ANZAC Cove, 1915

Author's note: In earlier articles I touched on the conduct of the naval and army campaigns in the Dardanelles and Gallipoli Peninsula. This time I will touch on some peripheral issues and observations and in the next article, I will cover 1SQN's involvement in the massacre at Wadi Fara in Palestine.

AE2

The RAN submarine AE2 was the first submarine to penetrate the Dardanelles and its minefields, entering the Sea of Marmara on 25 April. After attacking Turkish shipping resupplying the Peninsula, the AE2 was forced to the surface and eventually rammed by a Turkish warship.

Then, on 30 April, she was scuttled by her crew, who successfully abandoned ship and were picked up to become POWs. The Director of the Rahmi M. Koc Museum in Istanbul, a noted diver, located the wreck of the AE2 to the south-west of the township of Marmara on the island of Marmara Adasi. An RAN team dived on the wreck in 1999, confirming the wreck as AE2. The AE2 is in reasonable condition and her raising has been contemplated - she is not a war grave because there was no loss of life.

However, the Australian Government has announced recently that it will not contribute to a joint Turkish Australian project to raise her because of the significant cost.

British Memorial at Helles

In 1924, the British built an imposing memorial (obelisk over 30 metres high) to the Gallipoli campaign at Cape Helles, prominently visible to all shipping entering or leaving the Dardanelles. The failures to force the Dardanelles or take the Peninsula must have rankled heavily to warrant the extravagance of such a lavish monument. Admittedly, he who stands last on the battlefield gets to decide on the monuments; nevertheless, it was hardly likely to win Turkish hearts and minds at the time or subsequently. It contrasts sharply with Ataturk's later magnanimity at Anzac Koyu.

Outcomes of the failure to force the Dardanelles and Turkey out of the war

Remembering that one of the initial strategic objectives had been to open up the sea routes to Russian ports in the Black Sea to deliver munitions and ship grain back to Great Britain, the failure to force the Dardanelles weakened Czar Nicholas' Russia. The tremendous losses of the Russian army through 1916 and 1917 were the main reason for the Russian revolution of 1917; however, the Dardanelles failure contributed to the pressure on Russia and the resulting revolution.

The Turks were emboldened by their success at Gallipoli and sought to advance through Palestine to pressure and take the Suez Canal. The Australian Light Horse units that had fought as infantry at Gallipoli were reunited in Egypt with their mounts. While the infantry divisions went to France, the ALH largely remained in the Middle East. The ALH was to carve out its destiny first in the Battle of Romani (3-4 August 1916) turning back the Turks' drive for the Canal and later at Beersheba on 31 October 1917 in the recapture of Palestine through 1917 and 1918.

In the final drive for victory, 1SQN AFC was involved in a decisive annihilation of Turkish forces at Wadi Fara and I will take up the story of that action later.

Istanbul
Yerebatan Cistern

As you are probably aware, the Romans were great engineers and, in occupying this region, they constructed the Yerebatan Cistern in 532 as a water supply for Constantinople (old name for Istanbul). The cistern is an underground, covered storage of 90 megalitres. The masonry roof is supported by columns recycled from old temples. Temple columns were not of a standard size and bases of various heights had to be cut for the columns to get the roof levels correct. They got the engineering right and the cistern continued in service until recently. It is interesting to contrast the Roman endeavour with the recent effort required to gain approval to construct underground fuel storages of only a few megalitres at various airbases.

Florence Nightingale Memorial

For the first time, the Australian War Memorial tour party visited the Haidar Pasha Cemetery on the Asian side of Istanbul. This cemetery is a British cemetery dating back to the Crimean campaign of 1854-56. The cemetery contains a memorial to Florence Nightingale for her efforts in improving the care of the wounded during this campaign. My wife was a nursing sister involved in the medivac from Vietnam and she was delighted to see the recognition accorded to Ms Nightingale.

Israel

Prior to joining the AWM tour at Istanbul, we took the opportunity to tour Israel. Some observations of appropriate military issues follow.

Holocaust Museum Jerusalem

This museum documents a period when man's inhumanity to fellow mankind knew no bounds. The evidence and accounts of survivors, together with the Children's memorial, are particularly moving and need to be experienced first hand.

Fortress of Masada

Masada is an isolated, desert mountain fortress situated on the eastern slopes of the Judean Desert at the southern end of the Dead Sea. Herod, who ruled the Jewish people under Roman patronage, chose Masada as a potential refuge from enemies both home and abroad. He built fortifications and splendid palaces for himself and his entourage. In particular, he ensured that the water supply and food storerooms could stand a long siege.

Some time after Herod's reign, a group of Sicarii (Zealot extremists determined to fight until death against the Romans) captured Masada in 66AD at the beginning of the Great Revolt against Rome. In 69AD, Titus recaptured Jerusalem, destroying the Second Temple. In 72AD, the Roman army, including the Tenth Legion and now under Flavius Silva, turned their attention to Masada. The besieged population of Masada numbered 967 men, women and children; the Roman army 10 to 15,000 men.

Flavius built a small wall and eight encampments around Masada to isolate it and hoped to force the Zealots to surrender due to thirst or hunger. When this did not work, he began work on an extensive embankment to the western slope to give him an approach to breach the fortifications. To build the ramp, he used Jews enslaved from the revolt in Jerusalem. The Zealots, faced with the choice of raining boulders down on their own people to stop the work, chose not to do so.

Eventually, after seven months siege, the Romans were able to breach the outer and secondary defences. Instead of continuing the assault that afternoon, they were so confident that they put it off to next morning. The Zealots, seeing no way out, chose 10 men to kill everybody else; then, the 10 men selected one to kill them and himself. They torched all buildings except the food stores so that the Romans could not say they were starved out.

The Romans, having no inkling of what had taken place and expecting a fight, put on their armour and began the assault next morning. They were met with a terrible solitude and an extremely hollow victory. The stand that the Zealots took in choosing to die, rather than become enslaved when all hope of independence had been lost, served and still serves as a source of inspiration to the Israeli people.

Israeli Border Defences

In visiting the site where John the Baptist baptised Christ in the Jordan River, we had to cross the Israeli border defences with Jordan. It was interesting to see a derivative of the Yael electronic fence, which is being considered for the northern bases, being used as a primary element of the border defences.

Golan Heights

It was a militarily rewarding experience to look at some of the Israeli defences on the Syrian border. There are extensive anti-tank ditches, all in good order. An Israeli armoured memorial brought a wry smile. I recalled a Yom Kippur war account of Soviet tanks having some armour weaknesses that resulted in the T62 blowing up devastatingly when hit. The memorial comprised an Israeli tank with a T62 cupola and 120 mm barrel lying upside down on the ground nearby. It competently underlined the action accounts that I had recalled.

Crusader Base Camp Acre

The fortress built by the Crusaders at Acre as their base camp makes our efforts at a forward operating base pale into insignificance. They certainly built their bases to last.
(Continued next month.)
Blak