Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

April 25, 1915: World War I: The Battle of Gallipoli begins: The invasion of the Turkish Gallipoli Peninsula by British, French, Indian, Newfoundland, Australian and New Zealand troops, begins with landings at Anzac Cove and Cape Helles. National day of remembrance for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who served in the Gallipoli campaign, their first engagement in the First World War.



ANZAC Day marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by these forces at Gallipoli in 1915 in a pushback against the Ottoman Empire that had been taken over by the Young Turk Movement (CUP Party).

The morning of April 25, 1915, when the Allied forces landed on the beaches of the Gallipoli Peninsula. Their mission was to open the Dardanelles to the allied navies and eventually capture Constantinople (now Istanbul), the capital of the Ottoman Empire, an ally of Germany at the time. The hope was to secure a sea route to Russia and knock the Ottomans out of the war.

The landing at Gallipoli was met with fierce resistance from the Ottoman Turkish soldiers. The campaign quickly became a stalemate, with both sides suffering heavy casualties. The rugged terrain and tactical mistakes compounded the challenges faced by the ANZAC troops, leading to a prolonged eight-month struggle that resulted in over 8,000 Australian and nearly 3,000 New Zealand soldiers losing their lives.

While Gallipoli is the most famed, ANZAC forces also played crucial roles on the Western Front and in the Middle East. In 1916, ANZAC troops were redeployed to France, where they fought in major battles at the Somme, Fromelles, and Pozières.

In the Middle East, the ANZAC Mounted Division, part of the Desert Mounted Corps, played a vital role in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign against the Ottoman Empire. They were instrumental in victories at Gaza, Beersheba, and Jerusalem. These victories were pivotal in weakening the Ottoman control in the region, which eventually led to their surrender in 1918.

In Australia and New Zealand, dawn services, marches, and memorial services are held, attended by veterans, current service members, and the public. The playing of "The Last Post," a minute of silence, and the recitation of the Ode of Remembrance are poignant reminders of the high price of freedom.

The impact of World War I on Australia and New Zealand was profound, touching the lives of countless individuals and shaping the future of both nations. On ANZAC Day, the stories of the ANZACs are revisited, ensuring that the legacy of those who gave their lives in the pursuit of peace and justice continues to live on in national consciousness. This day reminds us that their sacrifices were not in vain and that their spirit endures in the hearts of all who value liberty and the brotherhood of nations.



Westminster Abbey Marks ANZAC Day 2024

On the 25 April 1916, one year to the day that Australians troops splashed ashore at the Gallipoli Peninsula, 6434 servicemen paraded through the streets of Brisbane before 50,000 onlookers.

This was the first instance of what would soon become an annual national ritual of observance - Anzac Day.

Anzac Day ritual  (State Library of Queensland)

ANZAC is an acronym for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, a grouping of several divisions created early in the Great War of 1914–18. In December 1914 the Australian Imperial Force and New Zealand Expeditionary Force, both of which had just arrived in Egypt, were placed under the command of Lieutenant-General William Birdwood. Initially the term Australasian Corps was suggested for the combined force, but Australians and New Zealanders were reluctant to lose their separate identities.

No one knows who came up with the term Anzac. It is likely that Sergeant K.M. Little, a clerk in Birdwood's headquarters, thought of it for use on a rubber stamp: 'ANZAC' was convenient shorthand, and became the telegraph code word for the corps.

The Anzacs first saw action at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. The small cove where the Australian and New Zealand troops landed was quickly dubbed Anzac Cove. Soon the word was being used to describe all the Australian and New Zealand soldiers fighting on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Later it came to mean any Australian or New Zealand soldier.

New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage

April 25, 1976: Rick Monday Great Play! Robert James "Rick" Monday Jr. of the Chicago Cubs snatched a U.S. flag away from two protestors who were attempting to burn it after invading the field during a game at Dodger Stadium. Monday had served, while playing Major League Baseball, a six-year commitment with the United States Marine Corps Reserve as part of his ROTC obligation after leaving Arizona State. He received a congratulatory phone call from President Gerald R. Ford after the game, and was later invited to the White House. Rick still has the flag.






April 25, 1982: The task force is now full steam ahead, and the carrier battle group joins up with the advanced group, consisting of HMS Sheffield, Glasgow, Coventry and Arrow, headed for the Falklands. 

Watch out, Argentina...

The UK looks into gaining further US support, from weapons, intelligence, logistics and political angles, and even provides a shopping list...



April 25 1982: Argentine submarine ARA Santa Fe leaves Grytviken, South Georgia, at 5am, heading for the open sea, but surfaces to avoid icebergs and rocks. Coming through Cumberland Bay, she is detected, and British ships prepare to take her out.

HMS Antrim leads the British force around South Georgia, which has five helicopters; a Wessex (Antrim), three Wasps (Endurance & Plymouth) & two Lynx (Brilliant) and orders are now given to prepare for anti submarine action...



At 08.55 Antrim's Wessex picks up Santa Fe and moves to engage with depth charges. The first one bounces off the deck, but the second explodes, rupturing a fuel tank and ballast tank. Argentine Captain Bicain quickly reverses course and races back towards Grytviken.

A Lynx from HMS Brilliant drops an anti submarine torpedo which passes under the surfaced Santa Fe as the Wasps from HMS Endurance & HMS Plymouth move in with AS-12 missiles... The chase is on.



Wasps from Endurance move in as Santa Fe nears the shore. Argentine troops fire from land as Santa Fe opens up with a machine gun, but an AS-12 is fired, hitting the conning tower, injuring the machine gunner and putting it out of action just as it hits land. The crew of the Santa Fe run for cover as men on shore fire with rifles and someone fires an anti-tank missile skywards, all of which misses. Spotting an early advantage, UK forces now decide to capitalise on the situation.



She was captured by the British at South Georgia after being seriously damaged and subsequently sank along a pier, with just her conning tower (sail) visible above the waterline. The submarine was raised, towed out of the bay and scuttled in deep water in 1985.

A message to London on the fate and present condition of the ARA Santa Fe. Though a thorough inspection is impossible, they state that  "We assess that the internal damage is severe"...



Barring a small garrison at Leith, South Georgia is recovered, a submarine is crippled and 156 servicemen and 38 scrap metal workers are now prisoners, all for no UK losses. As the great lady said: "rejoice!"



April 25, 1982: (Vid above) John Nott reads out on TV the report from South Georgia. When the press push for more answers, Thatcher hits a defining moment:  "Just rejoice at that news... And congratulate our forces and the Marines... Rejoice!"

Built by the US during WWII, the sub operated in the US Navy as USS Catfish (SS-339) until 1971 when she was transferred to the Argentine Navy.


James Bama (April 28, 1926 – April 24, 2022) famous for his western paintings that are in museums around the world was previously known as an illustrator of book & magazine covers.


James Bama – RIP

James Bama was an American artist known for his realistic paintings and etchings of Western subjects. Life in Wyoming led to his comment, "Here an artist can trace the beginnings of Western history, see the first buildings, the oldest wagons, saddles and guns, and be up close to the remnants of Indian culture... And you can stand surrounded by nature's wonders."

In an extremely successful twenty-two year career as a commercial artist, he produced book covers, movie posters and illustrations for such notable magazines as Saturday Evening Post, Argosy and Reader's Digest. In 1968, Bama moved to Wyoming to pursue his love for portraying contemporary Western subjects, saying goodbye to his career as an illustrator.

Big Horn Galleries

More James Bama cover art:



V. is the personification of America or, more broadly, the postmodern global war-scape. First published in March, 1963, it describes the exploits of a discharged U.S. Navy sailor named Benny Profane, his reconnection in New York with a group of bohemian artists and hangers-on known as the Whole Sick Crew, and the quest of an aging traveller named Herbert Stencil to identify and locate the mysterious entity he knows only as "V.".

Funny, yet annoying as hell story about the publishing of "V." by Thomas Pynchon...

Two versions of V. were issued in 1963, one in the U.S. and one in England, because errors that had crept into the first American edition were found and corrected in time for the British edition’s release. Pynchon would be able to get the corrections he had made for the British edition into the American paperback the following year. The fact that the first U.S. edition needed to be corrected was forgotten, and with the exception of those printed by Bantam, the U.S. paperback publisher, all other U.S. editions are reproductions of the uncorrected first American edition. This paper traces the editorial history of V. after its publication, detailing the differences between the corrected and uncorrected editions of the novel.

...

The issue, in any case, should have been settled, indeed had been settled in Britain and in the United States for about twenty years — between 1967 and 1986 — while the corrected Bantam edition was the only U.S. text being reproduced, but the problem resurfaced when Bantam lost the rights to reprint its edition and Lippincott's fiction catalogue was taken over by Harper and Row in the mid-1980s. The text of the first Perennial reprint — which also seems to have been produced using the original Lippincott edition, even though the chapter titles are centered rather than flushed to the left — followed the original American text to the letter and the later reprints continue to do so, with the exception of the introduction of new typos after two resettings, one in 1999 and the other in 2005. Meanwhile, the text that continues to be printed in Britain follows the Cape edition. Consequently, since 1986, the two versions of V. that were issued between 1963 and 1966 have been available to readers, and as in 1963, the corrected, near definitive edition, has only been the British one, a Vintage paperback in its present manifestation, while those in the U.S who have been relying on the Perennial imprints, or the newly released Penguin e-book, have been reading an unauthorized text.

Full paper: The Two V.s of Thomas Pynchon, or From Lippincott to Jonathan Cape and Beyond

And in case you're wondering about the book title... British comics writer, novelist, short story writer, musician, cartoonist, magician, and occultist, Alan Moore the author of "V for Vendetta" is a big fan of Thomas Pynchon's works. The title character V is quoting and reading from Pynchon's book.

Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. born May 8, 1937 is still alive. Pynchon is a very mysterious man, said to have an extremely high IQ with deep knowledge on how the US gov/mil complex actually functions and notoriously reclusive from the media; few photographs of him have ever been published, and rumors about his location and identity have circulated since the 1960s. Pynchon's most recent novel, Bleeding Edge, was published on Sept 17, 2013.