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Published: November 11th 2013
Gallipoli …….
Perhaps no other word invokes such a strong wave of emotional feelings in the hearts and minds of every adult Australian and New Zealander as this one does at the very mention of it.
It is where the Anzac (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) legend was born.
In the pre-dawn hours, of 25
th April, 1915, at approximately 4-4.30am, the first wave of Australian and New Zealand troops came ashore on the Gallipoli Peninsula at what was to later become known, as Anzac Cove.
Instead of landing where they should have, about 1 kilometre further down the coastline at Brighton Beach, where the terrain was much more favourable for a beach landing, Anzac Cove was a complete and utter error of judgement by the Allied commanding officers.
Being way off course and becoming confused in the darkness as to their exact location, North Beach (Anzac Cove) was mistaken for the designated landing place. By the time it was realised that this was the wrong location, it was too late. There was no turning back.
Totally in the dark, amidst much confusion and under heavy machine gun and rifle fire from the
Turks from the cliff tops above them, the troops had to scramble ashore and try and make it onto the beach as best they could.
Before the war, many British strategists had believed that the best defence of Egypt and the Suez Canal was to launch an attack on Turkey.
Towards the end of 1914, months before the Gallipoli campaign began, the British Royal Navy could have gone a long way to achieving these goals by steaming through The Dardenelles and shelling the capital, Constantinople (Istanbul). Instead, they chose to test the range of the Turkish gun emplacements by bombarding their shore batteries.
The Turkish commanders, realising what was happening and also recognising their vulnerability to further attack, immediately strengthened their defences, including laying 11 strategically placed minefields for shipping in The Dardenelles with a total of 400 mines; well-sited gun emplacements on the shoreline as well as searchlights that swept The Narrows (well named as it is the narrow entrance to The Dardenelles and is only 1.2 kms wide) at night.
Whoever controlled The Dardenelles, controlled the shipping lanes and access to the Black Sea states and the rest of Europe.
In February of
1915, a British and French naval fleet of 18 battleships, attempted to force its way through to Constantinople (Istanbul), resulting in the loss of 3 ships and 3 being badly damaged.
Little did the Allies know, that in the conflict, the Turkish gun batteries had almost exhausted their ammunition supplies and, the Allies could have sailed on through the straits without much further damage occurring. Instead, they came to the conclusion that it was not possible to force their way through The Dardenelles until ground troops were first sent to occupy the Gallipoli Peninsula to silence the Turkish guns.
Planning for the Gallipoli campaign had begun.
The narrow strip of pebbly beach at Anzac Cove is tiny. As we stood, gazing down upon it from our vantage point, it appeared to be perhaps, 30, maybe 40 feet wide, ending abruptly at the sheer cliff face that rose to great heights at the edge of it and overlooked by The Sphynx, the rocky outcrop later named by our Anzacs because it reminded them of the Sphynx in Egypt, where many of them had just come from.
Many of the men jumped overboard from their small boats in
an attempt to escape the gun fire but, carrying their heavy packs, as well as their rifles, many of them were dragged underwater by the weight and drowned, as well as those who received fatal gunshot wounds in the water.
Some of them managed to make it ashore but, were then faced with the task of having to try and scramble up the sheer cliffs in front of them as there was absolutely no cover for them on the beach. They were sitting ducks.
In those first few minutes and the mayhem that followed, it was sheer, bloody slaughter on the beach. They died in their hundreds with about 50% dying in the first wave of troops.
The Turks, perched high on the two hills above the beach, 80 soldiers on each hill top, had almost unrestricted access to the troops below trying to make it ashore. They stood very little chance of getting ashore alive, let alone being able to scale the embankments with their heavy packs and rifles once they did.
Miraculously, some of them did manage to make it to the top which didn’t help them much as they still had very little
cover and somehow, had to “dig themselves in” under almost impossible odds.
In the days and weeks that followed, the Aussies and Kiwi’s managed to get a toe-hold on the rocky outcrops and deep gullies of the Gallipoli Peninsula. The terrain is steep and the scrubby vegetation offered very little in the way of cover for their operations. They were dug into the steep hillsides with “rabbit-runs” between outposts and with the ever-present danger of being struck down by enemy snipers when trying to run from one to the other. The average life-span of a “runner”, was 24 hours.
The days stretched into weeks and then into months. As the seasons changed, they suffered impossible conditions. Searing heat in the summer months and bitter cold and snow in the winter with some of them freezing to death on watch at their outposts.
The summer heat also brought another danger to the troops for, the carnage that surrounded them, brought flies in droves which then brought disease. Many of the troops died from dysentery and infected wounds and other associated diseases.
During this time, advancement of the Aussie and Kiwi front line was at a stalemate. For
every few feet of ground they managed to gain, they would be driven back by the Turks. Their efforts were futile but, they doggedly fought on. During the 8-month long campaign, the frontline of the Anzac battlefield changed little from the very first day of the landing. An area less than ¾ of a square mile or 2 square kilometres in size and home to over 20,000 men.
The personality of Australians and New Zealanders is similar and, in the true spirit of Anzac, they knew they had a job to do and just got on with it, knowing that every moment could be their last. Still today, Aussies and Kiwis will, whenever faced with difficult situations, often make light of their predicament and joke about things, to keep their minds off the reality of what really lies ahead.
This was never more apparent than during the Gallipoli campaign. Their senses of humour and the unbreakable bonds of mateship they developed during this time, gave them the courage to keep on fighting even though the lists of casualties kept on mounting on a daily basis.
As we listened to our guide recounting the events of this terrible
time, I was reminded of a book I had read some 12-18 months ago called, “Gallipoli Sniper: the Life of Billy Sing”, by John Hamilton.
William Edward (Billy) Sing was a member of the Australian 5th Light Horse Regiment. This was a Queensland unit with most of its men and officers coming from the country areas off many of the cattle stations and properties of that state.
Being “cattlemen” and from “the bush”, many of them were expert horsemen and also very handy with a rifle. They were also experienced bushmen who could find their way around their location without getting lost.
Billy Sing, was one of these men. The son of an English mother and a Chinese father, he enlisted in Proserpine, Queensland, on 24 October, 1914, two months after the outbreak of World War 1.
Like most of the other members of his regiment, Billy had grown up around horses and had worked in the Australian bush all his life so, could ride well and was already showing signs of being an expert marksman, being well-known throughout the district where he lived, as being a leading kangaroo shooter in his home town of Clermont,
in Central Queensland.
After his basic training, Billy and his unit then sailed for Egypt where they spent time, cooling their heels, until their unit was assigned.
Finally, with the casualty toll rising daily on the peninsula, Sing’s unit was assigned to Gallipoli as reinforcements to the depleting numbers there and they embarked for the Dardenelles on May 16, 1915.
Billy Sing was a cold-blooded killer.
As time went on, to the troops on Gallipoli, he became known as “The Assassin”. He very rarely missed his target.
Having above average eyesight and, already an expert marksman, he was assigned the duty as a sniper in the rugged terrain.
Leaving in the pre-dawn hours with his standard issue Lee-Enfield .303 calibre rifle, he and his spotter, would take up their position from where they could view the enemy trenches and would “hole up” for the day.
From this vantage point, he would carefully watch the enemy troop movements and, one by one, choose his targets. He would stay there all day and not return to his unit until after dark. This ensured that there was minimal movement in his area throughout the day so
as to minimise the risk of the enemy pinpointing his position.
This type of occupation is not for “fidgeters.” It requires long periods of time with lack of movement, extreme patience, a steady hand and keen eyesight. It also requires a killer instinct. These, Billy had.
As the months wore on and with the casualty rate continuing to climb, Billy’s exploits gave Australian commanders on Gallipoli opportunities to boost the morale of the battle-weary troops with his steadily mounting macabre tally being passed along by word-of-mouth like a cricket score, throughout the Allied trenches.
During his time as a sniper on Gallipoli, he is credited with having killed 150 Turks single-handedly. Some say that this could have been as high as 200. Later on, on 23 October 1915, General William Birdwood who was the commander of the ANZAC forces on Gallipoli, issued an order complimenting him on his 201 unconfirmed kills.
Some also say, that Billy would not take credit for any “kill” that had not been confirmed by either a sergeant or an officer.
This seems unlikely, as this practice would alert the enemy as to his position if someone of rank
had to be advised and then for them to see the “drop”. Confirmation of a kill could be made by anyone observing it and, considering the circumstances, this would normally have been his spotter.
Interestingly, during this time, one of his spotters became Ion (Jack”) Idriess, the Australia author who has written a number of books on Australian history including, “Lasseter’s Last Ride”, The Cattle King, etc. Idriess also came from Northern Queensland.
Billy continued to carry out his deadly operations on Gallipoli until evacuation of the Peninsula.
The evacuation of Gallipoli was perhaps the best executed aspect of the entire Gallipoli campaign and had been carefully planned and ultimately executed.
For weeks beforehand, the Allied command had devised a plan of deception by employing “silent stunts” thereby ordering no artillery or sniper fire from the Allied trenches for long periods of time. This ploy, they hoped, would trick the Turks into thinking that they were normal and didn’t mark a withdrawal of enemy troops.
The Allies, systematically reducing troop numbers between December 7 and December 20, 1915, once again, ingenuity saved the day, with the introduction of the “William Scurry self-firing rifle.”
Ingenious
in its creativity and simple in its application, some of the troop’s rifles were positioned in the trenches to fire spasmodically, thereby making the enemy think that the trenches were still occupied.
With the troops gradually withdrawing, the rifles were rigged to fire by a process of water slowly dripping into a pan which was then attached to the trigger. When the jam tin or bully beef tin (as most of them were) or other container filled with water, the weight of the container then squeezed the trigger, making the rifle fire. These contraptions were all set to “fire” at different times, depending on the size of the container and the amount of water needed to fill it.
Over the 11 nights of the evacuation, 90,000 troops were quietly and systematically evacuated from the Peninsular and Suvla Bay areas, with no Australian casualties being recorded on the final night.
At the end of the campaign, almost 500,000 casualties had occurred. There were well over 100,000 dead. Of these there were 8,709 Australians; 2,721 New Zealanders; approximately 80,000 Turks and 53,000 British and French servicemen.
After the evacuation of Gallipoli, Billy Sing returned briefly to Egypt then
onto England, before his unit was sent to France and the Western Front.
It is not clear whether he operated as a sniper on the Western Front, but whilst there, he did lead a unit in the Battle of Polygon Wood in counter-sniper operations against the Germans. For this action, he was awarded theBelgian Croix de Guerre in 1918.
He survived World War 1 and returned to Australia on submarine guard duty in July, 1918. He was only wounded once on Gallipoli but, wasn’t to fare so well in France where he was wounded several times and also suffered gas poisoning thereby spending long periods of time in hospital.
By November, 1918, he was discharged from the army as being permanently unfit for duty because of the injuries he had sustained during the war.
Upon his discharge, he briefly returned to sheep farming but, the land was poor and not conducive to grazing so, he then turned his hand to gold mining.
Billy Sing, the celebrated war hero of Gallipoli, died alone, in relative poverty and obscurity, on 19 May, 1943 in his room in a boarding house in West End, Brisbane, with 5 shillings
(50 cents) that was found with him in his room. His only other worldly possessions being a hut on a mining claim, worth about 20 pounds. He was 57.
He has gone down in our nation’s history as perhaps Australia’s greatest military sniper. He was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for “conspicuous gallantry from May to September, 1915, at Anzac, as a sniper” as well as the Belgian Croix de Guerre for his gallantry on the Western Front.
We had perfect weather conditions for our visit to Gallipoli. It was a beautiful sunny day and, one of the things that first strikes you is, just how peaceful it is. Today, it is very hard to imagine the horror and carnage that went on here during those 8 months back in 1915.
We visited a number of cemeteries during our visit – the 7
th Field Ambulance; Ari Burnu; Beach; Johnston’s Jolly, The Nek; the Turkish War Memorial; and finally, the New Zealand War Memorial and the memorial to the great Turkish commander, Mustafa Kemal - known to us as, “Ataturk”, both at Chunuk Bair.
Before leaving home in New Zealand, our friend Geoff had been asked by
a colleague of his if, when he (Geoff) was visiting Gallipoli, and had the opportunity, would he mind looking for two graves for him. He had had two relatives – brothers from Christchurch - who had both been killed within hours of each other in the Gallipoli campaign.
There are thousands of graves on Gallipoli but, not to be daunted, our tour group of 11 that day, all helped to look for the brother’s head stones. This made our visit even more interesting for all of us, as we all helped in the search. 7 other people in our group, from different countries, whom Geoff, Marianne, Ted and myself had never met before, as well as our guide, all joined forces to look.
Amazingly, and amidst great excitement, we found the first brother in the first cemetery we visited – the 7
th Field Ambulance. At least we had found one. Photographic evidence taken, we then continued on with our visit.
There are a large number of cemeteries on Gallipoli. Some containing rows and rows of hundreds of headstones, some perhaps, only 6 or a dozen. All are beautifully and meticulously kept.
Metre-high hedges of rosemary grow
everywhere – sometimes as a perimeter around the cemeteries themselves or, quite often, just as a single plant beside a headstone. Rosemary for remembrance …..
Many of the cemeteries high atop the ridges of the peninsula, overlook Anzac Cove itself – calm, peaceful, with the sun glinting on the waters of the Aegean as it gently ripples onto the pebbly beach. The silence and the solitude is amazing.
We were very lucky the day that we were there as there were very few people around, just several other small tour groups but mostly, we had the place pretty much to ourselves which was wonderful and only added to the reflective experience of our visit.
For me, I had always thought, that if I ever got the chance to visit Gallipoli, I didn’t want to be there for any dawn services with a cast of thousands. Personally, I just wanted the peace and solitude to be able to wander around and just get lost in my own thoughts as we walked on this hallowed ground among the dead who had paid the supreme sacrifice for us.
Our next stop was at Anzac Cove itself. Today, a beautiful
open, grassy area overlooking the cove itself with the calm, blue Aegean Sea stretching out to the horizon and with sweeping views of the coastline, in both directions.
It is a scene that we are all familiar with if we have ever watched any of the Anzac Day Dawn Services on television back home, the only exception being, on those occasions, this rather small area, is filled with thousands of people, many of whom, have camped out overnight in the sometimes chilly conditions to be there at dawn.
Today, there was none of that, as it sat basking in the afternoon sun with a gentle breeze, as you tried to imagine what it must have been like for our troops, back in 1915.
There again, I was surprised to see just how relatively small this area is. On television, it looks quite massive but, in reality, would be lucky to be about 100-150 metres long by about 50-60 metres wide.
We continued on to visit the next cemetery on our list, Ari Burnu, where luckily, we found the second brother, his “grave” lying in the top row of the cemetery containing perhaps, around 200 headstones, just
in front and to the left of the memorial itself. Once again, all of our group had helped in the search but, it was Ted who found it, amidst much excitement.
Several of us, as well as Geoff and Marianne, took some photos as well, to make sure that we had “back-up”, just in case something happened to Geoff’s photos and they were lost for whatever reason.
Having had personal experience myself, when my camera was stolen in Peru when we were there in 2010 and, losing over 700 photos with it, I know the anger, the frustration and the disappointment at losing valuable photos that can never be replaced.
With our photos taken and also taking some time for reflection whilst reading the names on some of the headstones, we were struck by the ages of many of these men – and, they were men, in every sense of the word - who never returned home. 18, 19, 21, 25 – young men, struck down in their prime. Many of them only teenagers – the youngest soldier, being only 14 years old! Only a child in age …..
Our next stop was at The Beach
cemetery. This one held special significance for we Aussies as, to one side of the cemetery, among maybe 2-3 dozen others, was one headstone of someone we have all heard about.
There was nothing different about it – it looked like all the others there except, for a tiny Australian flag and two artificial Flanders Poppies pushed into the ground at its base.
This was the headstone of one, John Simpson Kirkpatrick – better known to us as, “the man with the donkey”.
John Simpson Kirkpatrick: Simpson and his donkey John Simpson Kirkpatrick was born in Britain but later moved to Australia. In August 1914 he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force, serving at Gallipoli the following year as Private John Simpson in the 3rd Field Ambulance, Australian Army Medical Corps. He served from the time of the landing at Gallipoli on 25 April until he was killed in action on 19 May.
Simpson became famous for his work as a stretcher-bearer. Using one of the donkeys brought in for carrying water, he transported wounded men day and night from the fighting in Monash Valley to the beach on ANZAC Cove. He did so, according
to Charles Bean, through
"deadly sniping down the valley and the most furious shrapnel fire". He was killed by machine-gun fire while carrying two wounded men and was buried on the beach at Hell Spit.
The war diary of the 3rd Field Ambulance commended "the excellence of the work performed by Pte Simpson continuously since landing". Simpson was posthumously mentioned in Despatches. His first donkey was known as Abdul, Murphy, or Duffy.
(With thanks to the Australian War Memorial for this content)
Whilst his efforts lasted only 3 ½ weeks, from the landing on 25
th April until he was killed on 19
th May, 1915, Simpson (and his Donkey), has gone down in history as a great Australian war hero, having saved many lives through his courageous and valiant heroism on Gallipoli. This young man was only 22 years old.
Our visit to Lone Pine was perhaps the most moving of all for we Aussies and also the largest cemetery we visited today. We have all seen it on TV when watching the Anzac Day Dawn Services. Perhaps, most of all, to most Aussies and Kiwis, it symbolises the sacrifice made by our Aussie & Kiwi Anzacs.
The Battle of Lone Pine was one of the most hard-fought battles of the Gallipoli campaign. Counter attack after counter attack, saw this small ridge “change hands” 4 times in a 24-hour period.
As we stood and looked at where the battle had taken place, the Australian trenches were at the opposite end from where the memorial now stands, with the Turkish trenches off to the left when standing facing the memorial. At this point, Allied and enemy trenches were only 140 metres apart!
But, the Australians held on to Lone Pine and, at the end of the battle, 6,000 Turkish soldiers lay dead or wounded along with 2,000 Australians.
7 Victoria Crosses, the highest British Empire bravery decoration, were awarded to Australian servicemen after the battle of Lone Pine, one of the most desperate and savage battles of the Gallipoli campaign.
There is, indeed, a lone pine tree there but, it’s not the original. That one went in the battle such a long time ago now but, if you look to your left, towards the small entrance to the cemetery, when facing the memorial, you will see one.
It’s not on its own,
but is in company with a number of other small trees. Mostly, you wouldn’t give it a second glance. It’s just a pine tree. However, it’s a very special pine tree as, it is the progeny of the original.
After the capture of the ridge at Lone Pine, (6
th August, 1915) an Australian soldier found a pine cone on a branch that had been covering one of the Turkish trenches and, sent it home to his mother. The branches had been cut from the original pine tree that stood at Lone Pine.
From the seeds shed from the cone, she grew a small seedling pine tree which she presented to the Australian War Memorial to be planted in the grounds in commemoration of her son and other’s sons, who had died in the battle.
Since the 1940’s, a nursery in Canberra has been collecting and propagating the seeds from the tree which have been distributed to many RSL (Returned & Services League) branches, schools and other organisations for commemorative purposes.
In 1990, a seedling tree was taken back to the Lone Pine Memorial on Gallipoli by World War 1 veterans and planted there to commemorate the
75
th Anniversary of the landing at Anzac Cove and, this is the one we see there today.
The solitary pine tree that we all see when we see images of the Australian Memorial at Lone Pine, was planted back in the 1920’s to symbolise the original tree that gave the area its name.
From Lone Pine, we walked about a kilometre up the bitumen road to Johnston’s Jolly. It was here that heavy fighting occurred back on this ridge in May, 1915.
So intense was the fighting and the list of casualties so high here, the carnage was staggering and the stench so overwhelming in the summer heat, that something had to be done. So, on the 24
th May, 1915, both the Turkish and Allied forces called a truce.
Between the hours of 7-00 am that morning and 4-30 pm that afternoon, both Allies and Turks worked side by side together, to bury their dead. Sometimes, as many as 3,000 soldiers were buried here in mass graves.
Standing there on the road, listening to our guide recount the events of the battle, we could still see the Australian and Turkish trenches, even though almost 100
years later, and having filled in somewhat, they are still easily seen, with the Allied trenches on one side of the road, and the Turkish trenches on the other. At this point, they are only 20 metres apart!
After months of fierce fighting and slogging it out, and during and after the truce, both sides had built a deep regard for each other and their courageous ability to fight against impossible odds.
So much so that, here particularly, at Johnston’s Jolly, in some of the quieter moments when both sides had wearied of the futility of it all, soldiers from both sides would sometimes “toss” cigarettes or chocolate or cans of bully beef, into to the “enemy" trenches, depending on which side you were on and, with only 20 metres separating you, this was no feat. It was just across the road today.
It was now getting to be quite late in the afternoon and we still had a little way to go. We visited The Nek, just down the road a little way which, is only a small cemetery in comparison to some with only about half a dozen headstones but, high on a ridge overlooking
Anzac Cove itself.
Our last stop was at Chunuk Bair and the New Zealand Memorial and also the Turkish Memorial to the great Turkish commander, Mustafa Kemal. Better known to us, as Ataturk (meaning “Father of Turks”)
After the war, Ataturk went on to become the first President of the Republic of Turkey in 1923. He is still greatly revered today, as the man who unified Turkey after centuries of Ottoman rule.
In 1934, in his immortal words as a tribute to those killed on Gallipoli, he said,
“Those heroes who 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 in this country of ours. You, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway 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 “Johnnies” referring to the ordinary British/Australian/New Zealand soldier and the “Mehmets”, the ordinary
Turkish soldier)
As I said previously, I had always thought that, if ever I had to opportunity to visit Gallipoli, I didn’t want to be there for an Anzac Day Dawn Service with a cast of thousands. For me, I just wanted to be there on a beautiful sunny day with hardly anyone else around and be able to wander at leisure and be lost in my own reflective thoughts.
Today was that day.
Perhaps one of the most moving and unforgettable experiences for us will always be our visit to Gallipoli. You cannot helped but be moved by the events that took place on this peninsula in Turkey back in 1915.
A peaceful and serene place today with around 20 Allied and Turkish cemeteries all beautifully and meticulously cared for, there is no animosity between our countries these days. Quite the opposite in fact. Turkish people have a great regard for Australians and New Zealanders.
We couldn’t count the number of times that we have been stopped and chatted to – sometimes in broken English – as soon as individuals, shopkeepers, etc have learnt that we are Aussie or Kiwi.
It
was very humbling to experience first-hand, the friendly relationship that now exists between our three countries, as well as the regard in which we are held, considering our past history.
There is a great Gallipoli tradition among the population these days with many of them being very excited about the 100
th year anniversary to take place there in 1915.
* * * * * * * * *
In the coming weeks, we shall be publishing more blogs on our recent travels and hope that you will enjoy reading them as they come to hand but, on this Remembrance Day, 11
th November, 2013, I thought it only fitting that I jumped ahead to do this Special Edition and, shall leave you with this …..
THE ODE ….. They shall not grow old, As we that are left grow old Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn At the going down of the sun And, in the morning We will remember them … Lest we forget …..
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
I have read many blogs about ANZAC Day and Gallipoli...
with this having the most history and stories. I have a better appreciation of the sacrifices made...similar to D-Day in American history. You also mentioned the RSL's...we had the privilege of eating a Sunday evening dinner (roast night) as a guest last year on our trip to Australia and New Zealand. Great food and company (with an Australian and New Zealand woman who were also tourists...they introduced us to this secret) at a great price!