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Gallipoli - Lone Pine and graveyard

Anzac cove Travel Blog › entry 3 of 38 › view trip summary

Going through the Middle East in july is a steaming hot experience. But it also includes some of the most spectacular ancient ruins it the world and stunning desert landscapes all aroud. It gives you hackling in Egypt and some suprisingly friendly people in Syria.

Gallipoli - Lone Pine and graveyard

Anzac Cove the sight of the battle of gallipoli

In the history classes in Denmark you hear about the First World War. When it comes to the battles you are always told about the big battles that took place in the trenches on the western front. The battles of Ypres, Somme and Verdun are all well know and included in any history book on World War I. Then you carry on hearing about what happened on the Eastern front the battle between Germany and Russia in the lead up to the Russian revolution.

 

What is hardly ever told is the story about the battle in Mediterranean area, where the Ottoman Empire took part in the battles against the allies. But there were some big battles no other battle bigger than the battle of Gallipoli.

The beach of the landing

 

On the one side the Turks with help from the Germans on the other side the French and British and the British Empire forces mainly the Anzac expeditionary corps. The battle plan was simple for the British to take control of the Dardanelles to gain access to the Black Sea and force the Ottomans out of the war. When it came to war the battle started involving half a million troops. Hence it was a big battle - and still virtually unknown in the west. Despite the fact this battle maybe had more influence on post war event than any other single battle during the entire war.

 

The battle plan was designed by a young and hopeful British minister - named Winston Churchill. He nearly had his carrier destroyed as a result of the failure. On the Turkish side the troops were led by a young colonel Mustafa Kemal who turned out to be a brilliant commander and got to be the founder of modern Turkey earning the name Ataturk father of the Turks.

One more of the beaches for the landing
Without the battle of Gallipoli it is uncertain whether or not he would have been able to rise to power and modernise Turkey.

 

In Australia you see monuments from Anzac corps everywhere. This big battle clearly help define the young nation giving it a common ground to unit the different states. As a Dane I like the fact that also the Australians take pride in celebrating there defeats - an old Danish tradition since nobody can remember the last time we won a battle in any war - I think it was in 1850 at the Battle of Isted and the Germans even stole our victory monument and put it in Berlin.

 

The battle is located in a nice hilly area with a lot of pine trees growing all over the place.

Lone Pine and the main graveyard.
Today it has got several graveyards spread all over with the many casualties of the battle. The British and Anzac graves are all carefully maintain by the British.

 

In the peace full area the main monument is situated around Lone Pine a single pine tree. The Lone Pine was used as an indicator for the Anzac corps to mark the landing spot for the invasion. Of course during the fighting the tree were shoot to pieces and the present one is planted by a seed from the original tree that stood on that spot.

                                               

The whole area is a place where you can have time to consider the past and the meaningless loss of life through the wars of the 20th century in Europe.

Koralifix says:
Well written summary of important but less known history!
Posted on: Mar 31, 2009
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Anzac Cove the sight of the battle…
Anzac Cove the sight of the batt
The beach of the landing
The beach of the landing
One more of the beaches for the la…
One more of the beaches for the
Lone Pine and the main graveyard.
Lone Pine and the main graveyard.
Wiev from Lone Pine
Wiev from Lone Pine
The sea of marmeris
The sea of marmeris
The battle of Gallipoli
During World War I most of the famous battles took place on the western front in France. But one important battle took place far from France - in the old Ottoman Empire at Gallipoli. This battle may not be the most famous of the battles of the war but it may in some way be the most significant of all the battles during the war because of the effect it had on the carrier of two of the most significant European leaders in the 20th century and help shape the new nation of Australia.

The main architect of the battle from the allied side was the British minister of the Navy who during the beginning of World War I were Winston Churchill. He believed the battle could shorten the war and avoid a lot of the bloodshed on the western front. For this reason he pressed hard for the attack to start.

The battle was started by a British landing around Anzac Bay and they used the mark of a lone pine to spot the landing site. The biggest contribution to the assault were not actually people from the British Isles but were a large contingent of troops from the British Dominions New Zealand and Australia. They made the core of the attack in the Australian New Zealand army corps or just Anzac. The assault did not go as planned the allied forced expected to break out from the bridgehead very fast but they did not calculate on the fact they were facing a very capable young colonel from the Ottoman force - Mustafa Kemal - he were able to stop the allied assault and as a consequence of this battle got significant fame and later ended up as the founder of modern day Turkey and received the name Ataturk father of the Turks.

The battle ended up costing both the Ottomans and the allied heavy losses and the allied finally had to retreat from the bridgehead and never again make a frontal assault on the entry to the Bosporus. On the allied side the failure lead to demise in Churchill’s power in the British government which led to him retiring from the government a year later. At the same time the battle help shape the newly founded independent nation of Australia and give it an independent national identity as a united nation and not just some separate states in a loose union. Until the present day the 25 of April is a national holiday in Australia commemorating the landing at Gallipoli.

Every year thousands of Australians will go and visit Gallipoli especially at Anzac day where thousands will come to go for the morning service. Unfortunately a lot of people seem to use the night before the service to celebrate all during the night getting to the service with no sleep but lots of alcohol in the blood.
Adrian_Liston says:
Great write up.
Posted on: Dec 05, 2008
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