On another lonely Anzac Day, solitary memorials stand out

On another Anzac Day turned lonesome by the global pandemic, solitary actions show all the more how the sacrifices of Australia and New Zealand during World War I are far from forgotten

ZONNEBEKE, Belgium -- On another Anzac Day turned lonesome by the global pandemic, solitary actions show all the more how the sacrifices of Australia and New Zealand during World War I are far from forgotten. While global attention will turn at dawn on Sunday to the beaches of Turkey’s Gallipoli where the two emerging countries crafted a sense of nationhood from the horrors of war in April 1915, all along the front line in Europe, small ceremonies will show gratitude over a century after the war ended. Although thousands were allowed to march in Australia again on Sunday, after commemorations were canceled last year, COVID-19 restrictions are still in force throughout much of Europe, where ceremonies for Anzac troops are held every year in places like Villers-Bretonneux in France and Ypres in Belgium. "We look forward to the years to come when many more of us come together and pay homage together,” said Gillian Bird, Australia’s ambassador, at a reduced service in Villers-Bretonneux in northern France.