GALLIPOLI GRAVES

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 50, 28 February 1921, Page 7

GALLIPOLI GRAVES

THE LAST POST

MYSTERY OF sth NORFOLKS.

(PROM OUB OWK CORRESPONDENT.)

LONDON, 7th January.

A Gallipoli correspondent of The Times, thi6\vs some fresh light on the work that has been accomplished there by the Imperial War Graves Commission for the p 1 roper preservation "of the graves of the fallen. .-

"From November, 1915, to the close of 1918," he writes,, "the terrain .vhere the bodies lay /was in enemy occupation, and the_ cemeteries existing at the time of the British evacuation were long neglected^ When the Graves Registration Unit, came to the Peninsula they found but little means of tracing scattered graves, and'the work ' occupied eighteen months. In-thai period also isolated graves were .brought in, small detached grounds in' accessible places concentrated, arid the dead who remained where they fell laid to rest with their comrades. So far as was possible,; original and identified graves were left undisturbed, but the 70 separate cemeteries were reduced to 20. Some of these resting-places have.strange but memorably names. At Anzac the cemeteries'include, 'Shrapnel Valley,' 'Lone Pine,' 'Baby 700,- ---' Walker's Ridge,' 'Now Zealand Outpost,' 'Johnston's Jolly,' '■ 'Plugge's ' Plateau,"', 'Ohanak Bahi I,' and 'Quinn's Post.' ;At' Suvla there are 'Lala Baba' and 'Green; Hill,' and at Heiles there are 'V.-Beach," 'Lancashire t Landing/ 'Skew Bridge,' and 'Twelve: Tree Copse.' For all time, passing ships wilt ccc on beaches and hill slopes the memorials to the Empire's sons who gave up their lives in the splen-. did months of 1915. - ■ % . - 9000' UNKNOWN WARRIORS^ "A sad feature of the graves w that th* great majority must remain those of unknown warriors. Officers and men, with nothing to _ distinguish their rank or establish their identity, lie side by side* There are about ]&,O(X> buried on tho Peninsula, and out of this number about 7000 are now identified. In tho consecration of Christian graves no attempt was made to distinguish in matters of faith. Two chaplains, one representing the Church o£ England and the other Presbyterians and Nonconformists, held a united service, while a Roman Catholic priest conducted' his rites for the fallen at the same time.-' Together, as the salute was fired and the' 'Lash Post' sounded, they honoured the glorious dead. Tho Anzao country is too rugged *nd broken to allow 1 large concentration cemeteries, and the burial grounds practically mark the landings and the front lino. In the main, the. men lie .where they, fell, and no soldier could wish it otherwise. Tracea of the 'occupation' are still' to be seen at Anzac, and the beaches are strewn with wreckage. Water bottles, often riddled with shot, lie among l the rooks and scrub. The preparation of many, of the cemetery.sites entailed great labour. A clearing-had Sometimes to be made in thick scrub, and Svhere the cemetery waa on the side of a hill terraces were cut. In the Anzac zone, us at Lone Pine, where there is an intricate system of trenches 'and tunnels, much work was done in levelling the ground and making it solid. DISCOVERY OF THE LOST COMPANY. . "There are two burial grounds whieK have exceptional associations. -.• One is that at Chanak, in the Suvla district, beside the wood into which tho sth Norfolks disappeared during the. .advance . iii{ the August month of the campaign. According to Sir lan Hamilton's despatch 'a very mysterious thing happened., Two hundred and fifty men and 16 officers, led by Colonel Beauchamp, advanced into the forest, and were never seen again.' After a long eeaich'by tho Graves Registration Unit, it was by accident that the* bodies of these men were discovered. A private soldier was buying supplies from, a farm in what was the enemy territory, ■and found a Norfolk . badge, ■ ; The dead were then revealed, but only "two bodies could be identified. The bleached bones lie now amid surroundings Which remind one of English park lands. On the Dardanelles slope of Chanak Bahr is another plot of consecrated ground; the lfl«t rest-ing-place of the heroes who scaled tho mountain from, the Suvla side in face-of almost overwhelming odds. .'■".-.' "All the cemeteries look n&at and trim, and .are admirably kept. They 'still need tho permanent memorials to -replace ths wooden ones, and tho big Cross of Saeri-' fiee and Stone of Remembrance, and .are to bo beautified by ehruba and plants undeT the direction of a horticultural expert. Tho principal .architect of the Imperial' War' Graves Commission,, Sir John Burnet, has completed. his. designs, and every, thing is Tetkly for the work of. construction to begin. General Sir Herbetb Cox is at present in tho Neat Ea.6t-ai'falij*-inff for the commemoration of; the r gillant Indian troops who fell, on tho Pehinsul* and-elsewhere." . .'' "!,'"..;.,_.{■:■'.,';!.:■