Quinn's Post Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery from World War I in the former Anzac sector of the Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey. The battles at Gallipoli, some of whose participating soldiers are buried at this cemetery, were an eight-month campaign fought by Commonwealth and French forces against Turkish forces in an attempt to force Turkey out of the war, to relieve the deadlock of the Western Front (France/Belgium) and to open a supply route to Russia through the Dardanelles and the Black Sea.
Quinn's post was established on the day of the landing, 25 April 1915, as a New Zealand machine gun position and was taken over by Australian troops the following day. It was held by a variety of units until the evacuation of the Anzac sector and was the site of continual attacks and hand-to-hand fighting as Turkish troops defending the peninsula strove to recapture it. Fighting was intense, with heavy casualties on both sides, as it was a key position at the end of the Anzac line. It was overlooked by Turkish positions on three sides, and subjected to incessant sniper activity, and to grenade bombardment from Turkish positions only 15 metres away. The Turkish name for the position was Bomba Sirt (bomb ridge). Periscopes were used to survey the surrounding area, although they were prone to being damaged by rifle fire, and periscope rifles eventually allowed accurate fire to be directed towards the Turkish trenches. Wire nets were erected in front of the trenches to stop grenades. In his official history, the Australian historian, Charles Bean described the holding of the post as amongst the finest achievements of the Australian force.
It was named after Major Hugh Quinn, the 27-year old commander of C Company, 15th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force. His detachment of 226 men took over the position from troops of the 14 Battalion on 29 April. Quinn was killed there on 29 May whilst reconnoitring for an attack to recapture trenches seized by the Turks earlier in the day and is buried in Shrapnel Valley Cemetery.
The cemetery was established after the war by moving 225 isolated graves into it, along with the 73 burials in Pope's Hill Cemetery and another six graves found together nearby. 105 Australian and 10 New Zealand graves belong to identified soldiers, and memorials record the names of 64 other soldiers thought to be buried in the cemetery.
Famous quotes containing the words quinn, post, commonwealth, war, graves, commission and/or cemetery:
“In Europe an actor is an artist. In Hollywood, if he isn’t working, he’s a bum.”
—Anthony Quinn (b. 1915)
“My business is stanching blood and feeding fainting men; my post the open field between the bullet and the hospital. I sometimes discuss the application of a compress or a wisp of hay under a broken limb, but not the bearing and merits of a political movement. I make gruel—not speeches; I write letters home for wounded soldiers, not political addresses.”
—Clara Barton (1821–1912)
“While the Governor, and the Mayor, and countless officers of the Commonwealth are at large, the champions of liberty are imprisoned.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In peacetime, they had all been normal decent, cowards, frightened of their wives, trembling before their bosses, terrified at the passing of the years, but war had made them gallant. They had been greedy men. Now they were self-sacrificing. They had been selfish. Now they were generous. War isn’t hell at all. It’s man at his best, the highest morality he is capable of.”
—Paddy Chayefsky (1923–1981)
““Are you cold too, poor Pleiads,
This frosty night?”
“Yes, and so are the Hyads:
See us cuddle and hug,” says the Pleiads,
“All six in a ring: it keeps us warm:
We huddle together like birds in a storm:”
—Robert Graves (1895–1985)
“A sense of humour keen enough to show a man his own absurdities as well as those of other people will keep a man from the commission of all sins, or nearly all, save those that are worth committing.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)
“I am a cemetery abhorred by the moon.”
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)