ANZAC Day

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Saluted ... a soldier pays his respects at the Remembrance Stone at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra / AP

Across the generations ... the Anzac Day dawn service at Brisbane's Shrine of Remembrance in Anzac Square. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Solemn ... Helen Heathcote takes in the Anzac Day commemorations in Adelaide. Picture: Tait Schmaal

Return ... former World War II prisoner of war Bill Haskell, 88, makes his way on part of the death railway after the dawn ceremony to mark ANZAC Day at Hellfire Pass in Kanchanaburi province, western Thailand / AP

Proud to serve ... Wal Scott-Smith, a World War Two veteran, now in his late 80s stands in front of the Cenotaph in Sydney's Martin Place. Picture: Charlie Brewer

Brave few ... Neville McCowen, now 90, travels each year to the Sydney dawn service from Tamworth. Picture: Charlie Brewer

Lest we forget ... Hobart's Cenotaph was the venue for many to remember the contribution of Australias servicemen and women. Picture: Kim Eiszele

Half mast ... the Australia flag in Sydney's Darling Harbour flies at half mast as a mark of respect to the nation's fallen. Picture: Charlie Brewer

Sunrise ... rain threatened in Adelaide but the skies cleared to the relief of the thousands attending the city's dawn service> Picture: Tait Schmaal

At dawn ... a bugle resonated over the thousands assembled at the War Memorial on Adelaide's North Terrace. Picture: Tait Schmaal

Protected ... members of the Australian National University (ANU) Battalion form a guard around a roadside war memorial during a dawn service ceremony in the town of Braidwood, about 90 km east of Canberra / Reuters

Driving on ... Victorian veteran Keith Carrah, 93, rides in an old jeep in a parade in Albury. Picture: Simon Dallinger

Next generation ... Jack and William Dallinger watch the parade down Dean St, Albury. Picture: Simon Dallinger

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Dili, Timor Leste

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http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b80_1205921208
dont know how to embed from liveleak.

[Wayno]

Return ... former World War II prisoner of war Bill Haskell, 88, makes his way on part of the death railway after the dawn ceremony to mark ANZAC Day at Hellfire Pass in Kanchanaburi province, western Thailand / AP

If you ever get to Thailand be sure to visit Hellfire Pass (a couple of hours out of Bangkok). An amazing and solemn place with interesting memorial museum. These guys were literally worked to death on the railroad, breaking through solid granite mountain sides. Very sad indeed.

[Professor]

I was there for The ANZAC Day dawn service a few years ago and was lucky enough to be standing next to a digger who had been there in the war.

The second world war war grave at Kanchanaburi, which about 15 km from the pass, is also a really sad place, with the hundreds and hundreds of names of so many young men, many dying unnecessarily of dysentry and cholera.

I was in the RAN reserve at the time and it was pretty emotional to think of those young people, in the oppressive heat while fighting a ruthless enemy across the region, including ONG. Same goes for Vietnam war.

Lest we forget

[Will409]

I was watching a doco earlier today about the Australian involvement in Asia duing the Second World War and one of the former soldiers interviewed was also a Japanese P.O.W survivor. One of the things he recounted really made my spine shiver and that was that "the Germans were gentlemen compared to the Japanese". Makes you think how bad things were and we all know how bad the German P.O.W camps were.