Sunday, September 1, 2013

Gallipoli 1915 (3)

The Current Situation
What can you see at the site today? How do you get to Gallipoli ? How do you get around the peninsula, when you get there? From Istanbul the distance is approximately 250 km to the city Gelibolu that has the same name as the peninsula. The peninsula is almost 100 kilometers long. It is not very wide, but distances are still so long that you do not wish to walk from one place to the next.

If you have a car, you can make the whole trip on your own. But it will be a rather expensive solution. In addition, you will need a detailed map, and you will need to study before going. The area is quite well signposted, but it does not help much that you find a place like Johnston's Jolly, if you do not know what it means.

Another option is to take a bus from Istanbul to Gelibolu and from there take a guided tour around the peninsula. When you walk with a guide, you are more likely to get something out of the trip, and you avoid wasting time searching in vain for specific locations.


A third option - which I chose - is to take a guided tour that begins and ends in Istanbul. The Hassle Free Travel Agency, whose head office is located in Canakkale, offers a day trip to Gallipoli where you are picked up at your hotel early in the morning (6:30-07:00) and dropped off at your hotel the same evening (around midnight).   

The journey from Istanbul to Canakkale takes approximately five hours. This means that you have all afternoon (13-18) to visit the various sites of Gallipoli.

The tour can be extended with an overnight stay in Canakkale, which I did. You can decide how much you wish to spend: you can choose a hostel or a hotel with one, two, three, four or five stars. In the morning there is a guided tour to the ancient city of Troy, which is located
35 kilometers southwest of Canakkale, while the afternoon is free time. In the evening the bus will bring you back to Istanbul.

It is pretty bold to call a travel agent the Hassle Free Travel Agency. But I must say that the agency lived up to its name. The trip was well-organised and not expensive. The guides were skilled and efficient. The trip was - as the name promises - Hassle Free. I found the agency on the internet. I asked some of my fellow passengers on the bus, how they had found this agency. Several of them said family or friends had recommended it. Now I can do the same.

The Central Zone
How much can you see in one afternoon? The tour includes the central zone of the peninsula, i.e. the Anzac zone. It does not cover the northern zone at Suvla Bay, nor the southern zone at Cape Helles . If you want to see all three zones, you will have to spend at least two days. You can take a guided tour to the central zone on the first day and then see the other two on your own. But you should remember that it can be hard to get around from place to place. Public transport is limited on the peninsula. Of course it is best to see it everything, but it is my impression that you get a good sense of the whole area by visiting the central zone.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has established 31 cemeteries in the three zones. Twenty-one of them are located in the Anzac zone. The Commission has built three memorials. Two of them are in the Anzac zone. The French cemetery is in the southern zone at Cape Helles. The Turks have established a number of cemeteries and monuments. Many of them found in the Anzac zone.

The trip to the Anzac zone consists of five segments. You will be driven in a bus from place to place. Every time the bus stops, the guide will tell about the place. You can leave the bus and take a closer look at the particular location. You have approximately one hour to visit each of the five segments. Even if you are not on your own, it is still a good idea to bring a detailed map of the area, for instance Major & Mrs. Holt’s Battle Map of Gallipoli.

Brighton Beach and Anzac Cove
The first stop is at the two beaches called Brighton Beach and Anzac Cove. Brighton Beach is approximately three kilometers long and fairly flat. It is well-suited to a landing. The Turks could see this, and therefore they expected a landing here. Anzac Cove, located just north of Brighton Beach is only a mile long. Here the landscape is completely different. There are steep cliffs and deep ravines. This beach is not suited to a landing. The Turks could see this, and therefore they did not expect a landing here.

The Anzac force was scheduled to go ashore on Brighton Beach, but for some reason it landed a little further north, in Anzac Cove. It was hard to go ashore at this place. But if the soldiers had gone ashore on Brighton Beach, it would have been even harder, because here the Turks were expecting them. It took a while before the Turks realised that the enemy had landed at Anzac Cove, and therefore the Anzac soldiers were able to dig in and establish a bridgehead.

If the change was due to an accident, it was a blessing in disguise. If the change was done on purpose, it was probably a good idea. In any event, it is very instructive to visit the site. When you see this landscape, you will understand how difficult it must have been for the inexperienced soldiers to make a landing here.

One of the many ravines is called Shrapnel Valley. Here is a cemetery: Shrapnel Valley Cemetery. Anzac Cove is bordered on the north by a headland called Ari Burnu. Here is another cemetery: Ari Burnu Cemetery.


When you stand on the beach below this burial ground and look at the hillside, you will see a large rock formation which the soldiers called The Sphinx. They had been in training camp outside the Egyptian capital Cairo, where they had seen the pyramids and the sphinx. Therefore they gave this name to the large rock formation.


North of Ari Burnu is North Beach, where a large area called Anzac Commemorative Site has recently been established. On Anzac Day, on 25 April, so many people show up that there is not room for them at Anzac Cove. Therefore this area has been established for the official ceremony .

There are two Turkish monuments here. Both consist of a large monolith with an inscription. The first monument is at Hell Spit Point (or Queensland Point) that separates Brighton Beach from Anzac Cove. The text is about the Turkish soldiers, who resisted Anzac during the invasion, on 25 April 1915. The text is in Turkish, but an English translation is placed at the foot of the monolith .

The second monument stands just south of Ari Burnu Cemetery. It is a famous text written by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1934. The text is in English, because it is addressed to foreign visitors, but a Turkish translation is placed at the foot of the monolith. It runs as follows:


"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 here in this country of ours ... . You, the mothers, who sent [your] 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.” 

The dots do not mark not an omission. They are part of the original text. They mark a moment of hesitation and reflection or a short pause.
 

Kabatebe Museum and Lone Pine
The second stop is at the local museum in Kabatebe. The museum is located in a small circular building surrounded by an open space. Inside a number of objects from the war are exhibited: pistols, rifles, etc. There are also several pictures, some from 1915, others from more recent times.

Outside you can see a number of guns, some monuments and reliefs that show soldiers in action. On the wall of the staircase leading up to the museum, there is a poem about Gallipoli written in 1988 by Bülent Ecevit (1925-2006), who was prime minister of Turkey four times between 1974 and 2002. The poem (printed in English) is too long to be quoted here, but it shows that Gallipoli plays a major role in Turkish consciousness.

The third stop is Lone Pine and Johnston's Jolly, which are located next to each other. Lone Pine was a strategically important plateau in the south of the Anzac zone. It was conquered during the offensive that began on 6 August 1915, and was held until the evacuation four months later. Here there is a cemetery as well as a memorial to Australia and New Zealand.

Today there are trees everywhere. But this was not the case in 1915. The place got its name because a lone pine stood at this location, although nearly all vegetation in the area was lost because of the war. The tree that stands here today is not the original, but it is close. Our guide tells us that one of the Australian soldiers took some seeds from the tree back home to Australia, where he planted a tree. Later the seeds from the Australian tree were brought to Gallipoli and planted here.


Lone Pine is not far from Johnston's Jolly where there is a small cemetery known as Johnston's Jolly Cemetery. The modern name of this place refers to Colonel J. L. Johnston from the 11th West Australian Battalion. Whenever he wished to fire up his men, he would always say: “Let's jolly up the Turks.”

To the right of the modern road were the Turks. To the left the soldiers of Anzac. The modern road corresponds to the narrow strip of no man’s land between the two sides. This shows how close they were to each other. To the left you can see some of the Anzac trenches from 1915. To the right you can see the entrance to a Turkish tunnel. The trenches are not deep . It was usually not possible to dig more than one meter down, before you encountered solid rock. Therefore the soldiers had to build a parapet using sandbags on the side facing the enemy.

The Turks usually placed their trenches close to the Allies in order to achieve greater security. British ships lying off the coast of Gallipoli tried to bomb the Turkish positions. But when the two sides were close to each other, the British risked hitting their own people instead of the enemy (this phenomenon is know as “friendly fire”).

Hand grenades were often used during the campaign. When a grenade landed in a trench , it was important to be fast, pick it up and throw it back where it came from. Our guide says that there are reports of grenades that were thrown back and forth both three and four times before they finally exploded.

As time went by the two sides began to respect each other. Sometimes a strange friendship developed between them. Our guide tells us that soldiers from Anzac would throw some cans of beef to the Turks as a gift. Fearing it was pork, which Muslims must avoid, the Turks threw the cans back with a brief message attached: “We do not want meat, but please send some milk!”

The 57 Regiment and Chunuk Bair

The fourth stop is the Turkish monument to the 57th regiment of the Ottoman Army, which was under Mustafa Kemal’s direct command. This regiment was almost completely wiped out while fighting against the invasion in April 1915.

To the left of the road there is a large statue of the typical Turkish soldier, Johnny Turk. To the right of the road there is a cemetery and at the end a pyramidal tower with three levels . There is also a large relief which shows Mustafa Kemal leading the 57 regiment.


The fifth and final stop is Chunuk Bair - a strategically important hill in the northern part of the Anzac zone. It was conquered and lost during the offensive in August 1915. There are some reconstructed Turkish trenches here. There is a cemetery and a monument to New Zealand. There is also a statue of Mustafa Kemal, standing on a high platform.

Looking northwest, you can see the northern zone around Suvla Bay and the great salt lake behind the bay. Looking southeast, you can see all the way to the Dardanelles. As I stand here, it becomes really clear to me how much the landscape and the geography meant for this campaign:

The Ottoman troops had occupied all the highest points on the peninsula before the invasion, and they held on to most of them throughout the campaign. The Allied soldiers had to face an uphill battle, which is hard, especially when there is a man armed with a machine gun on top of the hill.

The Allied soldiers did what they could. Considering the circumstances it must be said that they achieved a lot and kept on going for a long time. It is surprising that they obeyed the impossible orders they received and especially that they continued to obey these orders, even though it was increasingly obvious that the task was hopeless and would have to be abandoned.

Chunuk Bair is the last stop. At this location the tour is over. Some of my fellow passengers on the minibus are going back to Istanbul that same evening, but I am going to stay the night in Canakkale, so I will take the boat across the strait and check into my hotel, which is located next to Anzac House.

Sightseeing in Canakkale
In the morning there is a guided tour of the ancient city Troy, which is interesting, but not relevant for this report. In the afternoon, I have a chance to take a look at the town. I will mention three items here:


(1) The port. When I look across the water, I can see the small town Kilitbahir. On the slope to the right of the town there is a Turkish inscription. The text is written in letters so large that I (almost) can read them here from Canakkale. My guidebook says these are the first lines of a poem by the Turkish poet Necmettic Halil Onan. Here is an English translation:


"Stop, traveller! The ground you tread on, was once witness to a generation that was lost. Listen! In this quiet hill beats the heart of an entire nation.”
 

(2) The so-called cannon monument consisting of two guns, one small and one large. These are two of the guns that were used to stop the Allied attack on 18 marts 1915.

(3) The Naval Museum, located west of the harbour. Guns, mines, and torpedoes from the campaign in 1915 are exhibited here.
The old warship the Nusrat has been lifted out of the water and placed on dry land. The night before the Allied attack on 18 March 1915 this ship dropped several mines into the strait: three Allied ships hit three mines and sank, after which the attack was abandoned.

A Classic Example

Gallipoli is a small place. The Allied soldiers who fought here in 1915, had probably never heard of it before they were sent there. But the campaign they fought here had major consequences, both in time and space, and all were unintended.

From a military point of view, almost every part of this operation is a textbook example of what not to do (apart from the evacuation, which was an amazing success).

From a political perspective, this operation is a classic example of the huge gap that may exist between theory and practice, between a plan made in an office in London and the brutal reality of war in the Dardanelles. The common soldiers on both sides paid a high price for the British plan and for the incredible stubbornness of the British government.

The Gallipoli campaign is an interesting but horrible episode. It is hard to say anything good about it. If there is anything good to say about it, it must be that it shows the futility of war.
 
References

** To see my pictures from Gallipoli, go to my blog: A Visit to Gallipoli

** Peter Hart, Gallipoli, hardcover 2011, paperback 2013, 544 pages.

** Edward J. Erickson, Gallipoli: The Ottoman Campaign, 2010, 256 pages.

** Gallipoli is an eight-part Australian television drama series to be telecast on the Nine Network in 2015, the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli Campaign. Adapted from the best-selling book Gallipoli by Les Carlyon (published 2002, 2003), the series is produced by Endemol Australia and is being shot over a three month period beginning on 17 March 2014. For more information about this project, click on the following link: Gallipoli - the television series (2015)

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