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Map of the Gallipoli Peninsula from Suvla Bay to Anzac Cove from 'Gallipoli' by John Masefield. In landing at Suvla Bay on August 6, 1915, the Allies hoped to open a new sector on Gallipoli that, with a simultaneous advance from Anzac Cove, would break the stalemate that had held since the April 25 invasion. The plan failed. Locations shown include Suvla Bay, the Salt Lake, dry in summer, Ari Burnu or Anzac Cove, named for the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps that held it, Chunuk Bair, where the New Zealanders suffered devastating casualties, and Battleship Hill, deadly to the Australians.
Embossed postcard of the flag of the United Tribes of New Zealand, the first flag of New Zealand, used until the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840.
Photograph of a village on Lake Van, an area of Turkey populated largely by ethnic Armenians. The area was one of the first targeted on a large scale when Turkey turned on its Armenian citizens. Photo from Ambassador Morgenthau's Story by Henry Morgenthau, American Ambassador to Turkey from 1913 to 1916.
Group of Japanese Red Cross nurses and doctors on their way to Europe. In August, 1918, a Japanese Red Cross Mission arrived in Great Britain to visit the Belgian, French, and Italian fronts. This group? (http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/1410082)
The exploding shell of a French 75 mm. field gun blasts the crown from the tree of the Central Powers as the axe of Justice strikes its trunk. A background map shows British towns on the English Channel and Belgian and French cities shelled by German forces burning. A 1915 French postcard.
"Heavy fighting has been going on since yesterday in the Dardanelles. The situation is obviously critical. Should the Dardanelles fall, the World War has been decided against us." ((1), more)
"Tell him some scarecrows called Wellington Infantry have taken Chunuk Bair. No. Tell him, God damn it, that New Zealand has taken Chunuk Bair. Tell him New Zealand is holding Chunuk Bair." ((2), more)
"In the stalemate of Quinn's we knew there was no way forward, that we had to break out of the trap in another direction, through fresh country. That was how the assault on Chunuk Bair, the most tragic event in the entire campaign, came about. It was planned of course, in conjunction with the landing of a division of British troops in Suvla Bay. The intention was to cut the Gallipoli peninsula in two, right across to the Narrows. But we knew perfectly well that Chunuk Bair was the key — the key, that is, to victory or defeat on the peninsula. That hill was vital. It dominated the middle of the peninsula and commanded ground right down to the Narrows. And in the August offensive Chunuk Bair was the objective of the New Zealand Infantry Brigade. Victory or defeat was in our hands." ((3), more)
"We had to empty the dead from our trenches and drop them into the ravines too. Their bones are still there. I was on Chunuk Bair until the ninth of August. No food, no water, and the Turks were as safe as churches until they were in yards of our bayonets. In a lull in the fighting I would go and collect water bottles from our dead. You had to keep yourself going. No one else could. British troops relieved us on the ninth and were hit by enfilade fire from their own men. Gurkhas climbing Hill Q were wiped out by shellfire from a British destroyer. I remember moving downhill in the dark. There was a bloke screaming somewhere, screaming terribly. He could have been a New Zealander. He could have been a Turk. We looked for him in the dark and never found him. He just went on screaming." ((4), more)
"The mates we left behind back in the ravine, they're still on Gallipoli. Colonel Malone is too. When there was a roll call of the Wellingtons, after the battle, they reckoned there were only forty-seven fit men left of all the 700 who went up Chunuk Bair on the morning of August the eighth.I got taken off Gallipoli two days after, on the tenth of August. I never was in any other war. That one was enough for me. It never did anything, never gained nothing, but I been thinking about it ever since, all the years of my life, most of all that day on Chunuk Bair." ((5), more)
(1) German Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz in his diary after the August 6, 1915 Allied landings at Suvla Bay, on the Gallipoli Peninsula, opened a new sector in the campaign from which to attack the Turkish defenders, attempt to cross the peninsula, and cut them off. South of Suvla, additional troops had bolstered those at Anzac Cove to launch a simultaneous attack. For two days, during which the Turks strengthened their defenses, the new troops at Suvla Bay did little. At Anzac, the Australian and New Zealand forces tried to advance against a well-entrenched enemy, and were slaughtered.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 183, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(2) Colonel Connolly to Bassett, his telephone operator, in response to Brigadier-General Johnston asking for Connolly's situation. Connolly was speaking from the summit of Chunuk Bair in Maurice Shadbolt's play Once on Chunuk Bair. On August 8, the New Zealanders were ordered to take Chunuk Bair, the high point of the Gallipoli peninsula. Some who made the summit saw the Narrows of the Dardanelles, the gateway to Constantinople. Most of the New Zealanders never left the hill.
Once on Chunuk Bair by Maurice Shadbolt, page 68, copyright © 1982 by Maurice Shadbolt, publisher: Hodder and Stoughton, publication date: 1982
(3) Excerpt from Maurice Shadbolt's 1980's interview with Dan Curham, a soldier of New Zealand's Wellington Battalion, tasked with taking the hill of Chunuk Bair on August 8, 1915. Between August 4 and 6, men had been landed furtively each night so the Turks would have no advance notice of a new offensive. By the 6th 25,000 men had joined those already holding the position at Anzac Cove. Further north, the British would open a new front at Suvla Bay, advancing quickly to join the ANZACs and cut across the Gallipoli Peninsula, isolating the Turkish defenders and finally breaking the stalemate the Gallipoli campaign had become. As with so many other efforts at Gallipoli, and in the war itself, nothing but more death and ruin came of it. Expecting the worst at a virtually undefended Suvla Bay, the commanders and men did little for two days. By the time they were ordered to advance, the Turks had bolstered their defenses. At Anzac, the Turks held their positions against the strengthened attackers who had struck at Quinn's Post. On August 8, the New Zealanders were ordered to take the high point of Chunuk Bair. Some who made the summit saw the Narrows of the Dardanelles, the gateway to Constantinople. Most of the men never left the hill.
Voices of Gallipoli by Maurice Shadbolt, page 45, copyright © 1988 Maurice Shadbolt, publisher: Hodder and Stoughton, publication date: 1988
(4) Vic Nicholson was 88 years old when Maurice Shadbolt interviewed him in New Zealand in 1983. He was 20 and in the Wellington Infantry Battalion on Gallipoli and Chunuk Bair in 1915. A fortune teller in Cairo had told him he would survive the war, and he never doubted he would.Much of the language of PJ Harvey's song 'The Colour Of the Earth' from the album 'Let England Shake' is based on this interview.
Voices of Gallipoli by Maurice Shadbolt, pp 94, 95, copyright © 1988 Maurice Shadbolt, publisher: Hodder and Stoughton, publication date: 1988
(5) Excerpt from an interview by Maurice Shadbolt of Corporal Charlie Clark who served on Gallipoli with the New Zealand Wellington Battalion. Their mission on August 8, 1915, was to take the summit of Chunuk Bair, which they did after an Allied bombardment. Men who reached the summit could see the Narrows of the Dardanelles, and might have had the hope the attack would continue across the peninsula and cut off the Turks. Looking to the north, they could see the British troops who had landed at Suvla Bay the night of August 6, who did little against a thin Turkish defense. Clark was wounded in the leg by a Turkish bullet that left a wound so big he couldn't cover it with his hand. The ravine to which Clark dragged himself early in the day soon filled with 200 wounded with no water, no medical attention, under bombardment, and with little chance to make their way down the hill.
Voices of Gallipoli by Maurice Shadbolt, page 67, copyright © 1988 Maurice Shadbolt, publisher: Hodder and Stoughton, publication date: 1988
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