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Events

14 April 1916

By April 14, 2016No Comments
  • “A large and representative gathering” meets at the Orange Town Hall to decide on a programme of events to commemorate the first anniversary of the Gallipoli landing. They also discuss the raising of funds for a soldiers’ memorial. Anzac Day
  • The Australian Minister for Defence announces that Australian WWI troops currently number 233,729. Australian Troops
  • No. 1 Squadron of the Australian Flying Corps arrives in Egypt
  • The Battle of Lake Naroch ends as Commander of the Russian Second Army, General Alexander Ragoza, launches a final but futile attack to dislodge the Germans. The month-long offensive, intended to relieve German pressure on French forces at Verdun, has completely failed; Russian casualties number 110,000 (12,000 of which are from frostbite), more than five times the Germans’ 20,000. The Battle of Lake Naroch
  • Royal Naval Air Service aircraft, flying from Mudros, attack Constantinople and Adrianople
  • The Leader publishes the poem Anzac Day by Mohun Asfordby-Trenchard

Men of Anzac! Name of splendour!
Heroes gentle, mirthful, tender;
Of that deadliest spot you made,
A monument, that shall not fade
Till noble deeds are done in vain,
And courage is despised by men.

Years shall come and years shall pass
Many things forgotten be,
But that sand and flaming grass,
And that shell-lashed, wired sea.
While our nations shall endure,
Makes they crown of glory sure.

Not in vain at Anzac died.
Australasia’s splendid sons.
Ere our people’s tears are dried,
Song and legend round thee runs,
Wars nor changes can efface,
What the Anzacs did for thee,
Making thee a Shrine, a place.
Consecrate to Liberty.