VIETNAM Veteran, John Methven OAM, founder of Newhaven’s National Vietnam Veterans Museum, has laid bare the real history of the Gallipoli conflict while speaking at a well-attended Anzac Day service at San Remo.
Making no apologies for telling it like it was, Mr Methven said the decision to land 16,000 Australian and New Zealand soldiers at what is now called Anzac Cove, on Sunday morning April 25, 1915, for what was the first experience of combat for most of them, was both ill-advised and extravagantly foolhardy.
“When war was declared, Australia was only a new nation and they committed 20,000 troops under British control and said they could put them to whatever use they decided,” Mr Methven said.
Against the advice of his military leadership, First Lord of the British Admiralty, Winston Churchill, had made the commitment, according to Methven, to deliver control of the strategically important Dardanelles Strait and Constantinople to the wavering Russians, to keep them onside. But he didn’t reckon on the fight the Turks would put up to save their own country.
The rest, as they say, is history, but the lesson cost 26,111 Australian casualties, including 8141 deaths.
“There was no good military reason to fight on Anzac Cove and the only good thing to come out of it was that it forged Australia as a nation. It made us realise that we were a country in our own right, able to look after ourselves.
“I only say this today because we have to be able to learn from history,” Mr Methven said.
The Anzac Day service also heard from two local students, Jazmin Burnett, a Year 9 student at Bass Coast Secondary College, and Alice Mabilia, a co-captain at Newhaven College.
The addresses by the two girls intersected on the story of 14 year old Private James Martin who enlisted at the age of 14 years and three months, serving at Gallipoli, incredibly after his transport ship was torpedoed en route from Egypt, and ultimately died of typhoid little more than a month after arriving at Gallipoli.
“He was just the same age as me at the time,” said Jazmin.
She said Anzac Day meant a lot to her because her late father had spent 41 years in the armed forces.
Alice Mabilia said she felt doubly proud to be able to address the Anzac Day service, after being chosen to speak at Wonthaggi while in Grade 6 at St Josephs and now at San Remo while in Year 12 at Newhaven College.
“I can’t imagine what it must be like to leave your family, your job and the comforts of home to risk your life in the defence of your country. It’s an incredibly selfless act,” she said.
Wreaths were laid by a significant number of local organisations including David Edgley on behalf of the National Vietnam Veterans Museum, Gordon Skidmore on behalf of the Vietnam Veterans Association, Cr Geoff Ellis on behalf of the Bass Coast Shire Council, Marian Brennan and Maureen Matthews on behalf of the Phillip Island and San Remo Legacy Widows, Tully Fletcher representing Jordan Crugnale MLA, Mary Whelan on behalf of Bass Coast Health, students James, River, Scarlett and Gemma from San Remo Primary School, and others representing the Bendigo Bank Community Bank Branch, among others.
Squadron Leader John Turner read the ode.
There was a minute’s silence and the playing of the Australian National Anthem to close.
Speaking afterwards, Mr Methven said the strong response from the community over recent years was justification for recommencing Anzac Day services, on the foreshore at San Remo.
“We could have taken the service inside, but we thought it was important to try and hold the event outside,” he said.
There was a light sprinkling of rain during the service and the laying of wreaths but no one put up an umbrella or sought shelter.
