Gallipoli, Turkey

For any historian enthusiast out there you would have thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Gallipoli. For those who don’t know the Gallipoli peninsular juts out into the Mediterranean and it belongs to Turkey, however it is attached to the European continent but separated from the Asia continent by a thin strip of water called the Dardanelles. What the Dardanelles lacks in size it makes up for it in importance. Not only did Alexander the Great ford the stretch of water at its narrowest point (1500m) but essentially it is the only naval trade route from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea, Eastern Europe and Russia. Significantly, it is for this reason that during WW1 Britain wanted to open up a relief route to the European capitals and simultaneously knock the Turks out of the war. It was for this reason why we headed for Gallipoli rather then going to Istanbul. We had been to Istanbul two years ago, so we jumped at the chance at exploring new territory.

Wanting to make the most of our experience we decided to hire a guide. However, by the time we were ready we had missed most of the regular guides. Instead we hired the services of Annal (pronounced An-al) who is a Turkish taxi driver. Now, if God or Allah was handing out characters Annal had to be in the front of the queue. At each site Annal would leap out of his parked yellow taxi stride over to Chrissy’s open window, lean in and start describe the historic events that happened with a strong Turkish accent, spittle flying everywhere and flamboyant arm movements. Poor Chrissy faced the full front of the spittle attack as she was sitting the closest to him but thankfully she made it through this experience too.

Annal’s description of the first attack was very vivid. We were sitting in a car park next to ‘Logistic Harbour’, a natural cove on the East side of the peninsular that would have served a launching pad to support the proposed attack further up the Dardanelles to capture the Ottoman Capital. It was here in March 1915 that First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill organised a Franco-British naval attack. Unfortunately four navy battle ships were sunk by lines of mines strung across the stretch of water and a result thousand of troops died in the attack. Annal described Herbert Asquith's reaction to the failed attack by shouting an angered mimicked voice of Herbert Asquith, ‘You promised me that we’d be drinking English tea in Constantinople by four o’clock the following day’.

As a result of this first failed attack Allied troops were deployed to the East side of the peninsular. They were aiming for a flat sandy beach code named ‘Brighton Beach’ (presumably for similar characteristics), which would have made an ideal landing site. At 4am in the morning the troops set out in row boats heading for Brighton Beach and this is where things started to go wrong and mistakes started to happen. Unaware of the strong current the troops drifted miles off coarse and ended up 2km away in Anzac Cove – a steeped sided cliff with 160 Turkish snipers above them. As the sun rose that morning the Anzac troops realised their mistake and as a result fifty percent of the soldiers died from enemy fire. A second phase attack at ‘Shrapnel Gulley’ pushed the Turks back, which eventually lead to trench warfare at the top of the hill. At points the troops were only separated by eight meters of no-mans land. Whilst we were there we could hear the voices of other visitors hidden in the now pined tree trench areas and it was eerie to think that each side must have been able to hear each other opposing sides voices only meters away. Annal described how both sides fort ferociously with bayonet attacks time after time and described how, ‘Grenades then had an eight second fuse and were tossed between trenches like a hot po-tar-to’. Nine months later with little advancement the Allied forces withdrew. All in all 130,000 soldiers died. One third where Allied troops and the rest where Turkish. Added to this there were over 500,000 casualties – a devastating number.


What went wrong? Annal wonders if the first attack had landed on Brighton Beach as planned the outcome may have been a different story. Added to the initial Allied mistakes the Turkish had thousands of reinforcements. What is more the Turkish were lead by an officer called Mustafa Kemal, who is now a national hero. Kemal guessed the Allied Battle plan although his commanders didn’t. He managed to stall the Allied advancement, whilst fighting in view of his men. The fighting was so ferocious that his whole regiment was wiped out. He even managed to survive a shrapnel wound to the chest thanks to the protection from a pocket watch. His role in the battle ensured he was promoted to General. Later he became Ataturk and was an inspirational leader promoting improved quality of life for the Turkish people.

Whilst we were there we heard many times how this campaign was the last ‘Gentleman’s War’ because both sides showed great respect for each other. There was even a story of a Turkish soldier who on hearing cries for help from a wounded Allied soldier in no-mans land waved a white flag from his trench, walked into no mans land, lifted the wounded soldier in his arms and carried him to the safety of an Allied trench.

Now Gallipoli is a picturesque place with pine forest, fields of sunflowers, olive trees, war cemeteries and importantly lots of visitors. What more can be said about our time here apart from emphasising what is engraved on many headstones and what we learnt by everything that is encapsulated in this quote -‘Gone but not forgotten’.

Posted by Colin