Gallipoli Source Study

Textbook pp285-291
Mason pp 67—76
http://www.anzacsofgallipoli.com/daily-life-at-gallipoli1.html

Examine and read the sources to gain an understanding of the

conditions that men faced at Gallipoli.

‘You’re up to your neck in water - a lot of them got drowned, too, with the
weight of the packs and that - then scramble ashore and take shelter as quick
as you could. You’re only looking after yourself, you couldn’t worry about the
other bloke, you had to get ashore as quick as you could - just keep your rifle
above your head, keep it dry…I could see the cliffs, and I ran for it. You
didn’t care who you were with as long as you got away from the fire…I
remember one bloke; he got hit in the mouth - he lost part of his tongue. I
couldn’t understand what he was talking about.’ Private Tom Usher 1984

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 Gallipoli Source Study
[SOURCES TAKEN FROM Gallipoli by Les Carlyon)

From Ship to Shore

The covering force would land in three waves. The first troops would be taken to within two miles of the
shore and then landed into {lifeboats.}
The account of Lieutenant Ivor Margetts.
He left Lemnos on the Devahna. At midnight, off Imbros, he clambered on to the destroyer Ribble.” It
was a wonderful sight to see the men smoking, quietly joking one with another, and perfectly cool and ready
for whatever lay before them…. In darkness and silence we were carried towards the land which was to either
make or mar the name of Australia” The first tow left for the beach ‘amid a perfect hail of bullets, shrapnel
and the rattle of machine gun……I turned around to get the second tow ready, when a man just in front of me
dropped, he was hit in the head…..Landed 0420
Captain Lalor killed. Pat killed on the left flank near me. When the boat grounded the troops had to swim
several strokes, then found it almost impossible to walk with their clothes and packs so sodden.
Margetts fell twice before he reached the beach and the cover of a sand bank. He told his men to dump
their packs, load their rifles and get their breath. The men were heavily loaded. Each had 200 rounds of
ammunition, rifle and bayonet, an entrenching tool with two empty sandbags wrapped around it, a
heavy backpack and two white bags containing two days’ extra rations, which included a can of bully
beef, biscuits, tea and sugar. “It was just breaking dawn and as we looked towards the sound of firing, we
were faced by almost perpendicular cliffs about 200 feet above sea level, and as we were of the opinion that
most of the fire was coming form this quarter, it was evident that this was the direction of the attack.’
Lieutenant Ivor Margetts.Pp133-145

The Landing
The beach was very rocky, and it was not the easiest thing on earth to clamber over big slippery rocks. All
this time bullets were whizzing all around us and the men were falling here and there. I rushed across the
shore to the shelter of a small bank and there shed my pack and fixed my bayonet then straight on to drive
the beggars away. The way our chaps went for it was a sight for the gods: no one attempted to fire but we
just went straight on up the side of the cliff, pushing our way through the thick scrub and often clambering
up the steep sides of the cliff on all fours.
Private Arthur Blackburn p 145

The beach was crowded with all sorts of beings, men, mules, donkeys, horses, ammunition supplies,
The
navalBeach
beach parties… There didn’t seem much organisation on the shore, in fact it was disorganisation.
We evidently haven’t got a Kitchener about. On paper it was all right but in practice no good.
Colonel William Malone p165

The Trenches.
The weeks and months that followed were very difficult and frustrating for the ANZACS. They had to
dig in wherever they could. This led to the development of the trench system. To try and break the
stalemate the British commanders planned offensives [frontal attacks] to try and move the Turks
from their positions. Examples of offensives were Lone Pine and the Nek.

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Some may regard a trench as a romantic place, but it makes a thankless home. Most trenches were deep
and narrow, safe from rifle fire and pretty secure from shrapnel. Nevertheless, accidents did occur. A
fellow would keep his head too far above the parapet (top of trench) or look too long through a peep
hole and get sniped.  Sometimes a bullet penetrated a badly filled sandbag and settled some poor devils
account…the trenches zig-zagged all the way, so enemy fire could into enfilade for any distance.  The
sun stared down onto the baked earth and searched out every corner.  To provide some shade, fellows
stretched blankets overhead, pinned to the walls with bayonets. Sometimes attempts were made to get
little comforts, such as seats, shelves, and pictures from illustrated papers. But nothing really disguised
the horror of these homes.”

Loch, Sydney. To Hell and Back: The banned account of Gallipoli, Sydney: Harper Collins, 2007,
p154.
Image: Men in trenches at Gallipoli. http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/G00425

“Many times, one could pass through the trenches without a sign of war other than men polishing their
rifles.  One would find men shaving, men cooking little dinners, men reading old newspapers or writing
love letters, while others were sleeping.  Some were naked to the waist, hunting for body lice among
the seams and crevices of their shirts.”

Loch, Sydney. To Hell and Back: The banned account of Gallipoli, Sydney: Harper Collins, 2007,
p155.

Condition:
Food
Once a day, if you were lucky, there is bully beef and fly stew as the main meal. For breakfast you might get a
rasher of salty bacon and a mug of fly tea… In the evening we have another mug of fly tea and either a piece of
slimy, fly covered cheese or share a small tin of apricot jam between the lot of us. As one opens the tin the flies
are so thick that they are squashed in the process. One never sees the jam; one can only see a blue- black mixture
of sticky, sickly flies. They drink the sweat on our bodies and our lips and eyes are always covered with them.
Ordinary Seaman Joe Murray pp 303

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Water

For over three weeks we have attacked and been counter attacked. The shortage of food and water, the blazing
sun, the stench from the rotting corpses everywhere and the millions of flies has sapped most of the life out of
us. Why were the dead not buried? Easier said than done. Show your head for one second and you are on the
list for burial. Day or night, anything that moves is fired on …. Within a matter of hours that are exposed to
the sun swell to an incredible size.

Our thirst was made more acute by the sight of that cupful of cold tea but no man would dream of touching it
whilst there was a least a sign of life in the chap who had brought it. …..We sucked stones and moistened our
own lips with urine, which made them smart but it was moisture and that was all that mattered at the moment.
Ordinary Seaman Joe Murray pp 302

Flies
We literally fought them for a quarter of an hour – waving towels, burning Keatings, scattering them. We must
have killed 1000 or 2000 but only excited them. They swarmed in our faces, crawled all over us…… The place
was filthy with them this morning – nothing but dead flies…. The men find the flies at present far worse that
the Turks
Charles Bean Australian War Correspondent pp 313

Lice

…… a wash would be a great luxury, lice and flies…. In everything. I wear my clothes inside out every few
days, but still the brutes are scratched for.
Lieutentant
Lice R.C. Hunter taken from One Land Many Stories pp59

Rats
The dead were thick, thousands right along there, and the place smelled terrible. There were big rats, …
running around everywhere, squeaking and fighting over the corpses. Both sides were getting riddled with
disease from the stench of the dead.
James Donaldson taken from Retroactive 2

Dysentery

It’s absolutely piteous to see great sturdy bushman and miners almost unable to walk through sheer
weakness, caused by chronic diarrhoea, or else one mass of Barcoo rot. We are all the same, all suffering
from sheer physical weakness and yet we can’t get relieved… Daily now the men are getting weaker …. If
only those at home, fed on lies as they are, could see how the men really are: weak as kittens, one mass of
sores, and yet as undaunted in spirit as ever: but that spirit can’t last forever and soon these English idiots
will have ruined one of the finest bodies of men that ever fought.
Sergeant Lawrence pp 313-314

Death, Bodies, and the Stench.

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 We pushed then into the sides of the trench but bits of them kept getting uncovered hands sticking out, like
people in a badly made bed. Hands are the worst; they would escape from the sand, pointing, begging even
waving! The bottom of he trench was springy like a mattress because of all the bodies under neath….. We
wept, not because we were frightened but because we were so dirty.
Leonard Thompson pp304

The trenches are packed with debris, like the Gully. The same awful stench pervades everything, and the
flies swarm in millions.
Ashmead- Bartlett British War Correspondent pp326

The Offensive Attack: The Nek

I was in the first line to advance, and we did not get ten yards. Everyone fell like lumps of meat ….. All
your pals that had been with you for months and months blown and shot out of all recognition …. I got mine
shortly after I got over the bank, and it felt like a million-ton hammer falling on my shoulder .
Sergeant Cliff Pinnock p404