ANZAC Day Remembered Here and Around the World
New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel were spread from Northland to Invercargill on Friday 25 April providing support to a wide variety of commemorative activities to mark one of New Zealand’s most significant days, ANZAC Day.
WGCDR Brett Marshall and his daughter Amelia place poppies on the grave of FGOFF Reginald Adlan in Prague. (WN-08-0037-49-tn).
Image right: We Remember Them: WGCDR Brett Marshall, Air Advisor with the New Zealand Defence Staff in London, and his two year old daughter Amelia place poppies on the grave of FGOFF Reginald Adlan in Prague, Czechoslovakia. FGOFF Reginald George David Adlam, was a Lancaster Navigator and came from Auckland. His aircraft was shot down during a raid on Chemitz, Germany on Tuesday 6 March 1945 and crashed on the Czechoslovakian-Germany border. There were 760 aircraft in the raid and 40 were shot down. Initially ADLAM and the six other crew were buried in the civil cemetery at Rossbach, but later re-located to Prague. Adlam was on 153 Squadron, RAF which was based at Scampton in Lincolnshire. The Red Arrows are currently based at RAF Scampton, two members of which at ex-RNZAF. Adlam was 23 years old when he was shot down, had 350 flying hours and was on his 6th operation.
There were Defence Force representatives at the many dawn and civic ceremonies held at war memorials and town halls around the country. The Chief of Defence Force, LT GEN Jerry Mateparae attended a Dawn Service at the Cenotaph in Wellington.
‘On Anzac Day we recognise the sacrifice of the men and women of Australia and New Zealand who have shared so many experiences on battlefields around the world. We also honour a new generation of men and women who are serving our country; their courage, commitment, comradeship and integrity’, said LT GEN Mateparae.
Veterans listen to the reading of the Ode to the Fallen during the ANZAC Day commemorations in the Square, Palmerston North. (OH-08-0268-32-tn).
LT GEN Mateparae also attended the National Wreath-Laying Ceremony at the National War Memorial in Wellington together with the Governor General of New Zealand, The Honourable Anand Satyanand, Her Worship the Mayor of Wellington, Kerry Prendergast and the Secretary of Defence, John McKinnon.
At the National War Memorial in Buckle Street NZDF personnel provided a dawn to dusk vigil over the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior from 6am to 6pm.
At Gallipoli the Chief of Air Force, Air Vice-Marshal Graham Lintott represented the NZDF at the commemorative service.
Service at the Ataturk Memorial on ANZAC Day in Wellington. (OH-08-0270-05-tn).
Music was provided by the New Zealand Army Band and members of the NZDF currently based in the Sinai provided the catafalque party.
Anzac Day services were also held where NZDF personnel are on missions overseas including Afghanistan, Timor Leste, Korea, Sudan, and the Solomon Islands.
On Anzac Day over 800 New Zealand Defence Force personnel were serving overseas on operations, UN missions and defence exercises. Of this figure 588 personnel were on operational deployments.
Alberta ANZAC
RNZAF Edmonton Detachment flanked by members of the RCMP and PPCLI in front of the Leduc Cenotaph. (WN-08-0037-46-tn).
At 0600 hr on 25 April 2008, a catafalque party from the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry came to attention around the cenotaph in the prairie town of Leduc, Alberta, Canada. This marked the commencement of one of the northern most ANZAC day ceremonies and the largest one outside of Canada’s capital Ottawa. This is the third year that the C-130 Life Extension Project team have run an ANZAC ceremony in Leduc. As in previous years the ceremony was supported by the local Royal Canadian Legion (RSA equivalent), Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canadian Fire Service and by Echo Company the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry.
This year the RNZAF flight test crew and 40 Squadron Avionics Maintenance personnel increased the RNZAF presence at the ceremony. The ceremony took the form of a traditional dawn service including an address from the senior RNZAF Officer, WGCDR Dyer, and a response from his worship the Mayor of Leduc. Following the service a function was held at the Leduc Legion, where the local community’s involvement in this ceremony was acknowledged.
The RNZAF Central Band’s ANZAC Day concert 2008. (OH-08-0271-30-tn).
ANZAC Concert
The music that set the feet tapping and skirts twirling during 1940s wartime, returned on Anzac Day with an evening concert at the Wellington Town Hall featuring the Beat Girls and members of the Central Band of the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Under the baton of respected conductor SQNLDR Owen Clarke, the band and singers treated the appreciative audience to a stellar show with a number of wartime hits including Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, Well Alright and the Vera Lynn favourite, We’ll Meet Again. There were also performances by special guests Billy Watkins, Stephanie Hearfield and Band vocalist SGT Allan Wright performing a great rendition of Mack the Knife. With many members of the audience undoubtedly up since dawn, listening to the music that set the wartime dance halls alive was a great way to end the day.