[ALEXEI]

Jeff and Jane Scott <jscott@iinet.net.au> wrote:
It's a very moving, personal touch to this page in history (your PS below). 
One of the first of the Diggers...

Alexei


Ataturk became the President of Turkey (I don't think President is the 
right word, I can't think of the correct title - but you know what I mean), 
and is regarded historically as the greatest leader the country ever had.

But on April 25th 1915, he was the commanding officer of the Turkish troops 
defending the Gallipoli peninsula when the ANZACs landed.

Late on that first day, as the ANZACs continued to press up the hill, 
Ataturk sent word back to his commanders that they could hold out for 
another hour at most, and then the ANZACs would be through.  Unfortunately, 
at about the same time the invading commander gave the order to stop 
pressing forward and to dig in for the long haul.  By the time they made 
another assault the next day, of course, Turkish reinforcements had arrived 
and the rest is history.  Had they kept going on that first day, they would 
likely have taken the peninsula as planned.  The landing at Gallipoli would 
be recorded in the history books as a great victory, barely anybody would 
remember it, and it's probably no great exaggeration to suggest that the 
entire nature and history of Australia would be somewhat different as a
result.

Someone mentioned in an earlier post that WWI is much more recognised in 
Australia than in the US.  The reason for that is that WWI, and Gallipoli 
in particular, was the time when Australia moved from being just another 
English colony to becoming a nation with a character of it's own.

I marched in the ANZAC Day parade for the first time this year (Police and 
other emergency services are traditionally included), and it was a very 
moving experience.  Whatever you may feel about war and the conflicts that 
have happened (and continue to happen) since, their is no doubt that we in 
this country owe a great deal to those Diggers who went away all those 
years ago.


jeff...

(PS On a personal note, my great-great uncle David Scott died at Gallipoli, 
on April 28, 1915 - day four of the campaign.)

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