Gallipoli
We leave at 8:30 am and the journey will need us to cross the Dardanelles straits to get there . The journey takes an hr from the hotel and our first stop is at ANZAC cove , straight away you can see the problem our boys faced. They missed the beach they thought they were to land at in the dark, and instead of 100 meters of beach they only had 10 and then 75 meters of cliff . They were trapped between the water and the cliff, they were like fish in a pond, and the Turks took full advantage of this. The British hadn’t done their homework, the tides at that time of the year run much faster, thus putting our boys in a shooting Gallery. In that first night landing 1000 Aussies and 800 N.Z.ers were killed. Still the English sent in more ANZAC. It was a near impossible mission.
Still the attack went on. The battle reached the stage where the 2 forces were only 8-10 meters apart and the respect for each other was seen when the shooting would stop. It was strange but true they would throw each other cigarette and other such thing.
Our next stop Rememberance memorial . It is amazing that it looks like it holds thousands of people on tv, but it is only a small area, it is a sombre place and it took no time for me to tear up at the thought of what went on all those years ago, and how we lost so many of our brave men.
Lone pine was next. This is the same, the eyes were showing what I think is normal . There are many Aussie soldier buried here . Their ages vary from 16 -52 from what I had time to see. There is a beautiful monument to the fallen and the names of as many Australian as were possible.
Stunning
One of the things that would happen was that every now and again they would stop shooting and as one collect the wounded and dead and help each other to get them back to their respective trenches, and the next day go back to shooting.
If you are fortunate to get a chance to go to Turkey this is for me the best reason as I, you may be able to picture the battles ,the pain and the dead.
Well that is the end of our Turkey -Lest we forget tour it is now onto northern Greece. As I am writing we are about to lift off to our next destination. Catch you next time I blog.
Love Shirley and John.