WHY MEN PARADE AT DAWN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 90, Issue 93, 23 April 1946, Page 4

WHY MEN PARADE AT DAWN

OBSERVANCE OF ANZAC DAY

I\/[OST significant of all parades on Anzac Day, from a returned serviceman’s point of view, is that at dawn, and it is expected that on Thursday, when the first Anzac Day to be observed since World War 11. ended, is marked by a series of parades and services, the dawn parades in Wanganui and the major centres will be the largest ever held. Father and son will march together on Thursday at dawn, in sincere tribute to those who fell in battle in two great wars. Dawn also has a greater significance, too, for civilians, particularly in Britain.

It is interesting to note that the first Dawn Parade held in New Zealand was in Wanganui on Anzac Day (April 25), 1936. That idea was copied later by other centres, and, down the years, it has become an accepted thing for men who served together to meet before the rising of the sun and pay homage to fallen comrades.

Dawn parades throughout the world became intensified following a big parade in Sydney in 1937, attended by several New Zealanders, among them almost a platoon from Wanganui itself. It was a special occasion to mark Sydney's centennial, and the march at dawn was one of the most impressive parades ever held in the world. The tramp of feet began long before the darkness was penetrated by the familiar glow of morning in the east, and the spirit of the famous corps (the “Anzacs”) lived again as Australian and New Zealander marched side by side at dpwn. SO MUCH HAPPENED AT DAWN Why dawn? Perhaps many people who have not actually served in front lines have asked that (question. Perhaps men of the new war, in which battle came to the homes of people far from any front lines of trenches, wherein war swirled all round mankind, without any set front line—perhaps they, too, wondered why the parade should be at dawn.

ness was a haven, dawn a nightmare. History reveals that most battles began at dawn, from Troy to El Alamein, both sides in battle using the cloak of darkness to cover their final approach “over the top.” Briton and Frenchman, Hun and Italian, Russian and American they all regarded dawn as significant in war, and they can be understood in wishing to dawn into commemoration services

on such a day as Anzac Day. In fact, there is a move, and it is growing year by year, to hold one service on Anzac Day, at dawn, to commemorate the fallen in the quiet hour when night gives place to day, and then quietly return to work, and not mar the day by unseemly jollification.

Whether that move will ever come to Concrete action is hard to say, but nothing will rob the Dawn Parade on Anzac Day of its outstanding significance, as the most important of all parades attended by servicemen. Preparations are being made in Wanganui this year for the largest Dawn Parade ever held, in which men. from far afield will march with those of the city to attend the quiet, impressive service at the Cenotaph set amid the pines of Queen’s ParkL

So much happened at dawn in World War I. that it was indeed fitting that a memorial parade of significance to servicemen should be held at that hour. Men stood to at dawn, and most battles began in that half light preceding the rising of the sun, and so many men died in those hours between dawn and the full life of the sun’s rays in the east. It was not always quite the same in World War IL, but much happened at dawn throughout those years, too. D-Day blazed into history at dawn, and the landing on the Normandy coast, though made with modern craft, with air coverage and all the latest weapons, was made in much the same way as was the landing at Gallipoli, the feat of arms from which Anzac Day takes its name. Men could not find a better hour to attack a hostile shore than at dawn. And was it not at dawn that people of gallant Britain found the tension of the night easing? For them, the long hours of darkness were a nightmare, broken by memories of the tall spire of Coventry standing alone amid the rubble of a “blitzed” city, bleeding and tortured. Dawn brought fresh hope to the millions of people in the front line of World War IL, the British Isles. ICY WINTER DARKNESS IN GREECE In sharp contrast was the fate of New Zealand soldiers waiting on the Grecian Peninsula for boats to take them off. Darkness for them was mantle as from Heaven, thrown about them to protect the frail bodies of wearied men from the vengeance of Stuka bombers. For those men dark-