In Australia today is ANZAC Day, the anniversary of the first large (and pointless and losing) military action by Australian and New Zealand soldiers (the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps), their landing at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915.
11 November 1918, when WWI came to a halt, was called Armistice Day. It was a truce, not a victory. Armistice Day is set aside as a day to remember all the men and women who served in Australia’s armed forces.
When WWII in Europe ended with the surrender of Germany on 8 May 1945, the day was known (on the Allied side) as V-E (Victory in Europe) day. In London there was great celebration.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill waves to crowds in Whitehall on the day he broadcast to the nation that the war with Germany had been won, 8 May 1945. Imperial War Museum photograph H 41849 retrieved from Wikimedia Commons.
British Movietone News Film of VE Day in London 1945:
V E Day began with Mr Churchill’s broadcast officially announcing the end of war in Europe. Londoners took to the streets in celebrations which continued for nearly two days. Outside Buckingham Palace the crowds chanted ‘we want the King’ and were rewarded by the Royal Family appearing on the balcony. At nine o’clock in the evening the King broadcast to Britain and the Commonwealth.
Plans for V-E day had been announced in Australian newspapers on 2 May, a week before.
The war was not finished for Australians, however. The Japanese had not yet surrendered and Australia and its allies were still fighting in the Pacific. The Adelaide News noted that “the Allied victory in Europe, V-E Day, was [celebrated] in Adelaide in an atmosphere of sober satisfaction and thanksgiving rather than one of wild rejoicing.”
(News (Adelaide), 8 May, p. 3.)
The front page of the Adelaide News on 9 May did not report local V-E celebrations. It gave prominence instead to an article announcing that King George VI had pledged Britain would use all her resources in the war against Japan.
It was more than three months before Japan surrendered, on 15 August 1945 August, finally ending WWII for Australia. This day was celebrated as V-J (Victory over Japan) Day.

WORLD REJOICES AT VICTORY (1945, August 17). The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA), p. 1. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article43506752
“The Fallen of World War II” is an animated documentary about war and peace that looks at data on the human cost of the wars in the twentieth century and how these compare to wars in the distant past and more recently.
I hope we never forget the suffering and misery of war and the unspeakable wickedness and stupidity of people who let it happen.
Watching the Dawn Service on TV and reading your post makes me think of the experiences of our ancestors in War Time. Of course it hasn’t stopped in various war zones around the world. I’m thinking of my biological father who survived Gallipoli and World War 1 and also the bombing of Darwin in World War 2. Until I discovered him I had no family connection with ANZAC Day. He survived both wars to die of cancer in 1952, the year after I was born. I have always had strong feelings about ANZAC Day although they have changed over the years.
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I am afraid we have already forgotten.
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Gallipoli only happened because of the incompetence of one Winston Spencer Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty. The ANZAC forces were landed miles off course from where they were supposed to be. I am PROUD of my family members who fought across the Peninsula – those who came home, and those who did not. LEST WE FORGET.
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Wow! I barely knew about the Australian holiday. Thanks so much for this great knowledge.
J Lenni Dorner~ Co-host of the #AtoZchallenge, Debut Author Interviewer, Reference& Speculative Fiction Author
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Humanity seems very poor at remembering the devastation and tragedy of war for all sides.
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