TURKEY OTTOMAN EMPIRE

[Kath]

Is this description of the Gallipoli campaign the ebay seller's own, or quoted?

Item number: 6606116771

http://cgi.ebay.com/TURKEY-OTTOMAN-EMPIRE-...1QQcmdZViewItem

Kath.

[DrB]

Kath...my source says War Medal, sometimes referred to as the Turkish Star, the Gallipoli Star, the Eiserner Halbmond, etc.

It is a decortion, not a general service award. It was pinned (no suspension ribbon) to the left side. Apparently it was awarded to Turkish armed forces and allies. It was crudely made but other varieties are found, undoubtedly privately made for officers. this appears to one of those.

Basically, appears legit, although copies are frequently found (British made)

DrB

[Neil Burns]

Although there is only on class to this award there are two very different varieties found. Those actually awarded by the Ottoman Empire are a low-quality medal with the star painted (often crudely) red.

German & Austro-Hungarian soldiers awarded the decoration often purchased better made enamel pieces privately from jewellers after the war.

Within these enameled pieces there are those that are reverse marked BB& co. depending on your source, these are either viewed as collector copies or as better-made pieces produced in Turkey (and thus just as semi-official as the other enamel pieces).

The enamel ones are very attractive, I recently sold one of these myself.

Neil

[Kath]

Thank you, DrB.

I was wondering about his views, further down the page:

"The Land Campaign: Introduction.

They generals thought they could do the job in three days. Land on the Gallipoli peninsula, clear it of Turks and disable the seaward defences. With a bit of luck it could all be accomplished in 72 hours. They failed too, and at a much greater cost in lives than the naval assault. For 259 days, from April 1915 to January 1916, the allied forces hung on to their toeholds on Gallipoli. A total of about 500,000 men were landed there over the course of the campaign and almost 300,000 of them became casualties. For the Turks it was a great victory and marked the time they successfully stood against the greatest empire the world had ever seen. It threw up Mustapha Kemal, an obscure divisional commander, and propelled him on the road that would lead him to become the ‘Father of the Nation?E For the Australians it would provide the sacrifice that tempered their newly-forged nation in blood. For the British it was just another fiasco in a war full of them. "

etc.

Kath.

[DrB]

Kath....cannot, will not comment on the land campaign landing and/or casualties.

But it is understood that the Gallipoli campaign was a disaster from start to finish, again communications failure brought to naught the successes gained by so much blood and courage, Brits, ANZAC's and French.

It was a great blunder and the Turkish government was entirely correct in awarding their pin-on decoration.

I have absolutely no reservations in seeing that award promugated. Mores the pity that it didn't go to many more of the poor, unfed and overdisciplined Johnny Turks.

DrB