Wargames Obsession: uniforms

Anzac Diorama: More reference photos for Chanuk Bair project

The realities of war. A commonwealth soldier observes the body of a compatriot.

The caption reads that he is handling stores, which could well be so, judging from the packed provisions (? ) water barrel and ammunition/food. The roll of cable suggests a different task to me though, and that barrel appears very empty. For some reason the guy also looks like a sapper to me.

This particular photograph was censored at the time, as it showed a dead commonwealth soldier. The Kings College collection have some really graphic photographs of casualties that were censored and embargoed at the time. Some of the pictures still turn the stomach, even in today's permissive and desensitised world and the era of the internet.

Water supplies being filtered to remove impurities. Water at Gallipoli had to be imported from friendly territory around the Med or captured local supply.

The harshness of the terrain illustrated. Very steep incline, with hardly any beach at high tide. Notice the line of horses tethered to the start of the undergrowth

Water being filtered before it was fit for consumption. Water quality was poor, shipped from surrounding islands or obtained from captured local sources.

View from one of the ridges. The light coloured specs are bodies. Hundreds of bodies, commonwealth and Turkish, both

Evacuating the wounded. I suspect this series of photographs may have been staged. Never the less, it gives us a good look at the uniforms. You can even see the hobnails under the boots that the Perry Brothers have faithfully reproduced in their miniatures that I am painting at the moment.

Field dressings being applied

NZ soldiers fraternising with the locals. There are several photographs of these two soldiers with the Turkish family. Clearly for propaganda purposes.

Exhausted New Zealanders asleep in their trench (IWM)

One tends to think that the troops were dumped at Gallipoli and left untill evacuated. This was not the case. This photograph is captioned " New Zealand soldiers returning to Gallipoli after leave on Lemnos" What it does show clearly is the wide array of headgear worn.

British Officers meeting with Russian Naval allies

Some traditions endure. British Naval Officers taking tea.

British landing at V Beach, from the sea, and the ridge above

Brits dug in

Landings at ANZAC Cove:

ANZAC Divisional Officers landing

Terrain of the cove - Equipment, supplies and men piled high

Overview of the terrain

Once a foothold had been established...

Grenade practice. The webbing can be seen nicely in this picture, as can the variety of trousers, shirts and tunics. There is clear colour variation, even in the B&W photo.

ANZACs in the Trenches. Good detail of footwear and leggings.

Two Australians of the ANZAC in their dugout, named Spliter Villa for good reason. It is estimated that more soldiers died from flying wood splinters than from shrapnel. This was poarticularly true in the wooded areas of Europe (see my previous post on the Dellville Wood debacle, South Africa's WW1 equivalent of Gallipoli's senseless slaughter)

Field surgeon at work on Gallipoli beach.

One tend to think of Gallipoli as hot and dusty. When winter came it was wet, cold, and miserable

Frostbitten men awaiting evacuation

Frostbite victims in makeshift shelter

ANZAC Maori warrior braving the cold in the trenches

Turkish Uniforms

Staff Officers (I suspect a tad retouched)

ANZAC Soldiers with a captured Turkish Sniper

Turkish captives

Tending to Turkish wounded

Interrogation of captives

Note the huge variation of dress, mostly civilian. It looks as if pants and tunics were issued, but the enlisted men were free to wear anything underneath. Looks like both sides suffered from shortage of supply

Again the variety in Turkish Uniforms

A Captured Turk who was a barber in civilian life pressed into duty by the ANZACs

The omnipresent draught and pack animals.

A donkey being given coco (!) Anyway that's what the caption says.

A Gallipoli pet. Light distraction was scarce in Gallipoli. One would have to presume that the donkey was pretty tame to allow this!

Indian Mule handlers

More on Donkeys at Gallipoli, and the story of Simpson and his Donkey

A cricket game played on the day of the withdrawal from ANZAC cove. A ruse to fool the Turks that all was business as usual in ANZAC Cove. I bet there was no sledging from the Aussie side that day!

Infantry Dress

Mounted Infantry - Huge variation in headgear, all within the same unit.

Rear view of mounted Infantry

Painting Progress: WW100 and the ANZACs on my table

A quick progress report on the WW100 Projects and the ANZACs I'm Currently painting.
2 evenings of (interrupted) base painting done:

Blocked in base coats, 1st wash of Sepia, Silver Leafs (Not Kiwi's I'm told)

now looking rather tanned from the Turkish sun.

Had to look for more reference material, and nicked a random collection of images of NZ and allied soldiers and uniforms. All rights belong to various owners. Happy to attribute or remove on request.

NZ ANZAC Uniform: The order was to attack in shirt-sleeves, so no tunic was worn during the attack and defense. Apparently the boots were black, not brown as illustrated.

The painting above has correct colour for enlisted men

Typical gas mask and gear bag.

Full canvas webbing and kit (unfortunately a poor quality pic)

Turkish counter-attack and The Wellington Regiment's defense of the Summit.

Difficult to see from painting, but some of these men appear to be (incorrectly) wearing tunics.

Propaganda leaflet from the time

Correct branch of forces puggary or hat band for NZ Infantry

More contemporary photographs of the time. A colourised Auckland Mounted Rifles Uniform at Right

Having taken a trench atop Chanuk Bair

Australian Uniforms of the time. Similar to that of NZ, but the Slouch Hat rather than Lemon Squeezer (Ps That term was only coined in WW2)

Wide use of peaked caps (with or without neck protection) for both enlisted and commissioned men. In WW2 only commissioned officers were allowed to wear peaked caps.

Indigenous (Maori) Pioneer Contingent arriving. Other "indigenous" contingents in Gallipoli included Indian and Gurka warriors.

French soldiers were also present at Gallipoli

Infantry Uniform

Mounted Infantry/Cavalry Uniforms. Not the shoulder slung leather bandolier which was not issued to Infantry. These were not present on any of the models we painted.