ELEVEN YEARS AGO

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16780, 24 April 1926, Page 11

ELEVEN YEARS AGO

A SOLDIERS' BATTLE

To-morrow will bo Ihe eleventh anniversary of the landing' of the Allied troops on the Gallipoli Peninsula. .In the middle of March, 1015, after two attempts had been made by Allied naval squadrons to force a passage through the Dardanelles, it was decided that the next attempt, should bo a combined operation by naval and military forces. Supported by ships of war, ihe Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (General Sir lan Hamilton) and the Corps Rxpcditionnaire Francais (General of Division d'Amadc) were, to land on and endeavour to occupy the Gallipoli Peninsula. From Gallipoli the Asiatic shore of the Straits would be, commanded anrl the passage would be free for the Allied vessels.

The Gallipoli Peninsula, south-west of a line drawn from Gaba Tepe to Kilid Bahr, is roughly triangular in shape, with its apex, Capo Helles, at the entrance to the Dardanelles. Its coast is bounded by rugged cliffs rising precipitously..to a height of from SOft to 1 00ft. The only landing places arc a few stretches of sandy beach lying in indentations in the cliffs. Within the line of cliff flic ground is rocky and is .broken by a network of ravines. There is much low scrub, and in the south, where the cliffs form a rim to a saucerlikc depression, there is an extensive area under cultivation, with a predominance of vineyards. This depression is commanded at its northern'-extremity by a low ridge, of which Achi Baba, a hill about 700 ft in bright, is the central and most prominent feature. Farther north again lies the Kilid Bahr plateau, approximately 700 ft above sea-level, covering the Narrows and their protecting forLs from bombardment from the Aegean Sea. On March 25. Liculenant-Genoral Liman von Sanders Pasha, a German officer of experience, took over command of the Dardanelles area. The Fifth Army, commanded by him, consisted of the 111. Corps (Essad Pasha), Ihe XV. Corps (Weber Pasha), the sth Division, and a cavalry brigade. The defence of the Asiatic shore was entrusted to the XV. Corps (with a strength oT about 20,000 all ranks). The major part of the corps was concentrated in the area surrounding the silo of Troy. The three divisions, the 7th, oth, and 10th, of the 111. Corps (about 40,000 all ranks) were allotted for the defence of Gallipoli. Four battalions of the 9Hi Division lined the -coast from Gaba Tepe to Morlo Bay. In the north of the peninsula Liman von Sanders Pasha had concentrated bodies of troops in selected positions whence they might be brought into action on any threatened sector with the greatest economy of time and distance.

Once Sir lan Hamilton had made the decision-' to land his forces in the southern end of the peninsula lie had no difficulty in deciding on the actual points of assault. Nature had provided only eight or nine beaches.on which landing was possible, and of these the following six were selected: (1) S Beach, near Hissarlik Pont in Morlo Bay; (2) V Beach, the small bay west of Sedd-el-Bahr Casllc; (3) \V Beach; a bay lying between Cape Holies and Tekke Burnu; (4) X Beach, a strip of sand a mile north of Tekke Burnu; (5) Y Beach, a strip of sand due west of Krithia; (6) Z Beach (later to be Anzac), a beach north of Gaba Tepe. While landings were being made on these beaches the French were to put troops ashore at Kum Kale, on the Asiatic shore, and so'contain the Turkish XV. Corps until the first phase of the Gallipoli occupation had passed. They were then to withdraw. Attack on the Beaches. The British forces available for this adventure were the 29th (Regular) Division (Major-Gcncral Aylmer Hun-ter-Weston); the Naval Division (Major-General A. Paris): and the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (Lieutenant-Gencral Sir W. B. Birdwood), better known at a later dale as Ihe Anzac Corps. On April 23, a date changed at the last moment to April 25, seven and a half battalions of the 29th Division were at 5.30 a.m., ' after a brief bombardment of the shore defences by the ships, to storm the five beaches in the apex of the peninsula, and the Anzac Corps was, before daybreak, to land at Z Beach. The troops were to be put on shcre Trom boats towed close inshore by naval picket boats. To assist in ihe landing at V Beach, the most strongly defended of all, the River Clyde, a collier capable of carrying about 2000 men, was prepared to take a covering force for the troops landing in boals. She had eight, great porls cut in her sides from which, after the vessel had been run ashore, Ihe men could jump into lighters moored alongside, whence they would cross a steam hopper driven higher on the beach lo form a bridge with the shore.

• The Allied warships were formed into six squadrons, so that at each landing there might he adequate naval force to act in support. On April 24 the landing parties went on board their allotted ships of war, and at midnight the squadrons left Tenedos in bright, moonlight and on a glassy sea. At 3 o'clock the moon had gone and the sea was shrouded in a fleecy mist. Two hours later the day dawned, and the ships of the Fleet, now at their appointed stations, began',a. heavy bombardment of Hie shore defences, though the Hal, trajectory of the naval guns considerably reduced their power of inflicting damage on Ihe. enemy. At V Beach, the most important of ihe landings, there were about 350 yards of sand surrounded by a semicircle of cliffs, all of which were heavily entrenched. Wire entanglements had been laid in the sea. and over Ihe entire foreshore. Batteries of machine-guns were distributed over Ihe rising ground, some in positions from which Ihe wire could he enfiladed. 11 was not until 6.40 a.m. that Ihe six tows carrying three and a. half companies of Ihe Ist Royal Dublin Fusiliers and 50 men of the Anson Battalion approached near enough lo cast off from their picket boals and begin lo i'ow in the last few yards. At tliis moment intensive fire broke out from the beach, and in less than live minutes the boat's were drifting about helplessly, tilled with dead and wounded. The River Clyde (carrying ihe remainder of the Dublin Fusiliers, the Ist, Royal Munster Fusiliers, two companies of the Hampshire Regiment, a detachment of the Anson Battalion, and machine-gun parlies from. Ihe Royal Naval Armoured Car Division), which had run in at the same time,

'grounded some little distance from the shore, the hopper stuck too far out for her bow gangway to touch dry land, and the lighter which was to connect her with the' River Clyde swung away without linking. Most of the men in the lighter and the hopper were shot down in the first few minutes. Commander Unwin and other naval officers and men jumped into the water and, despite the heavy fire, put the barges into position and created a link with the shore. A Munstor company started across the improvised bridge, but less than a platoon reached shore, and the gangways and lighters were heaped with dead and wounded. A second company followed, but the bridge broke again, and the men, who in their keenness to attack the enemy jumped into the water to wade or swim ashore, were nearly- all drowned by the weight of their equipment. At 8 o'clock the bridge was recreated by the efforts of Commander Unwin and his assistants, and another Munster company essayed the perilous passage. Few reached the shore, and orders were given that no further attempt at landing was to be made until nightfall. A Tornado of Fire. Those on the beach crouched behind a low ridge of sand which, hap l piiy, spanned the width or the bay about SOft above watorline. There, until the next morning those men, joined by the troops from the River Clyde after 9 p.m., lay exposed to the blazing sun, unable to move owing to the tornado of-Turkish fire. In the night, the swift cold of an Aegean spring added to their miseries. Yet, after almost 25 hours of acute discomfort and of grave, danger, the weary troops, led by Colonel Doughty Wylio and Captain Walford, both of whom were killed at the moment of success, charged Sedd-el-Bahr village on the morning of the 26th and established themselves on the high land.'., At W Beach three companies of the Ist Lancashire Fusiliers and 50 men of the Anson Battalion were towed in from the Euryalus at. about 0 o'clock. The beach, surrounded by cliffs, was a small amphitheatre, defended much as was V Reach. Here, again, the Turks held their tire until the boatswere close in, and then opened with deadly effect. Nevertheless, there was no faltering, the boats came steadily in, and the survivors rushed over bursting land mines to the wire uncut by the ship's fire. Still suffering heavy loss, they cut their way steadily through the entanglements, stormed the cliffs, and captured the trenches. Later, aided by the -Hii Worcesters, who landed at 9.30 a.m., an' endeavour was made to force a passage to V Beach, but without success. The ground captured was held against strong counter attacks made durii.V the evening. . The subsidiary landings at S, X and Y Beaches were made with relative case and with little loss. At S Beach, whore three companies of the 2nd South Wales Borderers landed at 7.45 a.m., the covering fire from the Lord Nelson, the Agamemnon, and the Cornwallis had kept down the enemy fire, and the ridge behind the beach was carried with little loss. On the other flank of the Holies landings, at X Beach, the 2nd Boyal Fusiliers, the Ist Royal iriniskilling Fusiliers, the Ist Border Regiment, and 50 men of the Anson Battalion had been landed on Hie, narrow strip of sand below the cliffs without a single casualty. Later in the day these troops advanced, and, after heavy fighting, captured Tekke Burnu and linked with the Lancashire Fusiliers on W Beach.

At Y Beach the Ist King's Own Scottish Borderers, Hie 2nd South Wales Borderers, and the Plymouth Battalion, Rnyal Marines, were put ashore at 5 a.m. without loss, or, in fact, opposition of any kind. They advanced to a ridge 1000 yards inland, commanding the Krithia—Scdd-ol-Bahr road, and their scouts actually reached the outskirts of Krithia without meeting the enemy. Later in tho : day strong Turkish forces arrived, and heavy fighting began. No effective support could be given to the British troops, and early on the morning Qf April 26 the weary survivors were withdrawn to the ships.

Anzac Corps' Bravery. , At 7. Beach, about ten miles north nf Tekke Burnu, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps carried nut successfully what was almost an independent operation. The 3rd Australian Brigade, which was to make, the first landing, arrived off Gaba Tepe shortly before 4 a.m. In the dim light Ihe tows taking Ihe troops io Ihe shore lost direction and, instead of touching at a point immediately north of Gaba Tepe, came in at, a beach over a mile farther north, where the cliffs rose, to a height of from two io three hundred feet. By this mistake they missed the elaborate defences prepared by the Turks at the selected landing place, and their initial losses were considerably less than they would have been had the original plans been carried out. By 8.30 a_.ni. the Australians had advanced inland for about a mile and had begun to entrench. By 2 o'clock over 12,000 men had landed. By this time strong Turkish reinforcements had arrived, and continuous heavy attacks, which were to continue with undiminished strength for over 90 hours, wore made on the Anzac Corps. The behaviour of these young troops in an operation of the first magnitude will ever lie a glorious episode in Australian and New Zealand history. It was a terrible baptism of fire. The French landing at Kum Kale, on Hie Asiatic, shore, was to have been made at 5.30 a.m., but, owing Lo Ihe inability of the old-type picket boats of Hie French jVavy to progress against Hie strong current, they had to be replaced by torpedo boals. and the first I roups did not reach shore until about 10 a.m. Half an hour later Ihe Gib Colonial Infantry had established itself on Kum Kale village. Other troops wen; landed and the position made secure. They on shore until Hie afternoon of the following day, when they were withdrawn with about 500 prisoners.

By midnight on April 25 the British held a tiny salient at S Beach, a few feet of the foreshore at Sedd-el-Bahr, the coast from W Beach to X Beach to a line about half a iniie inland, a small salient at Y Beach, and an area two miles in length and nearly a mile in depth at Z Beach (Anzac). In Asia', Ihe French held the village of Kum Kale.

The Gallipoli adventure was, as we know, a lamentable affai?. It was at Gaba, Tepe—one of the two landing places—on April 25, 1915, that the Anzacs commenced to inscribe their heroic page of history. Will it ever be explained (the writer asks) why Sir lan Hamilton ordered the Pacific troops to land in a spot the most difficult from a geographic and military point of view? A mystery shrouds the resolve which cost so many lives. A few metres of sandy soil alone separates Hie water from the thorny heights. And in that space were crowded men,- rearing horses, provisions, medical aid—a whole army! Above, the Turks adjust their aim. Below, midway, climbing against all odds, the heroic Anzacs. After a furious combat of ten hours, alt their officers dead, simple privates in command, the struggle had to be abandoned; 20.000 Ottomans by that time, commanded the summit. The only thing gained was a strip of land between Gaba Tepe. and Ari-Brunu. No hope of swift success; to hold what was gained must, suffice. Thus until August. 1015, the 30,000 Anzacs had to live and fight on some hundreds of square metres of Turkish soil.

The Anzac troops took a glorious part in those sad days of August, and exhibited remarkable ingenuity. The point was to retreat unseen by the Turks. Gradually the men left until the time came when there were only about a hundred to defend a front which, but shortly before, bristled with thousands of bayonets. Of course the men acted as if there were thousands of them firing off guns, throwing grenades, etc. It was on September 15, 1916, that the Pacific troops fought their first important battle on the Western front, between the Sommo and the Ancre. It was their special task lo outflank the enemy in the village of Flers. Much was expected from a new engine of war, since become famous—the tank. The combat was a fierce one, the Germans being utterly annihilated. And on June 7, 1917, the Anzacs rendered memorable service to the Allies in the capture of Mcssines-Wytchaeto in Flanders. In 1917 the Anzac forces were reorganised; some were stationed in Palestine, but the majority were in France. Furthermore, the role of the Anzacs in naval warfare deserves mention; they took a glorious part in the Battle of Dogger Bank, under Admiral Beatty, on January 24, 1915, and again in the Battle of Jutland.