Gallipoli - ANZAC memorial By Hazel

Today we are going to Gallipoli. Gallipoli is a town on the coast where the ANZAC soldiers landed ready for battle against Turkey. But they landed in the wrong place on a calm sandy beach and right in front of the ANZACS were ginormous steep cliffs and on top of the cliffs was the Turkish soldiers firing at them. The ANZACS had landed at the wrong place!

They tried to get up the cliffs at two different spots but it was too steep and too dangerous. We followed the ANZACs footsteps in order. We walked up a mountain called Plugges plateau. In front of us we could see the Turkish memorial and the ANZACs memorial.

On top of the ridge the ANZAcs dug lots and lots of trenches. They slept in them, they ate in them and fought from them. The trenches were wide and steep. They only had a metre of space each. When I was there I ran through the trenches and jumped over them. I think it would be pretty uncomfortable and the soldiers would get very dirty.

Some of the soldiers had mascots. Mascots are animals that make the soldiers confident. Confident means you can believe in yourself. Mascots can cheer you up when you miss your family or if your cold, hungry, sad, annoyed or tired. They stayed in the trenches for eight months. After lots of battles and death the ANZACs gave uP and left Gallipoli.

I'm glad they left otherwise lots more soldiers would have died. New Zealand and Australia still remember the ANZACS who fought in the war on April 25th, 1915.