The Kiwi Gazette
Page 2
New
Zealand's Memorial Day (Continued
from Page 1)
Entrenched Troops
In actuality, the ANZAC's military campaign in Gallipoli was an utter failure. New Zealand's current Chief of Defense described it as "a folly of high command" and that "the mission was a combination of extreme tragedy, gallantry, occasional inspired leadership at the lower levels, gross incompetence at the strategic levels of endurance, cruelty and compassion." The troops were supposed to capture the Dardanelles Straits and open up new sea lanes through the Black Sea to Russia. (The Dardanelles is a 28 miles strait between Europe and Asiatic Turkey, overlooked by the high cliffs on the Gallipoli Peninsula.)
But bad decisions based on faulty premises ended up costing 44,000 Allied and 88,000 Turkish lives. Lack of coordination and focus resulted in a poor military campaign. In late December, 1915, after eight months of fighting, the ANZAC troops were withdrawn under the cover of night.
Following are some interesting statistics about the New Zealand soldiers who fought at Gallipoli, collected from the books Bloody Gallipoli and Gallipoli-The New Zealand Story:
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8556 men served there
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2770 were killed, including 55 pairs of brothers
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5212 were wounded
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25 were taken prisoner of war
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265 are buried in known graves at Gallipoli
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76 are buried in cemeteries on Lemnos Island in Greece
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3 POWs are buried in Istanbul
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1669 are in unknown graves
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252 were buried at sea
Two Kiwi troops load the
canon while another two wait
with more shells
Evacuation of the wounded
In all, 16,000 New Zealanders were killed in WWI, with another 40,000 wounded. At the time, 1915, the population of NZ was just over one million.
Our Possum is a typical domestic cat, not only in the way he looks, but also in the way he acts. Possum is quite sure that Jim and I were put on this earth to cater to him! He’s a friendly enough cat, but becomes a lot more sociable when it is time to eat and his food bowl is empty. We always know when he’s out of tucker when he rubs up against us or looks at us and meows. This means, “feed me”.
Like a lot of cats, Possum is also fairly lazy. In
fact, we recently saw a dead mouse in the back yard and guessed that
it must have had a heart attack or died of old age because it surely
would not have been any of Possum’s handiwork! However, when it
comes to his food dish, there seems to be no limit to his energy.
For example, not very long ago, Jim and I were in the paddock furthest from the house, just about as far as you can go and still be on our property. We were busy with some farm task or another when we heard this faint “meow.” A little while later, there came another meow, this one louder. Finally, Possum emerged from the grass and made a bee-line for us. Well, this was quite unusual as we had never seen him that far from the house. Jim looked at me and said that it could only mean one thing – Possum’s food bowl must be empty.
Sure enough, when we got back to the house I checked his bowl… not a crumb to be found. Our lazy little cat had made the trek all the way across the farm to let us know he was hungry and that it was time for us to hand over the kitty biscuits!
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