Chapter 96 – Ishmail

The explosions of two large mines at The Nek at 3:30am on the morning of 20 December are described by Charles Bean in Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18 , vol II (pp. 895-896). These mines marked the conclusion of the evacuation. Bean also records that a Turkish artillery shell from “Beachy Bill” (gun at Gaba Tepe) burst over Artillery Road at 3:35am (p. 897). The self-firing rifle with water dripping into a tin and a time delay of around 20 minutes is described on pp. 883-884.

Harvey Broadbent states in Gallipoli – The Turkish Defence (p. 363) that 3:30am is also the time that the Turks realised that some enemy front lines had been abandoned. He then describes (pp.363-367) how the 57th Regiment reconnoitred enemy trenches and found them vacant, and advanced via Monash Valley.

Harvey Broadbent records interviews with a surviving ANZAC and Turkish soldiers in The Boys Who Came Home . On 127, Australian Lieutenant Basil Holmes recalled leaving a full bottle of Johnny Walker whisky behind with a note for the Turks, and Turkish Privat Adil Shahin recalled a heavy fog on the night of 19/20 December 1915.

Lieutenant Mehmet Fasih recorded in his diary on 10 November 1915, translated in Lone Pine (Bloody Ridge) Diary (p. 78), as well as on numerous other occasions, how passwords were used by the Ottomans. Fasih recorded on 28 November that he and other officers were aware of plans to move to a campaign in Irak in the southern part of the Ottoman Empire, after operations ended on the Gallipoli front (p. 147). Fasih recorded on the night of 18 December: “At night, I spot a halo of seven colours around the crescent moon. Point it out to Nuri [colleague]. He says it is a miracle and can be considered a good omen.” (p. 203).

Charles Bean records advice from Turkish officer Major Zeki, during an interview in 1919, in Gallipoli Mission (p. 166), that by late June 1915, the Turkish soldiers knew their enemy were Australians, and made jokes about them bounding like kangaroos.

AWM photo ID P02648.026 shows an Australian trench with a box latrine set in a small alcove against a trench wall. These latrines were known as thunder boxes (also ref AWM photo C01921).