The famous Anzac beach should have been a bit to the south closer to Gaba Tepe but with the usual problems of a night landing the landing spot ended 1,6 Km north of the intended place. If in one end the terrain in front to be penetrated was almost impassable and caused the breaking of the assault companies with many casualties, to the south the Anzacs would have faced 15cm and 12cm guns. I got a bit confused about this issue as the Australian documentary Gallipoli from above (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXUu0RII4RA ) mentions that the landing beach was the correct one. In fact any option was bad as the Turkish forces had plenty of time to prepare defences as they knew that a landing was coming at the southern tip of the Gallipoli peninsula between Cape Helles and Suvla bay.
The tip of Gaba Tepe.
Dominating the beach you have the famous Sphinx, named after the monument close to Mena Camp, Egypt, were the Anzacs trained.
It is still today a very imposing site.
Close by you have plenty of information about the battle, namely this poster No 6, regarding the Lone Pine and The Nek battles, two of the most bloody fights of the campaign.
The Anzac Beach cemetery has 391 casualties buried there. These places are very well maintained by both the Commonwealth War Graves Commision and the Turkish state. The French also have an impressive cemetery at Morto Bay on the Asian shore.
I counted 42 Commonwealth cemeteries and 13 Turkish not counting dozens of memorials from both sides.
Many say that the Gallipoli campaign with all its stories of courage and suffering gave birth to both modern Turkey and Australia and New Zealand. For Great Britain and France the Gallipoli campaign, even if important, became overshadowed by the horrors and the amount of casualties on the Western Front.
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Next: More Turkish forces.
A fascinating insight into the scene of battle. Thanks Joao.
ReplyDeleteThanks SRD. More to come soon.
ReplyDeleteGreat page. The landing place issue has been debated since the landing. The original orders have the landing beach as between Gaba Tepe in the south and Fishermans Hut in the North. Anzac Cove is right in the middle. Generally historians (not journalists) agree the landing was on the correct beach. Birdwood letters prior to the landing suggest he was more worried about making sure it was in darkness to prevent high casualties.
ReplyDeleteThe other thing is the Attaturk quote is much disputed.
Thanks for clarifying the issues. I´m by no means an expert on Gallipoli but its a place I know and I always take the oportunity to make models on the visited places.
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