Colonel Todd Ashurst said that was the Anzac spirit handed down to today’s generation.

“If we lose that Anzac spirit, we lose it all,” he said.

Colonel Ashurst made the comments during his address to hundreds of people at Saturday’s 10am Anzac Day service on Albury’s Monument Hill.

The rain that drenched those at the dawn service stayed largely away, with a light shower starting to fall only after wreaths had been laid.

Albury RSL vice-president Mark Dando said earlier in his welcome that he hoped the wet weather would at least stay away for the ceremony.

“Most of us have already gone home and changed once so we don’t have to do that again,” he said.

The address from Col Ashurst, commander of the Joint Logistics Unit, focused on the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings.

“In a nation’s history, great events — whether in peace or war — live in our memories regardless of time,” he said.

“They are deemed great not necessarily because of what was achieved, nor whether they were victories or successes.”

Instead, Col Ashurst said, these great events were distinguished by the “quality of the human endeavour” called upon by the examples these create for ordinary men and women “by the legends they inspire. So it is for Anzac Day.”

Col Ashurst said the Gallipoli campaign was described by historians as an ill-fated campaign.

It was based on vague objectives and with an underestimation of the military prowess and character of the Turkish soliders, plus the tactical advantages they held.

“But the cream of New Zealand and Australian armies, volunteers all, committed themselves with no hesitation about the nobility of their cause,” he said.

They fought, he said, with great courage, skill and audacity.

Col Ashurst said the campaign could not be described as anything other than a defeat.

“However, the achievements of the Anzacs can be measured in other than strategy, tactics or battles,” he said.

“Their true achievement and their legacy from 100 years ago is in their courage, their determination, mateship and their sacrifice.”

This was what had set the standards for generations to come.

“The legends they established gave fresh voice to new feelings of national pride in both young nations,” he said.

Likewise, the grief of the losses brought their communities back home together in a way never before known in what was still a young nation.

“For New Zealanders and Australians, Anzac Day is our day,” he said.

Mr Dando said the mateship that developed at Gallipoli and in other battles “has continued to be part of our ethos”.

“I’m proud of what our forebears achieved and the legacy they left us.”

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