One hundred years ago this week, British war correspondent Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett was writing and filing his first eyewitness stories of the landing of the Australians and New Zealanders at Gallipoli.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Crediting the Australasians with almost superhuman qualities, his stories first appeared in Australian newspapers, for example in Perth's Daily News, on May 7.
"ROSE TO THE OCCASION. The Australians rose to the occasion and not waiting for orders or for the boats to reach the beach sprang into the sea . . . and as soon as they reached the shore, rushed on the enemy's trenches.
"The Australians found themselves facing an almost perpendicular cliff of loose sandstone . . . somewhere halfway up, the enemy had a second trench, which they held strongly. Here was a tough proposition to tackle in the darkness. But these colonials, practical above all else, went about it in a practical way. They stopped for a few minutes to pull themselves together . . . Then this race of athletes proceeded to scale the cliff . . . [soon] the Turks . . . were either bayoneted or were fleeing for their lives."
Later that day, casualties were brought out to the waiting ships.
"I have never seen anything like these wounded Australasians. Although many were shot to bits and were without hope of recovery, their cheers resounded throughout the night . . . They were happy because they knew they had been tried for the first time and found not wanting . . . There has been no finer feat in this war than this sudden landing in the dark and storming of the heights."
