Sacrifice


“Death, it is a strange concept, we live, we die. In the past few months we have lost a lot of good friends to Death, and that’s what we are here for, to remember them, to commemorate them and to honour their sacrifice in this war.” I get ready to approach the podium, my knuckles white from holding my small brown leather diary.. I had started the diary so that I would remember what had happened, but now I didn’t want to remember any of it, why would anyone want to remember how their two best friends died.

“Today I will be reading a few of my diary entries to commemorate my two friends Michael and David.”

“Wednesday the 16th of March 1915. Today I was walking through Gladstone Park with Michael and David. We approach a large crowd and we all look at each other and speed up our pace. We ask a young man at the brink of the crow. “What’s going on?” “It’s for the war effort, it’s a sign up sheet, anyone over 16.” We look at each other and push through the crowd we get to the front of the line and I bend down and write my name on the sheet. That was the most exhilarating day of my life. Signing off, Andy.”

“Monday the 5th April 1915. We arrived at Gallipoli yesterday and got ambushed. We have been training for the past few weeks and are now here and in the full war effort. It is slowly sinking in, I’m fighting in a war, I’m a soldier. Michael, David and I are getting used to how it works and we’ve met a few other men from the Balmain district. If I could say, then I would say that it is quite fun. Signing off, Andy. Unfortunately for me, I had not yet realised how hard being a soldier really was.”

“Saturday the 24th April 1915. Today it happened. Michael, David and I were playing cards with John and Richie. We here a plane flying overhead and don’t think anything of it. “Haha, trumped all of you!” I had said and that’s when we had heard it, a whistling like an owner calling their dog back, a whistling like the earth calling their bombs back. David and Michael glance at each other like two soldiers doing their duty. A look passes between them and all of a sudden they push me out of the way. I don’t remember much, a ringing in my ears, a loud crash, a fiery explosion. And that’s when I realised what had happened…”

“This is how my two best friends died, this is how I lost the two people I care about the most. This all started the day we wrote our names down on that sheet, the day we did that walk in Gladstone park. They gave their lives for me and I will forever be in debt to them till the day I die.”

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