how many of us are interested in gallipoli?

[Guest certo]

hello to you all

whit i wuld like to know is how many o us on the forum are interested in gallipoli peninsula?

and what makes gallipoli special to you?,another question is how many o our members hae a relative who fell in gallipoli

regards

tuna

Gallipoli is specail to me as my grandads uncle john william buckle died there. He was is the yorkhire regt 6bn.

[Guest pongo]

what makes gallipoli special to me is that my g/father was out there and I can still remember some of the horror stories that he told me. I think this was one of the worst areas of war out of the entire war.

Pongo

[Grimesy1967]

I am going to post the transcript of my step-great grandfathers diary of Gallipoli June 1915 on a new thread. I hope it gives a great insight to some of you and would welcome your thoughts on the content.

Cheers

Chris

[Tuntun]

I'm particularly interested in Gallipoli because three of my great great uncles (all brothers) served there with the Cheshires. All survived (though two did suffer wounds they both fully recovered). I also have an interest in the naval aspects of the campaign.

Martin

[Lynn Sharpe]

I'm interested in Gallipoli as my father fought there with the 5th Battalion The Norfolk Regiment, he was part of 163rd Brigade, 54th Division. This brigade took a pasting by the Turks on 12 August 1915. Thankfully my father survived or I wouldn't be writing this post!

[bob lembke]

I'm interested in Gallipoli as my father also fought there. He volunteered in Germany to serve in the volunteer Pioneer Company serving with the Turkish Fifth Army, and was given some money to purchase a set of civilian clothes. Turning in all his military kit, he snuck through the hostile Balkans. (I know about as much about the trip as I do about his service there.) It seems that he served on the ANZAC front, from his descriptions. He was not wounded, but contracted malaria.

He loved the Turks, and felt that, in terms of morale, not technical skill, they were about the best troops he encountered in the war, with the sole exception of the two top-rank German storm troop formations he served in. (He did not think much of most German troops and the Allied troops he encountered, which was probably unfair. He served the rest of the war as a flamethrower operator, and was wounded four times, and probably survived the war by spending much more time in hospital than at the front. He also fought in Berlin in the civil war in 1919, in the Freikorps.)

I recently sold a small apartment house to a young Turk here in Philadelphia. I knew him slightly, before he showed up for the initial inspection of the property (we were both very surprised and amused when he turned up with an estate agent). He made many special concessions that probably in summation cost him and benefited me to a total of $75,000. He told the estate agent that he did it as I knew more about Turkish history than he did, which I clearly doubt. (The estate agent was perplexed when the fellow showed up and we laughed and exchanged pleasantries in Turkish.) The fellow also knew that my father was able to help run guns to Turkey in the 1920's when the Greeks were driving into Turkish areas and no one in the West would give them to time of day.

It was interesting and fun to benefit from my father's service in Turkey over 90 years ago. He would be very pleased.

Bob Lembke

[gillianzz]

The Gallipoli legend is part and parcel of being a New Zealander. However, I've always had a slightly different perspective to a lot of my fellow Kiwis because of the far flung nature of my family and thanks to my father being a Scot, I'm always reminded by him on Anzac day what a price his countrymen paid there which almost never gets mentioned here in NZ.

My Grandfather was with the First Maori Contingent of the NZEF and landed at Gallipoli early July. He worked primarily as a labourer to begin with. As the campaign went on, he was transferred to the Canterbury Battalion and fought alongside them. He survived the war and was discharged in 1919.

My mother's uncle was killed at Gallipoli while serving with the AIF under an assumed name as he'd jumped ship a couple of years before the war began. The good people of this forum helped me find his true identity a couple of weeks ago, which had been a family mystery for decades.

Lastly, my father's uncle served with the Royal Naval Division, at Anzac Cove. He survived, but was so badly wounded at Gallipoli he was never able to work again.

[Garside]

I am interested in Gallipoli as my great Uncle served there and also because i believe it truly revealed to the world Australia's value, mateship.

[Guest Eunice B]

I am very interested in the Gallipoli campaign. my Grandfather emigrated to Australia 1912/1913, my Grandmother , mother and aunt were supposed to follow. He had served 12 years in the British Royal Navy and had been invalided out with rheumatism. He joined the AIF in 1914, under the alias "Patrick Lyons", (his mother's maiden surname) and dropped his age by several years, (he was born 1878 in Blackrock, Co. Cork, Eire, his real name was Joseph John O'Keeffe.) He also stated he was unmarried.

He was killed 8 August 1915 and is commemmorated on the Lone Pine Memorial.

Gunner Patrick Lyons, Australian Field Artillery 1st Bde, Service No. 3967. Memorial Ref 11.

He joined with a friend of his, Thomas McInerney, also Irish, from County Clare. Mr. McInerney survived and returned to Australia.

[Karvinen]

I'm interested in Gallipoli, though don't have any direct family ties, so far as I know. An adoptive grandfather "was said" to have served with the Australians there, and certainly appears to have been an Australian Military Forces officer at some point. But he also seems to have served with the RFC, which leaves me confused

Be that as it may, I'm interested in Gallipoli

[bobcso75]

this is a subject close to my heart ,as my great grandad served with r.m.l.i at gallipoli and i have his personal diary from this period, it makes me so proud to read this . it lists ships of the coast,ships torpedoed and general day to day things as he puts it ,but hell i wouldnt want that day to day stuff its quite graphicin places but so matter of fact . hes my hero

bob

[Guest tafski]

my intrest in gallipolli my great uncle serving with the 8th Cameronian Scotish Rifles spent 12 hours there KIA W beach, never to see his 19th birthday

tafski

[johnshep]

Interesting to read what makes Gallipoli special for other contributors. In my case the interest arises from my father who served in the Dorset Yeomanry and got his very first taste of active service in the attack on Scimitar Hill on 21 August. Not that he was a combatant; having had a certain amount of medical and first aid training prior to enlistment he was one of the regiment's 6 nominated stretcher bearers during the campaign and therefore went into that particular action to save lives rather than take them.

His reminiscences in the Liddle archive attest that in the 36 hours following 21 August the stretcher bearers were repeatedly required to go over the top to recover wounded. My father maintains that the Turks deliberately withheld fire when they identified stretcher bearers. In listening to his accounts of the campaign during his lifetime I never once heard him speak ill of the Turks, and I think that sums it up for me - amonst all the terrible carnage there was something about the place that brought out both the best and the worst in men.

Oh yes, and the epitaph on the headstone of an under-age ANZAC soldier that brings a lump to my throat every time I recall it - 'He arrived a boy, he died a man'.

John

[elle72]

My interest in Gallipoli stems from the fact that at that moment in time, the Australian identity took shape. I am also fascinated by the battle of the Nek and the fate of the 8th and 10th ALH. After the first wave was mown down, I don't know how the rest had the courage to go over the top knowing they would face certain death. I have no idea what that situation would be like, or, how I would behave if I was in the same scenario. I am afraid I would fall short.

[west coast]

my intrest in gallipoli surfaced at anzac day period 07 when my nine yr old grandson who lives with us, came home fom school and asked me was my dad in ww1 or ww2. i told him that my dad was in ww2 but his g g grandad was in ww1 [they obviously had a lesson from the teacher on anzac day]. at the time i knew my grandad had been in the boer war but i didn`t know he was in ww1. as it turned out he had served on gallipoli , salonika,egypt ,and france. since then i have received his medals, found his grave,placed a headstone to give him recognition and respect. so the gallipoli connection really opened this family connection that had been lost for fifty yrs. ..... mike.

[bob lembke]

Interesting to read what makes Gallipoli special for other contributors. In my case the interest arises from my father who served in the Dorset Yeomanry and got his very first taste of active service in the attack on Scimitar Hill on 21 August. Not that he was a combatant; having had a certain amount of medical and first aid training prior to enlistment he was one of the regiment's 6 nominated stretcher bearers during the campaign and therefore went into that particular action to save lives rather than take them.

His reminiscences in the Liddle archive attest that in the 36 hours following 21 August the stretcher bearers were repeatedly required to go over the top to recover wounded. My father maintains that the Turks deliberately withheld fire when they identified stretcher bearers. In listening to his accounts of the campaign during his lifetime I never once heard him speak ill of the Turks, and I think that sums it up for me - amonst all the terrible carnage there was something about the place that brought out both the best and the worst in men.

Oh yes, and the epitaph on the headstone of an under-age ANZAC soldier that brings a lump to my throat every time I recall it - 'He arrived a boy, he died a man'.

John

John, you may be the first other Pal who says his dad served at Gallipoli, not his g-g-f. I think I have mentioned this before (months ago) on this thread, my father fought at Gallipoli, but with the Turks. He volunteered to go, got rigged up in civvie clothes, and snuck across the largely hostile Balkans to get to Turkey, where he served at the ANZAC beachhead. He had the highest opinion of the Turkish troops, not their technical preparation, of course, but their spirit, he felt that they were the best troops he encountered in the was, with the exception of the men of two elite German storm units that he served in later in the war.

Incidently, last year I sold a building, four apartments and a store, and the purchaser was a young Turk, perhaps 27 years old. He knew me slightly, and knew that my father volunteered to fight with the Turks, and in the deal with the building he "threw me a couple of bones" that probably put another $75,000 in my pocket, citing "my knowledge of Turkish history", but I am sure that he meant my father's service. He also knew that my father ran guns to the Turks in the early 1920's, when the Greeks were invading deep into Anatolia and no one would tell the Turks the time of day.

Bob Lembke

[johnshep]

Bob

Its a great pleasure to have identified another forum member whose father (rather than grandfather, great grandfather...) was a participant, and even more so that our respective fathers were on opposing sides. My father was well into his 40's when he eventually took the plunge and got married and I sometimes wonder whether at the age of 69 I might be the youngest son of a Gallipoli veteran. Maybe you might be able to challenge that claim?

As I mentioned in my earlier post, my father had huge respect for the Turks and I know it would have given him particular pleasure to think of the comradeship that exists on the forum amongst contributors from all participating armies, and indeed from succeeding generations too.

Yours aye

John

[Lynn Sharpe]

I think I may have you beat on being the youngest person born to a Gallipoli veteran. My father was in his 58th year when I was born. I was born in 1952. He was in the 5th Battalion Norfolk Regiment and was in the same Battalion where the men from the Royal Sandringham Estate allegedly disappeared at Gallipoli. I've just moved back to his home county of Norfolk.

Cheers, FHA

[johnshep]

Well done FHA - the honours go to you on this one. See you in Gallipoli in 2015 perhaps?

John

[bob lembke]

I think I may have you beat on being the youngest person born to a Gallipoli veteran. My father was in his 58th year when I was born. I was born in 1952. He was in the 5th Battalion Norfolk Regiment and was in the same Battalion where the men from the Royal Sandringham Estate allegedly disappeared at Gallipoli. I've just moved back to his home county of Norfolk.

Cheers, FHA

My father was 18 1/2 when he served at Gallipoli, and almost 43 when I was born, so I am 68 1/2 now. So you win the big banana.

Bob

[PBI]

My G.Father Rifleman 1968 James Ford 11th (Finsbury Rifles) Battalion The London Regiment,served at Gallipoli.

[Lynn Sharpe]

Well done FHA - the honours go to you on this one. See you in Gallipoli in 2015 perhaps?

John

I certainly would be thrilled to visit Gallipoli in 2015 - so who knows?

I'd love to pay my father the honour of visiting the place where he lost so many of his mates/comrades. He was lucky and survived Gallipoli although he was wounded in action during the 2nd Battle of Gaza.

Cheers, FHA

[Peter Doyle]

Gallipoli is one of the most moving battlefields I have ever visited, and I've visited quite a lot (like many of us). It's both beautiful and tragic. As a geologist interested in how terrain affects battles, I've made a study of the terrain there, (and have dipped my toe into the literature of the campaign here and there) and am struck by the audacity of the military campaign as a whole. And lots of 'what ifs' hang over Gallipoli, perhaps more than in any other theatre, and this keeps it alive. When you visit the place, it kind of haunts you - I don't know why

And, I've got to be frank, the fact that most of the public (i.e. public with little knowledge of the campaign) are surprised that there were any British soldiers there at all (typical comment, received the other day: 'my uncle was in the Royal Artillery, at Gallipoli. I don't know what he was doing there? Wasn't it just Australians?) means that there is a job to be done in helping commemorate the efforts of all forces committed. Having attended the Dawn Ceremony at Anzac, I have a sadness that the events at Helles are more low key, if there are any at all.

So special, yes; interested, most certainly...

Peter

[sommelion]

Gallipoli is a special place to me because my granfather died there

It was a nice documentary peter!

[Lynn Sharpe]

I enjoyed Peter's post too. Well done! I've yet to visit Gallipoli so it's good to hear what it's like there.

Cheers, FHA