Gelibolu 2005

"We live so much under the shadow of sudden death...

All has lost meaning.

Life is usually complicated.

Here it is savagely simple:

eat while you still can,

sleep whenever you can,

keep your morale high and don't fall into desperation

Even a mechanical smile is better than an anxious look.

Worrying is not good for the men."

Percival Fenwick.

War declared. Germany attacks Russia.

The Great War. Britain is against Germany.

Turks entered the war, attacked Russia.

Britain declared war on Turks.

Big events hinge on Dardanelles.

When World War I began,

men in Britain and its colonies rushed to enlist.

Joe Murray, an 18-year-old miner from County Durham

joined up, much to his mother's dismay.

"Why did I enlist?

I simply thought I must.

Something told me I should

and this was my great opportunity to see the world

Don't worry, Mother. I shall come back safely enough.

Joe Murray."

Guy Nightingale was a 23-year-old British regular officer

serving with the 29th Division.

Guy Nightingale was a son of the British Empire.

He was a noble, born and raised in Britain.

He attended Military School and then joined his regiment.

Much like other officers of his time

the military and his regiment was his life

and an indispensable part of him.

He had a great commitment to his regiment.

Selahaddin Adil was an officer with the Dardanelles force command.

His wife, Siret, was in Istanbul and had just given birth.

The newborn girl was their first child.

"November 4, 1914.

Dear faithful Siret,

I am so sad that under the present circumstances

I am upset that I can't see your sweet face

as you take care of our child with affection.

I pray for health and peace.

I hope there is a happy ending for these terrible times.

Selahaddin Adil."

February 19, 1915.

The day the British and French fleets' attack on the Dardanelles began.

The plan was to sail through to the Ottoman capital, Istanbul,

knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war

and open the route to Britain's ally, Russia.

Because no troops could be spared from the Western Front

the operation was to be carried out by ships alone

without landing a single soldier, according to the plan.

British Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener

and First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill prepared the plan

and most of the politicians in the British War Council approved it

without checking earlier intelligence reports.

Very risky.

Extremely difficult operation.

Not advised.

There will be heavy losses.

After passing through Dardanelles, they have no idea what to do.

Only the assumption that the Turks will surrender immediately.

Everyone hoped and counted on this.

The British boats will impress and scare Turks so much that

when the fleet enters Istanbul

Turks will surrender immediately.

That's the British plan.

But for three weeks

the Turks and their German allies resisted the attacks against the Dardanelles.

The War Council decided to dispatch British troops to the area

and use the Australian and New Zealand troops training in Egypt.

George Bollinger was a bank clerk from New Plymouth, New Zealand.

His German father had emigrated to New Zealand in the late 1870s.

At 1.93 meters of height

he was one of the tallest men in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.

Walter, known also as Bill, Leadley

was one of the shortest men in the New Zealand Army.

He was working as a telegraph operator in Christchurch when the war began.

The 31-year-old Leadley was a devout Christian

whose diary was filled with verses from the Bible.

Ellis Silas was a 30-year-old painter from London

who had immigrated to Australia in 1907.

At the outbreak of the war, he reluctantly enlisted as a signaler

after changing his mind several times.

"I hate war books, soldiers and soldiering.

I've not read a newspaper since the war began

All I know is there's a war on, that I'm doing my bit

and I'll be glad when it's over.

How I hate this terrible life.

Ellis Silas."

Oliver Cumberland had enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force

just to be with his younger brother Joe.

They both wrote often to their sister Una.

She had brought them up after the death of their parents.

"Dear Una

I couldn't see Joe go alone and remain behind myself

and I think it will be better now we are together.

I promise you I will never leave Joe wounded on the field

whilst I have the strength to carry him off

and I know he will do the same for me.

Oliver."

"Cairo, Egypt, March 12, 1915.

Dear Una

We have finished our training and we are waiting for the orders to go to the front.

I will be really glad when we do go

as it won't be so boring as it is here.

They should put us all in the firing line

and let us finish the Germans as soon as possible.

Your loving brother, Joe."

You see from their letters it was very simple to them.

To help Britain, to protect the British Empire

they volunteered to get into the army.

This decision was not taken through intense consideration.

In this aspect, they are no different than all the other thousands of Australians.

March 18.

With international expectations rising

18 British and French heavy warships approached the Dardanelles

for a decisive attack.

Lieutenant Colonel Selahaddin Adil put his troops on alert.

Captain Hilmi Bey, Commander of Mecidiye Bastion

gave his last order before the clash.

"No one will bother with the dead and wounded.

If I die, walk over me and just pass.

And if I get wounded, pay no attention.

I would do the same with you.

Replacements for the wounded and the dead have been determined.

Don't expect any rewards in war.

This I will not and cannot promise.

Captain Hilmi."

"I knew that if I waited any longer, the damage in Mecidiye would get worse.

Taking full responsibility, I opened fire.

But because I started to shoot alone

nearly all the ships turned their fire on us.

The battery became smothered in smoke from all the shells that landed.

The artillery sergeants could not even see the sea, let alone their targets."

"Towards one o'clock, the battle reached its climax.

The situation was telegrammed to Istanbul every ten minutes.

Some shell fragments started to fall near our lookout post.

Selahaddin Adil."

But the mobile howitzers and the Turkish bastions

began to inflict damage on the ships.

At 14:00, the already damaged Bouvet was rocked by an explosion.

The Bouvet sank in less than two minutes,

taking down 600 French sailors.

When the Bouvet sank at 14:00

it had a great effect on everyone's morale because it could be seen from all around.

The soldiers used this pause in the battle

to clean the guns' rails and oil the cannons' breechblocks.

Selahaddin Adil."

In a few hours

Irresistible and Ocean struck mines and sank in the same area.

By 19:00, it was all over.

The ships had hit the mines laid 10 days earlier by the Turkish mine-layer Nusret.

This area was reported to be safe before the assault by the Allies intelligence.

This is a colossal loss for the British and the French.

One third of their ships are either sunk or heavily damaged.

The Turkish guns are nowhere near running out of ammunition.

The British and French can attack twice more or they haven't got any ships left.

On March 22, four days after the attack

the British military commander General Sir Ian Hamilton

and the naval commander Vice-Admiral John de Robeck

decided to land an army on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

The objective was to capture the shore defenses

before the navy resumed its advance.

Kitchener approved the plan and Churchill offered his support.

No British authority objected.

On March 24

German general Otto Liman von Sanders

was given command of 65,000 Turkish troops to defend the Gallipoli Peninsula.

Hamilton's plan called for the French to land on the Asiatic shore

and the British on five different beaches

at the southern tip of Gallipoli.

The Australian and New Zealand forces known as ANZAC

would land further north.

After landing, the forces would then move inland

capture the heights and secure the shoreline.

It was an intricate plan with no flexibility based on a strict timetable.

In my mind, said Hamilton, the crux was to get my army ashore.

He expected the Turks to run once he landed.

I don't think they really sat down and thought about it.

The problem was the immediate problem of landing an army.

Where that army would go

how it would fight

that was tomorrow's problem.

There was a terrible lack of knowledge about the true state of the Turkish Army

and, above all, there was a lack of understanding

about what any troops will do when they're fighting for their homeland.

The landing was set for Sunday, April 25.

"April 15.

I can't believe that every minute brings us nearer to the guns of the enemy.

Ellis Silas."

"April 23.

My dear Mother

I am looking forward to the time when we are ashore.

We land on Sunday morning at dawn and are the first troops to do so.

Your son, Guy."

"Gallipoli.

Dear Siret

I'm leading my division into the front lines today.