{"id":112,"date":"2014-07-31T14:56:18","date_gmt":"2014-07-31T14:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallipoli100.info\/?p=112"},"modified":"2014-08-15T15:01:00","modified_gmt":"2014-08-15T15:01:00","slug":"war-memorial-historian-ashley-ekins-says-gallipoli-campaign-centenary-should-be-used-to-educate-not-celebrate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallipoli100.info\/?p=112","title":{"rendered":"War Memorial historian Ashley Ekins says Gallipoli campaign centenary should be used to educate, not celebrate"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE Australian War Memorial\u2019s top historian hopes that the next four years will explode some ANZAC myths and educate Aussies about the truth of the Great War.<\/p>\n

\"Busting<\/a>
Busting the myths … Ashley Ekins during his address to the National Press Club. Picture: Gary Ramage. Source: News Corp Australia<\/figcaption><\/figure>According to Ashley Ekins the mythology began on day one of the \u2018doomed\u2019 campaign on April 25, 1915 when diggers landed at Gallipoli against relatively light resistance compared to what British forces faced further along the Turkish coastline.<\/p>\n

The principal historian said the real ANZAC story unfolded during the following weeks and months when the raw Australian troops dealt with what was a \u201ccostly, ill-conceived and futile\u201d campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ANZAC story is eight months of enduring, of hanging on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real story is what those soldiers did … the story of suffering and the Australian character.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Ekins told the National Press Club yesterday that the \u201ctsunami of commemorative activities\u201d about to hit the nation at a cost of some $600 million should be driven by understanding and not celebration.<\/p>\n

He said there was a risk that re-enactment and colour could overshadow the business of remembering.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope education will be behind all of this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

An important part would be a better understanding of the great victories on the Western Front during 1917 and 1918.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralians were at the spearhead of a large British army … that brought the war to an end,\u201d Mr Ekins said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the story of victory in 1918.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paying tribute to the work of official historian and journalist Charles Bean, he said the ANZAC myth grew from exaggerated reporting by British correspondent Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett.<\/p>\n

Unlike Bean, who went ashore on April 25, the Englishman remained on a warship off the coast and wrote that the boats were met by a \u201cterrible fusillade and the men went ashore with cold steel\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis account shows a remarkable clairvoyance,\u201d Mr Ekins said.<\/p>\n

The historian said that when Bean landed at 10am just 36 dead Australians were laid out.<\/p>\n

\u201cNever was the beach at Anzac Cove an inferno,\u201d Bean wrote later.<\/p>\n

Monday August 4 marks the 100th anniversary of Australia\u2019s entry into World War 1 as part of the British Empire.<\/p>\n

By 1918 the young nation of Australia had sent 300,000 of its best and brightest to war. More than 60,000 did not return while a further 150,000 or more were wounded.<\/p>\n

news.com.au<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE Australian War Memorial\u2019s top historian hopes that the next four years will explode some ANZAC myths and educate Aussies about the truth of the Great War. According to Ashley Ekins the mythology began on day one of the \u2018doomed\u2019 campaign on April 25, 1915 when diggers landed at Gallipoli against relatively light resistance compared…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":114,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallipoli100.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallipoli100.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallipoli100.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallipoli100.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallipoli100.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=112"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gallipoli100.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115,"href":"https:\/\/gallipoli100.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions\/115"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallipoli100.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallipoli100.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallipoli100.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallipoli100.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}