ANZAC stands for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, and the name has come to mean far more than a military formation. The men who landed on 25 April 1915 became part of a story that helped define two young nations.
Their experience at Gallipoli, of courage, endurance, mateship and terrible loss, is remembered every year on ANZAC Day.
Who were the ANZACs?
The corps was made up of volunteers from Australia and New Zealand, many of whom had never been overseas. They trained in Egypt before being committed to the Gallipoli landings.
At Gallipoli they fought as part of a wider Allied force, but it was here that the ANZAC identity, with its emphasis on courage and loyalty to one's mates, took hold.
Life and death on the peninsula
Conditions were brutal: troops lived in cramped trenches on steep ground, plagued by heat, flies, disease and constant danger. Major actions like Lone Pine, The Nek and Chunuk Bair cost thousands of lives for little ground.
By the evacuation in December 1915, the ANZACs had suffered enormous casualties, but the legend forged on these ridges endured long after the guns fell silent.
Frequently asked questions
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