Gallipoli: All Guts, No Glory

Chief of the New Zealand Defence Force, Air Marshal Bruce Ferguson, in his address at Anzac Cove marking the 90th anniversary of the landing there of New Zealand and Australian soldiers, said that there was no glory in what happened at Gallipoli. It was a folly of high command and joint warfare at its worst from the British side, he said, laying the blame at their leadership for the deaths of 44,000 Allied soldiers. Gallipoli represented, for Australia and New Zealand, the high-water mark of our ‘imperial subservience’. The Australian’s  defence columnist Greg Sheridan called the speech “bizarre and puerile. “It’s a sad commentary on New Zealand that this form of politically correct adolescent pouting finds expression at the top of its military.” Sheridan said New Zealand had turned its back on having a modern defence force, while Australia had not. “While Anzac Day unites us, it also shows how different we are. Those in Australia who would like us to take the New Zealand option, of isolation, irrelevance and military irresponsibility, have the greatest trouble with Anzac Day. They can’t get a grip on it. It’s too popular. They don’t know where to attack.”