Kanlisirt Aniti (Kanlisirt Memorial), Anzac, Gallipoli
Heroically defended Kanlisirt…
- Enlarge (opens in a new window)
- The Kanlısırt Anıtı (Memorial), Kabatepe–Conkbayırı road, Gallipoli.
To the Turks, Lone Pine at Anzac was Kanlisirt, ‘Bloody Ridge’. Turkish losses in the fighting around this spot were high and today the Turkish defence of the area is remembered on a large concrete monolith situated beside the road leading up from the coast from Kaba Tepe to Lone Pine and on to Conkbayiri (Chunuk Bair). On its face, in Turkish, the Kanlisirt Aniti (Kanlisirt Memorial) has this text:
In order to help the British 9th Army Corps landing at Anarfarta district [Suvla Bay] on 6-7August 1915, the Anzac force attacked the Turkish 19th and 16th Divisions, who were defending the Ariburnu front, to hold them there. The units of the 16th Division, in spite of their heavy losses of 1520 martyrs and 4750 wounded during the extremely violent fights, heroically defended Kanlisirt.
[English translation, quoted in Tonie and Valmai Holt, Battlefield Guide to Gallipoli, Barnsley, 2000, p.156]
This memorial might well be called a ‘battlefield narrative’ memorial for it provides on the site itself a Turkish interpretation of what happened at Lone Pine, an action well known to Australians. The words ‘heroically defended Kanlisirt’ would have found no argument from the Australians who also suffered over 2,000 casualties in that battle.
- Enlarge (opens in a new window)
- Members of the Australian Historical Mission of February-March 1919 at lunch on Hill 60, Gallipoli. Zeki Bey, a Turkish officer who provided Charles Bean with much historical information about the Turkish side of the Anzac battles and who commanded a Turkish unit at the Battle of Lone Pine (Kanlisirt), is second from left. [AWM G01904]
The Australian attack at Lone Pine on the afternoon of 6 August was very successful and a significant amount of the Turkish front line and rear trenches feel into Anzac hands. An even greater disaster might have befallen the Turks if the attackers had been able to advance over the ridge and down into the Turkish approaches in a small valley called the Cup. During this crucial period, leaders such as the commander of the 1st Battalion, 57th Regiment, Zeki Bey, rallied the defence:
I went into the right-hand trench, perhaps thirty yards up into it. There I found not an officer but only the Hoja – the chaplain – of my battalion. It being the 1stBattalion of the regiment, he ranked as Mufti – the 2nd and 3rd would have an Imam. He was a very brave man and kept his head very well … The Hoja Mufti said,’ Don’t be anxious about this flank – I’ll remain here’.
[Zeki Bay, quoted in Charles Bean, Gallipoli Mission, Sydney, 1990, p.189]
- Enlarge (new window)
- The original Turkish memorial at Kanlısırt (Lone Pine) erected after the evacuation of Anzac in December 1915. [AWM G01752]
Another of the Turkish commanders at Kanlisirt, as the Australians rushed and captured the Turkish trenches, was Tewfik Bey. The loss of the trenches stunned him and he knew he would probably be held responsible for the Australian breakthrough. Zeki Bey found him in a very upset condition sheltering on the slope of the Cup. Tewfik did indeed make some mistakes that day including telling higher command that the Lone Pine trenches had been regained. He had lost the greater part of two of the battalions under his command. Eventually, Tewfik regained his nerve and, as the situation continued to worsen, he said, ‘Well, I’ll take the troops myself and we’ll do something whatever it costs’. It cost him his life as he died from a bomb blast leading his men forward to the attack. Australians remember the courage shown by those who took part in the Battle of Lone Pine, during which such a significant part of the Turkish position was seized and held. Turks remember Kanlisirt where men like Zeki Bey, the Hoja Mufti and Tewfik Bey saved the situation from turning into an even bigger disaster and prevented the Australians from getting any further. Truthfully it can be said – ‘they heroically defended Kanlisirt’.
[Note: There are a number of Turkish ‘battlefield narrative’ memorials in the Anzac and Suvla area in addition to the one at Kanlisirt. At Conkbayiri (Chunuk Bair) there are five such monoliths arranged in a semicircle to represent a hand turned upwards towards God.]