Chapter 14 – Clarence

Again, many of the details included about Clarence “Charles” Palmer are taken from Hugh Dolan’s account in 36 Days – The Untold Story Behind the Gallipoli Landings. This account outlines Charles Palmer’s reconnoitring from August to October 1914 and his subsequent house arrest where he was in bed during the early morning naval attack of 3 November (pp 21-25). This account states that “Palmer dressed and sought an immediate audience with the civilian governor of Channakale to harangue him again on the costs of war. The Vice Consul was admitted an hour after the bombardment ceased and deftly argued that the extensive damage had been achieved in a mere ten-minute salvo.”

The unprovoked Ottoman naval attacks on Russian ports in the Black Sea on 28 October 1914 are well documented, as is the rule of the so called ‘Young Turks’ of the Committee of Union and Progress. Les Carlyon records in Gallipoli : “Yes, there was a sultan and a Chamber of Deputies, but everyone know that the Committee of Union and Progress ran the country, and that Talat and Enver ran the CUP and that these two were also putting their country up for tender.” (p.39) And “On October 28 the Turkish fleet sailed into the Black Sea under Germany’s Admiral Souchon and fired on Odessa and nearby towns. The Goeben sank a Russian minelayer and fired upon Sevastopol; a Russian gunboat was sunk. The facts about this raid, and who knew about it, will probably never be clear; one can only make assumptions.” (p. 46). The Black Sea naval attacks on Russian ports are also described by Charles Bean, Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18 , vol I, p. 141.

Les Carlyon states in Gallipoli : “On November 3, after the British Ambassador had left Constantinople, but before London had declared war on Turkey, the British squadron off the Dardanelles bombarded the outer forts at Kum Kale and Seddülbahir…A shell hit the magazine at Seddülbahir Castle, built in 1659, knocking all ten guns off their mountings and killing 86 Turks.” (p. 47).