SIR IAN HAMILTON ON GALLIPOLI

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21456, 24 April 1935, Page 11

SIR IAN HAMILTON ON GALLIPOLI

EVACUATION "MOST GHASTLY BLUNDER" VICTORY SAID TO HAVE BEEN NEAR REVELATIONS FOR FUTURE YEARS (UNITED PiIEHS ASSOCIATION—BT ELECTK2O TKLTBGKArn—COPYBIGHT.) (Received April 23, 8.20 p.m.) LONDON, April 23. General Sir lan Hamilton, in a special interview in the "Daily Telegraph," looking back after 20 years to the Gallipoli campaign, said: "It is my calm, considered judgment, delivered without rancour, that while the evacuation was the most brilliant tactical operation ever carried out by a British army, strategically it was the most ghastly blunder ever perpetrated in the history of the world.

"I say that because it prolonged the war needlessly, and thereby caused the deaths of millions. While the campaign was in progress men were actually taken from the Dardanelles to Salonika by Mr Asquith, instead of being sent to us from Salonika. "Just a few divisions of reinforceinents and we should have gone right through and finished it; yet the blindness of men whose minds were fixed on the Western Front to the exclusion of all else prevented it. "The men on Gallipoli knew that with a little more backing they could have won the war. Hundreds of them told me so. Some day all the official archives and the secret history of the time will be published. Then there will be a great outcry, but while the families of certain statesmen are alive this is impossible."

"The most agonising time was the first week. On May 1 all was quiet, and it was pitch dark, when suddenly hell was let loose for half an hour. Then, with a concerted yell of 'Allah Din' a solid Turkish column fell on our posiiions. I heard the shouts aboard the Arcadian. It was torture to have to listen to the savage cries of men in combat coming out in the night, and to be unable to do anything. The naval people, unable to help, were sweating blood.

"The position seemed serious. The French were asking for help and we had to send a battalion from our scanty reserves. Confused messages said the British line was broken, but dawn saw the Turks in full retreat. "Another bad moment was the night of April 26, when I was awakened aboard the Queen Elizabeth and handed a message from General Birdwood that some of the landing force were demoralised by the incessant enemy bombardment, and containing . the suggestion, 'lf we are to re-embark it must be at once.' That is a terrible memory. The message sent back was, 'Dig in and make a supreme effort to hold the ground.'

"The anticipated Turkish attack at clawn did not materialise and the immediate crisis passed."

SIR ALEXANDER GODLEY mi-ssam-; to new Zealand SOLDIERS IPiißSa tiSHOCIi-TIOH TKI.KGBAit.) WELLINGTON, April 23. The headquarters of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association has received the following Anzac Day message from General Sir Alexander Godley:— "Anzac Day of 1935 has a special significance for me, because it falls almost immediately after my return to the Old Country from a visit_ to my old Anzac comrades. That visit has for me cemented more firmly than ever the wonderful bond which binds together those of us to whom the name of Anzac means so much. The brotherhood and comradeship of arms is the greatest and best, comradeship in the world; and when, on top of this, we have the spirit of Anzac I feel that we have the most wonderful comradeship that ever existed in the history of war. And so I found it during my visit.

"This year, fresh from having so lately seen so many of you, I feel that my bond and my comradeship are specially close and intimate. I think of you all to-day, not only those who are still with us, but those whom we left behind, and those who have since passed away. May the spirit of Anzac be with us and with our descendants for all time."