David, I agree with your sentiments - the 'Glorious ANZAC Hertiage' is really a lot of bull . . . The Poms sing "Land of hope and glory . . . mother of the free . . ." but history shows that they and most European nations + USA have done an excellent job in fighting off the inhabitants of those nations that they 'took over' in their National Interests. After all "WE" know best what they need - Us to rule them! The good ol' US of A cites its Christian heritage when it suits including 'In God We Trust' on the $20 bill - but get real - it's all about trusting in $$$ to buy favour, and utilising 'firepower'as we decide in the national interests. Recently we had the debacle of the so-called civilised world leaders turning a convenient 'blind eye' to the applauded entry of West Papua into the collective Solomon Island, etc group however hard the colonist Indonesians tried to bluster it was not correct but it apparently is more correct that the West Papuans continue to suffer rape, murder, colonial rule, dispossession of their nation's mineral wealth, etc for the greater good of Indonesia! The silence of the ANZACS in threatening to go to war to defend them is not on the agenda by ANYONE even though the UN-sanctioned 'vote' by 1200 Papuans with a loaded gun on the table to encourage them to vote 'correctly' was really a travesty of justice . . . . Jesus weeps . . . Land of Hope and Glory Bull - Australians fought against Turks who were defending their country!

The following link explains the ANZAC tradition:

http://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/anzac/anzac-tradition/

Dear Foxy,

I don't believe the ultimate objective of the Gallipoli campaign was to capture Istanbul as the website states. I thought the ultimate objective was to secure the Dardanelles for Allied shipping and thereby send supplies to the Russian forces and keep Russia in the war. if Russia had been kept in the war possibly Lenin and the Bolsheviks would not have been able to take power, and Russia might have evolved to be a constitutional monarchy like England. The capture of Istanbul in itself would have had limited strategic value.

The campaign, though poorly conceived and executed, could have made an enormous difference if Russia could have been kept in the war. The Germans, for their part, sent Lenin in a sealed train through Germany into Russia to bring down the czarist government.

Dear David F.,

Perhaps you need to read the link again.

It is from The Australian War Museum in Canberra
and the link does tell us that in 1915 Australian
and New Zealand soldiers formed part of the
expedition that set out to capture the Gallipoli peninsula in
order to open the Dardanelles to the allied navies.

David F,

The Ultimate aim of WW1 was the forceful break up of the Ottoman Empire and the control of its oil reserves. In 1913 Britain controlled only 2-3% of the world's oil reserves. But, by 1919 immediately after the conclusion of the war, British business interests controlled something like 75% of the global oil reserves. Thus the crux of the Gallipoli campaign to open the straits to allow British Battle ships through so they could bombard Constantinople into eventually signing a treaty to surrender their oil and possessions in the middle east.

http://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australian_outlook/oil-the-underlying-reason-for-gallipoli/

Dear Foxy and Sense,

I am wrong. I hadn't realised that at that time the powers-that-be were aware of the importance that oil was going to assume or that they knew where the large fields were.