Madness – The Tragedy of ANZAC Cove (Istanbul & Everything After #13)

The sky was gray and heavy as our bus surged towards the Gallipoli Peninsula. There had been intermittent rain showers ever since we left Istanbul three and a half hours earlier. The drive was scenic and uneventful. We first skirted the Sea of Marmara, then crossed overland until we caught sight of the Aegean Sea. Our objective was Anzac Cove along the peninsula’s western shoreline. Since it was mid- September, traffic had been light. The springtime commemorations that brought massive crowds here on Anzac Day (April 25th) were a distant memory. The beaches were empty and very few people were seen. The landscape looked like it had been abandoned. That was not the case at dawn April 25, 1915, when the Anzacs (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) came ashore. A couple of hours later British and French forces would land on other parts of the peninsula. The battle had begun. Over the next seven months, half a million men would fight one of the most bitter struggles of World War I.*

Death Trap - Claustrophobic & Catastrophic

By the time our bus arrived at its first and most important stop, Anzac Cove, the clouds had yet to lift. Rain still threatened. The sky was just as somber as the battlefield on this overcast and cool day. Anzac Cove was a curious place. For all the activity that happened here during the battle, I expected a much bigger area. One that was as grand in scale as the battle. That was not the case. The Anzacs landed here by mistake. The original plan had been to land on the wide sands of Kabatepe Beach. Due to a drifting signal buoy, the Anzacs ended up two kilometers to the north at a cove that was only 600 meters wide. Anzac Cove was a claustrophobic and catastrophic setting, the very definition of a death trap. The soldiers were sitting ducks for Turkish artillery and gunners firing down from the heights above the landing. On the first day alone, the Anzacs lost approximately 2,000 men. The bloodbath was just getting started. 60,000 Australians and 16,000 New Zealanders died in the coming months during futile assaults against entrenched positions.

One look at the formidable heights the soldiers attempted to scale against incredible odds and the problem they faced became apparent. The Anzacs were going up against artillery, snipers, and machine gunners disguised by the rugged terrain. All the while, they were trying to scale steep inclines on crumbling earth. The terrain was so formidable that I would have had trouble hiking up it against no resistance. Imagining legions of men trying to scale these heights while under withering fire defies the imagination. The Anzacs were defeated by two opponents, the topography and Turks led by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. How they managed to make it 800 meters boggles the mind. Two thoughts came to mind for me while looking upward at what turned out to be an unachievable objective. The first was how anyone could have thought such an undertaking would have been successful. The second was a single word, “madness.”

Sinister Shoreline – A Precarious Position

The Battle of Gallipoli was Western Front style warfare with the added dimension of soldiers forced to make assaults up steep hills and via narrow defiles. Down in the trenches was not much safer. The Anzacs were covered in dust and mud. Artillery barrages blew them apart while they smoked and wrote, wept and laughed, shook uncontrollably and howled maniacally. The idea of undertaking offensive operations against the Turks from such a precarious position was so obviously insane that it defied logic. The members of my tour group were at a loss. Anzac Cove managed to be both underwhelming and overwhelming. Underwhelming because the spot was quiet and quaint. If not for the battle, no one would have given a second thought to it except for sunbathing and swimming. An incredible amount of military activity had been squeezed into the cove. It was as though the planners and commanders had singled out this spot to ensure defeat.

I knew that if anyone ever told me again that fighting on the Western Front was madness, I would reply by asking them if they had ever been to Gallipoli. Trying to fathom what happened at Anzac Cove was difficult. I imagine that many of the soldiers who fought and died here took one look at their surroundings and wondered if this was some sort of sick joke. The cove was one of several battlefields at Gallipoli, but it felt like so much more. A reflection of all that was wrong with the war including foolhardy strategy, poor planning, underestimating the enemy and overestimating one’s own capabilities. This wrongheaded thinking was the product of callous arrogance that faltered in the face of a determined foe. The plan to land at Anzac Cove, scale the heights, and surge across part of the peninsula was a bad idea in theory and execution.

Human Folly – Battle Tested

I am sure in the hundreds of books written about Gallipoli there are plenty of justifications for the landing spot and plan going forward. That the commanders who sent men to their deaths day after day for a few meters of ground they would just as quickly surrender is given a proper explanation. The only thing these explanations can do is justify defeat. There was no excuse for what happened at Gallipoli. The grand strategic idea of trying to knock the Turks out of the war by forcing the Dardanelles Straits, then shelling Constantinople (Istanbul) into submission spawned Gallipoli. It might have been worth a try with proper planning. That did not happen. The result was tragically predictable.

Anzac Cove at Gallipoli was the most astonishing battlefield I have ever visited. That was due to the sheer incompetence of the commanders and blind courage of the soldiers. I stood at Anzac Cove and could barely believe what I was seeing. Fifteen years later, I still cannot believe it. Sometimes I wonder if a battle really happened there. The casualty figures provide a compelling answer. Human folly has no limits.

*60.000 Australians (8,700 killed/19,400 wounded) and 16,000 New Zealanders (2,700 dead/4,700 wounded) fought at Gallipoli