Descent From Disaster - Gallipoli

New Zealand has a legacy of deadly disasters the whole party seemed to forwards praying to God because I wanted to survive scary very scary disasters but shaped this country where I'm standing we will grandfather got involved at the Battle of x2 yachts were lost forever the worst motoring excellent in New Zealand history seven well-known New Zealanders retrace our darkest days bringing history alive through the eyes of descendants it stayed with me probably with you it's something that we will never ever forget all of them [Music] on April 23rd 1915 the first of more than 13,000 German soldiers landed here on the Turkish Gallipoli Peninsula in a place that would become known as Anzac Cove eventually nearly 2800 New Zealanders with kills the colorfully and nearly twice that number again with injured one of those wounded was my grandfather Martin Brooke historian tell us Galilee or swear New Zealand lost innocence and found its identity now 100 years later I want to know more than literally my grandfather's involvement and why this ill-fated campaign has such a prominent place in New Zealand's history how did young men like my grandfather end up here and what lasting legacy has it left on the families of the men who fought here as we commemorated in Tillery Gallipoli remains one of New Zealand's worst military disaster [Music] I've played for New Zealand but my grandfather nearly gave his life for this country he volunteered for the Great War here and fukiko in the second week August 1914 when he was 96 my grandfather was interviewed by oral historians Jane Tarleton and Nicholas Boyer our family have never heard at recording there will be a new experience for us all in the early 1900s fukiko he was a busy rural town but when war was declared on August the 4th 1914 the empire called and New Zealand was quick to answer Great Britain declares war on Germany my grandfather is going to wake up and see these papers that would be rather scary for him but as my grandfather was English he's going to have an obligation to sign up for it and sign up he did Martin Brooke was 22 and ready for adventure now brave boys and brave boys that is martin-brock made the local paper I'm embarrassed to say I know little about my grandfather's Gallipoli maybe my father sandy will know more [Music] now living in England I've not seen my father - some years so a bar say need to meet me at the old cracker farm the place he grew up and where I spent my first year as Eddie hi hi hi oh yeah Oh country right yeah we ugly keys you good crushing I'm beef on there what's a lovely bag here it's marvelous to come back to have a look this song of being left with 50 ideas as a returning soldier Martin acquired the spot when he came home and later on he left sandy and no doubt about Gallipoli it was absolute murder going into guiltily cause he said they just got into it a rock place land on the beaches of Turks of above just machine-gun them as soon as I came off the of the boat so he actually told you that yeah he said it was a one hell of a place to be Martin was seriously injured in Gallipoli he carried the scars for the rest of his life I remember as a kid when we used to go and visit him and Paqui Kelly we used to go to ice skate touches elbow was like a big limit wasn't it and ER it was so I used to give them hell in the winter do that whoo yeah he's getting mum - Robert we'll just act like like a toothache my grandfather had run away from England looking for adventure when he was 17 arriving in Banks Peninsula he worked on farms gradually making his way north you know he did not hear this before no I thought oh I'm gonna join up well I got on the train came into Auckland I went straight down to the hall I said look I want to be in the ultra Mounted Rifles I saw one some doctor examined me he said yes you're fit I loved excitement I got something new at all back again over the seas here and there everywhere so did he have it he chased excited chased excitement and he wanted to go around the world fight a war oh good god he didn't nobody let himself into twenty-two years old and it's here right here 100 years ago that is Danny started the great adventure as they went away to war all those eager young men none could know what lay ahead in a place they had not yet heard of Gallipoli Tom Burgess has become one of Gallipoli first prisoners of war Billy Collison would have a premonition of death a premonition that would come true Jack Shephard would survive the war but not the peace in Charlie O Hara and my grandfather Martin would love to the old men Worthen just two months of signing up the first volunteers heating overseen there was a Toby the 16 1914 10 ships over 8,000 men and nearly 4,000 horses left Wellington together they form the muse of an expeditionary force as they sailed across the Indian Ocean the boredom of ship load was offset by the constant fear German Raiders eventually the troopship stopped in Colombo Sri Lanka or salon as it was known at the time [Music] robert montgomery is the grandson of Charlie ohhara one of my grandfather's good mates from Gallipoli a hundred years after our two grandfathers were here would come to the Gulf Ace Hotel where Martin led Charlie and a few other New Zealand troops into a little bit of trouble boy good morning Thank You cigarettes it's a great unexpected privilege to be sitting in a bar in the same hotel with these men drank 100 years ago trooper Charlie O'Hara from Capitol Ito had joined the Mounted Rifles just days before my grandfather Monty has no idea that I have an eyewitness account of what our grandfather's got up to well I've been inaudible Lee I said come on let's have a look at Columba on every year before you now I heard essential lesson and a Gary came sweeping into it we all got in forward and this is we got in I did we want to see so all the boozes in this place was it round a black tub and I said why cause were broke haven't got any more money I said we've got to pay this bug and it referred to Jo ara so Charlie said I am Charlie ran out of the pub with the driver running after him I think my grandfather started off the war drinking and he end of it in the same way as he started so I think it set the tone for it for his war anyway Charlie and Martin were late back to the ship but eventually they sailed on from Columbus the Australians and New Zealanders on board probably thought they were heading to England but instead they were diverted to Egypt where they would train for the next five months the rides in Egypt go down to their grandfathers get up to any more mischief well we have here a picture of one of the prostitutes available in Egypt for the troops but all I can say about that is on my grandfather's war record there was no evidence for the contracted VD at any part of the war so whether he took part in that I don't know yeah I would say just on the base of that photo that she would not have been very busy all joking aside the good times were rapidly coming to an end for both of our grandfathers cheers to the res fathers well so he's going to pay this time well I've got my money [Laughter] [Music] gallipoli my first time here and it's cold totally cold there's no one here in winter only the did coming to the place with my grandfather came and I don't know what I think is going to do with us a second abyss in the first of the tiers or contain myself and control my emotions of walking on the same saw of my grandfather did 100 years ago and it's amazing I feel very satisfied to actually make the journey I'll touch the water I've touched the land and now where I'm standing right and behind where we're going to is where my grandfather got involved in the Battle of the pigs you the mothers who send their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears your sons are now lying in our bosom end up in peace after having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well attitude [Music] so why did my grandfather end up here in Turkey when he was expecting to be fighting the Germans in France essentially it was because the Turks ended the war on the German side the Turks controlled the Dardanelles the main sea route to Constantinople modern-day Istanbul and overlooking that vital strip of water is where I'm meeting New Zealand military historian dr. demian Fenton the original idea behind the Gallipoli campaign was Winston Churchill's and his idea was to knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war really quickly and he thought he could do that by sending in an allied naval fleet through to the Dardanelles straits to sit outside the capital Constantinople and basically forced the Turks to either surrender or face having their capital city flattened by a naval bombardment gentlemen Turks know this waterway is important and it's well defended it's got forts it's got coastal batteries guns they lay in minefields across the Strait the stop ship so you've immediately got a problem to get a fleet up here you're going to go to those minefields to get rid of the minefields you're going to have to do something about the coastal guns because I'll sink your minesweepers unless you do so first of all they just try a naval attack and that ends up in a disastrous attack on the 18th of March when we lost three battleships so at that point they decided okay we can't just do this but sending warships of the Strait how about we've seen the land force to invade the killer fleet Peninsula and come across and knock out the coastal guns that way you don't open it up for the fleet so that's where our guys came into it and that was the job that we were given to do troops from a number of countries including Britain Australia New Zealand India and later France were involved in the Gallipoli landings the plan was for the British to land at the bottom of the peninsula and for the Anzacs to attack through the North 25th of April tell me about that date the index landed in the wrong place they should have landed two kilometres further south on a quite a general beach instead they landed at the place we now know as aunty Cove they're immediately confronted with you know these real steep ravines and cliffs but they press on and basically follow their nose the problem is in doing so they become disorganized units get split up and lost officers lose track of them in men lose track of your officers nobody really knows who's doing what it's complete chaos now well that's at me commander called mr. Kemal the judge of the Ottoman 19th division force of about 12,000 13,000 men he orders his divisions to head straight for Anzac and their code so by Monday you certainly got this massive force of Turkish reinforcements that run smack into our guys the landing was a disaster but my grandfather would have had little knowledge of that he and the other Mounted Rifles were held back in Egypt their time would come one of those who did land on April the 25th was Tom Burgess of like my grandfather had signed up in pookie-kai but in the infantry his great needs Carol over has been researching Tom burgesses story from the rugby field to the battlefield Tom's battalion was one of the first battalions behind the Australians that landed at Anzac Cove they were faced with the enormous task of getting up these cuffs in order to fight the tips and the tips were sitting up there and just picking them off Tom and the aspects made some progress that Thursday but then we're forced to pull back Tom got he was wounded and when his battalion retreated Tom was left we lay in the battlefield for three days it's reported that every tooth that we asked him either fainted at him threatened him he was eventually picked up by the Turkish stretcher bearers and taken to base hospital on the peninsula and then he probably would have been taken by ship into Constantinople what's the stand boil as it is today where he was put in the GU Leone Hospital word of Thomas's capture eventually moved when his name appeared in the New Zealand Herald he also managed to get letters home to friends and family that were printed in local newspapers goodness gracious look at this here September the 9th 1915 areas not private Thomas Haynes burgers whose name appeared on the killer diversed August and July the floor just a few lines that you know that I'm alive and well well I've had a pretty rough time I was wounded and taken prisoner by the Turks when I troops landed at Dardanelle I was treated very kindly by them heaven a splendid hospital for two months when my wounds are filled up quite well wow that's quite special about those various that is very special but that letter belied what was really going on on August 26th he was transferred to another hospital called Tesh Kichler which was what they called a punishment hospital the Turks thought that the Turkish prisoners of war were being badly treated by the British so then they decided it wasn't going to be retaliation the conditions and test Cousteau we're appalling the guy's flipped on mattresses on the floor if they were lucky enough to get one they usually had three apiece - a mattress Thomas was doing okay and then he died his death must have been unexpected used family back home why did he die when he appeared to be doing so well much later than truth came out another New Zealand prisoner of war private William Surgenor filed a startling report but it took almost a hundred years before Carroll would see it - Burgess was left behind when his crowd retired at Gallipoli hadn't been wounded some stretcher bearers picked him up and he was taken to camp he told me himself that he had been sodomized there bloody hell he was then taken to hospital suffering from pneumonia appendicitis and exhaustion Oh swell it was something very very distressing you know to find that out but at least you know what happened to him what he went through [Music] little right we go from pokey County I don't know I've always had this connection with time and I have no idea why so I really wanted to go in visitors grave and that's the heads the headstone who I was the first person from our family that's ever visited Tom's gray after the emotion passed then I got really really angry and I just you know what the bloody hell is he doing here I mean that is ten and a half thousand miles away from home he should be back in our country where we can go and seeing and all these sort of things and but what has been really nice about it when I you know told all my cousins and so forth that I've been that now a lot of them also want to go you know and I think and what's worse for okay I left my trash terribleness tomber Jesus death was it wouldn't be the last more Anzacs were required to fill the gap and one of them was my grandfather you two weeks after the landing at Gallipoli reinforcements were virtually needed the Mounted Rifles the horses still in Egypt we're called to relieve those left from the first landing on April the 23rd we saw that we were getting closer because there were young men coming out from the trenches there only look to be about 15 and 16 years old the Sabra leaders they came out they were all of a shake and I thought oh isn't it a devil of a thing putting little boys right the very pinnacle of that hospital my grandfather and the rest of the Auckland Mounted Rifles would spend most of their time at glibly at a place called Walker's Ridge the ridge itself is actually on the other side there is sort of a slope and the mountains are told that's we're going to be living that statue of where you're providing your dugouts are so that's where they sort of sleep and eat and then up here morally so we are this is the frontline just a little sheer cliffs the I mean you can just see that the scale of it must do him I mean there must have just arrived here and just got where we landed you know what are we supposed to do with this the landscape has changed down the years there's more vegetation now and they say perhaps as much as 10 meters of topsoil has eroded away even so I find it hard to believe anyone could have lived here well here we are we're actually on Walker's Ridge hundred years on my grandfather was walking on this cliff with a lot of his mates friends Australian guys keel you guys and just behind us front line further inland a few trenches remain here everyday life was exceptionally tough for men like my grandmother the heat really became a problem for the men mainly because the lack of water is there just isn't enough water in that area that they hold on Anzac to supply 20,000 men consequently it becomes pretty filthy fairly quickly life becomes a problem life gets into the uniforms and their bedding and their bivouacs and then of course you wants to get a slice and once the Flies comes disease and sickness and sure enough is now break the dysentery and just throughout every man comes down with it at some point it's pretty harsh conditions and on May the 19th the atmosphere changed so first troops began a whole new kind of a tank and then we heard Allah Allah Allah Allah being cool and somebody said oh my god it's a buddy - they're attacking [Music] the over the offenses running up and down one of the prospects yet Roger the drop Rob shooting the enemies there these tech they got right close up to Walker Greece there were about 50,000 Turkish and Arab soldiers involved in this attack forty thousand in the first wave alone 40,000 40,000 spread around the perimeter but even if so the grandfather would have would have no doubt the in facing and looking at tens hundreds hundreds of of Turkish and Arab soldiers coming at them they were going to absolutely annihilate the index and the Enclave and just wipe it out and it was it was an attack all along the line so the whole Anzac perimeter and and it was just it was there was nothing subtle about it it was just a full frontal assault just charge discharge him directly at our trenches straight-out up and Rina must been terrifying the grandfather and his mates the North amounted they stood their ground mister days but they stayed in their trenches they man fire to five set the Machine gutters you know did terrible work and and they actually they stopped the Turkish attack literally dead the Ottoman Turks lost 10,000 men out of that 40,000 and the space of a couple about at least 3,000 did I mean it was sort of it was just sort of no-man's land that the area between the two front lines is now carpeted with with their bodies and so both sides agree to have an armistice for one day to go out there and retrieve bodies and clear them during the dead during the brief pharmacists must have been hard the respite gave everyone time to reflect early call us at my grandfather's friend so brave during the fighting developed a bad feeling now Billy Collinson it was in our section and Billy versus we all liked him is only about 19 he had a premonition and he was going to get killed we all had come on many body dream I don't know it should I don't know well I've got a feeling what I'm feeling something's going to happen it and as sure as we were ordered in this trench this night the Marceline took that had seen this head come up never looks yummy said Billy top one head over the top looking that there then they would shoot you there was a bang oh god I shot him I knew he was going to get stuck in you know song had come to an end Billy call us and his death would have called my grandfather for the rest of his life you the Gallipoli campaign had been going for nearly seven weeks and the pressures and the casualties were increasing by mid-june my grandfather had been on walk was rich for a month he was tired people had been dying all around him four days after Billy's death my grandfather was approached by an NCO and ordered back up to the front line beside entrust at company I've got to get another two or three men together they've got to go out to a number of the outpost I said I was up at the outpost for two days this week and I sort of only just been a buddy trenches and he said I've been given orders to get them and you're one of the way I learn together I said no you're not and I started fighting him on the side of the hill and I was about to go back to the boys and this dusted shell exploded right in my face been through my shoulder went we'll let me get down here through this knee and some reason my god Brooke wonder didn't kill you all I said I'll never get him I said I've been reserved for metal thing you see this is the first time I've heard that story it's a shock but even more disconcerting to me is Damian take on the events that had led up to the explosion a wild level he's obviously very unlucky that that you know he just happens to be with us this random shellers has landed and exploded he's copped it on the other hand it hasn't killed them at least not outright and you could argue that this has possibly saved him from a court-martial but with this abandon order in the face the enemy carries the death penalty really yeah really yeah so he can I sort of loosely say that it's probably a good thing that won't my father got hurt nay well I mean it's not to say that he would necessarily have been sentenced to death but and he probably wouldn't have been but it technically it is it as a possibility my grandfather ended up on the beach waiting for life-saving medical treatment but like so many injured ends ex do to be treated on hospital ships his survival was mostly a matter of luck he comes down here for two days waiting to get rescued early in the campaign the NZXT had just one dedicated hospital ship at Gallipoli the Gascon susannah DeVries is a historian and author she's researched the terrible conditions medical staff worked in the three doctors seven nurses looking after at one stage they have as many as 900 people on the gas cot you know crowded together like sardines they didn't have penicillin they didn't have modern painkillers and they didn't have blood transfusions all they have is morphine and when the morphine runs out there are no terrible terrible pain is endured by the four men thousands of men died who didn't need to die your grandfather is taken on board on the 16th of June in the heat of the summer he's taken on board he's blue carded to have an operation he's very lucky that he doesn't get gangrene or they would have had to amputate an arm and a leg the gangrene is the great killer of the Anzacs more people die of gangrene than die of being shot on the beach my grandfather survived the surgery but many of those around him were not so lucky there were the different forms lying on the back now we're all in agent in canvas and you could see one leg here when arm or no arms or two legs off just see that the body all being buried and as they buried them they all went down into the there was a big heavy stone in taken to the bottom I think the description of the funeral is what's so very interesting in your grandfather's account because at the time of Gallipoli he couldn't have mentioned it Sheila Rose Arbour and topic two of the nurses on the gas gun tried unsuccessfully to get the word out of our conditions on the hospital ship it's taken 100 years for the nurses Diaries to fully come to light it's the lost story of war because they saved 10,000 and VAX they were truly heroic and your grandfather's story is very interesting because it's almost the missing piece in the jigsaw trooper book Cooper book my grandfather was evacuated and arrived in Egypt on June the 30th 1915 before the New Zealand troops he left behind Gallipoli was far from over this monument memorializes a battle called connect there around all eight New Zealand troops pushed higher than any of the Allied troops had ever been before and uh none of the soldiers of a New Zealand Expeditionary Force 8th of August 1915 from the uttermost ends of the earth [Music] our fatigue briefly the Kiwi soldiers glimpsed through objective the Dardanelles for the first and only time before being pushed back the New Zealand loss of life at chronic beer was horrendous and when the RSA was established the next year some even argued that all c8 was a more fitting date for Anzac Day rather than the 25th of April the standoff at gallipoli continued through the heat of the Turkish summer the New Zealand has made one more offensive push to try and break the enemy lines 93 year-old mark Road Shepherds father Jack Shepherd was one of those who survived long enough to take part in the battle of chronic bear Margaret and her son John Keenan treasure Jack's wartime diary which records events at Gallipoli after my grandfather had been evacuated events that almost obliterated the regiment they both shared the Auckland Mounted Rifles John where one weren't always the seventh as I see it's quite a critical day in these crucial days no it was what happened there well it's a crucial day for New Zealand's nationhood and it's smoother tree history because that was the young at the start of the Battle of tronic bear we charged across about 100 both on the ground square by machine-gun and good many of our chat spell shot in the rush after clocking the hilltop and came to a small college where we lay in the scrub at the mercy of the snipers trap clinic there is a terrible terrible loss of life the Auckland Mounted Rifles were all but wiped out Jack was wounded at Chunuk Bair he was shipped to England to recover while their pitchers a home in front of him he wrote to family in New Zealand explaining what had happened my where did was an awful day at eighth of August I will never forget it the whole of our regiment was nearly wiped out while Jack recovered his allied troops still on the peninsula were withdrawn the eight month campaign had been a disaster Kelly became the defeat we can never forget elsewhere the war continued and Jack Shepard again Dean foot two fights were sent to the Western Front to Belgium he arrived in time for the Battle of Passchendaele which saw 3,700 userland casualties including 845 deaths in one day Jack Shepard served nearly four years almost constantly in the front line it's all such a hopeless business is a terrible sacrifice and and young men in the best days of their growing up to be young have to live like this and have all so many of his friends drop beside him and then to keep on going and eventually he came back to New Zealand but he never recovered from the audio he was obviously stressed and evidently he went to some doctor that was way up north and told to go and get over it so unfortunately my father took his life own life the end Margaret was just four years old when her father committed suicide [Music] your survey said that some a man who had had a life to live was broken by rule and lack of help but there's nothing there's nothing there that's real man and that's from Dex actually my Sava yeah [Music] there are any theory in the final I said tomato journey [Music] for just over 60 years the location of Jack Sheppard's grave was unknown but after a lot of painstaking research Marvel identified her father's final resting place at a settlement called Conoco and hoppy other Jack Shepard lies here in an unmarked plot Margaret is determined to give their father a headstone lovely to have you around like this and understanding the looseness Jack's a pizza yes the journey to follow my grandfather's Gallipoli story has left me with one last piece of unfinished business a meeting with a man called grand Collison we meet at the Auckland War Memorial Museum at the Hall of memory hi dad brought me here when I was about eight or nine and pointed out since younger brother up there and William Collison and I think nostalgia your green dares filly grad knows a few things about his uncle but not how he died now do you know my grandfather was an eyewitness to to to police a last moment say so I'm going to play something and do we bring us any of us now Billy Collison it was in our section we all liked him is only about 19 he had a premonition and he's going to get killed and as sure as we were ordered in this trench this night there was a bang somebody's head oh god I shot him I knew he was going to get shot any result would come to an end I buts lovely that you granddad was there with him when it happened and a few yards away from each other and I think there's one last memory my grandfather would want me to share as a colossal addition in particular and is a world war one return hmm what does Anzac Day mean to you I particularly think a Billy Collison I often think of Billy Carson and I've often thought if I knew where some of his people were I go and see them and talk about Billy but it probably it's too long ago at 80 years ago well what a lovely piece to be able to hear that all these years later most of all I want to stand up and give you what my granddad and what a day today Hey yeah thanks event yeah yeah also there in you take fantastic the British artist thanks he said something interesting we died twice he said the first time when we stopped breathing the final time when our name is spoken for the last time learning more about Gallipoli and my grandfather and his mates I've learned some names I never knew before Billy Carlson Tom Burgess Charlie O Hara and Jack Shephard names my family will be talking about for a very long time to come my grandfather survived World War one he came home and married Sybil's and Zuri who was the love of his life he got a soldier's Rehab farm-raised the family saw two of his grandsons become All Blacks and lived to 102 in many ways martin-brock was the quintessential New Zealand earth at the beginning of the war he thought of himself as British but when he came home he was a Kiwi that they say is the legacy of Gallipoli [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Landers

Views: 50,668

Keywords: descent from disaster, gallipoli, ww1, war, ww2, turkey, ANZAC, NZ, new zealand, australia

Id: BwGa_R0iuTQ

Length: 44min 35sec (2675 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 28 2017