THE ERTUĞRUL BATTERY (NR 01)
the first autherntic hotel on the Gallipoli peninsula
This website has been prepared by
picture reproduced from "The Illustrated war News", May 1915
The Ertuğrul Battery is located across from the memorial to Yahya Çavuş. In 1915, it was one of the five fortified emplacements protecting the entrance of the Dardanelles Strait. The Ertuğrul Battery had two 240 milimetre Krupp guns, though both had been destroyed during bombardments prior to the naval attack of March 18.
On the morning of April 25, after a preliminary bom-bardment by British war-ships ahead of the landing, Turkish soldiers took up position in the ruins of the Ertuğrul Battery and rained small-arms fire on the british troops coming ashore at V Beach below them.
"The view from Fort No 1 at Cape Helles a photograph taken after the landings. ... In the background can be seen the camps and stores of V beach and Sedd-el-Bahr, while behind them is the entrance to the Dardanelles with the Asiatic coastline in the far background", period picture reproduced from "Gallipoli Then and Now", (London 2000), Steve Newman, p. 41.
last updated : 20/02/07
The emplacement was built in the 1890s and three of its partly buried magazines
are still intact today. The
barrel and part of the mounting of one of the Krupp guns also lies in the
remains of the battery. Unfortunately, the batterys ramparts and its surroundings were greatly altered
by work carried out in early 2006, turning the historic position into a
ceremonial site paved with modern stones.
Gallipoli Battlefield Guide, (Istanbul 2006), Gürsel Göncü & Şahin Aldoğan,
p. 193
back to silent witnesses
SILENT WITNESSES
fortresses & batteries
along the Dardanelles