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To the Dardanelles! The Entente Allies successfully capture their objective and plant their flags in this boy's 1915 war game, as they did not in life, neither in the naval campaign, nor in the invasion of the Gallipoli peninsula.
Charles Nungesser, third of France's greatest aces with 43 victories, flying a Nieuport in pursuit of a German plane.
Map showing the territorial gains (darker shades) of Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece, primarily at the expense of Turkey, agreed in the Treaty of Bucharest following the Second Balkan War. Despite its gains, Bulgaria also lost territory to both Romania and Turkey.
Italy's armed forces at the ready in a 1915 postcard. In the foreground the artillery, infantry, an Alpine soldier (in feathered hat), and a Bersaglieri (in plumed headgear). Behind them are a bugler and lancer; in the distance marines and colonial troops. The Italian navy is off shore, an airship and planes overhead. On the reverse are the lyrics of a patriotic Italian March by Angelo Balladori, lyrics by Enrico Mercatali. It ends with a call to the brothers of Trento and Trieste, Austro-Hungarian territory with large ethnic Italian populations.
". . . from the early evening of 26 November, the Suvla Sector War Diary of the 86th Brigade, 29th Division, illustrates the terrible experience which was to befall those at Suvla and to some extent those at Anzac.'1900. Very severe thunderstorm with very strong gale and torrents of rain.'2000. All telephone communication was cut off and all dugouts flooded out.'2100. Reported to Bde H.Q.s that all trenches were flooded, water had come in as though it had been a tidal wave, that many men must have been drowned, and few had been able to save their rifles and equipment. The men were standing up to their knees in water, behind the parados of the trenches.'" ((1), more)
". . . no one—and certainly not the meteorologists who had been saying that November was the best month of the year—could have anticipated the horror and severity of the blizzard that swept down on the Dardanelles on November 27 [1915]. Nothing like it had been known there for forty years.For the first twenty-four hours rain poured down and violent thunderstorms raged over the peninsula. Then, as the wind veered round to the north and rose to hurricane force there followed two days of snow and icy sleet. After this there were two nights of frost." ((2), more)
". . . using his last ammunition drum at a range of 30 feet, finally drove [a German Albatros two-seater] down in a dive.What Nungesser saw next took much of the luster out of his second victory. 'The observer, still alive, clung desperately to the mounting ring to which his machine gun was attached,' he reported. 'Suddenly the mounting ripped loose from the fuselage and was flung into space, taking with it the helpless crewman. He clawed frantically at the air, his body working convulsively like a man on a trapeze. I had a quick glimpse of his face before he tumbled away through the clouds. . . it was a mask of horror.'" ((3), more)
"All through the day the wind gathered, till it was blowing a full gale, vicious and bitter cold; and on the 28th it reached its worst. The 28th was spoken of afterwards as 'Frozen Foot Day'; it was a day more terrible than any battle. . . . On the 29th, the limits of human strength were reached. Some of those frozen three days before were able to return to duty, but 'a great number of officers and men who had done their best to stick it out were forced to go to hospital.' The water fell during the day, but it left on average two and a half feet of thick, slushy mud, into which many trenches collapsed." ((4), more)
"On November 30, [1915] when the wind had blown itself out at last, a reckoning was made, and it was found that the Allied Army had lost one tenth of its strength. Two hundred soldiers had been drowned, 5,000 were suffering from frostbite, and another 5,000 were casualties of one sort or another. It raised once more, and in an ominous way, the whole question of evacuation. Many of those who before had wanted to remain could now think only of getting away from the accursed place. But could they get off? . . ." ((5), more)
(1) The storm that moved into the Dardanelles on November 26, 1915 would prove deadly, first with flood waters, then with blizzard conditions and freezing cold. Of the three Allied positions on the Gallipoli Peninsula, that at Suvla Bay was the most recent and least well entrenched due to the the rocky soil that made it too difficult to dig in. In many places the men, rather than being dug in, sheltered behind stone barriers.
Men of Gallipoli: The Dardanelles and Gallipoli Experience August 1914 to January 1916 by Peter Liddle, pp. 256, 257, copyright © Peter Liddle, 1976, publisher: David and Charles, publication date: 1976
(2) The storm that struck the Dardanelles and the Gallipoli Peninsula began with torrential rain on November 26. By the 27th it had become a blizzard that lasted through the 28th.
Gallipoli by Alan Moorehead, pp. 318, 319, copyright © 1956 by Alan Moorehead, publisher: Perennial Classics 2002 (HarperCollins Publications 1956), publication date: 2002 (1956)
(3) From a description of Charles Nungesser's second victory, that of November 28, 1915. Nungesser was France's third greatest ace of World War I with 43 victories. René Fonck had 75, and Georges Guynemer 53. Both Nungesser and Fonck survived the war; Guynemer did not.
The Origin of the Fighter Aircraft by Jon Gutman, page 40, copyright © 2009 Jon Gutman, publisher: Westholme Publishing, publication date: 2009
(4) The storm that struck the Dardanelles and the Gallipoli Peninsula at the end of November, 1915, began with torrential rain on the 26th, turning into a blizzard that lasted through the 28th. The temperature dropped again on November 29.
Gallipoli by John Masefield by John Masefield, pp. 171, 172, publisher: William Heinemann, publication date: 1916
(5) The storm that struck the Dardanelles and the Gallipoli Peninsula at the end of November, 1915, began with torrential rain on the 26th, turning into a blizzard that lasted through the 28th. The temperature dropped again on November 29. The deadly storm also stopped the spread of dysentery, what had taken almost 1,000 men each day for months.
Gallipoli by Alan Moorehead, page 320, copyright © 1956 by Alan Moorehead, publisher: Perennial Classics 2002 (HarperCollins Publications 1956), publication date: 2002 (1956)
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