ANZAC DAY is commemorated on 25th April every
year to remember our fallen heroes, at Anzac
Cove, Gallipoli ... 25th April 1915 ......

..... and the ANZAC spirit lived on, reflected in this
poem from Outward Bound No 1 ... a journal printed on the
Queen Elizabeth on Anzac Day 1941, as the next wave of
Anzacs were being transported in a huge convoy,
from Australia to World War 2, in the Middle East:

ORDNANCE LAMENT

We are not really soldiers
We are only make believe
They gave us all a rifle
Our conscience to relieve
Our ship was built for pleasure
For folk of the idle class
We'll give them back their blinking ship
For just one shore leave pass.

- A77
Outward Bound No 1
AT SEA: ANZAC DAY April 25th, 1941.

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..... and after they had been fighting for 18 months,
the Anzac spirit was stiil going strong:

DOWN AT EL ALAMEIN

The lights on the desert so quiet and serene
The troops moving up in an endless stream
The barrage all set for 22:15

Down at El Alamein

The guns opened fire again and again
The object was gained by 4 am
The Afrika Corps will rest no more

Down at El Alamein

And when this War is a memory
And gunners are gunmen no more
We will remember the desert for many a day
The Aussies, the Kiwis all in the fray.

Down at EL Alamein.


- Anonymous.

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Above poems are excerpts from an airman's book (my Dad),
"Through the Eyes of the Harasser", documenting
the activities and movements of the Aussie
450 Squadron ... "The Desert Harassers".

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A salute to the "simple men of simple faith, who
set out to fight for a Great Ideal."

happy days

yogi