The ferry embarked from Asia. A few minutes later it would arrive in Europe. The wind was blustery on the Dardanelles, the dividing point between the two continents, not far from the historic city of Troy. The boat rocked gently on the wine-dark sea. On a hillside on the approaching bank, a silhouette of a soldier bearing a rifle has been drawn in white in a clearing in the trees.
Giant letters bear a message that can be seen for miles.
The Gallipoli Peninsula is sacred ground to some nations. The Turks gained Ataturk, who fought the Anzacs. And the Anzacs got the spirit of a new nation. The Allies intended to knock the German-allied Ottoman Empire out of the war and open the Turkish straits as a supply route to Russia. The mission, Mr. Efe says, was supposed to take 11 days.