Gallipoli
“There is hell waiting here.”
Australian soldier killed in action at Lone Pine, 7-12 August 1915.
World War I was so ridiculous. The Second World War was different, more interesting. Come on, you’ve got Winston Churchill and the Battle of Britain; Hitler and the German machine; The Americans; and what on earth were the Japanese thinking? etc, etc. WWI just seemed like a horrendous waste of life on both sides, not that the second war wasn’t a horrendous waste of life, but you know. In any case, a good example of this pointless waste of life was the Allies’ Gallipoli Campaign. Control of the Gallipoli peninsula meant control of the Dardanelles which is of course advantageous for the capture of Istanbul. Hindsight is wise, but honestly, that tiny peninsula and its treacherous terrain, surely the Allies’ campaign was doomed to fail.
Anyway, I arrived on this peninsula 95 years later on a bus with a lovely young couple from Western Sydney mate. There were only three of us for the tour which was conducted by Graham, an expatriate Pom that calls himself Ibrahim. He was a good tour guide, knew what he was on about although I didn’t really like his personality.
The weather was perfect, sunny, with hardly any wind which Graham reminded us was very rare, it is apparently always very windy on the Gallipoli peninsula. Standing atop The Nek, where the Australian 3rd Light Horse Brigade were slaughtered by the Turks (supposedly made famous in the last few scenes of Peter Weir’s 1981 film Gallipoli), with no wind, gazing over the eerily silent landing spots of the Allied forces, imagining, definitely evokes emotion.
Touring with the Sydney couple was pleasant, their musings were equally as entertaining as their lack of knowledge which made me feel better because most of my knowledge of the Gallipoli Campaign is derived from a Grade 4 history assignment that was completed with a large amount of assistance from my mother.
There is Anzac Cove, everybody knows about that. It is located just south of where they first landed, the spot where some young men were shot and killed even before they got off the boat. The cove was a hive of activity during the Campaign and I did my best to picture what it would have looked like at the time. Meanwhile my tour buddies took snaps of themselves swooning over the sign that reads “Anzac Cove”. A small part of me wanted to be that person who swoons over the sign that reads Anzac Cove, alas; I couldn’t bring myself to ask somebody to take a picture of me doing so. I will have to re-aquaint myself with Photoshop.
After various other sites and tid-bits of information from our guide, we hit Lone Pine. There are a lot of Australians that visit Lone Pine and the ones on this day were fine except for a particular few who were particularly annoying. They became especially irritating as I was trying to take a picture of the memorial with the wreaths that have recently been laid by the Australian and New Zealand Defence Ministers. These three fellow countrymen of mine insisted on standing on the memorial in front of the wreaths discussing “little Johnny”, how he is a good student but not sure whether he will be good in the ‘real world’. Little Johnny is a “good kid”, apparently. I am not sure who little Johnny is but I’m guessing the dead soldiers that these people were standing on would surely be equally proud and concerned for little Johnny.
Incidentally, every Australian should know the story of Lone Pine. I must admit that I didn’t know enough, but I did know there was a pine cone that was taken back to Australia by a soldier at the end of the deadly battle. There is a pine tree somewhere in Australia that came from that pine cone. I was told that the battle of Lone Pine was merely a diversionary tactic for the Allies’ August Offensive. The Australians succeeded and held Lone Pine but because the main objectives of August had failed their victory was useless. Many Australian troops died for no reason at Lone Pine. Many of these men were extremely young. Many lied about their age, one of the diggers was 14 years old.
Overall, the August Offensive was a complete failure, to be sure. At one point, however, the Kiwi’s did provide some hope for the Gallipoli Campaign. They managed to capture Chunuk Bair from the Turks. They only held the area for a short time before the Turks took it back through sheer weight of numbers. This was an amazing story, during the battle the ruthless Turkish leader, Atatürk, was struck by shrapnel. Atatürk should have died. Miraculously, he was saved by his pocket watch which was positioned on his heart. I believe this contributed greatly to the eventual outcome of Chunuk Bair.
The Turkish leader was fearsome. He would order his troops to die for their country. In the amount of time it takes for you to die, he would say, is the amount of time it takes for you to be replaced. Atatürk became the founder of the Republic of Turkey, his face remains on their money today.
Those of us who are Archaeologists will be horrified to learn that when he gets bored, the man who runs the souvenir stall atop Chunuk Bair goes searching through the scrub for artefacts. On the 10th of August 1915, the Turks and Kiwis reportedly fired just shy of one million bullets. That is a lot for one day and the souvenir guy apparently finds a piece of shrapnel or a bullet shell every other day.
The irony of the Gallipoli Campaign is of course that the only lasting success the Allies achieved was the safe evacuation of men from the peninsula. Between 8-20th December 1915, 90,000 troops were evacuated and even more left in early January. The Anzacs staged a cricket game, they set up guns with timers that would shoot automatically from time to time, all in an effort to keep the Turks thinking the Anzacs weren’t going anywhere for the winter. The Turkish troops were under the impression that the Anzac soldiers were still on the peninsula for quite a while after they had left. Amazing.
“I hope our poor pals who lie all around us sleep soundly, and do not stir in discontent as we go filing away from them forever.”
New Zealand soldier at the evacuation of Gallipoli.
Gallipoli is a very important site to Australians and their history. The Anzacs fought valiantly and provided the basis for the idea that Australian and New Zealand soldiers are tough and good fighters. However, amongst all the mythologising I remain unable to see how this would be different with any other soldiers from any other country in any other war. I am sure all soldiers fight valiantly for their lives and the lives of their mates, except, of course, the French in WW2 – the cheese-eating surrender monkeys.
Digging implements
Bullets that collided in the air
Anzac Cove
The Sphinx
Lone Pine
95 year old Australian front line trench.
Wherever I Hang My Hat 
Michelle said,
March 23, 2010 at 10:07 pm
I believe that pine tree is at the War Memorial in Canberra. It recently was stuck by lightening and they are now making souvenirs out of the limb that was felled by the strike. But, I understand the tree lives on.