Although the strategic aims were well served by the initial plans, the terrible loss of life at Cape Helles was due to a commitment to landing on beaches which were clearly too narrow and commanded on both sides by easily fortified positions. The mistake of landing at Anzac Cove was costly, as after the initial failure to exploit early gains the positions became untenable. The vexed question of water supply was not clearly addressed and became a major issue, as was the provision of rest camps which were not overlooked by the Turkish artillery. Both of these the Turkish forces had in abundance.
The most important conclusion is a question as to why a landing at Suvla Bay had not been adequately explored, given the suitability of its landing beaches, the trafficability of the wide Suvla Plain, and the suitability of the plain in the provision of groundwater supplies. Naval opposition seems the most likely explanation. If the belated and ill-starred landing of August 1915 had been subject to better leadership, this could have changed the face of the war altogether; commanding the Dardanelles, supporting the Navy and knocking Turkey out of the war much sooner than 1918. Clearly no military campaign can hope to succeed with an inadequate understanding of the terrain to be fought over.
Notes
1. Ekins, Ashley, in Celik, Kenan and Cok, Ceyhan (eds), The Gallipoli Campaign, International Perspectives 85 Years on, Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, p. 7.
2. Aspinall-Oglander, Brig.-Gen. C F, History of the Great War, Military Operations, Gallipoli, Vol. I, London: Heinemann, 1929.
3. Pressey, H A S, ‘Notes on Trench War’, Royal Engineers Journal, 29, pp. 297–315.
4. Kenan Celik, noted Turkish historian of the campaign, disputes that machine guns were used by the Turks, but contemporary British accounts are firm on this, noting the presence of machine-gun belts.
5. Anon [GLC], ‘Engineers at Gallipoli, 1915’, Royal Engineers Journal, 111, pp. 31–9.
6. Ibid.
7. Barton, Peter; Doyle, Peter and Vandewalle, Johan, Beneath Flanders Fields. The Tunnellers’ War 1914–1918, Staplehurst: Spellmount, 2004.
8. Grant Grieve, W and Newman, B, Tunnellers, London: Herbert Jenkins, 1936; Murray, Joseph, Gallipoli As I Saw It, London: William Kimber, 1965; Anon [GLC], op. cit.
9. Observations underground by Peter Doyle in the Anzac sector, 2002.
10. Beeby-Thompson, A, Emergency water supplies for military, agricultural and colonial purposes, London: Crosby Lockwood & Son, 1924.
11. Ibid.
12. Pritchard, Maj.-Gen. H L, History of the Corps of Royal Engineers, Vol. VI, Chatham, Institution of Royal Engineers, 1952.
13. Ibid; Anon [GLC], op. cit.
14. Fergusson, Thomas G, British Military Intelligence 1870–1914. The Development of a Modern Intelligence Organization, London: Arms & Armour Press, 1984.
15. Chasseaud, Peter, ‘Mapping for D-Day: The Allied Landings in Normandy, 6 June 1944’, The Cartographic Journal, London, 38(2), 2001, pp. 177–89.
16. Clough, Brig. A B (comp), The Second World War 1939–1945, Army Maps and Survey, London: War Office, 1952, p. 376. Copy in BL Map Library.
17. Fryer, Brig. R E, Survey Notes on Operation ‘Husky’, 22 Feb to 10 Jul 1943, 1 August 1943, Survey Directorate GHQ Middle East Force, M.D.R. Misc. 6520, Reproduced by 512 Fd Survey Coy, R.E., August 1943. Copy in DGIA, Defence Geographic Centre Library.
18. Clough, op. cit., p. 462. Maps provided for the Dieppe raid are also covered in The Dieppe Raid Combined Report (the basis for ‘Battle Report 1886’, sometimes referred to as CB 04244), p. 9, Combined Operations Headquarters, Directorate papers, TNA(PRO) DEFE 2/551. See also ‘Confidential Book 04157F’ with which was issued a series of standard and overprinted maps, town plans, defence traces, photographs and mosaics of the operational area.
19. Report of Beach Intelligence Work for Operation Anvil (1945). Mapping Section, Intelligence Division, by the Beach Intelligence Sub-Section, Mapping Section, Office of the Chief Engineer, ETOUSA, printed by US 656 Engr Topo Bn (Army) 5675 ETO, 8/4/45.
20. Notes on GSGS Maps of France, Belgium & Holland, Directorate of Military Survey, War Office, London, December 1943. Copy in BL Map Library.
21. Chasseaud, op. cit.
22. Clough, op. cit., pp. 562–4.
23. Ibid, pp. 603–4.
24. Collier, Richard, D-Day, June 6, 1944. The Normandy Landings, London: Cassell, 1999, p. 92.
25. Clough, op. cit., pp. 388–90, 398.
26. Chasseaud, op. cit.
Appendix I
Extracts from: Military Report on Eastern Turkey in Europe. 1905. Confidential. Prepared by the General Staff, War Office. A 1027. I 38535. 150.-11/05. Fk. 728. E.& S. A2. Small 8vo. Hard buff covers. [Chapter VI (pp.53–72) is on The Gallipoli Peninsula.] Copy at TNA(PRO) FO 881/8589.
[The Preface, written by Colonel ‘Wully’ R Robertson for the Director of Military Operations, to the 1905 Report on Eastern Turkey in Europe stated that: ‘This Report has been prepared by Lieut.-Colonel G F Milne, DSO, General Staff. With the exception of Chapters I and VI, the information given has been entirely taken from valuable reports furnished by Lieut.-Colonel F. R. Maunsell, C M G, R A, Military Attaché at Constantinople. In the preparation of Chapter VI [Gallipoli Peninsula and Dardanelles Defences] use has been made of Admiralty Publications….’ This was a reference to successive NID Reports, of which an updated version (NID 838) would appear in 1908.]
Chapter VI [dealing with the Gallipoli Peninsula and the Dardanelles Defences, included several pages (53–57) by Maunsell on the topography and on possible landing places. Significantly, he did not consider Cape Helles as a possible landing place. He distinguished between principal and minor landing places]:
General Description
The Gallipoli Peninsula, from Bulair to Cape Helles, has a length of 47 miles and a breadth varying from 14 miles at the widest part to 6,000 yards at a point 1½ miles south-west of the village of Bulair. From here it gradually spreads out, and at the northern extremity, where it joins the continent, attains a breadth of 10 miles.
Owing to its geographical position along one side of the Straits of the Dardanelles this Peninsula has great strategical importance, as its occupation would command the entrance to the Sea of Marmara.
Across the narrow neck of land which connects it with the mainland lies the defensive position of the Bulair lines. The earthworks, thrown up by the French and English troops in 1855, are still traceable, and have been strengthened by some modern works.
A spur of the Tekfur Dagh, 900 feet high, crosses this neck, and falls rapidly towards the Bulair position, in front of which is a small valley scarcely above the level of the sea. Near the village of Bulair commence the rounded slopes of the position, on a prominent crest of which are the old lines stretching from shore to shore.
West of the lines, the hills rise steeply; the principal range (1,400 feet) follows the northern shore, falling almost perpendicularly into the sea.
Rough spurs are thrown out towards the southern shore, the steep slopes of which, covered with brushwood, overlook the straits, from the western extremity of the Narrows at Chanak.
The high ground continues to Cape Helles. The ridges are difficult to traverse, and the only roads are rough cart-tracks. One valley, the Kurtumus Dere, breaks through the northern line of hills, and enters the sea at the little bay of Ejelmar, or Arapos Mermedia.
A succession of small valleys, draining into the straits, cuts across the Peninsula at right angles.
Near Gallipoli are the valleys of the Aiwali Su and other small streams, which drain the rounded cultivated spurs behind the town and in rear of the Bulair lines. The Kaya Su crosses the Peninsula from the rough country round Shaitankeui. Its valley is narrow, with steep sides at its lower end, and the stream enters the sea by a flat marshy delta near Galata Burnu.
Between it and the Karakova Dere, a valley commencing about Taifur and Bergas, are some rough hills forming the Karaman Dagh and rising to 1,050 feet.
Th
e Ilgar and the Ak Bashi, valleys separated by spurs, also traverse the Peninsula above the Narrows.
From the Kilid Bahr promontory, overlooking the Narrows of Chanak, on which most of the European batteries of the Dardanelles defences are situated, the ground rises very steeply, and a high ridge with a scarped summit, rising above Maidos Valley, crosses to the Aegean coast.
The population of the Peninsula consists of Turks and Greeks, the latter predominating.
Towns and Villages
Gallipoli
Gallipoli, a place of 15,000 inhabitants, Turks, Greeks, and Jews, is the capital of a sanjak under Adrianople, and the seat of the mutesarrif. It is without defences, but contains an old citadel used as government offices. The town is built on a flat-topped promontory, rocky to seaward, with an open cultivated plateau to the north.
A bay, with a sandy beach, lies to the north-east of the town, along which runs the Bulair road.
The barracks, which can contain one battalion, are on the south-west side of the bay, adjoining the Bulair road. In the town are other small barracks.
The port is on the south side, and is of ancient construction, once defended by walls, with a narrow entrance into an outer basin, 60 yards by 100 yards; under an arch is an inner basin 80 yards square. The approaches to the quay are fairly easy, but very crowded. The port is 6 foot to 8 foot deep, and is used by small sailing craft and lighters. A Turkish torpedo-boat is usually stationed here.
One good street, passing through the commercial part of the town near the port, circles round the promontory about 100 yards from the shore, and then joins the Bulair road.
West of the town are some small valleys from the north, with fruit orchards, vineyards, and cultivation.
There is usually a small private stock of coal for the use of steamers, also about 11 lighters and 90 small sailing craft in the port.
Several steamship lines touch here.
Maidos
Maidos (Aji Abad in Turkish) is a small town of 900 houses, or about 5,000 inhabitants, all Greeks, in a bay behind the Kilid Bahr promontory. It is the seat of the kaimakam of the small kaza comprising the lower half of the Peninsula.
Small villages
Around Maidos the villages are mostly Turkish.
Kilid Bahr, consisting of 230 houses, and Sedd-ul-Bahr, of 90 houses, are both situated on the straits; Boyuk and Kuchuk Anafarta, overlooking the bay of that name, contain 100 houses each, Ilgar Keui and Turshen Keui have 50, Sivli about 35.
In the northern portion of the Peninsula the villages contain more Greek inhabitants; Bergas has 80 houses and Galata 100, while Bulair and Ekshemil are large villages of about 300 houses each. A cart track over bare cultivated country runs from Maidos to Sedd-ul-Bahr.
Resources
Most of the cultivated portion of the peninsula produces corn but cotton is also grown. Timber is scarce but about 12 miles below Gallipoli, at Ungardere and Yalova, are small fir woods. Water is generally plentiful in the valleys.
Communications
The roads are nothing but cart-tracks which, in the northern part of the peninsula and in the low ground, become in winter almost impassable owing to the mud. A telegraph line runs the whole length of the Peninsula, there being four wires between Bulair and Gallipoli and two between Gallipoli and Kilid Bahr.
In addition to the track from Maidos to Sedd-ul-Bahr via Krithia, there is also a track passable for wheels from Kilid Bahr, in rear of Yildiz Tabia and along the west heights to Sedd-ul-Bahr. From Gallipoli to Maidos Bairkeui is a fairly good road passable by native carts.
There is also a route from Gallipoli via Bergas, Taifur, Karnabi, and Uzun Dere to Maidos, which forms the shortest route, and is in good order during dry weather.
From Karnabi down to Ejelmar Bay the road is passable for wheels over flat country. From Gallipoli cart tracks run to Sheitan Keui and Yenikeui.
Landing-places
Owing to the steep nature of the country on the northern shore of the Peninsula, there are only a few small bays where a landing could be attempted.
The principal landing-places are –
(a) Baklar Bay, at the neck of the Peninsula and outside the Bulair Lines;
(b) South of Anafarta or Suvla Bay, and immediately north-west of Kilid Bahr near Gaba Tepe [Brighton Beach – Anzac].
(c) Port Baklar is said to afford a good landing-place, which, however, would be under fire from the main position and heights near Bulair village. The port itself is full of extensive shoals, the whole shore being skirted here and there by rocks. The actual landing-places are somewhat limited, and consist of about 2,000 yards of coast available near the tile factory and another strip of 500 yards about 1½ miles further east. Easy cart tracks lead up to Bulair village, where they join the chaussée.
(d) This landing-place lies between Gaba Tepe and Suvla Bay on the west of the Peninsula opposite Maidos. The coast is low and affords easy access to the interior for an extent of nearly 2 miles. It is protected from the north-easterly winds but exposed to the westerly. From a landing on the open beach south of Gaba Tepe, an advance could be made directly on the ridge above Kilid Bahr, whence the principal defences would be commanded from the rear. At about 1 mile inland a tolerably good road leads to Kuchuk Anafarta and Maidos, whence a good road leads to Gallipoli. In winter all these tracks become very difficult on account of mud.
The country inland is open with very few trees, gently undulating and mostly under cultivation of cereals; it is unenclosed, and the only obstacles to a march are the channels cut in the sandy soil by mountain streams. The chief of these, the Asmak Dere, has a channel 8 to 10 feet in depth and from 20 to 30 feet wide, but the very soft nature of the sandy soil renders the cutting of ramps easy and the streams themselves are unimportant as obstacles. The roads are merely cart tracks. The Gaba Tepe–Eski Keui road, after crossing the Kalkmes Dagh, advances through a fertile, fruit-producing valley direct on Maidos, but this road is impracticable for artillery on the south side of the Kalkmes ridge, owing to the steepness of the gradients, the shortness of the zigzags and the bad condition of the road, which is paved in parts with ill-laid boulders.
In addition to the above main landing-places there are three minor ones, viz:-
(1) Suvla Bay, which offers fair landing, but the Lagoon renders access inland difficult and limited.
(2) Mermedia or Ejelmer Bay, about 6 miles north of Cape Suvla, which has about 1,200 yards of beach available for landing, is small but well sheltered, and leads into easy country in the Kurtumus Dere from which good tracks lead to Maidos.
(3) On the coast south of Baklar Burnu, or Cape Xeros, where there is a cove admirably suited for landing troops. A strip of only 500 to 600 yards of beach is available, and it is 800 to 1,000 yards from the end of the Bulair Lines to the north.
At the time of the Greek War some small earthworks were thrown up overlooking Anafarta and Ejelmar Bays, but the guns have been withdrawn and the works no longer maintained.
In the strait itself the ground rises very steeply along the shore from near Sedd-ul-Bahr to Kilid Bahr, and no landing could be effected, except for small boats just inside Sedd-ul-Bahr itself.
From Kilid Bahr to Maidos, inside the Narrows, the shore is mostly low-lying, backed by steep hills, and landings could be made at several points, also in the head of Kilia Bay and in front of Boghali Kale.
Thence to Gallipoli small landing places could be found on shingly beach at the mouths of the small valleys, but otherwise the coast is very steep.
[The rest of the chapter is on the Dardanelles coast defences, and is similar to material in NID publications. Three maps were included with the Report, in a pocket at the back:]
Sketch Map of Eastern Turkey in Europe [TSGS 2007, 1:800,000, Confidential; Defences (including those of Dardanelles) in red]
Survey of Defensive Positions near Bulair [TSGS 2052, 1:15,840, Corrected June 1905]
Sketch Map of Fortress of Adrianople [TSGS 2079, 1:40,000, by Ca
pt. Townshend, British Consul, Adrianople]
Appendix II
Summary of relevant contents of: Naval Intelligence Department: N.I.D. 838, Turkey. Coast Defences and Resources; Coast Defence Ordnance and Arsenals, May 1908.
[A copy of the text of NID 838, Turkey. Coast Defences, &c., Parts I, II and III, is in The National Archives at TNA(PRO) ADM 231/49, but the maps, charts, plates etc., although listed in the contents, are lacking. NID 838 superseded NID 458, December 1896 and NID 458a, June 1901, an indication of the length of time the Naval Intelligence Department had been gathering detailed intelligence on the Dardanelles, and other Turkish defences.]
Outline of Contents, & Maps, Plans and Charts:
1. Turkey in Europe, Asia and Africa, including Red Sea, showing Defended Areas, Submarine Cables, Railways, etc.
2. Defences of Prevesa, Saloniki, Smyrna, Tripoli, and Ras Sheikh Syed.
3. Dardanelles [Sea] Defences [1907], including Besika Bay and Tenedos. [Later corrected in red to 1914].
3A. Gallipoli Peninsula, showing defences of Dardanelles [Military Map – GSGS 2285 1-inch in 2 sheets, secret edition].
4. Outline Map of Dardanelles, Defences (area of fire, etc.).
5. Bosphorus Defences.
6. Black Sea Defences.
Part I, covering the Coast Defences and Resources of Turkey in Europe, Asia and Africa, took up 90 pages. Part II, covering the Coast Defences and Resources of the Dardanelles, Sea of Marmara, Constantinople, The Bosphorus, the Land Defences of Constantinople, and the Black Sea, was 169 pages, and included a description of the Gallipoli Peninsula, its land defences, and the Bulair Lines. It was supported by 7 maps, plans and charts, of which 4 covered the Dardanelles, and 82 plates (maps, plans and photographs), of which 46 were of the Dardanelles. Appendix I to Part II covered the History of Submarine Defences in the Dardanelles and Bosphorus up to 1896. Part III covering Coast Defence Ordnance and Arsenals, was shorter than the first two Parts.
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