Siren & Brian

Anyone joining us for the dawn service on Monday.


Here is a site that lists services in all states of Australia

ANZAC day services

ProofReader

Highly unlikely, methinks, that we'll make it to the dawn service this year as we're having a get together of friends on Sunday evening before departing for UK on 27th.

However, am determined to get into town for the march. It's totally different to watching it on TV and well worth the visit (especially if you know some of those marching).

For info about ANZAC Day.

OzTennis

And worth reflecting on those affected like my dear old grandfather who fought in WW1 and came back an amputee. This song especially makes me think of him and all those who were wounded and killed:

And the Band played Waltzing Matilda by Eric Bogle

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

And the band played "Waltzing Matilda,"
As the ship pulled away from the quay,
And amidst all the cheers, the 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 call Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter.
Johnny Turk, he was waitin', he primed himself well;
He showered us with bullets, and he rained us with shell --
And in five minutes flat, he'd blown us all to hell,
Nearly blew us right back to Australia.

But the band played "Waltzing Matilda,"
When we stopped to bury our slain,
Well, we buried ours, and the Turks buried theirs,
Then we started all over again.

And those that were left, well, we tried to survive
In that mad world of blood, death 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 woke up in me 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 --
To hump tents and pegs, a man needs both legs,
No more "Waltzing Matilda" for me.

So they gathered the crippled, the wounded, the maimed,
And they shipped us back home to Australia.
The armless, the legless, the blind, the insane,
Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla.

And as our ship sailed into Circular Quay,
I looked at the place where me legs used to be,
And thanked Christ there was nobody waiting for me,
To grieve, to mourn and to pity.

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

And so now every April, I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me.
And I see my old comrades, how proudly they march,
Reviving old dreams of past glory,

And the old men march slowly, all bones stiff and sore,
They're tired old heroes from a forgotten war
And the young people ask "What are they marching for?"
And I ask meself 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
Someday, no one will march there at all.

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

OzTennis

MrsDagboy

I love that song too OzT.

The boys school had a service today which Dagboy went to (I had to stay home) & the boys are off to the dawn service & then the wreath laying service with the scouts on Monday.

ProofReader

History of the Last Post

Before the invention of the loud hailer system, drums and bugles were used to regulate the soldier’s day. Every part of the routine was ordered by either a drum beat or a bugle call, beginning with Reveille and ending the day with the Last Post. Some of the intervening calls were, Parade, Mess calls, Officers Dinner call, some 60 in all. On top of this the cavalry had another 20 or so calls.

Why is it called the Last Post? It all began in the 17th century when it was known as the Tattoo. The duty officer did the rounds of the sentry posts starting with First Post, making sure they were all manned and while doing so packing off duty soldiers back to their beds or billets. If the soldiers were in barracks they had to be in bed, if in billets inside, by the Last Post.

The origin of the Tattoo came from the Dutch, doe den tap toe, meaning turn off the taps. For all the pubs to bung the beer barrels and serve no more grog. This is the reason the US services call it Taps.

The Last Post was incorporated into the funeral and memorial services as a final farewell, and symbolises that the duty of the soldier is done and they can rest in peace.


Words of the Last Post

Fading light dims the sight,
And a star gems the sky, gleaming bright.
From afar drawing nigh - falls the night.

Day is done, gone the sun,
From the lake, from the hills, from the sky;
All is well, safely rest, God is nigh.

Then good night, peaceful night,
Till the light of the dawn shineth bright;
God is near, do not fear - friend, good night.

OzTennis

Yeah, best version (as usual) by the writer, Eric Bogle (who is a BE from Peebles in Scotland). Also, Green Fields of France a.k.a. No Man's Land -again best version by Bogle. Interesting story - Bogle was looking at all the gravestones in one of the Flanders cemeteries and saw one for William McBride who he assumed was Scottish and sitting by his graveside he got the inspiration for the song. The Furey's had a #1 with it and thought WMcB might have been Irish. As it says, it's all happening, again and again and again. Man never learns.

Shane McGowan has been known to wreck these songs. John Williamson does a good version of ATBPWM (and True Blue).

Sorry to make the thread musical but so often poignant things are best expressed this way.

OzTennis

hevs

OZ T I love that song and i love Shanes murdered version, LOVE it, but then my foster brother was a mad bad punk and if i didn't listen i would have been hurt :scared:

SunshineGirl

No, we're still in the UK but certainly would if we were in Oz.

These sacrifices need to be remembered and honoured.

And let's not forget the 137,000 horses that were sent to Gallipolli from Australia and never returned.

***
THE HORSES STAY BEHIND

In days to come we'll wander west and cross the range again,
We'll hear the bush birds singing in the green trees after rain,
We'll canter through the Mitchell grass and breast the bracing wind,
But we'll have other horses. Our horses stay behind.

Around the fire at night we'll yarn about old Sinai,
We'll fight our battles o'er again, and as the days go by
There'll be old mates to greet us. The bush girls will be kind.
Still our thoughts will often wander to the horses left behind.

I don't think I could stand the thought of my old fancy hack
Just crawling around old Cairo with a Gyppo on his back.
Perhaps some English tourist out in Palestine may find
My broken hearted waler with a wooden plough behind.

No, I think I'd better shoot him and tell a little lie;
He foundered in a wombat hole and then lay down to die
Maybe I'll get court-martialed, but I'm damned if I'm inclined
To go back to Australia and leave my horse behind.

Trooper Bluegum

***

THE LAST PARADE

With never a sound of trumpet, with never a flag displayed,
The last of the old campaigners lined up for the last parade.
Weary they were and battered, shoeless and knocked about;
From under their ragged forelocks, their hungry eyes looked out.

And they watched as the old commander read out, to the cheering men,
The Nation's thanks and the orders to carry them home again.
And the last of the old campaigners, sinewy, lean, and spare --
He spoke for his hungry comrades: Have we not done our share?

Starving and tired and thirsty, we limped on the blazing plain;
And after a long night's picket You saddled us up again.
We froze on the windswept kopjes, when the frost lay snowy white.
Never a halt in the daytime,never a rest at night!

We knew when the rifles rattled, from the hillside bare and brown,
And over our weary shoulders we felt warm blood run down.
As we turned for the stretching gallop, crushed to the earth with weight;
But we carried our riders through it -- Carried them p'raps too late.

Steel! We were steel to stand it -- we that have lasted through,
We that are old campaigners, Pitiful, poor ' and few.

Over the sea you brought us, over the leagues of foam:
Now we have served you fairly, Will you not take us home?
Home to the Hunter River, to the flats where the lucerne grows;
Home where the Murrumbidgee runs white with the melted snows.

This is a small thing, surely! Will you not give command
That the last of the old campaigners go back to their native land?

They looked at the grim commander, but never a sign he made.
"Dismiss!" and the old campaigners moved off from their last parade.

A B Paterson.

Ialibu

[QUOTE=OzTennis]And worth reflecting on those affected like my dear old grandfather who fought in WW1 and came back an amputee. This song especially makes me think of him and all those who were wounded and killed:

And the Band played Waltzing Matilda by Eric Bogle
.....

Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over head,
And when I woke up in me hospital bed
And saw what it had done, well, I wished I was dead --
Never knew there was worse things than dying."

When I get Americans blathering on about how great they are and how well they are doing in Iraq, Afghanistan etc., I quote the above lines.

Scossie

Yup. as I said before, we're going.
Bit of a double occasion for me, as ANZAC Day is the day that my Mum died.

Hope that the monument will be ready. The scaffolding around it came down last week, but I drove through Kings Park last Monday & the fences were still up around it.

Teresa

Yes Oliver and I are going to the service then onto parade after (Graham is away on his camping trip)

Simone

We'll go to the March and the other service, because I just know I won't be able to get up at 5am



bump!

Deadmeat

On a related note, has anyone seen the latest McDonalds Anzac advert running in Oz, the one with the "moral" message?

Makes me hurl, it's the most evil bit of advertising I've seen in a while.

Maybe if the poor buggers weren't eating in Mucky D's then they'd've lived longer.

But, yeh, I'll probably be up early with the sun (by necessity, granted) and yes, I'll give more than a passing thought to all those whose bravery has enabled me to live in a "free" world.

Siren & Brian

Nup cant say I have seen it, but then again I rarely watch commercial TV. There should be some things that are hands off when comes to advertising.

Vegemite Kids

We'll be at the dawn service in Kings Park !