remembering the dardanelles

Sunrise services were held today in Turkey to remember the WWI Dardanelles Campaign and so I interrupt my normal blogging to honour my granddad.

On this day ninety years ago granddad (my mother’s father), a sergeant major in the British army, was pinned down by artillery, sniper and machine gun fire on a thin beach at Gallipoli. So hard was the battle that the ocean turned red with blood up to 50 meters from the shore and 1 in every 2 allied troops landed became a casualty with 44,072 allied troops killed and 97,037 wounded. Despite a higher enemy (Ottoman Empire) casualty rate the campaign ended in a stalemate. Somehow granddad got out of all that and lived to a good old age — but you can see in the photo that even as an old man he marched like a sergeant major.

What I found really sad is that at today's service there was not a single veteran from the campaign - they have all left us now. Miss you granddad!