Chapter 6: Development - page 3
Crikey! They are coming on in these parts
The Development of the North Beach base, September–November 1915
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- Sheep being taken ashore at North Beach, to be issued live to the Indian troops for slaughter according to their religious practices. [AWM C01662]
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- British and Australian soldiers restoring the circulation to Gurkha's frozen feet near Walden Grove, December 1915. [AWM C01156]
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- North Beach, seen from Ari Burnu sometime after the August operations, when use of the site increased rapidly to include hospitals, supply depots, piers and a post office. [AWM P0061/14/05]
A final feature of the North Beach site was the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) tent. Here there was a canteen and basic comforts. However, despite the difficulties the YMCA undoubtedly laboured under in trying to bring materials to Gallipoli, it seems the Anzacs were a little disappointed in the meagre fare available. Charles Bean recorded an exchange between an Australian soldier and Field Marshal Lord Kitchener, the Commander in Chief of the British Army, who was visiting Gallipoli:
He [Kitchener] went down Rest Gully to 2nd Division, and there saw the YMCA canteen-a splendid Sydney concern, which against great difficulties does manage to do something for the men here …
‘Hallo!–YMCA’, he said. Then, turning to a man, ‘What can you get in there?’ he asked.
‘Nuts’, said the man promptly.
‘Oh yes, but I mean, generally–what have they got in there?’
‘Nothing’, said the man. Thank goodness these Australians generally keep their heads. The need for a canteen was one of the things we wanted impressed on him.
[Kevin Fewster, Frontline Gallipoli – C E W Bean’s diary from the trenches, Sydney, 1983, pp.178—179]
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- Australian soldier receiving dental treatment, probably from members of the 4th Australian Field Ambulance.
[AWM P1116/69/34]
From late August to early November 1915, North Beach was transformed into the supply hub of Anzac. For the old Gallipoli hands, who knew this sector as a bare beach where they were in constant danger of Turkish bullets, this transformation was a wonder. On Friday 5 November 1915, Sergeant Cyril Lawrence, Australian Engineers, arrived back at Anzac from a rest period on the nearby island of Imbros. What struck him at once as he approached the shore was the sight of North Beach:
Once more on old Anzac. What a change! Why, when we left there was hardly anything round this side of the Cove. It was not safe. Now there are tents and a YMCA and what is this great sandbag mansion going up directly in front of us? A Post Office, eh. Eighty feet long, twelve feet high and twenty-four feet wide. Some building! Windows, doors and a counter, too. Crikey, they are coming on in these parts.
[Sir R East (ed), The Gallipoli Diary of Sergeant Lawrence of the Australian Engineers – 1st AIF, 1915, Melbourne, 1981, p.111]
[The Post Office dimensions were 24 metres long, 3.6 metres high and 7.3 metres wide]