– an Army chaplain’s perspective
By Danielle Coe
As New Zealanders we’ve grown up with tales of the original ANZACs courageously battling with the Turks on the ridges of Gallipoli.
For Army Chaplain Lance Lukin (below right) those stories run deeper; there’s a blood connection to the hallowed ground.
His maternal grandfather fought on the Peninsula as a member of the XI Taranaki Rifle Brigade, which is part of today’s Wellington, West Coast and Taranaki Regiment, a TF unit Chaplain Lukin served three years with. “To trek along the same route they took and to see the absolute sheer cliff faces they climbed in the dead of night was an amazing experience.”
In front of three thousand people Chaplain Lukin led the New Zealand Service at Chunuk Bair on Anzac Day last month; in his hand he clutched his grandfather’s collar dog.
Away from the crowds that converged on Chunuk Bair it’s easy to imagine the fallen soldiers sitting on the hills watching and listening in. For Chaplain Lukin the journey to Gallipoli was a string of poignant moments. “To put my feet into the Aegean as they had 90 years ago – to see how close they got and yet how far they had to go.”
“Seeing the names written on the walls of remembrances, reading inscriptions like ‘duty nobly done’.”
Some 620 unidentified soldiers lie beneath the ground at Chunuk Bair; there are just ten headstones at the cemetery.
The ground itself is an uncompromising ridge, rising 860 feet from the beach below – the views are breathtaking. “Standing there you get an appreciation of the size of Gallipoli – the ruggedness, the beauty, but also the sheer impossibility of their task.”
Unlike so many, Chaplain Lukin’s grandfather survived Gallipoli. He went on to fight in France where he was seriously injured when a shell landed in his foxhole. He was blown out of the dirt; his two mates killed. Eventually after a long recuperation he returned to New Zealand.
For Chaplain Lukin just being at Gallipoli, taking in the atmosphere was a career highlight.
“It was a very emotional thing – to think that so many people died seeing the waters of the Narrows, as if they could almost reach out and touch them, but died without that pleasure.”