THE British secret service grossly underestimated the resistance of Turkish forces before the disastrous Gallipoli campaign, according to an historian allowed unprecedented access to MI6 archives.
Professor Keith Jeffery has spent the past five years trawling through Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) records from the first half of the 20th century for his book, The History of the SIS 1909-1949.
He said that documents at the SIS, in its infancy at the time, dismissed the ability of the Turks to defend themselves against any reasonably sized army.
And he said the reports demonstrated the “over-optimism which permeated the early days of the Gallipoli campaign”.
“Everybody did (grossly underestimate the Turks),” he told AAP.
“It was one of those classic cases, they didn’t think there was any resistance.
“What little I found simply confirms that view. Absolutely.”
Nearly 9000 Australians were killed and almost 18,000 wounded during the ill-conceived nine-month campaign that ended up costing more than 100,000 lives.
Former chief of the SIS, Sir John Scarlett said the decision to allow Prof Jeffery access to the secret documents was an attempt to provide the British public with a better understanding of the service and mark its 100 years of operations.
The 800-page book provides details on a host of colourful spies, including Biffy Dunderdale who was said to be one of the major inspirations behind the James Bond character.
Turkish troops arrive in the southeastern port city of Busan in 1950 to join the Korean War. Some 21 countries took part in the conflict. / Korea Times file
UNC waged crusade against communism
By Andrew Salmon
On 29 August, 1950, a bright summer day, a startlingly alien sound blasted across Busan docks: A series of flatulent drones followed by a piercing wail.
The sound was emanating from a group of young men pacing the gun turrets of an approaching heavy cruiser. Their appearance was even more bizarre: They were clad in skirts and chequered, tasseled headgear. The cacophonous lilt emanated from sack-like objects the men were plying.
The objects were bagpipes; the men were Scottish troops of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, the lead battalion of 27th British Brigade. At an urgent American request, and in response to the deteriorating military situation, this unit had been dispatched. post-haste, from Hong Kong with such speed that they dubbed themselves the “For-God’s-sake-send-something Brigade.”
27th Brigade were just the first of the non-American contingents to arrive in Busan to help stem Kim Il-sung’s invasion. On the embattled peninsula, a new concept in world affairs was being born: A United Nations military intervention force, or, to give it its formal title in Korea, the United Nations Command, or UNC.
This was the force enabled by UN Security Council resolutions of 25th and 27th June and 7th July 1950 calling for the “restoration of international peace and security in the area” following Pyonyang’s 25th June invasion. Several contingents, however, would not land until 1951, by which time the South had been saved, the North defeated and counter-invaded – and then the entire situation reversed by the Chinese intervention at the end of 1950.
Under the U.N. banner, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Columbia, Ethiopia, France, Greece, India (Field Ambulance), Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, Thailand and Turkey supplied ground combat troops, while South Africa deployed its “Flying Cheetah” fighter squadron. Denmark, Italy, Norway and Sweden provided non-combatant medical units.
The United States commanded this polyglot force, and, after South Korea, provided its main muscle, contributing seven infantry division and a marine division, as well as logistical support, and the largest naval and air units. In July 1953, a survey showed that South Korea had 590,911 troops in the UNC; the US, 302,482; and other U.N. contingents totaled only 39,145.
Most of the non-American UNC contingents were small. Once the war entered its static stage in late 1951, the Australian, British, Canadian, Indian and New Zealand units fought together, but the Commonwealth Division was the only unit in the UNC that was operationally independent. Turkey provided a brigade, but all other contingents ― except for little Luxembourg’s, which was a platoon fighting within the Belgian battalion ― were battalion-sized and were absorbed into American parent formations.
The cosmopolitan expansion of the coalition defending South Korea provided the U.S.-run logistics chain with a range of problems. While the U.S. Army was dry, the Dutch wanted gin, the French wine, and the Australians, Belgians and British, beer to fight on. On the rationing front, the Turks would not eat pork and like the Dutch, demanded fresh bread. The Greeks wanted figs, raisins and olive oil.
Yet, while these UNC units might cause cultural, linguistic and logistical headaches for U.S. commanders, and while they did not compare in size with the Americans, many of them proved to be exceptionally high quality fighting units. This was particularly so in the first six months of the war when, by comparison, the U.S. Army was suffering significant morale and leadership problems.
The Turks forged a legend in their first action. Sent to hold the flank of the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division, disintegrating under Chinese onslaught at the end of November 1950, the ferocity with which they employed their bayonets earned them global fame. At the same time, they took massive casualties, partly due to linguistic problems and poor liaison with American forces.
The French battalion proved a lynchpin at Chipyong-ni, a battle of encirclement in February 1951 that was widely considered the first UNC tactical victory against the onrushing Chinese.
At the heart of the greatest enemy offensive of the war in April 1951, stood the British 29th Brigade, which earned global attention for its tragic stand on the Imjin River. On the opposite end of the front, the Australian and Canadian battalions of 27th Commonwealth Brigade won plaudits for their masterly defensive battle at Kapyong during the same Chinese offensive.
The fighting quality of the Commonwealth Division would be evident in the key ground they were assigned to once the war entered its static stage: Flanking the U.S. Marine division, generally considered the best of the U.S. ground units, along the Samichon Valley, at the northern end of the so-called “Uijongbu Corridor” the traditional invasion route to Seoul.
The Belgians were noted for their enthusiastic professionalism, and the Greeks for their excellence in mountain warfare.
What compelled such a disparate group of nations to fight for a country that very few of their citizens had even heard of before 25 June 1950?
Although the ostensible causus belli was the defense of South Korea, Rhee Syngman’s government – a regime of questionable democratic credentials, and one which operated, in the view of many UNC men, with comparable brutality to Kim Il-sung’s – hardly made a compelling case for intervention.
There were, instead, three main reasons. National desires to win the goodwill of Washington; national suspicions of militant communism; and a more general desire to support the efforts of the then-fledgling, but promising, U.N.
For the U.K., which fielded the second-largest contingent, it was a fight to stem global communism, but the country was also under pressure to maintain its “special relationship” with the U.S. France, heavily engaged in Indochina, needed to earn American goodwill for aid in that struggle. It is fair to say that all the northern European contingents felt a debt of honor toward the U.S. after World War II, and the Greeks had even more recent reasons to thank the U.S. for its assistance in winning the Greek Civil War.
Two units that UNC officers were careful not to deploy alongside one another were the traditional enemies of southern Europe, the Greeks and the Turks. Ankara was keen to cement ties with Washington, in order to gain membership in NATO; ironically, Athens shared the same motive.
After the armistice was signed in July 1953, this international legion, a force as polyglot as any since the Crusades, dispersed. Australian and British veterans headed for a less intense anti-communist struggle in the jungles of Malaya, but for one contingent, the end of the Korean War spelled disaster. The French battalion was assigned to Indochina, where Paris’ position was deteriorating. The much-admired battalion was wiped out by Viet Minh forces in 1954.
Some who fought under the U.N. banner in Korea were disappointed at the organization’s less effectual role thereafter. The original U.N. resolutions that had underwritten the UNC’s existence had been made possible by the absence of the USSR’s envoy to the body, Josef Malik, who was boycotting the body in summer of 1950 (due to the U.N.’s refusal to grant a seat to communist China).
Once Moscow rejoined the world body and Cold War politics began affecting its operation, it became difficult to employ U.N. forces on anything other than “peacekeeping” missions — many of questionable effectiveness. It would not be until the end of the Cold War, and the U.N. intervention in the Gulf War of 1991, that the U.N. would again field a military force with real teeth.
Sixty years later, the leading nation in the UNC, the United States, is still South Korea’s most important political ally, but it is fair to say that the trade and commercial links forged between Seoul and other UNC capitals have fallen in importance since the end of the Cold War. Then-enemy China, for example, has replaced the United States as Korea’s top trade partner.
Still, emotional ties endure: South Korea and Turkey, for example, displayed a mutual affection during their World Cup semifinal match in 2002 that was born in the war years and after, when Turkish troops founded the “Ankara” orphanage.
The peninsula had seen international contingents fighting on its soil before. Kublai Khan’s multi-ethnic legions used Korea as a staging area for their doomed invasions of Japan in the 13th century, and Japanese, Manchu, White Russian, Chinese and Soviet troops would all leave blood on Korean soil in succeeding centuries.
But the UNC troops of 1950 made up of the most cosmopolitan army the peninsula had ever hosted; their ethnic and national diversity would not be witnessed again in Korea until the 1988 Summer Olympics. For modern Korea, the internationalization of its fight for survival in late 1950 was the first, if unacknowledged, step in a process that few South Koreans would start talking about until the early 1990s: Globalization.
A Frenchman became the first limbless person to swim the Channel on Saturday night.
Philippe Croizon, 42, set off from Folkestone, Kent, at around 6am expecting to reach France within 24 hours but managed to complete the feat in just 13-and-a-half hours.
He was forced to have his arms and legs amputated after he suffered an electric shock while removing a television aerial from a roof 16 years ago.
He only taught himself to swim in the last two years and does so using prosthetic legs and a snorkel and mask.
Earlier his spokeswoman said he was swimming faster than expected after completing his first 12 miles in just eight hours.
After completing the 21-mile challenge, Mr Croizon told the BBC that at no point did he feel he was not going to make it, despite pains and aches all over his body.
His father said his son had been helped by favourable wind conditions and had even had three dolphins swimming alongside at one point, which was a “sign of good luck”.
The amputee trained for 35 hours a week for the past two years and his endeavour attracted letters of support from President Sarkozy and other politicians.
(Reuters) – Former premier Tony Blair has postponed a party at the Tate Modern art gallery celebrating the launch of his autobiography because of threats from protesters, his office said on Wednesday.
Anti-war demonstrators had planned to disrupt the reception on Wednesday evening and a group of celebrated artists including Tracey Emin and Vivienne Westwood had called on the gallery to cancel the “disgraceful” event.
Blair has also been forced to cancel a signing session for “A Journey” at a bookstore in central London.
“It has been postponed for the same reason as the book signing,” a spokesman for Blair said.
“We don’t want to put our guests through the unpleasant consequences of the actions of demonstrators.”
At the weekend, protestors hurled eggs and shoes at the former prime minister during a promotional event in Dublin.
Blair, prime minister for Labour between 1997 and 2007, led Britain into wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In particular, the occupation of Iraq by Western coalition forces was widely opposed and contributed to a dive in Blair’s popularity.
Emin, Westwood and musician Brian Eno, were among figures from the arts world who wrote a letter to the Guardian newspaper on Wednesday to voice their concern about the Tate Modern event.
“It is disgraceful that the Tate is being used for this purpose,” they said.
(Reporting by Matt Falloon; Editing by Steve Addison)
An MP has held talks with a Turkish diplomat in an attempt to get justice for two Leeds United fans who were murdered in the country 10 years ago.
Chris Loftus, 35, and Kevin Speight, 40, were killed in Istanbul on the eve of Leeds’ Uefa Cup semi-final against Galatasaray on 5 April 2000.
Four men were convicted of involvement in the murders but were bailed pending an appeal which has still to be heard.
Leeds MP Fabian Hamilton* said his talk with the Turkish ambassador went well.
He said: “I was impressed at how articulate he was and how concerned he was that this particular case is a running sore in Anglo-Turkish relations.
“It’s something that he wants to see put to bed, not just for the sake of the relationship between our two countries but he was very concerned and expressed a lot of concern about the families of the victims.”
Wreaths laid
Mr Hamilton hopes Turkey’s aspiration to join the European Union could be used as leverageto get progress in the long-delayed case.
He said the recently-appointed ambassador said the Turkish government could not directly interfere in judicial proceedings.
“But I pointed out to him that Turkey is an aspiring member of the European Union and we do want Turkey to join the European Union, all political parties here in great Britain are in favour,” he said.
“But this issue has to be resolved because it’s symptomatic of a judicial system that is not working fairly and transparently.”
Mr Hamilton has campaigned for justice alongside the men’s families.
In April about 300 fans joined them to mark the 10th anniversary of the deaths by laying wreaths at Leeds United’s Elland Road ground.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-11220754, 7 September 2010
* “New Jewish ministers and the Miliband rivalry” by Jessica Elgot, The Jewish Chronicle, May 14, 2010
An anti-war campaigner has attempted to make a citizen’s arrest on former prime minister Tony Blair over alleged war crimes.
Activist Kate O’Sullivan managed to get through tight security to confront Mr Blair as he held a book signing in Dublin.
The 24-year-old from Cork claims to have queued for 90 minutes and went through airport style security – handing in all her belongings and going through a metal detector – before she attempted to arrest Mr Blair.
She says the former Prime was blasé about her accusations: “He didn’t say anything, He just signed the book, he looked down and then looked at security.”
Ms O’Sullivan, a member of the Irish Palestine Solidarity Movement, was detained for almost half an hour before she was cautioned by gardai.
Earlier, shoes and eggs had been pelted at Mr Blair as he arrived at the bookshop on O’Connell Street in Dublin city centre.
ITN
A website offered reward For Tony Blair’s Arrest earlier this year
UK, Wednesday January 27, 2010
Website Offers Reward For Tony Blair’s Arrest
A website offering a reward to people who try to arrest former Prime Minister Tony Blair for alleged “crimes against peace” has raised over £9,000 in just two days.
The website, called Arrest Blair, was launched on January 25 – just four days before he was due to give evidence to the Chilcott inquiry into the Iraq war.
It was created by writer George Monbiot, an environmental and political activist who has a weekly column in The Guardian newspaper.
Launching the website, he wrote: “We must show that we have not, as Blair requested, ‘moved on’ from Iraq, that we are not prepared to allow his crime to remain unpunished.”
The website stipulates the citizen’s arrest must be peaceful and that anyone attempting it will be paid a quarter of the money donated – currently just over £9,200.
It also states there must be no injuries to Mr Blair or those around him and that the incident must be reported in “at least one mainstream media outlet in a bulletin, programme or article”.
Anyone claiming the reward must also prove they are the person featured in the report and come forward within 28 days of the attempt.
For people who have not carried out a citizens arrest in the past, the website offers advice on how to go about it, including handling police.
They are recommended to approach Mr Blair “calmly”, and “in a gentle fashion to lay a hand on his shoulder or elbow, in such a way that he cannot have any cause to complain of being hurt”
They are urged to loudly announce: “Mr Blair, this is a citizens’ arrest for a crime against peace, namely your decision to launch an unprovoked war against Iraq.
“I am inviting you to accompany me to a police station to answer the charge.”
Mr Monbiot, 47, said although any arrests would be “largely symbolic” they would nonetheless have “great political resonance”.
He added: “There must be no hiding place for those who have committed crimes against peace. No civilised country can allow mass murderers to move on.”
