Day 128: Thursday 24 July – Gallipoli, by Ken

We awoke at dawn to the sound of thunder rumbling in the distance. The sky was very dark, but there was no rain. The rumbling grew fainter and then it was back again, still there was no rain. This continued for a couple of hours, then the wind got up, the temperature dropped and it rained like there was no tomorrow. One thing we learned on our second day in the country is that Turkey does a good storm, heavy rain, spectacular forked lightning and the most impressive thunder I’ve heard. Each clap started with a very loud crack that sizzled across the sky followed by a bellowing rumble that went on and on. We sat in Mabel, snug as bugs while the rain crashed onto her roof. The rain started to ease after an hour and by 11:30 the sun was shining from a clear blue sky.

Harry phoned to say someone had run into the Honda Jazz while parked outside our house during the afternoon. He suspected it was the tenants in the house at the top of the road, or friends of theirs. He had seen them a number of times reversing down the road very fast as we had before we left. No-one had left a note. Later he sent photographs showing the damage.

We decided there were still enough hours in the day to fit in our planned visit to some of the sites of the Gallipoli campaign. We had an early lunch after which I had to take Smarty to a car wash point in the camping ground – fortuitously the first we have come across on he trip, to hose off all the leaves that had been deposited on her by the storm from the tree she had been parked under and subsequently baked on by the sun..

Smarty Off For A Wash

Our first stop was a large and impressive visitor centre about 10km north of the camping ground. There we saw one of the best audio-visual displays we’ve ever seen. It started with a guide taking us to the first of twelve theatres we were to visit. At the entrance we were handed headsets and shown how to obtain a commentary in English.

In the first theatre we were standing on the deck of a ship that rolled gently as the video covered the mine laying operations in the Dardanelles designed to thwart any attempt by the British navy to attack the Gallipoli peninsula from the straits to pave the way for an attack on Istanbul thereby securing an ice-free route to Russia. One of the male and the only female voice on our English commentary had distinctive Kiwi accents.

Before moving in to the second theatre we were handed 3D glasses. We saw the wardroom of a British warship where naval and army officers were planning the attack on the Gallipoli peninsula. It was very well done, except the Union Flag on the wardroom wall was upside down. And all the British characters looked as though they had Turkish blood in them.

The third theatre was also in 3D. Standing on a tiered ship’s deck we watched the allied (British and French) fleet sailing into the Dardanelles. There were realistic shots of the ships, some at sea level showing the characteristic backward raked bows of warships of that time. A battleship slewed one of its big guns until it was pointing straight at us. I think we both knew what was coming next but that didn’t stop Jane letting out a shriek and ducking as the gun fired. The guns bombarded the shoreline causing mayhem among the Turkish troops. Every time our guns fired the deck on which we were standing shuddered violently, it all felt very real. We saw realistic footage of  incoming shells from the Turkish guns falling just short of our ship.

In theatre four we were on shore seeing the results of the British shelling. Just two men survived in one gun emplacement. They looked out and could see the fleet steaming northwards. One of the men carried a large shell stooped forward with the shell on his back with his arms wrapped around it to hold it in place. He climbed a ladder and loaded the shell into the breech of his gun. While all this was going on the other survivor stood and watched – was health and safety prohibiting him from handling a live shell? The gunner declined the gun and fired scoring a direct hit on the stern deck of a British battleship. The ship then struck a mine and sank. At that point the British turned and headed south out of the Dardanelles.

We moved on to a theatre to see the beginning of the land phase of the campaign starting with the allied landings at the tip of the Gallipoli peninsula and the ANZAC landings further north. The ANZAC troops managed to advance over difficult, steep terrain causing Turkish troops, who were out of ammunition, to retreat.

Next we saw how the campaign would have had a very different ending if it hadn’t been for Mustafa Kamal (Attaturk) arriving on the scene and ordering the retreating troops to turn around and fight with their bayonets to give time for reinforcements to arrive. He is reputed to have said “I am not ordering you to attack, I’m ordering you to die”.

In the next theatre we were standing in trenches watching the fierce fighting of August 1915 when troops who had landed at Cape Suvla tried to take Çonkbayin Hill (Chunuk Bair) with wave after wave of troops charging the Turkish lines only to be repulsed.

Next came the only bit the allies seem to have got right which was the withdrawal of their remaining forces in November 1915 without the Turks cottoning on.

Then we moved into a theatre dealing with memories of the campaign. Against a visual of a statue of a Turkish soldier carrying a wounded Australian officer came an alleged  quote from Lord Carey who witnessed the sight and subsequently became Governor General of Australia. He spoke about the respect the allies had for the Turkish troops. That was reciprocated by a quote from Mustafa Kamal who said “Heroes who shed their blood and lost their lives. You are now lying on the soil of a friendly country. Rest in Peace”. Fine words, but how tragic he should have to utter them. According to our guide book the quote from Carey needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. He wasn’t in the sector where the event took place and doesn’t mention it in his memoirs. At best, it’s an allegory of the chivalry of war. Memories also included letters from parents to their Turkish sons wishing them well in the defence of their homeland, but also saying it was OK to be a martyr.

In the penultimate theatre the presentation was projected on a domed ceiling. It was an overview of events including the British bombing hospital tents, denounced as a war crime.

Finally, we had a jingoistic presentation showing what a great nation Turkey had become thanks to the sacrifices of the Gallipoli martyrs. This was dominated by shots of their military but also included industry hydro schemes and education. The message was clear, but seemed to ignore the fact that the losers of the subsequent world war haven’t done too badly since.

Leaving aside the jingoism, it was a very impressive display even if wasn’t entirely accurate. The fact that it was a joint Franco – British fleet that tried to secure the Dardanelles and more than one ship struck a mine didn’t come across.

After the audio-visual display was a museum area on two floors. Each floor had half a dozen display cases containing an eclectic collection of artifacts from the campaign – such things as  tins of chocolate, uniform badges, grenades and guns. We didn’t stay long in the museum.

Unfortunately, photography wasn't allowed in the audio-visual display area. Here's a few shots I took in the museum:

Anzac Troops on Chunuk Bair

Turkish Troops

Part Of A Display Case

The Museum Building And The Audio-Visual Display Were Excellent

From the information centre we took Smarty to drive a one-way road that links the upper sites of the Gallipoli campaign. We came to the statue of a Turkish soldier carrying an Australian officer we had seen in the presentation. It was impressively large, a plaque on the plinth provided the quote from Lord Carey – in Turkish. 

Statue Of Turkish Soldier Carrying A Wounded Australian Officer

After that was a monolith where in August 1915 ANZAC troops staged an unsuccessful assault on Turkish forces,

Further along the road we came to Lone Pine, site of a minor battle (in Gallipoli terms) and a cemetery for Australian troops. Walking along a track to reach the cemetery we came across two tortoises, much larger than that we saw in Greece. The first was stationary and had retreated slightly into its shell, the second took one look at Jane and legged it, I’d no idea tortoises could move so fast. 

Timid Tortoise

Tortoise Making A Run For It

Lone Pine is also a memorial to 3,268 Australians and 456 New Zealanders with no known graves and soldiers who died of wounds or disease and were buried at sea. The latter includes 252 New Zealanders. The names of the Australians were inscribed on a wall beneath a large cenotaph. Plaques set in two faces of the monolith carried the names of the New Zealanders. Poignantly, the markers in the cemetery all carried the words ‘Believed to be buried in this cemetery’. In World War 1 small cemeteries were established where soldiers fell and graves marked with a wooden cross. It must have been an enormous challenge to determine subsequently who was buried where.

Lone Pine Cemetery (Australian)

Lone Pine Memorial To Anzac Troops With No Known Graves

The road followed a ridge commanding views of the Dardanelles to the east, to the west we could look down at the coastline the allied troops landed on.

We came to another cemetery at Quinn's Post where trenches of the opposing forces were dug within 10 metres of each other. A lot of men died in unsuccessful attempts to take each other’s trenches. By the side of the road there was an area beneath pine trees with the remnants of trenches very similar to those we had seen in France in 2012.

Remnants Of Trenches At Quinn's Post

Further along the ridge was a memorial and a cemetery for the 57^th Turkish regiment whose men were ordered to fight to the death by Mustafa Kemal to buy time for reinforcements to arrive. It was very impressive with a large archway giving access to the cemetery which had a tower standing over it at the far end. On the other side of the road was an enormous statue, maybe 10 metres high, of a Turkish soldier carrying a rifle with a bayonet fixed.

Memorial and Cemetery - 57th Turkish Regiment

Statue At Memorial To The 57th Turkish Regiment

We decided not to turn off the road to visit The Nek, the scene of a futile charge and massacre of The Australian Light Horse Brigade, and continued along the road to Çonkbayin Hill (Chunuk Bair). The summit was dominated by five large monoliths documenting Mustafah Kamal’s resistance to the allied attacks in August 1915. One marked the spot where he was standing when his pocket watch saved his life by stopping a shrapnel fragment.

Three Of The Five Monoliths On Chunuk Bair

One Of The Monoliths (Small plaques in front of each monolith gave the English translation)

Next we wanted to visit the New Zealand memorial. We followed the directions in our guide book, but after a while we realised we were heading south and away from the memorial.

The road took us full circle to the information centre. We set off again, this time taking a road along the coast that took us to Anzac Cove. We had no problem finding that, we parked Smarty and walked along the beach to the site of the Anzac Day dawn service. 99 years on, it all looked very peaceful but it wasn’t difficult to imagine the impossible position the Anzac troops were put in having been put ashore 2km north of the intended position. Instead of gently rising terrain they were faced with steep cliffs including a pinnacle nicknamed the Sphinx by the Australians because of its resemblance to the Sphinx they had seen in Egypt during training.

Anzac Cove

Smarty At Anzac Cove

Site Of Dawn Service At Anzac Cove

Ten panels telling the story of the Gallipoli campaign were displayed on a wall at the site of the dawn service.

Panels At Anzac Cove Telling The Gallipoli Story Overlooked By "The Spinx"

Further along the road we came to yet more cemeteries containing the bodies of New Zealand troops as well as those of British and Australians.

New Zealands No. 2 Outpost Cemetery

Harry's Age

We still wanted to find the New Zealand memorial and thought that by continuing north along the coast we would find a road that would take us back into the hills. We drove for quite some time passing men and women working in fields. The road got worse with no sign of a turning. We decided we were too far north, turned around and drove back the way we had come. We took the one way road to Chunuk Bair and parked along with a number of tour buses. We followed groups of people along a pathway that brought us to the memorial.

The memorial itself was impressive, a large tapering stone cross in plan, but the surroundings weren't. 

New Zealand Memorial (Right)

The memorial bore the inscription:

In Honour of the Soldiers of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, 8th August 1915

"From The Uttermost Ends Of The Earth"

We had seen the poignant "ends of the earth" inscription on other memorials in France. How awful it must have been to travel half way round the world from the peace of New Zealand to die in a failed and probably flawed battle plan devised by Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty. He is quoted as saying "A good army of 50,000 troops and sea power, that is the end of the Turkish menace." 

The date would refer the assault on Chunuk Bair that took place between the 6th and 10th August. We thought it a pity it didn't also bear the  date of the original landings on April 25th which is now remembered as Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand and marked by a dawn service at Anzac Cove.

The other disappointment was a large statue of Mustafa Kamal standing next to the memorial with plaques recounting how he had repulsed the attack on Chunuk Bair and how his pocket watch had saved his life. That story is told on Chunuk Blair itself and we couldn't understand why the statue wasn't over there. Also a huge Turkish Flag was flying, why wasn't it an NZ flag?

Mustafa Kamal Memorial

The setting wasn't enhanced any by a tacky display of a canvas tent surrounded by plastic sacks filled with sand to replicate sand bags.

We walked on seeing presumably re-created tenches looking down towards Suvla Bay where the British landed in preparation for the assault on Chunuk Bair.

Trenches On Chunuk Bair

We were in a sombre mood as we drove back to our camping ground having seen where 46,000 allied troops and 86,000 Turkish died yet achieved nothing. Of the allied deaths 11,500 were Anzacs, a hugely disproportionate number considering the populations of the two countries. The really sobering thought though was that the troops that survived Gallipoli went on to fight on the western front where 48,000 Anzacs died. 

We decided to have our first taste of Turkish food by eating in the camping ground's hotel restaurant. We were disappointed at the buffet style offering, there was an enormous variety of salads to start and the deserts were comprised of a range of sticky Turkish baclava and the like. However, the mains were either fish and chips, or a stew with rice. Also we learnt that bottles of wine in hotel restaurants are very expensive.