The ANZACS landing at Gallipoli. |
On that fateful morning, A futile campaign began Our boys had no warning Of what was ahead of them Boats crammed with slouch hats left the ships And worked their way painfully toward the shore A distant popping and thudding killed the words on everyone's lips These were the men of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps As the boats drew near to land Bullets showered like rain Men fell dead in the sand All around were cries of pain But over the beach, they ran And up the cliffs, they went For they had to make a stand Though already they were spent Scrambling onward, ever onward There was no strategy or tact They had to climb that mountainside And not once did they look back They gained the ridge above them And fought a bloody fight Johnny Turk retreated And they hoped for some respite Upon regrouping, it was discovered their numbers were few Though they had won that battle It had taken more than a soldier or two They quickly realised they had to dig in deep Or on this rugged hillside, they would forever sleep Our tough Australian men dug for their lives With shovels, picks, rocks and knives, whatever they could find And when the sun set on that day in April Our boys had made a stand They had, in one day, conquered a minuscule portion Of that Turkish land They thought they'd be there a few weeks A month perhaps, at most But for many of those men It was their last post - R.M. |