Gallipoli Evacuation

Percy Lay, from Ballan, kept a diary during the whole of his WW1 service.  A copy was published in 1983, and we have a copy in the Australiana Research Room if you would like to read it.  We are going to let Percy tell of the evacuation:

December 11 and 12 1915.

Went up into the front line. 5th and 6th Btns. went off the Peninsula. Where and why they were going was a bit of a mystery. Heard that they had gone to Imbros because there were too many troops on ANZAC.

December 13, 1915.

Heard we were to evacuate ANZAC but would not believe it.

December 14, 1915.

Started to shift stores and ammunition as fast as possible.  We could get almost anything just for the asking. It seems as though we really are going to leave the peninsula.

December 15, 1915.

Spent the day destoying picks and shovels and emptying out rum casks and burying explosives. It seems a shame.

December 16, 1915.

Carted bombs down to the beach. Our planes up all day over their lines. It was reported we had captured a Turkish spy in our lines.

December 17, 1915.

Tipped out about 500 gallons of rum but while on this working party we got a lot of their very best stores. Tipping rum seems a terrible waste of good stuff.  There were strict orders that nobody was to touch a drop of it.

December 18, 1915.

Heard that we were to leave the same evening and left things so that they would be no use to the Turks.  We also blew up a few of our guns.  Left the trench at 5.15pm and had a quick trip to the beach. Troops started evacuating and everything going very smoothly.  Not much stuff left for the Turks.  "Beachy Bill" [Turkish gun at Gaba Tepe] only fired three shots. A bit hard on us old chaps, sneaking away like rats, having to leave so many of our old mates buried there, and then finding that our efforts were no good.  We had sandbags on our boots and our bayonets covered. In fact we were like criminals sneaking away.  We embarked on the "Abbessiah".

December 19, 1915.

Went off "Abbessiah" on the "WINIFREDAN" in Mudros Bay to await a boat to take us ashore on Lemnos.  Disembarked and went to our old camp at Sarpe and found most of 1st Divn. there.

December 20, 1915.The last of the die-hards arrived.  They got away without a shot being fired at them.

The Department of Veterans Affairs website Gallipoli and the Anzacs, has an overview of the Evacuation, if you wish to read further

Breaking up rum cases on North Beach on 17 December 1915 prior to the evacuation. [AWM G01276]

Gallipoli Diaries

The Gallipoli ordeal is almost over.

We've been looking at some diaries written by men who were there.  You can just google "Gallipoli Diaries" and a number of results will lead you to various State Libraries and other websites where you can read digitised copies or transcripts.  The Australian War Memorial is still the best source, however.  We've been reading the 1915-16 diary of John Kingsley Gammage, a soldier from Cootamundra, NSW, who sailed from Sydney in April 1915 aboard the Argyllshire.  He survived the First World War and returned to Australia.

Gammage landed at Gallipoli on 26 June 1915. He was wounded in the left leg during the battle of Lone Pine in August 1915 and was sent to Mudros for treatment and recuperation. He re-joined the 1st Battalion on 25 September 1915. After the evacuation from Gallipoli, Gammage returned to Egypt with the Battalion but was transferred to the Imperial Camel Corps on 29 January 1916. He served with the Corps in Libya and Palestine. 

There isn't much evidence of a legend in the making, reading his diary. He writes of reinforcements arriving, and how shocked they are by the appearance of the men they are relieving - worn, weary and emaciated. He writes of tiredness and weakness, hunger and overwork, and is scathing of officers and their petty requests. He also notes how hard it is to know what is happening overall, and says this diary can only be his own account of his own Company.

You can read the original diary at the AWM site, but there is also a typed transcript. Although the transcript is far easier to read, it is very emotive to read Gammage's own handwriting.

Harvey Broadbent, Turkish language expert and author of Gallipoli books

If you only read one book about Gallipoli this year, we suggest you make it one of Harvey Broadbent’s.  

Harvey Broadbent is a Turkish language expert, and he spent five years in Turkish military archives unearthing the Turkish side of the Gallipoli story. He was granted access to an extensive collection of previously unresearched documents, ranging from official government records to military and personal diaries and correspondence of soldiers. The result is the fullest possible, most comprehensive account of the Turkish defence yet produced, and this fills a huge gap in the history of the Gallipoli campaign.

He has produced two books about Gallipoli – 

Gallipoli, the Turkish Defence is the primary academic publication arising from his research. It is a very readable reference book for details of the Ottoman Turkish military operations and the personnel involved. It is illustrated with maps, some of them original, and archival photographs and quotations from historical documents.


Defending Gallipoli, the Turkish Story is a condensed version, designed to appeal to the general reader interested in learning about the other side of Gallipoli. It relates the Turkish story at Gallipoli in an engaging style.  Maps are included that help explain the troop movements, especially some reproduced field maps.

Assoc. Prof. Broadbent writes “As a historian, you strive to find out the truth about history. For something as important to Australia as the Gallipoli campaign has turned out to be, it is essential to find out the facts, and we’ve never had a comprehensive account.

“What we’ve known of the Turks so far has been general and superficial, from limited sources. Even the Turks haven’t transliterated most of their own documents (from the archaic language of Osmanlinca to contemporary Turkish), so we’re really breaking new ground by doing that – both for Australia and Turkey.”

Both Turkey and Australia appreciate the importance of the Gallipoli Campaign in their national identities and ideals. These books give a factual account of events not previously given in Gallipoli accounts.  They provide understanding of how the Ottoman forces at Gallipoli affected the outcomes that led to the Allies failure, and show how the Turkish commanders and their troops responded to the invasion of their homeland and were able, under great pressure, to resist, persevere and ultimately succeed. 



Reading the accounts of the Gallipoli landings from the Turkish point of view is simply astounding. The initial ANZACs were held off by so few. Mustafa Kemal, that brilliant tactician, features, as do other commanders, such as those facing the Australians at the Nek. The Turkish soldiers are humanised – no longer just ‘Johnny Turk’ – but named, and shown to be suffering as all did at Gallipoli, especially conscripts.  


Assoc. Prof. Broadbent’s work was made possible by a partnership between Australian and Turkish organisations to mark the centenary of the Gallipoli Campaign. We have all of Assoc. Prof. Broadbent’s books in the City of Ballarat collections, and they are available for you to borrow.

Meanwhile, back on the Peninsula

The 8th Battalion, with many Ballarat and district men in its ranks, has been resting on Lemnos Island, away from Anzac since early September.  Now it is time for the men to return to "have another shot at 'Joe Turk'". First the men were marched out and embarked on the Abbassia, but as the piers at Anzac Cove had been damaged in a storm, and there was nowhere to land them, they disembarked and returned to camp - which had been struck, on their departure. The entire battalion camped overnight in the YMCA hut.

On the evening of 21st November, the battalion boarded the Princess Ena, and departed for Anzac Cove, where they were sent up to Bolton's Ridge, and occupied support trenches just vacated by the 10th Battalion.

Now the 8th Battalion worked at sapping tasks, but the change of weather from July to November could not have been more extreme.  On 24th November a blizzard left half a metre of snow on the ground, followed by severe frost.  The weather conditions provided further justification for an evacuation of Gallipoli, but the men themselves were unaware of this possibility.

A snow covered gun position of the 9th Battery in November 1915. [AWM P00046.040]

The Gallipoli Letter

Keith Murdoch (1885–1952) wrote this now famous  letter shortly after arriving in London to take up a new job. He had just spent four days witnessing the bloodshed and chaos on the Gallipoli peninsula and he wrote his letter in order to shock and to provoke a response. It certainly did.

The letter was addressed to Murdoch’s friend Andrew Fisher, who happened to be the Australian Prime Minister at the time. Fisher had asked for an honest appraisal of the situation in the Dardanelles. What he received from Murdoch was a searing indictment of the cavalier British attitude towards the troops and their suffering.  In its opening pages, Murdoch’s letter describes the Gallipoli campaign as 'undoubtedly one of the most terrible chapters in our history'.

In London, Murdoch met with senior members of the British government who then persuaded the British Prime Minister, Henry Herbert Asquith, to read the letter. Asquith had it printed as an official War Cabinet paper and circulated to the committee in charge of the campaign.  The decision was made to withdraw General Sir Ian Hamilton who was in command at Gallipoli. The winding up of the deadly and unproductive Dardanelles campaign would soon commence.

The conversational yet brutally honest letter thus played a key role in ending the Gallipoli campaign and in the evacuation of British and ANZAC troops from the peninsula.  By January 1916, all Allied troops had been successfully withdrawn from Gallipoli without loss of life, despite the fears the British command held. 

Murdoch was later criticised for evading the terms of the official censorship declaration which he had signed at Gallipoli and also for overstating the case. But Murdoch felt that as he was writing to his Prime Minister, at the PM’s request, he was absolved from this stipulation. Murdoch probably also felt able to write so freely because of the terrible loss of life experienced in only five months, together with the coming winter and its potential death toll. To him it must have seemed terribly urgent to get a response and reaction to his letter.

The Gallipoli Letter was given to the National Library in 1970 by Rupert Murdoch with other material from his father’s personal papers. The letter has been digitised by the NLA and can be read in full at the link below.

The Gallipoli Letter 

 

Grief ... and other emotions part 2

Miss Jeannie Jobson, M.A., a teacher at the Ballarat High School, reacted to the Gallipoli Landings as reported in the news by writing an open letter to wounded troops.  It is published in The History of the Ballarat High School 1907-1947, by Helen Cotton, B.A., and we've reproduced it below, together with the biograhpical details of Miss Jobson.

ANZAC Landings

Having commemorated the 100th anniversary of the landings last weekend this post will look at how the landings were reported in the local press in 1915.  It did not take long for the landings to be reported. The first stories appearing in the Ballarat Courier on the 29th April.  The reports were heavily censored for domestic consumption by British Officials.  The reports stated how enemy attacks was being repulsed and the Allies were pushing forward.  No mention of the heavy casualties being taken.  No doubt people reading these  reports in Ballarat in 1915 were left with the impression that their boys would be home for Christmas and that everything was going wonderfully well.. This sense of optimism would soon be dashed when the casualty lists would start appearing  in the paper within a couple of weeks.   Following is the initial report of the landings in the Ballarat Courier.

Ballarat Courier April 29th  1915

Map of the landings on the 25th April 1915.  Taken from www. gallipoli.com.au

The real tragedy of what was taking place came from the letters sent home to loved ones from Gallipoli. They told a completely different story.  As well journalists like Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett, Charles Bean and later Keith Murdoch  would write about the difficult conditions the ANZACS were facing. One thing all them reported  was how gallant the ANZACS were considering the hugh obstacles they were encountering.. Following is an excerpt taken from a letter sent home to loved ones from then Capt Leslie Morshead, later to become Lieutenant-General Sir Leslie Morshead, one of Ballarat's finest citizens.

           This is the first letterI have attempted since our memorable and awful landing on Sunday 25th April.  I have even neglected my diary. But i shall never need a diary to remind me of what i went through or what i saw. No pen could describe that Sunday or Tuesday.  It was a grim hard fight.  On Thursday we were relieved, and when our roll was called we had considerably less than half a battalion.   It was a sorry spectacle to see all the men there, hungry, dirty, unshaven, bitter. (Taken from Dinkum Oil: letters published in the Ballarat Courier during the Great War by A.M. Taylor. avaiable in the Australiana Research Room, Ballarat Library)

AT THE FOOT OF THE SPHINX

Turning the pages of the 100 year old Courier yesterday (February 5th) we discovered a gem.  The Courier, 100 years ago, was not regularly publishing photographs, so this must have caused quite a sensation at the time.  We have tried to find out a bit about the Ballarat soldiers in the photo. 

The caption has not reproduced adequately so we reproduce it below

The group depicted above is composed almost exclusively of Australians now serving in Egypt.  It embraces : - 1^st row (reading from left to right) Armourer Sergeant I.R.Parker, Ballarat;  Bugler Matthew, Scotland; Sergeant-Bugler H. Smith, Ballarat; Bugler A. Dunkeld, Scotland; Bugler B. Walker, Geelong; Bugler L. Hagger, Geelong; Bugler F. Hassell, England; C. Matthews, A.M.C., Melbourne; Bugler D. Summers, Avoca; Bugler Liddle, Queensland;  2^nd row, 1 and 2 unknown;  3. Mohamed Masoufy, 8^th Battalion Guide, Cairo; 4. Bugler E. Youlden, Ballarat; 5. Bugler Gladmann, Ballarat.  We are indebted to Mrs. G. H. Parker, of Bertlyn, Lyons St Sth, mother of Armourer Sergeant Parker, for the loan of the photograph.

Armourer Sergeant Ivo Reginald Parker, remarkably, has the Service Number 9, and the 5^th tree in the Avenue of Honour.  He enlisted on the 17^th August 1914, clearly anxious to serve his country - he’d been a military cadet for 2 years.  Previous to enlisting he’d worked for Jelbarts, in Mair Street. Unfortunately Staff Sergeant Parker became very ill while at Gallipoli (typhoid) and returned to Australia in 1916, discharged as medically unfit. He returned to live in Ballarat. 

Sergeant Bugler H. Smith – this appears to be Harry P. Smith of the 6^th Battalion, originally of Ballarat East. He too enlisted on the 17^th August, and was also a military cadet.  Smith was at the Gallipoli landings, and although he enlisted as a private he was rapidly promoted through to Lieutenant. He was wounded several times but was still able to be a part of the Evacuation; later in Egypt he became so ill with enteric fever he was returned to Australia in 1916 for ‘three months change’!  In April 1917 he rejoined the war in France, and in August 1918 was wounded and hospitalised in England.  He did not return to France before the Armistice.  He returned to Australia in April 1919, after an adventure on the way in South Africa, where he ‘failed to embark’ after shore leave in Cape Town, and was arrested AWL.

Bugler E. Youlden – in fact Ernest C. G. Youdan – was the son of Constable William Arthur Youdan, the constable in charge at Scarsdale, who’d been awarded £50 and a valor badge when he “closed with armed desperado Geo. Shaw.”  Bugler Youdan survived Gallipoli, but died in France in 1916 at Pozieres. His mother Agnes was living in Lydiard Street when she claimed a pension in respect of Ernest’s death, and she received 25 shillings per fortnight.

Bugler Gladmann – we think this is Charles R. Gladman, born in Ballarat but enlisted in Bacchus Marsh on the 12^th September 1914. He was with the 8^th Battalion, and was wounded severely in action many times, but after hospitalisation was always able to return to his unit, until late in 1917 when he was returned to Australia, having by this time lost his left eye, and almost all his vision in his right eye. After returning to Ballarat, he lived in Hickman Street.