The Wanganui Chronicle. TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 1945. ANZAC

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 96, 24 April 1945, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 1945. ANZAC

TpO-MORROW Anzac Day will be celebrated in a spirit of enthusiasm, for great news has come to the world. The city of Berlin, the capital that has seen the growth of Germany’s might, has been forced to accept the invader. Germany is no longer controlled from its own capital. In the present widespread struggle all the initial advantages were with the Central Powers; that is, all the material advantages. Germany and Italy were poised to strike before they did so. It is not surprising that they succeeded in wounding many nations, in bringing down some, and in compelling others to join their ranks.

Against the aggressor States the peaceful nations of the world wore not wholly unprepared. Feverish activity had been in evidence in the countries that came to kno.w that the era of peace was drawing to a close and that the arbitrament of war was inevitable. There was, nevertheless, much leeway to overtake before the opponents of the aggressors could be in any way equal to the task which was before them. While the advantages were strongly in favour of Germany and Italy they deemed it desirable to embark upon another Viking adventure, and many groups of men in isolated places over the world were called upon to bear the brunt of battle under the most disheartening conditions. If these men, lighting rearguard actions in Burma jungles, failing- at Singapore, retreating in Greece, suffering defeat in Crete, and playing a game of military hockey over the sands or' Northern Africa would hold out long enough the leeway could be caught up and the combat be fought out to the end. That is precisely the nature of the task which confronted the men of Anzac a quarter of a century since. To hold on while all seemed to be hopeless and to endure without immediate prospect of aid was the path to ultimate success. Each little failure contributed to the main task, and it was on these actions that success was ultimately built.

The entry of the Russians into Berlin is a fitting token to their great task which they have so nobly performed. But it was npt a Russian success pure and simple. Every man who played his part in the widespread campaign helped to sap the strength of Germany, and her ultimate defeat was encompassed by each contributor on every battlefront.

Anzac was a page of history by no means unique in itself. It was the story of a paradox of an attempt which failed but, failing, yet succeeded. It never does to stand too close to any picture, for right assessment; it must be placed in its own true focus. Looking back over the quarter of a century intervening it is seen not as an isolated adventure, nor an engagement in which one division did much more than another. The Australian and New Zealand Divisions—whose initials provided a new term, Anzac—were accompanied on that occasion by the immortal Twenty-ninth, and it was while with this Division that General Sir Bernard Freyberg engaged in his wonderful swimming feat which misled the Turkish defenders concerning the forthcoming attack. In him the New Zealanders of the Second Expeditionary Force in the Middle East have maintained that link with the immortal Twenty-ninth and that, too, has been in a way renewed in the battles in Africa and Italy.

The Battle for Berlin is still in progress. It is being waged with tenacity and it may take some days before finality is reached in clearing the metropolis, but the end of the campaign is definitely within sight. That is comforting, and it is also inspiring. The spirit of sacrifice for a common cause has again been vindicated on the field of battle. To-morrow it is for the civilian population to renew their own dedication to the cause of peace by purging their hearts of anti-social aims and ambitions and determining in their minds to work for a better and more stable world into which no wars shall intrude themselves in all their hideous destructiveness.

It is for the men and women of New Zealand to keep bright the Lamp of Liberty and to tend and defend it with care so that it shall burn more brightly for future generations. It is this Dominion's especial charge to sec that Liberty, for which her sons have fought so fiercely, shall not be lost either through the action of those who attack it from without or as a result of those who undermine it from within.