The Exhortation of Gallipoli
(April 25, 1915, to January 9, 1916)
For nine
months composed, England, France, Australia
Fought the Germans
and the Turks, had invaded the land of
Asia Minor.
From the Aegean Sea to
the Straits of the Dardanelles, they had
To conquer all the
land, to achieve the impossible
Nor was there any
place to land, along the Gallipoli Peninsula,
To make their stand.
There was not
railway, roads, wheeled traffic, no town or city
No shelter, here
there was no grace found.
But 100,000-soldiers
to love their country,
Shunned the evil
fortune—as the enemy looked down
(400,000-thousnad strong)
Upon them, from higher
ground,
On this waterless
peninsula, sun-smitten.
Here now come the
English to our land to overthrow.
I have the mass for
battle to meet them in their might,
And enough henchmen
to beat them in their fight!
So the Germans
imagined the scenes for the Turks—
As wise men gave
counsel for the battles to be.
“Save no man from
death and shame,” was their motto.
No Turk spoke save,
those silently alone.
And the hills were
entrenched, the landing mined,
The beaches bared
wired, howitzers and machine guns,
Bayonet, clambered
upon the invaders day and night,
Allowing only a brief
sleep—; soon the wisest heathen
Was to beat the good
vassal, and men of chivalry.
Cunning they were,
and skillful were these overlords,
Like a swift current
from the sea.
The German and the
Turk, arrogant and strong,
Leal and long, did not want the British, Australian,
To break the link by which
Turkey kept hold as
A European Power—; should
she allow them to
Force a passage
through the defended channel of the
Hellespont, this
would mean defeat.
On the 9th
of January, the last man had conceded the
Burial place of those
who had won the sands and shorelines,
And lost the war, in
the Gallipoli Campaign!
And surely
Lollingdon, or Sir Ian Hamilton, or some
Brigadier—having been
hit such a staggering blow—after
A lapse of time,
whispered to his second mind:
What though I might
have won, at the court before our Queen!
For no man wilfully,
for the last time, without feeling,
A grievance, or gloom,
walks away from defeat gladly,
In a strange country,
when there country, had them march
In haste, all much
ill, who would have smitten the Turk and
The German, had they
had the water, the men, and the food.
Ere, did they not
watch the best of them be buried there?
On the hills and in
the sea, and on the beaches of Gallipoli!
For they took great
pains to let each soldier think this: that
As Shakespeare put
it: “…a man can die but once;
We owe God a death
…and let it go which way it will…”
And so the British
Navy came, and lanterns blazed from
Starry heights of
Gallipoli: the Turks and the Germans looking
Down, and frowned at
what they saw, or didn’t see; looked down,
To judge the land and
weigh it, and counted every flaw
And totaled up the
debt, and vowed if they came back they’d pay…
(but they were not certain if they had really truly
left…)
As the great beaches
lay sprawl beneath them, per near empty
(a whole day and then some)—
Above the warning
sky, as morning hit, an eerie silence fell,
A growing dread,
feeble rays, no soldier, serf, or mighty lord
Could be seen of the
enemy, just hoary phantoms of the dead,
Swept across the
land, as winds came in from the Gulf of Saros,
Then docks gave way
like matchsticks, between the straggling
Waves, and over the
battlements and mud brick dugout walls;
The wind was clean
and free: for not one invader nor one ship
From beyond those horizons,
broaden their landscapes.
No: 4583/ October 28
& 29, 2014
Note: the author
visited the battlefields of Gallipoli in 1996, and got down into one of the few
trenches still maintaining its structure, walled with timber, 1996.
Note: Governments are
harsh on men of war, they did at Gallipoli what was done I believe in Vietnam,
they walked away, when they could have won the war; they had already won the battles, it was just
the war that needed winning in this area of the world, and that would have
taken resupplying. Yes, weather and all
sorts of hardship prevailed, but the British Government pulled back, when they
should have pushed forward, which is my personal opinion having been in the
Vietnam War, a tragedy, and poor planning. But of course WWI, as we are talking
about, in 1916, soldiers were needed elsewhere—so the excuse was—but that goes to prove my point, then don’t start
a battle, in this case battles, to win a war you know you’re not going to
support. Too many good and young
soldiers died to secure the Strait of Gallipoli, to simply say: for another
day!
