ANZAC spirit

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The ANZAC Spirit refers to the national characteristics of Australian and New Zealand soldiers, specifically the qualities those soldiers are believed to show in war. The concept was first derived in the reporting of the Gallipoli landings by Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett and later and much more extensively by Charles Bean. It is regarded as an Australasian legend, although its critics refer to it as a mythology. The ANZAC spirit includes the notion of mateship and cheerful suffering.

Contents 1 Concepts of the ANZAC Spirit 2 New Zealand conceptions of the ANZAC Spirit 3 See also 4 Notes and references

[edit] Concepts of the ANZAC Spirit

ANZAC Spirit tends to capture the idea of an Australian and New Zealand National Character, forged at Gallipoli. The landing at Anzac Cove is often described as the moment of birth of Australia's nationhood. The British war correspondent Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett provided the first reports of the landing at Anzac Cove by the newly formed Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. His report was published in Australia on 8 May 1915:

They waited neither for orders nor for the boats to reach the beach, but, springing out into the sea, they waded ashore, and, forming some sort of rough line, rushed straight on the flashes of the enemy’s rifles.^[1]

In 1915, in response to the reporting of the efforts of the Australian troops, the Australian poet Banjo Paterson wrote "We're All Australians Now", including the verse:

The mettle that a race can show
Is proved with shot and steel,
And now we know what nations know
And feel what nations feel.^[2]

Despite the loss of the Battle of Gallipoli, Australian and New Zealand soldiers were reported as having "displayed great courage, endurance, initiative, discipline, and mateship". The stereotype developed that "the ANZAC rejected unnecessary restrictions, possessed a sardonic sense of humour, was contemptuous of danger, and proved himself the equal of anyone on the battlefield."^[3]

An Australian concept of the ANZAC Spirit developed in the post-World War I period among returned servicemen, with some opinion of the ANZACs changing from an Edwardian conception of Australia within Empire, to a tolerance of larrikinism.^{[citation needed]} It was particularly popularised by Charles Bean, Australia's official war historian. This development meant an increased tolerance for misbehavior by Australian troops (for example, the so-called "rape of Cairo").^{[citation needed]}

Following Australia's self-defence during the Second World War, the Australian myth of the ANZAC spirit was transformed by conceptions of heroic suffering, particularly in the battlefields of Papua New Guinea and in Japanese controlled POW camps.

During the 1950s and 1960s, due to lack of observance of ANZAC day in general society, the idea of a unique ANZAC spirit began to fade, as the Australian anti-war movement developed into a popular movement opposed to Australia's involvement in the Vietnam war, and there were attempts by women's groups to disrupt the commemoration of ANZAC day during the 1970s and early 1980s. Vietnam veterans, especially those taken in the forced draft, were represented by some in the 1970s as lacking the ANZAC spirit. These disruptions ceased in the early 1980s as the Australian women's movement collapsed. While less positive views of ANZAC mythology remain current in some quarters, they are not the dominant conception of the ANZAC Spirit.

A resurgence in popular commemoration of ANZAC day in the 1980s brought the idea of an ANZAC spirit back into prominence in Australian political discourse. There has been an increase in people, especially youth, attending ANZAC Day dawn services in Australia.

In remembering Australia's war effort, the ANZAC spirit is often called upon.^[4] The ANZAC spirit is also said to come through in Australian civilian crises. For example, the Returned and Services League of Australia states:

The spirit of the ANZAC continues today in times of hardship such as cyclones, floods and bush fires. At those times Australians come together to rescue one another, to ease suffering, to provide food and shelter, to look after one another, and to let the victims of these disasters know they are not alone.^[5]

[edit] New Zealand conceptions of the ANZAC Spirit

New Zealand conceptions of ANZAC spirit differ considerably to Australian ones.^{[citation needed]} In part, New Zealand retained an Edwardian social mores until much later, and did not place larrikinism at the centre of the myth of the soldier.^{[citation needed]} In part, New Zealand's experience in the Second World War was much more strongly influenced by the involvement of New Zealand soldiers in the European theatre of the war.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] See also

• ANZAC
• Anzac biscuit
• ANZAC Day
• Battle of Gallipoli
• Simpson and his donkey
• RSA
• RSL

[edit] Notes and references

1. ^ The dawn of the legend:Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett. Australian War Memorial. Retrieved on November 10, 2006.
2. ^ Paterson, A. B. (1915). "We're All Australians Now". Oldpoetry. allpoetry.com. Retrieved on November 10, 2006.
3. ^ The dawn of the legend. Australian War Memorial. Retrieved on November 10, 2006.
4. ^ See for example: Julie, Willes. "ANZAC spirit commemorated throughout Indonesia", Airforce News, Royal Australian Air Force, June 2001. Retrieved on November 10, 2006.
5. ^ The ANZAC Spirit. Returned and Services League of Australia Western Australian Branch (2003). Retrieved on November 10, 2006.

• The ANZAC Spirit. Encyclopaedia. Australian War Memorial. Retrieved on November 10, 2006.
• Ball, M Re-Reading Bean's Last Paragraph Australian Historical Studies. Vol 34 No 122 October 2003 pp 248-270
• Burgmann, Verity. Revolutionary industrial unionism : the industrial workers of the world in Australia. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Chapters 12-14.