Gallipoli, Troy, & Pergamon
Days Three & Four - Turkey / Türkiye - 2023
A solemn, rainy day visiting the site of cultural consciousness of Australia, New Zealand, and Turkey, followed by a day visiting the archeological sites of Troy and Pergamon.
Editor’s Comment: Throughout this travelogue, I have made an effort to use the Turkish spelling of place names and locations when the terms are obvious cognates; however, whenever a term is more commonly well-known in the English language (Turkey vs. Türkiye, Basilica Cistern vs. Yerebatan Sarnıcı, etc.) I have provided the English term first, followed by the Turkish spelling afterwards.
1. The Sphinx
I woke in the morning to the patter of rain in Istanbul. The clouds were thick and gloomy, but -hopeful- we set off towards Gallipoli. While I don’t have a personal connection to this hallowed ground, I nonetheless had wanted to see Gallipoli for a very long time. There are very few inflection points in modern history as significant as the campaign at Gallipoli. Sure, there are singular moments of much greater importance and consequence in the 20th century, but to my mind I cannot think of any other event which occupies three countries’ social consciousness as completely as Gallipoli does; the fact that it steered the fortunes of Winston Churchill, to boot, reinforces my assessment of its significance.
Obligatory H.D. Hunt Photo history recap: In November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy in World War I against the Entente of Russia, France, and the United Kingdom. The Ottoman’s decision to join this faction was driven by several factors: Russia was the Ottoman’s biggest nemesis, having fought against one another in the Crimean War decades before; second, the Ottomans feared British and French incursion into Ottoman territory in the Middle East; and, third, the Ottomans had a close relationship with the German Empire. By this point, however, the once proud Ottoman Empire was referred to as the “sick man of Europe” and was considered by the Entente as too weak to significantly contribute to the Central Power’s war aims.
By early 1915, the German Empire’s hope of a quick capitulation of France had not come to fruition and they were already engaged in stalemate warfare in Western Europe against the Entente militaries. Similarly, the Entente had hoped that the Russian Empire would mobilize quickly and defeat the comparatively inferior ally of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire. However, the Russian’s military impotence did not open up the second front against Germany that the French and British had hoped would bring about a quick end to the war.
The British First Lord of the Admiralty, one Winston Churchill, devised a plan which he believed would resolve many of these issues simultaneously. He proposed a naval bombardment of the Dardanelles which he calculated would 1) allow the Russian Black Sea fleet to escape their bottleneck at the Bosphorus, 2) provide the Entente with a possible continent-sized flanking maneuver against the German Empire, and 3) force German manpower and materiel committed to Western Europe to the Balkans and beyond.
The first phase of the campaign was a dumpster fire. In March 1915, French and British ships attempted to enter the Dardanelles -the narrow shipping channel south of Istanbul- and seize control in order to press forward to the Bosphorus. Ottoman artillery kept Entente minesweepers out of the channel, and many Entente capital ships struck mines and were damaged or sunk. It was calculated that the removal of the Ottoman artillery from the Gallipoli Peninsula (Gelibolu Yarımadası) would, therefore, be required to ensure the overall success of the campaign.
In Egypt, a collection of Australian and New Zealand soldiers were undergoing training prior to an anticipated deployment to the front in France. These soldiers were reorganized into the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) and selected for this mission. They would make an amphibious landing on the west side of the peninsula, while additional British and French soldiers would land on the southern end of the peninsula, at a place called Cape Helles.
2. ANZAC Cove
On 25 April 1915, approximately 16,000 Australian and New Zealand soldiers came ashore at Arıburnu, better known today as ANZAC Cove.
The history of the first day of the Gallipoli Campaign, nevertheless the 8-month ground battle itself, is so rich with detail it will be impossible for me summarize most of it here. I will do my absolute best to give a faithful summation of the actions of the ANZAC and Ottoman forces on 25 April, but know I can only truly aspire to speak in generalities. With that, here we go.
Just after midnight on the morning of 25 April, British ships stopped just west of the Gallipoli Peninsula and several dozen rowboats containing ANZAC forces disembarked. They made their way to shore, arriving around 4AM; however, they had arrive about 1.5 kilometers / 1 mile north of where they had planned. There were several consequences of this: first, instead of landing on flat terrain, these first forces came face-to-face with the forward cliff of Plugge’s Plateau and very minimal beachhead which hindered the establishment of a beachhead; second, the unfamiliar terrain made assembly and driving ashore more chaotic; and, third, the section of beach they had landed on was very poorly defended by the Ottomans, since they did not calculate an enemy force would choose this location to land. The ANZAC’s primary objective was Mal Tepe, a high point on the peninsula, but the erroneous landing combined with the lack of terrain detail on the Crimean War-era maps used for planning meant that the anticipated gentle drive to this point was instead a climb up steep almost impassible terrain.
Despite the chaos, the ANZAC forces did well making their way upwards. Unfortunately for them, however, two Ottoman battalions under Lieutenant-Colonel Mehmet Sefik were able to organize a hasty defense to attempt and repel the ANZAC forces. In parallel to this effort, one Lieutenant-Colonel Mustafa Kemal -commander of the 19th Division- was ordered to send a battalion to support Sefik. Kemal instead took direct command of the 57th Infantry Regiment and mobilized them in the location he determined would be critical to the defense of the entire peninsula, Chunuk Bair. At around 10AM, as Sefik’s soldiers retreated from the advancing ANZAC forces; in response, Kemal ordered the 57th Infantry Regiment to conduct a counterattack, directing them with the words which will forever ring out through the ages:
Men, I am not ordering you to attack. I am ordering you to die. In the time that it takes us to die, other forces and commanders can come and take our place.
3. Arı Burnu Cemetery #1
252 Commonwealth service members are buried at Ari Burnu.
The counterattack came at a cost: within hours, half of the 57th Infantry Regiment had died. Eventually, other Ottoman forces came to their relief and soon the ANZAC forces were retreating to the beachhead. By the end of the day, over 2,000 ANZAC forces were dead or wounded.
4. Arı Burnu Cemetery #2
Given the lack of progress and Ottoman counter-attack, withdrawal of forces back to the ships was considered, but determined impractical. Instead, the ANZAC forces were ordered to dig in and -within 24-hours- the military situation in Gallipoli resembled the very type of warfare in France the campaign was intended to relieve.
5. Anzac Cove Epitaph
The primarily British and French landings at Cape Helles, at the southern end of the peninsula, also went poorly and they, too, were stuck in entrenched positions. These southern landings represented the primary thrust of the campaign, and their stalling left the ANZAC troops precariously wedged between higher ground controlled by the Ottomans and the sea. Throughout May, in particular, the Ottomans repeatedly attempted to drive the ANZACs off the peninsula, but failed at the cost of horrific casualties.
By August, the lack of progress in the campaign led the Entente to land over 20,000 additional troops at Sulva Bay north of ANZAC Cove with the purpose of taking the heights by driving the Ottomans on two fronts. The existing ANZAC soldiers would conduct diversionary attacks against Ottoman positions whilst the fresh troops would drive inland. While the landings were successful, inaction afterwards meant the inland push did not happen. Unfortunately, the ANZAC soldiers were already committed to horrific supporting battles such as the Battle of Sari Bair, the Battle of Lone Pine, the Battle of Chunuk Bair, and the Battle of the Nek. Kemal’s forces repulsed these advances. The Entente tried one last push at the end of the month -the Battle of Scimitar Hill- which also failed, and plans were finally made for the evacuation of the ANZAC forces. This was carried out at ANZAC in December.
It is difficult to say for certain how many casualties the Australians and New Zealanders suffered during the campaign; however, it is estimated that -of the 50,000 Australians and 15,000 New Zealanders who came ashore- over half became casualties. One in six Australians and one in five New Zealanders who came ashore lay dead on the battlefield.
6. Respect to Mehmetçik Monument
While tactically a victory for the Ottoman Empire, the campaign came at an incredibly high cost: of the approximately 315,000 forces committed, over 50,000 were killed, almost 100,000 were wounded, and over 10,000 more were missing. While the battle would be viewed as a point of pride, particularly for the Turks who successfully defended their homeland, it practically meant the end of the Ottoman Empire. Mustafa Kemal would, in the decades that follow, become Atatürk: the father of the Turks.
As for the Commonwealth, Churchill’s reputation would be almost irreparably damaged and he would spend decades trying to rehabilitate his image. For the Australians and New Zealanders, much like the Turks, the battle became a central point of their cultural consciousness.
7. Lone Pine #1
The Battle of Lone Pine was primarily a diversionary tactic intended to allow Commonwealth forces to come ashore in August 1915.
After exploring the coastline, we drove up to the top of the bluff where the most intense fighting happened between Ottoman and ANZAC forces. Our first stop was Lone Pine, which was the site of two separate engagements. The first occurred between April 25 and 26, when ANZAC forces captured the bluff after their initial landings but were forced to surrender it. More famously, this was the site of the futile Battle of Lone Pine in early August.
8. Lone Pine #2
The August affair, intended to divert Ottoman resources and attention away from the Commonwealth landings at Sulva Bay, did not have the intended effect. While the ANZAC forces were successful in reaching and holding the top of the plateau, doing so was ultimately tactically insignificant. If anything, its success resulted in the diversion of Ottoman forces to the still contested Chunuk Bair battlefield nearby.
9. Lone Pine #3
In total, of the 4,600 ANZAC forces committed here, half would be killed or wounded. Of Ottoman forces, some 6,000 would become casualties from defensive and counteroffensive operations.
10. Lone Pine #4
Today, 1,167 Commonwealth soldiers are buried at Lone Pine Cemetery.
11. The Nek #1
Another supporting diversionary engagement in early August, the Battle of the Nek cost ANZAC forces 372 casualties amongst 600 deployed troops.
We moved upwards next to the Nek, the location identified by Mustafa Kemal on 25 April as being most essential to hold throughout the campaign, and was thenceforth very well defended. In early August, ANZAC forces rushed up to try and assault the Ottoman entrenchments. They were slaughtered.
I’m not sure the senselessness of the Gallipoli Campaign is summed up anywhere better than the Nek. It is very obvious the absolute advantage any defender of these heights would have had over attackers, and -frankly- any order to try and take these heights from down below would have been viewed the same as a death sentence.
12. The Nek #2
The Nek’s strategic position was essential to repel attacks from ANZAC Cove and Sulva Bay to Chunuk Bair as a very clear field of fire could be established.
This is a good opportunity to summarize the many failures at Gallipoli. First, when it became tactically obvious in late April that taking the heights was impossible due to Ottoman entrenchment both near ANZAC Cove and Cape Helles, the campaign should have been significantly altered if not outright cancelled. Whether due to the sunk cost fallacy, or hubris or ignorance on the part of the senior commanders (themselves not on the field of battle), the plans went unchanged. Second, a lack of action on the part of the troops landing in Sulva Bay rendered any diversionary measures -like the Battle of Lone Pine and the Battle of the Nek- pointless and only reinforced Ottoman defense of Chunuk Bair. Third, there were significant shortcomings in intelligence prior to the campaign, particularly in the quality of maps, many of which dated from the Crimean War and were too inaccurate for artillery to be deployed successfully. Significant terrain features were omitted entirely, and resulted in terrible bottlenecks for ANZAC troop movements which, predictably, translated to horrific casualties. But I think the main factor which led to the Entente’s defeat here was overconfidence. The once proud Ottoman Empire was gasping its last breaths, and generally showed military weakness in a series of Balkans Wars in the preceding decade. The British Empire, on the other hand, perceived itself as an unstoppable juggernaut and almost certainly calculated a quick and easy capitulation from the Turks. I’m not saying the campaign was without vision, nor am I saying that if one or two things broke the Entente’s way (landing in the correct spot, Mustafa Kemal falling on the first day, etc.) it couldn’t have been a swift victory. What I am saying is the fact that the campaign was considered strategically viable beyond May is entirely the fault of Entente leadership, whose arrogance had led them to become detached from the strategic realities of the situation.
13. Chunuk Bair
The Battle of Chunuk Bair was the Commonwealth’s last major effort to hold the heights above ANZAC Cove. While initial efforts were successful and the hill taken, the Ottoman counteroffensive drove the ANZACs towards the sea one last time. Among Entente soldiers, this battle had a horrific 80% casualty rate.
Making our last stop on the peninsula, Chunuk Bair, the heavy clouds and rain came in fully and obstructed what is normally a very uninterrupted view towards Sulva Bay and the upper part of ANZAC Cove. I was at least able to sense how rocky the terrain was here, which was a problem for the Ottomans as it made digging trenches to prevent the advance of the Commonwealth forces nearly impossible. I also got a chance to see the giant statue of Mustafa Kemal, which describes how he was nearly killed artillery on 10 August, but was saved by a pocket watch in his breast pocket. Interesting to think how the world would be different if he hadn’t survived.
14. Eceabat
2023 was the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Turkish Republic; giant patriotic banners and depictions of Atatürk were commonplace in celebration.
Making our way down to the Dardanelles, we boarded a ferry towards Çanakkale where we’d spend the evening. Thankfully the weather had improved enough that I was able to stand onboard and take a few photos along the way.
15. Çanakkale Ferry #1
The 1915 Çanakkale Bridge is, as of 2023, the longest suspension bridge in the world.
16. Çanakkale Ferry #2
If you take Eceabat-Çanakkale Ferry, keep your eyes open: dolphins can occasionally be seen in the waters here.
17. Çanakkale Ferry #3
The Dardanelles and Bosphorus form one of the most important and busiest natural shipping lanes in the world, and bring in incredible amounts of toll revenue for the Turkish government.
18. Troy #1
Troy was occupied for about four millennia until 500 AD; during this period, nine versions of the city were built, one on top of another.
Following an evening in Çanakkale, we drove the short distance to the ruins of the ancient city of Troy.
Let’s get this out of the way right now: I am very, very far removed from being an expert on the history of antiquity, and I am even further removed from being an expert on classical literature. I can’t really speak intelligently about much concerning Troy in either history or literature, and certainly not when those two topics occasionally intertwine.
Here is what I am confident enough to state as fact: Troy was settled for about 4,000 years from the early Bronze Age to the Roman Age. It was built and rebuilt nine times during this period. For much of the early Bronze Age, it was considered one of the finest settlements in all of Anatolia. For a time during the late Bronze Age, it may have been a vassal of Hittite Empire, during which the events of the Trojan War took place (according to the literature, that is). And, due to its connection with the Trojan War literature, the city became somewhat of a proto-tourist destination during the Greek Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman periods. A series of earthquakes around 500 AD destroyed the city and it was abandoned before being “rediscovered” by archaeologists in the 19th century.
That’s about it. No stories about horses filled with soldiers, no fables about ancient gods influencing mortal events, no jealousies of love. Just some good ol’ poorly excavated ruins.
19. Troy #2
Here are some ruins and walls. I honestly can’t tell you what this is supposed to be. That’s the real challenge I have with visiting places like Troy, where you have thousands of years of rock piles atop one another - it is hard to get context as to what you are looking at since no features are truly distinct.
20. Cape Helles
Yeah, you though I had my last words about Gallipoli, but no! Anyway, Troy gives an excellent view over the south end of Cape Helles where predominantly British forces invaded in late April 1915. Their attempts to drive inland met the same fate as the ANZACs and they were soon entrenched.
21. Troy #3
Why is it people take photos of the most inane shit when they’re on vacation? Like, “Oh! A squirrel, I’ve never seen one of those before!” The actual Temple of Athena to the right is not significant in any way or worth capturing. I feel dirty….
22. Troy #4
Some excavations along with modern red brick recreations to show how expansive Troy was during the Bronze Age.
23. Troy #5
Ah, yes, Schliemann's Trench, one of the greatest crimes of archaeology ever perpetuated. Basically the main dude responsible for excavating Troy in the 1870s was a German named Heinrich Schliemann, who decided the best way to conduct his dig was to do so with all the subtlety of open-heart surgery with a chainsaw. Schliemann basically dug wide channels down through all the layers of Troy until he hit bedrock. This left gigantic destructive scars all across the site, including one which can still be seen. He also made no attempt to catalog findings, which set back our understanding of the site significantly. Good job, Heinrich!
24. Troy #6
This is the Sacred Square, which I’ve been told was located outside the city walls and was frequently used as a place of sacrifice; it is from the Troy VIII period, from around 100 to 50 BC. That’s it, that’s all I know about it. I like the fields in the background, though.
25. Troy #7
Usually at the entrance of the Troy historical site is a gigantic recreation of the Trojan Horse. I guess it was being rebuilt … excuse me, reborn?
Anyway, after about an hour at Troy, it was time to move on to our next ancient site of the day, Pergamon.
26. Pergamon #1
Pergamon was a significant city during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, from about 300 BC to about 300 AD.
I have no doubt in my mind that if Pergamon never suffered natural disaster and was never plundered in both the medieval period and in the modern age, it would have the reputation as one of the greatest ancient city sites on Earth. All the elements were right: the majestic setting which makes you wonder how it was ever built in the first place, the size and steepness of its theater, multiple glorious temples, a library second only to that of Alexandria, and an alter which continues to wow visitors in Berlin to this day. Alas, time had other plans. That’s not to say Pergamon isn’t worth a visit, but its wide expanses where things used to be (the aforementioned alter and library, and the Temple of Athena, most prominently) does cause it to lose some punch. It doesn’t help its case that there isn’t some significant historical tie between Pergamon and greater world events - it was simply just a city where people lived, worked, worshiped, and died.
Look, I realize this is a hot take and trust me I am not prone to saying things like thus, but: I say let’s rebuild the whole ancient city today. Make it historically accurate, use proper period-correct building materials and techniques (minus the slavery, of course), and take your time getting all of the details correct. I mean, just look at this model of the city its prime - how epic would this be?
Three more photographs of Pergamon follow.
27. Pergamon #2
28. Pergamon #3
29. Pergamon #4
3o. Kuşadası Sunset
After a long day of visiting historical sites, we arrived in Kuşadası, and just in time for this amazing sundown.
The following day would be a full day exploring Ephesus and its environs.
