Europe 2014 - Gallipoli

5 January 2015

10th and 11th October

These days were both spent at sea…. Our Port call into Mykonos was cancelled due to the rough weather…which was disappointing… but there was an upside. 

On the way to Istanbul we passed through the Gallipoli straight… 
(if we had called at Mykonos this would have been during the night… but because we weren't able to stop it meant we passed through during the afternoon.)


It was such a moving experience… the ship slowed as we passed…and they held a service onboard for the 400 Aussie and New Zealand passengers on the top deck. The last post was played and we all took some time to pay our respects and mark this moment with silence.




The Gallipoli Campaign, also known as the Battle of Gallipoli , was a campaign of World War I that took place on the Gallipoli peninsula in the Ottoman Empire between 25 April 1915 and 9 January 1916. The peninsula forms the northern bank of the Dardanelles, a strait that provides a sea route to what was then the Russian Empire, one of the Allied powers during the war. Intending to secure it, Russia's allies Britain and France launched a naval attack followed by an amphibious landing on the peninsula with the eventual aim of capturing the Ottoman capital of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul).  The naval attack was repelled and, after eight months' fighting, with many casualties on both sides, the land campaign also failed and the invasion force was withdrawn to Egypt.




The total number of Australians killed has been revised to 8,709. 
In all 61,522 Australians lost their lives in the First World War.
As well, an estimated total of 664 Australian officers and 17,260 men were wounded. 
According to the Official history, 70 Australians were captured on Gallipoli.
(Donna....I stole your photos....hope thats ok....
I cant find the ones I took...maybe I did an oopsy and deleted them)

3 comments

  1. It was a pretty special afternoon - very moving hey (and of course you can use any photos, mine are yours!) x

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  2. I got goosebumps reading about the service on board. Did you do a Gallipoli your as well? Turkey was my favourite place in our Europe trip..back in 98. I really loved seeing all your Instagram pics during your travels Mardi and I'm so happy you were able to do this trip..it must have been wonderful to share it with your special friends too. Leax

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  3. *tour not your! Grr

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