The stamp today signifies the expansion of a war memorial after another war. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
The stamp today is a bit of a repeat. Another stamp from this New Zealand issue was covered by The Philatelist previously. see here, https://the-philatelist.com/2017/10/12/the-british-royal-family-picture-to-honour-end-of-wwii-in-nz-hmmm/.The text will not be a repeat. This is a better designed stamp that better relates itself to the topic at hand of celebrating the end of World War II. It does make the point that the ANZAC WWI memorials role will be expanded to include dead from later wars and even UN peacekeeping missions.
Todays stamp is issue A103, a 1 Shilling stamp issued by New Zealand on April 1st, 1946. It displays the New Zealand National War Memorial in Wellington. It was part of an 11 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is undervalued at 80 cents mint. It is the most valuable stamp in this issue.
The National War Memorial was dedicated on ANZAC day in 1932. The stamp only shows the Carillon, which was all that existed at first. A carillon is a musical instrument in a tower that contains a series of bells that can be used to ring serially to play a melody or in concert to play a musical cord. They are controlled from a keyboard. When opened this example contained 43 bells. It is now up to 66 bells. Other additions since the stamp have been a hall of remembrance added in the early 1960s, a tomb of an unknown soldier added in 2004 and an expanded park added in 2015.
ANZAC Day is a day celebrated in Australia and New Zealand that recalls the ANZAC Corps landing at Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire during WWI. ANZAC stands for the Australia New Zealand Army Corp. This was the first combat of the newly constituted force. The landing occurred before dawn on April 25th 1915. It was supposed to be a lightening strike to take Constantinople and the Ottomans out of the war. The attack did not go as planned facing stiff resistance from an Ottoman force commanded by later Turkish President Kamal. There was an 8 month stalemate until the Allied forces were evacuated. 2721 New Zealand soldiers died in the battle which is a huge number in the small country. By tradition, ANZAC remembrances are at dawn with a gunfire breakfast following. Gunfire breakfast includes coffee with rum added to match the breakfasts of the soldiers on the day of attack.
As this stamp previewed, the war memorial was taken to honor the dead of all subsequent wars. This included Vietnam which lead to services of the era being disrupted by anti war protestors and even feminists protesting wartime rape victims. Over time, thankfully the remembrances have become less controversial.
Well my drink is empty so I will pour another to toast the brave men of Gallipoli. Not much of a coffee or rum drinker though. Kemal announced later as Turkish President that modern Turkey is now friendly with the countries of the Gallipoli campaign. Therefore the dead of both sides can rest in peace side by side and all veterans are welcome to visit the old battlefield. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.