Corporal Seyit's memorial

During the 18^th March battle, this Ottoman artilleryman, Corporal Seyyit, performed the prodigious feat of lifting 258 kilogram shells by hand after the gun’s loading mechanism jammed at one of the Dardanelles forts. Later he was asked to demonstrate how he’d done it but, without the adrenalin rush of the combat, he could not repeat the feat, and so a dummy shell was used for the photographer.

"Gallipoli, the Turkish story", (Crows Nest 2003), Kevin Fewster, Vecihi Başarın, Hatice Hürmüz Başarın, p. 54

Although many Turkish sources claim that the round loaded by Corporal Seyit hit the British pre-dreadnaught battleship HMS Ocean, this has not been confirmed. The round lifted by Seyit could have weighed between 140 and 255 kilograms. However, on the plaque attached to the statue it is mistakingly written that the shell weighed 215 okka, an old Ottoman measure, the equivalent of 275 kilograms.

"Gallipoli Battlefield Guide", (Istanbul 2006), Gürsel Göncü & Şahin Aldoğan, p. 155