From Asia Minor to Lemnos and to the battlefields of Gallipoli - More Photos

Unknown collection, State Library of Victoria

It is many years ago that I discovered the archival photograph above in the collections of the State Library of Victoria. The collection is unnamed, the donor and author of the photographs are not recorded. This is very sad, as this photograph is quite important and relatively unique. For as its the hand-written notation benath the photograph in its album states, it depicts "Greek recruits for French Foreign Legion, training on Lemnos."

The photograph led my on a journey to discover who these Greek volunteers were and where they had come from. My researches revealed that the were part of a unit of over 1,100 volunteers from the Greek settlements of Asia Minor, who came to the Allies - most probably making their way to the advanced base of the Gallipoli campaign on Lemnos via the other nearby Islands. They were commanded by the Greek military veteran Pantelis Karasevdas. French military records reveal that some 440 of their number served with distinction on the terrible front at the southern-end of the Gallipoli peninsula at Helles. This French sector was named the "valley of death." No doubt a number of these brave volunteers are buried with their French comrades in the French cemetery at Helles.

French war cemetery, Helles. Photo Jim Claven 2013

Their presence on Lemnos was noted by the Australians based there in the days prior to the landings. One Australian soldier – Corporal Hedley Kitchin of the 6th Battalion – wrote in his diary on Thursday 15 April of the presence on the island of “a Greek branch of the Foreign Legion of Frontiersmen.” By July, the Greek volunteers were at Gallipoli.

After some months on the French sector at Helles, the Greek volunteers in the French Foreign Legion were removed and sent to serve on the Salonika Front.
From my research I was able to put together a short article for Neos Kosmos, telling the story of these Greek volunteers. You can read this article by clicking here.

I have since located a number of other photographs held in both French and British archives which clearly depict these same volunteers - on Lemnos and at Gallipoli. They are clearly identifiable by their uniforms, particularly their fur pill-box headgear, jackets and some wearing traditional Greek footwear (tsarouchia). Some of these images are reproduced below:

Soldiers, Mudros, Lemnos, 1915-16. French National Archives

Soldiers, Mudros, Lemnos, 1915-16. French National Archives

Both photographs above depict the same group of soldiers - Greek volunteers in the French Foreign Legion - along with either French or British sailors (more than likely the former). They are standing on the shore, south of Mudros town, near where the French camp was established on the Island during the Gallipoli campaign.

"Turkish prisoners, captured during the Gallipoli campaign on the march with a French Zouave escort. Sedd el Bahr village and French Camps are seen in the background." [incorrect location].
Lemnos, 1915. Photo Lieutenant Ernest Brooks. IMW (London).

"Turkish prisoners, captured during the Gallipoli campaign, being marched into Sedd el Bahr with French Zouave escort." [incorrect]. Lemnos, 1915. Photo Lieutenant Ernest Brooks.. IWM (London)

Both of the photographs above depict the same Greek volunteers, this time escorting Turkish prisoners. The photographs incorrectly record the location as on the Gallipoli Peninsula. The image of the very large and distinctive Greek Orthodox church at Mudros is clearly visible in the first photograph. They Greek volunteers are marching the Turkish prisoners from the piers at Mudros to POW compounds located in the direction of the French camp on Lemnos. What is particularly interesting is the close up of the soldiers in the second photograph, clearly showing the tsarouchia of the Greek soldier in the middle.

"An ANZAC road-making party, and a number of men of several units with a fatigue party of Turkish men, and French soldiers further back. In the background is the Old Castle at Sedd el Bahr." Gallipoli, 1915. Photo Lieutenant Ernest Brooks.. IWM (London)

The photograph above depicts one of the Greek volunteers standing in the middle at the rear. This was taken after their arrival on the Helles front of the Gallipoli Peninsula.

Taken together these photographs - from Melbourne, Paris and London - depict possibly the only photographs of these brave Greek volunteers during the Gallipoli campaign. It would be amazing to locate more images and maybe more accounts of these volunteers.

A Volunteer from Krithia

It was my pleasure to attend the recent annual dinner dance of the Krithian Association of Australia. This thriving community comprises descendents of the original inhabitants of the Greek village of Krithia on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Force to leave their ancestral homeland by the Ottoman and then Turkish authorities, their ancestors made their way to Greece and then some of their descendants came to Australia.

Amazingly the researches of Ms Kris Stamboulidis has identified one of these Greek volunteers - Ioannis Yiannelos. A resident of the village of Krithia, he had escaped conscription into the Ottoman labour camps and joined the Greek volunteers in the French Foreign Legion. He trained on Lemnos - and maybe is captured in some of these photographs - and served on the Helles front, taking part in all three bloody battles the Allies launched to capture his home village, Krithia. He survived Gallipoli and was evacuated with the rest of the unit to the Salonika Front.

The ill-fated and bloody battles fought at Krithia resulted in many Allied casualties, including many from the Australian units who took part. One of these killed was Fitzroy-born trade union official William Davis, who as an officer, rose and led his 6th Battalion men across the killing fields in front of the village in early May 1915. I was led to the story of William Davis by our Committee member, Malcolm McDonald, who had featured William in his history of his union. You can read my story about William Davis by clicking here.

Village of Krithia today. Photo Jim Claven 2015

Not long ago, during one of my visits to the Gallipoli Peninsula, I visited the modern day village of Krithia, now re-named Alҫitepe, and thought about the former Greek villagers of the village, of the Greek volunteers who served with the Allies and the soldiers like William Davis who gave their lives in vain to capture the village.

I look forward to the results of Ms Kris Stamboulidis research, capturing some of the stories of the Greek volunteers in the French Foreign Legion, some of whom no doubt came from her ancestral village of Krithia.

Jim Claven
Secretary, Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee