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Australia's Gallipoli, 1915 The charge of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade at the Nek, 7 August 1915 by George Lambert Australian War Memorial ART07965 Australia’s Gallipoli, 1915: myths and realities Carl Bridge gives us an unexpected Australian perspective on the unsuccessful landings at Gallipoli in 1915. any Australians of my their democratic citizen soldiers were its soldiers, and indeed all of their generation, born in the ‘tried and not found wanting’ and countrymen.4 immediate aftermath of sufficient blood was shed on the ‘altar of This myth was represented in paint Mthe Second World War, heard at their nationhood’ to consecrate the two new by Nolan’s Gallipoli series (1963-65); in grandmother’s knee that Winston nations.3 print in Bean’s 12-volume official history Churchill, the great British war leader In the early 1960s, in the lead-up to (1921-42); in stone in the nation’s over of that later war, had as First Lord of the fiftieth anniversary of the campaign, 500 war memorials, pre-eminently in the Admiralty in the First World War that great Australian mythographer, the the Australian War Memorial, Canberra sacrificed thousands of Australian lives painter Sir Sydney Nolan, compared the (1941); and on film in Peter Weir’s needlessly on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Anzacs to the Greek classical heroes who movie Gallipoli (1981). So untouchable Turkey in 1915.1 The justification had had fought at Troy, just across the water has the Anzac myth become (it is been a futile search for Germany’s soft from Gallipoli, and spoke of the steep Australia’s Bastille, Bunker Hill and underbelly, a bid to knock Germany’s hill they confronted in the landing as a Gettysburg all rolled into one) that any ally Turkey out of the war, and the vital metaphor for all the dilemmas of life and person who dares criticise it, especially need to open an all-year supply route particularly for those encountered in the if they are British, is liable not only to to and from our Russian ally.2 In spite settling of Australia. He reflected what be universally vilified but to receive of, or perhaps partly because of, this the men of Gallipoli and their famous death threats.5 And recently, ‘Anzackery’ sacrifice, the achievements of the Anzac chronicler, C. E. W. Bean, had seen as – the abuse of the myth for political (Australian and New Zealand Army the apotheosis of Australian-ness – the purposes – has been much criticised by Corps) at Gallipoli saw the birth of wry humour, bravery and resilience that some in the Australian intelligentsia for two national creation myths in which built the nation and ideally characterised its reductive masculinism, its incipient 34 The Historian – Spring 2015 Aspects of War ‘whiteness’, its militarism, its lack of inclusivity, and even its being a burden Private John Simpson Kirkpatrick of the the current Australian Army might not 3rd Australian Field Ambulance and his donkey, ‘Murphy’. Australian War Memorial ART92147 wish to carry.6 Let us now examine and deconstruct some of the myths associated in the Australian popular memory with the campaign. Bushmen naturally skilled in the arts of war? In Weir’s movie, the distorted vehicle through which most Australians today learn about Gallipoli, the two protagonists, one innocent and one experienced, leave the bush for the city to enlist, thus mirroring the public understanding that all Australian soldiers are ‘boys from the bush’ who can already shoot, ride and generally look after themselves. Actually, the vast majority of the Anzacs came from the cities – they were clerks, shop assistants, school-teachers, civil servants, tradesmen and small businessmen – and many did not know one end of a rifle from the other. Further, fully 40% of the men who landed at what became known as Anzac Cove, on 25 April 1915, were born in the United Kingdom, and mostly city-slickers.7 A crucial part of the operation? In the Australian mythology the landing at Anzac Cove in April and the subsequent battles at Lone Pine and the Nek in August were central to the campaign, whose objective was to proceed up the peninsula and on to the Turkish capital, Constantinople. The reality was rather more complex. the bulk were British troops, and range, with its third highest and most The initial plan was to mount a solely there were French, Indians, and some strategic point at Chunuk Bair (850 naval assault to force a fleet through the Newfoundlanders. The main landings feet).10 Narrows of the Dardanelles, through the on 25 April were by the British and The Turks have a story that strong Sea of Marmara, and into the Black Sea. French at four beaches on the toe of swimmers were sent out to move the This would lay siege to Constantinople, the peninsula at Cape Helles. The carefully placed British marker buoys defeat Turkey, open up the supply route Anzac landing, further up the seaward north to this inhospitable spot. An to and from Russia, persuade the Greeks, side of the peninsula, was meant to be Australian naval historical party in 1990 Romanians and Bulgarians over to the secondary, something of a diversion. The tried to re-enact the tow. They found Allied side, and permit operations up the Lancashire Fusiliers and the Munsters three things: no strong current – Turkish Danube against Germany’s principal ally, bore the brunt of the Turkish resistance, hydrographers say there never was or is Austria-Hungary. On 18 March 1915, the former winning six Victoria Crosses one; coastal features that are impossible 16 British and French pre-Dreadnought before breakfast.9 to distinguish until one is right on them; battleships failed to force the straits, and that it would have been impossible three were sunk and others severely Did the Anzacs land in for swimmers to lift a properly anchored damaged.8 The Turks had re-laid a the wrong place? naval buoy a mile from shore.11 cleared minefield overnight and skilfully The received story is that in the dim Further, close analysis of Hamilton’s deployed mobile Howitzer batteries pre-dawn, half-light of 25 April, as the plan shows that it was never more ashore. Only then was it decided that Anzacs crept to shore in whale boats, precise than an order for a landing north the Gallipoli Peninsula would have to a strong current carried their naval of Gaba Tepe on a 1,000 yard front. In be occupied and the Turkish batteries tows a mile to the north of the planned fact, this is what the navy delivered. silenced before the ships could proceed landing place at Gaba Tepe. Instead of Further, Anzac commander Sir William safely through the Dardanelles. As it running across the low plain to Maidos, Birdwood later admitted in his evidence happened, the navy did not get another four miles away on the Dardanelles side, to the Dardanelles Commission in chance. the Anzacs were faced with the steep 1917, that it was better they landed at General Sir Ian Hamilton’s force bluffs of Ari Burnu, leading up to the lightly defended Ari Burnu than go into was never more than a fifth Anzacs; commanding heights of the Sari Bair the ‘killing box’ further south, where The Historian – Spring 2015 35 Graphic map of the Dardanelles State Library of NSW A good Samaritan? John Simpson Kirkpatrick was an unlikely hero. A man from South Shields, Tyneside, Simpson enlisted aged 23 in the AIF in 1914 in the Field Ambulance service. He had jumped ship in Australia in 1910 and used his second name as a surname on his attestation papers to avoid charges of desertion. On Gallipoli he braved shot and shell to bring the wounded down to the beach on the back of his donkey, variously named ‘Abdul’, ‘Murphy’ or ‘Duffy’. He quickly acquired a saintly aura, only enhanced by his being killed in action during the Turkish assault on 19 May. The publicity machine at home soon celebrated this highest form of mateship and later pronounced him ‘the spirit of Australia personified’. His Geordie the Turkish troops were massed and the Anzacs, reinforced by Gurkhas, accent, fiery temper and radical politics the artillery cover much more intense. Lancashires and Warwickshires, were were effectively air-brushed out. Statues On the first day eventually over 12,000 to attempt a break-out at Chunuk Bair, of Simpson, his donkey and a wounded Anzacs faced some 4,000 Turks, but Baby 700 (the Nek) and Lone Pine. The man now grace both the Shrine of the Turks occupied the heights and inexperienced Suvla force, dehydrated Remembrance in Melbourne and the looked down into an area where it was after being cooped up for too long in Australian War Memorial in Canberra, said they could even see a rabbit move. transports, were pinned down not far and a series of postage stamps portraying Strategically, the campaign was all but inland from their landing place. him was issued in 1965. Compassion is lost on the first day. Meanwhile, in a feint attack on the the acceptable face of war: Albert Jacka, ridges far above Stopford’s force, to the who won the AIF’s first VC on 19 May Ordered back from the south dismounted Australian Light for capturing single-handedly a Turkish Summit? Horse charged across the Nek. This was trench, and won an MC and Bar in Captain Joe Lalor, wielding a sword a sloping ridge barely the size of two France, was a military hero nonpareil in reputedly used by his grandfather at tennis courts, with deep, precipitous Australia immediately after the war.
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