ANZAC Day remembered

kiwikid


Joined: 18/08/2008
Posts: 496

Message Posted:
24/04/2009 15:39

Its ANZAC day tomorrow a day to remember all Australian and New Zealand's fallen men and women in the Forces. I was set this from my uncle and thought I would share it with you all.

Anzac on the Wall



A must to read for us all...LEST WE FORGET .



The Anzac on the Wall

I wandered thru a country town 'cos I had time to spare,

And went into an antique shop to see what was in there.

Old Bikes and pumps and kero lamps, but hidden by it all,

A photo of a soldier boy - an Anzac on the Wall.



'The Anzac have a name?' I asked. The old man answered 'No,.

The ones who could have told me mate, have passed on long ago.

The old man kept on talking and, according to his tale,

The photo was unwanted junk bought from a clearance sale.



'I asked around,' the old man said, 'but no one knows his face,

He's been on that wall twenty years, deserves a better place.

For some one must have loved him so, it seems a shame somehow.'

I nodded in agreement and then said, 'I'll take him now.'

kiwikid


Joined: 18/08/2008
Posts: 496

Message Posted:
24/04/2009 15:40

My nameless digger's photo, well it was a sorry sight

A cracked glass pane and a broken frame - I had to make it right

To prise the photo from its frame I took care just in case,

'Cause only sticky paper held the cardboard back in place.



I peeled away the faded screed and much to my surprise,

Two letters and a telegram appeared before my eyes

The first reveals my Anzac's name, and regiment of course

John Mathew Francis Stuart - of Australia's own Light Horse.



This letter written from the front, my interest now was keen

This note was dated August seventh 1917

'Dear Mum, I'm at Khalasa Springs not far from the Red Sea

They say it's in the Bible - looks like Billabong to me.



'My Kathy wrote I'm in her prayers she's still my bride to be

I just cant wait to see you both you're all the world to me

And Mum you'll soon meet Bluey, last month they shipped him out

I told him to call on you when he's up and about.'

kiwikid


Joined: 18/08/2008
Posts: 496

Message Posted:
24/04/2009 15:41

'That bluey is a larrikin, and we all thought it funny

He lobbed a Turkish hand grenade into the Co's dunny.

I told you how he dragged me wounded in from no man's land

He stopped the bleeding closed the wound with only his bare hand.'



'Then he copped it at the front from some stray shrapnel blast

It was my turn to drag him in and I thought he wouldn't last

He woke up in hospital, and nearly lost his mind

Cause out there on the battlefield he'd left one leg behind.'



'He's been in a bad way mum, he knows he'll ride no more

Like me he loves a horse's back he was a champ before.

So Please Mum can you take him in, he's been like my brother

Raised in a Queensland orphanage he' s never known a mother.'



But Struth, I miss Australia mum, and in my mind each day

I am a mountain cattleman on high plains far away

I'm mustering white-faced cattle, with no camel's hump in sight

And I waltz my Matilda by a campfire every night

kiwikid


Joined: 18/08/2008
Posts: 496

Message Posted:
24/04/2009 15:42

I wonder who rides Billy, I heard the pub burnt down

I'll always love you and please say hooroo to all in town'.

The second letter I could see was in a lady's hand

An answer to her soldier son there in a foreign land



Her copperplate was perfect, the pages neat and clean

It bore the date November 3rd 1917.

'T'was hard enough to lose your Dad, without you at the war

I'd hoped you would be home by now - each day I miss you more'



'Your Kathy calls around a lot since you have been away

To share with me her hopes and dreams about your wedding day

And Bluey has arrived - and what a godsend he has been

We talked and laughed for days about the things you've done and seen'



'He really is a comfort, and works hard around the farm,

I read the same hope in his eyes that you wont come to harm.

Mc Connell's kids rode Billy, but suddenly that changed

We had a violent lightning storm, and it was really strange.

kiwikid


Joined: 18/08/2008
Posts: 496

Message Posted:
24/04/2009 15:43

'Last Wednesday just on midnight, not a single cloud in sight

It raged for several minutes, it gave us all a fright

It really spooked your Billy - and he screamed and bucked and reared

And then he rushed the sliprail fence, which by a foot he cleared'



'They brought him back next afternoon, but something's changed I fear

It's like the day you brought him home, for no one can get near

Remember when you caught him with his black and flowing mane?

Now Horse breakers fear the beast that only you can tame,'



'That's why we need you home son' - then the flow of ink went dry-

This letter was unfinished, and I couldn't work out why.

Until I started reading the letter number three

A yellow telegram delivered news of tragedy



Her son killed in action - oh - what pain that must have been

The Same date as her letter - 3rd November 17

This letter which was never sent, became then one of three

She sealed behind the photo's face - the face she longed to see.

kiwikid


Joined: 18/08/2008
Posts: 496

Message Posted:
24/04/2009 15:44

And John's home town's old timers -children when he went to war

Would say no greater cattleman had left the town before.

They knew his widowed mother well - and with respect did tell

How when she lost her only boy she lost her mind as well.



She could not face the awful truth, to strangers she would speak

'My Johnny's at the war you know , he's coming home next week.'

They all remembered Bluey he stayed on to the end

A younger man with wooden leg became her closest friend



And he would go and find her when she wandered old and weak

And always softly say 'yes dear - John will be home next week.'

Then when she died Bluey moved on, to Queensland some did say

I tried to find out where he went, but don't know to this day



And Kathy never wed - a lonely spinster some found odd

She wouldn't set foot in a church - she'd turned her back on God

John's mother left no will I learned on my detective trail

This explains my photo's journey, that clearance sale

kiwikid


Joined: 18/08/2008
Posts: 496

Message Posted:
24/04/2009 15:45

So I continued digging cause I wanted to know more

I found John's name with thousands in the records of the war

His last ride proved his courage - a ride you will acclaim

The Light Horse Charge at Beersheba of everlasting fame



That last day in October back in 1917

At 4pm our brave boys fell - that sad fact I did glean

That's when John's life was sacrificed, the record's crystal clear

But 4pm in Beersheba is midnight over here.......



So as John's gallant sprit rose to cross the great divide

Were lightning bolts back home a signal from the other side?

Is that why Billy bolted and went racing as in pain?

Because he'd never feel his master on his back again?



Was it coincidental? same time - same day - same date?

Some proof of numerology, or just a quirk of fate?

I think it's more than that, you know, as I've heard wiser men,

Acknowledge there are many things that go beyond our ken

kiwikid


Joined: 18/08/2008
Posts: 496

Message Posted:
24/04/2009 15:46

Where craggy peaks guard secrets neath dark skies torn asunder

Where hoofbeats are companions to the rolling waves of thunder

Where lightning cracks like 303's and ricochets again

Where howling moaning gusts of wind sound just like dying men

Some Mountain cattlemen have sworn on lonely alpine track

They've glimpsed a huge black stallion - Light Horseman on his back.



Yes Sceptics say, it's swirling clouds just forming apparitions

Oh no, my friend you cant dismiss all this as superstition

The desert of Beersheba - or windswept Aussie range

John Stuart rides forever there - Now I don't find that strange.



Now some gaze at this photo, and they often question me

And I tell them a small white lie, and say he's family.

'You must be proud of him.' they say - I tell them, one and all,

That's why he takes the pride of place - my Anzac on the Wall.





I am sorry it was so long but it bought a tear to my eye.



LEST WE FORGET

Angela

Lilli



Joined: 21/07/2008
Posts: 13081

Message Posted:
24/04/2009 16:16

Angela it brought more than a tear to my eyes. So sad. Lest We Forget All The Brave Men and Women throughout the world that are in war zones and to all the fallen heros xxxxxx

Magbs


Joined: 26/02/2009
Posts: 278

Message Posted:
24/04/2009 19:11

Kiwikid,



What a small world. Beer Sheva, the city I live in. We have many sites and projects that expose the nearby ALZAC trail. Two ears ago we had a big ceremony dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Beer Sheva and the famous charge of the Australian Light Horse.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/cavalry-charge-relived/2007/11/01/1193619034748.html



And last year I witnessed very touching ceremony of opening of the park of the Australian Soldier. Today this is one of the popular places for families, my kids always love to go there. There is a great playground nearby but, its amazing, the kids never miss the information stones and the maps about the ANZAC and always ask to tell them the "story"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9yW3cv28vo

Magbs


Joined: 26/02/2009
Posts: 278

Message Posted:
24/04/2009 19:16

btw, we have also the Turkish memorial obelisk located very close to the Commonwealth war cemetery.



http://www.israelinphotos.com/gallery18-BeerSheba.htm

DutchCrusader



Joined: 19/05/2008
Posts: 11280

Message Posted:
24/04/2009 20:30

The "Great War" - I know enough about this era to ask you this: WHAT FOR did all these young men in France/Flanders (millions, many nationalities) and Gallipoli (tens of thousands Allies/Turks/Germans) die?



WHAT do we remember? The men (who are dead now also, but they didn't die of poison gas in the muddy trenches) or the poor youngsters who went because "they" told them to go?



Many lives were shortcutted at the age of 15 and 16. And now a poem. Shame is more in place, I think.

keithcaley



Joined: 13/06/2008
Posts: 2521

Message Posted:
24/04/2009 20:59

Hans,

For myself, I think that we should remember the bravery and sacrifice of those that died to give us our freedom - even if they WERE 'lied to' or otherwise coerced.

I think that we need to remember the needless loss of so many lives, cut short because of the failings of their leaders - both Political and Military.

I think that we should remember the anguish of the families who lost parents, siblings and offspring.

I think that we should remember these lessons, and avoid war as far as is humanly possible.

What was the saying? Jaw-Jaw, not War-War wasn't it?

Sadly, I think that people have short memories, and that the lessons will need to be relearned, over and over.

Keith.

DutchCrusader



Joined: 19/05/2008
Posts: 11280

Message Posted:
24/04/2009 21:21

Keith, may I kindly advise you to read "Forgotten Voices" (you can borrow it from me). It's about the trenches in Western and South-Eastern Europe. Did millions of allies die to give us our freedom? What about the millions of Germans who died?!



"even if they WERE 'lied to' or otherwise coerced." Here you have my problem: I'll support war and remember the outcome with a smile when it's between 20 generals from this and 20 generals from that country. Give 'em a gun and let them loose for a day in Hyde Park. Alas. Generals usually don't die in wars, but the poor 18 years old do.



For me no reason to "remember" the false words of "bravery and sacrifice" - it just makes me sad.

Arthur


Joined: 04/11/2008
Posts: 687

Message Posted:
24/04/2009 22:41

Kiwikid- a moving poem.



No one should question the bravery of the troops, or the original foolishness of politicians who get us all into these situations. however, there are times where war is unavoidable- i.e. WW2. How else would Adolf have been stopped??



May interest DC to know my Dad was a navigator on Lancasters, and their last operations in the war was dropping food supplies to the people starving in The Netherlands.

Arthur


Joined: 04/11/2008
Posts: 687

Message Posted:
24/04/2009 22:44

Kiwikid, almost forgot. When we've been in the brown stuff, the Anzacs have come to our aid.

keithcaley



Joined: 13/06/2008
Posts: 2521

Message Posted:
24/04/2009 23:03

Hans,

I really don't think that we disagree on this.

The useless loss of life on both sides of any conflict in the name of idealism, and occasionally of stupidity, can only be a cause for regret, but I think that we still owe a debt of rememberance, to those who lost their lives in this way.

And they WERE brave, those young men - on both sides - it saddens me too, to think of it.

Keith.

Brinsley


Joined: 04/04/2009
Posts: 6858

Message Posted:
25/04/2009 00:41

KiwiKid



Have a few Steinies with me, damn cold in the Dardanelles this time of year especially at 5 in the Morning.



Richard

Lilli



Joined: 21/07/2008
Posts: 13081

Message Posted:
25/04/2009 08:36

hI Just been watch the dawn cremony on TV .Very moving with thousands turning out to remember.