June 3rd, Gallipoli

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This morning we had a lazy beginning because our tour to the battlefields, across the water from our hotel in Çanakkale, didn’t start until 11.45. Even then, the beginning consisted of only us meeting Captain Ali, a retired naval captain and historian who was to be our guide, and taking a ferry trip with him to meet the rest of the tour members. They had been collected in Istanbul at around seven in the morning and would be having lunch with us before we all set off in their bus.

Captain Ali was an entertaining and interesting man, who was a very courteous gentleman. He sometimes delivered his lines with a twinkling eye but a straight face and at other times was absolutely cackling with laughter at them. Keith made the blooper of asking him if it was worth going to Troy (despite me having insisted on it for weeks), only to hear that Captain Ali had done his thesis on the topic and yes, he did think it would be worth going. Also he was a guide for it.

We had lunch in the designated restaurant alone and then went for a walk around the town, called Aceabat. Most buildings were unexceptional, with the two highlights being the kangaroo and bear plant pots next to the Atatürk statue, and the complex statue in the war memorial park near the sea. The statue is beautiful and seems to pull you around it to look at all angles.

Finally everyone had arrived and lunched and we hopped aboard the bus with 22 people from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and America with Captain Ali manning the microphone.

Ali began by making jokes, which seemed a little unusual, given where we were going, but he was a master at working the crowd and the light hearted start certainly put people at ease and brought us together.

In World War I, Australia and Zealand were allies of Britain, France and Russia. Turkey had been a neutral country but was drawn into the war on the side of Germany and Austria. Prior to the war, Turkey had ordered two war ships from England, paying for them in cash raised by public subscription. The crumbling Ottoman Empire had let its navy run down and was attempting to build it up again. Two days before war was declared, the English decided that they needed the ships and did not deliver them to Turkey nor give the money back. This led to a lot of anti-English feeling amongst the Turkish people. The German government stepped into the breach, sailing two war ships down and being allowed by the Sultan and his government to enter the Dardanelles. The English declared this a breach of neutrality and demanded that the ships be expelled. From the commentary on our tour we gathered that the Germans had more or less forced Turkey’s hand by hoisting Turkish flags on the German war ships but the Naval museum explained that the Sultan’s government agreed to the name changes and to accepting the ships, also agreeing to the ‘Turkish’ ships following German orders to attack Russian targets on the Black Sea. Whatever the case, there was dissent in Turkey over involvement in the war and dissatisfaction was to grow with the Ottoman government, which was headed by the Grand Vizier appointed by the Sultan.

The Dardanelles is a narrow water way linking the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea and it was Churchill’s idea to take it, knock Turkey out of the war by capturing Constantinople (now Istanbul) and use it as a route to provide Russia with relief.

Prior to the ANZAC landings on April 25^th 1915, there had been an attempt by the Allies on March 18^th to force a way through the Dardanelles, using battleships to launch attacks on the shore and to force a way through, but this had failed, with the loss of three battle ships and many lives. The ANZAC and Allied campaign was an attempt to land on the other side of the peninsula that forms to western side of the Dardanelles and to go overland and take over that way. The plan put General Sir William Hamilton in charge of a 70,000 strong Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, which included Australians and New Zealanders in a new corps known as ANZAC, French, Indian, Canadian and English troops.

That the campaign took from April until December, when the troops remaining were withdrawn, with no maintained success for the allies, is well known. The losses for both sides were enormous. Between the ANZACS and the Turks, a respect for each other as combatants and as men grew, and this came through clearly in the commentary from our guide, whose grandfather had died at Lone Pine. Ali had grown up in the nearby village of Dardanos, and as a child had walked the battlefields with his father.

The following section endeavours to take readers along on the tour to a small extent with us, with the information being mostly as presented by our guide.

In 1914 the Australian and New Zealand Prime Ministers had been asked to prepare some troops for an unknown destination and these troops became known as the ANZACS (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps). They were joined in an Allied force by troops from India, France, Britain and Canada under the command of the English General, Sir Ian Hamilton. We looked out on ‘Brighton Beach’, Gaba Tepe, (the intended landing site); a benign spot with gently sloping terrain leading to the high ground, the control of which would have led to the possibility of penetrating inland and across the peninsula to the Dardanelles. The Allied ships, hidden behind an English controlled island, had set off for the landing in the dark. It was to be a surprise landing, allowing them to take the high ground before resistance could be organised. It is thought that currents swept the ships two kilometres further north to the actual landing of 8,000 at Anzac Cove (Ari Burnu), where steep cliffs led up from the beach. Some of the soldiers, carrying 40 kg of supplies above the regular weight of individual equipment, stepped into the sea about 20 metres off shore, following orders, only to drown as their soaked clothing and heavy loads pulled them under. Others waded to shore as the first light appeared, creating silhouettes which the Turks shot at.

Mustafa Kemal, later to be known as Atatürk, was commanding a mobile division in a nearby village and, having heard the landings, he and his 160 men went to the high ground and occupied it. Below there was chaos as further waves of soldiers landed; confusion reigned over where the high ground was (since no proper maps had been supplied); since the terrain was unexpectedly daunting and difficult, and since the element of surprise was gone. Mistakes had been made even before April - the planned attack had been postponed for five weeks because the British leadership believed the ships were not loaded properly for the campaign. This time had allowed the Turks to prepare for the invasion. Looking at the narrow beach (which was wider before the current road was built), with the sun shining and lots of young people wandering along, it was difficult to fully comprehend the events. However it was really brought home by the many simple graves in lines on the grass, each with a name, each with an age which stopped in 1915, many with epitaphs that spoke of patriotism, religion or family loss, and each commemorating a life cut short in horrific circumstances.

We passed a level area where national rivalry in rugby, leading to full-on fights between Australians and New Zealanders had puzzled and delighted the Turkish observers, the dressing station where John Simpson Kirkpatrick brought wounded comrades for dressings, and Shrapnel Gully, where so many wounds were received. There was a lack of fresh water, rationed at two litres per day for all purposes, with supplies having to be brought in by ship from Egypt. Bathing was irregular, in the sea in breaks from fighting. Our guide said that the Turkish troops did not fire on bathers because they were unarmed men. A photo of General Sir William Birdwood bathing naked in the sea, published in Australia, resulted in many relief parcels of bathers being sent to him. In August the British landed at Suvla Bay, about six kilometres away behind a small headland.

We gazed out at the island where General Sir Ian Hamilton had stayed to conduct the campaign – 19 kilometres away; four kilometres beyond the reach of the Turkish batteries. He visited the battlefields three times between April and the change of command in October, when it was recommended by the new commander, Sir Charles Monro, that the Allies should evacuate. This distant ‘chess game’ approach contrasted with the Turkish officer, Mustafa Kemal, who was always in the front line and who became a national hero for his role and his heroism.

In 1934 veterans from Australia, New Zealand and Britain re-enacted the landing and were met by Atatürk, then President of Turkey. Atatürk was the name that Mustafa Kemal was given by the people since he was the founder of Modern Turkey and it means ‘father of the country’. The words that Atatürk spoke are inscribed in a stone monument and are often included in the Anzac memorial services in Australia:

Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives … you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side in this country of ours. You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears. Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.

We had all been listening to Ali detailing the events of 1915 with intensity and the mood was very sombre. When he stopped, nobody spoke, as we each reflected on the errors and the waste, and for some, on the personal losses suffered in their families. Suddenly his tone changed and he told us that Turkish University students often come to Gallipoli, and indeed there had been such a group on the ferry as we were crossing the Dardanelles. They look for transluscent white stones to make a wish for a rich and handsome husband or wife and they keep the stone until the wish is fulfilled. Older people wish for successful marriages for their children. This was a practice pre-dating the events filling our minds and seemingly very trivial to hear about at that point, until viewed in the perspective of ‘life goes on.’ Many people looked for a stone and it gave them a concrete reminder of their time at Anzac Cove.

The areas called the ‘Sphinx’ and the ‘Razor Edge’ looked impossible to climb, let alone to be used as the shortest possible route to the high ground, as was required of the South Australia and Tasmanian battalions. I don’t recall who said this but the quote was “They put us at the gates of Hell.”

The next stop for our bus was at the Anzac commemorative site, moved from Anzac Cove in 2000, once the crowds grew too large. Ali recalled how he and his father came to the battlegrounds 61 years ago, and how they were littered with debris from the war. Now nothing remains. Ali gave us all a piece of shrapnel that he and his father had collected when he was a child, and to me he gave an extra gift of an Allied 303 standard issue Mark 6 bullet (pointed tip) with an Atatürk medallion attached.

This symbolised the respect which developed between the Turks and the ANZACs and between our nations after the war. Later we saw the poignant statue of a Turkish soldier carrying a wounded Allied soldier, and beside it the words of First Lieutenant Richard Casey, later Lord Casey, Australian Attorney-General and Governor General, who in 1967 made a speech at Gallipoli. He told of how, during a break in fighting, he had seen a Turkish soldier carry a wounded British soldier from the Turkish trenches over to the Allied trenches, where he left him with his comrades before returning to his own side.

We read the information boards and imagined the scenes and the feelings of desperation, despair, patriotism, mateship, dependence on each other, loss, fear, frustration and powerlessness. I thought of the bravery and resolve that every soldier would have needed to face each day with the understanding that at any moment you could die. And that at your hand, others who by chance were born in another land, would die. I wondered how it felt to follow orders that, in your judgement, seemed the wrong ones, as must have been the case on several occasions. Also how there could be any immediate coordination when conditions changed, prior to reliable and quick communications.

Next was the Lonesome Pine site which got its name from the lone pine growing there and a popular American song of the times. That tree’s descendants have been planted in many lands, including Australia, as a commemoration of the lives lost here. The orders were given to create a diversion by attacking areas strongly defended by the Turkish, while the British landed at Suvla Bay. There were 4000 Turkish troops and 3,200 Australian troops fighting it out over two days and three moonlit nights. The officers gave the orders to only use bare fists and bayonets because bullets could have killed comrades in the melee. The exhausted Turks withdrew 39 metres – it was the only time they were defeated – with the gain for the Allies costing 6,200 lives (Australian and Turkish) and many more wounded. In the Commonwealth War Graves Commission booklet, ‘The Gallipoli Campaign 1915’, it says ‘At Lone Pine the ANZACs were successful, but they were unable to hold their position and at Sari Bair (The Nek) the Australians were cut down as they advanced. However confusion led to the advance at Suvla being stopped and, by the time it resumed, the Turks had sent in reinforcements.’ So the diversionary objective was not achieved. A couple of days later we watched the film ‘Gallipoli’, which depicts the battle at the Nek, with a much greater understanding and a broader emotional involvement. The Nek itself, which we visited, is a beautiful area with glorious views now of plateaus and the sea but once of the battlefields.

Ali’s grandfather died here at Lonesome Pine. He had a key to the chapel built into the monument. It sits behind commemorative walls listing soldiers who lie somewhere on the battle fields or in the mass grave which was once a Turkish trench on this site. There the allies buried soldiers from both sides, many clasped in each others arms. Ali took us in and spoke about the futility of war that soldiers of both sides came to realise, and of the respect that was felt, even in times of battle. In eight months of struggle only the area the size of two tennis courts was gained, and so many lives were lost. When Ali had met Australian Gallipoli veterans they had said that the true ANZAC spirit flourished on Lone Pine. Here, in the two square kilometres where the ANZACS fought, the nationhood of Australia and New Zealand was born. Here, the Turkish leader, Atatürk, came to the fore and the seeds of modern Turkey were nurtured. He asked everyone to join in a minute’s silence and to give our thoughts to those who died here, and to future continued friendship between Australia and Turkey.

Outside again, we read names on the walls and graves – so many names – and thought of them and their families. Keith asked about Turkish graves and Ali said that there were fewer cemeteries, with most buried in a couple of sites, one of which we would see. There were enormous difficulties in recovering dead, particularly for the Allies who could not access the area for a long time, so there are many whose resting place is not known.

Close by we visited some trenches, which have eroded considerably now but which were surprisingly changing direction every five metres or so and joined each other, criss-crossing the area. Originally two and a half metres wide and deep, they had communication tunnels that allowed them to get fresh water and supplies from Monash Gulley. The trenches were only 20 metres apart with ‘no-man’s land’ in between. It was a deliberate strategy of the Turks to establish their front line trenches close to the ANZACs, because then the Allied navy would not shell their trenches, for fearing of hitting their own. As time went by, the conditions of lack of water and varied food, filth, disease and lice, heat in summer and frost bite in winter, proved killers. There was no cure for dysentery and it was rife. A frost bitten finger had to be chopped off within 16 hours or death ensued, so bayonets were used as life savers. As the months wore on, the sense of the futility of war was strong in both sides. Ali said that many described their feeling at that time, of being human and not professional murderers. The casualties dropped. Unique in wars, the ANZAC battles are regarded by the Turks as being a gentlemen’s war in which the ANZACs were gentlemen.

When Ali was a child his father had told him to wander in the Turkish trenches to feel the spirit of the soldiers, all of whom should be respected and honoured, and he invited us to do the same. Perhaps a lone visit would be more conducive to this, but even with others present, I felt great sadness and a sense of the heroism that had been displayed here – in the tiny details of the daily struggle as well as in the larger ones of battles and retaining one’s humanity.

The New Zealand memorial is on the only bit of high ground, I think called the ‘Queen’s Post’, taken by ANZACs and which was lost again after two days. There were only eight metres between trenches in some places. Atatürk had led the Turkish defence and was hit by a piece of shrapnel, which broke his watch in his pocket, but did not kill him. There is a large statue of Atatürk here, and the inscriptions remind us that he led a small force against a great number in the first defence, asking his men ‘to die’, not only to fight. He knew that there was a Turkish arsenal nearby and that the defence of the high ground was absolutely crucial for the defence of Turkey.

Back in the bus, we soon came to the main Turkish memorial, which has a statue of an aged Turkish veteran and his granddaughter, who is holding a bunch of flowers. He was to be honoured at a commemorative service and he spoke of the need to honour all the dead of all nations here, and that fresh flowers should be placed on the graves of all who lost their lives. Later the statue was made and he lived to see it in place. The Turkish memorial has many quotes from Atatürk in Turkish and English, which show him to have been a soldier and a statesman with sensitivity, intelligence and compassion. General Sir William Birdwood is also quoted as saying:

The Turkish soldier will give his life for his country without hesitation. He is a tough and brave soldier but when a cease fire is called he is gentle and humane and will bandage the wound of his enemy and carry him on his back to save his life. Such a soldier hasn’t been seen on this earth before.

The evacuation was carried out very successfully with only a small number of casualties, and the war continued in other arenas. There are 31 Allied cemeteries and many soldiers are buried where they fell. The ANZAC area alone has 21 cemeteries and the entire area is preserved as a memorial. Much of the peninsula is a National Park.

Our tour visited only a few of the significant sites and lasted five hours. We were lucky enough to have a guide with a personal connection and a great respect for everyone involved. I think it would be of benefit to anyone with a deep or personal interest to hire a car and visit more of the sites, taking as long as is needed and visiting at times when you can be alone with your thoughts and emotions.

The bus trip back was rather subdued, with fatigue catching up with most of those who had travelled from Istanbul, and for me, some time used to reflect on the day and the past.

The bus crossed the Dardanelles on the ferry, since everyone would be staying at the same hotel as us. We went shopping for some supplies for tea because the hotel we were staying in had a guest kitchen. We invited a couple from Canberra, Nicky and Andrew, to share our meal with us. We cooked together and enjoyed an evening of learning about each other and swapping our travel experiences. Nicky was keen to buy a carpet so we told her about ours, and since they are travelling to Pamukkale, it is possible that they will visit Huseyin and look at his carpets there. Later another Australian couple, Fran and Fred, and an English actress, Timmi, arrived so we relaxed with a light hearted session followed by the regular experience of discovering that it is already late and no blog has been written.