The meaning of ANZAC

The word Anzac is part of the culture of New Zealanders and Australians. People talk about the 'spirit of Anzac'; there are Anzac biscuits, and rugby or rugby league teams from the two countries play an Anzac Day test. The word conjures up a shared heritage of two nations, but it also has a specific meaning.

Anzac is the acronym for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. This corps was created early in the Great War of 1914–18. In December 1914 the Australian Imperial Force and New Zealand Expeditionary Force stationed in Egypt were placed under the command of Lieutenant General William Birdwood. Initially the term Australasian Corps was suggested, but Australians and New Zealanders were reluctant to lose their separate identities completely.

No one knows who came up with the term Anzac. It is likely that Sergeant K.M. Little, a clerk at Birdwood's headquarters, thought of it for use on a rubber stamp: 'ANZAC' was convenient shorthand. Later the corps used it as their telegraph code word.

The Anzacs first saw action at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. The small cove where the Australian and New Zealand troops landed was quickly dubbed Anzac Cove. Soon the word was being used to describe all Australian and New Zealand soldiers who fought on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Eventually, it came to mean any Australian or New Zealand soldier.

After Gallipoli

There were two Anzac corps on the Western Front from 1916, with the New Zealand Division serving in II Australian and New Zealand Army Corps until early 1918. During the Sinai–Palestine campaign the combined Australian and New Zealand Mounted Division was more commonly called the Anzac Mounted Division.

The term continued into other wars. A new Anzac Corps was briefly formed during the campaign in Greece in 1941. During the Vietnam War, New Zealand and Australian infantry companies combined to form the Anzac Battalion.

From http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/anzac-day/the-anzacs

New Zealand on the Western Front 1916-1918

It was on the Somme that the majority of New Zealanders were killed or wounded during the First World War. The Battle of the Somme was New Zealand's first major engagement on the Western Front. It took a huge toll on the 15,000 members of the New Zealand Division who were involved. Roughly one in seven of the division who fought on the Somme was killed, and about four in every ten were wounded.

More than 2000 New Zealanders lie buried on what was once the battlefield of the Somme. Their known graves are cared for by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Over half of the members of the New Zealand Division who died on the Somme have no known grave. The names of over 1200 men are inscribed on the New Zealand Memorial to the Missing in the Caterpillar Valley Cemetery west of the village of Longueval. Cemeteries throughout the area contain the graves of New Zealand soldiers: Dartmoor Cemetery, Warlencourt British Cemetery, Bulls Road Cemetery – the list goes on.

It is almost certain that New Zealand's Tomb of the Unknown Warrior at the National War Memorial contains the remains of one New Zealand soldier killed on the Somme in 1916. The remains were interred in the tomb in November 2004.

Amongst the 74 bells of The Carillon at New Zealand's National War Memorial are several relating to the Somme offensive of 1916. Their names echo the places where the New Zealand Division fought and fell in 1916: Delville Wood, Flers, Longueval and High Wood. The bell 'The Somme' is there too, dedicated 'To the Glorious Memory of The New Zealand Division, 1916–18'.

The war took more than 100,000 New Zealanders overseas, many for the first time. Some anticipated a great adventure but found the reality very different. Being so far from home made these New Zealanders very aware of who they were and where they were from. In battle they were able to compare themselves with men from other nations. Out of this came a sense of a separate identity, and many New Zealand soldiers began to refer to themselves as 'Kiwis'.

Quick facts and figures

The total population of New Zealand in 1914 was just over one million.

In all, 120,000 New Zealanders enlisted, of whom 103,000 served overseas.

A total of 2688 Maori and 346 Pacific Islanders served in the New Zealand forces.

At least 3370 other men served in the Australian or imperial forces, among them four Victoria Cross winners.

In all, 550 nurses served with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, and many others enlisted in the United Kingdom.

A total of 18,500 New Zealanders died in or because of the war, and nearly 50,000 more were wounded. Of the total number who died, over 2700 died at Gallipoli, and 12,500 died on the Western Front.

From: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/battle-of-the-somme/new-zealands-somme-experience