I can't say that I remember much of either Anzac Day or Armistice Day as school events in my childhood. That is, I can't recall a single commemoration service at primary school or high school, though surely these must have been annually observed. Or were they?

In the 1960's, much of the steam had gone out of Anzac Day and I remember talk about it's disappearing or diminishing in the same way as Wattle Day had. But it seems that the passing of all the Gallipoli veterans and a new found nationalism (thanks Gough) has re-energised Anzac Day and established it as our de facto national day.

While the efforts of the Anzacs in their ill-conceived venture in the Dardenelles were genuinely remarkable, other battles seem to have been overlooked. Consider the Battle Of Amiens in August 1918, when Australian and Canadian infantry divisions supported by massed ranks of British tanks broke through the Hindenburg Line, advanced a dozen kilometres, took thousands of prisoners and demoralised the exhausted German army. Ludendorff called it "the black day of the German Army". Rommel, a young soldier in this conflict, though not at Amiens, vowed, "I'll see you at Tobruk" Or words to that effect.

So I guess that we are stuck with commemorating a military defeat. Not such a bad thing really. It's hard to develop a sense of hubris when you lose.