Episode 6 opens shortly after the Australian attacks at Lone
Pine – a minor success – and The Nek – a devastating loss – and the New Zealand
assault on the towering heights of Chunk Bair – for a while, a success, but not
ultimately one – and General Sir Ian Hamilton is at Suvla Bay to visit General
Stopford, the aging commander of the British forces who had landed there and
were supposed to attack inland to take some pressure off the New Zealanders as
they sought Chunuk Bair.
As animated as we’ve yet seen Hamilton, he finds Stopford
doing little of anything, and demands to know why Stopford hasn’t attacked from
Suvla, noting that the general had 20,000 men, who were supposed aid the New
Zealand attack, which faltered as a result of enemy pressure. Stopford complains
that his men are tired and the weather is hot. They are advancing regardless,
he tells Hamilton. And so they are, but Turkish shells have set the scrub in
the foothills beyond Suvla alight, and men are burning to death.
Hamilton meets with Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett, who congratulates
Hamilton on his victory at Chunuk Bair. Hamilton reveals that he replaced the
New Zealanders with British troops, who were soon overrun. “I’ve lost Chunuk
Bair,” Hamilton intones.
Back in the Australian trenches, Tolly is promoted to corporal
for his bravery at Lone Pine and we learn that Sergeant Percival has been
elevated to lieutenant. I think this might be the first lieutenant we’ve seen
in the entire five-and-a-bit episodes. Matt Nable seems to be given less and
less work as the series continues, which is a shame.
Ashmead-Bartlett and Charles Bean meet on Gallipoli and
discuss the campaign. It’s clear that Ashmead-Bartlett has lost confidence in
Hamilton, but Bean tells Ashmead-Bartlett that he’s “gone too far”. The
Englishman wants Bean to go to London and write a letter truthfully setting out
the state of things on Gallipoli, but is rebuffed. Bean wants to stay on
Gallipoli.
Hamilton meets with General Birdwood, and wants plans drawn
up to recapture Chunuk Bair. On Lemnos, the staff officers under Hamilton are
unconvinced he is the right man for the job. Braithwaite is amongst this
number. They learn that Hamilton has relieved Stopford of his command at Suvla.
There will be a temporary commander before General Byng arrives.
Hamilton and Braithwaite talk privately about a “general
nervousness” in Sir Ian’s communications with London since the failure of the
August offensive. Hamilton reveals that Kitchener suggested he sack Braithwaite,
and notes that it was Kitchener who recommended Braithwaite be transferred to
Hamilton’s staff in the first place.
Melbourne-based journalist Keith Murdoch arrives on Lemnos Island
and meets General Hamilton, who lectures the Australian on censorship and the
like. Murdoch is ostensibly on Gallipoli looking into the postal situation for
the troops, and is something of an unofficial observer for the Australian
government.
Later, Ashmead-Bartlett and Murdoch start drinking. Fellow veteran
journalist Henry Nevinson is appalled by their behaviour and departs the group.
Soon it is just the Australian and the British journalist sitting together, talking
about the campaign. Murdoch agrees to take a letter, penned by
Ashmead-Bartlett, to London. It will present an unvarnished view of the campaign,
designed to end it.
[We can only wonder at Ashmead-Bartlett’s true motivations:
was he really concerned by the poorly-run campaign that had no chance of
success, or did he want a little notoriety for himself?]
As the letter is exchanged, the two men are spotted by
Nevinson, who reports what he’s seen to General Headquarters. Murdoch is
detained by British Military Police in Marseilles, France and is relieved of
the letter. Immediately, Murdoch sets about writing a new one, recording from
memory what Ashmead-Bartlett had written on Lemons Island.
In London, Lord Kitchener meets with a member of Sir Ian
Hamilton’s staff, who is not particularly complimentary of the commander at
Gallipoli, and Kitchener hears pleas from Hamilton for more men – 95,000 more
men in fact – and Kitchener seems unwilling to oblige.
[By this point in the campaign, it seems that most of the
staff officers around Hamilton, and likely most of the men actually fighting on
the Gallipoli peninsula, have lost confidence in the man, realising that he is
out of his depth. Hamilton isn’t the villain that he’s often painted as in
Australia, just a man not cut out for commanding troops.]
Lord Kitchener cables Hamilton, and relieves the general of
his command of the Gallipoli campaign. Sir Ian seems resigned to his fate.
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