Anzac Reflections – Gallipoli missing

Images: Canva

New Zealand Memorial to the Missing at Lone Pine,

Gallipoli, Turkey. Image: Lainey Myers-Davies

Recent research indicates that at least 16,000, possibly more than 17,000, NZ Expeditionary Force (NZEF) soldiers served at Gallipoli in the First World War (Wikipedia) in the period April - December 1915. During the entire War, the NZEF experienced a 58% casualty rate, one of the highest of any country's forces in WW1. Given that New Zealand's total population at the start of the War was just over one million, the country was hit hard by its losses. At Gallipoli, due to the extreme terrain and type of combat, 67% (1,862) of those killed were recorded as 'missing' (had no known grave). The New Zealand Memorial at Lone Pine – one of many features on the peninsula that was closely-contested by Anzac troops  – has the names of 753 missing NZ soldiers recorded on it. There are four other memorials at Gallipoli dedicated to New Zealand Anzacs.

Gallipoli plateaus and ridges the Anzacs fought on. Source : Gsl at English Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Gallipoli Missing 

		ANZAC Cove  Chunuk Bair Courtney's Post   The Daisy Patch   Dead Man's Ridge Destroyer Hill   The Farm Fishermen's Hut   Gaba Tepe Happy Valley   Hill Q Hill 971 Howitzer Gully   Hughes Gully Johnston's Jolly Long Sap   Lone Pine   Malone's Gully   Monash Gully   The Nek Otago Gully Outpost No. 1 Overton Gully  Plugge's Plateau   Quinn's Post…
ANDERSON O.F.  ARMSTRONG E.R.  BAIN J.S.  BARGROVE W.T. BORTHWICK A.  BOURGEOIS A.J.H…… DAVIES W.  DAVIS F.A. DAWSON B.F.  DE CASTRO A.H…..JOYCE H.B. JURD E.A.  KAUTER W. KEITH J.  KELLET J.R. KELSALL V.A. KEMP W.D. KENNEDY W. KENT A.W.…..MacDONALD A.  MALONE W.G. MAYO G.D. McDONALD  A. McKENZIE J.  MINCHIN W. MOORE S.G. MURPHY R…..OLDS J.  OLEN V.A. OLIVER B.W. OLSEN N.  OWENS P.J.  OXLEY T.C…... PAPUNI K.  PARKER A.J. PARKINSON T. PATERSON J.  PATON J.S…..SEWELL E. SHEFFIELD P.F.J.  SHELDON J.J.W SHERMAN A.J…..WAIHIA T. WAKE H.L…..
			......Taihape  Tairua   Takaka Taumarunui   Taupo   Tauranga Te Anau   Te Aroha   Te Awamutu   Te Kauwhata   Te Kuiti   Te Puke   Temuka Thames   Timaru   Tokoroa Turangi     Upper Hutt   Waihi Waihi Beach   Waikouaiti Waimate   Waiouru   Waipawa Waipukurau   Wairoa   Waitara  Waiuku   Wakefield   Wanaka Warkworth   Wellington.....…..
			Keith Westwater

This 'shape' poem was commended in the New Zealand Poetry Society's 2015 International Poetry Competition and published in its anthology Scattered Feathers. The horizontal bar of the cross names a few of the large number of NZ Gallipoli missing. The top portion of the vertical column identifies battle-sites and other features on the peninsula that the Anzacs fought for and over. Some of the villages, towns, and cities that New Zealand soldiers enlisted from to travel to fight in a war half a world away are listed in the lower part of the cross. All these places have war memorials naming their casualties.