The August Offensive....

Day #4: Saturday 16th April, 2011

Gallipoli: Cloudy with patches of sun, approx. 16 degrees

Staying at the Hotel Kum has been great. We were 'warned' early on that it was not a luxury hotel, but the staff are fantastic and we have been enjoying fantastic dinners and now breakfasts. Everyone loves a buffet!! So the water pressure is a bit dodgy....there is a lot of talk about living up to the 'ANZAC spirit'....or in other words: suck it up!

Off early in the morning to North Beach and the iconic 'ANZAC sign there. A few serious photos and then the ubiquitous 'Oh what a feeling' shot. It's good to be a bit light hearted at times as there is a concern that it will all get just tooooo overwhelming! For the kids AND the adults!!

From North Beach (currently looking like a football stadium in preparation for the Dawn Service) you can easily recognise such landmarks as the Sphinx. So many of the places here have the colourful names that our boys named them: Johnson's Jolly, Mule Gully and so on.

Along the way, we have found that the Turks are very interested in us and our Akubras. We have provided them with endless entertainment and are often greeted by the call “Anzac, Anzac”. Trying on our Akubras and getting photos taken with us seems to be the done thing. At various stages throughout our trip we have been offered varying amounts for out hats. It's funny, but we have all become VERY attached to our hats the further we continue on our trip.

We then headed to Embarkation Point where David conducted his commemorative service. As we passed New Zealand Post #2, Dean told us of how he and some mates discovered a skeleton whilst walking the hills and gullies. It was found in an area that the New Zealanders used for an offensive. When he told Commonwealth War Graves (CWG), they suggested he bury it. The skeleton is buried in a corner of the cemetery and is not listed as being there in the records. Another unknown soldier.

We then headed down to the beach to look at two of the landing craft that still lie in the water just of the shore. The first was too far out for us to get close to.

On the way back to the bus and to the second boat, we saw our first poppy. In the wild wind, almost impossible to take a photo of! The second boat was accessible and the metal shell still remains. It was used to resupply troops and to take the wounded out to the waiting hospital ships.

It was just amazing to touch the history here on the shore. That's perhaps the thing that has been really striking along the way: We are standing in a place of history; a place that saw the blood, sweat and tears of too many good young men – Australian, New Zealanders, Turks, Canadians, French, English, Welsh and Scotsmen. It's all very overwhelming!! A slight understatement!!

Today we paid homage to those who died during the August Offensive. Lone Pine. The Nek. Quinn's Post. Chunuck Bair. I've read about and taught students about these places. I now have a greater understanding of these places and the significance they hold.

Lone Pine was one of the few successes that we had during the Gallipoli campaign and it is a place that means so much to so many. My scrawny Lone Pine that I have on my front porch at home is a relative of those pines that once stood on this ridge. Due to the upcoming ANZAC Day services, stands had been put up around the cemetery. It just didn't seem right. On the memorial here are the names of approximately 3,700 soldiers whose remains were never recovered.

Liz Sandbach, Evan, Laura, Aisling (Ash), Bridget and I talked about out adopted diggers here at Lone Pine. My digger, Private Edgar Robert Colbeck Adams is officially listed as having died on 25th April, 1915: ANZAC Day. However, the actual fate of Edgar is relatively unknown.

Edgar was 18 years and 1 month old when he enlisted. Standing at 5 foot 7 he had fair skin, grey eyes, a small linear scar below his mouth to the left (perhaps a football injury? From a fight with his brother older?) and a vaccination scar on his right arm. A surveyor or engineer, he enlisted in the 8th battalion soon after the outbreak of World War 1 on the 16th of September, 1914. He and his brother, Frederick James, both fought for the 8th Battalion. Their unit left Melbourne on the 22nd of December, 1914 on the HMAT Themistocles. Typically of the soldiers who went off to war at this time, Edgar and Frederick first went to Egypt and then Lemnos and there here to the battlefields of Gallipoli.

Edgar was reported by Sgt. D M Muir as missing between 3 and 4 o’clock on the 25th of April. His brother Frederick was shot in the head within a few feet of Sgt. Muir. The records state that the “informant (Muir) was a very reliable man”. Edgar was reported missing on the 25th of April, still listed missing as of the 23rd of September and by the 4th of November, 1915, a court of enquiry decided that he had died under enemy hands after being captured as a Prisoner of War by the Turks. There were no reports from the Turkish authorities in Constantinople that Edgar had been taken prisoner. However a scrap of paper was found enclosed in a bottle found on the shore near Montazah, Alexandria on November the 1st, 1915. The note stated “am prisoner about 2 miles from where we landed….”. Essentially, these were his last words.

His Father, James Rawson Adams, constantly wrote to the Army to determine what happened to his youngest son. James wrote to the investigating officer that the family have had “no contact from him since the day the Battalion left Lemnos for the landing on the Peninsula with the exception of the scrap of paper picked up near Alexandria. This scrap was certainly in my son’s handwriting.” Edgar’s name was published in list of prisoners in the press and James kept writing to his son via the Red Cross, but received nothing. “[I]n the list of prisoners, our boy’s name is always included….it seems a mystery to us why we should never receive word….we write to him constantly”.

Eventually, Edgar was declared a casualty of war. His family received his effects which included a wrist watch (that was damaged) and its strap, 4 books, a handkerchief, a pair of mittens, his comb, a belt, 3 brushes and a tin. Edgar was awarded the British War Medal, the Victory Medal and the Star Medal.


Private Edgar Robert Colbeck Adams
(Photo taken from the Australian War Memorial website)

Edgar Robert Colbeck Adams' Roll of Honour record on the Australian War Memorial websiteToday, we stood at Lone Pine and remembered Private Edgar Robert Colbeck Adams. It was a difficult task to stand in front of the kids and adults and a group of Army corporals who were then on a study tour with their major and give the speech that I had written. My hands were shaking, my palms sweaty and my heart was pounding. Perhaps in some small way, my feelings emulated those of the boys who landed. Drawing a VERY long bow I know, but I'm sure they would have had similar physical reactions. Perhaps with their adrenaline pumping, they would have bolted out of the landing boats and scrambled up this awful terrain?? All I know if, it was perhaps the most nervous I have been speaking in front of a group of people.

As well as my memorial, I laid a wreath at Lone Pine on behalf of the Ringwood RSL. There are many wreaths and private tributes that have been left on graves all over the Peninsula.

We then headed to the 4^th Battalion Parade Ground Cemetery. On the way, we were able to see evidence of the trench lines that existed during the war and also down to Shrapnel Valley.

This particular cemetery was named for the members of the 4^th Battalion who were buried here; 34 men. After being enlarged, it now holds three UK soldiers, 107 Australians and six unidentified bodies. We choose this location to have lunch and across from where we were sitting was Braun's Ridge; the Turks call the ridge “Bloody Ridge”. How appropriate! How were our boys expected to conquer this unforgiving landscape???

Next was a visit to Quinn's Post, called Bomber's Post by the Turks. As Dave keeps telling us: “It's all about the ground”. High ground is what the ANZACs and the Turks were after as it gave you an good indication of who was coming from where. As you can so obviously see!

Again at Quinn's, we are finding some fantastic epithaths....

Not only are their Commonwealth war graves and memorial at Gallipoli, there are also Turkish ones. One of the really lovely statues that we found shows the last of the Turkish soldiers holding the hand of his grand-daughter while walking in a parade. It's good to remind ourselves that other nationalities were involved here and that for the Turks, they lost a generation of men.

I'm sure that most people have seen Peter Weir's iconic film, Gallipoli. I still get chills when I hear those lines at the end of the movie before Mark Lee's character, Archie, goes over the top:

“What are your legs? Steel springs.

What are they going to do? Hurl me down the track.

How fast can you run? As fast as a leopard.

How fast ARE you going to run? As fast as a leopard.

Then let's see you do it......”

Of course, the battle that occurs before that penultimate scene is the Battle of the Nek. Again, too many Australians lost their lives here. The Battles of the Nek and Lone Pine were feints designed to distract the Turks from the New Zealand attacks on Chunuk Bair. Whilst Lone Pine was successful in gaining some ground, the Nek became a killing field. This position, if taken, would have given our troops a clear view of the valleys and surrounding terrain.

When getting off the bus, a Turkish woman said, “Welcome”, to me as I passed by her. She and her students were at Gallipoli on a study tour, similar to us.

On her hand she wore a beautiful ring that had the face of Attaturk. When I questioned her about it she replied, “I love him”. I think that sums up the feelings of most Turkish people. He really is revered throughout all of Turkey!!

Close to the Nek Cemetery are the Ari Burnu cliffs. Looking down from the top, is Ari Burnu leading toward the sea. On the right is Walker's Ridge and on the left, it leads to the ridge named the Sphinx. The gully was named Mule Gully as that is where they were kept when not being used to ferry the wounded down from above. The cliffs were frighteningly steep!!

Ari Burnu cliffs...Sphinx on the right....

The Sphinx

From the cliffs, we walked to Walker's Ridge Cemetery where Trooper Rush is buried. His famous last words: “Goodbye Cobber. God bless you” are beautiful words that become the title of a book.

Next to Baby 700 (the number of metres above sea level) for Nick's commemoration of the first Xavier student to die in the war.

For New Zealanders, Chunuck Bair is their main point of commemoration. The feints at Lone Pine and the Nek were used to split the Turkish forces and allow the Kiwis to take Chunuk Bair. It honours them “From the uttermost ends of the earth”. On a cold and windy afternoon (the warmth of the sun at the Nek had long disappeared!!), our one New Zealander on the tour, Tom, commemorated his digger here at Chunuk Bair. He played Amazing Grace on the pipes for his countryman after Hadley had once again played the Last Post. Chunuk Bair is on a hill (It's all about ground, hey Dave!) and the haunting sounds of both bugle and bagpipes drifted down across the valleys, gullies, ravines and graves of thousands of soldiers.

View from Chunuck Bair

After a busy (!!!) day, we headed back to the Kum, our new home away from home, ate dinner and then the kids introduced themselves to some of the Turkish guests and danced the night away with them. These kids are fricking awesome!!