gallipoli - dardanelles

[italo]

Hello all.

I'm new in the forum, so I hope this topic hasn't already come up. If it has, please bear with me and I would really appreciate directions to where I can find the info on the forum.

I'm currently researching a few topics concerning the Gallipoli campaign in 1915, and am particularly interested in mapping the positions of certain elements during the first month (roughly) of the fighting, and particularly in the French sector.

So, I wonder if you could help me with the following:

1) a detailed map of the battlefield. I have found a number of maps on the Internet, but they are not detailed enough.

I have often come up with the following in various French war diaries: 169 - g - 4, 168 - z- 4, and the likes. They are obviously coordinates, but could anyone tell me where these positions are? Does anyone have a map with this info?

2) I'm also trying to map out the positions of any (any size) medical unit (especially in the French sector, but also British, though only in the first week of the campaign). Can anyone help me with this?

3) There is one particular place that sometimes crops up in various diaries and that I am unable to find on any map. The name is rather generic but apparently was quite well-known among the French: le petit ravin (the small/little ravine). I suppose it was called "petit" in contrast with the "grand ravin", which I think was the Kerevez dere ravine - but I'm not sure. I would really appreciate any info on either.

Thank you for your attention and eventual help with this.

[The Plummed Goose]

Dear italo,

welcome to the forum.

I do have a few french maps which I am happy to share with you. E-mail me and I'll send them. Size is too big to post them here.

As for your questions :

a) there are two (artillery ??) maps but with different numberings. One gives the Kerevez Dere area in square 18 and the other map in square 169. The second one is the one mentioned in your war dairies. I have a picture of this map. Although not detailed it will give you an idea of what the dairy is talking about. Maybe somebody alse can explain the reason of these two totally different numbered maps ...

cannot help you at all.

c) Up till your question I had never heard of petit et grand ravin (although I have read a number of french works) and would have made the same conclusion as you did : the "grand" must be kerevezdere and the "petit" a nearby smaller one : wrong !!! I discovered both petit and grand on a french trenchmap and they are located alot closer to s beach near boyau central and boyau nord nr 2. Again e-mail me and I'll send you the map.

eric

[MartinWills]

You will find an overview of the medical units in the British Official Medical History (Gallipoli is, I think, volume four of the Campaign specific volumes). The four campaign volumes are currently being reprinted.

For detailed maps you will need to use a variety of archives such as the National archives at Kew (yes, they do have french maps) and the (on-line) French National Archives.

There is also a DVD of Gallipoli Maps available from the Western Front Association (see their website).

[italo]

Thank you Martin and Eric for your invaluable attention.

Please excuse my late reply but I have a few problems connecting to the Internet.

Martin, I was wondering if there's anything of the British Official Medical History online?

Eric: I would be immensely grateful if you could let me have the maps in question, really. I would like to send you a private message with my email but my control panel says I may not. So I'll contact the moderators to find out how to do it and then I'll get back to you.

EDit: I've just decided to give you the email immediately as I need the maps so please send everything to: adrysa[AT]infinito.it (substitute the [AT] with @).

Thank you both for your help, really appreciated.

Italo

[MartinWills]

Yes, you can find some of the British Medical History on-line but not the General History Volume which relates to Gallipoli (General History Vol. 4). You best hope is an archive or the British Library OR an inter library loan OR order a copy of the reprint which should be available soon.