Constitutionally the Commonwealth of Australia came into being in 1901 in a process devoid of any conflict. More often nations and their identity are forged in the crucible of war and Australia is no exception with the onset of the Great War in 1915 and the now legendary exploits of men and women who’s sacrifice we all as a nation celebrate on April 25 each year and collectively know as the ANZACs.
A young Australia in 1915 would have been a very insular society. Predominantly British descendents but geographically close to nowhere else on the planet. I can imagine at the onset of war and with the “motherland” calling for volunteers some of finest young people lured into an expectation of adventure and travel. The thought of death at that age would be furthest from their minds.
First stop Egypt for basic military training and then the British Admiralty hatched up a plan to secure the sea route known as the Dardanelles through Turkey to enable onward navigation to war ally Russia. Their first attempt to sail through failed due to Turkish artillery bombarding the fleet sailing through the straits so the next plan was to take the Gallipoli peninsula with a poorly devised land invasion.
The iIl fated landing started disastrously as they landed in the wrong spot. All of the land force should have been on the beach by dawn. Three hours past dawn the last contingents landed, late. The chain of command lacked clear direction and worst of all the Turks were already present on the high ground firing at the landing party that took heavy losses right from the start. What followed was 8 months of bloody trench warfare a war of attrition where both sides sustained heavy losses but both also fought gallantly and with honour. The legend was born.
This has always been a “bucket list” destination for Suzanne and myself. The countryside could best be described as bucolic and outside the bigger towns nothing seems to have changed much in the last hundred years. Gentle rolling hills slope down to pretty little coves and sometimes sandy beaches. Across the Aegean sea the outline of the Greek Islands of Lemnos is visible. It is hard to imagine as we walk through much of the peninsula that we are walking over the graves and remains of hundreds and thousands of bodies, young men cut down in the prime of their lives.
As I look up from ANZAC beach I am taken by the distance to the nearby hills where the Turks had already positioned themselves. Similarly the height of these. Looking back from atop the hills at Lone Pine where the Australian memorial is and Chunuk Bair the site of the NZ memorial the allied forces dug in here and transiently took over these high points in August 1915. The amount of territory gained under extreme adversity is remarkable. This offensive was the last major advance by the ANZACs and by December 1915 remaining troops were evacuated back to Lemnos.
The futility of war is best summed by this true anecdote. During the trench warfare both sides would agree to temporary cease fires in order to bury their dead lying between the trenches. On one of these occasions a Turkish officer asked an ANZAC “Where are you from?” He replied “Australia”. The Turk came back with “Why have you come such a long distance to kill me?”
Both sides came to respect their enemy for their courage and resilience under extreme adversity. Unlike the ANZACs the Turks followed an inspirational leader who would subsequently become the first president of a newly independent Turkey. Mehmet Kamal later known as Ataturk was probably the difference between the two sides and the reason why Turkey prevailed in this campaign. Not just a master tactician his compassionate insight as reflected in these words at the Ari Burnu memorial always brings tears to my eyes.
Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives … You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours … You, the mothers who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.