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The Characteristics Of Anzac Soldiers In The First World War

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On 25 April 1915, during the First World War, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) landed on the Gallipoli peninsula as part of the 70,000 strong Anglo-French operation against Turkey to capture the Dardanelles. Over one million men were involved in the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign which lasted eight and a half months. Of the 44,070 soldiers who were killed during the campaign, 8,000 were Australian. It was the first time that Australians went into combat as Australians, giving Australia a sense of identity and a place in the world.
World War 1 war correspondent and historian Charles Edwin Woodrow Bean believed that Anzac Day 1915 saw the birth of the Australian national consciousness maintaining that "The big thing in the war...was the discovery of the character of Australian men. It was a character which rushed the hills at Gallipoli and held on there during the long afternoon and night, when everything seemed to have gone wrong and there was only the barest hope at the end of success". Gallipoli also saw the birth of the 'Anzac Legend' or 'Anzac Spirit'. A term used to illustrate the characteristics of ANZAC soldiers which encompassed bravery, endurance, ingenuity, comradeship and what Australians call 'mateship'. The term developed as a central part of Australia's collective memory and national identity growing popular largely due to Bean's works.
ANZAC Day was first commemorated in London in 1916, by Australian and New Zealand soldiers to commemorate
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