Anzac Wrecks Gallipoli Peninsula and Sea of Marmara

In October 2017 IANTD members visited the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey to visit the wrecks at Anzac including German wrecks in the Dardanelles channel. Land based monuments to honor the memory of those who served .One of the wrecks pictured was a small barge used to ferry donkeys and small Artillery pieces to the troops .Lone pine is also pictured with another depicting the Turkish guns at the Fort in Canakkale on the European Side of the Dardanelles . Six years later in late 2023 IANTD Divers were back. With the help of the Turkish Ministry of Tourism permits were obtained to Dive Australia’s AE2, scuttled in the Sea of Marmara at a Depth of 72 meters in 1915 . In conjunction with the Turkish heritage unit led by IANTD Instructors Chris Edwards and Mark Ryan the AE2 was dived in October 2023. It is of note that the Australia’s AE2 was the FIRST to make a breakthrough to the Sea of Marmara on what is now ANZAC Day. On the morning of 25th of April 1915 as Australian and New Zealand troops landed at Gallipoli the AE2 crept into the Dardanelles. Under Captain Henry Stoker during its famous April 1915 voyage through the Dardanelles into the Sea of Marmara, the submarine disrupted Ottoman supply lines, created a vital psychological diversion during the Gallipoli landings, and fired torpedoes at Turkish vessels ,including damaging the gunboat Peyk-i-Şevket , but it failed to score any confirmed sinking’s . The dives on the AE2 were remarkable as only a very few Australians have dived this piece of Australian History.