The final episode picks up as Sir Ian Hamilton receives what
seemed inevitable since the failure to break out of the trenches on Gallipoli
during the August Offensive: the cable from London recalls him. As of October 1915,
there will be a new commander in the Dardanelles, General Sir Charles Monro. It
is a promotion of sorts, but also a poisoned chalice.
In a remarkable moment of tribute, the outgoing Hamilton
stops to talk to the collection of journalists covering the campaign from
Lemnos Island. In particular, he seeks Charles Bean, specifically to offer his compliments
on the fighting nature of the Australians. It is high praise.
After Hamilton’s departure, Lord Kitchener arrives on
Gallipoli, and tours the trenches with General Birdwood. He’s not impressed by
what he sees. He recommends to the War
Cabinet in London that the campaign be evacuated. Monro is scathing of the
battle being left in the hands of politicians, and receives a report that
trench-busting Howitzer guns have arrived in Constantinople, and will soon be
on the battlefield. That will make the Australian positions untenable.
An early-season snowfall blankets Gallipoli, following in
the footsteps of a storm for the ages. Conditions are deplorable for both
sides, men frozen to death at their sentry posts, food inedible, and sickness
rife. These are hard scenes to watch.
The Australians make do with their summer uniforms, and
whatever rags and other clothes they can find. It’s a taste of winter, and a
stark reminder of what might happen should the campaign extend into December
and January. It is obvious the weather will get worse before it gets better.
[The deteriorating weather is part of why the decision to
evacuate was made. The arrival of German howitzers to the front is another. The
fact that the campaign was never going to be successful was undoubtedly
another.]
There is to be a “silent war” waged on Gallipoli to get the
Turks used to long periods of silence, so the quiet caused by troops evacuating
the peninsula will not seem like anything out of the ordinary.
The strange flashbacks to pre-war Australia continue, and
seem to suggest that Tolly has stolen Bevan’s girl, which leads to a vicious
fight between the two brothers. Tragically, it only ends when Bevan is struck
by a shell – presumably fired from a Howitzer – and dies slowly, choking on his
own blood, in Tolly’s arms. Bevan is buried and Tolly places a photo of the
girl on his brother’s grave. [This was the most annoying and useless part of
the series, for mine. The love story was completely unnecessary and added little
to the story].
The evacuation will happen, despite great consternation
amongst Headquarters staff. The Australians are to leave. A rifle that is fired
automatically, thanks to water dripping slowly into a tin attached to the
trigger, which is pulled down as the weight in the tin is heavy. It’s tested at
somewhere around twelve minutes from first drop hitting the bottom of the tin
to the rifle firing, is tested. They are being manufactured up and down the
lines, some great Australian design! Tolly volunteers to be a part of the rear
guard.
Slowly, men are taken off the peninsula, and every new day
sees less men manning the lines. They leave behind letters and trinkets for the
Turks, Many of the letters are ones of praise for their enemy, if not their
enemy’s German commanders. General Birdwood supervises the burning of supplies,
and mentions there are only 10,000 men left. If the Turks attack now, it will
be a massacre.
Tolly and Dave, who has refused treatment for chronic
illness, are literally two of just a handful of men remaining on the Peninsula.
Even Percival, promoted to lieutenant, has been evacuated. The water-filled
rifles continue to fire sporadically. Tolly asks Dave why he’s still around,
and Dave admits he doesn’t want to be the “only one of us to leave”.
Across No Man’s Land, the Turks are getting suspicious. They
fire off flares to try and see what’s going on in the Australian trenches, but
do not attack. Every living Australian, including Tolly and Dave, leave the
peninsula. It’s one of the greatest military escapes in history.
The series ends with a look at the Gallipoli battlefield as
it is today, including shots of messages inscribed on headstones, and local
Turks digging ordinance from the ground, before Kemal’s famous 1934 quote about
how dead Australians have become sons of Turkey, too, and for that reason,
mothers from faraway countries should not weep.
8709 Australians and 2701 lost their lives on Gallipoli.
Conversely, 86,629 Turks died. The Australian survivors were mostly transferred
to the Western Front to fight the Germans, where another 60,671 Australians and
New Zealanders lost their lives.
And the war will run for almost three more years...
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