25 April 1915

ANZAC LANDING - Battleship Hill, Anzac - One half company of 11th Battalion commanded by Captain Eric Tulloch had pushed determinedly up towards Chunuk Bair in one of the very few forward movements made after the first couple of hours. With them was Corporal Herbert Hitch who was acting as a singaller. By about 09.30 they managed to advance onto the Incebayor Spur of Battleship Hill but found themselves more or less isolated with the bulk of 3rd Brigade still stalled back on Second Ridge.



Photograph: Anzac area from a collection of Aerial Photos of Gallipoli taken by Murat Soylemez

Corporal Herbert Hitch, 11th (Western Australia) Battalion, 3rd Brigade

"I was supposed to keep in touch with any unit on the flank, any unit in the front or the rear as we advanced through the scrub. Whenever I reached any vantage point where I could wave the flag - a small flag white with a blue stripe through it. I was watching out for answering signals, I didn't get any - we were out of touch. It was quite a distance between us and the next unit on the right as far as I know. By that time our numbers were down to about twenty, perhaps thirty." 

As he was receiving a signal, he got a sudden and terrible shock.

"The Turkish artillery had opened up and were firing salvos, dropping the range a 100 yards at a time, searching the ground. I was right in the line with two bursts. I thought, “My goodness, the next one will catch me!” It burst behind me and the whole contents of the shell went round me. I had the rifle leaning against my crutch and that spun to the ground. The pellets flew past and they sounded like a flight of parrots and puffs of dust rose here and there where the pellets struck the ground. I fell down thinking I must have been hit; twitching my muscles. When I picked the rifle up it had three hits on the barrel. Two close together on a hand guard knocking the woodwork away, leaving the springs on the barrel and one on the hand guard casing above the barrel. I also had one through my clothing I found later on. That was remarkable because there were about 300 odd bullets in a shrapnel shell." 

As the Turkish 57th Regiment arrived they first formed a firing line and were then sent into to attack the tentative Australian positions on Baby 700 and Tulloch’s men on Incebayor Spur. The Australians partially dug in on Battleship Hill were caught totally unawares by Kemal’s counter-attack. Some had never guessed that the Turks would counter-attack; imagining that once a position was taken then it was only onwards and upwards to success. Now they found themselves suddenly out-numbered by the Turks. Tulloch’s men were unable to do anything much more than cower down in small folds in the ground. Retreat was unavoidable if they wanted to live.

"Then the order came, retire in sections from the right and being on the right flank I jumped up to run and as soon as I jumped up to run the air was alive with bullets, most of them going overhead. We ran back about 200 yards, but by the time we reached the top of the next ridge all the rest were in motion. We opened fire and we fired about six or seven rounds each just to keep the enemy from coming on too quickly and then we all ran back together for about another 150 yards and the order was passed along, “Reform left, Turks advancing on the left!” They were a fine looking body of men. They weren't running but were walking very quickly. As they came under our fire they ran back and I had two shots at a running man and missed him each time - I thought my rifle must have had the barrel bent. Then suddenly down from the sky as if by magic came the shells – their artillery observer had put them on to us. Providentially they were bursting late and the shrapnel was shredding the scrub behind us." 

Back they tumbled during a gap in the shellfire. By this time in all the confusion Hitch lost touch with his comrades.

"I burst through the scrub suddenly and found myself on the edge of a steep ravine. I broke through so suddenly I had to grasp a sapling to save going over. There seemed no way of getting out from there. I thought, "I'm going to get across here somehow!" and I threw my rifle down into this ravine and jumped. I sailed through the air about 25 feet and landed on a slope of 1 in 1. As I jack-knifed I felt as though I had landed on a couple of bayonets. I pitched over head first and seemed to be heading for a precipice, but I was lucky enough to grab a root with my left hand and swing round and go down feet first. I went over two or three vertical falls of about 8 to 10 feet and landed like a sack of spuds each time until finally I reached the breakaway with a drop of about 30 feet and I managed to stop there with about 6 feet to the next drop. As I stopped the earth I had dislodged came tumbling after me." 

---

SOURCE: Brotherton Special Collections Library, Leeds University, Liddle Collection: H. V. Hitch, Transcript of tape 235 & 252

 

Anzac Sunday

Anzac Sunday; The landing at Gallipoli was on Sunday 25th April 1915. Many towns are choosing to hold a Remembrance ceremony on the day in addition to the Dawn services held on the date. Such a town is West Wallsend in New South Wales. On my arrival here on Sunday 22nd April I found that it had not changed much since I last visited 50 years ago.

Situated in the beautiful Hunter valley, it's origins, like so many surrounding towns, centred on the coal mining industry. A whole culture seems to have been plucked bodily from Wales in the UK and set into the Hunter valley to mine the rich lode of coal in the Newcastle seams. Nearby town names like Aberglassyn, Abermain, Pelaw Main, Stanford Merthyr and Aberdare provide witness to a strong Welsh presence.

On Sunday, 22nd April 2001, a grey, overcast day, there was a special commemorative service to remember 1857 Hunter Valley coal miners and 2678 Hunter Valley men who served in France and Belgium during World War 1. As possibly every other town in Australia the people of West Wallsend, on Anzac Sunday were gathering to honour their own.

Newcastle-based military historian, David Dial, spoke of how 1348 Hunter men were drafted into the 34th Battalion (known as Maitland's own) and 1330 Hunter men in the 35th (Newcastle's Own). Among the many battles in which the battalions fought with distinction were Messines in June 1917, Passchendaele in October 1917 and Villers-Brettoneux in April 1918. He told of the recruiting drive called the 'Wallaby March' covering hundreds of miles across New South Wales.

The recruits marched from town to town gathering in number as they went and swelling like a river in flood. There was a passion, fervour and excitement at the chance of 'Defending the Empire'.

Only the very fit lent themselves to this recruiting experience. And, fit they were; John Masefield, pointing out that the Anzacs had had no more than six months' training, wrote:

"They were, however, the finest body of young men ever brought together in modern times. For physical beauty and nobility of bearing they surpassed any men I have ever seen; they walked and looked like the kings in old poems, and reminded me of the line in Shakespeare, `Baited like eagles having lately bathed'."

The 'Roll of Honour" was read as a lone piper played 'Amazing Grace' and 'Waltzing Matilda' while around the Memorial page after page of names of those from the 34th and 35th Battalions were displayed. Against the name of each soldier who was killed in action (one in five) a small flag was embedded.

The ceremony concluded with a young trumpeter (perhaps 15 years old) playing the 'Last Post' and reveille. He was very nervous. I noticed his right leg shaking under his baggy trousers as he played. He did a sterling job.

All visitors were then invited into the nearby Worker's Club in West Wallsend for afternoon tea.

There were possibly less than one hundred people in attendance but the occasion was in no way diminished by such a small gathering.

It possessed the same degree of reverence which marks all the other ceremonies in towns, villages, hamlets and cities across Australia and New Zealand and in parts of Great Britain, at Gallipoli itself and at Villers-Brettoneux and many other parts of the world.

There is a respectful saying in Villers-Brettoneux, "Never forget Australia".

Lieut.General Peter Cosgrove, leader of the Australian peace-keeping forces in East Timor and Australian of the year for 2001 is quoted as having said about Anzac day: "It is now not the sole possession of the veterans, probably never has been. It's not the possession of the armed forces, although we are to some degree custodians of Anzac Day. It is where it ought to be and probably has been spiritually for generations, the possession of the peoples of Australia and New Zealand."

There are very few Australians indeed who would find quarrel with this statement.

John Woods 23/04/01

The Anzac Story

 

The Anzac Story; In 1914, the cabled reports from Europe gave an Increasingly desperate forecast - Europe was teetering towards war in a conflict between an increasingly stronger and powerful German empire and the rival British, French and Russian alliance.

 

As Britain returned to work after the August Bank Holiday Monday, war was declared on Germany and the declaration involved the whole British Empire. Australia's Prime Minister Joseph Cook said: "If the Old Country is at war, so are we".

 

Australia was in the middle of an election campaign. The opposition leader Andrew Fisher promised Great Britain "our last man and our last shilling" in any conflict with Germany. And the Prime Minister responded. 'Our duty is quite clear - to gird up our loins and remember that we are Britons'.

 

There was almost jubilation at the outbreak of war. Most thought that the war would be all over by Christmas and men rushed to recruiting centres because they didn't want to miss the excitement and adventure.

 

Canada offered 30,000 men, Australia pledged 20,000 and New Zealand already had compulsory military training. For the war In Europe, Australia raised a new army of volunteers - the Australian Imperial Force (the AIF). Recruiting began within days of the declaration of war.

 

 

Those who were too young raised their ages - and most were accepted.(See 'Boy Soldiers')

In little over a month, marches were held in the main capital cities hoping to encourage others to join them. They were called "six bob a day tourists" because their pay was considered high and many thought the war would soon be over - when Britain's navy and army would tackle the German enemy.

 

The convoy with the Australian Division assembled in late October, and they were then joined by the New Zealanders. They formed the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps - the Anzacs - on their way Europe via the Suez canal But the Anzacs disembarked In Egypt where they encamped near the pyramids ready for action against Turkey which had joined Germany in the war.

 

 

The Russians who were fighting on Germany's eastern front, wanted the British and French to tackle the Turks to reduce pressure on Russia. The Anzacs Joined the British and French in a dreadful baptism of fire at Gallipoli. The British commanders anticipated that the Gallipoli peninsula would be "open to landing on very easy terms" and Turkey would have a force of only 40,000 to meet them.

 

Anzac Cove April 1915

 

On 25 April 1915, the Anzacs landed at a difficult and desolate spot on the Gallipoli peninsula and the Turks appeared to be ready for them. The Anzacs made little headway over a series of rocky heights covered with thorny scrub. At great cost the Anzacs, British and French made small advances, but Its force was wasting with casualties and sickness, while the Turks were able to reinforce their forces.

 

In August another offensive was made against the Turks, casualties were heavy, but it failed and a defeat was inevitable, The Gallipoli campaign was a debacle, Military censorship prevented the true story being told but a young Australian journalist, Keith Murdoch (father of Australian newspaper tycoon Rupert Murdoch) smuggled the story about the scale of the Dardanelles disaster back to the Australian Prime Minister who sent it on to the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, who was no friend of the British military establishment. It led directly to the dismissal of the British commander, Sir Ian Hamilton who never again was to hold a senior military position.

 

The British Government ordered an evacuation. By day, the Anzacs kept up their attacks with more Anzacs observed to be landing - by night the force was withdrawn, broken only by sporadic rifle and gunfire. On 20 December 1915, the Anzac retreat was complete, unnoticed by the Turks who continued to bombard the Anzacs' empty trenches. On 9 January 1916, the Turks carried out their last offensive on Gallipoli, revealing only that the entire force had withdrawn without casualty. The evacuation was the Allies most successful operation in Gallipoli.

 

A British Royal Commission into Gallipoli concluded that from the outset the risk of failure outweighed Its chances of success. The British had contributed 468,000 in the battle for Gallipoli with 33.512 killed. 7,636 missing and 78,000 wounded.

 

The Anzacs lost 8,000 men in Gallipoli and a further 18,000 were wounded. The Anzacs went on to serve with distinction in Palestine and on the western front in France.

Australia had a population of five million - 330,000 served in the war, 59,000 were killed.

New Zealand with a population of one million lost 18,000 men out of 110,000 and had 55000 wounded. These New Zealand figures (62%) represent the highest percentage of all units from the Anglo-Saxon world.