Turkish 57th Regiment

[Guest Tosun Saral]

57th Regiment fought in 1911 at Trablusgarb. (todays Libya)

57th Regiment fought in Canakkale War and lost entire men.

57th Regiment reastablished with new men and fought in Palastine, in Karabag and Karasu of Azerbayjan, in Kirkuk.

57th Regiment fought in 1922 at Sakarya battlefield againts the invading Greeks.

57th Regiment fought in Cyprus in 1973

57th Regiments is everwhere.

We are the soldiers of 57th Regiment.

57th Infantry Regiment of the 19th Division

Mustafa Kemal's leadership of Turkish troops at Anzac during two crucial periods was of great importance.

1- The Battle of the Landing (25 April-3 May)

When the Australians first landed they encountered small bodies of Turks who, after doing what they could, withdrew back over the ridges. The main Turkish forces in the area had been held in reserve to see just where the British Empire troops were going to land on the peninsula. By 6.30 am a report had reached the commander of the Turkish 19th Division, Colonel Mustafa Kemal, that an enemy force had scaled the heights at Ari Burnu. Kemal’s troops were at Bigali, a small village off to the east beyond the main range, and he ordered his whole division to prepare to march to the coast. He himself set off riding at the head of the 57th Regiment. By about 9.30 am Kemal stood at Chunuk Bair with some other officers. He could see the British warships and transports off Anzac Cove and also, coming rapidly up the hill towards him, a group of Turkish soldiers who had been tasked with defending Hill 261 (Battleship Hill). Kemal spoke to them:

"Why are you running away?"

‘Sir, the enemy’, they said.

‘Where?’

‘Over there’, they said, pointing out hill 261.

In fact a line of skirmishers of the enemy approached hill 261 and was advancing completely unopposed. Now just consider the situation. I had left my troops, so as to give them ten minutes’ rest. The enemy had come to this hill. It meant the enemy was nearer to me than my troops were, and if the enemy came to where I was my troops would find themselves in a very difficult position. Then, I still don’t know what it was, whether a logical appreciation or an instinctive action, I do not know. I said to the men who were running away,

‘You cannot run away from the enemy.’

‘We have got no ammunition’, they said.

‘If you haven’t got any ammunition, you have your bayonets’, I said, and shouting to them, I made them fix their bayonets and lie down on the ground. At the same time I sent the orderly officer beside me off to the rear to bring up to where I was at the double those men of the infantry regiment who were advancing on Chunuk Bair who could reach it in time. When the men fixed their bayonets and lay down on the ground the enemy also lay down. The moment of time that we gained was this one ….. It was about 10.00 hours when the 57th Regiment began its attack.

During the Battle of the Landing, Kemal has been credited with one of the most famous orders issued to Turkish troops during the whole campaign –

‘I don’t order you to attack, I order you to die. In the time which passes until we die other troops and commanders can take our place’.

57 regiment attaced the enemy. They all died.

[Eceabat]

Dear Tosun,

without wishing to ruin a good legend, or to criticise the record of a fine unit, not all of the 57th regiment's men died during the Gallipoli Campaign of 1915. I can name one immediately, the battalion commamder Zeki Bey, who spent nearly two weeks on the Peninsula with the Australian historian Charles Bean in early 1919. It is also somewhat unrealistic to believe that all men of the regiment died. I mean, none were wounded, evacuated and later found to no longer be fit for active service?

And while mentioning the great record of the 57th, let us not forget that the 27th regiment of the Ottoman army was in action long before the men of Mustafa Kemal's division entered the fray. It was the 27th that provided the outposts that first came into contact with the Australian troops landing at Ariburnu and the regiments remaining two battalions came into action before the 57th had arrived on its forced march from Bigali.

It was these two regiments that did most of the fighing on the first day in the Ariburnu sector, though the two other regiments of Kemal's division, the 72nd and the 77th, both mainly made up of Arab soldiers, were also on the field.

Cheers

Bill

[Guest Tosun Saral]

Dear Tosun,

without wishing to ruin a good legend, or to criticise the record of a fine unit, not all of the 57th regiment's men died during the Gallipoli Campaign of 1915. I can name one immediately, the battalion commamder Zeki Bey, who spent nearly two weeks on the Peninsula with the Australian historian Charles Bean in early 1919. It is also somewhat unrealistic to believe that all men of the regiment died. I mean, none were wounded, evacuated and later found to no longer be fit for active service?

And while mentioning the great record of the 57th, let us not forget that the 27th regiment of the Ottoman army was in action long before the men of Mustafa Kemal's division entered the fray. It was the 27th that provided the outposts that first came into contact with the Australian troops landing at Ariburnu and the regiments remaining two battalions came into action before the 57th had arrived on its forced march from Bigali.

It was these two regiments that did most of the fighing on the first day in the Ariburnu sector, though the two other regiments of Kemal's division, the 72nd and the 77th, both mainly made up of Arab soldiers, were also on the field.

Cheers

Bill

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Dear Bill, You are right. 27 was there. Here is a picture of 27th. War Minister Enver Pasha decorating the banner of 27th for its bravery againts enemy.

With my best wishes

[stevenbecker]

Mate,

I was wondering which unit of the Turkish Army served in Zenica Bosnia during 1994-95.

During that time I stayed for a number of days with them on and off over two years there but never got to ask them what unit they belonged to.

I did ran into a fellow aussie in your army who of Turkish heritage had returned home and was picked up and put in the army for his national service which he had missed while living in Australia.

Cheers

S.B

[Guest Tosun Saral]

Dear Bill, You are right. 27 was there. Here is a picture of 27th. War Minister Enver Pasha decorating the banner of 27th for its bravery againts enemy.

With my best wishes

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sorry Bill every time I try to scan the picture I can not send. I will try again. On the other hand I am the lier of our school books. In schools we all tought that all 57 from water boy to commander was killed after that attack. As you know there is a monument (sehitlik) for 57 and its commander Manastirli Huseyin Avni Bey at Kanlisirt. There is a story about 57: After the dead of all soldiers the last one who was dying put the banner of 57 on a tree branch. later Aussies found the banner and it is now in a military museum in Melbourne. The 57 was also awarded with a madal of honour as 27. In "Harp Mecmuası" War Magazine there is no photo of that ceremony but 27th.

With my best wishes

Tosun Saral

an official page of Turkish National Assembly:

http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:KpvmqW...i+Alay%22&hl=tr

[Guest Tosun Saral]

Mate,

I was wondering which unit of the Turkish Army served in Zenica Bosnia during 1994-95.

During that time I stayed for a number of days with them on and off over two years there but never got to ask them what unit they belonged to.

I did ran into a fellow aussie in your army who of Turkish heritage had returned home and was picked up and put in the army for his national service which he had missed while living in Australia.

Cheers

S.B

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Dear Steve, I hope this will inform you:

http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:kWyg_V...rs+Zenica&hl=tr

[The Plummed Goose]

Dear Steve,

Interesting ... There is a movie (comedy) "He's in the army now" (O şimdi asker) where there is a father & son (immigrants of Turkish origin) who came to Turkey all the way from "down under" to do their "service". I thought it a little over the top then but now you proved it to be right !!!

eric

PS : Good fun movie with a part in Galipoli where they visit the grave of the son's ggf (his mother is Australian)

[stevenbecker]

Mates,

Thanks for that.

I wasn't aware there were still troops there.

I left in 1996 having spent two years there with IFOR taking over things I didn't think they would still be there ten years later.

Yes the story of the aussie/Turkish soldier is true. I got the shock of my life when this bloke knocked on the door of my truck, while waiting to unload UN stores at Zenica in 1994.

He said that most of the Turkish soldiers at Zenica were doing part of there National service in Bosnia.

He had lived in aussie all his life and was about twenty years old but of Turkish heritige and went back to Turkey to visit relations when he was picked up by the Police and put in the Army.

I wonder if this bloke wrote a book about this and they made that movie out of it?

Cheers

S.B

[The Plummed Goose]

Dear Steve,

The movie is about some 20 "characters" doing their "belated" service. All of them have their own "story" (problems) and in fact the movie (again its a comedy with social-political "black" humour and critisism on the country and some of its problems)

The "Australians" are just one the many and the highlight (to me at least) is this visit to the GGF of the son at Gallipoli ... To me it is "funny" because both of them are "Turkish soldiers" ...

eric

[Guest Tosun Saral]

Dear Steve,

The movie is about some 20 "characters" doing their "belated" service.  All of them have their own "story" (problems) and in fact the movie (again its a comedy with social-political "black" humour and critisism on the country and some of its problems)

The "Australians" are just one the many and the highlight (to me at least) is this visit to the GGF of the son at Gallipoli ... To me it is "funny" because both of them are "Turkish soldiers"  ...

eric

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Friends, I think our dear friend Plummed Goose forget to mention that the 2 characters of the movie (son & father) are from Australia. father imigrated to Australia but has still have Turkish citizenship. He married to an Australian lady. She gave him a son. Son has also Turkish citizenship. But araised like a true Australian by her mother. Son can not speak a single word Turkish. father is patriotic and is very proud of his Turkish nationality. For son it is equal if he is Turkish or Australian. For that reason father is always angry. At last they come to Turkey for military service. Fortunately they enlist in the same company. During the service father and son understands each other better and became close friends, comrades and father and son. This service was a short service for 3 months. After military service before goıing to Australia they visit the grave of the mothers grandfather who was killed at Gallipoli.

with best wishes

Tosun Saral

Leutenant of Reserve, Signal Corps