Gallipoli by Peter Fitzsimons Page A

Deserter.
    In Constantinople, meanwhile, and indeed across the Ottoman Empire, there is all but equal activity as – led by Minister for War Enver and aided by the German Military Mission – there is an enormous effort to get the Turkish Armed Forces battle-ready against the growing likelihood that they, too, will soon be at war. Ammunition is produced and stockpiled, weaponry ordered and training of new recruits commenced with urgency.
    This is no easy thing when, as an Empire of 23 million subjects, of whom just over half are Turks, they are ‘resource poor, industrially underdeveloped, and financially bankrupt’, 4 but at least the Turks themselves don’t lack fervour. Despite the fact that the Ottoman Army is still not remotely recovered from the devastation of the Balkan Wars, despite the fact that the country’s roads and railways, the telegraph network and the whole national infrastructure are antiquated, especially when compared with their European counterparts, still the army is capable of moving reasonably quickly via the key waterways – the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara and the Dardanelles – and it is the first and last that receive the first and last of its men and munitions.

    The Black Sea, the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara and the Dardanelles, by Jane Macaulay
    With Russia, as ever, the most likely threat to Turkey, detachments from the 1st Army Corps are ordered to the shores that lie at the northern end of the Bosphorus, as are torpedo boats. Down at the Dardanelles, the Bulair Battalion stationed near the town of Gallipoli had received mobilisation orders as early as the last day of July, and they are busily engaged in gathering troops and planning ‘tough and realistic battle training’. 5
    Just the day before, the 9th Infantry Division’s 26th Regiment at Gallipoli had reported its 2nd and 3rd Battalions at war strength. The Division’s 27th Regiment have also reported for duty at war strength. Things are moving fast on the Gallipoli Peninsula.
    19 AUGUST 1914, THE STREETS OF MELBOURNE THUNDER TO THEIR TREAD
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    Far and near and low and louder
On the roads of earth go by,
Dear to friends and food for powder,
Soldiers marching, all to die. 6
A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad
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    Here they come!
    Ever and always, there is something magnificent about a large body of young men moving to the same rhythm, and this is a case in point. They are new recruits to the Australian Imperial Force, who have formed up at 9.30 this morning at Victoria Barracks, and are now ‘marching’ – at least the best they can – to the newly established camp at Broadmeadows, some ten miles away, to the north of the city. For the most part, the 2500 men – the nucleus of four battalions! – are still in the civilian clothes they were wearing when they signed up, but, gee, don’t they look magnificent all the same! As they pass by Melbourne Town Hall, heading up Swanston Street, the only thing louder than the volunteer band – who, if you can believe it, are playing bugles and bagpipes at the same time – is the raucous cheering of the people.
    And see how the pretty girls glow at them as they stride abreast, their chests puffed out as they gaily wave their hats to all their mates now gazing enviously upon them from office windows and roofs. They are now soldiers of the King , don’t you know, heading away to war , to fight for the Empire ! And the new recruits are so thrilled about it they all even wave happily at the men already becoming known as the ‘Would-to-God-ders’ – those many men so often heard to say, ‘Would to God I could join myself, but …’
    But there is no ill feeling at all now.
    â€˜It was,’ notes the Age ’s special war correspondent, Phillip F. E. Schuler, ‘the first sight of the reality of war that had come to really grip the hearts of the people, and they cheered these pioneers