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The Spirit of ANZAC
When was it born?
On 25th of April 1915.
Where?
At Anzac Cove, on the western side of the Gallipoli Peninsula in
Turkey.
Why There?
The Gallipoli Peninsula on its eastern side dominates the Dardanelles, the
very narrow sea approach to Istanbul (formally: Constantinople) and the
Black Sea. It was thought, that if the Dardanelles could be
forced, and Constantinople captured, Turkey could be knocked out of the
war, and Russia could be supported via the Mediterranean Sea.
The War:
On 4th of August 1914, Australia as a part, of what was
then the British Empire, went to war, with other member countries
of the Empire, such as: Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and India.
Australia joined with Great Britain, to fight Germany and her
allies; Turkey was one of Germany's allies. At that time
Australia was a young nation, less than 14 years old and for the
first time Australians from all over the country came together to form an
Australian army. This force, the Australian
Imperial Force (AIF), initially 30.000 man strong, left for
overseas in November 1914. While Colonial troops from all
the Australian states had fought in South Africa in the Boer War, the
common question in 1914 was: How would these young Australians
perform as soldiers in this awful conflict of the nations?
Who were the Soldiers at Gallipoli?
At Anzac Cove, the Australian
and New
Zealand
Army
Corps
initially comprised:
1st Australian Division consisting of:
- 1st Brigade, from New South Wales
- 2nd Brigade, from Victoria
- 3rd Brigade, Composite Queensland, South Australia, West
Australia & Tasmania
New Zealand & Australian Division consisting of:
- New Zealand Infantry Brigade
- 4th Australian Infantry Brigade, Composite all states
Along the length of the Gallipoli Peninsula, the 5th, 7th, 9th and 19th
Turkish Infantry Divisions were positioned; around and south of Kum Kale
(english: Sand Castle), the 3rd and 11th Turkish Infantry Divisions were
in place All in a total of some 62.000 troops, all aware of an
impending Allied attack, after an Anglo-French fleet on 18th of March 1915
attempted unsuccessfully, to force passage through the Dardanelles.
What was Gallipoli like?
The description which follows, is taken from the book
GALLIPOLI written by John Masefield
and first published in September 1916:
"Those who wish to
imagine the scene must think of twenty miles of any rough and steep sea
coast known to them, picturing it as roadless, waterless, much broken
with gullies, covered with scrub, sandy, loose, and difficult to walk
on, and without more than two miles of accessible landing throughout its
length. Let them picture this familiar twenty miles as dominated at
intervals by three hills bigger than the hills about them, the north
hill a peak, the centre a ridge or plateau, and the south a lump.
Then let them imagine the hills entrenched, the landing mined, the
beaches tangled with barbed wire, ranged by howitzers and swept by
machine guns, and themselves three thousand miles from home, going out
before dawn with rifles, packs, and water-bottles, to pass the mines
under shell fire, cut through the wire under machine-gun fire, clamber
up the hills under the fire of all arms by the glare of shell-bursts, in
the withering and crashing tumult of modern war, and then to dig
themselves in, on a waterless and burning hill while a more numerous
enemy charge them with the bayonet.
And let them imagine themselves enduring this night after night, day
after day, without rest or solace, nor respite from the peril of death,
seeing their friends killed, and their position imperilled, getting
their food, their munitions, even their drink, from the jaws of death,
and their breath from the taint of death, and their brief sleep upon the
dust of death.
Let them imagine themselves driven mad by heat and toil and thirst by
day, shaken by frost at midnight, weakened by disease and broken by
pestilence, yet rising on the word with a shout and going forward to die
in exultation in a cause foredoomed and almost hopeless.
Only then will they begin, even dimly, to understand what our seizing
and holding of the landings meant."
The Landing:
At about 3.30 a.m., Queenslanders from the 9th Battalion of 3rd
Brigade finished transferring from their ship into small boats which
were first towed and then finally rowed towards the beach at what was to
become Anzac Cove. 30 to 40 infantrymen laden with packs,
ammunition, rations, water and weapons were crammed into each boat. Due
to tidal currents and navigational error, the landing was further north
than planned, not onto an
open plain as was intended but across a narrow strip of beach at the foot
of scrub covered hills, hills where movement was difficult, where targets
were very hard to spot, and where co-ordination and control of assaulting
troops was almost impossible.
At 4.29 a.m. the first ANZACs leapt
ashore:
Initially only two or three hundred Turks opposed them with small
arms and machine gun fire, but by 4.45 a.m. Turkish shrapnel was exploding
over Anzac Cove and Turkish reinforcements were being rallied. The
remaining battalions of the 3rd Brigade were landed into a constricted
area of confusion but the men had been told, that they were the covering
force for their division so they dropped their packs and commenced to
force their way upwards and inland searching for Turks. Between
5.30 a.m. and 7.30 a.m. the 2nd and the1st Brigades began to move ashore,
however, by 7.00 a.m. the 3rd Brigade could be seen from the ships at sea,
to be digging in on the first and second ridges beyond the beach. As
the day progressed the New Zealand Infantry Brigade and the 4th Australian
Brigade were landed, but by as early as 9.00 a.m. the first of the Turkish
reinforcements had begun to press onto the Australians furthermost
advanced. Savage fighting followed, for almost a week there were
sudden assaults, bombardments, bayonet fights and sniping duels.
Trench lines formed, casualties increased. By
the 30th of April 1915, of the 23.292 ANZAC's
actually landed, some 5.000
Australians were dead or wounded and the Turks still held the high
ground above Anzac Cove, but the landing
had been made. The
Anzac's had not broken.
The
ANZAC's had
proved their courage under fire.
What was the duration of the
ANZAC operation at Gallipoli?
25th of April 1915 until 20th of December 1915.
How big was the ANZAC Battle Area?
There was no break-out from the Gallipoli Peninsula. There was only
limited expansion of the initial landing areas. Names such
as Walker's Ridge, Russell's Top, Pope's Hill, Quinn's Post, Courtney's
Post, Steele's Post, Lone Pine and The Nek achieved major significance in
the Australian military history, synonymous with courage, tenacity and
sacrifice yet, the whole battle ground fought over by thousands
of troops fitted into an area less than six kilometres north to south and
two to two and one half kilometres east to west, indeed inland from Anzac
Cove, the furthermost trenches were less than one kilometre from the
beach. Except for one brief period in early May when the 2nd
Australian Brigade and the New Zealand Brigade were ordered temporarily to
Cape Helles to bolster the exhausted British and French troops there, the
Anzac's fought doggedly for eight months in an area not bigger than ten
square kilometres.
Who were the reinforcements for the first
ANZAC's?
On 12th May 1915, reinforcements started to arrive. The first were
Australian Light Horse (ALH) and New Zealand Mounted
Rifle regiments; their horses were left in Egypt. These units
were smaller than the standard infantry battalion numbering only about 500
men. The formations were:
- 1st Light Horse Brigade from New South Wales, Queensland, South
Australia & Tasmanian Composite & Victorian
regiments
- New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade
On 19th of May 1915, there were further reinforcements, again
horses were left in Egypt. The reinforcements were:
- 2nd Light Horse Brigade, Queensland & New South Wales
regiments
- 3rd Light Horse Brigade, Victorian, South Australian and West
Australian regiments
On 11th of August 1915, elements of the 2nd Australian Division
started to reinforce the 1st Australian Division. The 2nd Australian
Division consisted of:
- 5th Brigade, from New South Wales
- 6th Brigade, from Victoria
- 7th Brigade, from Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia &
West Australia
- 13th Australian Light Horse Regiment, from Victoria
Also in August 1915, the 1st and 2nd Light Horse Brigades were
strengthened by the 11th Australian Light Horse Regiment (from
Queensland & South Australia) and the 12th Australian Light Horse
Regiment (from New South Wales). On 12th of September 1915,
the 1st Australian Division handed over the position at Lone Pine to the
2nd Australian Division. The arrival of all of these
reinforcements allowed the progressive resting of the sadly depleted
original Anzac units.
The Fighting:
After 1st of May 1915, trench warfare began in earnest. By
18th of May, the Turks had reinforced and regrouped around Anzac Cove in
preparation for a major attack. Some 42.000 infantrymen of the 2nd,
5th, 16th and 19th Divisions prepared to drive the Anzac's into the sea.
Fortunately, in the preceding week, the 1st Australian Light Horse Brigade
and the New Zealand Mounted Infantry Brigade had arrived as
reinforcements, and the 2nd Australian Infantry Brigade had returned from
Cape Helles. Some 17.360 defenders faced the Turks. In
the early hours of the19th May the Turks attacked along the whole of the
Anzac front. They were met predominantly with very heavy small arms
fire and resolute defence. By midday some 10.000 Turks had
been killed or wounded. The Anzac's had suffered
only 160 killed and 468 wounded men, but the Turks still held the
high ground and the few local counter attacks mounted by the
Anzac's drew such heavy fire that all movement between the two lines
ceased. For five days the dead and wounded of both sides lay in
No-Mans land. An armistice was arranged to allow
both sides to bury their dead. It is claimed that the mutual
respect of Anzac for Turk and Turk for Anzac grew from this battle and
subsequent armistice. Operational emphasis shifted from
Anzac to Cape Helles at the southern tip of the peninsula. The 29th
Division from Unidet Kingdom, had been reinforced by the 29th Indian
Brigade, and the 42nd from East Lancashire Division, the force
restructured as VIII Corps. With their French Allies, successive
attacks were mounted aimed at breaking the Turkish lines and pressing
north along the Gallipoli peninsula. Some local gains were made but
the Turkish line held. As August approached, casualties and sickness
in the army rose. According to one soldier, the Helles front
"smelled like an open cemetery".
Emphasis now switched to ANZAC:
A plan was devised to outflank the Turks by a night approach to the
north of the Anzac position and then to advance up the ridges leading to
the heights of the Sari Bair range. A new landing was
planned at Suvla Bay as a means of seizing a cluster of hills
several kilometres inland and a series of feints were planned, to stop the
Turks reinforcing the threatened areas. One of these feints
was the attack on 7th of August at the Nek by the 3rd Light Horse
Brigade (8th Australian Light Horse Brigade from Victoria
& 10th Australian Light Horse Brigade fromWest Australia).
Supporting artillery fire lifted early, lack of communications prevented
any change to plans. The attack still went ahead, in some
four to six minutes both regiments virtually ceased to exist, yet no man
held back, all ANZAC's went with their mates into a
storm of machine gun and small arms fire. Heavy
fighting on the peninsula continued throughout August. Probably the
fiercest fighting was in the area of Lone Pine; in just three
days seven Victoria Crosses were won; then the tempo of killing slowed.
The Withdrawal:
In November 1915 a planning started, for the withdrawal from the Gallipoli
Peninsula. Departure from ANZAC was meticulously planned and
executed by phases. It was so well conducted that by 20th of
December 1915, all troops were clear without casualties and without
alerting the Turks.
The Campaign:
This was fought at great cost to both sides. While
Turkey suffered huge losses (estimated 86.000 men killed), the Turks were
not knocked out of the war.
Of the some 50.000 Australian men who
fought at Gallipoli, 8.709 men were killed and 18.235 wounded; New Zealand
suffered 2.701 men killed and 4.880 wounded.
But the campaign gave to Australia a new pride. The Army had
not failed. It had faced the horrors of modern war - the pain, the
discomfort and the fear - with courage, determination and above all, good
humour.
Banjo Paterson wrote as an open letter,
to the troops in 1915, a poem he titled:
"We're All Australians Now"
Australia takes her pen in
hand,
To write a line to you,
To let you fellows understand,
How proud we are of you.
From shearing shed and cattle run,
From Broome to Hobsons Bay,
Each native-born Australian son,
stands straighter up today.
The man who used to "hump his drum",
On far-out Queensland runs,
Is fighting side by side with some
Tasmanian farmer's sons.
The fisher-boys dropped sail and oar
To grimly stand the test,
Along that storm-swept Turkish shore,
With miners from the west.
The old state jealousies of yore
Are dead as Pharaoh's sow,
We're not State children any more
We're all Australians now!
Our six-starred flag that used to fly,
Half-shyly to the breeze,
Unknown where older nations ply
Their trade on foreign seas,
Flies out to meet the morning blue
With Vict'ry at the prow;
For that's the flag the Sydney flew,
The wide seas know it now!
The mettle that a race can show
Is proved with shot and steel,
And now we know what nations know
And feel what nations feel.
The honoured graves beneath the crest
Of Gaba Tepe hill,
May hold our bravest and our best,
But we have brave men still.
With all our petty quarrels done,
Dissensions overthrown,
We have, through what you boys have done,
A history of our own.
Our old world diff'rences are dead,
Like weeds beneath the plough,
For English, Scotch, and Irish-bred,
They're all Australians now!
So now we'll toast the Third Brigade,
That led Australia's van,
For never shall their glory fade
In minds Australian.
Fight on, fight on, unflinchingly,
Till right and justice reign.
Fight on, fight on, till Victory
Shall send you home again.
And with Australia's flag shall fly
A spray of wattle bough,
To symbolise our unity,
We're all Australians now.
'Lest
We Forget'
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