Gallipoli
Page 17
They let us off a lot, thank God, as they did not fire until the boats began to ground, and the rifles and machine guns poured into us as we got out of the boats and made for the sandy shore. There was tremendously strong barbed wire where my boat landed. Men were being hit in the boats and as they splashed ashore. I got up to my waist in water, tripped over a rock and went under, got up and made for the shore and lay down by the barbed wire.21
Captain Harold Clayton, 1st Lancashire Fusiliers, 86th Brigade, 29th Division
That gallant rush stumbling through the waves, hampered by the unseen obstacles, then up on to the beach was an ordeal by fire. Some, like Major Harold Shaw, were lucky.
As soon as I felt the boat touch, I dashed over the side into three feet of water and rushed for the barbed wire entanglement on the beach; it must have been only three feet high or so, and three bays, because I got over it amidst a perfect storm of lead and made for cover, sand dunes on the other side, and got good cover.22
Major Harold Shaw, 1st Lancashire Fusiliers, 86th Brigade, 29th Division
Most of his comrades found themselves trapped lying on the open sand in front of the wire.
As ordered the men ran up to the wire and lay down waiting for the wire cutters to get to work. Fatal to many was that order, for Maxims began to play on the serried ranks, an easy target. I shot a sniper who was picking people off from the cliff edge. It was a good shot and I saw him after we got up – hit in the mouth. Under cover of the cliff we started cleaning our rifles which were useless from sand and water and it would have amused you to see men cleaning their bolts with tooth brushes with hell’s tornado all around. 23
Major Richard Willis, 1st Lancashire Fusiliers, 86th Brigade, 29th Division
With respect to the Lancashire Fusiliers, who were lain out along an open beach exposed to coruscating fire, there were almost certainly no Turkish machine guns covering the landing at W Beach. Many historians have chosen to endorse the heated claims of the survivors, but the evidence is not convincing. The Turkish defences consisted of the 12th Company of the 3/26th Regiment which also had detachments on Hill 114 and Hill 138. This left around 100–150 Turkish riflemen ready, willing and more than able to pour concentrated well-drilled rapid fire on to the Lancashire Fusiliers huddled in their boats or lying along the beach, penned back by barbed wire. If there had been even one machine gun few of the Lancashire Fusiliers could have survived and men under concentrated machine gun fire do not usually have the time, inclination or ability to locate and dispose of an individual sniper as Major Willis did. That said, the lines of corpses left along the waterline illustrate all too clearly the terrible scale of the fire the Lancashire Fusiliers faced and there is no need to exaggerate their plight. The details of the story may differ but the outcome remained the same.
Several of my company were with me under the wire – one of my subalterns was killed next to me and also the wire-cutter who was lying the other side of me. I seized his cutter and cut a small lane myself through which a few of us broke and lined up under the only available cover procurable, a small sand ridge covered with bluffs of grass. I then ordered fire to be opened on the crests, but owing to submersion in the water and dragging rifles through the sand, the breech mechanism was clogged, thereby rendering the rifles ineffective.24
Major George Adams, 1st Lancashire Fusiliers, 86th Brigade, 29th Division
Many, like Captain Harold Clayton, despaired of their useless wire-cutters and simply crawled, rolled or squeezed their way through the wicked barbs that tore at their uniforms and flesh. Better that than lie out on the beach waiting for the bullets.
There was a man there before me shouting for wire-cutters. I got mine out, but could not make the slightest impression. The front of the wire by now was a thick mass of men, the majority of whom never moved again. The trenches on the right raked us and those above us raked our right, while trenches and machine guns fired straight down the valley. The noise was ghastly and the sights horrible. I eventually crawled through the wire with great difficulty, as my pack kept catching on the wire, and got under a small mound which actually gave us protection. The weight of our packs tired us, so that we could only gasp for breath.25
Captain Harold Clayton, 1st Lancashire Fusiliers, 86th Brigade, 29th Division
As they gathered behind the low sand dunes the Fusiliers looked around almost for the first time to try to find out what was happening. It was a terrifying scene of chaos.
On the right of me on the cliff was a line of Turks in a trench taking pot shots at us, ditto on the left. I looked back. There was one soldier between me and the wire, and a whole line in a row on the edge of the sands. The sea behind them was absolutely crimson, and you could hear the groans through the rattle of musketry. A few were firing. I signalled to them to advance. I shouted to the soldier behind to signal, but he shouted back, ‘I am shot through the chest!’ I then perceived they were all hit. I took a rifle from one of the men with me and started in at the men on the cliff on my right, but could only fire slowly, as I had to get the bolt open with my foot – it was clogged with sand. About this time Maunsell was shot dead next to me. Our men now began to scale the cliffs from the boats on the outer flanks.26
Major Harold Shaw, 1st Lancashire Fusiliers, 86th Brigade, 29th Division
It was a dreadful fight, but it was soon over. As Brigadier General Steuart Hare approached with his staff in the second wave, he managed to sum up the situation at a glance and ordered his boat to land just round the corner, to the west of the beach. The Turkish defences were so thin that they could not afford the men to cover this avenue of approach, offering Hare an obvious opportunity to outflank the troops in the trenches overlooking the beach itself.
We started scrambling up the cliff which was a steep earth slope with layers of rock here and there. It was not very steep but was difficult for a man in full kit to climb. There were no Turks on the front edge of the cliff so we were defiladed from the front, but were getting it pretty hot from the trenches on the east side of the mouth of the glen which formed the beach. When we got to the top we could see that the Lancashire Fusiliers were shoving on straight to their front up the glen but must have been losing frightfully from fire from the trenches on both sides. When we got to the top of the cliff we found an empty trench at the very edge. The occupants must have been shot out of it by the bombardment. We collected about a dozen Fusiliers there and an officer, about all who had reached the top, and sent them off to charge a trench which was only about 50 yards off, not facing us but flanking the glen leading up from the beach.27
Brigadier General Steuart Hare, Headquarters, 86th Brigade, 29th Division
Hare had reacted to the situation brilliantly. He had seized the moment and used his experience to make a real difference to the course of the battle. But then he got rather carried away and began acting like a junior officer pushing forward at the sharp end rather than as the brigadier general who was ultimately responsible for the whole of the covering force. His intentions seemed admirable but the result was sadly predictable.
I could hear no firing coming from X Beach and, concluding that the Royal Fusiliers had landed without opposition, I thought I would try and work round to meet them and bring them up to make a flank attack on the people who were opposing the Lancashire Fusiliers. The latter had made a certain amount of progress – it was wonderful that they made any – but I did not think they could possibly get far unsupported. I started with Frankland and two signallers and we were just above the top of the cliff not far from Cape Tekke when we found ourselves within about 100 yards of a trench full of Turks. We started to drop over the top of the cliff as they opened fire. I felt a tremendous blow on my calf and just got over the edge of the cliff when I sat down. Frankland and the signallers put on three field dressings without at all stopping the bleeding. If the Turks had had the enterprise to come out of their trench and look for us they could have bagged the lot.28
Brigadier General Steuart
Hare, Headquarters, 86th Brigade, 29th Division
The wound was a serious one. Hare’s campaign was over almost before it had started. He left Major Thomas Frankland and his signallers and started to make his way back to the beach.
I scrambled along the best I could and got about half way back when I was met by Farmar who said a stretcher was just coming. I was very glad of it as I had been feeling pretty lonely. There had been shooting going on just above me and one time the signallers had come back and told me they had been stopped by snipers. They had managed to get a message through. The stretcher bearers turned up and put iodine into the wound and tied me up again.29
Brigadier General Steuart Hare, Headquarters, 86th Brigade, 29th Division
Meanwhile, the Lancashire Fusiliers began to move forward, stretched in two different directions by the need to secure both Hill 114 and Hill 138. Although, as we have seen, they were able to link up with the Royal Fusiliers at Hill 114, the attack on Hill 138 and the neighbouring feature of Guezji Baba that blocked the route across the headland to V Beach was held up by a combination of thick barbed wire and a few determined Turks. The Lancashire Fusiliers had suffered heavy casualties and for the moment were thwarted, even though all the Turks could send as reinforcements were two platoons of the 9th Company, 3/26th Regiment.
Behind them the 1st Essex Regiment, having been diverted from V Beach to W Beach, began to come ashore at around 08.30. They threw themselves into an attack on Hill 138 but were held back. Indeed, W Beach itself was still not entirely secure.
Over a hundred dead were on the beach alone, while the sand was all stained red. A derelict cutter full of dead and waterlogged formed a basis for a temporary pier. About fifty Turks suddenly appeared overhead, fired at us then surrendered! Four of our men found a sniper hidden in the cliff, bayoneted him and chucked him over the cliff. All his insides came out. A subaltern and three men tried to locate some other snipers who were firing at us, but each in turn gave little starts and fell down dead. One was wounded and staggered towards us crying.30
Midshipman Hugh Tate, HMS Implacable
Although the Essex Regiment managed to help stabilise the line, it was soon evident that the 88th Brigade, who should have been pushing on towards Krithia and Achi Baba, were being sucked into the fight that was properly that of the covering force of 86th Brigade. This process continued as the 4th Worcestershire Regiment began to disembark at W Beach at around 12.00. As Napier (commanding 88th Brigade) was dead and Hare (commanding 86th Brigade) had been evacuated wounded, staff officer Lieutenant Colonel Owen Wolley Dod was sent from 29th Division Headquarters to try to bring order to chaos. Having liaised with the navy to secure a stiff bombardment of Hill 138, he ordered the 88th Brigade to launch a two-pronged attack which at last managed to take the position by 15.00, finally ejecting the remnants of two Turkish platoons that had been grimly holding on.
There was more confusion over the presence of a further redoubt on the hill of Guezji Baba that dominated the ground leading to V Beach. This was caused by a lack of precision in the British contour maps, which only recorded the presence of Hill 138. Well protected by barbed wire defences the Turks who manned Guezji Baba fought heroically, holding back the Worcestershires until about 16.00. But still the way was not clear, for as the Worcestershires breasted the hill they came under fire from the Turkish stronghold around the Old Castle on Hill 141. Night was falling and the British troops were unsure whether to advance further. Even though they outnumbered the Turks by 10:1, they were paralysed into inertia by their fears of non-existent Turkish hordes. The men were tired and there were few senior officers left with the experience to lead them forward into battle. All they could do was hold their positions and try to rest.
25 APRIL: DRAMA AT V BEACH
The fire changed the colour of the sea with the blood from the bodies of the enemy – a sea whose colour had remained the same for years. Shells and machine gun bullets fell ceaselessly at the points where rifle fire was observed but, in spite of this, heavy fire was opened from all our trenches. In a vain attempt to save their lives, the enemy threw themselves from the boats into the sea. The shore became full of enemy corpses, like a shoal of fish.1
Major Mahmut, 3rd Battalion, 26th Regiment, 9th Division, Fifth Army
WORST OF ALL THE 25 APRIL LANDINGS was that attempted at V Beach, known to the Turks as Ertugrul Bay. This was by far the most ambitious plan for, as Commander Edward Unwin observed, the Turks had by no means wasted the time granted to them by the British. Above the beach they had constructed a series of trenches that stretched along the skyline from Fort No. 1 round the natural amphitheatre of the beach to the Sedd el Bahr village. In front were at least two lines of barbed wire, with a gap close to the Sedd el Bahr fort. Throughout their construction work the Turks had been severely hampered, not only by a shortage of the raw materials of wire and stakes, but also by the harassing fire of Allied destroyers.
The beach, which stretched about 300 yards, was fairly narrow, with a low bank bordering it. Here the Turkish garrison was made up of just 250–300 men of the 10th Company, 3/26th Regiment who had relieved the 3/25th Regiment on 22 April. One platoon was positioned in the ruins of the old Sedd el Bahr fort, another in the village and the third in front of Hill 141 and the ruined castle. Sailing towards this death trap was the River Clyde. Concealed deep within her cargo holds were the 2nd Hampshires, under Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Carrington Smith (the senior officer aboard), and the 1st Royal Munster Fusiliers, under Lieutenant Colonel Henry Tizard. It was intended that in the later stages of their approach to the beach they would be preceded by the 1st Royal Dublin Fusiliers, who would be the first to land from six strings of rowing boats that were being towed in by steamboats until the last hundred yards. They all knew what they were meant to achieve; the question was: could they do it?
The convoy reached its destination off V Beach and the accompanying warships crashed out their dawn chorus just after 05.00 on 25 April.
All the other ships joined in, until the noise and the flashes were terrific. Before everything had been so still and the contrast was extraordinary. One could not distinguish between the different guns or ships in the roar and screech of guns and bursting shells. It was like hundreds of gigantic Maxims. The whole of Sedd el Bahr and the surrounding country was shelled and in the half light the bursting shells and the glare of the burning houses spread a reddish glow over everything. It seemed impossible that anything could live in such an inferno: wire entanglements, parts of houses, clods of earth and everything else being blown sky high. It was an extraordinary sight. Above all this away inland a glorious red sun rose and I was quite appalled to see the terrific destruction. The town wasn’t there. I’ve seen ruined towns before but there wasn’t a wall standing.2
Midshipman Herbert Williams, HMS Agamemnon
Although the bombardment undoubtedly made an impressive sight, the high-velocity flat trajectory of the naval shells meant that the results achieved were far less destructive than the navy had hoped. Most of the shells skimmed over the trenches, just missing them. Of course some still hit squarely home and the Turkish troops suffered casualties, but their discipline held up under pressure as their training paid dividends, to the satisfaction of their commander, Major Mahmut.
The enemy was pounding the rifle trenches on the shore. Owing to the bluish-black and greenish smoke which was rising up, the shore was hidden and nothing could be seen. The area was altogether small compared to the weight of fire being put down by the fleet. Many shells were falling side by side and many shrapnel shells exploding one after the other. At this time two of our 37.5mm guns were destroyed and many rifle and communication trenches flattened out. Some of the rifle trenches which had been dug to protect the soldiers’ lives instead became their graves. At the same time, wounded who were able to walk began coming into the first aid posts. As the men had been taught in their training on arrival they first of all said, ‘I have been wounded and cannot continue m
y duty; I have given my ammunition to my comrades in the section, here is my rifle – who should I hand it over to?’ And then they waited their turn to have their wounds bandaged.3
Major Mahmut, 3rd Battalion, 26th Regiment, 9th Division, Fifth Army
The unscathed majority grimly awaited the moment when the bombardment would stop and the landings begin. Then it would be their turn.
The tows of the Dublins were scheduled to land at 05.30 but had been badly delayed by the difficulties of transhipping into the rowing boats, further exacerbated by the current pouring out of the Dardanelles. They were running nearly an hour behind schedule. Confusion ensued when it became apparent that the River Clyde would run ashore first.
We slowly steamed towards the beach. The sun was right in our faces and it was very difficult to make things out on shore on account of the smoke from the bursting shells, there being no wind to clear it away. As we got near I was on the upper bridge with Captain Unwin and Lieutenant Colonel Carrington Smith. At that time we could not make out whether the tows had gone in ahead of us or not. As we passed close to a battleship Captain Unwin called out to ask if the tows had gone in, and the reply he got was, ‘Don’t know, but go on in!’4
Lieutenant Colonel Henry Tizard, 1st Royal Munster Fusiliers, 86th Brigade, 29th Division
At this point the army intervened as Carrington Smith warned Unwin that it would dislocate their plans if the River Clyde landed its troops before the Dublins got ashore. Unwin therefore decided to mark time by turning a full circle, it being almost impossible to stop the ship while towing the hopper and lighters astern.
I found it very difficult to make this turn, for we were already pointed for the beach and ships were firing on all sides of me. The French were making over to Kum Kale, I couldn’t cross their bows, and I didn’t want to get between our ships and their targets. I jammed the helm hard-a-port and just managed to clear the stern of the Agamemnon, but saw that I could not clear the two destroyers lying on her starboard side with a sweep out between them. So I did the only possible thing and went between them, knowing that they had plenty of time to slack down the wire and let us run over it – if I had attempted anything else certain disaster would have been the result. Well, we got her round and still no tow was in sight. I said to myself, ‘Now or never!’ And full speed in we went.5