Blog

Day 12 – ANZAC Day

29 April 2007 by John Lafferty. 2 Comments
Battlefield Tours, Gallipoli, Week 2

The big day. We start at 1:30am from the Kum Hotel by bus and drive to ANZAC Cove. From there we have the short walk to the dawn service area. This is done early so that we miss the crowds and get some seating. While waiting for the service to begin we see some documentaries and information about some of the ANZACs that died in the campaign.

After the service we have a long walk up Artillery Road to Lone Pine. Some who require it are shuttled there by bus. This is the site of the Australian service. The wait from 7:30am, when most of us arrive, until the services start at 10:30am is made to feel shorter by a commentator who keeps the information about what is going to happen light hearted.

At the end of the formal proceedings there is time for the public to lay wreaths and a number of people in the group take the time to do this.

At the end of the Lone Pine service we head back down the Artillery Road where our bus is waiting to take us back to the Hotel. All this is over by about 12:30. The afternoon has a walk with Kenan for those with some energy left over – most have a sleep.

Day 11

29 April 2007 by John Lafferty. No comments
Battlefield Tours, Gallipoli, Week 2

The day before ANZAC day and there is only a half day of activities planned as tommorrow is a 1am start. We use this time to visit some area of interest to the group. Some we have seen before, like Quin’s Post, and other areas like a walk along ANZAC Cove are done by some of the group for the first time. This is basically a catchup day.

In the afternoon a lot us get a bit of extra sleep but there are a group who go on an other walk.

Additonal images from day 11

Day 10

29 April 2007 by John Lafferty. 1 Comment
Battlefield Tours, Gallipoli, Week 2

The morning of our 10^th day on tour has the option of long walk along the ridge above the northern end of Sulva Bay or a shorter walk along the beach of ANZAC cove. For about half of the group (including myself) the long walk ridge walk was the choice. This gave us some great views of Suvla Bay from an area not visited by most visitors to Gallipoli due to its remoteness. The start of this walk also has the only remaining original Turkish Memorial.

The afternoon was a special treat with a ferry tip from the Kabatepe port, which is just south of ANZAC Cove, to the top of Suvla Bay and return. With a flat bottom car ferry is used for this trip the captain was able to bring as in quite close to the shore line giving not only a great view of the coast line and hills but also a view of the wreck of the sunken remains of the Milo.

Additional images from day 10

Day 9 Additional Images

27 April 2007 by John Lafferty. No comments
Battlefield Tours, Gallipoli, Week 2

Turkish villager

Tour group members at a Turkish memorial

More photos from the afternoons walk.

Day 8 Additional Images

27 April 2007 by John Lafferty. 2 Comments
Battlefield Tours, Gallipoli, Week 2

Sunrise – Good morning!

Turkish, ANZAC and British Memorials at Helles

Gun emplacements at Helles

Redoubt cemetery

Turkish Village

Turkish Memorial, Kenan Celik and group photo

Happy birthday Janda!

Trip updates.

27 April 2007 by John Lafferty. No comments
Battlefield Tours, Gallipoli, Week 2

Now we have returned to Istanbul I can now load some more photos from day 6, 7, 8 and 9 and enter the stories and photos for days 10, 11 and 12. This includes the most important day of our trip, ANZAC Day.

Before doing these updates I would like to provide one item of interest. In the story for day 7 there was a reference to the recently discovered 10 seconds of footage. Due to internet connections issues while in the Gallipoli area these video files did not load. So now I can provide these. The first is the original footage as detailed on the AWM site and the second is a video I took while on one of our walks. It is from as close to the original location of I could find and shows what the location looks like today.

[MEDIA=11]

[MEDIA=12]

Day 9

25 April 2007 by John Lafferty. No comments
Battlefield Tours, Gallipoli, Week 2

While the start of day 8 took us to Cape Helles at the far south end of the battlefields, the 9th day starts with a trip to the Suvla Bay area in the far north. We start at Lala Baba which over looks Suvla Bay and the Salt Lake. The Salt Lake now has a dam at one end so that a low level of water could be maintained for fish farming.

Our next stop also shows how areas change over time. The location is the Green Hill cemetery. At the time of the conflict two hills were named Green Hill and Chocolate Hill. Since then the vegetation has changed so that colours have swapped. This is Green Hill now looks dark brown and Chocolate Hill is covered with crops and looks very green. Some more touring and history talks which takes us to lunchtime.

The afternoon has optional walks either along the beach at ANAZC Cove or a longer walk from Chunuk Bair to the coast line at Embarkation Pier. The second of these options is a medium level walk which is predominantly down hill. The only steep section is a side path down to The Farm cemetery that is well worth the trip as it is in a well wooded area that looks back up to Chunuk Bair. The entire walk down takes about 3 hours but is well worth the trip with fantastic 360 degree views.

Day 8

25 April 2007 by John Lafferty. No comments
Battlefield Tours, Gallipoli, Week 2

The first half of day 8 is a tour of the Helles point area. After all the walking of day 7 it is a nice break to have a bus tour day. Although this area was primarily landed and occupied by British and French troops it also has some ANZAC memorial.

The first stop is at a Turkish memorial that was a section of graves for those killed when British ship artillery shelled a hospital installation.

Our next stop is the ANZAC memorial for the Lancashire Landing at W beach. The memorial is higher up from the beach area overlooking the entrance to the Dardanelles and a nearby light house.

A short trip down the road is the very large Helles Memorial where the names of over 21,000 British troops are engraved. Also on this memorial are the names of ANZACs for whom there are no known location of death as well as the names of the ships used in the campaign.

Very close to this memorial is the location named V Beach. This was just one of the locations landed on at Helles on the 25th of April but with its well defended hills and beaches it saw some of the highest losses.

On the headland above V beach are gun emplacements that have now been rebuilt but where once seen as they where after the early failed navy battle. These emplacements came under heavy bombardment and an ammunition bunker was successfully hit doing much damage. Although this damage can no longer be seen there is one of the original large guns on display and it has a noticeable bend.

Next stop is the Turkish Memorial that can so clearly been seen from most locations in the area. Visited by many local tourists this site is one of a couple being used to help build a better knowledge of the conflict and create a larger feeling of pride in the Turkish people.

In stark contrast to the crowds at the Turkish Memorial is the French Cemetery only a couple of minutes away. Very quite and beautiful grounds with head stones unlike any of the others we had seen. As Turkey is an Islamic country it would be offensive to have the outline of a cross visible. The head stones of the other allied forces have the image of the cross embossed into head stones and the larger memorials. The French grave marks are a cross of made from steel fence posts in the form of a cross but the three ends that are out of the ground are feathered out so that the cross now forms a fleur de lis.

We return for lunch and to collect a special tour guide to talk us though a Turkish view of the conflict. Kenan Çelik is a very knowledgeable historian on the Gallipoli conflict with a long association with the Australian War Memorial. He has been a guide for some years now taking many heads of state, official parties and other dignitaries. Kenan has also been awarded the Order of Australia for his work on the Gallipoli campaign. The Simpson Prize students and ourselves are very fortunate that as part of being on this tour that is associated with the Australian War Memorial that Kenan can provide time at this very busy event.

While Kenan talks us through the Turkish actions of the campaign we travel through what would have been behind enemy lines in the campaign. First stop is the town where Ataturk had his headquarters. This was in a classic, small village house in the middle of town. After a visit and some more history lessons we stop for tea and coffee beautifully restored the village.

Next stop not far away is to a newly restored Turkish memorial. Here a new monument and a low wall of headstones surround an old mass grave site that was almost lost to farm land.

For Kenan to complete his talk we travel back up to the Chunuk Bair Cemetery as it gives the best over view of the battlefields for this. Kenan provides a wonderful and very detailed talk that gives a very interesting insight into the Turkish operations the views of the Turkish to the allied forces.