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Private Patrick Joseph Norman
served with the 8th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. He
gave his life on August 7 1915 at Gallipoli. He is buried in Turkey
at the Helles Memorial Cemetery. He is commemorated on one of the
panels of the Helles Memorial. The Helles Memorial stands on the tip
of the Gallipoli Peninsula. It takes the form of an obelisk over 30
metres high that can be seen by ships passing through the
Dardanelles. (see photo below)
The eight month
campaign in Gallipoli was fought by Commonwealth and French forces
in an attempt to force Turkey out of the war, to relieve the
deadlock of the Western Front in France and Belgium, and to open a
supply route to Russia through the Dardanelles and the Black Sea.
The Allies landed on the peninsula on 25-26 April 1915; the 29th
Division at Cape Helles in the south and the Australian and New
Zealand Corps north of Gaba Tepe on the west coast, an area soon
known as Anzac. On 6 August, further landings were made at Suvla,
just north of Anzac, and the climax of the campaign came in early
August when simultaneous assaults were launched on all three fronts.
However, the difficult terrain and stiff Turkish resistance soon led
to the stalemate of trench warfare. From the end of August, no
further serious action was fought and the lines remained unchanged.
The peninsula was successfully evacuated in December and early
January 1916. The Helles Memorial serves the dual function of
Commonwealth battle memorial for the whole Gallipoli campaign and
place of commemoration for many of those Commonwealth servicemen who
died there and have no known grave. The United Kingdom and Indian
forces named on the memorial died in operations throughout the
peninsula, the Australians at Helles. There are also panels for
those who died or were buried at sea in Gallipoli waters. The
memorial bears more than 21,000 names. |
