Anzac Beach

Just got back from the Dawn Service memorial at Galipoli. There were an estimated 7,000 Australians / New Zealanders who stayed up all night to be there for the start of the service. It has to be said that I doubt there are many more moving experiences than a two minute silence, by so many, at a site (Anzac Beach itself) where the first landings took place as the sun comes up.

There are also fewer more interesting places than the Galipoli peninsular, for those interested inj things military. It's very hard to imagine such loss of life in such a small area and even now the bones of the dead can be found laying around.

It's worth a visit if you ever get the chance.

ExpatinIstanbul said:

Just got back from the Dawn Service memorial at Galipoli. There were an estimated 7,000 Australians / New Zealanders who stayed up all night to be there for the start of the service. It has to be said that I doubt there are many more moving experiences than a two minute silence, by so many, at a site (Anzac Beach itself) where the first landings took place as the sun comes up.

There are also fewer more interesting places than the Galipoli peninsular, for those interested inj things military. It's very hard to imagine such loss of life in such a small area and even now the bones of the dead can be found laying around.

It's worth a visit if you ever get the chance.

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We were there in 2005 and as you say well worth a visit.

Photo of Suvla Bay...

Eric Bogles song Waltzing Matilda hauntingly reminds us of the slaughter that took place there...

Back there later this year on our way to India,

If you carry on along the road in your pic, you come to the beach where my avatar photo was taken.

The whole area is haunted by the mistakes made by the British High Command at the time, one estimate was that of some 500,000 dead in the eight months of the campaign. Take into account the tiny land area this took place in, perhaps 2km wide and never more than 1km deep, and it's mind blowing to even think of the conditions the poor bastards on both sides had to exist in.

Years after, in his inaugural speech of 1934, M. Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the republic and the notable commander in the Gallipoli battles said: '' - To all the mothers and wives far and away in foreign lands, who have lost their loved ones; be in peace and rest easy, as your sons who lost their lives in our land have now become OUR sons too. They lie together in peace with their Turkish comrades. They shall finally rest in peace together, for eternity''

Peace, it seems is the most costly of all things...

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Lyrics and Background to the Song here ;

http://www.lyricserver.com/cgi-bin/lyricsearch.cgi

ExpatinIstanbul said:

If you carry on along the road in your pic, you come to the beach where my avatar photo was taken.

The whole area is haunted by the mistakes made by the British High Command at the time, one estimate was that of some 500,000 dead in the eight months of the campaign. Take into account the tiny land area this took place in, perhaps 2km wide and never more than 1km deep, and it's mind blowing to even think of the conditions the poor bastards on both sides had to exist in.

Click to expand...

Check this out for the official figures.

Although we are led to believe that it was a British disaster with ANZAC as the fall guys taking the casualties these figures beg to differ....

Given the relative populations of the Allied countries I suspect they may have a point but in raw figures it is the British dead and wounded that are the highest on our side.

It still makes sobering reading to think that the area they landed and fought it was so small.....

At one point during the service, they mentioned one assault by the ANZACs (Chanuk Bair I think) where 300 died in the area the size of a tennis court...

The Nek

The area " the size of a couple of tennis courts" was The Nek.
A Brigade of Australian Light Horse attacked in three waves and were slaughtered. The movie "Gallipolli" ends with this assault.

The assault against heavily fortified Turkish trenches was designed as a feint to draw Turkish reserves away from the area of the main attack at Lone Pine.

Most Light Horse regiments recruited from rural areas - blokes even supplied their own horses - and travelling through north eastern Victoria where the
8th (Indigo) ALH came from, tiny villages have memorials covered with the names of the young fellows who died on that day. Whole rural areas never recovered from the massive loss of young men.

Charles Bean, the official military historian for Australian in WW1 visited The Nek in 1919. Bean covered all the major battles Australians were involved in on the Western Front. The dead were still lying in the narrow strip of No-Mans Land. His commented,' Never was a piece of land more densly sown with the flower of Australian manhood.'

Lest we forget


gregGS

Micky said:

Eric Bogle's song 'And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda' hauntingly reminds us of the slaughter that took place there...

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A truly wonderful picture painting of not only the horrors of war but of the aftermath for those that returned devoid of limbs.

Greg