On 19 May 1915, a massed Turkish assault was ordered to defeat, once and for all, the Australian and New Zealand invaders at Anzac. But the assault failed to achieve its objective, and the resulting loss of life was terrible. On 19 May 1915 over 3,000 Turkish soldiers were killed in the attempted assault. Three days later, on 22 May 1915, both sides agreed to an uneasy truce to allow the dead to be buried. On that day Turkish officerswere taken to General Birdwood’s Headquarters for a conference to discuss how the truce would proceed.
“Presently Kemal himself arrived on horseback with other Turkish officers, and they were blindfolded and led on foot into the Anzac bridgehead. The British intelligence officers were anxious to give the impression that a great deal of barbed-wire entanglements had been erected on the beach, and they forced Kemal to keep goose-stepping over imaginary obstacles as he went along. Presently the Turks were remounted and taken to Birdwood’s dugout by the beach.
The conference in the narrow cave was a stiff and strained affair, the Turkish Beys in their gold lace, the British generals in their red tabs, each side trying to make it clear that it was not they who were eager for the armistice.
But the atmosphere was relieved by one moment of pure farce: an Australian soldier, not knowing or caring about what was going on inside the dugout, put his head round the canvas flap and demanded, ‘Have any of you bastards got my kettle?”‘
(Extract from “Gallipoli” by Alan Moorehead, Andre Deutsch Ltd, London, 1956)
