European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 22, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse British ship april 25, 1915, carrying them toward their on March 18, 1915, Victory seemed within grasp of the Allied Navy turkish batteries had been Landing on the Gallipoli Shore in the first great silenced and the Way through the Dardanelles opened. Only a few mines blocked the passage amphibious operation of modern warfare. Enough to sink ships such As the British warship irresistible forcing naval forces to withdraw. Made no attempt to push while Gen. Hamilton agonized on the Queen Elizabeth out of touch with his troops on Shore Ataturk seized the Day. And sealed off the landings of the done to order you to attack Quot Ataturk exhorted his troops Quot i order you to die Quot and a lot of them obliged sealing off the Landing. But the Anzac with no military tradition their countries had never been at War fought Back bullish by bravely despite having been mistakenly landed in a Maze of Brushy gullies under Steep Cliffs. On May 11, the turks mounted swarming attacks against the beachhead in a mauling Battle of thrust and counter. The aftermath of suffering among the wounded was so horrifying a truce was called to sweep the Field of the dead and the no longer competitive. Brookes Friend Aubrey Herbert going out with a turkish Captain on the mercy Mission stumbled appalled through the twisted dead. Quot we mounted Over a flaming plateau and Down through gullies Quot Herbert wrote Quot where there Lay about 4,000 turkish dead. There were two wounded lying in that multitude of silence. The turkish Captain said at this spectacle even the most gentle must feel Savage and the most Savage must the dead filled acres of ground. I talked to some turks one of whom pointed to the Graves. That s politics a he said. Then he pointed to the sprawling dead a that s diplomacy. God pity All of us poor a despite the Fine sentiments the butchery went on. When Hamilton asked London for More troops the government Quot was startled Quot wrote . Marshall. Quot up till then the messages had breathed More procrastination and squabbling among generals and politicians followed and the badly needed reinforcements took far too Long to arrive. On May 26, Churchill ignored and frustrated resigned under pressure the stigma of Gallipoli All Over him. Early on Gen. Hamilton had ordered his troops to Quot dig dig dig until you Are they never stopped digging. And the War of trenches settled in like lethal sludge at Gallipoli. Opposing trenches and wire were Only Yards apart in places. At times there Wasny to shooting just grunting Bayonet charges clanging Metal stifled screams curses death rattles. But the allies Clung to their Little holds on Gallipoli like barnacles to a ship that was dead in the water. If the turks could t drive the allies into the sea the allies could t Budge the turks backward. Fresh forces could t change the equation. Quot like earlier engagements All were Prodi Gally wasteful of human lives Quot wrote Marshall full of Quot command lapses and phenomenal Allied Indian troops heard from the turks a you Are at Liberty to desert to us or get your Heads Cut off to no there were no longer truces for burying the dead. Corpses Lay where they fell in no Man s land bloating. The air took on fragrances under the hot summer Sun that no purple poetry could capture. Fevers and dysentery ravaged the ranks. Heavily sweating soldiers got a canteen of water a Day for drinking not nearly enough and none at All for Hygiene and sanitation. They stayed filthy and their kitchens and latrines weren t much cleaner. Battalions of flies fat from feasting on the dead swarmed slowly Stickly through the Miasma. It dragged on. Men lost their Fervour Long before they lost their lives. They hated the place. An inspired soul penning the Giddy sonnets of the Early Days might have been shot. By now Gallipoli seemed a tale told by one of history a gloomier More perverse idiots. Quot there must be a better place to fight a War Quot muttered the no longer Gung to. A final serious Allied push to break through the turkish lines occurred in August. Again confusion. A new Landing at Bay even managed to repeat the bumbling of april 25. Quot Many of the soldiers who got ashore Quot wrote historian Susanne Everett Quot believed they had done All expected. They sat Down sunbathe lit fires for Tea even went military analyst sir Basel Liddell Hart cited the Quot grimly comic Quot elderly general Quot who after arrival at Bay. Aug. 6, settled Down to sleep on Board his ship without sending anyone ashore or wondering Why no news came from Shore and then on the afternoon of the 8th was still on Board not having once been ashore to see even his division As the general napped and the troops sunbathe Ataturk raced to Block the new landings. When the turks fixed bayonets and charged shouting in cadence Quot Allah. Allah. Allah Quot both sides were Cut to pieces neither Side moved the other. And neither Ever would As men burned like ants on the end of the flaming stick that was Gallipoli until Kitchener and company decided to Cut their a a the evacuation was splendid. Not an Allied Soldier was lost. Everyone said that if the invasion had been planned with one tenth the precision and cooperation Given to the withdrawal it would have been a smashing Success. Blood for blood each Side suffered about a Quarter million Overall casualties though the turks lost Many More dead. By other standards it was an altogether wretched outcome for the allies. Hart would write Quot thus ended a sound and farsighted venture. Wrecked by a Chain of errors hardly to be rivalled in British history. Quot yet if the failure was that of individual leaders the fault was that of a system which. Preferred Safe men to men who were bold in thought and Gen. Sir William Robertson who had been Kitchener a chief of staff called it a Quot wonderful example of gallantry and endurance by men and a calamitous display of mismanagement by Marshall concluded that Quot Gallipoli was indeed a rare Opportunity which fully exploited and. Supported at All Levels might have won limitless though once viewed As the easy Scapegoat of Gallipoli history largely reversed that harsh judgment of Churchill. Quot brilliantly conceived catastrophically executed. If Only his hands had not been fettered Quot was the verdict of Many analysts. Quot the War would have ended two years earlier thousands of lives would have been saved Quot lamented others. If if. The reality was that the monstrous meat machine that was world War i kept grinding poor soldiers into the heaving Earth until the last bloody minutes of the last bloody hour. If Gallipoli had any redeeming feature it served to Sharpen the amphibious instincts of leaders of another epic invasion from the sea on a june Day in 1944. And this time there would be no sleeping generals no splendid evacuation. No bloody ifs. 2,1990 the stars and stripes a a a Page 15
