19 April

Up early... which seemed appropriate!

The hotel staff let us raid the breakfast selection before it officially opened!

The tour guide walked into the hotel foyer as we exited the lift... what timing!... just as we had planned!

Just after we boarded the bus the guide announced it would be a five hour drive to Gallipoli!  with a couple of comfort stops.  Istanbul is a HUGE sprawling city... no surprises, it appears to be a blending (if not clash) of architecture and cultures.  The language sounds like a ... Russian speaking Arabic.

When we finally left the outskirts of Istanbul, the countryside changed into a series of rolling hills utilised for agriculture... occasionally interrupted by a township surrounding a factory.

The weather remained bleak... just as overcast but with more constant rain.  In a way it seemed an appropriate setting for visiting Anzac Cove.

By lunchtime we made the rendezvous point... the lunch restaurant.  The meal was simple and nice (tomato soup, salad, kebab meats, a dessert and a coffee).  Then it was time to visit Anzac Cove.

We made our way first to Gaba Tepe where the Australians and New Zealanders were planned to land.  The beach was larger and the ground rose gently.  We had picked up a new tour guide at lunch.  He gave a good overview of the campaign and the Allied intent.  The Royal Navy received a couple of 'mentions'... this was made a little more personal because we had a couple from the RN in the tour.  Next Anzac Cove!

What can you say... Anzac Cove is iconic!!  for years I have heard or spoken of the landing... the charge ashore, the struggle up the steep, rugged cliffs.. the coarse bushes.  Here it was, but it was peaceful.  The small waves of the Aegean lapped at the stony beach.  The cliffs are still as steep as ever (albeit the beach road now cuts across the path). Karen and I wanted to take our time... but the tourguide was hurrying us along.  I don't how much time you need to appreciate the surrounds... we certainly would have liked to stay longer!



Next stop was Beach Cemetery.  I had been asked to find the grave marker of a local (Sunnybank) lad, Private William Turton, 9th Battalion (the Moreton Regiment), killed 20 May 1915.  I felt honoured to place a poppy by his grave stone. (for those who know Sunnybank... one of the main thoroughfares is Turton Street) Not far from where he lay, is another Anzac legend... Private John Simpson Kirkpatrick, at rest without his donkey.

We moved on to North Beach.  This is where the most recent Anzac Day Dawn services are conducted.  Stadiums were being built for the thousands who make the pilgrimmage.  The bustle of delivery trucks and construction teams seemed disrespectful to the required solemnity!  10 Minutes and on our way.

Next stop Lone Pine.  This is the site of the Australian Memorial... and this was where the second of my charges lays (ie also a local lad from the Sunnybank district).  Private Sydney Cresswell, 15th Battalion (the Oxley Regiment), killed 8 August 1915.  Like many who died in the horrific August Offensives, PTE Cresswell does not have a marked individual grave.  He is commemorated on a wall with hundreds of his comrades.  A Lone Pine still stands in the grounds of the Australian memorial... it was propagated from seeds of the original Lone Pine.  15 minutes and on our way!  Karen and I were quickly developing a reputation for being last on the bus.

Next stop Quinn's Post.  Remnants of Australian and Turkish trenches can still be seen.  The road effectively travels through No Man's Land.  The distance between trenches is as little as eight metres.  Not far from Quinn's (at Courteny's Post), LCPL Albert Jacka, 14th Battalion won Australia's first Victoria Cross of the Great War.  In the vicinty of Quinn's Post, Private Frederick William Browne Collins, 14th Battalion, was wounded on 29 May 1915. He is my great grandfather, he was evacuated to Lemnos and did not return to Gallipoli although he rejoined the Battalion and served in France.

Next, the Nek... forever immortalised in the closing minutes of the movie Gallipoli.  Several hundred men, of the 10th Light Horse Regiment (a West Australian unit), charged in three waves across an area the size of a tennis court.  Several hundred lay dead or wounded in a matter of minutes.  The Turkish soldiers were yelling 'stop, stop' to prevent further slaughter.  The trenches of the Australians and the Turks can still be seen.  The area known as the Nek is now a Cemetery.

Lastly, it was on to Chunuk Bair.  This was the initial Anzac objective, as it was the high ground that had views (and fields of fire) to the Aegean to the North and the Dardanelles to the South.  This is a dominant piece of ground.  A monument to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is atop Chunuk Bair as is the Kiwi memorial.





A fitting last word(s) ... In 1934 Atatürk wrote a tribute to the ANZACs killed at Gallipoli:

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 now 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.