Gallipoli - Thursday

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There's something serene about 6:30am in the morning although it loses some of its beauty when you remember that you are up and dressed at that hour because you going on a 15 hour bus trip and not getting back until after midnight.

All my life I thought that Gallipoli was just down the coast from Istanbul so it came as a bit of a shock to find myself 4 hrs later 3km from the Greek border where we turned left to go down the Gallipoli Peninsula. Should have done some research on Google Earth.

We arrived at Gallipoli at 1:00pm after a light lunch in Eceabat. There are something like 36 cemeteries on the peninsular that are the final resting places for 170,000 young men from NZ. AU, Fr, GB (82,000) and, of course, Turks (86,000). As the guide summed it up so eloquently defending our country cost us 86,000 whereas you got nothing for your 82,000.

For the ANZAC's, ANZAC cove is the start of the fiasco that was the Gallipoli campaign that began at 4:30am on Sunday 25 April 1915. When you see it for the first time (photos 1 &2) it is almost incomprehensible that 15,000 troops landed there in a few hours. They were faced with an almost vertical climb to the top of the first ridge. Unbeknown to them at the time this part of the peninsula was only being defended by 167 retreating turkish soldiers. The primary objective of Chunuk Bair (highest point) would have been easy reached except for two small events. Firstly, the Turkish commander on finding his solders retreating ordered them to stop and dig in and the second was the British commander ordered the ANZACs to also dig in. They didn't know the 167 Turkish solders only had single round rifles and no machine guns v the 15,000 multi shot 303 rifles of the ANZACs. This situation created enough time for the Turks to bring up 57th Regiment as reinforcements from the other side of the peninsula. They were told that there would be no retreating.

In August the British high command decided that they would land 20,000 troops on the Sulva Plain. At this point the Turks under Ataturk (later Turkish president) were at the top of the peninsula anticipating a British landing. The Brits would have won the day if they hadn't stopped for cup a tea after their landing as it gave Ataturk the 36 hours needed to get his two divisions into position at Chunuk Bair. The rest they say is history as eight months later the British were forced to evacuate as they had no winter clothing.

When you look at the terrain, listen to the sequence of "questionable" leadership, strategic and tactical decisions made by the British high command (hiding out on some Greek island on the other side of the Aegean Sea) you can't but help feel a deep sense of frustration and sadness for the loss of so many lives for so little gain. The long term outcome of this event and the Somme was that both NZ and AU became independent and would never again allow British commanders to lead our troops...... the defining moments of two nations' nationhood.

The tour took us from ANZAC cove to John Simpson's (man with the Donkey) grave, ANZAC Commemorative site, to Lone Pine (Australian memorial) and finally to Chunuk Bair (New Zealand) memorial. Along the way we stopped at a number sites of trenches, and other points of interest and, just as importantly, sites of Turkish memorials and cemeteries.

All of the ANZAC cemeteries had thousands of named headstones most of which had inscribed "Unknown grave but known to be buried at this site". We were lucky enough to have the most outstanding guide who was very knowledgable. He knew every detail of and the exact time that everything happened and also gave a very balanced and empathetic account of events.

The Lone Pine memorial got its name from the following story. two Aussie brothers were fighting their together when on of them got shot. The surviving brother then planted a pine tree seed from a cone that he picked up on top of his brothers grave. He then sent the pine cone home to his mother in Queensland. The mother grew a tree from which in the 1930's she took a pine cone back to the grave and the tree in the photo is from a seed from that cone. In a plot of trees adjacent to the Lone Pine is a younger pine which is the fourth generation of the original seed.

Ataturk's now famous speech of 1934 was at a site overlooking the Aegean sea (photo) and at Chunuck Bair he recounts the story of how his pocket watch saved his life when a NZ bullet hit it instead of his heart (photo). There is also a story (and memorial) of a Turkish soldier under a white flag who went out into no-man's land and picked up an badly wounded ANZAC officer and carried him to the ANZAC trenches (Photo). It must be remembered that for most of the campaign the trenches of the opposing sides where only 8-10m apart.

Of interest is that the NZ Memorial is next to the Turkish memorial at Chunuk Bair. The Turkish was because they won and the NZers because they where the only ANZACs to achieve objective. They won it and lost it 2 times before the were finally pushed off it after two days of fierce fighting and the loss of 800+ men.

It was am amazing day, I'm so glad i went to see first hand such an important place in the history of NZ. (and also the Turks) A sight of such tragedy, now so peaceful , you cannot but help but feel so connected to this place so far from home.

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