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Australia, New Zealand honour military personnel from home as coronavirus scuppers parades

By Colin Packham

 

A combination picture shows the Lone Pine Australian memorial on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Canakkale province, Turkey, April 25, 2019 (top) and after the commemorations marking the 105th anniversary of the World War One battle of Gallipoli have been cancelled due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, April 24, 2020 (bottom). REUTERS/Kemal Aslan, Mehmet Caliskan

 

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Thousands of people across Australia and New Zealand on Saturday honoured their country's military personnel in private ceremonies held in driveways and on balconies as the coronavirus outbreak forced traditional Anzac Day memorials to be cancelled for the first time in decades.

 

Scores of people in Australia and New Zealand typically attend dawn services or marches on April 25 to commemorate the bloody battle on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey during World War One.

 

But with mass gatherings now banned in order to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, authorities asked locals to hold mini-services at their homes.

 

Dubbed "stand at dawn," New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern stood on her driveway along with her fiancé and his father.

 

"This year a new threat faces all nations as the impact of the coronavirus deepens worldwide," Ardern said in an emailed statement.

 

"As we face these significant challenges, we remember the courage of those who have served in the name of peace and justice."

 

In Australia people also flocked to beaches to light candles and honour the country’s military, who have fought in many worldwide conflicts.

 

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison was one of just a handful of people allowed to attend a ceremony at the country's national war memorial.

 

Morrison on Friday called on locals to honour those who have served in the country's military in whatever way they can.

 

"It is an opportunity for all of us to gather as our nation remembers its fallen and its heroes and reflects on the great values that sustain them at other times,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra.

 

On April 25, 1915, thousands of troops from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) were among a larger Allied force that landed on the narrow beaches of the Gallipoli peninsula, an ill-fated campaign that would claim more than 130,000 lives.

 

While the Gallipoli campaign against the Turks failed, the landing date of April 25 has become a major day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand for their troops killed in all military conflicts.

 

First held in 1916, an Anzac Day parade was last cancelled amid the outbreak of Spanish flu in 1918.

 

(Reporting by Colin Packham in Sydney; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-04-25

 

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[thaibeachlovers]

Apparently the first time since 1916 that parades have not been held in NZ.

[torturedsole]

Amen.  Forget C19.  The war to end all wars. 

[Odysseus123]

LEST WE FORGET.

 

[xylophone]

I will shed a silent tear for those who died in this terrible conflict.

 

The loss of so many young lives, many as a result of the bumbling hierarchy, still saddens me.

 

Around 10% of NZ's population fought in WW1 and 60% of those became casualties. 

Edited April 25, 2020 by xylophone

[samran]

Lest we forget.

[thaibeachlovers]

50 minutes ago, xylophone said:

I will shed a silent tear for those who died in this terrible conflict.

 

The loss of so many young lives, many as a result of the bumbling hierarchy, still saddens me.

 

Around 10% of NZ's population fought in WW1 and 60% of those became casualties. 

Not forgetting those without physical wounds that were mentally destroyed.

 

What we all seem to forget are those that waited at home, whose sons, husbands, fathers, brothers, lovers never came back or came back wrecked. The nation must have been enveloped in sorrow. I can't even imagine how awful it must have been for those that lost people they loved, but there is no memorial for them, and no books are written about them.

[AtlasAus]

Lest we forget. 

[evadgib]

31 minutes ago, AtlasAus said:

Lest we forget. 

We Poms haven't...

Fovant Badges

[xylophone]

49 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Not forgetting those without physical wounds that were mentally destroyed.

 

What we all seem to forget are those that waited at home, whose sons, husbands, fathers, brothers, lovers never came back or came back wrecked. The nation must have been enveloped in sorrow. I can't even imagine how awful it must have been for those that lost people they loved, but there is no memorial for them, and no books are written about them.

Good point, and my great-grandfather came back after having being gassed and although he didn't die there and then, apparently he was never the same again and did eventually die of complications from it.

 

My great grandmother remained single for the rest of her life and I often wonder how it affected her, although she was never one for showing emotions, as many of the older folks weren't that way inclined. If there was sadness, she kept it well hidden, as I think many did from that era.

 

In the Second World War my father served with the Eighth Army, under Montgomery, in North Africa and was at El Alamein, before moving over to Italy to fight, quite possibly via Crete.

 

He never said anything about the war or his experiences – – nothing, ever, and I often wonder how it affected him inside.