Australian and New Zealand Army Corps
Anzac Day has always been connected with the Thai–Burma railway.
By a remarkable coincidence Australians in D force started work in the vicinity of Hellfire Pass on or very near 25 April 1943.
Despite their sickness and exhaustion Australian prisoners along the railway found the energy to commemorate the anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli in 1915. It was important for them to position their experience of war within the foundational national narrative of the Anzac ‘legend’. They had been defeated in 1942 but they could still display the qualities for which Australian soldiers were renowned — resourcefulness, laconic humour, endurance, courage and mateship.
