A trip to Gallipoli

[JMB1943]

ERROR 1005

Access denied.

Interesting to me that this is a dotcom site, which is presumably registered in the US.

But a triviality compared to the wonderful photos and evocative narrative that have been provided!

@Tom Kilkenny Many thanks for sharing.

Regards,

JMB

[michaeldr]

The Turkish website has a strong security set-up. I too don't get through first time. However I have found that if I 'refresh' and then answer their question as to whether or not I'm human, then the correct page comes up complete and as required. 

Give it another go

Good luck

 

* edit to add that I have just accessed the site without any problems

** edit: the 1919 photograph of the gun has an AWM reference P07906.051 so perhaps it is also available on their site

Edited 19 July by michaeldr

[michaeldr]

4 hours ago, michaeldr said:

the 1919 photograph of the gun has an AWM reference P07906.051 so perhaps it is also available on their site

with thanks to the AWM

Edited 19 July by michaeldr

[Tom Kilkenny]

Thanks for the photos Michael and Michelle.  I wonder how different the experience was of visiting the battlefield 30 or 40 years ago compared to now.  Much less 'curated' perhaps, though Gallipoli is still much more Somme than Flanders if you see what I mean.  

[Tom Kilkenny]

But it's over a month since I last posted about the trip.  Where do the days go?

From Mesudiye Topu - thanks again for that background Michael - and the rather impressive Ataturk statue group, my brother and I carried on up the road to Chunuk Bair.

Chunuk Bair is the heart of the battlefield and was very busy with pilgrimage coaches.  We bumped into the Kiwis again but most of the groups seemed to be Turkish.  The events of 1915 clearly played a significant part in forming how Turkey sees itself today and the Battle of Chunuk Bair I suppose was the defining moment of those events.  Ataturk's leadership of the Turkish forces saw the defeat of the Allies here and he went on to become the personification of a nation in a way few other individuals in modern history can ever be said to have done. 

There is a memorial to Ataturk here and the New Zealand Memorial to the Kiwis who died in the sector and who have no known graves.  Chunuk Bair Cemetery contains only a small number of identified burials towards the bottom of the cemetery.  It's a steep walk down to them and I'm afraid to say I was worried about tumbling down the hill if I'd ventured down to see them.  The slope down to The Farm Cemetery on the other side appeared equally steep.  The ridge is extraordinarily narrow and one could only imagine how awful it must have been on that spot 109 years before.  

I see from the Wikipedia page on Chunuk Bair that Louis de Bernieres has written a novel, Birds Without Wings, which contains a description of the battle from the point of view of a Turkish soldier.  I think Captain Corelli's Mandolin is as close to a perfect novel as you're likely to find so I'm going to make an effort to get hold of a copy of Birds Without Wings.

We returned to the car and set off for Anzac Cove.  The view on the drive down the reverse side of the ridge across the peninsula was absolutely stunning.  No pictures I'm afraid.  They wouldn't have done it justice.  

We stopped off at the Canakkale Destani Tanitim Merkezi for some cake and coffee - by now I'd acquired the taste for Turkish - before carrying on to Beach Cemetery.  Would Peter Hart's opinion be justified I wondered.  

More to follow.  

Edited 18 August by Tom Kilkenny

[michaeldr]

19 hours ago, Tom Kilkenny said:

Louis de Bernieres has written a novel, Birds Without Wings, which contains a description of the battle from the point of view of a Turkish soldier. 

It's some time since I read this book, but I fondly recall that it is well worth it

best regards, Michael

[Tom Kilkenny]

We were at the coast in minutes and followed the road with the sea on our left till we saw the sign for Beach Cemetery.  We parked the car just off the road and walked the short distance to the cemetery.

Is Peter Hart right about Beach Cemetery?  I suspect there are few battlefield cemeteries he's not visited.  If there is a cemetery of any kind, anywhere in the world, that can rival the beauty of Beach Cemetery's location and its view I would love to see it.  

The view from the cemetery towards Imbros.

Unlike the cemeteries on the ridge, only a few of the burials here are unidentified.  Beach Cemetery was used from the first day of the landings almost till the evacuation apparently.  We paid our respects at the grave of 'the man with the donkey', John Simpson.  I think I read in Major and Mrs Holt's guidebook that legend has it that John Simpson's donkey, Murphy, is also buried somewhere in the cemetery.  A lovely idea, if perhaps unlikely.

It was a hot afternoon and we rested in the shade of one of the trees for a while before walking back up to the road.  

More to follow.

Edited 19 August by Tom Kilkenny

[Tom Kilkenny]

Rather than getting back in the car, we crossed the road and walked up to Shrapnel Valley Cemetery.  It's another very beautiful cemetery. 

We saw the path up to Plugge's Plateau Cemetery but it looked a steep climb and it was getting late into the afternoon so we walked back down to the car.

We drove a little way up the road and, stopping again, we followed a path onto the beach.  We found ourselves at Ari Burnu Cemetery whose boundary wall is on the beach itself.  I understand the Anzac Day memorial service was held in this cemetery until the numbers attending became too many and the Anzac Commemorative Site was created close by.  In the photograph you can see The Sphinx on the hillside beyond.  

After paying our respects, we walked back along the beach and up the path to the car.  It was a very short drive to the commemorative site. 

Behind us was another view of The Sphinx. 

I know many, if not all, of the Anzac troops spent time in Egypt in training for the landings but I believe many British troops also passed through Egypt on their way to Gallipoli.  I wonder if the name they gave this rocky outcrop found its way onto the maps of the period.  

Apart from our cake and coffee at the museum, we'd not eaten and were getting tired.  We returned to the car and headed back to The Gallipoli Houses.  The next day we would explore Suvla.  

More to follow.  

Edited 20 August by Tom Kilkenny

[Tom Kilkenny]

It was another beautiful morning as we set off for Suvla Bay. 

We stopped off on the way in the village of Buyuk Anafarta to visit the museum which Peter Hart mentions in the suggested tour in his book.  We asked about the museum and were told there were two, the first appeared to belong to the village and was housed in a building on the market square and the second, the private collection Peter Hart mentioned. 

The first contained mainly smaller items, buttons and cartridge cases and the like with perhaps the odd water bottle.  We were pointed in the direction of the second which was a short walk away. 

There we met the proprietor who was happy for us to have a look round.  He didn’t speak much English but from what we could gather, it seemed the roof of the small building housing the museum had collapsed recently, damaging many of the glass cases containing the items.  The roof had been repaired but many of the cases were still broken and were empty.  We didn’t ask what had happened to the items which had been removed but, from pictures I’ve seen of the collection, it contained plenty of interest and it would be a pity if it was no longer on public display. 

Being from Birmingham, my brother and I were especially interested to see the item below. 

I assume the description should read Aston and that Lieutenant Marson was an old boy of King Edward VI Aston rather than KES Edgbaston.  Was it from Gill - it seems an unlikely inscription on an item like this somehow, it looks more like a prefect’s badge - or is Gill perhaps the name of the manufacturer?  We’d need to be able to see the reverse to have a better idea.  Was Lieutenant Marson carrying this little badge as a reminder of his recent schooldays?  It’s remarkable it should have ended up in a glass case in a museum in a small Turkish village.

In the yard was a collection of assorted pieces of iron rather like you’d find in many farmyards in Flanders or on the Somme. 

We walked back to the car and set off for Green Hill Cemetery to visit the grave of another Birmingham man.

More to follow.

Edited 24 August by Tom Kilkenny

[Tom Kilkenny]

The landscape around Suvla Bay is quite different from Cape Helles or Anzac Cove and it is much more difficult to get a sense of what happened there.  Apart from the beaches themselves and the salt lake, there are few immediately identifiable features – at least to untrained eyes – and my brother and I decided that when we visited again, as we hope to, we’d join a tour focusing on this part of battlefield.  Either that or do a whole lot more prep of our own beforehand!

The view south back towards Chunuk Bair.  

Before setting off for Turkey, we’d decided we should try and visit the graves of any men from Handsworth in Birmingham who might have been buried in Gallipoli, relying on the CWGC's records to find them.  We’d been able to find several men whose details indicated they were from Handsworth but only three had known graves and it so happened they were all buried in this part of the peninsula.  Our visiting their graves gave this third day a special focus.  

There were gardeners working in the cemetery as we arrived at Green Hill. 

I’ve become used to seeing CWGC vans in France and Belgium but it was strange – and also oddly comforting – to see them here so very far away from home.  I don't know how much it costs to maintain our cemeteries here and abroad but I'd argue it's well worth it.     

We’d come to Green Hill Cemetery to visit the grave of Private Henry Cotterill of the Warwickshire Yeomanry. 

I learned from the website of the Warwickshire Yeomanry Museum that he was wounded in the thigh while on a listening patrol.  The website says he was wounded on 12 September and died seven days later though his medal card and memorial stone suggest he died on the 10 September.  

His medal card indicates the theatre of war he first served in was Egypt rather than Gallipoli.  I wonder what Henry did between arriving in Egypt in April 1915 and sailing for Gallipoli in the August.  

I also learned that one of the ships carrying the Warwickshire Yeomanry out to Alexandria in April 1915 had been torpedoed and I suppose it’s possible Henry was one of the men who survived that event.  It seems the ship, HMT Wayfarer, was seriously damaged by a torpedo but the men on board were able to be transferred to another ship and Wayfarer was towed into Queenstown in Ireland where the horses. which of course they had been unable to transfer to the rescue ship, were put ashore. 

Having paid our respects we set off to see the beaches of Suvla Bay.  

More to follow.  

Edited 6 hours ago by Tom Kilkenny