VCs of the First World War Gallipoli

by Stephen Snelling

  An attempt to reach the head of Turkey Trench via a newly dug sap ended in failure. But O’Sullivan, desperately pressed, refused to budge from his toe-hold and plans were made for a fresh attack by the South Wales Borderers to relieve pressure. Postponed until 3.30 a.m., by which time 30 yds of Turkey Trench had been won and lost again, the attack was stopped in no-man’s-land. Shortly afterwards, Brig. Gen. W.R. Marshall (GOC, 87th Brigade) took personal command and, after talking with officers on the spot, ordered a further assault to be carried out by a combined force of Borderers and Inniskillings. Once again, O’Sullivan led the way. The Inniskillings’ war diary states:

  4.30 a.m. Capt O’Sullivan with bomb party of about 6 men together with SWB bomb party drove enemy down Turkish sap. Enemy then endeavoured to evacuate sap by retiring across the open, but were shot down by rapid fire from A and B Coys. Remainder of enemy in Turkish Sap (13) taken prisoners.

  As might be suspected, it was not quite as simple as that. According to Lt. Col. H.G. Casson (CO 2nd South Wales Borderers) the first bomb and bayonet attack was defeated, and it was only a renewed effort in the grey light of dawn which finally shattered Turkish resistance. Even then, the battle raged for another five hours. By 5.15 a.m. 30 yds had been recaptured, and by 10.00 a.m. the head of Turkey Trench was at last reached.

  The cost of holding the 70-yd-long trench was 175 dead, wounded and missing among the two British battalions. Turkish casualties were even higher. A total of 91 bodies were counted within ten yards of Turkey Trench. Many more could be vaguely seen, if not accurately computed, lying out in the open. Col. Casson estimated the Turkish dead at over 200. As the full story of the confused fight was pieced together, the prominent role played by Gerald O’Sullivan emerged as the most gallant and influential. In the words of the 87th Brigade’s war diarist, the Irish captain had ‘behaved magnificently throughout’. The result was a recommendation for the award of a Victoria Cross.

  Gerald Robert O’Sullivan was born at Frankfield, near Douglas, County Cork, on 8 November 1888, the son of Lt. Col. George Lidwell O’Sullivan and his wife Charlotte (née Hiddingh). His father had served in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and his mother was of South African descent.

  ‘Jerry’ O’Sullivan spent much of his boyhood in Dublin. Intended for a naval career, he was privately educated at Greenwich (1901–03), Wimbledon College (1904–06) and Southsea (1906). A headstrong boy, he insisted on joining the school’s Army department. The matter was only resolved by the intervention of the college rector, who declared ‘he was a boy, and not an Army student’.

  In the under-stated language of a college account, the young O’Sullivan was a ‘somewhat controversial character’. According to school records,

  his daring, but rash characteristics, which were only too evident when he was playing football also accompanied him during his study, for as an Army student [he had finally achieved his ambition in 1904], he distinguished himself by quarrelling with A.H. Mankelow [later to become Captain Mankelow MC] in the laboratory, and fighting him there and then.

  Leaving school in June 1906, O’Sullivan pursued his military ambitions. He attended RMC Sandhurst, and was commissioned into the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers on 9 May 1909. He joined the 2nd Battalion in Dublin, and later that year embarked for Tientsin, China. O’Sullivan spent the next three years in China, turbulent years which included the revolution of 1911, before being transferred with his battalion to Secunderabad, in Central India.

  Brought back to England shortly after the outbreak of war in August 1914, the 1st Inniskillings helped form the 29th Division, destined for operations in the Dardanelles. O’Sullivan was serving as a company commander when his battalion landed at X Beach on 25 April 1915. He came through the early fighting unscathed, and with his reputation greatly enhanced. After the action of 18 June in which O’Sullivan had distinguished himself, the Inniskillings played a key role in the Battle of Gully Ravine. In one of the campaign’s most spectacular advances, they achieved all their objectives on 28 June, capturing and consolidating two trenches, J10 and J11, on the western edge of the ravine.

  The next day the battalion took over a vital trench known as J11a which ran parallel to the coast, linking the Indian Brigade in the advanced J12 trenchline with the main British position on Gully Spur. Lt. Col. E.J. Buckley, in temporary command of the Inniskillings, was ordered to hold J11a ‘at all costs’. To strengthen the position he ordered a new trench be dug, connecting J12 from near the Western Birdcage, a wired barricade about 180 yds west of the ravine, to Border Trench, north of J11. Working parties began constructing what later became known as ‘Inniskilling Inch’ under cover of darkness on 30 June. It proved a dangerous as well as arduous task. Mistaken for Turks, they came under fire from the men manning J12. Fortunately, there were no casualties and the following evening, after a quiet day in the coastal sector, the men of B Company continued the work. At first all went well. When Col. Buckley toured the position at 8.00 p.m. everything appeared peaceful. At 9.30 p.m., however, events took a dramatic turn for the worse. Col. Buckley later reported:

  A wounded officer came in to Battalion headquarters and stated that the Turks were attacking in force – that B Company was cut up and that the assaulting party were moving in the direction of Border Trench.

  I telephoned immediately to OC Borders and to Bde headquarters; to the latter I stated that for the moment the situation was not at all clear and that I was counter-attacking to clear it up. (The officer who had brought in the information was very young and excited and all I could be sure about was that B Company had been suddenly attacked.) I asked at the same time that the Bde Reserve Coy should be put at my disposal.

  I sent forward Capt O’Sullivan’s Company, supported by 1⁄2 company of Capt Edden’s Company, with instructions to disengage B Company, of which a few wounded men had now returned, and to inform me of the situation.

  I at the same time moved a Company into an old Turkish Fort which was just East of, and about the centre of, J11a (my first line) and directed the Bde Reserve Company to rendezvous in J11a [sic].

  Capt O’Sullivan took his Company down J11a (which was held by 1⁄2 Company) with the intention of moving down J12 to the Birdcage where the left of B Company rested and then cover the retirement of what was left of that Company.

  Capt Edden moved his force in a direct line towards the Birdcage so as to be ready to support Capt O’Sullivan.

  On arriving at the junction of J11a and J12 Capt O’Sullivan found the situation changed as J12 was occupied by the Turks, who were in the act of driving out the Gurkhas [2/10th Gurkha Rifles]. He decided to carry out his original plan to move down J12 to relieve B Company and to attack the Turks in J12 and recapture the trench.

  He immediately attacked, leading the storming party. Accompanied by Cpl Somers, he advanced in the open along the parapet of the trench, bombing the interior as he regained it. The Turks bombed back and from where I was I could distinctly see the flashes of the Turkish bombs, generally two to Capt O’Sullivan’s one. We had only the jam-pot bomb … while the Turks had quite a useful bomb.

  Capt O’Sullivan cleared the trench as far as the Birdcage and, leaving a garrison in the trench, proceeded to disengage B Company, leaving Capt Edden to continue the attack on the Turks.

  The bitter fighting in the J12 trench bore a striking similarity to the battle waged for Turkey Trench two weeks before. Twice O’Sullivan’s men drove the Turks out of the Gurkhas’ position only to be ejected. But at the third attempt they succeeded in hanging on. By then O’Sullivan had been compelled to relinquish command due to a serious bullet wound in the leg.

  Throughout the night action, O’Sullivan’s boldest ally had been a junior NCO, Cpl. James Somers, a 21-year-old Irishman from County Cavan. It was later said of him that his unerring accuracy as a bombthrower owed much to his prowess as a cricketer. Somers later told how he had remained at an angle in the trench and was determined to ‘hold his end up’. Arme
d with a healthy supply of bombs, he was able to stop each successive rush made by the Turks. In a letter to his father, he stated:

  I beat the Turks out of our trench single-handed and had four awful hours at night. The Turks swarmed in from all roads, but I gave them a rough time of it, still holding the trench … It is certain sure we are beating the Turks all right. In the trench I came out of, it was shocking to see the dead. They lay, about 3,000 Turks, in front of our trench, and the smell was absolutely chronic. You know when the sun has been shining on those bodies for three or four days it makes a horrible smell; a person would not mind if it was possible to bury them. But no, you dare not put your nose outside the trench, and if you did, you would be a dead man …

  Subsequently, in a newspaper interview Somers estimated that he had personally accounted for at least eighty Turks, killed or wounded. The account, published in The Times, described the continuation of the battle for J12, presumably after O’Sullivan’s departure. It stated:

  Just before dawn he [Somers] stole away, and brought up a bombing party he had charge of, and all next day he and his men fought on sharing the zig-zag trench with the enemy. He had one narrow escape on the morning of July 2nd – a splinter struck him across the spine, but he held his men together and rained the bombs until he fell from loss of blood and fatigue in the afternoon. By that time, however, the trench had been captured. The Turks retreated crying ‘Allah! Allah!’ and ‘we gave them La! La!’, said Somers with great glee.

  In fact, the result was a good deal less conclusive. O’Sullivan’s courageous counter-attack had indeed regained the lost position, but the success was short-lived. Following O’Sullivan’s serious leg wound, command of the Inniskillings had devolved upon Capt. Edden. In his report on the action, Col. Buckley explained the confusion which marred their triumph:

  Capt Edden pressed his attack and cleared the trench as far as the Nullah and for about 100 yards up the Nullah towards J13. He sent a runner to inform me of the position and to ask for instructions but most unfortunately the runner lost his way and did not arrive till after daylight.

  At dawn, Capt Edden was personally at the spot where J12 joins the Nullah and he then signalled with a large Turkish Artillery flag which he had found there, hoping that I would understand where he was and send him instructions.

  The signalling, however, only drew some Artillery fire – Capt Edden thought from our guns and in absence of instructions he considered he had no right to risk his small party further, his original orders having been carried out, and withdrew without being in any way pressed across the open to Battalion headquarters. I had seen the signalling but as I had no idea that Capt Edden had got to the Nullah, I thought it was an act of bravado on the part of the Turks. Had the position been realised it would have given us the Nullah …

  Instead, they fell back to the old barricade in J12, leaving the deserted stretch of trench joining the nullah for the Turks to reoccupy shortly afterwards.

  The fight cost the Inniskillings six men dead and thirty-seven wounded. Despite the action’s unsatisfactory conclusion, senior commanders were impressed by the tenacity displayed by the Irishmen. At 9.00 a.m. on 2 July Col. Buckley received a telegram from Maj.-Gen. de Lisle (GOC 29th Division) which simply stated: ‘Well done Inniskillings’. Three hours later the remnants of Captain O’Sullivan’s gallant company were finally relieved. ‘That day’, Col. Buckley later recounted, ‘I promoted Corpl Somers to Sergeant on the field and recommended him and Capt O’Sullivan for the VC and Capt Edden for the DSO’.

  Although there were other awards for gallantry displayed during the fight, a DSO for Capt. Edden was not among them. The 29-year-old commander of D Company was later killed in action on 21 August. His only reward for his Gallipoli services was a posthumous mention in dispatches, announced on 5 November.

  Shortly after the action, O’Sullivan and the newly promoted Somers were evacuated to Egypt. Somers was admitted to a hospital in Cairo on 18 July, and later sent to England to recuperate from the effects of the injuries to his back caused by bomb splinters. O’Sullivan remained in Egypt where he made a rapid recovery. A fellow patient later recorded:

  Gerald arrived in my hospital ward at 19 General Hospital one evening, I think about 12th July but I am not certain of the date. He had a bullet wound high up in his leg which had only just missed the femoral artery. He was soon able to get up and we used to go out a great deal together. With a certain amount of difficulty, owing to red tape regulations, we went to Mass together on the two or three Sundays we were together. He had a rosary he always carried on him and had on his chair by his bed, rather a large one, and I think he wore a medal around his neck.

  O’Sullivan reported back to his battalion on 11 August, having been away less than six weeks. His return coincided with the 29th Division’s move to Suvla Bay, in readiness for the big push aimed at regaining the initiative in the northern sector. As part of the general offensive planned to take place on 21 August, the sorely depleted Inniskillings were given the task of seizing Hill 70, otherwise known as Scimitar Hill. Two days before the attack, Maj. R.H. Scott, of the 6th Inniskillings, who were serving at Suvla Bay, paid a courtesy call on the 1st Battalion. He later recalled:

  Capt Pike in command (with two bullets in him that he would not wait to have taken out), and Capt O’Sullivan, who had just heard that he had got the VC [sic], were, with all the others, in the greatest form and ready for another go at Johnny Turk. It took me a long time finding where they were that day, but we spent much longer a few nights afterwards looking for Capts Pike and O’Sullivan out in front, and never found them.

  The disastrous battle of 21 August was the setting for the last glorious chapter in the short life of Gerald O’Sullivan; a desperate encounter crowned by a display of leadership destined to be immortalised by his regiment.

  On that day O’Sullivan led his company through a hurricane of fire onto the crest of Hill 70, only to be forced back by enfilading artillery fire. Some 400 yds beneath the hilltop he gathered together the survivors in a gully and urged them to make ‘one more charge for the honour of the Old Regiment’. The effect of his impassioned appeal was electrifying. According to the Inniskillings’ history, ‘every man who could responded, and a little band of fifty rushed against the crest. Of that band only one, a wounded sergeant, came back’. O’Sullivan’s fate was unclear for some time after the battle. Eventually, following enquiries among survivors, a soldier from C Company reported having seen him ‘shot and instantly killed’. The same man added that later ‘there was a retirement’ and he believed ‘the bodies were not recovered’. The Inniskillings’ new CO wrote to O’Sullivan’s mother:

  It seems tolerably certain that he was killed, and killed outright by being hit in the head as the assaulting line reached the furthest line of the enemy’s trenches on the 21st of August. He was seen to fall in the trench wounded, as was thought for some days, but a private who got back and says he was next to your son, is positive that he was killed outright.

  Seven days after O’Sullivan’s last charge, a train pulled into the small country town of Cloughjordan, in County Tipperary. The station was a sea of cheering people, and above the din a band welcomed home their conquering hero. News of Sgt Somers’ VC recommendation had leaked out, prompting a wave of premature celebrations in which the young NCO was showered with praise and gifts, including a cheque for fifty guineas. On 1 September the London Gazette announced what the citizens of Cloughjordan had taken for granted, that No. 10512, Sgt. James Somers had won the Victoria Cross. The citation stated:

  For most conspicuous bravery on the night of the 1st–2nd July, 1915, in the southern zone of the Gallipoli Peninsula, when, owing to hostile bombing, some of our troops had retired from a sap, Sergeant Somers remained alone on the spot until a party brought up bombs. He then climbed over into the Turkish trench, and bombed the Turks with great effect. Later on, he advanced into the open under very heavy fire, and held back the enemy by thro
wing bombs into their flank until a barricade had been established. During this period he frequently ran to and from our trenches to obtain fresh supplies of bombs. By his great gallantry and coolness Sergeant Somers was largely instrumental in effecting the recapture of a portion of our trench which had been lost.

  The same gazette carried the following citation for Capt. Gerald O’Sullivan’s VC:

  For most conspicuous bravery during operations south-west of Krithia, on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

  On the night of the 1st–2nd July, 1915, when it was essential that a portion of a trench which had been lost should be regained, Captain O’Sullivan, although not belonging to the troops at this point volunteered to lead a party of bomb throwers to effect the recapture.

  He advanced in the open under a very heavy fire, and in order to throw his bombs with greater effect, got up on the parapet, where he was completely exposed to the fire of the enemy occupying the trench. He was finally wounded, but not before his inspiring example had led on his party to make further efforts, which resulted in the recapture of the trench.

  On the night of 18th–19th June, 1915, Captain O’Sullivan saved a critical situation in the same locality by his great personal gallantry and good leading.

  O’Sullivan’s name is listed on the Helles memorial to the missing, and also appears on the war memorial in Dorchester. His mother was living at Rowan House, Dorchester, and his posthumous VC was sent to her on 26 September 1916.