GALLIPOLI BLUNDER.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 124, 24 April 1935, Page 7

GALLIPOLI BLUNDER.

SIR lAN HAMILTON’S OPINION. “WAR PROLONGED NEEDLESSLY.” LONDON, April 23. Sir lan Hamilton, in a special interview with the Daily Telegraph, look : in g back after 20 years to the Gallipoli campaign, said: “It is my calm and considered judgment, delivered without rancour, that while l the evacuation i\as 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 reinforcements and we should have gone right through and finished it. Yet the blindness of the 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 V ar. Hundreds of them told me so. “Someday all the official archives and the secret history of the time will be published. Then th-jre will be a great outcry, but while the families of certain statesmen are alive this is impossible. “The most agonising time in the first week was on May 1. All was quiet and it was pitch dark. Suddenly Hell was let loose for half an hour. Then, with a concerted yell of ’Allah Din,’ a solid Turkish column fell on our positions. I heard the shouts aboard the Arcadian. It was torture to have to listen to the savage cries of men in combat coming out of the night, and to be unable to do anything. Naval people unable to help were sweating blood. The position seemed serious, Sir John French wuas asking for help, and I had to send a battalion from the scanty reserves. Confused messages said the British line was broken, but the dawn saw the Turks in full retreat. “Another bad moment was on 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 forces had been demoralised by the incessant enemy bombardment and containing the suggestion that if they were 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 your ground.’ The anticipated Turkish attack at dawn did not materialise, and the immediate crisis passed.” SPIRIT OF ANZAC. GENERAL GODLEY’S TRIBUTE TO SOLDIERS. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, April 23. Tile headquarters of the 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 firmlv 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 1 feel that we have the most wonderful comradeship that has 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 yon, 1 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 also those who have since passed away. Mav the spirit of Anzac be with us and with our descendants for all time.”