[Book] [2011.10.08] The battle of Gallipoli: A terrible beginning 加里波利之战
[color=#ff0000][b][url=http://www.ecolion.cn/thread-59083-1-1.html]http://www.ecolion.cn/thread-59083-1-1.html[/url][/b][/color][color=#ff0000][b]The battle of Gallipoli
加里波利之战
[/b][/color][b][size=4]A terrible beginning
一个糟糕的开端[/size]
Unplanned and unfocused
规划外的与未注意的
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[color=silver]Oct 8th 2011 | from the print edition [/color]
[b]Gallipoli 《加里波利》[/b]
By Peter Hart. Oxford University Press; 560 pages; $34.95. Profile; £25. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk
HERE is a marvellous, ghastly book. The story is well known. In the spring of 1915 an Allied expedition comprising troops from Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland and India attempted to capture the Gallipoli peninsula. The objective was to gain control of the Dardanelles Strait, and then to press on and take Constantinople. The operation was supposed to remove Turkey from the first world war at a stroke. But the result was a bitterly contested stand-off that lasted for eight months. The Allied forces were evacuated at the end of 1915, after both sides had suffered appalling hardships and losses.
这是一本可怕而令人震惊的书。它所讲述的故事家喻户晓。在1915年春，由英国、法国、澳大利亚、新西兰、纽芬兰以及印度组成的同盟远征军试图争夺加里波利半岛。行动目的是获得达达尼尔海峡的控制权，继而督促获取君士坦丁堡。这一行动意在将土耳其从一战之中一举移除。然而结果却是持续八个月的艰难制衡。1915年末，在作战双方都经历了可怕的困苦与损失后，盟军的部队最终撤离。
The Gallipoli campaign, Peter Hart argues, was doomed from the start. Planning was a matter of wishful thinking, if not outright fantasy. No serious attempt was made to understand the strength of the Turkish army, the nature of the terrain or the numbers of Allied troops. Nor could anyone conceive of logistical support required to make a success of the operation. “Thanks to political interference, lethally combined with the bullish optimism of generals who saw only opportunities, the Gallipoli campaign was launched into a void that guaranteed failure.” The Western Front was the place where the war would be won; Gallipoli was merely “a futile and costly sideshow”, exacerbated by “lunatic persistence in the face of the obvious”.
彼得•哈特称，加里波利战役从一开始就已注定了这样的结局。规划事关寄予希望的想法，而不是完全的幻想。没人尝试严肃地了解土耳其部队的实力、地形的自然环境或是盟军部队的数量。也没人考虑成功操作这一计划所需的物资保障。“由于那些只看得见机会的将军们的过分乐观的政治干扰，加里波利战役的发动就保证了最终的失败。”西线是战争本有可能取胜的突破点；加里波利只是一个“用处不大却代价惨重的穿插表演”，而“在显而易见的事实前的疯狂偏执”使情况变得更糟。
What makes Mr Hart’s version so bracing is his method. He is a specialist in oral history at London’s Imperial War Museum, and this book, like others he has written or co-written, gains richness and texture from the use of first-hand testimony. A kaleidoscope of impressions and perceptions tumble before the mind’s eye, constantly shifting from the general to the particular, the political to the personal. A Turkish soldier describes a scene, and his account is immediately followed by that of a British or Australian soldier describing the same event. This helps make the overall picture far more vivid and compelling. The diversity of voices also captures something of the immediacy, terror and illogic of war, although the book is neither confusing nor chaotic.
令哈特的版本如此振奋人心的原因在于他的思路。他是伦敦皇家战争博物馆里的一位口头历史专家，而他的这本书通过第一手证词获取了丰富的材料，同他之前写下或与人合著的那些一样。就像一个万花筒，它映出理智之眼前滚动的印象与认知，不断地从一般推衍至特殊，从政治到个人。一个土耳其士兵详述了一个场景，而他的理由立即被一个讲述相同场景的英国或澳大利亚士兵印证。这使得全部场景更加生动翔实而引人注目。而叙述中的多样性则铸就了战争那直接、恐惧且不合逻辑的一面，尽管这本书既不混乱也非无序。
Three testimonials stand out. There is a brief sketch by Lieutenant Norman King-Wilson of the operating room aboard HMHS Caledonia, “a veritable stinking, bloody shambles, where patients were brought up on a stretcher and left waiting for their predecessor to be taken down, then rapidly chloroformed, placed on the table, a leg or arm whipped off in a couple of minutes, by a circular incision, one sweep of the knife and the bone sawed through, the limb thrown into a basket with many others, awaiting incineration.” Then there is the damning summation of General Sir Charles Monro, sent in late to assess the Allies’ prospects: “The positions occupied by our troops presented a military situation unique in history… The force, in short, held a line possessing every possible military defect.”
有三段感言颇为突出。加勒多尼亚号上手术室里的诺曼•金-威尔逊中士所做的简短梗概描述，“在一个名副其实地恶臭血腥的废墟中，伤员们被放在担架上等待他们的前任来卸下，迅速被氯仿麻醉后被放置在桌子上，一条腿或胳膊在几分钟内通过环切被移除，猛拉一下刀再用骨锯穿透，它便被扔进一个装有另一些断肢的篮子中一起等待被焚化。”之后是查尔斯•孟鲁将军那受诅咒的合计，他后来被派来评估盟军的前景时称:“由我们的部队所占领的阵地呈现了历史上独一无二的军事情形……总而言之，我们的军队所处的前线有着每个可能的军事缺陷。”
Lastly there are the words of Kemal Ataturk, first president of modern Turkey and previously, as Lieutenant Colonel Mustafa Kemal, chief architect of the Allies’ torment at Gallipoli. In 1934 he unveiled a memorial dedicated to “Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives” at Anzac Cove. The inscription reads: “You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore, rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours. You, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.”
最后是出自现代土耳其第一任总统凯末尔•阿塔图尔克的话，他是当时的陆军中校穆斯塔法•凯末尔——加里波利战役中折磨盟军的主设计师。在1934年他揭幕了一座纪念碑用以纪念在安扎克湾区的“那些抛头颅洒热血的英雄们”。碑铭如下：“你们现在长眠于一个友好国度的大地之下。因此，愿你们安息。对于一同安眠在我们的国度的人，这里不存在种族和国籍上的区别。那些将自己的孩子送往他国战场的母亲们，请你们拭去泪水；你们的孩子现在长眠于我们的怀抱之中。在这块土地上失去了他们的生命之后，他们也成为了我们的孩子。”
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