MECIDIYE CEMETERY & MEMORIAL - MECİDİYE ŞEHİTLİĞİ VE ANITI
last updated : 17/11/06
IF STONES COULD SPEAK
ALONG THE DARDANELLES (EUROPE)
back to if stones could speak
shouts of all I could hear the singsong chant of the leader, intoning the prayer with which the Moslem has rushed to battle for thirteen centuries
Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story, (Kessinger Publications) p. 139
fell silent as most of the two platoon strong defenders were either wounded or dead. Fifteen of these brave artillery men are buried in this cemetery.
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In the days leading up to the 18th March the Mecidiye battery came under fire mainly from ships stationed in the Aegean. On 18th March it was targeted at intervals by several allied ships after it scored a serious of (though not fatal) hits on the Bouvet. Its batteries were silenced around 2 pm because the earth which was being thrown up by shell explosions was jamming the operating operating system of the guns. More significantly however, the batteries
the first authentic hotel on the Gallipoli peninsula
On 16th March, two days
before the famous naval battle,
American Ambassador Morgenthau
visits the Batteries on the European side of the Dardanelles, among which was
Mecidiye, an inspection of the Çanakkale
fortifications :
When I was there, however, the place was quiet, for no fighting was going on
that day. For my particular benefit the officers put one of their gun crews
through a drill, so that I could obtain a perfect picture of the behaviour of
the Turks in action. In their mind’s eye these artillerists now saw the
English ships advancing within range,all their guns pointed to destroy the
followers of the Prophet. The bugleman blew his horn and the whole company
rushed to their appointed places. Some were bringing shells, others were
opening the breeches, others were
taking the ranges, others were straining at pulleys, and others were putting the charges into place. Everything was eagerness and activity; evidently the Germans had been excellent instructors, but there was more to it than German military precision, for the men’s faces lighted up with all that fanaticism which supplies the morale of Turkish soldiers. These gunners momentarily imagined that they were shooting once more at the infidel English, and the exercise was a congenial one. Above the