By Kathy Marks in Sydney
The Independent (London), 21 April 2007
The Australian War Memorial has unearthed what it believes is only the footage of Anzac Cove during the Gallipoli battle of World War One, an iconic event in Australian history that is commemorated each year on Anzac Day.
Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) forces landed at Gallipoli in April 1915, part of a British-led campaign to confront Turkey and open up a sea route for Russia. Although the campaign was a disaster, with the two sides suffering more than 300,000 casualties, it has become central to the national identity in Australia and New Zealand.
The two countries remember their war dead on April 25th, the anniversary of the landings. And as they prepare to mark Anzac Day next Wednesday, the military museum in Canberra has announced the chance find of grainy black and white film showing the shoreline at Anzac Cove, and British troops massing down the coast at Suvla Bay.
The 45 seconds of footage are believed to have been shot by the British war correspondent, Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett. He made a 20-minute documentary, called With the Dardanelles Expedition: Heroes of Gallipoli, which showed troops in action in the trenches and helped to create the Anzac legend. But the newly discovered pictures did not feature in the documentary.
The footage was found buried in a compilation reel of 35mm film from World War One, which the museum bought from a private citizen in 1938 but never properly examined. It was sandwiched between newsreel material, patriotic recruiting films and excerpts from Ashmead-Bartlett’s documentary.
The War Memorial’s film and sound curator, Stephanie Boyle, said it was remarkable that anything had survived from that pioneering era of film.
“It’s quite exciting, because we have so little footage of Gallipoli that any addition is welcome,” she said. “To be able to add even a short bit of film to what we have is significant, because it offers a bit more insight, a bit more possibility for research. It’s another way for us to connect to the Gallipoli experience.”
The footage pans slowly across Anzac Cove from a position on the southern headland. It shows a clutter of jetties, and stores being unloaded. “You have got the trials and the dug-outs,” said Ms Boyle. “You can see soldiers walking around.”
The segment of Suvla Bay shows British soldiers on the shore, chatting, shaving, and leaning on their guns, or staring into the camera with their arms folded.
After sending the first reports of the Anzac landings to Australia, Ashmead-Bartlett was aboard a British ship sunk by a German submarine on May 27. He survived, and when he returned to England to replace his lost possessions, his literary agent suggested that he take a new-fangled movie camera back to Gallipoli.
After it was purchased in 1938, the compilation reel was archived and then forgotten for decades. Last year curators decided to inspect the material, and found the previously unknown footage.
Although it is not certain that Ashmead-Bartlett shot it, he is believed to have been the only person with a movie camera at Anzac Cove.
Although Ashmead-Bartlett was critical of the campaign itself, his colourful and stirring accounts of the bravery of Australia soldiers helped to forge the Anzac legend. To some Australians, their country, a former British penal colony, came of age during the battle for control of the Gallipoli peninsula.
Ms Boyle said: “Because we have so little authentic footage, everything we can add to this counts as a major discovery, a possibility for new study.”