Ataturk's Tribute ATATURK’S TRIBUTE 1934 Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives …. You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours …. You, the mothers who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace after having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.
Why do you switch to writing about Australians as if there were no New Zealanders there? New Zealanders lost a higher proportion of their male population in WWI than any other country, including Australia. Only New Zealanders took the heights of Chunuk Bair and saw the Narrows. And the famous painting of Simpson and his donkey was in fact painted from a photograph of the New Zealander who replaced Simpson after Simpson was shot. Goddamn Aussies. You'd steal the credit for anything, wouldn't you, you swine? Phar Lap, Sam Neill, Russell Crowe, Split Enz, Crowded House...and Gallipoli. When Ethereal won the Melbourne Cup, some Aussie idiot was babbling "the foreign horses didn't get a look in" referring to the Northern Hemisphere competitors, and conveniently overlooking that Ethereal and her trainer are both New Zealanders. Of course the Yanks are no better, long before there were Navajo 'windtalkers' in WWII, the Maori Battalion were using Maori to baffle the Germans.
British propaganda got as far as Australia then. The 58000 Englishmen who died on a single morning on the first day of The Somme were told exactly the same thing.
If you're going to grumble about casualties Nannygoat, feel for the Germans and French. sure they didn't lose the greatest percentage of mobilised troops, but they took the heaviest proportional blow to the standing population. Oh, you are right about one thing though, only A SINGLE Australian division was at Gallipoli, out of 10 allied divisions. A second Australian division didn't arrive until late 1915.
Where did I say that I didn't feel for the German and French civilians? Both my grandfathers fought at the Somme, and both were New Zealanders, although one fought with an Australian regiment because he was in Australia when war broke out, so he signed up there. The Somme was an unspeakable bloodbath.
Nannygoatgruff 1) If you don't like what that stuff says, take it up with the guy who wrote it. 2) New Zealand is actually mentioned in there. 3) I suggest you seek therapy for this "nobody notices us poor kiwis" complex you have.
A chaplain in a book i read was part of the ANZAC crew. From "Cryptonomicon" by Stephenson. That was a pretty good book. PM me if ya wanna know about it alittle bit more.
I did take it up with the website you linked to. I emailed them telling them their site is an affront to all New Zealanders, and they are lying nationalists.
I'm a New Zealander and I can't find anything offensive in that little snippet. It is written from an Australian perspective, so what? Do we really want to claim ownership of Sam Neill? Fucking sustainability council. Grrrrr.
from Goat's profile... "Far Travelled and Well Read" (more so than any damn Aussie's ever done, I presume). Well goat... next time yer out camping on your travels, don't bother looking for firewood... just brush your shoulders, the chips will fall right off.
