8d. Gallipoli Landing [History]

8e. Gallipoli Landing [History]

About the 13 April 2015 the AIF troops knew they were leaving Egypt (through the port of Alexandria) to an “unknown destination.” It was rumoured to be in the eastern Mediterranean, but everyone apparently knew (including the Turks) that they were going to Gallipoli. This British invasion was called the worst-kept secret in the war. The infantry and artillery left Mena, but the Light Horse were first left behind, but they later went without their horses.

You can see Alexandria in the south on this map, and Canaakale is in the Dardanelles (where we stayed for a night) - map right.

The troops first went to the Greek island of Lemnos for a few days. It’s called Limnos in this map (where the hospitals were based).

[Map right]

Birdwood was given his orders at Lemnos, and knew what was ahead. Because it had been a quick decision to have the land attack against the Turks, supposedly to surprise them, there was inadequate planning. There wasn't enough food or medical supplies, and the maps were completely out of date so they didn't really know the terrain. 

Captain Liddell Hart wrote in The War in Outline:

"At the War Office now a single preparatory step had been taken. Hamilton was hurried out to the Dardanelles on a day's notice. The information he had been sent comprised of a pre-war handbook on the Turkish army, two tourist guide books on Western Turkey, and an inaccurate map".  The maps were old, they were from the Crimean War in 1853-56 (the British actually captured a set of Turkish maps at Cape Helles on Gallipoli).Because the British thought it would be easy to capture the peninsula they only gave the troops enough food for 48 hours - bully beef, biscuits and water!

They left Lemnos on ships on 24 April and at midnight the ships stopped moving. Under a setting moon they lowered themselves into rowing boats (and the equipment they needed) and at 3.30am steamboats started towing them the 4 kilometres to shore. Moving in darkness they glided onto the seashores of pebbles, about a mile north of Gaba Tepe (now ANZAC Cove), and this is where the real disaster began. 

As dawn broke, the Australians were the first Allied troops to wade ashore on the beaches of the Gallipoli peninsula. 

The Turks were prepared and waiting for their invaders. Mustafa Kemal (later Ataturk), Turkish,  and Col. Limon Van Saunders, German, were coordinating the campaign, which they called the Battle of Canaakale. 

As the Australians waded ashore, with the weight of their packs, they were shot at. Some even drowned. Bullets hit the men and the water, some didn't make it to the shore. Men even died trying to drag the injured, so lay dead on the boats, some lay in agony on the beach. The sea around the cove was read with blood.  Those that did ran across the pebbles, stumbling over fallen comrades and had to face steep 100 metre cliffs where there was heavy resistance from the Turks. 

By 2pm, 12,000 ANZACS were ashore - dead, injured or alive.  Many of the injured on the beach and the dead were piled back on the barges and taken to Lemnos. 

This is the first photo of the landing was taken by Captain Davies. You can see how short the pebbled beach is, and the steep terrain ahead of them. 

This photo was done a few days after the landing when the ANZACS re-enacted the landing. (BTW, these photos are at the Gallipoli museum we went to).

Charles Bean, the official Australian war correspondent, wrote:

“The growth was stubborn, and, in the steep gravelly waterways with which the hillside was scored, it was as much as a strong many could do to fight his way through it, to say nothing of carrying his heavy kit and rifle”

This is ANZAC Cove today. They have had to build concrete reinforcement along the beach because of erosion. 

Hundreds of Australians did make the hard climb up to what is known as Plugge’s Plateau. It was a very difficult climb, the men who were wounded or kills slid back down the slope until a bush stopped them. The men used the bayonets on their guns to help them climb. The ANZACS reached the top and pushed the Turkish soldiers back. But the plan was to get 7 kilometers inland on the first day, and they had barely made 1 kilometre. 600 Australians were killed on the first day.

The Turks had by then run out of ammunition because of all the firing they’d been doing to the Australians. So they only had bayonets to fight on the slopes. Kemal can the Turkish 57^th Infantry Regiment orders” I do not order you to fight, I order you to die.”. Every man in the regiment was killed or wounded, so today, out of respect the 57^th Regiment doesn’t exist.

Here's a map where the fighting happened in the Gallipoli Campaign, even though the map is of the graves. You can see Plugges Plateau. Some Australians got as far as Baby 700 and the Nek, but were pushed back by the Ottoman Turks. At the end of the first day the ANZACS had only secured Courtenay's Post. 

This is the beach the ANZACS were meant to land at - it's now called Brighton Beach

 You can see they landed north at Gaba Tepe (now ANZAC Cove)

The first day was a disaster. Birdwood could see the ANZACS had little chance  and were facing defeat so  he recommended an evacuation to the Commander Hamilton. But Hamilton, who was pleased that Australian submarine had actually made it up through the Dardanelles and had attacked Turkish ships, refused to agree and replied:

"You now only have to dig, dig, dig until you are safe" , which meant dig themselves into trenches.  

Here's Mustafa Kemal and his staff. 

Turks with a torpedo gun