ANZAC Day

Each year on the 25th April, countries including Australia, New Zealand, Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa and Tonga commemorate ANZAC Day ("ANZAC" meaning the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps). These days we reflect on all our military conflicts, but ANZAC Day initially began as the anniversary (this year the 90th) of the "first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War" - landing on the Gallipoli peninsular in present-day Turkey on 25 April 1915.

I wanted to say something about war and peace. I've thought about this for a while now but can't make sense of it. I can't usually make sense of numbers either, but here in visual form is what it means to say (at a conservative estimate) that 8,159 Australians died in the Gallipoli operation:

dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead - dead
[Edit 27-04-05: I've snipped most of this terrible list. The post was so damn long.]

Numbers of fatalities from other countries include:

New Zealand - 2,701
Britain - 21,255
France (estimated) - 10,000
India - 1,358
Newfoundland - 49
Ottoman Empire (now Turkey) - 86,692