When our awesome driver picked us up at 8:30, we wondered what our day would be like since there was no guide with him and he doesn’t speak a word of English. As we headed out of Istanbul we thought (hoped) that he was heading to Gallipoli and a new guide would join us there. It’s a 3.5 hour drive, but he gave us a couple of pit stops and we passed the time making guesses on where exactly we would end up and what exactly was the plan of the day. Eventually we did pick up a new guide who took us to the Gallipoli peninsula and tomorrow he will take us to Troy.
I had no idea what to expect at Gallipoli. All I ever knew about the battle came from the song, The Band Played Waltzing Matilda and the movie Gallipoli. I guess I imagined a museum, or a stop at the actual place it happened, but the tour was so much more. We did see where the Anzac forces landed and learned about the campaign from their point of view, then went where the Turks were dug in, and learned what happened on their side. The Turks had the high ground- taller than a hill, smaller than a mountain, and not a sheer cliff. And it wasn’t just one place it was all over a lengthy peninsula.
I know that most readers don’t know or care about this battle so I won’t include the things I learned in this post. I am going to describe in further detail and in pictures what happened here in WWI. If you have any interest in reading that summary, please let me know and I will send it to you.
Long after the war, the father of modern Turkey, Kemal Attaturck, reached out to the
grieving mothers of the dead Anzac forces. He sent them this letter, which so moved both Brian and me.
No comments:
Post a Comment