Auckland War Memorial Museum and Cenotaph

Anzac Day on April 25 th, is a national day of Remembrance in New Zealand and Australia, for the Dead of all wars that our countries have participated in. The word Anzac comes from Australia and New Zealand Army Corps and came into parlance after the Allied invasion of Turkey at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915. Casualties were enormous on all sides, and the invasion ended in failure and withdrawal after 8 months. The tragic experience of our troops under Imperial command, was the beginning of the sense of Nationhood and separation from the Colonial mentality of  Great Britain, the King and Empire of the WW1 era.

When you travel around New Zealand and Australia, it seems every town has a memorial for the dead of both World Wars. The losses from WW1 especially were heavy. It is poignant to see the names, often of more than one from the same family, and to reflect on the price they paid.

My grandfathers were at the right age for WW1.  Thomas Edwin Olds was badly wounded at the Somme, but survived to a full life as The Reverend Thomas Olds, married to Daisy Calvert, with two daughters, Kathleen (my mother) and Margaret, and one son, David Leonard. John Thompson Kelly, an apothecary’s assistant in England before the war, served in ‘ The Forgotten Army of  Salonika’ , survived to marry Florence Emily Riddell, and emigrated to New Zealand to become a dairy farmer in the King Country of the North Island (so-called because of the Maori King movement of the 1850s). They had two sons, John Riddell (my father) and James Alexander and a daughter, Barbara.

This next generation were just at the right age for service in WW2. When once I asked my father, a farm boy, why he volunteered in 1942 at the age of 20 yrs, he said they were worried they’d miss the chance to travel, and the war would be over before they got there. In 1945, at age 23 yrs, I’m sure he felt differently. He had served as Artillery Gunner in the Pacific, landing on the Treasury Islands in the Solomon Group, and then later in Italy, witnessing the end of the war in Trieste, even caught a jeep ride with a Soviet major on a little excursion outside Trieste. Fortunately for me, he came home in one piece. His brother Alex served in the Royal New Zealand Navy as a signaller first on HMNZS Kaiwaka, a coastal minesweeper, then transferred to the Aircraft Carrier HMS Patroller, which was in commissioning trials in the North Irish sea. His majesty no longer needed him after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

My mother Kathleen saw her elder brother David go off to train as a fighter pilot in the US, he served in the Fleet Air Arm, saw action over the Normandy landings, came back to England as an instructor, married his beautiful Greek fiance and 3 weeks later was killed when his plane crashed into the sea on a student training flight. Sub-Lieutenant David Leonard Olds, Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve, died 21 August 1944, aged 23 years. Buried at St Bartholomews Churchyard Yeovilton in England.

 What motivates people on both sides of a conflict, to sacrifice their lives and liberty?  In WW1 it was Empire and Honour. In WW2 it was the threat of Naziism and Fascism. The Cold War was about Communism. The War on Terror is about religious extremism. The cost is not just the actual destruction of life and property, but the aftermath of families and communities destroyed, the absence of lives not lived, the agonies of lifelong physical and mental damage. 

Is war necessary for human civilisation to progress? I don’t believe so. To quote Dwight D Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe in WW2, 34th president of the USA      “I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.” To quote Jimi Hendrix,  rockstar guitarist      “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” And finally Bhudda      “Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.” Jesus “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. “   Muhammad “Do you love your creator? Love your fellow-beings first”  

Peace, out  )

How do you feel ?