SC - Anzac Biscuits/Day?

[CorwynWdwd at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/3/2000 7:46:20 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
CBlackwill at aol.com writes:

> Anzac day...the celebration of Australia's bitter defeat at the hands of 
the 
>  Turks, right?

>From Compton's online Encyclopedia:

The newly created Commonwealth of Australia remained a staunchly loyal 
dominion of the British Empire. When a state of war against Germany was 
declared in London on Aug. 4, 1914, Australia immediately, automatically, and 
wholeheartedly formed an expeditionary army of 20,000 men--the Australian 
Imperial Force (AIF). Australian and New Zealand troops, soon known as the 
Anzacs (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps), embarked for desert training 
in Egypt on Nov. 1, 1914. They were sent in April 1915 to the Dardanelles, 
the narrow strait between the Mediterranean and Black seas, to help capture 
the Gallipoli peninsula from the Turkish allies of Germany. 
   They landed at dawn on April 25, still celebrated as Anzac Day, the most 
solemn occasion of the Australian year. Few other countries celebrate a 
defeat in war. The Turks were prepared, entrenched, and determined. During 
the eight futile months before the British allies withdrew, Turks killed 
33,532 soldiers, including 8,587 Australians. The Gallipoli campaign, devised 
by Winston Churchill, was an ill-contrived attempt to gain access to the 
Russian breadbasket and to split Turkish power, but it blooded Australians as 
Australians for the first time. The survivors came home as heroes, and 
recruitment boomed. 

   Other army divisions were sent to France and Belgium, where they fought as 
shock troops on the Somme, at Bullecourt, Bapaume, Messines, Ypres, and the 
appalling disaster of Passchendaele. Just east of Amiens, the AIF suffered 
23,000 casualties. It is said that no other part of the Earth is as soaked 
with the blood of Australians. Their commanders were John Monash and Thomas 
Blamey. From Egypt, the 1st Light Horse Brigade under Maj. Gen. Henry George 
Chauvel made spectacular captures of Beersheba and Damascus. Altogether, 
331,000 Australians served in World War I. Those killed in battle numbered 
59,993--the highest ratio of deaths to total national population of any 
country in the Empire. Another 6,291 died from other causes. 

Hope it helps

Corwyn