Bombardment of 17th December 1915

[michaeldr]

The information which I have been given (per a translation from the Viennese newspaper) is that in his letter to his late wife's relatives, Dr. Raghib names 'The Graf Hochberg Hospital' and describes it as being “20 minutes away from the main quarters.” The 20 minutes may reflect the timing for a journey made on horse back, as the doctor says that he rode to the hospital when he first heard the news about his wife. The “main quarters” which the doctor refers to are likely to have been the place “Goodwin was taken to …..well concealed in wooded country off the Bigalı-Yalova road.” (from Bern's article linked to previously)

Edited 3 July , 2022 by michaeldr

[Guest]

Mate,

 

Cheers

 

S.B

[michaeldr]

Steve has previously mentioned that he heard that the attack was by artillery fire, rather than by aerial bombardment, and there is such a reference in the paper 'THE HEALTH FRONT DURING THE GALLIPOLI CAMPAIGN' by Onur Ural 

 

“Yesterday afternoon, Yalova Hospital was attacked by cannon fire from the sea, in the guidance of a foreign plane. As a result of the attack, the 5th Army Health Deputy Ragip Bey, his wife and two soldiers were martyred. Please inform the authorities of the attack on our hospital which was marked with a Red Crescent”
[The reference for this is given as:- http://www.devletarsivleri.gov.tr/yayin/osmanli/canakkale_2/58.htm. Osmanlı
Belgelerinde Çanakkale Muharebeleri. Osmanlı Hilâl-i Ahmer Cemiyeti Merkez-I
Umumîsi. Aded: 3568/568. 18 Aralık 1915.]

 

The report was made the day after the attack and was intended for “the authorities” in Istanbul, who were to forward it on to the neutral American diplomatic representative, for him to pass to the Allies. This same report is also quoted in one of Harvey Broadbent's papers.

 

Despite being made within a day of the attack however, it does not sound as if it was made by an eyewitnessto the event

Ragip Bey was not martyred in the attack – from his letter we know that he was not even at the hospital at the time.

If this important detail is wrong, then what else is incorrect?

To my mind this also call into question other details including the description of the attack as being “from the sea, in the guidance of a foreign plane.” 

 

 

[michaeldr]

On 15/11/2019 at 15:21, michaeldr said:

I arrived late at the subject of the “German” nurse, a topic which has aroused interest far and wide over many years. Some recent research both in Turkey and Australia has moved us forward on this and thanks are due in particular to two who I think are not strangers to the GWF; Tosun Saral and Bern.

The former spotted that the nurse was in fact Austrian, and not German, and that an incorrect translation from the Ottoman script had previously mistakenly given her name as Erica. 
It was in fact Anna Schwarz and she was from Liesing, which today is a suburb of Vienna. (see https://germannursesofthegreatwar.wordpress.com/special-cases/)

There has also been a mistake in translating and/or converting her date of death; it was not 26th September, but rather the 17th December 1915. This is confirmed in a letter written by her husband, Dr Ragib Bey, to his late wife's relatives who had brought her up in Vienna after her parents had died: 

“My dear wife, who worked as a volunteer nurse in the German hospital of Graf Hochberg was suddenly fatally injured on 17th December by shell splinters.” 
The letter was reproduced in the Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung of  30 January 1916

Bern has unearthed an interesting corroboration of the December date of death, from a Australian artillery observer who was taken PoW after crashing while flying over Turkish positions on the peninsula. Please see https://aegeanairwar.com/articles/gunners-over-gallipoli and in particular the story of  Lieutenant Shirl Goodwin who was detached from 6th Battery, 2nd FAB, for duty as an observer with No. 2 Wing RNAS. Goodwin and his pilot, Flight Sub-Lieutenant Frank Besson (who did not survive) came down on 20th December 1915.

“Goodwin was kept four days at headquarters for questioning. Liman von Sanders was keen to learn more about the evacuation of Anzac and Suvla and the British plans for Helles, but the Australian was snubbed by Esad Pasha, the senior Ottoman commander. 
[He] refused to see me on the ground that I belonged to the air service which had just dropped a bomb on a hospital and killed the wife of the Surgeon General.”

 

Arriving a few days early before joining the Gallipoli Association's 'Hidden Gallipoli' tour in May this year, allowed me to get off the beaten track with some friends. Amongst other places, our trip took us by the cemetery near the village of Kumköy, and gave us the opportunity to pay our respects at the grave of Nurse Anna Schwarz.

 

[michaeldr]

The details below are taken from an article by Emre Saral which appeared in the 'Anafarta' magazine's Spring 2020 issue. The original interview with Dr Ragip Bey was first published in the Neues Wiener Journal of 25 January 1916.

Born in Nevrekop, near Thessaloniki in 1881, Dr. Hasan Ragip Bey took the surname 'Erensel' when the surname law was enacted in 1918. He died of a heart attack on January 6, 1953. Ragip Bey, a Bektashi Muslim, served as Ataturk's private doctor for many years.

He had met his wife (Anna Schwarz) 9 years before the war in Istanbul. “In the first three years of our marriage,” he said, “there was a constant friction between me and my wife. However, she would win every time. In these first years of our marriage, I left all my Turkish customs and traditions. Now it seems very difficult for me to be able to marry a Turkish woman after her death, because I got used to European life and moved away from the lifestyle of my homeland...”

Dr. Ragip narrated the moment of the British bombardment as follows:

“The nurses used to stay in tents in an area open to the wind. For this reason, it was then placed behind a hill. However, I saw that this new site was also directly vulnerable to enemy fire. I asked His Excellency von Sanders to make a more sheltered place for my wife and other nurses. However, His Excellency von Sanders did not approve of my request. I made a huge Red Pilgrimage sign on the nurses' place with my own hands. I thought the British would respect this Red Pilgrimage sign. But the sign of the Red Crescent did not mean anything to them.

Before the cannon fire of the British started, my wife must have gotten out of her tent to get something, and then a cannonball found her. It severed her right leg at the hip, it was instant. No other bruises were seen on his body…”

 

 

[translated using https://www.freetranslations.org/turkish-to-english-translation.html# - however, any mistakes in the reinterpretation are mine]

[stevenbecker]

Mate,

Thanks interesting.

I like the dig at Sanders, even after all those years he took time to stick it to the Germans.

If Sanders would take time from running his Army, to moving some nurses, when it was a job for the doctor or some other flunky

S.B.