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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

ANZAC Cove Destroyed !


Guest CGI

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I agree with you Michael, but I have found it sad that some members of this forum have accused those that care for the future of the Gallipoli battlefields as among other things, being precious, lacking humility, proportion and balance.

It will be a very sad day if in the future we just buried our heads in the sand.

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In 1989, Phil Taylor and Pam Cupper published their 'Gallipoli Battlefield Guide', still much better than any other guide that has been thrown onto the market since.

In a newspaper article, they have now expressed their feelings about what is going on in the Peninsula :

http://wimmera.yourguide.com.au/display.asp?class=news

and then choose the article "Gallipoli work appals" of 22/03/2005.

Interesting reading.

CGI

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Geoff S-

Thanks for the link, a great lecture. I'd recommend anyone with broadband to make a cup of tea, pull up a chair and listen to L A Carlyon, it's fascinating and in an even handed way, sums up what Gallipoli means to Australians.

Mark

PS- and then buy his excellent book!

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Thanks Mark.

FYI- Access via broadband is not required to listen to this lecture. (Dial-up will suffice)

I would encourage anyone who truly wants a greater understanding of what Gallipoli means to Australians in general to read or listen to this lecture. Carlyon makes some very astute comments.- apart from all his sniffing.

Cheers

Geoff S

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Very many thanks for that link Geoff

some very astute analysis there by LC

I found his talk enthralling

Thanks again

Michael D.R.

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Geoff

Les says it all. Whenever some-one asks Why Gallipoli???, the best reply would be to refer to that link! Thank you.

As another "Precious" Australian, I was sickened by the desecration of Anzac Cove.

But there are a number of options WE can follow:-

1 Make a balanced complaint to those who's incompetence caused it

2 Take a holier than thou stance and waffle-on about point-scoring or some other triviality

3 Do something meaningful OURSELVES.

Many of us have shot off the e-mails to the pollies etc, and will be indignant when they reply using the same format as they trotted out for the Villers-Brettoneux Chateau. But it does give us a warm glow inside to have done Something.

Hopefully option 3 might eat away at our insides.

Anzac Day is revving up early this year, maybe helped by the desecration issue, but some off-beat items are surfacing. Comment has been made about the disappearance of some of the Avenues of Honour which were such a feature of Western Victoria. In an amazing co-incidence many of these special memorials have succumbed to road-widening & alignment projects. In Footscray a "Soldiers Memorial" bought & dedicated by the returned soldiers themselves, has been hidden & the German Trophy Howitzer has disappeared without trace. The avenue trees have also gone.

Now there is an opportunity for some-one with fire in their belly.

But a word of caution. A peace park remembering anyone from anywhere who had a bad time during their life is a much more feasible proposition .

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The kid who accidentally started the fire at Gallipoli in 1995 got hard jail time.

What's going to happen to the politicians who've allowed this to happen?

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Take back all I said cant bare reading it anymore so I have deleted it :ph34r:

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6th Hauraki KIA KAHA,

The fact that this board, 'Battlefields in danger', exists, implies that a lot of people do care and can see what all the fuss is about.

Four officers and a lot of men from the Haurakis died on 25th April 1915 at Anzac, and a great number more throughout the campaign. Most of their bodies were never recovered, and it's possible that roads and carparks are being built on them, as well as on all the others who have no known graves.

It'll be a sad day when the number killed is the only criteria for deciding that a battlefield is worth preserving. Hmm, let's see - only 160,000 died at Gallipoli. Well, sorry, that's officially not enough to care about.

Whaka tangata kia kaha (Canoe men be brave), because your resting place is standing in the way of 'progress' and a lot of people can't see what the fuss is about.

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Ok maybe I should have said that another way.

The roads are being built for the propose for people to gain access so we can remember the fallen they are not building a supermarket or theme park it is just for access.

My great grand father was a company Sergeant Major of Australian Signals at Gallipoli

and my other great grandfather was a Corporal in 6th Hauraki

There was no disrespect for the fallen.

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I believe the feeling of "pilgrimage" when visiting Anzac Cove is more akin to restricting the access of vehicles to the site.

And I would have thought that the roads/parking lots could have been situated in more appropriate places, or more work could have done to restrict the damage which it appears to have been done to the site.

I think respect or remembrance for the site where the men fought & died of equal importance. Otherwise,, we only be left with books, images & artifacts.

Cheers

Geoff S

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Guest angryhamster

Here is a view of a Turk if you will! I have lived seeing history slip from our hands either for the sake of dams, housing or hotels. The history I am talking is ancient in most cases. Now the same attitude has got to recent history, that of the Gallipoli Campaign, for the sake of visitors’ comfort and convenience.

Well, that is why we should all speak since we are this time cited as the reason for these works. Please do NOT do this on my behalf. Why? I do not think that either those who fell in the campaign nor those who fought had much comfort then. When we visit the site do we want to see what they went through, what a hell warfare can be like? I want to.

I think preserving this site, which was unspoiled yet accessible (do not worry visitors) is the only way of comprehending it. Especially as we Turks have not done our homework, do not have many books or written accounts and are desperately in need of preserving the battlefields if we want to learn about the campaign.

Well, in my view, when it comes to history, it is not only in Turkey’s hands and from experience let it not please be so since history is for all of us and all people. This history, and these battlefields, do not just belong to us, we owe it to future generations to pass this legacy on.

Serpil Karacan Sellars

Eceabat

Turkey

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For the information of forum members

The latest update on the situation around ANZAC Cove. All vehicle access to the coastal region has been banned by Turkish authorities as of Sunday to allow contractors to lay the asphalt for the new seven to eight metre wide road above the Cove.

It is expected that the road work, or at least most of it, will be completed in time for Australian Prime Minister John Howard’s visit on 25 April. A few others, hopefully who have a greater interest in history than asphalt, will also be in attendance.

Grading and excavations for the road widening has extended to Embarkation Pier Cemetery to the north and to near the CWGC zone boundary marker to the south.

The car parks at Ariburnu and at the mouth of Shrapnel Gully have been completed and look a treat, that is if you like cobble stones and concrete in place of history.

For those who like a touch of humour with their desecration, the life expectance of the new road, based on recent experience, is three weeks. New road works at Kilia Liman, on the Dardanelles side of the Peninsula, completed in time for Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan’s visit on 18 March, have started to break up and pot hole and are being repaired by maintenance crews. The ANZAC Cove road should last until John Howard flies out.

I hope to walk in to the Cove area in the next few days and will hopefully post photos of the beautification project.

Bill Sellars

Eceabat

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Thanks for the link Ozzie.

I saw the renewed media coverage of what is happening on the Gallipoli battlefields and also the news about the skull of what is believed to be an Australian soldier on display in a museum in Papua New Guinea.

Is it just me or is it interesting that while the Australian Minister of Veterans’ Affairs was too busy to comment on the devastation at ANZAC Cove she was able to come out with a statement on the PNG issue. Of course, the government managed to come up with a favourable result on that one.

I wonder if she could find time to comment on the human remains on display in the Gabatepe Museum just to the south of the Ariburnu battlefields, some of which are of Allied soldiers (not many Ottoman soldiers died in the waters of ANZAC Cove and had their bones washed up years later encrusted with sea crustaceans). Mind you, I find the showcasing of human remains of any side distasteful.

Bill

Eceabat

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After what has happened I'd be happy for the government to be dropped in Antartica to have a serious think about what they have done! Not being allowed to use force, that, I think, is about as good a punishment that I can think of.

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Sorry, can’t agree with you Ozzie. What, drop Howard and his merry crew in Antarctica and risk having them ruin an entire continent?

Bill

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