Shrapnel Valley Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery

Infobox Military Cemetery
name= Shrapnel Valley
body= Commonwealth War Graves Commission


use_dates= April 1915-January 1916
established=1915
designer=
coordinates=
nearest_town=Gallipoli, Turkey
total= 683
unknown=85
by_country=Allied Powers:
*Australian: 527
*New Zealand: 56
*British: 28
by_war=
World War I: 683
source= [http://www.anzacsite.gov.au/2visiting/cemeteries/shrapnel.html Visit Gallipoli - Australian Government website]

Shrapnel Valley Cemetery is a cemetery from World War I and is the second largest Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery in the former Anzac sector of the Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey, after Lone Pine Cemetery. The battles at Gallipoli, some of whose participating soldiers are buried at this cemetery, was an eight month campaign fought by Commonwealth and French forces against Ottoman Empire forces in an attempt to force the Ottoman Empire out of the war, which it was hoped would relieve the deadlock of the Western Front and to open a supply route between Russia and the Mediterranean through the Dardanelles and the Black Sea.

Following the landing at Anzac Cove in April 1915, Shrapnel Valley (or Shrapnel Gully) became the main route for Allied troops and supplies between the beach and the frontline in the Anzac sector. Falling shrapnel made a distinctive whistling before striking the area. cite web | url = http://www.anzacsite.gov.au/2visiting/walk_05shrapnel.html | title = Shrapnel Valley | work = Visit Gallipoli (Australian Government website) | accessdate = 2008-04-10] It was during the battles in the early days of the campaign that the name for the gully was coined. cite web | url = http://www.anzacsite.gov.au/2visiting/walk_05shrapnel.html | title = Shrapnel Valley | work = Visit Gallipoli (Australian Government website) | accessdate = 2008-04-10] Later, several wells were dug in the valley and camps and gun emplacements constructed in the lower end.

On the night of 18 to 19 May 1915, the 5th Light Horse Regiment from Queensland began an offensive through the valley.

The cemetery is a trapezoidal shaped area larger than an average city block. It was in use during the campaign, and some additional graves were moved from outlying sites into it after the war.

Major Quinn buried at Shrapnel Valley

. Ironically, Major Quinn is not buried in the cemetery which bears his name. [cite web | url = http://www.diggerhistory2.info/graveyards/pages/anzac/anzac19-shrapnel.htm | title = Shrapnel Valley Cemetery, Anzac, Gallipoli | work = Digger History | accessdate = 2008-04-10] Captain Quinn was in command of C company, 15th Battalion of the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF), and detailed on 29 April 1915 to hold the precarious position which had been established a few days before. He was promoted to major on 1 May but was shot on 29 May whilst reconnoitring in daylight for a counter-attack to expel Turkish troops from positions nearby seized during an assault on the post. [cite web | url =http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A110329b.htm | title = Quinn, Hugh (1888 - 1915) Biographical Entry | work = Australian Dictionary of Biography Online| accessdate = 2008-04-10]

Location

The Anzac cemeteries are reached from the left hand junction of the Eceabat - Bigali Road. After 10.1 km from the junction, there is a right turn along a short track to find the cemetery on the left. cite web | url = http://www.cwgc.org/search/cemetery_details.aspx?cemetery=68703&mode=1 | title = Shrapnel Valley Cemetery | work = CWGC | accessdate = 2008-04-10]

External links

* [http://anzac.govt.nz/gallipoliguide/image-pages/shrapnel-valley.html Photograph of cemetery ]

* [http://www.diggerhistory2.info/graveyards/pages/anzac/0-anzac.htm Map of Gallipoli and location of cemetery]

References

Notes