Gallipoli Battlefield Research & Empathy Task
Research
Research living and fighting conditions for ANZAC soldiers at Gallipoli.
See dot-point below, for what you should cover.
Use the sources sheet & your own research.
One website to start with:
https://www.awm.gov.au/visit/exhibitions/anzac-voices/life-gallipoli
Poster
Create an A4 poster/ collage showing living conditions (include both pictures and written information)
Empathy Task
You are a soldier at Gallipoli. Use your knowledge & research to write a letter home from the battlefield.
(200-300 words)
You should include information about:
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Weather & terrain
Trenches
Food & access to water
Health, hygiene & disease
Mental health
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


The people you are with
Perspectives about the enemy
Their daily activities
Final thoughts & reflections
Gallipoli Battlefield Research & Empathy Task
Research
Research living and fighting conditions for ANZAC soldiers at Gallipoli.
See dot-point below, for what you should cover.
Use the sources sheet & your own research.
One website to start with:
https://www.awm.gov.au/visit/exhibitions/anzac-voices/life-gallipoli
Poster
Create an A4 poster/ collage showing living conditions (include both pictures and written information)
Empathy Task
You are a soldier at Gallipoli. Use your knowledge & research to write a letter home from the battlefield.
(200-300 words)
You should include information about:





Weather & terrain
Trenches
Food & access to water
Health, hygiene & disease
Mental health




The people you are with
Perspectives about the enemy
Their daily activities
Final thoughts & reflections
Sources- Gallipoli Living Conditions
Trooper IL Idriess
Immediately I opened…[my tin of jam] the flies rushed [it] …all fighting amongst themselves. I wrapped my overcoat
over the tin and gouged out the flies, spread the biscuit, held my hand over it and drew the biscuit out of the coat.
But a lot of flies flew into my mouth and beat about inside…I nearly howled with rage…Of all the bastards of places
this is the greatest bastard in the world.
Sergeant AL de Vine
The time [during the May truce to collect and bury the dead] was taken up by making friends with the Turks, who do
not seem to be a very bad sort of chap after all … After today most of our opinions on the Turks were changed …
Private ECN Devlin
They are lucky who get away from here wounded…It is quite common for men to go mad here. The strain on the
nerves is so severe.
Private T Usher
You can’t imagine what it was like, the filthy conditions, and especially using those latrines with all those paper (for
cleaning) blowing all over the shop. And flies! Look, you’d open the tin and there’d be millions of them, crikey, filthy,
filthy conditions ….
Captain F Coen
I have not had a wash now for 4 weeks, nor had my clothes off. I accomplish my toilet with the corner of a towel
steeped in a 2 ounce tobacco tin. Water for washing purposes is out of the question.
Private John Gammage
The wounded bodies of both Turks and our own … were piled up 3 and 4 deep … the bombs simply poured in but as
fast as our men went down another would take his place. Besides our own wounded the Turks’ wounded lying in our
trench were cut to pieces with their own bombs. We had no time to think of our wounded … their pleas for mercy
were not heeded … Some poor fellows lay for 30 hours waiting for help and many died still waiting.
Sergeant AL de Vine
The stench of the dead bodies now is simply awful, as they have been fully exposed to the sun for several days, many
have swollen terribly and have burst...many men wear gas protectors...there has been no attempt up to the present
to either remove or bury [the dead], they are stacked out of the way in any convenient place …
New Zealand soldiers resting in the trenches on Rhodedendron Spur,
Gallipoli.
Imperial War Museums
Gallipoli had extremes of weather. During the summer months, it was blisteringly hot, which helped the spread of
disease and flies and made the men’s tiny water rations feel even more inadequate.
But the temperature could also plummet, and in the autumn and winter of 1915, the troops were shivering in their
light uniforms; large numbers suffered from trench foot and frostbite.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/9-reasons-why-gallipoli-was-one-of-the-worst-fighting-fronts-of-the-first-worldwar
Living in close contact under primitive conditions, soldiers
fought a constant battle with lice, which infected the seams of their clothing. A common sight during the campaign
was shirtless or trouserless men ‘chatting’, an expression used to describe the picking of lice out by hand. [AWM
P00437-013]