Friday, April 24, 2015

Gallipoli - the story

To help us understand what the ANZACs were doing 100 years ago, Ms Bland drew some pictures. 


About 100 000 soldiers and approximately 600 nurses from New Zealand left on troopships to go to World War 1. 


The ANZACs landed in Egypt where the soldiers did some military training in the desert. They lived in tents. 

ANZAC stands for Australian & New Zealand Army Corps. 

The nurses started setting up hospitals in hotels and schools in cities like Cairo. 


When the British gave orders for the ANZACs to begin their mission on Turkey most of the soldiers embarked on troopships and sailed to a small island called Lemnos. Lots of boats with allied soldiers on board were docked at Lemnos. It was a very busy port. 


Exactly 100 years ago today our soldiers were packed and ready for battle. They were eager and excited to head off to a real battle. They did not realise that they were heading for disaster. 

The allied troopships sailed from Lemnos for about four hours until they reached the beach where they would begin fighting. 

Just before dawn on 25 April thousands of Australian soldiers were taken onto the small beach now called Anzac Cove where the Turks, who were on the hilltop fired down on them. Hundreds were killed. When the New Zealanders landed a few hours later the same thing happened to them too. 

Ms Bland's uncle John was one of the ANZAC soldiers to land on Gallipoli that day. He managed to reach Walker's Ridge on the steep hillside by 27 April but was shot in the thigh by a Turkish sniper. John was transported back to a hospital in Egypt to recover. 


Gallipoli was a dangerous places for the ANZACs as they were under constant attack from the Turks above them. Many of our soldiers were wounded and getting down the mountain to safety was extremely difficult. 


We read a story about a medic called Richard Henderson who used a donkey to take water up the steep hillside to the soldiers, then would bring wounded men back down to the bottom on his donkey. 


Sometimes snipers would try to shoot Richard and his donkey so he had too be quick. Ms Bland acted out what it might have been like to be one of the medics on Gallipoli. In her little drama, she would have easily been shot by sniper fire along with her wounded patient. 







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