Day 3, Wednesday 25th September

Recovery…….. After such a stressful evening following arrival in Istanbul airport, yesterday provided an opportunity to recover and the day went quite smoothly in the end. After checking in at Crowded House things were more settled and I was hopeful of some quality sleep by turning in early. That worked and I was awake at 6am with just one thing on my mind. I had determined to keep a blog and intended to use my iPad for dictation. That was soon set up and away I went describing the events of the first two days. Having arranged to take breakfast at 9am, the path was clear and the dictation completed in good time.
Super breakfast…….. When I meet up with Dave in the dining room we were treated to the sight of a buffet breakfast the likes of which I rarely see on tour. Oddly, Turkey is the second new country I’ve visited this year and both have offered similar hospitality. Obviously Turkey has its own cuisine and produces distinctive regional variations. All I can tell you is that this buffet is quite impressive with delicacies of salads, meats, cheeses, and sides with a good selection of cakes and biscuits too. This is bound to set us up well for today as we start planning our travels to the battlefields.
Anzac Cove…….. Anzac Cove is the nearest location to a Eceabat but it is also an important area to cover. How successful we will be in our quest to cover the huge military operation here we will just have to see as we head off west out of Eceabat. We establish a protocol with Dave driving and me following the excellent map the owner of Crowded House has provided us with. It doesn’t take long for us to begin our ascent of Sari Bair Ridge where I determine to record features and sites that are relevant to Turkish forces as well as the Anzacs who fought here.

Topography…….. The Sari Bair Ridge starts on the coast south of Anzac Cove and rises to the north and east. The road here is part of a one-way circular route taking you in a clockwise tour of the battlefields above Anzac Cove. Initially this passes Turkish trench lines but at about half way to the summit is the Lone Pine cemetery and memorial to Anzac soldiers who perished on the ridge. This is the principal Anzac cemetery in the area. A kilometre further on is the principal Turkish cemetery and memorial, the 57th Infantry Regiment Memorial Park, then at the highest point at Chunuk Bair is a Turkish memorial park, Mehmetcik Park Aniti, the location of an objective the Anzacs hoped to capture. From Chunuk Bair the road returns southward along another ridge to the east.
Anzac Cove Tour…….. The Anzac Cove tour that follows is intended to be a guide to other travellers as well as being a record of my visit. Accordingly I list the sites on this tour both Turkish and Anzac. These sites consist principally of memorials and war cemeteries which coupled with photographs and details I’ve managed to obtain from a number of sources gives, I hope, a reasonable analysis of the tragic events that took place here between April and August 1915. The locations are coded in accordance with the historical site map.

TA 36 Mehmetçik'e Saygı Anıtı (The Respect to Turkish Soldiers Memorial)……..Mehmetçik'e Saygı Anıtı (The Respect to Turkish Soldiers Memorial) or Turkish Soldier Carrying Wounded Enemy Captain Memorial is a bronze statue of a Turkish soldier carrying a wounded Australian symbolising the chivalry and compassion shown by both sides during the campaign. It depicts a true incident, witnessed by Lieutenant R. G. Casey (A.D.C. to Colonel C. B. B. White of 1st Australian Division) on 25th April 1915, when a Turk carried a wounded Allied Captain to his own trenches. (Casey went on to win the DSO and the MC, and, as Lord Casey, to become Governor General of Australia.)

TA 37 Karayörük Crek Martyrs' Cemetery……..The Karayörük Stream Martyrs' Cemetery, which can be reached by a long staircase, is the real martyr cemetery located on the right side of the road, about 200m before coming to Kanlısırt, which was built in May 1915 on the eastern slope of the Albayrak Back.
This point is the 48th Regiment cephalopod of the 16th Division, which was stationed in the Kanlissar region. The region had suffered very heavy casualties under heavy armed artillery fire and heavy machine gun fire. Also, the soldiers who were killed in 72, 77, 63th regiments and 48th Regiments, who were working in the surrounding areas of rugged terain, were also buried at this cemetery.
The number of martyrs whose names are from the 16th Division, which served in combat, is 1,153.

TA 39 Kanlisirt Monolith……..Meaning 'Bloody Ridge', the location was christened by Turkish soldiers who sustained many casualties in May 1915. The inscription reads, 'In order to help the British 9th Army Corps landing at Anafarta district (Suvla Bay) on 6-7 August 1915, the Anzac force attacked the Turkish 19th and 16th Divisions, who were defending the Aniburnu front, to hold them here. The 16th Division, in spite of their losses of 1,520 martyrs and 4,750 wounded during the extremely violent fights, heroically defended Kanlisirt.'

YA 01 Lone Pine Cemetery and Memorial……..According to the CWGC website, 'The eight month campaign in Gallipoli was fought by Commonwealth and French forces in an attempt to force Turkey out of the war, to relieve the deadlock of the Western Front in France and Belgium, and to open a supply route to Russia through the Dardanelles and the Black Sea. The Allies landed on the peninsula on 25-26 April 1915; the 29th Division at Cape Helles in the south and the Australian and New Zealand Corps north of Gaba Tepe on the west coast, an area soon known as Anzac. On 6 August, further landings were made at Suvla, just north of Anzac, and the climax of the campaign came in early August when simultaneous assaults were launched on all three fronts. Lone Pine was a strategically important plateau in the southern part of Anzac which was briefly in the hands of Australian forces following the landings on 25 April. It became a Turkish strong point from May to July, when it was known by them as 'Kanli Sirt' (Bloody Ridge). The Australians pushed mines towards the plateau from the end of May to the beginning of August and on the afternoon of 6 August, after mine explosions and bombardment from land and sea, the position was stormed by the 1st Australian Brigade. By 10 August, the Turkish counter-attacks had failed and the position was consolidated. It was held by the 1st Australian Division until 12 September, and then by the 2nd, until the evacuation of the peninsula in December. The LONE PINE MEMORIAL stands on the site of the fiercest fighting at Lone Pine and overlooks the whole front line of May 1915. It commemorates more than 4,900 Australian and New Zealand servicemen who died in the Anzac area - the New Zealanders prior to the fighting in August 1915 - whose graves are not known. Others named on the memorial died at sea and were buried in Gallipoli waters. The memorial stands in LONE PINE CEMETERY. The original small battle cemetery was enlarged after the Armistice when scattered graves were brought in from the neighbourhood, and from Brown's Dip North and South Cemeteries, which were behind the Australian trenches of April-August 1915. There are now 1,167 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 504 of the burials are unidentified. Special memorials commemorate 183 soldiers (all but one of them Australian, most of whom died in August), who were known or believed to have been buried in Lone Pine Cemetery, or in the cemeteries at Brown's Dip.'

YA 02 Johnston's Jolly Cemetery……..After the further Alled landings on 6 August were made at Suvla, just north of Anzac, the climax of the campaign came in early August when simultaneous assaults were launched on three fronts. Johnston's Jolly (called by the Turks Kirmezi Sirt, or 'Red Ridge'), was named from the commander of the 2nd Australian Division Artillery, Brigadier-General G. J. Johnston, CB, CMG, VD. The position was reached by the 2nd Australian Infantry Brigade on 25 April 1915, but lost the next day and it was never retaken. The cemetery was made after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the battlefield. There are now 181 Commonwealth servicemen buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 144 of the burials are unidentified and there are special memorials to 36 Australian casualties believed to be buried among them, almost all of whom were killed in the capture of Lone Pine in August 1915.

YA 03 4th Battalion Parade Ground Cemetery……..After the Allies landed on the peninsula on 25-26 April 1915; the 29th Division at Cape Helles in the south and the Australian and New Zealand Corps north of Gaba Tepe on the west coast landed in an area soon known as Anzac. The 4th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force, was drawn from New South Wales. From the end of April to the beginning of June, 1915, it buried 34 of its dead, and six from other units, in a cemetery on the road from Wire Gully to Anzac Cove (Bridges Road). This burial ground became known as the 4th Battalion Parade Ground Cemetery. It was enlarged after the Armistice by the concentration of 76 graves from the surrounding battlefields and from the following smaller cemeteries:- The 3RD BATTALION PARADE GROUND CEMETERY, a little way to the South on the opposite side of the valley, which contained the graves of 31 soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, two of whom fell on the 25th of April and the remainder on the 19th-23rd May (in the Defence of Anzac). The 22ND BATTALION PARADE GROUND CEMETERY, a little way South-East and behind Johnston's Jolly, which contained the graves of 13 soldiers of the 3rd Battalion and three others, who fell between the 16th-20th May. The cemetery contains 116 First World War burials, 7 of them unidentified.

YA 04 Courtney's and Steel's Post Cemetery……..On the night of 25-26 April 1915 the 29th Division at Cape Helles in the south and the Australian and New Zealand Corps north of Gaba Tepe on the west coast, landed in the area soon known as Anzac. Courtney's Post, towards the northern end of the original Anzac line, was named from Lieut-Colonel R. E. Courtney, CB, VD, who brought the 14th Australian Infantry Battalion to it on 27 April 1915. Steel's Post was next to it to the south-west and was named from Major T. H. Steel, 14th Battalion. Both these positions were occupied on 25 April 1915 and held until the evacuation in December. There are 225 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in the cemetery. 160 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 58 casualties believed to be buried among them.

TA 40 Yarbay Hüseyin Avni Şehitliği……..In the centre of this white-railed cemetery is the marble tomb which once bore a photograph of Lieutenant-Colonel (Yarbay) Monastir. It is inscribed, Hero, 57th Infantry Regiment Commander Yarbay Ali Oglu Huseyin Monastir, Martyr. 31 July 1881 - 13 August 1915. Pray for his soul. In the right-hand bottom corner is the tomb of Yarbay Huseyin Avni and to the top left is a memorial board to the 57th Infantry Regiment which sustained fearful losses on 25 April 1915.
TA 41 Çataldere Şehitliği……..Çataldere Şehitliği in the Çataldere valley, lies to the east of the main front, part of the Ariburnu defences held by the Turkish 19th Division in May 1915 when the Turks counter-attacked. Although occupied continuously from 25th April until December, ditches were first created on May 24 during a ceasefire to mass bury the dead. Casualties were from 1st, 5th, 6th, 27th and 57th Regiments. The total number of names on this memorial is 2,835. The final list of names to the five regiments was added in 2006. In this area are the tombs of Lieutenant-Colonels Monastir and Anvi.

TA 42 Captain Mehmet Martyrs' Cemetery……..Captain Mehmet Martyrs' Cemetery lies near Quinn's Post Cemetery on the opposite side of the road. This well maintained individual grave site is for Captain Mehmet.
YA 05 Quinn's Post Cemetery……..On 25-26 April 1915 the 29th Division at Cape Helles in the south and the Australian and New Zealand Corps north of Gaba Tepe on the west coast, landed in the area soon known as Anzac. Quinn's Post was established on the afternoon of the 25 April by a New Zealand machine-gun crew. In the coming months, the post was held by a number of different Australian and New Zealand units and was the subject of incessant attacks and continual hand-to-hand fighting with the Turkish post opposite, who knew it as 'Bomba Sirt' (Bomb Ridge). The post was named from Major Hugh Quinn of the 15th Battalion, Australian Infantry, who was killed there during a fierce attack on 29 May. Major Quinn is buried in Shrapnel Valley Cemetery. The original cemetery was made after the Armistice by the concentration of 225 isolated graves, all unidentified, into Rows E to I. Rows A to D were added later. The graves from Pope's Hill Cemetery, and six other graves found later, were brought into a plot, at the north-east end. Pope's Hill Cemetery was at the foot of Pope's Hill, where the track turned up to Quinn's Post. The hill was named from Lt. Col. H. Pope, then commanding the 16th Australian Battalion, which reached it on 25 April. There are now 473 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 294 of the burials are unidentified. Special memorials record the names of 64 soldiers, most of them Australian, who were known or believed to have been buried in Quinn's Post Cemetery or Pope's Hill Cemetery.

TA 44 Kesikdere Martrys' Cemetery……..Kesikdere Martrys' Cemetery is located on the peaceful eastern slope of the ridge within the stream bed under the symbolic 57th Regiment Memorial. The names of fallen Turkish soldiers are etched on metal plates laid horizontally along terraces typical of other Turkish cemeteries in the area.
TA 43 57th Infantry Regiment Martyrs' Cemetery……..Under their commander, Colonel Huseyin Avni Bey, the Turkish 57th Infantry Regiment bore the brunt of the Australian landing assault on 25 April 1915, and here Lieutenant-Colonel Mustafa Kemal, commanding the 19th Infantry Division, first showed his outstanding leadership qualities. This important memorial area was constructed in 1992 to honor the soldiers who lost their lives that day and by the commander who went on to establish the New Turkish Republic.
The 57th Regiment was also heavily engaged in the Turkish counter-attack of 19 May and fought with great determination. Six new year junior officers were assigned to the 3rd battalion which opposed Pope's Hill (qv) the day before. At the end of the 19th five of them lay dead on their home parapet, killed as they jumped out as an example to their troops. In all Zeki Bey estimated that 10,000 Turks were killed or wounded in the attack, reducing the defenders to three Divisions and that by 4 August the 57th had spent forty-five continuous days in the line at German Officers' Ridge (qv).
From the car park a number of sites can be visited:

Large Turkish Soldier Statue, Turk Askerine Saygi Aniti ('Respect to the Turkish Soldier'). This statue of an infantryman was sculptured by Tankut Oktem and erected in 1992. Across the road is the Statue of Turkish Veteran and Child. This depicts Huseyin Kacmaz, who died on 10 September 1994, at the age of 108, the oldest Turkish veteran, with his grand-daughter.
Outdoor Mosque and fountain.
Bass Relief Panel of Kemal Ataturk and the 57th Regiment charging on 25 April.
Symbolic Cemetery with the plaques bearing the names of martyrs of the 57th Regiment and, incorporated in its north wall, a tall memorial.
Memorial Tablets, to which English translations on marble tablets were added in 1998.

The Cemetery complex, built on the area known as 'The Chessboard' because of the way trenches criss-crossed over it, at the seven ends of Sword Spur (Kilicbayiri) and Mortar Ridge (Edirne Sirti), was designed by architect Nejat Dincel. It is built mainly of Kevsir stone and was originally opened on 12 December 1992 by the Turkish Minister of Culture. During its building the remains of two soldiers were found lying side by side with their pistols and flasks. They were identified by their name tags as captain L. J. Walters ('Woiters' in Turkish version), of the 'British Army Corps', and 1st Lieutenant Mustafa Asim Bey, commander of 6 Company, 57th Infantry Regiment. They were buried together at the top of the cemetery under a plaque. According to the Peace Park Catalogue (qv), the ceremony was held 'in the presence of both relatives', invited by the Turkish Minister of Culture. No trace, however, can be found in a CWGC records of Captain L. J. Walters. There are 50 burials/commemorations under the name 'Walters' for 1915. Only two of these are officers and both died on the Western Front. However, there is a Lieutenant Leslie John Waters, 15th AIF, killed on 27 April, who is buried in Quinn's Post Cemetery.
As well as quotations from Atatürk, there are marble plaques with quotations from General Birdwood and other distinguished Australians.

TA 45 Mehmet Çavuş Anıtı (Sergeant Mehmet Memorial)……..The white obelisk of Sergeant Mehmet's tomb is set in a walled grassy area. It commemorates the sergeant and his squad of twenty-five soldiers who fought here to the death after the landings. Mehmet's last words, according to Bean, were,'I die happily for my country, and you, my comrade, will avenge me.' The cemetery is on the spot where the Australian charge of 7 August was halted. When they had run out of ammunition, the determined Turkish defenders used stones and their bare fists in their attempts to halt the attack. They named the site Courage Hill (Cesaret Tepe). After the Allied Evacuation of December 1915, three monuments were erected: one at Lone Pine, one on North Beach and the third, here, the only one to survive. The base is original, the obelisk was added later, replacing the four shells on top of the monument. It was built next to a semi circular trench dug by men of Captain J. P. Lalor's 12th Battalion on the morning of 25 April and to which private Howe's party later climbed the Nek.

YA 06 The Nek Cemetery……..On 6 August, further landings were made at Suvla, just north of Anzac, and the climax of the campaign came in early August when simultaneous assaults were launched on all three fronts. The Nek was a narrow track leading from Russell's top to Baby 700 which was reached and passed by the 12th Australian Battalion early on 25 April, but not held. It was attacked by the New Zealand and Australian Division on 2 May, and by the 3rd Australian Light Horse Brigade on the morning of 7 August, but was never retaken. The cemetery was made after the Armistice in what had been No Man's Land. There are now 326 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 316 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to five Australian soldiers believed to be buried among them.
YA 07 Walker's Ridge Cemetery……..On 25-26 April 1915 the 29th Division at Cape Helles in the south and the Australian and New Zealand Corps north of Gaba Tepe on the west coast, landed in the area soon known as Anzac. On 25 April, Walker's Ridge was the post of command of Brigadier-General Walker, then commanding the New Zealand Infantry Brigade. It was held by a mixed force until 27 April, when the New Zealanders took it over. A Turkish attempt to take the ridge on 30 June was repulsed by the 8th and 9th Australian Light Horse. The cemetery was made during the occupation and consists of two plots separated by 18 metres of ground, through which a trench ran. There are now 92 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 16 of the burials are unidentified and special memorials commemorate 26 soldiers known or believed to be buried in the cemetery.

YA 08 Baby 700 Cemetery……..On 25-26 April 1915 the 29th Division at Cape Helles in the south and the Australian and New Zealand Corps north of Gaba Tepe on the west coast, landed in the area soon known as Anzac. On 6 August, further landings were made at Suvla, just north of Anzac, and the climax of the campaign came in early August when simultaneous assaults were launched on all three fronts. Baby 700 was the name given to a hill, part of the Sari Bair range, connecting Russell's Top, by way of the Nek, with Battleship Hill (Big 700). It was the objective of the 3rd Australian Brigade on 25 April and was occupied early in the morning by parties of the 11th and 12th Battalions. They were joined by part of the Auckland Infantry Battalion later, but in the afternoon they were driven off the hill. It was the objective of other attacks, particularly on 2 May and 7 August, but it was never again reached. Baby 700 Cemetery was made after the Armistice. There are now 493 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 450 of the burials are unidentified, but special memorials commemorate ten Australian soldiers believed to be buried among them.

TA 46 Mesudiye Gun……..The Mesudiye Gun is from the Turkish cruiser of that name, torpedoed off Sari Sighlar Bay buy the submarine B11 (qv) on 13 December 1914. Her guns were salvaged by the Turks and use in their defence of the straits. This one was placed here after the Evacuation.

TA 47 Düz Tepe 10. Alay Cephesi (Battleship Hill)……..Battleship Hill is marked on the Allied maps as 'Big 700' (as opposed to 'Baby 700' -700 being the height in feet); the hill is actually 210 metres above sea level. It was christened Battleship Hill by Lieutenant W. R. Hodgson because of the constant bombardment from Royal Navy battleships falling on it on 27 April. He marked it, and also Scrubby Knoll and Gun Ridge, on an artillery map. The next day he was seriously wounded but survived to be promoted to Captain.
Early on 25 April, 32-year-old Captain Eric W. Tulloch (a Melbourne brewer before the war) of the 11th Battalion crossed the Nek and pushed on over the right hand shoulder of Baby 700 with 60 men, determined to make his designated rendezvous with other elements of the 11th on Big 700. At the highest point of their climb, which they reached by 0900 hours, they were in view of their goal, the shining waters off the Straits, and had made one of the furthest advances of the day. They met their first opposing shots on the shoulder of the second hill, when about ten men were hit. Silencing the Turks with answering fire, they pushed on until they again met heavy fire. Nevertheless they carried on, took over when forced to, and reached the south-east shoulder of Big 700. On the skyline at Chunuk Bair they saw a Turkish officer who was obviously in command of the battle and seemed oblivious to the bullets sprayed around him. Could it have been Kemal Ataturk? Tulluch's party fought on for half an hour before fire from the left became heavier and closer. Lieutenant Mordaunt Reid ('a born leader' according to Bean), controlling the fire from the right, was badly hit in the thigh. A man helped him crawl back to safety, then Reid appeared, never to be seen again. He is commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial. Then, when it became obvious that the enemy was enfilading his left flank and that he was pinned down from the front, Tulluck gave the order to withdraw. This was done in a controlled fashion to Baby 700 and the Nek in time to join of bitter struggle that was taking place there.

TA 49 Talat Göktepe Memorial……..The Talat Göktepe Memorial (Turkish Director of Forestry's Statue) commemorates Talat Göktepe, Çanakkale Region Director of the Ministry of Forestry, who died in an heroic but unsuccessful attempt to extinguish a disastrous fire of 25 July 1994. Behind him are symbolic trees and he holds out his hand to try to stop the flames licking upwards.
TA 50 Chunuk Bair Mehmetçik Monolith……..The five stone monoliths at Chunuk Bair were designed by Ahmet Gulgonen, winner of a national competition in 1970, and represents a hand turned upward to God. They were dedicated to the soldiers, 'Mehmetcik', (literally little Mehmets, the affectionate Turkish name for 'Johnny Turk') who lost their lives fighting here. Each has an inscription in Turkish, repeated on a plaque in English, which tells the story:
1. After learning of the enemy landing at Ariburnu on 25 April 1915, Staff Officer Lieutenant-Colonel Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk), Commander of the 19th Infantry Division, on his own initiative despatched the 57th Regiment to this sector. At this time, a small number of soldiers, whose ammunition was finished, were guarding the shore. They made a bayonet charge and gained enough time to successfully prevent the enemy reaching Chunuk Bair.
2. On the morning of 25 April 1915, Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) gave this order to the 57th Regiment, just before the Regiment's attack on the enemy approaching the Conk Slope: the 'I do not order you to attack, I order you to die. In the time which passes until we die, other troops can take our places and other commanders can master the situation.' This order angered the Mehmetciks, who continuously and relentlessly attacked the enemy under the continuous and heavy fire of the naval artillery and forced the enemy back to Casaret Tepe (the Nek).
3. Again, enemy forces in the Ariburnu sector, which were strengthened by reinforcements, began to attack Chunuk Bair on 6 August 1915. At the end of the bloody battles, which continued uninterrupted, day and night, both sides suffered heavy casualties. Turkish soldiers stopped the enemy 25 metres from the line of hills around Chunuk Bair on the evening of 9 August 1915.
4. The Turkish counter-attack, due to the narrowness of the land between the trenches of the two sides, began as a bayonet charge on the morning of 10 August 1915. During the battles of Chunuk Bair, which became hellish under the thick fire of the enemy's naval artillery, Colonel Mustafa Kemal, Commander of the Anafarta Group, did not leave the observation points even for a minute. His life was saved by his watch in his breast pocket which was shattered by a piece of shrapnel. And so, at the end of this attack, the enemy was thrown back as far as Aghyl Dere.
5. That continuous attacks of the enemy forces, aimed to capture Chunuk Bair, the most important area and the peak of Gallipoli Peninsula, and divide the Turkish forces into two and so conquer the Dardanelles, was unsuccessful due to the courageous defence operation and zeal of the heroic Turkish soldiers. During the battles fought in this sector, the Turkish army suffered 9,200 casualties and the enemy 12,000.

YA 09 The Farm Cemetery……..On 6 August, further landings were made at Suvla, just north of Anzac, and the climax of the campaign came in early August when simultaneous assaults were launched on all three fronts. The Farm was a stone shepherd's hut on the western slopes of Chunuk Bair, known to the Turks as 'Aghyl' (sheepfold), which was passed by the troops who held Chunuk Bair on 6-10 August. On 8 August, it was occupied by the 10th Gurkhas, part of the 9th Royal Warwicks, and the Maoris. The 6th East Lancashire Regiment, the 10th Hants and the 6th Royal Irish Rifles reached it next day. The 5th Connaught Rangers came up on 10 August, but the same morning, in consequence of the Turkish attack which cleared Chunuk Bair, the line was withdrawn. The cemetery was made after the Armistice by gathering in graves scattered around the farm and from the slopes of Chunuk Bair and Hill Q. There are now 652 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. Special memorials commemorate seven soldiers believed to be buried among them. 645 burials are unidentified.
TA 51 The Atatürk Victory Statue at Chunuk Bair……..Near the 10-metre-high bronze statue of Mustafa Kemal are four large concrete cannonballs which mark the spot where he was hit. 'A large piece of shrapnel hit me exactly on my heart, 'wrote Kemal later. 'I was shaken. I put my hand over my heart but there was no blood. Nobody saw this event except Lieutenant-Colonel Servet Bey. With my finger I signaled him to keep silent. Because if it was known it would cause a panic throughout the battlefield. My watch in my pockets over my heart has been completely destroyed. That day I fought more eagerly, leading the units until nightfall. But this shrapnel left a deep bruise under the skin over my heart which lasted four months.'That night, Atatürk gave his damaged watch to Liman von Sanders as a souvenir who in return gave Kemal his gold watch. Marble tablets with English translations of the inscriptions were added to the base of the statue in 1998.

New Zealand National Memorial at Chunuk Bair……..The tapering stone pylon, designed by the NZ architect S. Hurst Seager, stands 20.5 metres high. Before the fire of 1994 New Zealand manuka the trees stood in the surrounding shrubs. The memorial was erected 'In honor of the soldiers of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. 8 August 1915. From the uttermost ends of the earth'. It is 50 metres north of the left flank of the Turkish trench taken by the forward elements of the Wellingtons on 8 August.
TA 52 1st Lieut. Nasif Çakmak's Memorial……..Üsteğmen Nazif Çakmak Anıtı is a monument built in the name of Nazif Çakmak, the younger brother of Marshal Fevzi Çakmak, in the area in front of the Atatürk Monument. First lieutenant Nafiz Çakmak was martyred while defending the hill against the New Zealand forces on August 8 during the command of his company. Although there is a sign relating to his death on the monument, Nafiz Çakmak fell in the area where the fountain is located today.
New Zealand Memorial Wall at Chunuk Bair……..The New Zealand Memorial Wall records, on panels of Hopton Wood stone, the names of 852 officers and men of the NZEF who 'lost their lives in the heroic assault on the heights of Sari Bair, 6th-10th August, 1915, in the capture of Chunuk Bair, and in subsequent battles and operations from August and December, 1915, and who are not definitely recorded as buried in this or adjoining cemeteries'. Four men have subsequently been identified and are recorded elsewhere. There are 83 Auckland Mounted Rifles, 15 Canterbury Mounted Rifles, 57 Wellington Mounted Rifles, 32 Otago Mounted Rifles, 10 NZ Field Artillery, 92 Auckland Infantry Regiment, 92 Canterbury Infantry Regiment, 134 Otago Infantry Regiment, 310 Wellington Infantry Regiment and 19 of the Maori Contingent.
For family historians and others, on pages 192 and 192 of Major and Mrs Holt’s Battlefield Guide to Gallipoli - ISBN 0 85052 638-8, there is some interesting information regarding some of the casualties on the memorial wall.
YA 10 Chunuk Bair CWGC Cemetery……..On 6 August, further landings were made at Suvla, just north of Anzac, and the climax of the campaign came in early August when simultaneous assaults were launched on all three fronts. Chunuk Bair was one of the main objectives in the Battle of Sari Bair, fought 6-10 August 1915. The attack was to be carried out by two columns of the New Zealand Infantry Brigade, starting from the outposts on the shore and proceeding up the Sazli Belt Dere and the Chailak Dere. Meanwhile the New Zealand Mounted Rifles were to clear the foothills. The New Zealand Infantry reached Rhododendron Spur, where they were joined by the 10th Gurkha Rifles, from further north, and reinforced by the 8th Welsh, the 7th Gloucesters, the Auckland Mounted Rifles, and the Maori Contingent. The Wellington Infantry and some of the Gloucesters and Welsh reached the summit, and were later joined by men of the Auckland Infantry and Mounted Rifles. These troops, after repulsing incessant Turkish attacks, were reinforced by the Otago Battalion and the Wellington Mounted Rifles. The 6th Gurkhas and the 6th South Lancashire Regiment came in on the left. The 6th Loyal North Lancashire Regiment relieved the force at Chunuk Bair on the evening of 9 August, supported later by part of the 5th Wilts, but on the following morning, the position was taken by a determined and overwhelming counter-attack, carried out by a Turkish Army Corps led by Mustapha Kemal Pasha. The loss of Chunuk Bair marked the end of the effort to reach the central foothills of the peninsula and on this sector of the front, the line remained unaltered until the evacuation in December 1915. CHUNUK BAIR CEMETERY was made after the Armistice on the site where the Turks had buried some of those Commonwealth soldiers who were killed on 6-8 August. There are now 632 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried in this cemetery. Only ten of the burials are identified. The cemetery also contains the CHUNUK BAIR (NEW ZEALAND) MEMORIAL, one of four memorials erected to commemorate New Zealand soldiers who died on the Gallipoli peninsula and whose graves are not known. This memorial relates to the Battle of Sari Bair and in other operations in this sector. It bears more than 850 names.

Conclusion…….. The tour today as concentrated on the Sari Bair the Pine Ridge leading up to Chunuk Bair where much of the fighting took place in lines of trenches opposing each other that remained largely unbroken throughout the Ariburnu Campaign. It was clear that the initial Anzac landings on 25th April only succeeded in creating a bridgehead. The rough mountainous terrain made movement inland difficult and although initially the Turks occupying the landing zones were heavily outnumbered, they soon brought up reinforcements to check any further progress wherever the Anzacs tried to break through.
New Spirit…….. Inevitably the tour today has been time consuming and we reach Crowded House not much before 6pm. Just half an hour later it's out for dinner. After yesterday's extravagance we are much more picky and avoid the solicitation we experienced yesterday. After a much simpler meal, without a beer (mine was a schnitzel) we head to what might be the only beer bar in town and get stuck in right away. Starting with a beer I move to raki, a popular spirit which tastes of aniseed. Not intending to over indulge we get wrapped up in a conversation with locals and well, that sets up a rather late night as we return to Crowded House around midnight and so ends day 3 of this tour in a rather unexpected way. Next Page.