Myth 1. The ANZACS were defending Australia and New Zealand by invading Turkey at Gallipoli
The ANZACS were fighting for the British Empire, not Australia and New Zealand’s defence. World War One was fought over empires and access to colonies. The main reason Germany went to war was to gain colonies like Britain and France. The Turkish Ottoman Empire was massive and was known as “The Sick Man of Europe” because it was crumbling. Prior to World War One, the Ottoman Empire had already lost its colonies in the Balkans. In addition, Britain and her allies, France and Russia, wanted to carve the rest of it up. Russia would get Constantinople and access to the Aegean Sea, France would gain Syria and Lebanon and Britain would have Palestine and Iraq. Even then Iraq’s massive oil reserves were highly valued with the British navy converting from being fuelled by coal to oil.
A major problem though for Britain was that the Turks were far more pro-British than pro-German. Australian writer Les Carlyon, describes in his book 'Gallipoli', the actions taken by First Lord of the Navy Winston Churchill to align the Turks with Germany. Carlyon calls Churchill’s actions against Turkey “an essay in provocation”. Britain seized two Turkish war ships that had been built in British shipyards, one was operational the other was nearly finished and Turkish sailors had been sent to Britain to crew both of them. The ships were given Turkish names and the ship building company was paid seven and half million pounds. The funds for the two ships had been raised by public subscription with Turkish women selling locks of their own hair to raise money for their purchase. After the War, Britain and France, gained their new colonies from the Ottoman Empire. The success of Russia’s Revolution and Lenin’s Bolsheviks ruled out the ambitions of the former Russian Czar.
Major General Sir (later Field Marshal Lord) William Riddell Birdwood (of Anzac, Bt), GCB, GCMG, CIE, DSO, was selected from the Indian Army 1914 to command the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.
He supervised the corps during its training in Egypt and let it during the Gallipoli campaign in 1915. (Photo: AWM)
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Myth 2. The British landed the ANZACS on the wrong beach
The Anzac Cove landings on 25 April 1915 were organised by senior ANZAC officers Lieutenant General William Birdwood (the British officer commanding the ANZACS), and Australians Major General William Throsby Bridges and Colonel Brudenell White. They convinced the Allied commander of the 80,000 strong invasion Sir Ian Hamilton, to change their goals - and time of the first of three invasion waves to pre-dawn from dawn. This was after their intelligence officer Major Charles Villiers-Stuart, flew over the Gallipoli two weeks earlier. He told the Birdwood, Bridges and Brundell White of the formidable Turkish defences including artillery batteries that he had observed during his flight.
Hugh Dolan, a former Australian Air Force Intelligence Officer bought this all to light in his tenaciously researched book '36 Days: The Untold Story Behind the Gallipoli Landings'. The documentary 'Gallipoli From Above' is based on his book and first screened on the History Channel in 2012. Dolan told the Canberra Times on 24 April 2012:
''They did something extraordinary….They sent their military intelligence officer, Major Charles Villiers-Stuart, on an aerial reconnaissance mission over Anzac Cove on April 14, 1915. He sat in the back seat [of the two-man biplane] with a pair of binoculars and a 1/40,000 scale map. He was able to determine the strength and position of the Turkish forces on the ridges [behind Anzac Cove].''
''That led to a reappraisal at Anzac headquarters. Here something special happens,'' says Dolan.
''Instead of landing and advancing [across the Gallipoli peninsula] to Maidos on the Dardenelles, they gained Hamilton's permission to change their orders.''
Mustafa Kemal, in the Ottoman trenches in Gallipoli circa 1915
(Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
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Myth 3. The Turks were poor soldiers
Winston Churchill said “A good army of 50,000 men and sea power – that is the end of the Turkish menace.” The toll of dead Allied soldiers and sailors was far greater than that.
The Allied invasion was not taking place in the Turkish Ottoman colonies of Palestine, Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq and Kuwait) or Syria, but in the Turkish homeland. The Turks had a good, clean cause to fight and die for. They were also well led. When Turkish troops were retreating inland, there they were met by Colonel Mustafa Kemal, who told them to go back and fight. They told him that they had no bullets. Kemal looked at them and said, “You have bayonets. I’m not ordering you to fight, I’m ordering you to die.” These men turned around towards the base of Chunik Bair to meet a force of Australians. Kemal went with leading them with his own troops of the 19th Turkish Division, the main reserve of the Turkish Fifth Army. His leadership throughout the nearly nine month campaign, including the August Battles was a decisive factor in the Turks victory at Gallipoli.
There is debate and controversy about the numbers of men that died at Gallipoli but it is believed that over 100,000 died, between 56,000 – 68,000 Turkish and 53,000 British and French soldiers in the Gallipoli Campaign. There were 43,000 British soldiers killed or missing, including 8,709 Australians, 2,721 New Zealanders, nearly twenty five per cent of those who had landed there. The British Indian (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) troops killed 1,358 and 49 Canadian Newfoundlanders. In this total are those who died from disease.
Winston Churchill said “A good army of 50,000 men and sea power – that is the end of the Turkish menace.” The toll of dead Allied soldiers and sailors was far greater than that.
The Allied invasion was not taking place in the Turkish Ottoman colonies of Palestine, Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq and Kuwait) or Syria, but in the Turkish homeland. The Turks had a good, clean cause to fight and die for. They were also well led. When Turkish troops were retreating inland, there they were met by Colonel Mustafa Kemal, who told them to go back and fight. They told him that they had no bullets. Kemal looked at them and said, “You have bayonets. I’m not ordering you to fight, I’m ordering you to die.” These men turned around towards the base of Chunik Bair to meet a force of Australians. Kemal went with leading them with his own troops of the 19th Turkish Division, the main reserve of the Turkish Fifth Army. His leadership throughout the nearly nine month campaign, including the August Battles was a decisive factor in the Turks victory at Gallipoli.
There is debate and controversy about the numbers of men that died at Gallipoli but it is believed that over 100,000 died, between 56,000 – 68,000 Turkish and 53,000 British and French soldiers in the Gallipoli Campaign. There were 43,000 British soldiers killed or missing, including 8,709 Australians, 2,721 New Zealanders, nearly twenty five per cent of those who had landed there. The British Indian (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) troops killed 1,358 and 49 Canadian Newfoundlanders. In this total are those who died from disease.
Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey. September 1915. Colonel J. M. Antill of 3rd Australian Light Horse, on Rhodendron Spur.
(Photo: Australian War Memorial)
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Myth 4. All the suicidal attacks were organised by British Senior Officers who were incompetent
In Peter Weir’s 1981 film 'Gallipoli', a British officer is shown telling Australians to get out of their trenches to attack the Turkish trench at the Battle of the Nek.
It was an Australian officer, Lieutenant Colonel Jack Antill, the Bull ant, who threw the 3rd and 10th Light Horse against the five Turkish machine guns at the Nek. The survivors of the 10th Light Horse from the Nek later fought at Hill 60. Antil sent four waves of the Light Horse against an area the size of tennis court that the Turks had covered by five machine guns. The Turkish officer commanding the Nek was in tears, yelling out to the Australians “Stop charging us.” Antill also had the 9th Light Horse in reserve who were waiting to go over the top until Antill’s madness was stopped.
There were also incompetent British officers at Gallipoli such as Major General Aylmer Hunter-Weston who sent Australian 2nd Brigade’s battalions, the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th Battalions and the New Zealand Infantry Brigade’s Auckland, Canterbury, Otago and Wellington Regiments, into the Second Battle of Krithia at Helles. That battle took place on May 6 and 8, the Australian and New Zealand troops fought alongside British and French soldiers.
Nearly one-third of Hunter-Weston’s force was killed or wounded due to his decision to attack in broad daylight, and the battle was finished a long way short of Krithia. There was no organisation for the wounded. The small number of stretcher bearers did a herculean job of carrying them from the distant battlefield to the beach, but once the wounded were taken off the beach, the overwhelmed hospital ships were reluctant to take them on board.
The Turks kept the British and French forces at Helles confined south of Krithia until the last Allied troops were evacuated from there on 9 January 1916. Hunter-Weston came to be called by his troops Hunter-Bunter. When he was challenged by the British Naval Division’s General Archibald Paris about the massive casualties that were suffered during a later Battle of Krithia led by Hunter-Weston in July, he replied, “Casualties, what do I care for casualties?” Hunter-Weston, along with his golf clubs and two huge arm chairs, was evacuated from Gallipoli, not due to enemy fire, but from illness.
There were, however, capable British senior officers at Gallipoli. Major General Harold Walker, a British regular officer who took command of the Australian 1st Division after its Australian commander, Major General William Throsby Bridges died from a bullet wound at Gallipoli is an example. Walker opposed the attack on Lone Pine but after being forced to agree to it, he meticulously planned for it including stealthily digging a trench across No Man’s Land for the surprise attack on Turkish trenches. Lone Pine was the only successful battle of the August Offensive.
In Peter Weir’s 1981 film 'Gallipoli', a British officer is shown telling Australians to get out of their trenches to attack the Turkish trench at the Battle of the Nek.
It was an Australian officer, Lieutenant Colonel Jack Antill, the Bull ant, who threw the 3rd and 10th Light Horse against the five Turkish machine guns at the Nek. The survivors of the 10th Light Horse from the Nek later fought at Hill 60. Antil sent four waves of the Light Horse against an area the size of tennis court that the Turks had covered by five machine guns. The Turkish officer commanding the Nek was in tears, yelling out to the Australians “Stop charging us.” Antill also had the 9th Light Horse in reserve who were waiting to go over the top until Antill’s madness was stopped.
There were also incompetent British officers at Gallipoli such as Major General Aylmer Hunter-Weston who sent Australian 2nd Brigade’s battalions, the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th Battalions and the New Zealand Infantry Brigade’s Auckland, Canterbury, Otago and Wellington Regiments, into the Second Battle of Krithia at Helles. That battle took place on May 6 and 8, the Australian and New Zealand troops fought alongside British and French soldiers.
Nearly one-third of Hunter-Weston’s force was killed or wounded due to his decision to attack in broad daylight, and the battle was finished a long way short of Krithia. There was no organisation for the wounded. The small number of stretcher bearers did a herculean job of carrying them from the distant battlefield to the beach, but once the wounded were taken off the beach, the overwhelmed hospital ships were reluctant to take them on board.
The Turks kept the British and French forces at Helles confined south of Krithia until the last Allied troops were evacuated from there on 9 January 1916. Hunter-Weston came to be called by his troops Hunter-Bunter. When he was challenged by the British Naval Division’s General Archibald Paris about the massive casualties that were suffered during a later Battle of Krithia led by Hunter-Weston in July, he replied, “Casualties, what do I care for casualties?” Hunter-Weston, along with his golf clubs and two huge arm chairs, was evacuated from Gallipoli, not due to enemy fire, but from illness.
There were, however, capable British senior officers at Gallipoli. Major General Harold Walker, a British regular officer who took command of the Australian 1st Division after its Australian commander, Major General William Throsby Bridges died from a bullet wound at Gallipoli is an example. Walker opposed the attack on Lone Pine but after being forced to agree to it, he meticulously planned for it including stealthily digging a trench across No Man’s Land for the surprise attack on Turkish trenches. Lone Pine was the only successful battle of the August Offensive.
Informal portrait of C E W Bean working on official files in his Victoria Barracks office during the writing of the Official History.
The files on his desk are probably the Operations Files, 1914-18 War, prepared by the Army between 1925 and 1930 and are now held by the A.W. Memorial as AWM 26. (Photo: Australian War Memorial)
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Myth 5. The only organised campaign was the retreat.
There has been debate about whether or not the Turks knew the ANZACS were going. According to Charles Bean’s The Story of Anzac (Vol II), p. 866, one unnamed soldier/diarist described his departure on one of the two nights, an event involving more than 41,000 from Anzac Cove as follows:
“At once I thought – ‘My goodness, if the Turks don’t see all this as it goes along they must be blind’. But as I went along behind them I began to notice how silently these mules behaved. They had big loads but they were perfectly quiet. They made no sound as they walked except for the slight jingle of a chain now and then … I doubt if at 1,000 yards [914 metres] you could see them at all – possibly just a black serpentine streak.”
Macquarie University’s Professor Harvey Broadbent, who spent five translating over 2,000 pages of Turkish archives, including soldiers' diaries and letters from the Gallipoli Campaign to produce his book Defending Gallipoli: The Turkish Story has looked at evidence as to whether the Turks knew about the evacuation. He told ABC Radio on 2 March 2015:
"A lot of historians have been trying to find the answer to this over many years," he said.
"I found a number of documents which related to that particular event in December 1915…I wasn't able to find a document which said 'we knew they were leaving on the 20th of December and we let them go'.
"What we do have is a number of documents [with] which you can piece together a scenario.
"That is, the Turks knew there was an evacuation being prepared but they didn't know exactly when and they didn't know where [the troops] were going.
"I think that you can say that it's possible they let them go. [But] it's still an unresolved issue."
So is it a myth? Whether it is or is not is still open to debate. However, it is true that not one ANZAC soldier lost his life or became wounded in the two nights leaving Gallipoli.
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