Walking with the Anzacs: A guide to the Australian battlefields of the Western Front

Since 2005 I have been working on my first book, Walking with the Anzacs: A guide to Australian battlefields on the Western Front, and in March 2007 it was published by Hachette Australia. The book covers the 13 major Australian battlefields on the Western Front (Ypres, Messines, Polygon Wood, Broodseinde, Passchendaele, Fromelles, Pozieres, Villers-Bretonneux/Hamel, 1918 Villages, Mont St Quentin, Hindenburg Line Outpost Villages, Bullecourt and Montbrehain) with detailed information about each battle, plus walking tours and maps to show each battlefield as it is today. There is also comprehensive travel information to make planning your trip a breeze. The Sydney Morning Herald recently called the book 'highly recommended for anyone planning a walking tour [of the Western Front]'.

Walking with the Anzacs is available at bookshops Australia-wide. Feel free to email me for more information.

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Australian Memorial at Le Hamel to be rebuilt

The Australian Memorial at Le Hamel in France was an initiative of the late historian John Laffin and commemorates the Australian victory at the Battle of Hamel on July 4, 1918. Unveiled in 1998, the memorial comprises a magnificent curved granite wall with iconic Australian images sandblasted into the stone, plus a small park containing the remnants of trenches captured and later used by the Australians. Since its opening, the memorial has been beset by problems, with many of the granite tiles coming loose from the structure and vandals defacing the information panels. Bruce Billson, the Member for Veteran's Affairs, has just announced that the memorial will be completely rebuilt. See the below press release for more information.

AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT COMMITTED TO
RECONSTRUCTION OF LE HAMEL MEMORIAL

The Australian Government will soon call for design tenders for the reconstruction of the Australian Corps Memorial at Le Hamel on the Western Front in France.

The memorial was dedicated in 1998, but has deteriorated badly in the extreme climatic conditions of the area and has also been the target of vandalism.

When it was constructed the black granite facing tiles of the memorial were fixed to the concrete sub-structure using adhesive. This technique has proved unsatisfactory with moisture entering the adhesive area and expanding when frozen, resulting in tiles lifting and others falling off.

"The harsh climatic conditions have taken a significant toll on the memorial and considering its significance the Australian Government has an obligation to rebuild it so that it can serve as a fitting memorial for decades to come," Mr Billson said.

The Office of Australian War Graves has consulted with the original designers, the Somme authorities, the community of Le Hamel, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the RSL National Executive and other stakeholders about the need for reconstruction and to also seek views on an appropriate design.

"The consultations have revealed some support for the form and design of the original memorial to be retained. The Le Hamel community, for example, is of the view that the design has become synonymous with their village," Mr Billson said.

The Australian Government will take these views into consideration when deciding on a final design.

A new design brief will be developed reflecting the results of the consultation and the need for the refurbished memorial to be complementary to other Australian memorials along the Western Front as well as being durable in the prevailing climatic conditions.

A final design is expected to be decided on in the second half of this year and reconstruction is expected to be completed by July 2008. The Australian Government has budgeted funding in the 2006-07 budget to undertake the extensive reconstruction.

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Veterans Affairs Minister De-Anne Kelly has ordered an international investigation into whether 163 Diggers missing since 1916 lie in a mass grave in northern France.

Mrs Kelly marked the 89th anniversary of the Fromelles catastrophe by authorising experts to search European war records that may clarify the fate of the men. Army historians, Office of War Graves staff and World War I academic experts will try to resolve whether the 163 Diggers were buried at Pheasant Wood near Fromelles.

They were among 5063 Diggers killed or wounded on the eve of July 19, 1916.

Victorian campaigners, who organised a service yesterday at the Shrine for about 100 descendants of 15th Brigade soldiers from World War I, were delighted.

"These men deserved better than being put into a mass grave," said campaigner Lambis Englezos.

If records from the British and German armies can confirm the 163 were likely buried at Pheasant Wood, the French Government could be asked to allow a controlled dig.

Mrs Kelly said a panel of experts who sat in May had found that sufficient doubt existed over the fate of the men to justify the overseas investigation.

Amateur historians believe the victims of Australia's first Western Front battle were buried in a mass grave by Bavarian troops.

Mr Englezos made a day-long presentation of maps, wartime photos and Red Cross records to experts from the army's history unit, Australian War Memorial and Office of War Graves.

Other potential sites -- Fournes and Manlaque Farm -- were rejected by the panel as inconclusive.

"The experts have concluded that of three sites discussed, there remained sufficient doubt about Pheasant Wood to warrant further historical research," Mrs Kelly said.

She said questions over whether the site was a mass grave and whether all remains were removed after the war had to be resolved.

Australian Army historian Roger Lee said Australia's Chief of Army

Lt-Gen Peter Leahy would be seeking help from his British equivalent.

"We historians are excited about this. It is the kind of detective-style work we like to do and don't often get the chance," he said.

World War I aerial photos from 1915 onwards and intelligence reports on the Pheasant Wood site were needed.

The Office of Australian War Graves will be checking honour rolls at cemeteries around Fromelles for clues about which areas were searched for the missing men.

And a Sydney University expert in old German language, Professor John Williams, would examine Bavarian military records.

- Herald Sun

Thanks to Tim Lycett for bringing this article to my attention.

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All is quiet on the Western Front

The war to end all wars was the beginning of an eventful life for the last Australian soldier of the Western Front, Peter Casserly, a remarkable man whose life was a short history of our country. Jonathan King writes.

With the passing of Peter Casserly Australia loses its last living link to the Western Front battlefields of World War I. Of 331,000 Australians who fought overseas in the Great War, Casserly, Regimental Number 1933, was the last surviving soldier. He served as a sapper in the Somme.

Casserly, born in Perth, was also Australia's oldest known man and had enjoyed possibly the country's longest marriage with his wife Monica, to whom he was married for 80 years and 10 months before she died aged 102 last August.

When Peter Casserly was born in 1898 only 3 million people lived in the colonies, which were still three years from Federation.

There were no motor cars in Perth, let alone planes, and people travelled by steam trains or horse-drawn vehicles along streets lit by gas. Electrical appliances, telephones, television and computers were still in the future.

Queen Victoria still ruled an empire over which the sun never set, and the Boer War would not start for another year.

Casserly's Irish father had migrated to Western Australia in search of gold but ended up working on the railways and the Fremantle wharves, barely earning enough to feed his 11 children. With little interest in school and keen to earn his keep, young Peter fled the local Christian Brothers College at 13, defiantly buried his books in a park opposite the headmaster's office, and began working as a local blacksmith's apprentice where he was shaping horseshoes when war started in 1914.

Despite community pressure to volunteer for Gallipoli, the independently minded, lean and lanky labourer refused until 1917, when he was working as a fireman on the railways. He saw an army advertisement for experienced locomotive crews to transport reinforcements to the Western Front and volunteered on St Patrick's Day. The 19-year-old was sent to a training camp near Melbourne, where he also marched in the second Anzac march - the first was in 1916.

When his troop carrier, Ascanius, moored off Fremantle en route to Egypt he was refused permission to go ashore and farewell his mother. So Casserly went below decks, "cadged an old bottle from the galley chef", wrote a farewell note, sealed it in the bottle and hurled it overboard in the direction of Fremantle.

Before long a curious woman walking her dog found it washed up on a beach and delivered the note to Mrs Casserly.

"I knew it was worth a try," Casserly said during his last interview in November, "and wasn't surprised when I heard Mum got it. The top brass couldn't stop me."

On arrival in the Somme he joined a troop train, serving as armed guard with the 80-man 2nd Railway Transport Unit. "'We had shells falling all around us, and Fritz [the German army] taking pot shots from the forests as we sped past. I had to be on the lookout," he recalled.

"I was nearly killed at least six times. Bullets whizzed past my ears and shells shot over the top of the train before exploding in fields up near the firing line.

"How they missed me I don't know - although there were some dud shells. One landed right in the middle of our group playing cards but didn't go off, so I just dealt another hand of euchre; one also landed in a coal heap, spraying coal and oil all over me."

From 1917 to 1918 Casserly served both as a sapper (the equivalent rank to private) supporting British and Australian forces fighting in Ypres, Armentieres and Amiens, and as a train guard with the 2nd, 5th and 16th Railway Transport Units in Belgium and France.

"Jerry was always trying to blow up the train with all its ammo," he said.

"The gauge was only two foot (60 centimetres) wide but it was an armoured [10-tonne] steam locomotive. But once an ammunition explosion threw a locomotive 50 metres through the air and I picked up body parts in pieces no bigger than a human heart.

"Another time Fritz derailed a train with English soldiers on board and that could have been bad. But the English officers just fled and their troops followed. So I sat down and had my dinner - bully beef and beans it was, and bad enough to kill us too.

"But the worst thing was carting all those young soldiers to certain death at places like Hellfire Corner. They had no idea of how terrible it was, and I used to look at their young faces and think of their mothers.

"Next day most of them would just be blood and bandages. Wherever you looked there would be these poor buggers on the side of the road, all wanting a cigarette, all busted up, some with arms and legs gone."

It was such a terrible experience Casserly vowed never to go off to war again. Sixty-one thousand Australians were killed in that war, 48,000 of them on the Western Front. Casserly knew 28 of the men men listed as killed in action on the war monument in North Fremantle alone.

After the war he helped with clean-up operations until discharged on September 11, 1919. Back in Fremantle he worked as wharf labourer, timber cutter, hatch man on a ship and then fisherman in Lancelin before establishing a wood yard and then a cray fishing business.

After saving a man from drowning he won a Royal Humane Society bravery award.

Although Casserly returned to the Western Front with veterans for the 75th anniversary of the armistice in 1993, he had opposed subsequent wars and never marched again on Anzac Day until last year, when he asked to be driven on the march - his first since 1917.

Like other World War I veterans he was awarded the 80th anniversary armistice medal in 1998, and the Prime Minister, John Howard, presented him with the Centenary Medal in 2001. But he was never awarded the French Legion of Honour, presented to more than 50 remaining Australian veterans during the 80th anniversary of the armistice, because, according to his son Peter, he had struck an officer for "giving him a hard time" in France.

If he failed to win due recognition for his services in war he certainly succeeded in the field of love. Having fallen for Monica Delgrado, a Fremantle beauty whose family had migrated from the Philippines, he married her at St Brigid's Church, West Perth, in 1923. Not only did the loving couple live happily ever after, but the wedding began an 80-year marriage, believed to have been Australia's longest nuptial union.

As it turned out he chose well. Monica was able to survive the Great Depression because, from childhood, she had helped her mother to earn money after her father died.

Casserly had two sons with Monica - Edward, who predeceased him, and Peter, now in his 80s. Mr Casserly also leaves seven grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

The couple lived in a house Casserly built in White Gum Valley, near Perth, until they were both well over 100. They then moved into Craigville Gardens nursing home, Melville. "The passing time never changed the loveliness of my wife for me," Casserly said.

"She remained a beautiful blessing throughout our long marriage."

Casserly's death leaves one sailor from World War I, W. Evan Allan, 105, of Melbourne, and John Ross, 106, of Bendigo, who enlisted but never left Australia.

Casserly had always attributed his longevity to rum. "They gave every soldier two issues of rum each day on the Western Front, but I knew my way around and used to get three. And I've been drinking rum ever since. It's a sure cure for the flu - if you feel it coming on, take some rum and in two days it's gone."

Perhaps this daily medicinal dose also inspired Casserly to keep singing, because right up to the end he entertained visitors with songs brought back from the trenches.

Nurses by his bedside reported that some of his famous last words included: "Give us a tot of rum tonight And over the top once more we'll go Where we'll bugger the German army all right And show old Fritz how to put on a show."

- Sydney Morning Herald

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Gallipoli damage faces review

The controversial disturbance of fragile relics at Gallipoli as a result of roadworks will be examined by a Senate committee.

The Senate committee inquiring into the roadworks and heritage protection of Anzac Cove will hear evidence from Department of Veterans' Affairs officials and others from the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The head of the Department of Environment's heritage division will also give evidence.

According to submissions handed to the committee by archaeologists and heritage groups, the federal government and Turkish authorities had allowed fragile relics at Gallipoli to be disturbed.

Tim Smith and Mark Spencer, directors of Project Beneath Gallipoli, said in their submission the latest roadworks were appalling.

The two men, who have operated the joint Australia-Turkish project since 1997, said none of the items that may have been damaged had been properly mapped or examined.

They said extra archaeological and heritage experts were needed to properly assess the remains and identify future threats to their survival.

- Sydney Morning Herald
 

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'Stayin' Alive' anger prompts Gallipoli music rethink

Veterans Affairs Minister Deanne Kelly says the Federal Government will give more thought to the music played at Gallipoli in the hours before the Anzac Day dawn service.

Some of the more than 17,000 Australians who attended this year's ceremony at Anzac Cove have criticised the playing of the Bee Gees' song Stayin' Alive as part of the overnight entertainment.

"Much as I like the Bee Gees I don't believe that Stayin' Alive is appropriate for a pre Anzac Day service," said the president of New South Wales RSL, Don Rowe.

Mrs Kelly says a large crowd had gathered many hours before the memorial service and a decision was taken to play music videos to entertain the group.

She says it is unlikely Stayin' Alive will ever again be played before another service at Anzac Cove.

"I think in the future we'd give more thought to and obviously plan what was to be played if entertainment is necessary as a distraction in that long, cold, dark lead-up to the dawn service," she said.

Mr Rowe has also deplored the amount of rubbish the crowd left behind at Gallipoli.

He says Gallipoli is a sacred place and should not be treated like a picnic ground.

New Zealand officials have suggested that numbers may have to be limited at future commemorations.

Prime Minister John Howard met his Turkish counterpart last night to discuss future management of the battleground.

- ABC

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PM calls for Gallipoli roadworks halt

By Paul Osborne

PRIME Minister John Howard has asked Turkish authorities to suspend work on a wall to stop it permanently altering the face of Anzac Cove.

Mr Howard said he had received a report from his department last night that the Turkish government intended to build a wall above the cove to reinforce the embankment for roadworks to widen the road.

The prime minister, who will visit Anzac Cove for next week's Anzac Day commemorations, said Australia's ambassador in Turkey had asked Turkish authorities to suspend their work on the wall.

"Our reason for that is that it would alter the appearance in a very significant way and we don't want that to happen," Mr Howard said.

Mr Howard said he understood the Turkish government's desire to improve security and ease of movement at the site.
 

"I don't think the Turks in any way have set out to do any damage in a malicious or malevolent way to the site," Mr Howard said.

"In the 90 years that have gone by there's been a lot of work carried out on the site which would have altered the appearance of it.

"Any suggestion that the site has remained exactly the same for the past 90 years and has suddenly been altered in the last ... couple of months is not correct."

Mr Howard said bones would continue to be found at the site and there was an understanding between governments that they would be treated respectfully.

About 8,000 Australians, 3,000 New Zealanders, 60,000 Turks, 22,000 British and 30,000 French were killed on the peninsula during World War I.

Opposition heritage spokesman Anthony Albanese said the roadworks had dramatically changed the Gallipoli landscape and the government needed to act to protect it.

Mr Albanese said a Gallipoli researcher and author, Mike Bowers, had said he was shocked by the changes to Anzac Cove and had been given a human bone by a road worker.

"The Howard government has known for two years that road works at Anzac Cove would damage extensively the site of the original landings at Gallipoli and disturb human remains," Mr Albanese said.

"The government asked for the road works to be done but seeks to avoid any responsibility for the consequences."

He said the government must clearly state what heritage assessments were done before the road works were requested in August 2004 and what monitoring was in place.

The Opposition has sought under freedom of information laws a raft of documents relating to road works at Anzac Cove.

The National Trust has called for Gallipoli to be put on the World Heritage list.

- The Courier-Mail

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Road works turn up human bones in Gallipoli: tour operator

(Transcript from ABC Radio)

TONY EASTELY: An Australian tour operator based in Turkey says human bones have been disturbed at Gallipoli by the recent road works.

Bernina Gezici has been living and working close to Gallipoli for nine years, and she says visitors who are familiar to the area will be staggered by the damage.

A spokesman for Veterans' Affairs Minister, De-Anne Kelly said last week there was no evidence bones had been disturbed.

But Bernina Gezici disagrees. She's speaking here to Alison Caldwell.

BERNINA GEZICI: What you actually had before, of course there was a road that cut across the top of Anzac Road, you know, now that was partially there from 1915 when the actual diggers, you know, had road works and that there, so that they could carry all of their cargo and everything along the shores. And that's basically just been maintained over the years. But what they've actually physically done now, is actually cut into the cliff face itself. So where you have the natural cliff, where you could stand on Anzac Cove and look up, and see exactly what the Anzacs saw in 1915 – that no longer is there. They've cut back so that the road is actually 20 metres wide now, from the edge of Anzac Cove, which means where you could actually get up onto the road and then walk directly up the cliff, up the hillside, you no longer have access to that area. You're now actually facing a cliff face – a sheer cliff face.

ALISON CALDWELL: Now, you yourself, you're not opposed to the idea of maintaining the road?

BERNINA GEZICI: Not at all. Maintenance on the road was an absolute must. The actual road around Anzac Cove area has been deteriorating badly, you know, over the last 15 years, where they've just been refilling potholes, and re-tarring sections of it. No one – Turkish, foreign – anyone in this area – no one has ever said do not maintain that road. All that they've said is, could the maintenance be within the understanding that you know, the heritage and aesthetic look of the area stays intact.

ALISON CALDWELL: It's been said that human bones have been disturbed – do you think that would be true?

BERNINA GEZICI: Of course it has to be true, because of the battlefield that you're on. You know, Anzac Cove itself is such a small area, and we're talking about thousands of men. You know, you only have to look at the statistics of the campaign to realise that wherever you go around the Anzac area, you are going to be treading on remains. We're not talking that they've dug up full skeletons, we're not saying that they've dug up cemeteries. But yes, with the unearthing of, you know, the cliff face around there, of course there's going to be disturbances to fragments of bones that have been left in the area, undisturbed since 1915.

ALISON CALDWELL: Two photographs have were published here in Australia which reportedly show human bones dug up by the road construction work there at Gallipoli – what do you know about those photographs?

BERNINA GEZICI: Well, the actual photographer, on at least one of the shoots of those photographs, was with us that day. We actually all went out together. So we were there when he took the photograph – there was nothing planted – this was just stuff, you know, that happened.

TONY EASTLEY: Australian tour operator based in Turkey, Bernina Gezici, speaking there to our reporter Alison Caldwell.

- ABC Radio

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Rusty Priest, the former RSL president, said Mr Caux died peacefully at a Chatswood nursing home. The NSW Premier, Bob Carr, has offered a state funeral to Mr Caux's family.

An air of mystery surrounded Mr Caux to the end. He was unknown to most Australians until four years ago, when he suddenly emerged as a veteran of World War I. The Department of Veterans Affairs said he had wished to retain some anonymity until that time and had asked that the file containing his service records be kept private.

Veterans Affairs records show that a Harold Katte, born in 1899, served in France and returned to Australia in 1919. Records issued in the name of Marcel Caux describe the service of Harold Katte. His son, Marcus de Caux, knew his father as Harold Katte.

Mr Caux had scarcely talked about his war for 85 years. He had never attended an Anzac Day or Remembrance Day service. "I'd rather forget the whole bloody business," he had said.

However, his family and others asked him to tell his story. From that time he became a regular at Anzac Day and Remembrance Day services. This year he was one of only two World War I survivors to join an Anzac Day march.

Mr Caux told how he had enlisted at 16 because he "didn't have anything else to do" telling authorities he was 18. He sailed to Egypt with the 17th Battalion and joined the 20th. Fighting on the Somme, he was wounded three times, including at Pozieres and at Villers-Bretonneux.

Distressed by his war memories, he destroyed all his records, including photographs. When he finally came out, the French Government awarded him the Legion of Honour.

Mr Caux took the opportunity to argue against Australia's involvement in the Iraq war. He felt "very sad" when Australian troops went off to Iraq, to yet another conflict. "It's so useless," he said. "Nothing is gained by it."

The four survivors of World War I are Gilbert Bennion, 105, of NSW, John Ross, 105, and William Allan, 104, both of Victoria, and Peter Casserly, 106, of Western Australia.

Last night the Minister for Veterans Affairs, Danna Vale, said Mr Caux and his peers had "helped define the young nation of Australia" by standing up and fighting for the things held dear by all "at a time of great uncertainty".

"It is a sad time as we farewell another fine man who served this nation so well."

- The Sydney Morning Herald

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Mr Downer ordered an urgent inquiry after the Daily Telegraph reported the Turkish government may start charging visitors to Gelibolu Historic National Park, which encompasses the Gallipoli battlefields and cemeteries, as early as Anzac Day this year.

The paper said the Turkish parliament had passed a law authorising the charge, which would capitalise on the big recent influx of tourists, including many thousand Australians.

The national park's regional head, Ayhan Can, had confirmed an entrance fee would be charged.

Prime Minister John Howard and Mr Downer opposed a charge.

But RSL president Major General Bill Crews said that while he'd prefer a charge wasn't imposed, he understood Turkey's need to find a way to meet the infrastructure costs of the influx of visitors.

Mr Howard this morning asked Mr Downer to check out the report.

"I wouldn't like any kind of charge introduced, not from a financial point of view, but you just don't charge for those things and the idea that people would be charged to go there does sort of go against the grain," the prime minister said.

"Obviously it's their territory, but Australians regard it also as theirs."

Mr Downer said the Turks were building facilities on Gallipoli, including an entrance gate and possibly a museum and reception centre.

While their plans weren't fully developed, they might charge for the museum if it was built.

"I guess that would be understandable," he said.

"But we think it would be inappropriate for them to charge for Australians going to visit the Gallipoli Peace Park and I've been reassured by the Turks that they're not planning to do that."

General Crews said he hoped an entrance fee would stay off the agenda.

"If one came, our members would be disappointed and some might be outraged," he said.

"But we have to be understanding.

"No matter how sacred the site, it still has to be managed.

"If a modest charge was levied specifically to cover costs, that would be difficult to challenge."

General Crews said Gallipoli was a vast area that included much more than the cemeteries.

It included roads, old trenches and a fragile environment tramped over by thousands of visitors every year.

- AAP

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Young Australians wishing to offer their respects to the Anzacs may have to pay for the privilege, under plans by the Turkish Government to cash in on Gallipoli.

Under plans by the Turkish Government, visitors to the Gallipoli battlefields will be charged an admission fee, with tickets to go on sale as early as Anzac Day this year.

This would let the Turkish Government capitalise on the tourism boom to Gallipoli, where tens of thousands of Australians make the pilgrimage to pay tribute to hero Diggers.

Although it has not been announced publicly yet, Turkey plans an admission fee to the Gelibolu Historical National Park, which encompasses Anzac Cove, the British sectors of Suvla Bay and Cape Helles and all of the Allied cemeteries on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

Gelibolu Historical National Park regional head Ayhan Can confirmed the entrance fee plan to The Daily Telegraph.

"Yes, we will introduce an entrance fee to the national park. This will include all services in one ticket," he said as work began on the entrance gate.

Construction began last Sunday and is expected to be completed next month.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal that the Turkish Parliament already has passed a law authorising the charging of admission fees to the national park.

Further legislation, which proposes spending up to $15 million to upgrade facilities and build new monuments, has stalled in the Parliament, in part due to opposition objections to government plans to lift the requirement for projects to be open to tender.

The project could include a light rail, sound and light show, restaurant and cinema -- prompting an attack from an honoured Turkish historian who warns the site risks becoming "Disneyland".

The revelations also have prompted an urgent investigation from the Federal Government to determine exactly how far advanced the Turkish plans are. Mr Can said that he did not see why charging for admission to the park or the cemeteries would upset foreign visitors or their governments.

"If there is an international problem, I am sure that our foreign ministry will sort it out," he said.

The head of Turkey's National Park Directorate, Mustafa Yalinkilic, stressed that a final ruling on charging admission fees to the battlefield area was yet to been taken.

"There are no regulations on this; the question is still under discussion," Mr Yalinkilic said.

However, regulations or not, construction of an entrance gate on the road leading to Anzac Cove began last Sunday.

The work is scheduled to be completed by March 18, the day Turkey commemorates the defeat of the Allied fleet in its attempt to force its way through to Istanbul in 1915.

The plans have incensed local residents, who see the move as an attempt to turn the site of one of World War I's most famous campaigns into a money-making venture for the country.

One of those opposed to the government's plans is Kenan Celik, a leading Turkish expert on the Gallipoli campaign, who was awarded the Order of Australia in 2001 for his services to Australian history.

"This plan is ridiculous," Mr Celik said. "This area is not like other national parks. This is an open museum, a cemetery.

"So many people who have lost relatives come here. To be asked to pay to see where their ancestors are buried is obscene. The basic idea is just to make money."

Another angered by the proposals is Yuksel Akgul, owner of the Liman Restaurant in Eceabat, the town nearest Anzac Cove.

"We call those who died defending our land martyrs, and it is an honour to visit to the graves of these people we know who died to save our country. As Muslims, all we can do is to pray for them and those who died from other countries.

"But they even want to stop us doing this by charging money."

Park officials argue they would not be charging admission to the cemeteries but to the national park as a whole.

However, without the battlefields, cemeteries and memorials, it is unlikely there would be a national park on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

Nor would thousands of Australians and New Zealanders, the backbone of the local tourism industry, make their way there annually.

Turkey's plans to sell tickets to the battlefield also run contrary to the peace treaty between the Allies and Turkey, which declared that there be free access to the cemeteries and memorials at all times.

However, Ibrahim Kosdere, who represents the region in the national parliament and who sponsored the new bill on developing the park, dismisses the Lausanne Treaty of 1923.

"Why should we ask permission from the occupying forces for our plans?" he said. "The National Park design is ours and is within the national borders we have drawn."

Mr Kosdere also said that the levying of an admission fee to the battlefields would increase people's appreciation of the site.

"What is free of charge has no value to it, believe me. Even bread has a price," he said.

The state plans to use at least part of its slice of the loaf from ticket sales to upgrade the roads and other facilities in the region.

However, the move is part of a wider plan to make the park self-funding and to promote tourism.

Seeking to cash in on the growing domestic tourism market, the National Park Authority has a number of proposals on the drawing board. Among the suggestions are building a light rail system along Anzac Cove and a sound and light show.

For Mr Celik, who has worked as a guide on the battlefields for 25 years, such theme park attractions are a desecration.

"They think that Gallipoli is like any other national park, but it is completely different," he said. "It is not Disneyland. Yes, they should protect the battlefield areas but even to call this a national park is wrong.

"This is sacred ground to Turkey, to Australia and New Zealand."

- The Daily Telegraph

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After many months of neglect, I've finally updated the site and added a few new things (this What's New page included!). I've been living in the UK for the past year and have finally bought a PC, so I'll be able to update the site on a monthly basis from now on. New things to come on the site include the long overdue addition of several new mini-guides in the Western Front section. I'm also in the process of adding a Visiting Gallipoli section, following my trip there in September.

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Today I had the honour of attending the opening of the Australian War Memorial in London. It was a special day attended by the Queen, Tony Blair, John Howard and Australian and English war veterans. For more information and pictures click here.

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A mass grave containing the remains of 250 missing Australian soldiers is believed to have been found in a French field, 87 years after they were killed in the battle of Fromelles - one of the bloodiest encounters of World War I.

If a Melbourne researcher, with the backing of French and British scholars, is right this would be one of the largest mass graves located since the end of hostilities in France, where about 48,000 Australian soldiers died.

Lambis Englezos says there is no doubt the remains are lying in the French farmer's paddock 1km north of Fromelles at Pheasant Wood.

"I have walked over and over the paddock, where I unearthed more than enough bones to confirm it is a mass burial site even though it has never been officially recognised as such." Mr Englezos, a school teacher and amateur historian, started searching after reading a post-war report by Private William Barry, a survivor of the 29th Battalion wiped out in the battle that claimed 5533 Australian casualties, of which 1916 were killed - worse than any single day at Gallipoli.

When Private Barry woke after being wounded in the July 19, 1916, battle he saw victorious Germans throwing Australian bodies into a series of hastily dug pits, which were now behind German lines. Although taken to a PoW camp, he recorded the number, size and location of the pits as "Pheasant Wood", an area that has never been officially recognised as a burial site by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

But Mr Englezos, 50, who first visited Pheasant Wood in 1996 for the battle's 80th anniversary and returned again in 2002, teamed up with local historian Martial De La Barre, who grew up on a nearby farm where this mass burial of Australians was common knowledge.

"We have always known Australians were lying in this farmer's field," he said speaking from the Somme "but nobody has ever believed us, especially the Government of Australia who have been coming here since 1919".

Mr Englezos also obtained aerial photographs showing mounds covering the four pits recorded by Private Barry as "approximately 20 feet by 40 feet" just behind the zig-zag shape of the German front line.

"I added up the number of soldiers known to have no known grave and calculated the capacity of the four pits and believe I have located the remains of at least 250 of the hundreds with no known grave - and that can bring comfort to a lot of descendants," Mr Englezos said.

British historian Paul Cobb, who supplied the photos, said "the aerial certainly shows burial mounds and I believe they contain the remains of Australians". Mr Englezos said: "With Private Barry's eye witness report, bones I have unearthed with Martial De La Barre and the aerials, we have enough evidence to confirm the remains of the 250 missing Australians are lying in that paddock."

Robin Corfield, of Melbourne, author of the definitive book on Fromelles (Don`t Forget Me Cobber) said "as there were so many Australians killed, German soldiers from the Bavarian Regiment just buried Australian soldiers together as quickly as possible because of the stench and risk of disease".

Some of these mass graves were also photographed, but although the Australian War Memorial has German photographs of some of these soldiers just before they buried them, it will not allow their reproduction. "Nobody has known where many of these soldiers were buried", Mr Corfield said "but Mr Englezos has located some of the missing remains."

Sydney WWI historian John Williams said "we know there are remains of many Australian soldiers buried in mass graves near Fromelles and it would be good to recognise this site. If the Government doubts Mr Englezos they could commission an official search to prove or disprove his hypothesis, once and for all".

Believing he has found these missing remains, Mr Englezos is now lobbying the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to erect a memorial on the paddock for the 250 soldiers and plant flowering gum trees around the perimeter. Mr Corfield agreed that "at least a cairn marking the spot would help the descendants as it has been a tragedy for years not knowing where to go to pay their respects to their fallen".

A memorial would certainly give closure for descendants like Micky Flanigan who believes his great uncle Tim Carey is buried there, and who has also visited the paddock.

"My great uncle is gone but should not be forgotten so I hope the Government will put a memorial there and make the ground sacred."

But Michael Seal, director of the Commonwealth War Grave Commission in nearby Arras, said it was not the job of the commission to go out searching for new remains and also their funds were limited so a watertight case would need to be made before a new memorial was erected. There were already other memorials nearby at VC Corner referring to soldiers with no known grave, he said, and a statue called Cobbers commemorating the battle of Fromelles.

But Mr Cobb claimed a watertight case was impossible as "the French police are not prepared to exhume bodies for legal and other reasons, and anyway the identification dog tags would now have eroded beyond recognition. We don't need expensive ground-penetrating laser equipment as we know soldiers bones are there and most scholars accept they are Australian".

But Mr Englezos was not going to give up. "If the Commonwealth War Graves Commission refuses to respect the memories of these lying in that paddock near Fromelles then we will build a memorial to them at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne - where at least there is some support."

- The Australian