World War I Reminders

Some of my regular readers might know that April 25th is ANZAC Day in Australia and New Zealand, commemorating the day when the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) troops first landed at Gallipoli. By the time that unsuccessful campaign ended, 8,700 Australian soldiers and 2,700 Kiwi soldiers had died. 

The campaign has been immortalized in film (Gallipoli, one of Mel Gibson's positive contributions to cinema) and song (I'll get to that in a bit). If you've never watched Gallipoli and feel a need to renew your anti-war stance, Gallipoli will do it. As I've learned this year, so will almost anything else that gives a moderately realistic view of the horrors of trench warfare. I had read some classic World War I fiction and poetry in the past, but this year seems to be the year of the first world war for me and the inhumanity of war has screamed out loud and clear.

In particular, Birdsong, a novel by Sebastian Faulk, caught me off-guard. It's part of the famous list of posts past. Yes, I'm still working my way through those hundred books. Many of the books I haven't read are books I know very little about, so when I borrowed Birdsong from the library, I didn't know what I was getting myself into. Turns out that much of the novel is very graphic description of life in and under the trenches, with several key characters being members of a unit working to tunnel under and blow up the German trenches.

Much less graphic, but still a vivid reminder was, of all things, Downton Abbey's WWI episodes. They were the first bookend of my fictional foray into the trenches. I don't think I've yet come to the end of it and that's ok. As awful as it was to see and read about the horrors and incredible waste of trench warfare, it was infinitely worse to live (or die) through it or any other war and it's important to remember the sacrifices and work to make sure there aren't more in the future.

And so, on the American eve of ANZAC Day (it's almost over in the countries that actually celebrate it already), I'll leave you with a very classic song about Gallipoli, The Band Played Waltzing Matilda, as performed very nicely by The Pogues.