Only bird song breaks the silence

Adam Sutcliffe on the field of battle with red poppies around

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AS the borough bowed its head to honour to those who gave their lives during World War One’s Gallipoli campaign this weekend, some chose to take their tributes to the trenches.

Adam Sutcliffe, pictured, made a special journey to the spot where Oldham lost 96 men in just one day and where his grandfather, Capt Herbert Sutcliffe, and his uncle, Lt Fred Hardman, both served with the Oldham Territorials.

Adam, who grew up in Diggle but now lives in London, went specifically to carry out his own personal tribute to his grandfather and the “Oldham Terriers”.

At noon on June 4 — exactly 100 years to the day — he blew the whistle Capt Sutcliffe would have blown to send his men over the top and into full-on warfare during the Third Battle of Krithia.

But it was by pure coincidence he managed to find the exact location of the trench, known as “Oldham Road”, where his grandfather sent his troops into battle.

“I met a guy from Ashton who was there to pay tribute to the Ashton men who fought there from the Manchester Regiment and he had uploaded trench maps on his GPS and overlaid Google Earth so you could pinpoint precise locations on the battlefield,” said Adam.

“It turned out he is pretty much the world expert on trenches in Gallipoli. It must have been fate as neither of us were in the place we’d intended to be when we bumped into each other but thanks to his help we had the most amazing experience out there and we were able to pay the most poignant tribute.

“We stood in the place where my grandfather had done so exactly 100 years earlier and because a couple of the others with us had military experience we were able to carry out the command to go over the top as it would have been done. I blew the whistle three times and we all hung our heads in remembrance.

“It was the most astonishingly beautiful place full of poppies and olive trees and you couldn’t hear anything but bird song.

“The scent of mint and thyme filled the air, the sky was bright blue and you couldn’t have imagined a calmer place. It was so hard to imagine there had been such horror and devastation there for so many and their families.”

He said the “Respect to Turkish Soldier” statue — which depicts Adam’s grandfather’s own story of how he was scooped up and carried to safety by a fighter from the Turkish side after he lay injured in no man’s land — is symbolised everywhere.

“The symbol really is on everything there from fridge magnets to ferries and seeing it brought a lump to my throat as it certainly represents my grandfather’s story.

“My experience there was so moving and heart-warming and one I will never forget.

“The Turkish people have so much esteem and respect for both sides of the campaign and the graves are maintained superbly.”

Ann and Rod Jones, from Royton, knew they’d be stopping off at the Gallipoli peninsula as part of a holiday cruise so planned to visit the Helles Memorial, a Commonwealth War Graves Commission tribute to the whole Gallipoli Campaign.

Before leaving British shores they researched the names of Oldham soldiers commemorated at Gallipoli’s Lancashire Landing Cemetery and Twelve Trees Copse Cemetery and took along an honour on behalf of the borough.

“We obtained a wreath, poppies and crosses from the Oldham British Legion to leave as a tribute from Oldham,” said Ann.

“Sadly we were unable to find all the graves due to lack of time, but we did find some. The ship’s chaplain held a small service of remembrance at Helles where we laid the wreath.

“There were about 100 Australians and New Zealanders on board the ship, there for the Anzac day centenary. There was also singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, who took part in the on-board service.

“The thing that struck us most was the number of Turks visiting their own memorials and graveyards. They suffered far more losses than we did, and for what?”

Richard Slater, from Shaw, was among those in Oldham this weekend whose thoughts were with relatives who endured the terror and atrocities of the battle which claimed 450 local lives and 120,000 in total.

His grandfather Stanley Richardson, from Shore Edge, in Shaw, was a Royal Marine and part of “The Royal Naval Division”, nicknamed “Winston’s Army” after Churchill conceived the unit.

Richard explained: “My grandfather seems to have had a rather unusual war.

“Firstly, (as a Royal Marine) he was a naval rating, yet he was pressed into service not on board ship but in the trenches as a medic. He was attached to the 1st Field Ambulance. Like many soldiers at Gallipoli he suffered from illness. I have his casualty record and it states that he was removed from Gallipoli not because of gunshot wounds but because of colic. He was sent to a Greek Island called Mudros to recuperate before being sent back to Gallipoli.

“After the stalemate at Gallipoli and the allied retreat, my grandfather ended up at the Somme and he spent the rest of WWI in the trenches in France.

“From what I can gather he never really served as a typical Marine.

“My grandfather survived the war and he died in 1972. He never talked much about his experiences yet I do remember him saying that the smell of rotting corpses at Gallipoli was so overpowering that a short truce was negotiated in order for both sides to bury their dead.”