's no gas, no barbwire, there's no guns firing now
But here in this graveyard it's still no man's land
the countless white crosses stand mute in the sand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man
To a whole generation that were butchered and damned.

Did they beat the drum slowly did they play the fife lowly
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
Did the band play the Last Post and Chorus
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest

Now young Willie McBride I can't help wonder why
Do those who lie here know why did they die
Did they believe when they answered the call
Did they really believe that this war would end wars
Well the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the pain
The killing and the dying were all done in vain
For young Willie McBride it all happened again,
And again and again and again and again

Did they beat the drum slowly did they play the fife lowly
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
Did the band play the Last Post and Chorus
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest

OzTennis

dugongs

I think more Brits should go to reflect the fact that it was not just aussies and kiwis that perished whilst also acknowledging the vast contribution made by these foreign troops. In fact soldiers from all over the commonwealth and beyond were involved in a series of attacks and maybe this gets overlooked sometimes in the ANZAC coverage. Not to mention the Turks on the other side.

The losses on this campaign seem impossible to comprehend to me in the 21st century.

CHnJ

I actually took at look at some sites on reading this thread, and I also was appalled at the scale of human misery. The Australians quite rightly felt that because 8,000 of their people were killed they weren't inclined to follow London's lead quite so closely in future. What I didn't know is that Britain lost 25,000 men and the Turks lost 80,000. Other nations lost people as well - even India lost 1000 people. The scale of loss of life in all these nations through the first world war was so huge that 25,000 men didn't even really rate much consideration in UK history. I'd also always assumed that the whole thing had been a stupid idea in the first place, but the original plan actually made a lot of sense. I'm glad the Australians keep going to this place as this world should never be allowed to forget what was allowed to happen in the first half of the 20th Century.

OzTennis

With you on that dugongs. I couldn't understand at school why it was called the 'Great War'. My grandfather fought at Gallipoli and in the trenches in France and he told me all about the horrors of war in his latter years. The song ATBPWM always makes me think of him especially (and I have a tear in my eye everytime).

OzTennis

OzTennis

It would appear that the leaders and decision makers have forgotten what happened in WW1, WW2, Korea, Vietnam, Middle East, Iraq etc because it keeps happening. There used to be a theory that major wars happen every 25 years - WW1, WW2, Vietnam and the Middle East followed this pattern, Iray came in a little quicker. Probably 25 years is enough time for the next generation to forget.

OzTennis

OzTennis

That was an unintentional typo - Iraq not Ira(y), that one's another conflict.

OzT

CHnJ

I agree. Maybe the UN should train some Commandos to capture every world leader in turn and take them there, or The Somme, or Dachau or into the living rooms of widows in Palestine, Belgrade, Panama, Buenos Aries, or Grenada etc. etc. etc.