{"id":126,"date":"2024-05-31T11:37:57","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T11:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghosts-of-war.com\/?p=126"},"modified":"2024-06-02T07:47:08","modified_gmt":"2024-06-02T07:47:08","slug":"visiting-gallipoli-turkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ghosts-of-war.com\/?p=126","title":{"rendered":"Visiting Gallipoli, Turkey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I remember hearing the place names when I was a kid. Strange sounding, exotic names: The Dardanelles, Gallipoli, ANZAC Cove, The Nek and Lone Pine. I remember seeing the scratchy black and white footage of troops on the beach, and of trenches and camps dug into the steep cliffs. I later discovered that a relative on my father’s side, Jack Gibbs, had been at Gallipoli in 1915. Visiting Gallipoli was the reason I had returned to Turkey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My relative Jack left Melbourne with the 5th Battalion, 8th Reinforcements on 17th April, 1915, eight days before the first ANZAC landing at Gallipoli. At present I don’t know much about Jack’s time on the Peninsula, but what I do know for sure is that my leisurely arrival on the ferry from Canakkale was nothing like what Jack experienced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My ferry arrived at the terminal in Eceabat, a small seaside village on the west coast of Gallipoli Peninsula. Walking along the waterfront towards my hotel, I passed the ‘Respect for History’ park, which featured a scale model of the Peninsula marked with the location of military operations during World War I. Also on display was a confronting diorama showing the Turks and ANZACS facing off across no-man’s land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Distance between the mutual trenches is eight metres…’ Colonel Mustafa Kemal regarding the Battle of Quin’s Post<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Respect for History Park, Eceabat
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After checking into the small family hotel, I hired a car and began exploring. As I started to look around, two things were immediately striking. Firstly, the Gallipoli Peninsula is beautiful, with deep green pine forest covering the steep country, and the flats a patchwork of blazing sunflowers, orchards and golden wheat fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The views offered from the hills are exquisite, with the rolling country giving way to expansive vistas across the Dardanelles and the Aegean. Secondly, the Turkish people are very passionate about the history of the Peninsula, and the area is dotted with memorials, cemeteries, and signs providing detailed information on the Dardenelles campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early in my stay I visited the Kabatepe Promotion Centre and Museum. Though not suggested by the name, this facility is the premier museum dedicated to the battles fought on the Peninsula during WW1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Although some of the exhibits were closed, presumably because of Corona, the museum was impressive and provided a detailed background of the geopolitics that lead to the outbreak of WW1, and ultimately the battle for Gallipoli.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grim determination: shared humanity dictated that both Turkish troops and the Allies suffered similar horrors, deprivations and hardships during the war on the Dardenelles. Photograph from the Kabatepe Promotion Centre and Museum<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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I couldn\u2019t find a decent map of the historic sites around the Peninsula, so figured I would just work my way from the southern tip up to the Anzac Cove area. That\u2019s one thing about exploring a peninsula: with water on three sides it\u2019s pretty hard to get lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I began by following the signs to Canakkale Martyrs\u2019 Memorial, which is the primary monument to the Turkish soldiers lost during the war. When I arrived it was a warm summer\u2019s afternoon, and with school out for holidays there was a steady stream of families visiting the cemetery and the many statues and sites that make up the Memorial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At over 40 metres in height, the Canakkale Martyrs\u2019 Memorial can be seen from across the southern Gallipoli Peninsula and Dardanelles Straits
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Cemetery at Canakkale Martyrs\u2019 Memorial. Each headstone lists the names of the soldiers from a particular town<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Colonel Kemal Mustafa, portrayed here in front of a monumental wall, is the central figure in the Turkish narrative of the Dardanelles campaign. He is revered in Turkey as the founder of the modern nation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission looks after the 31 cemeteries holding the allied servicemen who died during the Gallipoli campaign. The cemeteries are uniform in design, and Turkish employees of the CWGC maintain the sites immaculately. A similar number of Turkish cemeteries are located on the Peninsula. Driving from Cape Helles in the south to Suvla Bay in the north, the cemeteries are found overlooking the sea, amongst the neat paddocks, and within quiet copses of pines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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V Beach Cemetery, west of Seddulbahir village, southern cost of the Gallipoli Peninsula
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\u2018The fire changed the colour of the sea with the blood from the bodies of the enemy \u2013 a sea whose colour had remained the same for years\u2026The shore became full of enemy corpses, like a shoal of fish.<\/em>\u2018
Major Mahmut, 3rd Battalion, 26th Regiment, describing the British landing at V Beach<\/strong><\/em>1<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am the only visitor when I arrive at the Hellas Memorial, which stands near the beaches where the British forces landed on April 25th 1915. A cool sea breeze is blowing, and the sun reflects fiercely from the pale sandstone courtyard. Upon the monument are the names of over 20,000 men who died on the Peninsula but have no know grave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Cape Helles, where we had landed, was the general stepping-off place, and a mile of land had been taken.  The loss of life had been out of all proportion to this gain, due to the prepared positions of the Turks right down to the water\u2019s edge, which enabled them to mow down our men with ridiculous ease.<\/em>\u2018 Private F. T. Wilson, 16th Battalion, Manchester Regiment<\/em>2<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Helles Memorial
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Turning off the tar and navigating a dirt track in the hire car, I arrived at W Beach, where several families were enjoying a dip in the cool waters of the bay. The remains of a lighter, or barge, lie on the high tide mark, a reminder of the British landing at the site in 1915. It is not for the first time, or the last, that I struggle to reconcile the scene of peace and natural beauty before me with the horrific events that occurred here 106 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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W Beach<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Later in the evening we got back to our bivouacs near W Beach\u2026.Men of all nationalities had to be buried where they fell, or in a communal grave, to be trodden on by the living, who came forward unaware of what the soil under their feet were hiding.\u2019 NCO J. Murray, Hood Battalion Royal Naval Division<\/em>3<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heading north up the west coast of the peninsula is a beautiful drive. After passing the small port village of Kabatepe, the road forks, with one route following the coast and leading to ANZAC Cove and beyond, and the other climbing the range to the top of the higher country overlooking the sea. I decided to explore the coastal road first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Looking north-east from the southern end of the Gallipoli Peninsula
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Approaching ANZAC Cove, the thick scrub rose to steep bare cliffs on my right, and on my left the Aegean sparkled in the afternoon sun. The road was empty, and I slowed right down, staring up at the crumbling cliffs that would have faced the landing forces so long ago. I parked the car and walked to the verge overlooking ANZAK Koyu, a tiny stretch of pebbly shore, where men \u2013 and mere boys \u2013 arrived in their thousands in 1915. Would anyone, naive to the catastrophe that began in the early morning of April 25, sense that something monumental had happened here? I suppose not. Standing above this this serene, pretty cove, it was hard to imagine the slaughterhouse it had been in 1915.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018As soon as our cutter struck the shore everyone jumped into the water\u2026we scrambled out and doubled across the beach to a low bank to form up. One of our boys fell badly wounded on the edge of the water, there were several of our boys\u2019 bodies in the water and lying on the beach, also several badly wounded and dying on the beach.\u2019 Lieutenant J. Adams<\/em>, 54th Battalion AIF4<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day I drove the steep road to the plateau that overlooks the ANZAC landing site was fine and sunny, just like every day I had spent on the Peninsula. It is summer, the daily temperatures are in the low 30s, and the dry grass crackles underfoot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lone Pine Cemetery is built upon old Turkish trenchlines, and includes an impressive monument to the nearly 5000 ANZAC troops killed in the area who have no known graves. On the slope beneath the cemetery, some of the scrub has been cleared to show the maze of trenches, still visible 116 years on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lone Pine Memorial<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018In one charge it was so hot that we had no time to remove the wounded\u2026we had to tread on these poor dead and dying men lying in the trench to keep the gaps in the line filled<\/em>\u2026the trenches were indescribable\u2026Turks and Australians often locked in a last death struggle, still lay there in large numbers in spite of all efforts. Many had in fact been removed but they were so many in all that no real impression had been made\u2026The Brigadier came down and congratulated us and said we have added to the reputation and our glory which will last for ever etc etc. but you could have my share of all the glory of the Battle of \u201cLonesome Pine\u201d for one of the poor boys who died or was mangled to death there.\u2019  P. Elliot, Commander 7th Battalion AIF<\/em>5<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The road traces the old front line as it winds on towards the heights of Chunuk Bair. In some places, such as Quinn\u2019s Post, the opposing trench lines were located where the road verges now sit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trenches below Lone Pine<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Some of the area has been cleared and is maintained to prevent the scrub regrowing, permitting visitors to walk both the ANZAC and Turkish trenchlines. Standing in the trench, looking across at road at the opposing fireline, the close proximity of the two forces was astonishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Turkish trenches were only seven yards away, and at one point we had a listening post just six feet from their line. One could step out through a gap in the sandbags and touch the Turkish parapet \u2013 but one was much better advised not to\u2026The Turkish bombing was incessant and terribly effective, and their rifle fire was deadly. To look over the parapet was suicide, and even a periscope would be shattered if held a moment too long.\u2019 Private C. Malthus, Canterbury Infantry Battalion6<\/sup><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excellent interpretive signage placed along the road allows you to picture the locations as they looked during the Gallipoli Campaign. This is Steele\u2019s Post in 1915, and 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Australian War Memorial PO1480.007
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I walked out of the pine forest and onto the slippery dirt track along Walker\u2019s Ridge. The view from near the top of the ridge gives an indication of the steep country in which the ANZACs and Turkish forces met. ANZAC Cove is to the south (left) of the first small headland, then North Beach which became the main location for supplying the landed forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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