8f. Conditions at Gallipoli [History]

In Gallipoli in summer (June to August) it was oppressively hot. The flies became unbearable, even to eat some ANZACs put a net over their head and put their bully beef inside the net to eat but they couldn't see anything through the net because of the flies swarming. 

Diarrheoa, known at the Turkish Trot was happening at an alarming rate. The Allies didn't have many places to bury the dead because they were on steep ground, so decomposing bodies were littered around. The stench was awful and the bodies were crawling with maggots and going black and swelling in the sun. Gigantic insects flew from the rotting bodies which caused dysentery and other diseases. 

Then in winter the rain and cold made the conditions worse. At the end of November 2015 it rained non-stop for 2 days. The trenches turned into canals and raging torrents ran through the gullies. Men were knee-deep in water in the trenches and many had trench foot.  

Then the snow came and the white snow contrasted against their khaki uniforms which made them easy targets for the Turkish snipers. One blizzard was so bad the 200 men (British) in Suvla Bay died because they were frozen to death. 

In the first eight days of December, there were about 16,000 casualties and 12,000 were because of the weather. Hundreds of feet and entire limbs were amputated. 


Drinking water was limited because it had to shipped in to the troops. So water was rationed. I can't imagine what it would have been like only having 250ml of water to drink, Mum and I were parched just after 4 hours. 

The Ottomans could get fresh food supplies from the peninsula but the ANZACS only had canned meat (called bully beef) and hard biscuits. 

The flies, mosquitoes, rats and lice spread disease quickly, and these pests were attracted to the decomposing bodies and human waste. Germs and bacteria were passed quickly to food and water supplies. 

In Australia no one knew about the suffering. All the troops letters were censored and so were the journalists and reporters articles. (see post about the evacuation).

GAS. 

As the situation was getting worse and worse and more troops were dying, Churchill wanted to attack with chemical warfare. So he sent cylinders of chlorine gas to Gallipoli. It wasn't used, and not just for moral reasons but because gas is heavier than air, and the Turks had the higher ground, any gas sent over would have fallen back on the ANZACs. 

TRENCHES

Because of the terrain, the trenches had to be built on steep, narrow slopes. Some of the trenches at the front (higher up) were very close to the Turkish trenches, sometimes only 6 metres!

Charles Bean wrote:

“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 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 couldn't go 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.”

Colonel Herbert Collett, 28th Battalion

“A few had bivvies, excavated in the walls of trenches, but most men had only the floor of the trench upon which to lie.  Here, clothed in their overcoats and wrapped in their single blankets, they slumbered – only to be rudely awakened now and then by the pressure on some part of their anatomy of the feet of a passenger to or from the front line…In the front trenches, where garrisons were relieved by the supports every 24 hours, sleep was, theoretically, not to be thought of.  However, the normal man felt that at some time during the 24 hours it was good to close his tired eyes – if only for a few minutes.”

 I really like this poem by one of the diggers:

My ANZAC home, by Corporal George L. Smith

“Come and see my little dug-out way up on the hill it stands.

Where I can get a lovely view of Anzac’s golden sands;

When ‘beach billy’ is shelling, I can see just where it lands,

From my cosy little dug-out on the hill.

It isn’t quite as roomy as the mansions of the Tsar;

From sitting room to bedroom is not so very far,

For the dining and the smoking room you just stay where you are,

In my cosy little dug-out on the hill.

The fleas they wander nightly, as soon as I’ve undressed,

And after many weary hunts I’ve had to give them best.

As the ants have also found it, there is very little rest

In my cosy little dug-out on the hill.

I’ve a natty little cupboard, and it looks so very nice.

‘Twas made to keep my bread and jam, my bacon and my rice;

But now it’s nothing other than a home for orphaned mice.

In my cosy little dug-out on the hill.

There is no electric lighting in the blighted land of war,

So I use some fat in syrup tins, and stand it on the floor-

And when it’s working overtime I sweat from every pore,

In my cosy little dug-out on the hill.

The ANZACs would swim off the beach whenever they could. They swam naked to keep their clothes dry, but sometimes a sniper would kill a random digger yet it was worth swimming because it was the only way to shed the mud and lice and skin infections.