Monday we left Istanbul at around seven in the morning to head for the Gallipoli Peninsula, it was about a five or six hour drive. We arrived at Eceabat (correct pronunciation sounds an awful lot like "itchy butt" which gave our guide a good laugh when I explained this) around midday and had lunch at a little restaurant right on the coast of the Dardanelles. After lunch we headed for the first of many stops on our tour of Gallipoli, the Gallipoli Museum, where we got a brief history lesson on all the sites we were about to see.
The first world war for Turkey started on March 18th, 1915. Modern Turkey did not yet exist, it was still ruled by the Ottomans and the Ottomans did not get along with the Brittish or the Russians for various political reasons, so the Ottomans had no choice but to join the Germans and the Hungarians in the first world war. When the war was headed to what is now Turkey, Winston Churchill had said that it would be easy to beat the Ottomans, but he was wrong. The Ottomans had put mine lines across the narrows of the Dardanelles to protect against enemy ships which might try to sail up the Dardanelles to try to take Kilitbair. If the Brittish could take Kilitbair it would be very easy for them to continue up the Dardanelles and take Constantinople the capital of the Ottoman empire. Fortunately for the Ottomans mine lines worked and the 103 ships that entered the Dardanelles were unsuccessful, several of them sunk, and hundreds of lives were lost. This is when the campaign to take Gallipoli by land began.
On the 25th of April, 1915 ANZACs (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) landed at North Beach and a little further South at Ari Burnu, which is now called Anzac Cove. This was the first mistake, the ANZACs were supposed to have landed at Brighton Beach which was a bit further South and was relatively flat and an easy crossing to Kilitbair. Instead they faced steep cliffs and the difficult task of taking Chunuk Bair, the highest point on the Peninsula. By April 27th the two groups of ANZAC troops met at the Nek. The Ottomans had only one division present and tricked the ANZAC troops by ceasing fire and lying down in their trenches. The ANZAC troops thought Ottoman reinforcements were about to arrive so they did not proceed. If the ANZACs had pressed onwards at that point, they would have easily taken the Ottoman forces, but instead the Ottomans bought time for reinforcements to arrive. Then on May 8th, the ANZAC troops were ordered forward and 1800 ANZACs lost their lives. The Turks then advanced, defending their homeland on the 19th of May, but were driven back in a battle that took 160 ANZACs and some 3000 Turks. With both sides lying down in their trenches and bodies rotting around them, the two sides called a truce on the 24th of May to bury their dead. Then a couple months later Brittish troops landed at Sulva Bay along with additional ANZAC troops just to the South of that to attempt to take Chinuk Bair once again. ANZAC troops took Chunuk Bair around shortly thereafter but it was soon regained by the Ottomans and the Gallipoli campaign was considered a failure and the following December and January troops embarked from Sulva Bay.
Every year Australians, New Zealanders, and many others visit Gallipoli to visit this historic site and pay their respects to those that gave their lives for a battle that wasn't even their own. On our tour of Gallipoli we visited the North Beach and saw where the troops landed and the difficult route that was laid before them. We also saw Ataturk's "Monument to the Mothers" where Ataturk, father of modern Turkey, offers his condolances to the mothers whose sons gave their lives and were buried on this land they did not know and assure them that this land now holds them to its bosom as if they were its own. From there we visit ANZAC cove and saw the location where additional ANZAC troops landed and paid our respects at the memorial honoring many of those who gave their lives, including Australian John Simpson. John Simpson carried more than 200 wounded out of the battlefields to receive medical attention giving them at least a chance of life between the 25th of April and the 19th of May before he gave his own life to the cause. I find it amazing that two groups of people with no history of conflict between them found themselves in such a brutal battle. It is evident in the historical stories as well as today that there is and was no hard feelings between these people. A monument stands in Gallipoli called "Respect the Soldier" which illustrates an Ottoman soldier holding a wounded Brittish soldier. The story goes that both sides put up their white flags and that the Ottoman soldier came out of his trench and carried the Brittish soldier to his own trench so that he could receive medical treatment. We visit these trenches, which were the only place that offered any refuge to the soldiers. We also visited the Turkish memorial honoring all those on the Ottoman front lines that gave their lives defending their home country. Finally, we visited Chunuk Bari itself, which both sides fought so hard to take and defend.
It was amazing to be in Gallipoli with so many Australians and New Zealanders, many of whom may have had ancestors who fought or gave their lives on the very ground we stood on.
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