Sound clip: the evacuation from Gallipoli

Hear a radio documentary about the evacuation of Gallipoli.

Click on the arrow to play (800kb).

Transcript

Then a new enemy appeared, General Winter. Rain and cold added to the hardships of the men in the line and sent up casualties with a bound. Men were actually drowned in the trenches.

As men were taken away, a show of landing others was made and guns fired on the Turkish positions ... On that last night, December the 19th, there was intense excitement – would the bluff come off? It did. Rifles were left in the trenches, fitted with devices to fire them later so that the enemy would suppose that the trenches were still manned. Through the night the rearguard slipped away, and by the dawn of the 20th the operation was complete and was done without a casualty.

They put into the evacuation qualities they had put into fighting, and it was a brilliant success.