Exploring the World in 'Blue Velvet of Sark': Gallipoli

After lunch on Wednesday 20 May, we took our folding bicycles ashore to visit some of the many memorials, battlefields and cemeteries at the south end of the Gallipoli Penisula. Whilst the French and Turkish memorials overlooked our anchorage (which was one of the landing beaches, S Beach), the main Commonwealth memorial for the campaign, as well as the southern Allied landing beaches (the ANZAC landings were further north on the west side of the peninsula), were a few miles away; much easier to reach by pushbike than on foot.

We visited the Çanakkale Martyrs’ Memorial first as it was the closest to where we brought the dinghy ashore. The Gallipoli Campaign was one of the greatest Ottoman victories during WW1. In Turkey, it is regarded as a defining moment in the nation's history: a final surge in the defence of the motherland as the Ottoman Empire crumbled. The struggle formed the basis for the Turkish War of Independence and the declaration of the Republic of Turkey eight years later under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who first rose to prominence as a commander at Gallipoli. Consequently, and perhaps also in recognition that this year is the 100^th anniversary of the campaign, many, many Turks visit the memorials on the peninsular. We were quite amazed at the number of people at this memorial and the number of tour buses we saw en route.

Opposite the monument is a huge bronze relief, with Mustafa Kemal (later Kemal Atatürk) at the centre, leading his troops.

More poignantly, in the trees were hundreds and hundreds of memorial graves with glass headstones each engraved with a dozen names of the Ottoman dead. Most of the sources we have consulted agree that Gallipoli resulted in the deaths of about 65,000 Ottoman soldiers, with a further 100,000 wounded and 12,000 missing. However, one Turkish publication states that the monument was built to commemorate ‘the 253,000 Ottomans who died in the campaign’. Perhaps that’s the total number who died during WW1, perhaps it’s the total number who fought at Gallipoli. Either way, the figures are huge and, we were to find, they were little better on the Allied side.

French memorial and military cemetery at Gallipoli

From the Martyrs’ Memorial we cycled along the edge of S Beach (Morto Bay) to the French National Cemetery and Memorial. Here are the graves of 3,200 French servicemen who took part in the Gallipoli Campaign. Each is marked with a cross, constructed from 2 stakes for securing barbed wire fencing. The remains of a further 12,000 unidentified French soldiers lie in four ossuaries next to the memorial. As with all such cemeteries, it is a sobering place, albeit beautifully kept and with a fantastic view across the ground over which so many fought and died.

Seddülbahir village and castle (background) and V Beach, with Commonwealth War Graves cemetery

To reach the main Commonwealth memorial at Cape Helles we cycled 2-3 miles along recently resurfaced roads, through open, rolling fields. The 100^th anniversary of the Allied landings was on 25April this year and the routes to and from all the memorials were renovated and improved for the occasion. As we had motored along the coast we had seen hoards of coaches parked just below the Helles Memorial bringing, we thought, groups to pay their respects to some of the Allied dead. However, as we arrived we realised that just below the Helles Memorial lies Seddülbahir village and castle and V Beach. We had seen these as we had motored past earlier in the day and now we appreciated that V Beach was the site of vicious fighting as the landing troops tried to invade past well dug-in forces. The coaches were bringing Turkish visitors to remember their dead at one of the few Turkish cemeteries on the peninsula.

Model showing the V Beach landings and the strongly defended Turkish positions. V Beach was so well defended that, unlike at any of the other beaches, the Allied forces did not actually take control of the landing site until 26^th April 1915, having begun the assault at dawn the previous morning

V Beach Cemetery

There are over 30 Commonwealth War Graves cemeteries on Gallipoli but they look quite different to those of the Western Front. To prevent masonry sinking into soggy ground stone-faced pedestal markers are used instead of headstones and there is a walled cross feature rather than a free-standing Cross of Sacrifice. Around the cemeteries are ha-ha walls and ditches to divert floodwater. There is a lot of open space in the cemeteries due to the high proportion of unidentified casualties: the unidentified remains are buried in the open spaces. The names of those 27,000 missing and unidentified casualties are inscribed on the main memorial (of which there are 6 in total) in the area of the peninsula in which they were know to have been operating. There are also 2,500 ‘Special Memorials’, pedestal markers where the name inscription begins ‘Believed to be buried in this cemetery….’. There are so many unmarked graves here because the job of clearing the battlefield could not started until after the Armistice in 1918. By that stage accurately identifying the remains was very difficult.

Helles Memorial

The imposing Helles Memorial, the Commonwealth battle monument for the entire Gallipoli Campaign, stands at the tip of the peninsula. Like the majority of the cemeteries and memorials here, it was designed by the Scottish architect, Sir John Burnet. It bears the names of over 21,000 Australian, British and Indian servicemen who died here or in ships and hospitals following evacuation from Gallipoli or in the seas around the peninsula. Also named are the Commonwealth ships and submarines which were sunk or destroyed whilst operating in support of the campaign.

Lancashire Landing Cemetery

About a mile northwest of the Helles Memorial is the Lancashire Landings Cemetery. Just below it lies W Beach where the 1^st Lancashire Fusiliers fought their way ashore under heavy Turkish fire. Six Victoria Crosses were awarded to the men of the battalion as a result of their efforts on 25 April 1915. The area around the beach became a key Allied base was renamed in honour of the Lancashires.

Here we bumped into a gentleman from the Wessex area Western Front Association. He had visited Gallipoli several times already and this time was looking for several graves in particular to support some research he was conducting. As he said, there are so many stories of bravery and sacrifice during the fighting in this campaign; each gravestone represents one and there are many more for each unmarked grave.