This website has been prepared by
the first authentic hotel on the Gallipoli peninsula
EMBARKATION PIER CEMETERY
IF STONES COULD SPEAK - ANZAC
On
22nd August,
the day after the attack on hill 60,
The Rev. Andrew Gillison
:
... was waiting to read the burial
service over the bodies of some of those who had fallen in this action,
he heard someone groaning in the scub on the ridge in front of the old line.
He had been warned against attempting to move in daylight on that ridge; but
he went forward far enough to ascertain that the cry came from a man of the
Hampshire, who was lying out wounded and was being troubled by ants. Gillison
at once called Cpl Pittendrigh and a man named Wild (of Hinton, N.S.W.) of the
13th Bn. The three crawled forward, reached the wounded man, and
had dragged him for about a yard when a Turkish sniper opened and severely
wounded both Gillison and Pittendrigh. Gillison died the same day.
"The story of Anzac", Volume II, (Sydney 1981), Charles E. W. Bean, p. 735
But on the
left flank the wounded were to be evacuated from a pier to be constructed near
No 3 outpost. Here a serious breakdown occured. The pier was duly
erected during the night and large numbers of wounded were brought down to the
spot, but boats did not come to remove them. At daylight the pier and
foreshore were in full view of the enemy at1,200 yards, and the wounded began to accumulate in great numbers, lying on
their stretchers in the half-shelter of the sand-hills and on the flat at the
mouth of the Chailak Dere. Colonel Manders appealed to the naval authorities
for barges. A few craft then arrived, but at 11.00 am the Naval transport
Officer at the new pier was again without barges. All day the difficulties
continued, the enemy shelling and firing at the position and the crowd of
wounded increasing.
"The story of Anzac", Volume II, (Sydney 1981), Charles E. W. Bean, p. 717
Last updated : 07/02/08
"The haka of the First Maori Contingent, Egypt, 3 April 1915", period picture reproduced from "Te Hokowhitu A Tu, the Maori Pioneer Battalion in the first world war". (Auckland-1995), C. Pugsley, p. 32.