WW1 NZ POW Card to Turkey

[Michael Dobbs]

I have received the following enquiry:

[color=maroon]I bought these covers in a three cover lot from an obscure auction house in Germany. I was elated to find them but now I have a slight concern about the third piece, a card sent to a NZ POW in Turkey. I think this one is OK but can you confirm that the London postmark is a correct type for Sept. 1918? Please see attachment.[/color]

Thanks, Mike  :)

[Chris Grimshaw]

Hi Mike

I have another very similar card, will check details tonight and report back.

Chris

[Michael Dobbs]

Thanks Chris, much appreciated.

Mike

[Chris Grimshaw]

Morning Mike

Have done some research on this card, 

He was reported wounded and taken prisoner 19/11/17 Report below doesn't name the wounded trooper but sure this is A J Curry

Internet search shows the following

River Auja[
Battle of Jaffa (1917)
The next day, 15 November, the Turkish force had completely withdrawn. The brigade continued the advance north, stopping just beyond Richon-le-Zion. The next day, at 09:30, patrols from the regiment entered the port of Jaffa. The town's only inhabitants were the civilian population, the Turkish troops having evacuated the town beforehand. At 11:00 the regiment's commander, Whyte, took formal possession of the Government buildings, posting guards at the German and Austrian Consulates and the post office.[122][123]

The Wellington regiment captures Jaffa; 16 November 1917.
Two days later, on 18 November, the regiment moved into a line of observation posts along the River Auja. The next day a troop from [b][b]the 2nd Squadron were sent to locate crossing points across the river. They located a dam and a bridge to the north-east. Dismounting and approaching on foot, they had one man wounded, who was later taken prisoner.[/b[/b]] The following day the regiment was relieved by the other rest of the brigade, and moved to the rear, returning to the front line on 21 November.

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Details of Bilemedik Carp where he was held.

The German Philipp Holzmann company was responsible for the construction on the Taurus-section, part of the Berlin-Baghdad railroad project, some 70 kilometres north of Adana. The most difficult phase of the project was crossing the Belemedik plateau in the Taurus Mountains. To accommodate all necessary personnel, approx. in 1907 a shanty town was built by the Germans (Holzmann company) at Karapınar railway stop (later called Belemedik) in Pozantı district.

Between 1907 and 1914 estimated 3,500 Germans, Austrians and Swiss railway company employees where living here in total. They were engineers, technicians and railway workers, often with their families. For the Turks in the vicinity, the shanty town was considered the "German city". It was designed to meet all the needs of the company's employees. A hospital was built to the state of the art of those days (employing German doctors and nurses), a German church, a mosque, a German school for the children of the employees, a cinema, waterpipe/drainage system, big stone houses, etc. and even a brothel (about 1 km outside of the city). Belemedik was also one of the first cities in the Ottoman Empire that enjoyed 24h electricity thanks to a power station,

Starting as a village, Belemedik gained the appearance of a regular provincial town. Next to the multi-national European employees and engineers, a number of Turkish people were attracted to settle here as well as traders and workers. Holzmann had also employed many Greeks and Armenians workers and officials. During the war, the Ottoman government provided Turkish prisoners and Turks unfit for the war including Armenian and Greek labour battalions. Hence, there was also a detachment of Turkish soldiers in the small city. In Spring 1916, approx. 30,000 men were working for the railway company between Pozanti until Ras El Ain. Only 400 French, British and Australians (POWs captured in Gallipoli) were working along the railway until June 1916. It is estimated that out of these 30,000 some 5,500 men were working in the Amanus section and about the same number in the Taurus railway section. The works did not only meant working on the railway and tunnels but also road-construction thru the mountains, both in Taurus and Amanus, and in the area between both mountain ranges (Adana and Incirlik), hence the huge number of workers with their families.
In June 1916, many Armenians working for the railway company were brought to the Syrian desert and partly substituted in July 1916 by British, Australian, New Zealander, Indian and Nepali POWs. Later, Russians and Italian POWs were added. I have placed at the end of this caption more information regarding the POWs.

The railway station Karapınar was opened in 1912. Even by then, the site was called Belemedik. According to one source the name Belemedik is the corrupt form of the Turkish word Bilemedik meaning 'We couldn't guess'. During the railway construction, each tunnel was bored by two teams working at the opposite sides of the tunnel. The teams were required to meet at the mid point. When for any reason, one team failed to accomplish the task, the excuse was the word bilemedik and in German pronunciation it became belemedik. Belemedik was the end of the railway until the completition of the Giaudere (Varda)-viaduct at Hacıkırı in September 1918, the connection to Adana (Durak) was openend in early October 1918 finishing the railway works just before the end of the war. The section is using 37 tunnels with a cumulative length 14.4 km).

Work on the railway was long and hard. In the eight years of construction in the area 41 German citizens people lost their lives (accidents, slides and diseases). In 2005, the German Honorary Consul Dr. Teyfik Kısacık bought land and with the help of German company Praktiker (Metro AG) as well as locals opened in September 30, 2005 a new 'German cemetery'. However, the Germans (and other Christian employees of the railway company) were buried in the 'Christian cemetery' along with Christian POWs. There existed no 'German cemetery'. It is not clear if the 'modern' cemetery is located on the same ground as the old one. It is also doubtful, if there are any tombs/graves at all in this ground. It is possible that this is merely a memorial ground. The memorial plate which was erected was brought from Hacıkırı (those dead were brought to the German central cemetery in Tarabya, Istanbul) and has nothing to do with the Germans in Belemedik.

The Belemedik station was closed at the end of the First World War. After WW I, Belemedik was occupied by the French army, with its headquarters in Pozantı. The French occupying force used Belemedik as a site for a military hospital in which the commander's wife Mme. Mesnil was working as a nurse. Turkish Nationalists (also called Kemalist) captured Belemedik on 10 April 1920. On 28 May the rest of the French troops also surrendered during the battle of Karboğazı. During the rest of the independence war, the hospital in Belemedik was used by the Turkish Nationalists. In the turmoil which followed, the area was widely abandoned and almost forgotten. Until Atatürk was able to establish the modern Turkey, it was said that bandits were living in the remains of the houses and later locals from the region used Belemedik houses as source for cheap construction material. As result, almost nothing of the "German town" has remained (btw., Holzmann went bankrupt in 2002). Still existing are the fundaments of the generator, the chimney of the German hospital and a few stone houses which were storage houses of the railway company in different conditions (either ruins or to house animals). Today, there is merely a small hamlet left with friendly and helpful inhabitants.

Allied POWs
From 1916 on, an unknown number of Allied POWs were based here to support the on-going construction works. The POWs were under the administration of the Turkish army but the army was neither prepared nor able to accommodate and feed the foreign POWs once the huge numbers of British and Indian POWs from Kut arrived at Amanus mountains. In fact, the Turkish army had massive problems to feed and equip their own men. The army was more than willing to provide these POWs as workforce to the railway company which from then on had the responsibility of providing food and shelter to these POWs. However, the company was neither prepared for the thousands of additional men (plus Armenian refugees). This was a great challenge for the railway company to establish stocks necessary and it took approx. a half year until the situation became stable.

POWs were accommodated by the railway company in wooden shanty houses or tents. Stone houses were not common in that region in those days and those existing belonged to the railway company or villagers. The wooden shanty houses have vanished, nothing can be found today. The stone ruins you can see today belonged to the railway and were administration or storage buildings. POWs were not living in these.www.awm.gov.au/collection/H19397/

The great mass of British and Indian POWs had arrived in Amanus and Taurus in June 1916 after a long march thru the desert from Kut. Due to their bad physical condition, many of British were brought soon into the interior of Asia Minor without having forced to work on the railway project at all. For those British POWs from Kut who seemed in better conditions, the railway company wanted them to work and these were forced to work. The result of the work of these men was disappointing for the company and it asked the Turkish army to take them back. In September 1916, approx. 1000 POWs were moved from Amanus area to the interior. The army was marching these men all the way to Adana and from here over the Taurus mountains to Pozanti. Approx. 260 men suffered massively during the march and were brought to Tarsus and Adana hospitals. Half of them died in consequence. Those who had made it to Pozanti where brought to the new established POW-camps in the interior. Those of the men who recovered were brought to work in Taurus mountains.
In contrast to the British, most Indian and Nepali POWs had better overcome the hardship and soon, most of them had to work (mostly Ras El Ain, 4200 men and Amanus, 2700 men). It can be estimated that in November 1916 some 350 British and 800 Indian POWs were working in the Taurus section. Next to them were approx. 500 Russians.
The first figures of British and Indian (including Nepali) POWs were provided by Turkish authorities in January 1917 (probably showing the figures of December 1916). They justify the estimation of white British/Australian/NZ-POWs in the Taurus section: 283 British and 728 Indian POWs. By December 1916, 32 British, Australian and NZ POWs had died (283 + 32 = 315; of these 32, 14 had died in Hacikiri, 7 in Pozanti and 1 in Budjak.), plus some men which were moved to the interior, we can estimate some 330-350 British working in the Taurus section and probably some 800 Indians and Nepalis.
Soon after the winter 1916/1917, the number of POWs was reduced and many British POWs were moved into the interior while Indians had to work in Ras El Ain.

The number of French, Italian and Russian POWs who died in Belemedik is unknown. However, 17 white British/Australian/NZ-soldiers died in Belemedik and were buried along with Russians, French, Italians, Germans and Austrians in the local Christian cemetery. www.awm.gov.au/collection/P01645.002
Very few of them died due to accidents but mostly due to diseases like Malaria and Typhus. With the arrival of the men from Kut, supply became inadequate and POWs along with Turkish soldiers were suffering. According to the Swiss engineer Morf (head of the Amanus section), the Malaria epidemic in summer was unexceptionally hard as Indian POWs had brought Malaria Tropica to the Amanus and Taurus sections. According to him, Malaria Tropica was previously unknown in the Taurus mountains.
Especially in the Amanus section, many of the sick and exhausted British POWs who had arrived from Kut soon succumbed their sufferings. Out of the 558 British POWs who had died in the Amanus area, 327 men died from June to August 1916 respective 462 men from June to December 1916 which includes the dead due to Malaria and other epidemics of Summer/Autumn 1916. The new arrivals from Kut were soon moved into the interior, also because there were no facilities to take care of these sick men. By December 1916, only 62 white British POWs had remained in the Amanus section while 2628 Indians and Nepalis were working here. Estimated 150-200 British had to work in total in Amanus section. The Indians were working better in the heat than their British comrades. Especially in Ras El Ain, over 4,000 Indians had to work with almost no white British POW.
As a summary evaluating the contribution of the POWs to the construction of the Baghdad railway, the British POWs had a maximum of 500-600 men at its peak working all along from Taurus to Ras El Ain. Working meant tunnel works, laying tracks but often loading and de-loading wagons. Others had to join road-construction teams. By the end of 1916, less than 500 British POWs were working and their forced contribution was accordingly small. Simply by their huge numbers, the Indians had a much bigger effect on the works. However, combining all Allied POWs in Taurus, estimated 1,700 men, and in Amanus approx. 4,500 men, their forced labour helped to speed up the finishing of the project. Their total number was nevertheless small in comparison to the thousands of Turks, Greeks and for a limited time also Armenians (Turkish authorities estimated that the railway company gave shelter, food and compensation to some 15,000 Armenians. Grigoris Balakian praised the company for this in his diaries) who were working here for many years.
Those tombs/remains of POWs were transferred to Baghdad North cemetery. Indian and Nepali soldiers were not registered in the same way as white British soldiers, often dead Indians were burnt to ashes according to their religion and have never been found. It is therefore not clear, how many Indian and Nepali had died and where.

To be continued.

Chris
 

[Chris Grimshaw]

Part Two

Camp view hopefully attached. Image 1

ICRC records show the following telegram, Image 2

To be continued

Chris

[Chris Grimshaw]

Image 1  Hopefully...

[Chris Grimshaw]

The card I have (ex Gary Diffin collection) is cancelled the same 7;15 pm 10 SP 18 LONDON PAID in Red

Addressed to a 17479 Trooper A J Burke Auckland Mounted Rifles. A BOZANTI TURQUIE

Details on reverse exactly the same as the Curry card.

These "Parcel Advise" cards were I believe sent out in bulk advising of the dispatch of a parcel to each man.  Unlike the "Parcel Acknowledgement" cards we see returned which would be included in parcels.

At this late stage of the War I wonder if these cards and parcels ever got there. There are No transit or Censor markings shown.

I believe the route was via Geneva but how they got there in mid September 1918 is unclear.

Repatriation of POWs had commenced from Bulgaria by mid September and possibly this was a scheme to ensure every man had kit etc prior to release.

A cracker of a card which I'd like to illustrate in my ongoing series of articles on POW mails if possible.

Do we know if the other two cards referred to are also POW related.

Chris