The Trip That Keeps Growing

2 October The Battle of Gallipoli

Just a little information about where in Istanbul our hotel is located. Although there is a lot of construction around our hotel, it is still located in a beautiful spot on the Bosporus Strait. For those not familiar with Istanbul, there are two bodies of water that divide the city into three geological sections. The Bosporus Strait divides the city into the European part and the Asian part and empties into the Black Sea. The Golden Horn is a horn-shaped inlet that forms a natural harbor and also divides the European part of Istanbul into two sections. Our is located on the banks of the Bosphorus just a little above the Golden Horn. We have beautiful views of the Bosphorus Strait, especially at night with the boats and the International Bridge all lit up in multiple colors.

Yesterday, we took a Viator tour to the battleground of the Gallipoli campaign during WWI. When we visited Wellington, New Zealand, we toured a very realistic and moving exhibit of this battle done by Sir Peter Jackson, the well-known New Zealand director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In fact, our guide today helped Sir Jackson on his several trips to the Gallipoli Peninsula to learn as much about the battle as he could before he created his exhibit. In both Australia and New Zealand, this battle still weighs heavily in their hearts, and it is not unusual for many Australians and New Zealanders to visit this battlefield in honor of their relatives who died there. In both Australia and New Zealand, April 25^th is observed as Anzac Day, a national day of remembrance that honors all those who have given their lives in wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations. Anzac stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

Also known as the Dardanelles Campaign, Gallipoli was an unsuccessful attempt by Allied forces to control the sea route from Europe to Russia during WWI. When Turkey entered the war on the side of Germany in 1914, the Allies saw this as a threat to the shipping lanes of the Suez Canal. They also saw the capture of the Dardanelles Straits, which led to the Sea of Marmara and, via the Bosporus, to the Black Sea, as an opportunity to link up with Russia and force Turkey out of the war. A failed naval attempt to secure the Dardanelles Straits, by Britain and France in February 1915 was followed by a large land invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula on April 25, 1915 by Australian and New Zealand ANZAC troops, their first entry into WWI. Poor planning, coupled with insufficient intelligence of the terrain and a strong resistance by Turkish forces, resulted in heavy casualties for the Allied Forces. Although the ANZAC troops were able to secure footholds on the peninsula, the fighting quickly deteriorated into trench warfare which lasted through August. The troops endured heat, flies, the stench of unburied bodies, and insufficient water.

An interesting side note: Winston Churchill, who was then First Lord of the Admiralty and in charge of the Gallipoli invasion, resigned in November 1915 from the government after the naval battle debacle and resulting uproar in Britain, and accepted a commission to command the 6^th Royal Scots Fusiliers in France. That lasted about 6 months, and when his battalion merged with another, he left the Army and returned to Parliament as a private member.

In August, the British launched another offensive in an attempt to break the deadlock. The plan was for the ANZACs to capture the high ground overlooking their sector, the Sari Bair Range, while the British force landed further north at Sulva Bay. The ANZACs were able to capture one hill, Chunuk Bair, but they were then relieved by two ill-trained British regiments that were overrun by the Turks. The British also failed to make any progress inland from Sulva Bay. By November, the British high command realized that this campaign was a failure and finally ordered the evacuation of all troops, including the ANZACs.

Gallipoli was a costly failure for the Allies: 44,000 Allied soldiers died, including more than 8700 Australians and 2779 New Zealanders – about a sixth of those who fought on the peninsula. Victory also came at a high price for the Ottoman Empire, which lost 87,000 men during the campaign.

Map of Gallipoli

Note: I will put the pictures at the end of this blog.

We started our tour at 6 AM when our tour bus picked us up at our hotel. We then had to pick up several other guests who were staying across the Golden Horn in the old section of Istanbul. It was a 5 hour bus ride to Eceabet, the town closest to Gallipoli. Here we had an included lunch of lentil soup, meat balls, chicken on a skewer, rice, a green salad and fruit. After lunch, our little group broke into two smaller groups – three were taking a tour of the ancient ruins of Troy, which is located across the Dardanelle Strait in the Asian part of Turkey and ourselves and a Spanish-speaking couple were going on to the Gallipoli Peninsula. The Spanish couple had their own guide as did we, so we basically had a private tour. On our tour we visited ANZAC Cove where the Australian and New Zealand armies first landed in Turkey, as well as Lone Pine and Chunuk Bair, the highest point reached by the ANZAC troops during this campaign. Sadly, in the 5 months of the active part of the campaign, these troops only moved about 6 ½ miles inland from the beach.

Today the entire peninsula is a National Historical Park that is well maintained. There are few buildings, but quite a few cemeteries, and the trees, most of which were not there during WWI (it was a very barren place back then) were green and lush. At ANZAC Cove there is a very moving memorial to the ANZAC troops who lost their lives there, including a moving tribute by Turkey’s first president, Mustafa Ataturk, who was also the general in command of the Turkish forces during this battle. Ataturk’s words:

Those heroes that 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 here 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.

We visited several Allied cemeteries, which are maintained by the British Commonwealth. At the main British cemetery, our guide told us about the Lone Tree located at the cemetery, but once located at a battle site that now bears its name. In 1915, there were no trees save this one tree. Although that tree no longer exists, Australian survivors took the seeds from that tree home with them after the war, and those seeds were used to plan the tree (the grandson of the original tree) back on Gallipoli.

We also visited the Turkey memorial to the Turkish troops who lost their lives, where there is a statue of the last remaining Turkish survivor of the Gallipoli campaign. The man is pictured with his granddaughter and was erected in 1994 after he died at the age of 110 years.

We saw many trenches that were dug by both sides (amazingly, the two forces were only about two tennis courts away from each other. One such trench area is named Johnson’s Jolly after the ANZAC commander in that area and his troops that spent much of the stalemate time (September – November) joking with the Turkish forces buttoned down just a short distance from them. We also saw the remains of several mine tunnels that were dug underneath the Turkish soldiers. Bombs were then denoted in an attempt to kill the Turks.

Our last stop was at Chunuk Bair, the highest point of land that was captured by the New Zealanders (but only for two days). It now has the official New Zealand Memorial and a tribute to General Mustafa Ataturk, who narrowly escaped death when a bullet destined for his heart was diverted by the gold pocket watch that he wore in his right breast pocket.

After our tour ended, we had to wait about 45 minutes until the other group was finished. After picking them up at the ferry port, we began our long 5-hour trip back to Istanbul. The ride itself was not bad until we reached Istanbul. Traffic was a nightmare, and many of the streets in Istanbul are just little rough, bumpy alleyways, with cars parked on both sides and two lanes of traffic trying to pass each other in different directions. I don’t know whether the driver did not know where he was going, but we spent a lot of time driving up these little streets and being bounced around like a rubber ball. Talk about Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. And anyone prone to seasickness would not have fared well on this part of the trip. At 10 PM we finally reached our hotel. Time for some much-needed sleep!