ANZAC day

Today is ANZAC day, a memorial day for New Zealand's military service. It's particularly a commemoration of the World Wars.

Many of us have heard of Gallipoli, the campaign during WWI when Allied forces tried to take Istanbul. Some of you may remember the movie by Peter Weir, with Mel Gibson. It was a disaster and many lives were lost on both sides of the line, with a total of almost 100,000 people dead and over 200,000 wounded overall. A large proportion of the Allied forces were from Australia and New Zealand. To commemorate both the newly created military alliance (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps: ANZAC) and their heavy losses Australia and New Zealand created ANZAC day. Many people wear paper poppies, and eat ANZAC biscuits. The biscuits (kind of an oatmeal cookies) were the food of soldiers, kind of like sailors' hard-tack. Some ceremonies also conclude with a "gunfire breakfast", also common to soldiers, which is merely a tin-cup of rum and coffee.

One of the most poignant stories of World War 2 is that of John Pohe, the Maori New Zealand pilot who was a part of the Great Escape. John's plane went down in the English channel and he was sent to the infamous German POW camp. He was one of the 70 or so men to escape, but was eventually captured and shot by the Nazis. His family was very private about his death up to know because they were so upset by it.

Here's hoping that the more we remember the losses of war, the more we'll all work for peace.