CHAPTER XII

THE ADVENTURE OF YOUTH

Fate has decided that Gallipoli shall always be associated with the
story of the Anzacs. This name (which is formed from the initial
letters of the _A_ustralian _N_ew _Z_ealand _A_rmy _C_orps) does not
describe more than half the troops that were engaged in that fated
campaign, but it has so caught the popular fancy, that in spite of all
historians may do, injustice will be done in the thought of the public
to the English, Scotch, and Irish regiments and the gallant French
Colonial troops who played an equally heroic part. There were
certainly no finer troops on the Peninsula--probably in the whole war
no unit has shown greater courage than did the glorious Twenty-ninth
British Division in the landing at Cape Helles.

No writer who accurately pictured these memorable months of our
"treading on the corns of the Turkish Empire" could leave out even the
loyal dark-skinned Britishers from the Hindustani hills and from the
Ganges. There both Gourkas and Sikhs added to their reputation as
fighters.

Australia and New Zealand's part does not, in actual accomplishment or
in personal daring and endurance, outclass the doings of these others,
the larger half of the army. But there is a romance and a glow about
the "Anzac" exploits that (rail at the injustice of it as you may)
makes a human-interest story that will elbow out of the mind of the
"man in the street" what other troops did. In fact, every second man
one meets has the idea that the Australians and New Zealanders were the
only men there.