As usual, all the focus around ANZAC day is always on ANZAC Cove in the Gallipoli campaign of 1915 . Admittedly its of obvious importance as the first time Australian forces were committed, not as a division of the British Army, but as an Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The campaign itself was a complete disaster and the Allies abandoned the Turkish Penninsular beachhead within the year.
The controversy around the British leadership of the campaign is the sharper end of an otherwise fond relationship between Britain and its former colony, but its always struck me as appropriate Australia’s military heritage is founded on a battle for a beach!
While the emphasis on Gallipoli is burgeoning, no doubt increasingly close to the hearts of those who have visited ANZAC Cove as part of their backpacker travels. But its occurred to me that there is a somewhat blinkered obsession with the action there.
On St George’s Day my father was just appointed Chaplain of the St George's Church in Ypres, Belgium (congratulations Dad!). Not many Australians seem to have even heard of any of the battles of Ypres, but they play a powerful and significant role in the British, French and German narrative of the First World War. In fact, British Prime Minister Lloyd George of the Third Battle of Ypres – Paschendale (June to November 1917), ““the battle which, with the Somme and Verdun, will always rank as the most gigantic, tenacious, grim, futile and bloody fight ever waged in the history of war.” (In fact more Australians - 20,000 - died in 1917 than in the whole of World War Two.) But Ypres or "wipers" as it was colloquially known - is fairly overlooked in the ANZAC Day legends.
Nevertheless it is staggering if you compare the realities of the ANZAC campaign at Gallipoli and those at Ypres. For a start – and this is quite arresting – there were 2,700 NZ dead in the whole of the nine-month Gallipoli campaign but the New Zealand Army Core in Ypres sustained 2,700 casualties (800 dead) on the 12th October 1917 alone – just one day.
Similarly, the comparison is even starker when you compare the Australian sacrifice at Ypres with that of the supposedly Legendary exploits at Gallipoli. Overall, Australia sustained 28,000 casualties (8,700 dead) on the Gallipoli peninsular in a nine month campaign (important to remember Britain took 73, 485 casualties with 21,155 ded). On the 26th September 1917 there were 5,500 Australian casualties – in one day! That day – The Battle of Polygon Wood - was actually considered one of Australia’s most successful engagements in the First World War!
Overall, the Australian monument at Ypres today commemorates 48,000 Australian dead in the Ypres Salient! But that might sheer guesswork. So many soldiers just disappeared in the mud at Paschendale, there is no way of knowing who died where. (Many Australian sappers died in the mine battles underground prior to the huge explosion at Messines Ridge – a reality chillingly described in the bestseller Birdsong .)
So on this my ninth ANZAC Day in Austrlaia, I’m not going to obsess over Gallipoli this year, I’m instead going to think about William and Fanny Seabrook. The Australian couple lost all three of their sons in the days following the beginning of the Menin Road offensive on the Ypres Salient on 20th September 1917. While the younger brother Willam (20) was buried in the area around Ypres, the remains of his elder brothers Theo (25) and George (24) were never found. It was their first, last and only action of the war.
As my father wrote to me in an email: “ANZAC Day is commemorated in Ypres. There is a Service of Remembrance at Buttes Road Cemetery at 06.00 (local time) and Last Post at the Menin Gate at 11.00. We will remember them.” Glad someone will.
UPDATE: In a recent visit to Ypres i was able to find William's name on the Menin Gate among those listed as disapeared - i.e. whose body was never found. Here it is:
