There were ten of us on today’s tour which took in just the ANZAC section of the Gallipoli campaign. There were three sectors to the whole land campaign: the British and French in the south at the entrance to the Dardanelles at Helles Point; the ANZACs in the middle on the Aegean Sea side of the peninsula; and again the Brits at the north west at Suvla Bay.
We first visited Brighton Beach, a reasonably flat area that was to have been the site of the ANZAC landing. The first of many blunders that marked this campaign. For some reason in the dark (maybe the strong currents played a part) the first ANZACs were put ashore a little north of here, on a beach that fronted steep cliffs and on which the Turks had a small gun emplacement. This is now known as Anzac Cove. Around the bend a few hundred metres is a wide long beach, North Beach and it was here that the majority of the ANZAC troops landed. Shrapnel Valley ran up from here to the ridges that were the target to be taken on the first day. No such luck. There were only 160 Turkish troops in this area at the time of the landing, firing down on the Allies who had no way of knowing how small the enemy really was. So progress was delayed enough to allow Turkish reinforcements to arrive. Eventually some key heights were attacked and taken, then counter-attacks and lost, back and forth over several days. Both sides dug in for trench and tunnel warfare. The trenches we saw today are just shallow remnants: back then they were 4 metres deep, so that mules could safely traverse them carrying supplies. It is quite incredible to see how close the frontlines were: just the width of the present road apart.
To the north we could clearly see Suvla Bay. Here the British landed and camped for 3 days instead of pushing up behind the Turks to form a pincer movement with the ANZACs. That was death to the whole Allied campaign. Thousands of students from Istanbul arrived after 4 days training and under the brilliant leadership of Attaturk held off all Allied attempts to make ground. In December/January the order to retreat was given, and miraculously not one life was lost in the withdrawal.
It is certainly rugged country, though nothing like the terrain in PNG. Today it is national park, and the Turks do a wonderful job of maintaining it. Of course for them, the Gallipoli campaign was the incentive to fight again and establish their modern republic. There were dozens of buses at the Turkish cemetery sites as we went around… students mainly out on history excursions.
Our tour guide was a youngish university graduate who really knew his history and made a good job of keeping us aware of the geography of it all as we went. Probably the best guided tour I’ve had in years anywhere. So pleased I came to see where some of our history was made. Of course the price was horrendous: Ottoman dead 86000, Allied dead 44000 (mostly British and French, but 8400 Australians). Total wounded a quarter million. Churchill’s folly: though apparently there is no record of the War Cabinet ever approving the campaign!
Took lots of photos – a sampling to give a taste of it all here.
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