PUBLISHED: 18.03.2021 07:12 UPDATED: 19.09.2022 09:26 READ: 1524 Captain Uluç Hanhan Columnist [email protected] Captain Uluç Hanhan Columnist [email protected] A CONTRIBUTION FROM THE IZMIR BAY TO THE MINES LAID BY NUSRAT My late father, Yüksel Hanhan, was a naval petty officer in the mine branch. Whenever the word "mine" comes up in a sentence, it catches my attention. How could it not? As a child, if you visit the mine depots of the Navy, it certainly draws you in. My father would often take us to his work during holidays and good weather, along with my brother Deniz. We would wander and play around the mine unit. Sometimes, if another personnel brought their child, our joy would be complete. The depots, bottom mines, moored mines, buoys, weights, moorings, workboats, rails, and the so-called "traks" (tugs) – there were so many things. On those hot summer days, we would sit against the shadowy wall of the mine depots and listen to the lullabies of the eucalyptus trees carried by the wind. My father, amidst his busy work, would not forget us, sending tea and toast through the soldier at the kiosk. Our picnic would continue like this. If the weather was good, we would swim and fish with our two-meter lines. However, my father had one rule: entering the mine depots was forbidden. Childhood is different; my brother and I were very curious about those depots. Okay, we wouldn’t go inside, but how about just peeking in from the door? One day, we decided to do what we had been thinking. Waiting for the right moment, we stretched our heads inside from the door of the depot. What did we see there? Rows of mines, but on the opposite wall, a huge inscription: “DON’T FORGET 18 MARCH!” At our young age, we began to research 18 March. We learned about our Nusrat Mine Ship. We got to know the heroic miners. We learned about our Atatürk and our heroic soldiers. A contribution to the story of the 26 mines that Nusrat laid and changed the course of history can also be found in my recently published book, "Wrecks of the Izmir Bay." There is a short excerpt from the guiding captain Ali Cömert’s quote from Rıza Lebip Asal. If you wish, let’s take a look there: “(...) From the mines dumped into the Black Sea by the Russians and collected by us, especially from the torpedoes (mines) of a French ship loaded with mines (Casabianca) sunk near Kösten (Uzunada) around that time, we were able to lay a couple of torpedoes in the Bosphorus.” The French mine ship named Casabianca mentioned in this sentence has been examined in the book, and it has been determined that this wreck was raised around 1965. Discussions regarding the raising of this wreck are also included in the relevant section. Local history is important, and it contributes to history in this way. We were taught that history is a static thing. Many people could not love history for this reason. However, if you first teach a child the history of the place they live, you see that history is not static but fluid. 18 MARCH is a great victory. It ensured the unification of the Turkish nation at the very beginning of the war, became the seed for the War of Independence our nation would undertake, increased our resilience, and revealed a military genius like Atatürk. May the souls of all our martyrs, especially our Atatürk, be blessed; we remember them all with gratitude, mercy, and respect. Uluç Hanhan [email protected] Please pay attention to the comment writing rules below when commenting or responding to a comment. Do not make comments that violate the laws of the Republic of Turkey, or that glorify crime or criminals. Do not include profanity, slang, insults, hate speech, or incitement to hatred.
Source: www.denizhaber.com