Gallipoli, April 1915
The Gallipoli map collection
This map shows Turkish dispositions before the landings on 25 April 1915. The commander of the Ottoman Turkish Fifth Army, Otto Liman von Sanders, believed the British would attack at Bulair (called Bolayer on the map) at the narrowest point of the peninsula or on the Asiatic side of the coast across from the island of Tenedos, which was occupied by the British.
This map shows how Liman von Sanders distributed his troops in anticipation of the allied invasion. A third of his forces was located on the Asiatic side of the cost, another third was located at Bulair, while the final third was distributed around the tip of the peninsula, with one division under Lieutenant Colonel Mustafa Kemal (later Atatürk, the first president of modern Turkey) based at Boghali and the other division based to the south of Gaba Tepe (also called Kaba Tepe).
No Turkish forces are indicated on the map around Ari Burnu, where the Australians and New Zealanders landed on 25 April, although there are some defences indicated at Gaba Tepe, further south. Ari Burnu is not noted on this map at all in Ottoman Turkish (Arabic), and while most place names have been transliterated from Ottoman Turkish into Latin script in ink, the notation “Ari Burnu”, written on the map in pencil, was added at a later date, along with three pencilled arrows showing the area where the British landed at Cape Helles. The back of the map is signed “Liman von Sanders V Armee”.