7 Dec 2014

War Report - 7 December 2014

From New Zealand in World War I, 8:53 pm on 7 December 2014

Extract from an editorial in late 1914 'It will be a short war'. Jim Warner describes being in camp in Featherston in late 1914 and another veteran talks about training at Awapuni in Palmerston North and Sir Harry Lauder giving the troops an impromptu concert at Highden.

And mention that the 8 December 1914 was the day on which 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.

Music extracts:

Artist: John McCormack
Song: There’s a Long Long Trail A Winding
Composer: King/Elliott
Album: Oh, It’s a Lovely War Vol 2
Label: CD41 486309

Artist: Arthur Fields
Song: You can’t beat us
Composer: n/s
Album: Songs of World War 1
Label: Geoentertainment 557331 1900s

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