Marines and Sailors Deployed Learn Lessons from Gallipoli

Photo By 1st Lt. John McCombs | Marines and Sailors stand beneath the Turkish monument to the fallen soldiers of the Gallipoli Campaign at Canakkale, Turkey, Dec. 19-21, 2014. Turkish forces sustained more than 200,00 casualties during the course of the campaign.  

CANAKKALE, TURKEY

12.30.2014

Story by 1st Lt. John McCombs 

U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Europe and Africa     

CANAKKALE, Turkey — Navy and Marine officers and Non-commissioned officers from 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines, part of Black Sea Rotational Force were given the opportunity to visit the battlefields of Gallipoli and conduct a professional military education event December 19-21, 2014.

Gallipoli was a bloody battle fought between the Allies and Central Powers during World War One where British, French, Australian and New Zealand forces attempted to seize the Dardanelles Straits and capture Istanbul, taking the Ottoman Empire out of the war.
The amphibious landing became a drawn-out eight-month battle resulting in the withdrawal of allied forces from the area and heavy casualties on both sides.

The trip was made possible by a generous donation from the Marine Corps University Foundation to help offset the costs of transportation. The Marines viewed several of the heights and beaches where the bloody battle took place nearly 100 years ago.
Marines not only visited the historic sites but they also tried to imagine themselves in the same scenarios as the soldiers who fought there.

“You need to ask yourself, why attack here and would we do this again?” Lt. Col. Joel F. Schmidt, commanding officer of 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines asked to the officers and NCOs in attendance.

The answers to those questions were not immediately clear but as the Marines scaled the cliff faces, rocky terrain, and areas that offered little to no protection it became apparent to them just how perilous and vicious the nature of the fighting would have been.

“The Turkish soldiers were ordered to dig their trenches eight meters from the [Australian and New Zealand Army Corps] troops so they wouldn’t be able to use their artillery.” Burak Parlakbilek, the Turkish tour guide, explained to the attendees.

Many of those trenches remain today as a testament to campaign that resulted in nearly half a million casualties.

As the day progressed Marines went from the landing beaches and the trenches to the many cemeteries where troops from both sides of the battle are buried. At several of these gravesites the words of Mustafa Kemal, one of the commanders of the battle are engraved in the monuments, “There is no difference between the Johnnies and Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours…After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.”

Schmidt closed out the day’s tour remarking on the significance of the sites and grounds the Marines and Sailors walked through, “You may not recognize it now but four or five years from now you’ll look back on this as an important moment in your lives.”

• Date Taken: 12.30.2014
• Date Posted: 12.30.2014 01:15
• Story ID: 151188
• Location: CANAKKALE, TR