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by hAzel flynn

Gallip oliIs any other place name imbued with so many layers of meaning for Australians and New Zealanders? Some are things on which we can all agree: sacrifice, mateship, courage and stoicism. Others are cloudier…

Troops headed to Anzac Cove on the battleship Prince of Wales

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history

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G A l l I p O l I : 1 0 0 t h A N N I v e r S A r y

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42,273 Australians and New Zealanders applied for 10,500 places at the 2015 Anzac Day Dawn Service at Gallipoli.

489,000 troops from Britain and its “Dominions” Australia and New Zealand, plus India and France, and 500,000 from Turkey and its Ottoman Empire fought in the Gallipoli campaign.

46,000 Britons, Anzacs (8709 Australians and 2701 New Zealanders), Indians and French died, as did an estimated 86,000 Turks.

239 days passed between the April 25 landings and the December 20 evacuation of the last Anzacs. The last British troops left on January 9, 1916.

By the numBers

In both countries and at various times, the significance of that deadly eight-month-long campaign on a Turkish peninsula 100 years ago has been subject to intense debate. WWI Prime Minister Billy Hughes claimed, “Australia was born on the shores of Gallipoli”, while Afghanistan veteran and Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith said last year, “The dedication, courage, mateship and stoicism of the Anzacs helped to create … our national identity.”

Others see it differently. Historians such as Peter Stanley

say Australia had already forged its own identity by then, a view shared by author Thomas Keneally, who adds, “there needs to be a certain amount of de-mythologising”.

Whichever view you hold on this, there’s no disputing Gallipoli’s resonance and emotional power. In fact, for many young adults visiting that distant shore has become a rite of passage. Standing on its sacred ground they are humbled by what was endured on both sides of the conflict, and what was lost. Their interest keeps history alive, and we join them in saying Lest We Forget.

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in their Words

“At whose door will history leAve the blAme for the helpless, hopeless fix we Are left in – rotting with diseAse And told to tAke it eAsy?”

GenerAl sir iAn hAmilton, d i a r y

e n t r y, G a l l i p o l i , O c t o b e r 7, 1915

“One hundred and fifty men of the 8th Light Horsemen jumped out of the trench but were all mown down within 30 seconds, sinking to the ground as though their limbs suddenly became string. They were waiting, ready for us and simply gave us a solid wall of lead.”

serGeAnt Cliff PinnoCk o n t h e c h a r g e a t T h e N e k , A u g u s t , 1915

“we buried the deAr lAds side by side At midnight. it wAs A reAl soldier’s buriAl. the minister’s voice wAs drowned in the crAck of the bullets whistling overheAd.”

CorPorAl h.r. mClArty, 3 r d F i e l d

A r t i l l e r y B r i g a d e , o n c o m r a d e s k i l l e d

o n G a l l i p o l i , J u l y 17, 1915

“There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours... After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.”

Tu r ki s h m i l i t a r y l e a d e r t u r n e d p r e s i d e n t AtAtürk (mustAfA kemAl) i n 1 9 3 4

“Thirty thousand fighting men, representing Australasia, are under way for the Great War … It is the most wonderful sight that an Australian ever saw.”

bAnjo PAterson r e p o r t i n g o n t h e f i r s t

t r o o p s h i p s’ d e p a r t u r e f r o m A l b a ny o n

No v e m b e r 1 , 1 9 1 4

Australian soldier assisting wounded comrade

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The Dardanelles is a very narrow body of water to the northeast of the Aegean Sea, just 1.2km at its thinnest and never wider than 6.5km. It mattered in WWI be-cause it leads into a sea on which the Turkish capital (then Constan-tinople, now Istanbul) sits.

At the start of 1915, Britain’s ally Russia was under pressure from Turkish-controlled forces in the Caucasus and asked for help. Winston Churchill backed a plan to push battleships up the strait and attack Constantinople.

But the Turks had heavily

Why the Dardanelles?fortified both sides of the strait. The naval attack failed badly, with a third of the British battleships sunk or dis-abled on a single day. So the British expanded their plan: troops would take the Gallipoli Peninsula and thus enable the Navy to get through. The soldiers of the Australian Imperial Force and the New Zealand Expe-ditionary Force had embarked from Western Australia to fight in France but with suitable facilities not yet available in Europe they were diverted en route to training camps in Egypt. Conveniently close, they became a crucial part of the revised plan.

at a GlanceWhy was Turkey in the war? Ostensibly neutral – if ruinously poor – as wwI began, the Ottoman empire had sought to ally itself with several european powers but had been treated cavalierly by Britain and France and was afraid of an expansionist russia. Germany, however, saw turkey’s geographical advantages and the resulting alliance between Germany and the Ottoman empire saw the turks enter the war in October 1914.What went wrong at Gallipoli? landing in the dark, the Anzac troops came ashore 1.6km north of their intended site. Instead of an easy-to-take position, they found themselves facing cliffs, ridges and over 10,000 turks. while the steep site protected them from artillery fire, it made it impossible to secure their aims against a foe whose strength had been severely underestimated, while the Anzac battalions had been mixed up in the confusion of the landing. they asked to be evacuated, the order came back: “there is nothing for it but to dig yourselves right in and stick it out.”

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G a l l I P o l I : 1 0 0 t h a n n I v e r s a r y

Q: Why is Gallipoli such a touch-stone in Australia and New Zealand – why not any other battles in which we fought in WWI, let alone WWII? a: In Australia and New Zealand, justifiably or not, Gallipoli is as-sociated with the idea of “Anzac” and with the imagined “birth of the nation”. No other campaign or battle has those associations, and even if they were more significant or costly they remain overshadowed. Q: What was it like for soldiers who survived the first few months there?a: Men on both sides found life in the trenches similar – increasing heat; monotonous rations; poor water; tormented by flies; with the constant possibility of wounds or death from artillery fire or snipers and the cer-tainty of diarrhoea or dysentery. Q: Had the Allies underestimated the Turks?a: Aside from the invaders’ mis-takes, Turkish resistance was the single decisive explanation for Ottoman success, which Allied com-manders did not expect.

Q: Many British military leaders and other influential figures saw Gallipoli as a “sideshow”. What did they mean?a: Gallipoli was a distraction from the “main game”, which was against Germany in France and Belgium. The idea that the Allies could win the war by defeating a minor [German] ally in a distant theatre proved to be illusory. But if it had been possible, victory on Gallipoli might have changed the his-tory of the Middle East.Q: So was that victory ever possible? a: Historians argue about whether Allied victory was feasible. I think that the idea of seizing the Dardanelles and then Constantinople was a bold vision; worth trying. A fatal combina-tion of poor intelligence, command decisions and sheer bad luck turned a possible success into a disaster.Q: This campaign is often held as an example of appalling British mil-itary leadership. What’s your view?a: British commanders made many fundamental mistakes, in planning and executing the campaign – though

a Fatal combination…professor peter Stanley answers rd’s Gallipoli questions

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the errors were not all on the British side. Australian commanders made errors that led to the failure of the landing at Anzac Cove, and the generals whose orders killed most Turkish troops were Turkish. Q: Why is Gallipoli seen as a huge failure for Brit-ain and its allies, when the Turks are believed to have suffered as many overall casualties and more deaths? a: The Turks did indeed suffer the greatest losses, because their commanders relied on massive infantry attacks without counting the cost. But in war what counts is the result, and in the end the invaders had to withdraw in humiliation: the Turks had defeated two of the world’s great European military powers.Q: Can you share one Gallipoli story that affects you the most?a: While researching my book Quinn’s Post: Anzac, Gallipoli I read a description by a New Zealander who one day peered through a loophole in the trench wall and found himself staring into the eyes of a Turkish sol-dier opposite – that was how close the two lines were at Quinn’s. Both

men looked at each other for a time, silently clos-ing their loopholes and refraining from killing: a rare moment of humanity.Q: Anzac Day was first commemorated in 1916, just a year after the first Anzac Cove landings, but public feeling about it has waxed and waned over the past century – why?a: Our attitudes toward Anzac and all it connotes ref lect broader ideas about our society and past. In the 1920s Anzac Day was about grief and loss. In the 1970s it fell into decay as we turned from an unpopular war in Vietnam. Today, in time of war and uncertainty it

reflects a renewed nationalism in which remembrance seems to come second to flag-waving. Anzac Day has changed and always will change, as our society changes.

Peter Stanley is Research Professor at the Australian Centre for the Study of Armed Conflict and Society at UNSW, Canberra and the author of 27 books, six of them on Gallipoli. His latest book, Lost Boys of Anzac, chronicles the 101 men who landed at dawn and died on 25 April 1915 (see page A12) and his next will be the first-ever book on Indians at Gallipoli.

r e A d e r ’ s d i G e s t

ALEC CAMPBELL: the last surviving

Anzac of the Gallipoli campaign died in

2002 at the age of 103. A diminutive 16-year-old, he lied about his age in order to enlist

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Key PlayersgenerAl sir iAn hAmilton commander-in-chief of the Allied troops in the dardanelles. hamilton had five decades of military experience, more than anyone else in the British upper ranks. But in the words of military historian peter pedersen, he “lacked the ruthless streak a general needs”. hamilton was unable to inspire his commanders or men and remained optimistic about the outcome at Gallipoli in the face of all evidence.

toP Brass

mustAfA kemAl (AtAtÜrk) commander, 19th division, turkish fifth Army. Although the career army officer had opposed his country joining wwI, mustafa kemal was a gifted strategist. he was brave and willing to sacrifice his men in battle, and was soon commanding the turkish Fifth Army, successfully holding off the Allied invaders in the dardanelles. After the war he became the first president of turkey, earning the title Atatürk: “father of the turks”.

winston churchill the first lord of the Admiralty, royal navy. churchill began wwI as a rising star and, keen for naval success, he pushed hard for the dardanelles assault. But following the failure of Gallipoli he believed his career over. looking back in 1923 on what might have been if turkey hadn’t been drawn into the war, churchill wrote, “the terrible ‘Ifs’ accumulate.”

lieutenAnt generAl sir williAm birdwood Anzac commander. “Birdy” was amiable, caring and brave. even though he lacked a talent for strategy, he endeared himself to many who served under him. hamilton described him as “the soul of Anzac”. p

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lAnce corporAl Albert JAckA the first Anzac to be awarded the victoria cross, he single-handedly regained a trench that had been taken by the turks. he subsequently showed similar extreme courage on the western Front, acts that made him famous throughout the 1920s.

John simpson kirkpAtrick the stretcher-bearer at the centre of the “Simpson and his donkey” legend enlisted in hope of getting home to england and was fatally shot just three weeks into the campaign. he achieved legendary status when his story was used a symbol of patriotic sacrifice to boost public morale.

the chroniclersc.e.w. beAn Journalist turned Australia’s official government war correspondent. charles Bean went beyond the call of duty to capture the reality of the war, both in the painstaking reports he filed and in the official 12-volume history he oversaw. he was on Gallipoli from the first day to almost the last, despite being shot. It was his idea to establish the Australian war memorial.

keith murdoch Journalist. Stopping at Gallipoli in August on his way to london, murdoch was given a scathing letter about hamilton by Ashmead-Bartlett. the letter was seized by military authorities before he could deliver it to the British pm, but murdoch wrote his own account of the criticisms and shared it widely.

the critic

men Who FouGht

Simpson ferried

wounded men on his

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ellis AshmeAd-bArtlett correspondent. A flamboyant writer and stern critic of the campaign. his description of Anzac soldiers, published widely, is typically unrestrained: “physically they are the finest lot of men I have ever seen in any part of the world.” the public ate it up.

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naminG the lost

William bentley (barney) Allen, clerk, S*, heywood, vicWilliam richard (dick) Annear, 39, commercial traveller, S, Subiaco, wA Charles james (rappie) backman, 30, boilermaker’s assistant, S, Adelaide, SArichard hamilton baker, 20, bank clerk, S, Sandgate, QldCecil thomas barrack, 30, engineer, S, chatswood, NSw frank batt, 31, miner, S, london, ukWilliam Charles belson, 22, architect, S, malanda, Qld William john bradley, 30, labourer, Newport, ukCharles George brown, 22, labourer, S, Newmacher, Aberdeenshire, ScotlandAlbert john byrne, 24, electrician, S, Broken hill, NSwhugh Calderbank, 32, motorman [tram driver], m, perth, wAthomas George Carroll, 23, contractor/farm labourer, S, North Fremantle, wAjoseph henry Cooke, 32, accountant, m, wickepin, wAtom Courtney, 19, engine cleaner, S, Ipswich, Qld Alfred (lizzie) Crowther, 26, iron moulder, S, wayville, SA

* S = single; M = married

frederick dann, 30, carpenter, S, melbourne, vicjohn (jack) davey, 19, labourer, S, woombye, Qldjohn dow, 25, miner, S, perthshire, Scotlandjohn Curry duckworth, 36, labourer, m, perth, wAWolverton mason edgar, 36, lumper, S, Great Bulling, hants, ukCharles john falk, 30, clerk, S, yatala, SAjohn james ferguson, 19, labourer, S, perth, wAGeorge Clement ferrett, 29, wheelwright, S, Blinman, SAjames fielding, 26, labourer, S, Sheffield, yorks, ukedward William fitzgerald [edward edwards], 37, agent, S, kalgoorlie, wAthomas Walter ford, 19, medical student, S, Brisbane, Qldherbert howard kentwell fowles (bert), 21, schoolteacher, S, Zillmere, Qld Walter john Genery, 26, printer, m, Subiaco, wAWilliam james (billy) Gibbons, 34, labourer, m, Adelaide, SAjohn Woodside (jack) Gibson, 26, labourer, S, canada/India

Anthony simpson (Alec) Gilpin, 24, ironmonger, S, Ballarat, vicAlbert Glatz [Alexander Glades], 27, miner, S, kapunda, SAkenneth douglas (ken) Gordon, 28, clerk, S, port pirie, SAjohn lewes davidson Gower, 29, clerk, S, littlehampton, SAGeorge Charles Gracey, 28, motorman, S, South Brisbane, Qldharry john Graham, 19, sheep farmer, S, Barcaldine, Qld james joseph Grant, 22, shipping clerk, S, Brisbane, Qld keith eddowes Green, 21, shipping clerk, S, mitcham, SAPercival Charles Greenhill, 26, labourer, S, london, ukWilfred Carl hill, 22, labourer, S, concord, NSwWilliam Albert (fatty) hobson, 25, potter, Stourbridge, worcs, ukCuthbert oliver holcombe, 33, farmer, S, london, ukjohn holden, 19, farm hand, S, Bromley, ukhenry (harry) jackson, 20, carpenter, S, coen, Qldleslie job, 19, telephonist, S,

Historian Professor Peter Stanley (our Q&A expert) tells the stories of the 101 men who died in the first wave to land at Anzac Cove on April 25, 1915, in his book Lost Boys of Anzac. Below are the details they gave when they enlisted.

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Fitzroy, wAWilliam johnston, 21, clerk, S, edinburgh, Scotlandleo james kerswill, 21, hide and skin cleaner, S, Newman park, QldPatrick kiely, 28, engineer, S, cork, Irelandleslie john (langey) langdon, 28, farmer, S, melbourne, vicjames llewellyn (lyn) lewis, 20, bank clerk, S, port Adelaide, SAjames mulcaster lovatt, 33, farmer, S, Bettwys-y-coed, walesrobert stirling mackie, 19, draper, S, clydebank, Scotlandfrederick dennis mangan, 27, telegraph operator, m, dublin, Irelandharold osborne mansfield, 32, miner, S, parkside, SAdavid joseph mcCarthy, railway porter, S, woolloongabba, Qldfrancis ronald reid mcjannet, 23, farmer, S, kununoppin, wAAlexander mcPhail, 25, farmer, S, Glasgow, ScotlandAlbert (Peter) mcConnachy, 25, miner, S, renmark, SAkeith mitchell, 18, labourer, S, lancefield, vicjoseph russel moir, 24, farmer, S, taranaki, NZ donald munro, 19, bricklayer, S, thurso, ScotlandGeorge Alfred nicoll, 35, accountant, S, Sydney, NSwedward Castle oldham, 38, gentleman, S, hackney, SA

michael john o’sullivan, 19, clerk, S, rosewood, Qld William thomas Payne, 19, clerk, S, Brisbane, Qld Ambrose stanley Pearce, 20, carpenter, S, Quorn, SAjames Willis Plummer, 20, horse trainer, S, yorketown, SAWilliam Alexander Pollock, 37, labourer, S, Glasgow, ScotlandWilliam George Price, 19, jeweller, S, Newcastle, NSwPatrick thomas Pyne, 19, postal assistant, S, Strathalbyn, SAWalter reeves, 24, labourer, S, cambridge, ukhenry john riekie, 35, grocer/bread carter, m, Subiaco, wAWilliam john (john or jack) rigby, 22, clerk, S, yeronga, Qldsydney beresford robertson, 28, law clerk, S, Ipswich, Qldjohn rundle, labourer, S, kalgoorlie, wAGeorge Alfred rush, 24, labourer, S, Nelson Bay, NSwVictor joseph sanders, 34, overseer, toowoomba, Qldharry sawley, 22, painter, S, Southport, lancs, ukbasil Archdeacon (Archie) scott, 23, motor mechanic, S, Northam, wAGuy Allen sharpe, 26, civil engineer, S, poona, Indiahurtle Charles shaw, 26, blacksmith, S, hindmarsh, SAWilliam haswell shelton, 21, farmer, S, murgon, QldGodfrey john sherman, 24, bank clerk, S, Sydney, NSw

raymond ferres shirley, 22, law clerk, S, Brisbane, Qldrichard smith, 33, tinsmith/fitter/silversmith, S, Birmingham, ukWilliam millar smylie, 21, motor mechanic, S, Belfast, Irelandrupert james sparrow, 22, horse driver, S, Broken hill, NSwGeorge spence, 32, carpenter, S, lanarkshire, Scotlandedward harvey statham, 34, contractor, S, rio de Janeiro, Braziljoseph stratford, 34, labourer, S, lismore, NSw Charles joshua sussex, 34, labourer, richmond, vic frederick john thompson, 33, traveller, S, Feilding, NZedward james thrum, 22, painter, S, Sorrento, vicernest Percy (Wakka) Walker, 23, sleeper cutter, S, lillimur, vicWilliam frederick Walker, 22, labourer, S, Shipton winslow, Bucks, ukWilliam john Walsh, 33, tinsmith, m, Brisbane, QldArthur Walton, 27, bushman, S, Gravesend, ukWilliam john Wilcox, 23, labourer, S, london, ukPercy Williams, 21, miner or grocer (uncertain record), S, kalgoorlie, wAArthur edward Wise, 22, iron moulder, S, woolloongabba, Qldroy Wyld, 26, fireman, S, Semaphore, SA

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Gallipoli recreated

There have been memorable por-trayals of Gallipoli on screen, on the page and even in song, although emotion has sometimes been prized over accuracy. Here are some of the most notable:1915 (novel, 1979; mini-series 1982): Roger McDonald’s novel focuses on two boys from the bush, keen for the adventure of war then appalled by its realities. Although dated now, the mini-series adapta-tion was highly praised for its scope and attention to detail.“And the band played waltz-ing matilda” (song, 1971): Scot-tish immigrant Eric Bogle was an amateur folk singer when he wrote about the cost and futility of war. A couple of small details are wrong

(the narrator signs up in 1915 not 1914; tin hats weren’t issued until 1916) and Bogle used “Suvla Bay” because it was an easier rhyme than Anzac Cove, but it is very powerful.gallipoli (film, 1981): Peter Weir’s film follows two sporting rivals and mates (Mark Lee and rising star Mel Gibson) from Western Australia through Egypt to the Turkish pen-insula. The tragic end comes at the August 7 charge at The Nek: the car-nage is accurate, much else is not.Çanakkale 1915 (film, 2012): It might prove hard to track down but this Turkish film is one for comple-tists, showing as it does events from the other side of the lines. Unlike any other on this list, it was filmed in situ.

Second from left; Thomas “Tolly” Johnson (Kodi Smit-McPhee) in Gallipoli (2015)

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Anzac girls (TV series, 2014): A six-part series telling the oft- neglected stories of the women who also served, the war’s nurses. On a hospital ship off the Turkish coast, on the nearby island of Lemnos and in Egypt they deal with the horren-dous aftermath of Gallipoli before heading to France. gallipoli (mini-series, 2015): Top production values and stand-out per-formances (led by Kodi Smit-McPhee, pictured opposite) plunge us straight into the landing at Anzac Cove and the chaos that follows; what’s been left behind comes in flashbacks amid the chaos and horror. It’s a fiction-alised account based on Les Carlyon’s meticulously researched 2001 book of the same name. when we go to war (mini-series, 2015): At last, the New Zealand ex-perience of the war gets an outing in

this high-budget six-part mini-series about life both on the battlefields and for those left behind. It stars Ido Drent and Shavaughan Ruakere.deadline gallipoli (mini-series, 2015): Aiming for a fresh take on events this puts Gallipoli’s war corre-spondents at the centre of the action. It shows them as fearless fighters for the truth, in conflict with the mili-tary commanders who would silence them – a Hollywood-style approach with a big-name cast to match (Sam Worthington, Rachel Grifffiths, Game of Thrones’ Charles Dance).

Other Anzac movies, books and songs worth catching include: ANZAC Day: The New Zealand Story (book, 2013), by Philippa Werry; The Water Diviner (film, 2014), directed by and starring Russell Crowe; and Solomon’s Song (novel, 1999), by Bryce Courtenay.