Background: On 29 Mar 2014 I competed in a speech contest in Cairns. I didn’t take out any prizes but I thought I’d share the text as I feel it’s a good commemoration of the upcoming ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) anniversary on 25 Apr 2014. It’s a fictional account – based on my research – about the first ANZAC Day as seen through the eyes of one soldier who was there for the fateful landing in 1915. It’s loosely based on another article I wrote back in 2010 titled, “Hop out and after em lads – The First ANAC Day.”
Photo: From the State Library of South Australia on Flickr.
The First ANZAC Day
Date: 25 April 1915, Sunday
Time: 4 a.m.
Location: 6 km off the coastline of Gallipoli.
Vehicle: A lifeboat holding 28 Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) soldiers and a crew of sailors.
Who: Sandford Shaw; everyone calls him Sandy; 27 years old, born in Baltimore and joined the ANZACs from a place called Broadmeadows about 16 km outside of Melbourne
Ladies and gentlemen,
I wonder what Sandy was thinking; what he was feeling during this fateful boat journey. And, I wonder what I can learn from Sandy? What can he teach me about things like … courage?
Just imagine, if we could listen in on Sandy’s thoughts? Imagine if we could see what he sees, feel what he feels as he – and his fellow ANZACs – make the final boat journey to the beach at Gallipoli on the very first ANZAC Day … ?
(I walk over to a chair and pick up a blue flight cap and put it on as I take on the persona of Sandy on the first ANZAC Day …)
Brrrr … I’m freezing. My warm coat is folded up in my pack – per orders of the officers! Now, every time a blast of cold sea mist comes over the side of the boat I get a serious case of the shivers.
We’re part of a huge landing force; heading for a place called Gallipoli; never heard of it before. The officers keep telling us we need to take it from the Turks.
But, my main focus right now – is staying alive once this boat ride is over.
I’m looking around at my fellow soldiers; my mates; I see Bill, John, Frank; there’s Sgt Jones. They all have focused blank stares. I wonder what they’re thinking. Are they nervous? Are they worried?
But, most of all, I want to know if they’re scared? Somehow I feel if they’re not scared, I won’t be either. I’m looking for someone to tell me it’s going to be ok; someone to tell me I’m going to make it.
I hear gunfire. It’s a terrifying sound. It’s coming at us.
I’m looking over at a sailor trying to pick up his mate who’s curled up on the floor. Now he’s standing up and yelling, “I can’t get him up sir. He’s too frightened.” Oh, he shouldn’t have stood up, he just got hit with a bullet to the back and collapsed on the deck; he’s … dead.
But, there’s no time to grieve.
The Turks keep pounding us with punishing firepower. It’s as if Thor – the God of Thunder – is in a mad rage and we’ve become the anvil for his mighty hammer.
Wait! A crazy thing just happened. You see, a few days ago the officers told us the Turkish gunfire would sound like, “little birds flying overhead.”
Well, just now, Private Smith yelled out, “Just like little birds, ain’t they?”
As soon as he said it, everyone in the boat – including the sailors – burst out laughing.
Now, the scared, nervous tension is broken. I feel better; I feel stronger; I feel braver.
I hear the command … a distant voice; in a clear and almost joyful manner, it sends me leaping over the side; “Hop out and after ‘em, lads!”
(Now I walk over to the chair, take off my flight cap and place it back on the chair …)
Ladies and gentlemen, what happened to Sandy?
Did he make it?
Did he survive the first ANZAC Day?
I don’t know.
But, I know this … Sandy inspires me. He faced a dangerous, a dreadful, a deadly, unknown – and he faced it with courage.
And, that inspires me.
If Sandy can face the unknown of the first ANZAC Day, then what’s my excuse?
If Sandy can hop out of the boat on that first ANAC Day, then why can’t I hop out of bed every morning and get excited about the opportunities and possibilities before me?
After all – so far in my life – I’ve never hopped out of bed in the morning and had an army of soldiers shooting at me; trying to kill me.
So, what’s my excuse?
I don’t have one.
You see, Sandy’s taken them all away.