The Anzac legend, which was the result of a devastating loss, rather than a great victory, has had, and continues to have a significant impact on Australia's identity. The Australian and New Zealand soldiers demonstrated the spirit of mateship, courage, loyalty, bravery, sacrifice, heroism, dedication, honour, integrity, initiative and determination throughout the Gallipoli campaign as they battled against daunting odds. These traits have come to represent the Anzac legend, which is evident in Australia today be it in war, conflict or peacetime.
The Anzac spirit was displayed daily through the eight month conflict at Gallipoli. From the moment the Australian and New Zealand troops landed at Anzac cove the spirit of courage, loyalty, bravery, initiative, sacrifice and mateship was evident. Every day the…show more content… Among the many reports that reached Australia were those of Ellis Ashmead Bartlett who wrote of the ˜magnificent victories' made by the Anzac soldiers. "Then the Australians found themselves facing an almost perpendicular cliff of loose sandstone, Somewhere half way up, the enemy had a second trench, strongly held, Here was a tough proposition to tackle in darkness, but those colonials, practical above all else, went about it in a practical way, They stopped for a few minutes, got rid of their packs, and charged up their magazines.
Then this race of athletes proceeded to scale the cliffs without responding to enemy fire. They lost some men, in less than a quarter of an hour the Turks were out of their second position, either bayoneted or fleeing. This extract demonstrates how Ashmead Bartlett glorified and exaggerated the victories made by the Anzacs and romanticized the horrors of the Gallipoli campaign. His articles and those written by other correspondents such as C.E.W. Bean and John Masefields did however help the birth of the Anzac