Online petition to help an elderly Digger get a lousy $25,000 compensation for which he has been fighting. His claim was turned down because payments are for POW and he escaped.

If you'd like to support his cause, here is a link to the petition:

http://www.petition.fm/petitions/helpfred/

They need 20,000 signatures.

I have never been a fan of Warwick Marsh, but I did like some of this article.
I agree with Pynchme that we should pay homage to all our ancestors, friends and relatives who contributed to all the war efforts, and those who continue to do so today.

I have read many accounts of all the female and male medical personnel who served in the wars, and I think they are all just as much heroes as the fighting men and women.

Warwick seems to think the young men of today are not as macho as the men (and women, which he didn't mention of course) who fought in the World Wars I and II. That is a load of crock.

Some young men and women of today already go to war- such as in Afganistan. Aren't these young soldiers all descendants of the old soldiers in one way or another?

I have no doubt at all that in the event of any new wars, our young women and men would face up to the challenge as well as any before them.

Agree with you Suze. My kids are highly patriotic of Australia, their ancestory, and proud of friends in the defence forces.

This week I showed my daughter extra family tree info on her father's previously traced 7th generation side, which includes her great grandfather as a fighter pilot. Then I showed her information about my uncle I'd never met who fought at 19yrs in Gallipoli, Tobruk and a little town outside Tobruk, dying in his third major battle. Dad was born years later and did not know this brother first born.

I then scanned names of all the people who were his cobbers in his batallion. The surnames incredible. Some Riverina peoples surnames I had known, people from my own communities where I was raised [although do not live there now].

I also read extracts regarding his batallion's defence of another country's people. To risk and have your life taken defending Australia and another country's people is precious and rare, particularly as a teenager.

GG Quentin Bryce: " never let go of Anzac Day ". Over 7000 NZ and Ozzies attended the Gallipoli ceremony at Anzac Cove. In the same breath Melbourne youths desecrated a cenotaph. In the ACT, youths dumped rubbish, defecated, and paint graffiti in a memorial. In Brisbane, youths try to douse the ' eternal flame ' by peeing, then fornicating at that holy shibboleth, they call the Shrine of Remembrance. It goes on-and-on, but the tabloids are told to kill the stories.

The inexorable maudlin rubbish that is generated by people like Warwick Marsh, to perpetuate the Anzac Legend is just so typical of writers with vivid imaginations. It was Charles Bean who coined the word " ANZAC " to personify the spirit of the two Countries at Gallipoli. They fought separate campaigns. No other Country celebrates the gruesome disaster, even though 7 other Countries participated.Moreover, our casualties were less then 40 % of United Kingdom's. Less then France, and India. In total 392,500 lives were lost or wounded. What a tragedy and waste of Human resources.

Marsh exemplifies Kokoda as Aust defining point in History, after Gallipoli. He eulogizes the bravery and heroism of those veterans who faced a numerically, battle-hardened, better trained military force under General Horii. It wasn't the Allies who defeated the Japanese in New Guinea, but orders from Japan to reinforce the losing battle at Guardacanal, which was under siege by the US. Within 10 miles of Port Moresby, they abandoned the fight on orders for a tactical withdrawal - to be picked up at a later stage by a Jap Naval squadron.

The Kokoda campaign lasted five months, from July to October. Wikipedia records 624 died, 1600 wounded and 4000 from sickness. MALARIA, TROPICAL DISEASES, GANGRENE, DYSENTERY, FATIGUE etc, was the main culprits..The Medical Corps performed a sterling service under very trying circumstances. Quinine was readily available, but between the Officers and men was neglected and ignored, at their peril.

The Operation from the start was a catastrophe. MacArthur, Blamey, Curtin etc had little idea of the savage terrain and Tropical jungle, the
cont..

untrained and un acclimatized troops had to endure. Among other deficiencies, maps, guides, intelligence, food, munitions supplies etc and the fact none of the Officers or diggers had any jungle experience, was conducive to their " cock up " - is indicative of the chaotic and disorganisation, preceding the War.

In short time five senior Commanding Officers were replaced. The troops were in disarray. Aust General Blamey was ordered to " energise the situation ", and he did. MacArthur complained to his boss Marshall: " the A have proven themselves unable to match the enemy in jungle fighting ". Quixotically, the Americans had broken the Japanese Code, and " magic " deciphered all Horii's military plans. Plainly, he knew in advance what the enemy was plotting. Still, he persisted, knowing full well the Allies could have by-passed New Guinea completely. He did precisely that, much later on. !

Blamey addressing the troops: " remember it is the rabbit who runs away, who gets shot, not the man holding the gun ".

Civilians, journalist, historians, Academics etc today cannot differentiate between FOLKLORE and History. Every year, the Library's are inundated with newetr publications purporting to be an actual account of our past. They glamorize War. Make Hero's on exaggerations, built from diaries,battalion histories, and fanciful adventurers seeking fame and fortune. We have produced more Phd's in History, then any country Worldwide. Every issue is jam-packed with bibliographic references, taken from other publications, and so the drama unfolds. Paid to write, these fable-mongers embellish folklore with their own brand of chicanery to make gallantry, heroism, masculinity and hero-worship something for children to aspire to ? A lie takes on gargantuan proportions to what end ? Do we feel any better, to know the truth ? rather than dream in rhapsody at our sanitised past?

BTW, Blamey was amply rewarded by PM Curtin with a Field Marshall's baton. No one in Aust Military has ever received that honour since.

Who's the rabbit ?

jacinta: All very interesting and probably factually accurate. However, it is so much easier from the advantage of retrospect to weigh it all up and decide that the people who fought in the past were a bunch of asshats; that the reasons they fought were misguided or the product of evil misdirection; that war is horrible (fully agree with you there.)

It seems to me that more distant we become from the conflict the harder and less empathic our assessment. There is a need in historical practice - an ethical duty even - to try to understand people and their actions in their own space and time. We might well decide not to repeat what (with the benefit of additional knowledge after the fact) we determine to be errors of judgment; but that doesn't remove the felt experience of those people who lived through the terror of their day.

For example, is there any argument that the Japanese were on a campaign to dominate the Pacific rim? Should everyone have just stood by while Hitler did his thing ? Of course the Versailles Treaty, in retrospect, contributed. Whether or not that was recognizable at the time, should every one have just rolled over for Hitler? Poor little Czechoslovakia didn't think so when it was handed over to appease the aggressor.

Did any of that matter to Anne Frank? The disabled, homosexuals and others sent to camps, or the soldiers who fought their way forward towards and were present at the liberation of people in the camps ?

I think we can learn from the type of analysis that you're presenting; but at the same time I think we can appreciate that those awful, screwed up events also provided the context in which individuals outdid themselves in putting the survival of others before their own.

That's what ANZAC day celebrates - not victory - but generosity and nobility in self sacrifice. The ANZACS died for their belief in the possibility of a better, safer world for everyone that was to come after them.