St John's Cathedral, Brisbane and the Anzac Legend

Two perspectives from

“I remember it was fabulous coming into Anzac Cove late at night—it was lit up like Luna Park and I thought, there’s going to be a bit of fun here, as well as a chance to help the Old Country [Britain]. Then the bullets and the shells started coming, and they never stopped day and night…That’s when I learnt the meaning of the word fear. “…Whenever someone had to go over the top the captain would blow a whistle. I’d see them go up and over and most times get shot. Whenever that whistle blew, my stomach would turn over…Then it was my turn…the whistle blew, and the whole of the 1st Infantry Brigade jumped out to attack Lone Pine. Then the fear reaction grabs you…Just before you leap out, your hands sweat, your mouth goes dry, your heart races like it’s going to stop, and you feel like having a dry retch. Some men even…[soil]…themselves. It’s no shame— you realise this could be it…But the fear makes you run and fight like a madman…grappling, stabbing, slashing…dying. “By the second day of this, the bodies were piled four and five deep, and we just fought on top of them. By the third day I was one of them…I can’t remember anything else till I woke up on the hospital ship with no leg.…war is hell and stupid…We should never have been there—it wasn’t our war, particularly against Turkey. The politicians and British generals lost 2,000 of us over those few days at Lone Pine. Sure, seven VCs were won, the most ever, but we were all wasted.” Words from an Australian trooper called “Joe” quoted in Peter Dornan, The Silent Men (Allen and Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 1999)

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