BRAW LADDIES AMIDST THE CLASH OF THE EMPIRES
17
The legacy of the campaign is one of
remembered loss in many communities.
Gallipoli has become a founding legend
in Australia and New Zealand and 25
April is commemorated each year as
ANAZAC Day. Unlike the Western
Front where optimism survived for
a surprisingly long time and victory
was eventually achieved, there were no
good words to be said about Gallipoli.
However, the Turks not only won
the campaign but also discovered
the future hero of today’s Republic,
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Some, like
John Brown who served in the Lovat
Scouts as part of the Highland Mounted
Brigade, 2nd Mounted Division, came
to believe that they had been forgotten
and condemned to die of starvation
and disease. Probably none who fought
at Cape Helles or Suvla would have
disagreed with the words of Brown’s
Commanding Officer Lord Lovat:
“It
will be… to all eternity as sordid and
miserable a chapter of amateur enterprise
as ever was written in our history.”
A F T E R M AT H
GROUND LEADING TO ACHI BABA NULLAH, 1919