Gallipoli : OOPS !

[Guest CGI]

Yes,

with Bridges' Road going down past the cemetery into what is the beginning of Monash Valley and Rest Gully in front of Plugge's and the Razor.

CGI

[PMHart]

Hi,

Concerned by the issue of the wrongly printed photo of Plugges Plateau in our book Defeat at Gallipoli I asked my chums in the Department of Photographs at the IWM (the source) to check it out as I must admit the accumulated evidence presented in this forum did seem to go against us. They found that both the copy print and the negative were printed as in the book - but in view of my concern kindly offered to check it by blowing up the print and examining the writing on the crates on the beach - missing from the version presented on the web. This of course confirmed CGI's contention that the print was back to front. They will now reprint the copy print and negative the correct way round to avoid luring other poor authors to their doom on the rocks of ignorance! If Defeat at Gallipoli is ever reprinted - unlikely at this stage - we will also ask the publishers to correct the error. Apparently the IWM do not have the original collection of photographs - it was copied from loan - and therefore we can't check who made the orginal error, but they are confident that some Cairo photgrapher reversed the image not caring a hoot which way round a British officers snaps were printed! None the less as CGI rightly pointed out we should have known better and didn't....

Thanks therefore to CGI for his altrusitic act in pointing out our egregious error and in particular for not making a big thing of it. Such a refreshing lack of arrogance is rare in chatrooms these days and I really appreciate his help. We all make mistakes and I make more than most,

Cheers,

Pete

[Dave Alton]

The wreck shown in the photos is a French battleship, however it is not the Bouvet. It is the Massena, which was deliberately scuttled as a breakwater (she was in poor condition, obsolete and was stripped of guns, equipment etc) for the evacuation, off Sedd-el Bahir on 9 Nov 1915.

The Bouvet sank in deep water in the Dardanelles after striking an Ottoman mine. This occurred off the Asiatic coast of the Dardanelles, not off the Peninsular. According to Turkish info supplied to M. Denham (see below) the wreck was still there 1979

Some photos are attached, the first from 'French Battleships 1876-1946'by R A Burt shows the Massena, after scuttling. The other from ‘Dardanelles: A Midshipman’s Diary’ by M Denham shows the Bouvet sinking.

[Dave Alton]

Here are the photos of Bouvet sinking. Sorry, if this and the other is a bit slow to load, they are larger than I realised.

Dave

[Guest CGI]

Turkey does not seem to feel at ease with all these Aussies coming back to Gallipoli on 25th April.

A bit of extra caution can never be bad.

CGI

[Bryn]

Jul,

What they REALLY NEED is the same sign in Turkish!

When you were you last there?

[leanes-trench]

This reminds of me the Kum Motel near Eceabat. Depending on the sign one reads, it's the Kum Motel, Motel Kum, Hotel Kum or Kum Hotel. It looks as if they learned their English from the Japanese.

leanes-trench

[jdajd]

Have nothing to add about the phots or mistakes in reference to Gallipoli, just an interesting note on photo flipping, which everyone probably knows already. Its about Billy the Kid. It was widely thought that Billy was left handed (Ever see the Newman movie Left Handed Gun?). The famous photo of him standing with his rifle shows his pistol on his left hip, where a lefty woud carry it. However it was discovered that the photo had actualy been flipped. If you look at the photo the loading port of this 1873 Winchester is on the left. This rifle was actually only made with the port on the right. This means that the shot is a negative and his gun is on his right hip. The idea that Billy was a lefty continues today even though it has been "proven" false.