World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Turkey -- Gallipoli Peninsula
In the brief spring the open ground is covered with flowers, but there
is not much open ground; in the Cape Helles district it is mainly poor
land growing heather and thyme; further north there is abundant scrub,
low shrubs and brushwood, from two to four feet high, frequently very
thick. The trees are mostly stunted firs, and very numerous in the
south, where the fighting was, but more frequently north of Suvla. In
one or two of the villages there are fruit trees; on some of the hills
there are small clumps of pine. Viewed from the sea the Peninsula looks
waterless and sun-smitten; the few water-courses are deep ravines
showing no water. Outwardly, from a distance, it is a stately land of
beautiful graceful hills rolling in suave yet austere lines and covered
with a fleece of brushwood. In reality the suave and graceful hills are
exceedingly steep, much broken and roughly indented with gullies, clefts
and narrow irregular valleys. The soil is something between a sand and a
marl, loose and apt to blow about in dry weather when not bound down by
the roots of brushwood, but sticky when wet.
Those who look at the southwestern end of the Peninsula, between Cape
Suvla and Cape Helles, will see three heights greater than the rolling
wold or downland around them. Seven miles southeast from Cape Suvla is
the great and beautiful peaked hill of Sari Bair, 970 feet high, very
steep on its sea side and thickly fleeced with scrub. This hill commands
the landing place at Suvla. Seven miles south from Sari Bair is the long
dominating plateau of Kilid Bahr, which runs inland from the Straits, at
heights varying between five and seven hundred feet, to within two miles
of the sea. This plateau commands the Narrows of the Hellespont. Five
miles further to the southwest and less than six miles from Cape Helles
is the bare and lonely lump of Achi Baba, 590 feet high. This hill
commands the landing place at Cape Helles. These hills and the ground
commanded by them were the scenes of some of the noblest heroism which
ever went far to atone for the infamy of war. Here the efforts of our
men were made.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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