The Gallipoli campaign

What the soldiers experienced

Extreme weather and primitive living conditions was what life was for the New Zealand soldier on Gallipoli.To sum it up, it was tough!

They spent eight months enduring extreme weather conditions. June to August was summer and the temperatures soared and the winter months ( November to January) brought the rain, chilling winds and snow, it was miserable.

It only took a few months of living in cramped conditions on the peninsula, before the soldiers began to endure dysentry and typhoid. Conditions were unsanitary, there were unburied bodies and swarms of flies. A shortage of water and poor food, along with extreme exhaustion, reduced the men’s resistance to disease.

The area occupied by New Zealanders and Australians at Anzac was less than six square kilometers. With no natural water source, water shortages were a common thing. The only way to get supplies to Anzac was by ship that were landed on the beach with great difficulty.

Old salvaged oil sheets were used to make a roof that would keep the sun out during the day and dew off the men at night. Sandbags and old overcoats were the only only available furnishings ,along with a cut down petrol tin for a bath.

Lice became full time residents, in fact body lice became an epidemic, plus there was always plenty of centipedes. Troops lived on a staple diet of tinned bully beef ,army biscuits and jam, with no fruit or vegetables to be seen.

With 25,000 men packed into such a cramped space, latrines filled up fast and there was limited space for any new ones to be erected.

Swarms of flies tormented the men turning what should have been simple tasks, such as preparing food into horrible ordeals.

Poor planning and the share scale of the casulties overwhelmed the medical resources. The advanced dressing stations were often in exposed postions and they often came underfire.

The wounded men were then transported from the field ambulances and clearing stations and taken by boat to hospital ships waiting offshore. Due to poor coordination and mismanagement many men were left far too long on the beach and once on board the boats found that the conditions appalling.