From Mount Victoria to Glenbrook, Blue Mountains residents turned out in large numbers to honour our servicemen and women at Anzac Day services on Wednesday, April 25.
At the service at Glenbrook, RAAF Group Captain Karon Millett asked the crowd to think about what makes Anzac Day so special.
She talked about farmers, shopkeepers, labourers and clerks enlisting 100 years ago, who were ill-prepared for what they were about to face in Gallipoli.
“In eight months, 36,000 Australian and New Zealand soldiers were killed or injured,” she said.
“Imagine you were one of them living in the mud and the smell of death all around you.
“61,513 Australians died in World War One.
“Anzac Day recognises the suffering and sacrifice of the original Anzacs at Gallipoli.”
At the 11am Springwood service, Steve Tutill shared his grandfather’s World War I story in the Anzac address.
Jack Tutill was shot in the arm in Gallipoli and was evacuated part of the way on Simpson’s donkey until he gave up his ride halfway down the hill for a soldier who had leg injuries. “He was hanging onto the donkey’s tail for the rest of the journey to the beach,” said Mr Tutill.
Back in Australia following an operation on his arm, Mr Tutill said his grandfather described his Gallipoli experience to his local paper, saying: “Coming from our position to shore I saw some of the most gruesome spectacles – wounded and dead soldiers everywhere.”
But he said the Turks were fair fighters, who even bandaged the wounds of Australian soldiers.
“They will have a pot at you whenever they get the chance while fighting, but then, our boys would do that too,” he told the Temora Independent.