This website has been prepared by
the first "hotel de charme" on the Gallipoli peninsula
The
inscription on the panel (translated) reads as follows :
A platoon of the 8th Company, 27th Infantery Regiment, faced the first wave of
1,500 men of the Anzac Corps, who landed on the Ariburnu shore at dawn on the
25th April 1915, and their resistance resulted in heavy casualties for the
Anzacs, who were forced to shelter under the steep foothills of the beach.
I was still
asleep ... It was before morning and the corporal who was the sentry started
shouting, saying, “There’s something unusual. Get up !!” Then the squad
commander ordered us all to kove into the trenches ... There were very few of
us in the squad, seventy or eighty troops, that’s all ... The sentry pointed
down towards the sand and we saw there were lots of them pouring out of their
boats, and we opened fire and they lay down on the sand with their guns in
their hands.
Private Adıl Şahin (27th Regiment) quoted in “The boys who came
home”, (Crows Nest 1990), Harvey Broadbent,
p. 47-48.
For the men
guarding the beaches, the night of 24th April must have seemed much
as any other night. The weather was improving and the sea seemed “as smooth
as satin”. It was a gloriously cool, peaceful night. Once the moon set at 3
am everything was intensely dark until, about an hour
later, the first tinges of the grey dawn appeared behind the hills. Every now
and then a searchlight lazily perused the straits. All along the coast,
Ottoman sentries peered seawards for signs of anything unusual. Most were
probably half asleep, in spite of the chill morning air. Then, at
4.29 am a sentry just south of Ariburnu point saw a flame and
sparks lasting 30 seconds or so. It was the funnel of a small steamboat
towing three landing craft crammed with Australian troops. Immediately, the
sentry flashed a signal to the trench overlooking the point. There a soldier
jumped up and saw thirty-six rowboats just offshore. He shouted to his mates
who shook themselves into action. After some seconds of disbelief, they fired
a few shots. This quickly grew into a steady stream of bullets. The lead
made sparks on the shingle beach as the first boats grounded into the shallows
…
… A few defenders were seen to run inland as the Australians scrambled up the
steep gravel cliffs. The Anzacs had been told not to shoot until daylight, but
many were returning the enemy fire. Already, bayonet and bullet were claiming
Ottoman and Australian lives. By
4.40 am
and Ottoman gun behind Gaba tepe (3 km south of Ariburnu) was shelling the
troop ships standing offshore. So began one of the largest amphibious landing
operations ever attempted in military history.
"Gallipoli, the Turkish story", (Crows Nest 2003), Kevin Fewster, Vecihi
Başarın, Hatice Hürmüz Başarın, p. 62