TUNNELS & TRENCHES NEAR LONE PINE
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“The remains of the trenches at Lone Pine looking towards Chunuk Bair with Lone Pine Cemetery on the extreme right. This photo was taken by a member of the imperial War Graves Commission during their work on the battlefields after the war.”, picture reproduced from “Gallipoli Then and Now”, (London 2000), Steve Newman, p. 114.
The ANZACs have tried at
different times to break through our lines. These attacks were always
preceded by heavy bombardments by their fleet and always ended with heavy
loses on our side.
At the end of the battles of the first two weeks I had already been forced to
give the order to Essad Pasha to avoid any further large attacks. Only the
heights had to be kept in our hands at all costs. We had to take advantage of
each accident in the terrain and of every dark night to bring our line a few
steps closer to the enemy. This way the English would have to renounce to
bombard the forward Turkish trenches with naval guns.
Translated from “Five Years in
Turkey”, (Paris 1923), Liman Von Sander-Cavalry General, (translated from German by
Commandant Mabille), p. 88
... as to suggest that tunneling might become a most useful tactic. Consequently, digging started in earnest on both sides. It was not a job for the faint-hearted as, more often that not, the miners could hear the enemy burrowing towards them. Hearing their ‘ tap, tap, tapping’ stop was an even more ominous warning, for it suggested that the enemy tunnel was perhaps finished and being loaded with explosives prior to detonation. Many miners were buried alive in these blasts. As the campaign went on, mining techniques became more and more sophisticated and the mines deeper and longer. Special mining units were formed, manned by skilled men such as coal miners. The Anzacs always dug their tunnels with flat ceilings, whereas the Ottomans excavated
“An old Australian Shallow tunnel at Lone Pine. Many parts of these tunnels had fallen in by 1919. The one here shown was possibly part of the old underground forward line dug before the battle”, picture reproduced from "Gallipoli Mission", (Crows Nest 1990), Charles E. W. Bean, p. 235
“Australians & New Zealanders–in the front line”, picture reproduced from “Gallipoli 1915”, (Sydney 2002), Richard Reid, p. 120.
“Turkish Soldiers in the trenches, Gallipoli”, picture reproduced from “Gallipoli 1915”, (Sydney 2002), Richard Reid, p. 120.
Did I ever
tell you about Ernest? Ernest was a gaunt old Turk who used to come out of his
trench every morning to gather firewood (our chaps never fired a shot for a
long while). They used to chunck him tins of bully and he’d salaam and thank
them. Poor Ernest died a sudden death one morning when a new lot came into
the trenches.
From a letter (dated 19th December 1915) by
Lt. H E Moody
(3 Field Artillery
Battery)
quoted in “The Broken Years” (Canberra 1974), William Gammage,
p.93
curved, circular ceilings. Mines were a constant worry for an frontline soldier.
‘ It was as if one was sitting on a volcano...’, wrote a German historian. ‘
Whole areas were turned into a crater desert.
"Gallipoli, the Turkish story", (Crows Nest 2003), Kevin Fewster, Vecihi Başarın,
Hatice Hürmüz Başarın, p. 87
Last updated : 14/02/07
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