Chapter 62 – Ishmail

The words of the Turkish song “Motherland March” are quoted by Harvey Broadbent in Gallipoli – The Turkish Defence , p. 190, along with a description of how soon after the surprise attack started, the commander of the 2nd Division, Colonel Hasan Askeri ordered the division band close up to the front lines to play this song.

The Quran (2:219) reveals that God instructed Muhammad to tell the people about drinking alcohol and gambling: “There is gross sin in them, and some benefits for people, but their sinfulness outweighs their benefit.” (Translation by N. Dawood).

The use of cognac for anaesthetic purposes to remove a bullet was relayed to the author by his mother-in-law Verda Cimilli. Her father Ali Hüsnü Turkoğlü served in the Ottoman Army defending the Anzac sector and later recounted to her how he was forced to drink cognac for pain relief when having a bullet removed from his hand. Later in life he drank other forms of alcohol, but could never again drink cognac.