ANZAC Day 2023
Remembering those who have served in different wars or military campaigns over the years…
I hate war!
I remember those who went to fight, and didn’t come home, and I remember those who loved them.
I remember those who were sent to not only endure terrible things, but also to do terrible things that would not normally be in their nature. I feel for them and their loved ones when they return and try to pick up the threads of their ‘normal’ lives.
I think of those who returned but didn’t manage to resume their normal lives, instead finding themselves living with the lingering psychological toll, tormented again and again by what they’d seen and experienced.
I hate war!
Peter and I almost always attend the Dawn service on ANZAC DAY, as do many others, remembering those who have gone, and holding space for them, acknowledging what they went through.
This year I’ll be thinking of my Dad who was a Merchant Seaman, and what his war was like. It’s weird because for some reason I didn’t really connect Dad’s years at sea during WWII, as seeing action because he wasn’t in the Royal Navy he was in the civilian Merchant Navy.
I don’t remember him ever talking about it, and he was a great spinner of yarns, so I wonder now if it was too painful for him to talk about.
My awareness of some of what he probably experienced came to the fore as I watched a short series on Netflix recently called ‘War Sailors’, based on the experiences of several Norwegian Merchant Sailors.
The loss of ships and the lives of those who manned them was horrendous and began within hours of the outbreak of war in 1939. While not fighting ships, they had just as important a role in the conflicts, as they transported soldiers, food, and raw materials where they were needed for the war effort.
The movie War Sailors described the loss of hundreds of Norwegian ships and thousands of sailors during WWII, and I went looking for some other stats. The British Merchant Navy, where my Dad served, lost some 4,700 British-flagged merchant ships and more than 29,000 sailors. I can only wonder what it must have been like living with the fear ‘will we be next?’ that my father and so many others must have experienced.
While I’ve focused on Merchant Sailors here, I hate war for so many different reasons. I rarely use the word hate, as it’s not a helpful word, but I haven’t yet found another one that best describes how I feel about war, and what it does to everyone caught up in it, including a little Ukrainian family we’ve befriended in the last year.
Tomorrow I’ll be connecting with my Dad in spirit, grateful that he survived and came to Aotearoa New Zealand as a Merchant Seaman and found my Mum and happiness.
My eyes will fill at the sound of The Last Post, as they do every year, and I will remember them…
Namaste
Michelle
