Photograph: Portrait of Colonel Mustafa Kemal Bey, painted by Austria-Hungarian artist Wilhelm Victor Krauss."I am of the wholehearted opinion that we must finally drive the enemy opposing us into the sea if it means the death of us all. Our position compared to that of the enemy is not weak. The enemy's morale has been completely broken. He is ceaselessly digging to find himself a refuge. I simply cannot accept that there are amongst us and amongst the troops we command those who would not rather die here than experience a second chapter of Balkan disgrace. If you feel there are such people let us shoot them at once with our own hands."
SOURCES: IWM Documents Atatürk Transcript, p.13
"On receiving these orders I immediately went up to the top of Walker's Ridge with the officers and made a reconnaissance as well as I was able through the periscope. As soon as it was dark I took the Company into the Wellington trenches and led them over the parapet into the dense scrub in front. The ground was thickly covered with Turkish dead and the stench was horrible. As soon as I had got all the Company out and lying down in the bushes I went forward with two scouts to examine the ground in front which was entirely unknown to me. I found as I expected a narrow neck or saddle connecting the ridge we were on with the hill which was our objective and across this ran a track about two feet wide. It had evidently been used by the Turks on returning for it was well worn and strewn with corpses. On advancing along this I found that the other end was commanded by two Turkish trenches one of which was firing but not in our direction though a few stray bullets came across occasionally. It was at once evident to me that any attempt to take the Company across this narrow track must result in failure as the neck would be swept from these trenches either with rifle fire or by machine guns and men could not be put across in sufficient numbers to assault. I consulted two of my officers and found they supported me in my opinion. I accordingly returned to Walker's Ridge and making my way to Brigade Headquarters informed the Brigadier that I considered it would be foolish to attempt the crossing. Although obviously reluctant to abandon the scheme he left the matter in my hands and I returned to the Company and ordered them to retire which was accomplished without any confusion." (Captain Kenneth Gresson, Canterbury Battalion, New Zealand Brigade, NZ&A Division, NZEF)
I was asleep in my dugout when the 75 began its usual 'fanfare', and it lasted without the slightest interruption until 8 o'clock. My sleep became a sort of nightmare. Through the leitmotif of the 75s I could distinguish the more or less violent firing of the guns from the battleships; then voices. How wonderful the penetration of the human voice! I went to my dressing station under the cliff, and there I met all the doctors and Nibaudeau, whom I had not seen for several days. He told us of his experiences in the awful struggle and of his narrow escapes. All about him fell. Certainly his is a lucky star! At last out regiment, which is completely exhausted, is to be given a rest for two or three days. It has perished almost entirely. One single officer of the regiment is left. That is Nibaudeau, who is in command, and he is not yet a major. Two battalions are commanded by adjutants. Captain Tell is missing. He had gone on a reconnoitring expedition with a patrol of four men. He must have been taken by the Turks. Commandant Simonin did not fall into their hands. He had been wounded and had been taken on a ship. Away from the scene of the action the officers, when questioned, are most optimistic. You hear from one, Oh! But they are not such great losses as all that!" from another, "Oh! It's because the officers expose themselves too recklessly! Many fine young subalterns will no doubt realise for themselves what things are really like. The medical staff has been over-worked, but we have not lost a single doctor. Many orderlies and stretcher bearers have been killed and wounded. Nibaudeau has seen d'Amade. He told him that he could not count on the 6th Regiment, which was done for. It has been rumoured for three days that d'Amade will be recalled and replaced with Gourard.
Photograph: Lieutenant Colonel John Henry Patterson (Jabotinsky Museum)
Gradually the Helles campaign took on the character of trench warfare. Second Lieutenant Arthur Behrend recalled a typical incident.
Even at sea the Allies were beginning to suffer as the great pre-dreadnoughts sat, off shore, like enormous tethered goats. They were an obvious target but until the German U-Boats arrived they seemed safe enough. Or at least they did until a Turkish torpedo boat, the Muavenet-i Milliye, crept out and launched an audacious attack on the Goliath which was on duty guarding the right flank of the French just inside the Straits in Morto Bay. Youthful Midshipman Wolstan Weld-Forester remembered what happened when the torpedoes hit at 01.17 on 13 May.
rits of concentrating forces - this the man who always seemed to split his force into as many seperate attacks as possible, all suposedly co-ordinated yet so far apart that none of them could help the others when things went wrong - as they did.
Photograph: Lieutenant Colonel John Monash, Headquarters, 4th Australian Brigade, NZ&A Division, AIF.
Corporal Thomas McNamara, 11th (Western Australia) Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, AIF.
"Next, they were moved up into the fight where a tremendous fire action was in progress. Last, they stormed forward in the densest masses yet seen on the Peninsula. Then, they were mown down and driven back headlong. So they have had a dreadnought reception. This has not been a local trench attack but a real battle and a fiery one. I have lost no time in cabling the glorious news to Kitchener. The cloud of these coming enemy reinforcements has cast its shadow over us for awhile and now the sun shines again. Aubrey Herbert saw me before dinner. He brings a message from Birdie to say that there has been some sort of parley with the enemy who wish to fix up an armistice for the burial of their dead. Herbert is keen on meeting the Turks half way and I am quite with him, provided Birdie clearly understands that no Corps Commander can fix up an armistice off his own bat, and provided it is clear we do not ask for the armistice but grant it to them - the suppliants. Herbert brings amazing fine detail about the night and day battle on the high ridges. Birdie has fairly taken the fighting edge off Liman von Sanders' two new Divisions: he has knocked them to bits. A few more shells and they would have been swept off the face of the earth. As it is we have slaughtered a multitude. Since the 18th we are down to two rounds per gun per diem, but the Turks who have been short of stuff since the 8th instant are now once more well found. Admiral Thursby tells me he himself counted 240 shells falling on one of Birdwood's trenches in the space of ten minutes. I asked him if that amounted to one shell per yard and he said the whole length of the trench was less than 100 yards. On the 18th fifty heavy shells, including 12-inch and 14-inch, dropped out of the blue vault of heaven on to the Anzacs". (General Sir Ian Hamilton, Commander In Chief, Headquarters, MEF)
Captain Hugh England of HMS Chlemer was watching as the predreadnought HMS Albion stood in too close to Gaba Tepe. This led to some considerable excitement.
"May 26 Exceedingly quiet night and day on the beach - as it has been ever since May I9th. What are we doing all this while? I wish I knew. The Turks are now building us in all round, getting their lines stronger and stronger every day; I doubt if we could move out through the front, even if reinforced, today; they have guns in their firing line at Johnston's jolly, and our howitzers say they can't get at them, and our 18-pounders have no common shell, They are making grid-iron trenches in places where their trenches were weak - and our job is sitting and looking on. Our artillery ammunition is pretty strictly cut down (due to supply shortages); we get about one half hour of aeroplane in three days. The Navy is now out of it - we can scarcely expect them to come out and be torpedoed day by day, although there are warships visible down south - possibly some of them are sham warships. Sixteen of our guns are off helping in the push down south. We are a 'containing force' - we are holding up one force of Turks whilst another force of ours somewhere else does something: but what is there any prospect of its doing? We might with a shove have got our main ridge, but no force under 250,000 will get Achi Baba. As far as I can see the force down there is doing exactly what we are - namely, allowing an army of Turks to make itself each day tremendously stronger in a position already naturally strong."
"I had only finished my letter to you half an hour, when at the least expected time of the day the Turks attacked us. I was dozing off when a sentry in the next trench cried out: "Stand to!" In a second we were at the parapet, the men with their rifles, I with my revolver. Three hundred yards away on our half left was a line of Turks, mostly in kneeling fire positions. One I noted in particular with his short beard and long-looking rifle. I must have once seen a picture of something of the sort, for his appearance and position were curiously familiar to me. It was a relief to hear the rifles bang around one. The ##### regiment had a few men out on a small trench or dugout in advance of us. They retired when about 1,000 Turks appeared in front of them. Some were killed, others reached our trench. One soldier about seventeen years old reached my part of the trench. I have never seen a human being so overpowered by his feelings. He was beset by a mixture of terror, courage, exhaustion, and resolve. He wanted to stay in the dugout and beat the Turks off his own bat, but everyone had gone. Running back 200 yards, he fell, but by a miracle escaped being shot. I was observing the country in front with all the intensity I could, but I responded sufficiently to what he said. He begged for water. All the afternoon he could hardly pull the trigger of his rifle, but he never lost his gameness. You can't make soldiers of seventeen fight day after day and retain their efficiency. All that long afternoon I was supported, by his courage. Messages passed down the line. We were told people on our right were retiring, and then that the Manchesters had returned to their position: - Manchester! Do you remember years ago my writing and saying: "I hate Manchester?" I hasten to withdraw all that now! And then the Turks began to advance from the cover of a rise in single file. They didn't carry on long, for we killed them all. One officer in smart khaki drill and sun-helmet - the drill was the pattern of the sort I rejected as too conspicuous - advanced at an easy trot, as though he was catching a train. He came within a hundred yards of our trench, and then fell riddled with bullets. Respect him as a brave Turkish gentleman. I think he meant to take our trench with his walking-stick Possibly he meant to lead a charge, and the men failed to come. Things went well for us at first, for the Turks did not reach us, and failed to take our trench. Friendly big guns from men-of-war bombarded the enemy position. However, they entrenched themselves not far from us. I thought we should counter-charge them. If we had done it early I believe we should have driven them out, but as the afternoon waned the men became utterly exhausted. You see, they have had an unexampled strain. In France you have two days in the trenches and then a relief; our men had been here for twelve, and for the last three days we have been digging or fighting almost continuously. The rifle fire of the enemy is worse than in France; the shell-fire not so bad, and we have nothing like the comforts they have there - no parcels or letters or unshelled bases to retire to. We have no sleep to speak of, and our men are utterly done up."