Sketch is by Horace Moore-Jones and shows General Sir Ian Hamilton's tent at General Headquarters in Imbros, with two aircraft in the sky. Image copyright expired and in the public domain (AWM ref ART03240)
"1st June, 1915. Imbros. Came ashore and stuck up my 80-lb. tent in the middle of a sandbank whereon some sanguine Greek agriculturalist has been trying to plant wheat. We shall live the simple life; the same life, in fact, as the men, but are glad to be off the ship and able to stretch our legs.
Hard fighting in the North zone and the South. Both outposts captured by us on the 29th May at Anzac and on the French right at Helles heavily attacked. In the North we had to give ground, but not before we had made the enemy pay ten times its value in killed and wounded. Had we only had a few spare rounds of shrapnel we need never have gone back. The War Office have called for a return of my 4.5 howitzer ammunition during the past fortnight, and I find that, since the 14th May, we have expended 477 shell altogether at Anzac and Helles combined. In the South the enemy twice recaptured the redoubt taken by the French on the 29th, but Gouraud, having a nice little parcel of high explosive on hand, was able to drive them out definitely and to keep them out."
SOURCE: I. Hamilton, Gallipoli Diary, Vol. I, (London; Edward Arnold, 1920) 260-261
Photograph of Major General Sir Aylmer Hunter-Weston, GOC, VIII Corps
Probably as a result of this imbalance reactions to the bombardment varied widely amongst the troops depending on the amount of destruction in front of them. Some, like Private Ridley Sheldon, were mightily impressed.
The attack on Gully Spur was little different, but mainly due to the weakness of the artillery support, the attack also failed. With Turkish wire uncut and entrenched positions largely untouched by the bombardment, the heavy machine gun and rifle fire from the Turkish posts on both banks of Gully Ravine proved devastating to the advancing troops, whom the Turks were able to destroy with ease from behind the protection of their barbed wire. Because the Lancashire Fusilier attack failed in the middle of the Indian Brigade, this neutralised the success of the Gurkhas nearer the coast and of the 14/Sikhs in Gully Ravine. This failure on Gully Spur also affected the 88 Brigade advance east of the ravine, which found its left flank wide open and enfiladed from across the ravine. It soon became clear to all that the attack was a failure.
The desperation can be judged by the award of the VC to the 18-year old Second Lieutenant Dallas Moor who despite his youth was acting as commanding officer of the 2nd Hampshires when on the morning of 6 June there was a dangerous outbreak of panic in the salient left by the partial retirement of the 42nd Division. Terrified of being cut off, the troops occupying the front line trench (known as H12) went running back promoting equal chaos in the second line (H11) whose garrison also fell back in terror. This was becoming serious as the Turks were threatening a complete breakthrough. Moor rushed across and stemmed the retreat by the abrupt action of shooting up to four of the fleeing soldiers. He then managed not only to stop the rout, but to rally them and lead them forward to retake H11 although still leaving H12 in Turkish hands. This level of chaos and panic was not an isolated incident as the Turks pushed down the gullies, seeking to penetrate as far as they could out of sight as they probed at the weak points in the line.
Photograph: of Lawrence having his hair cut at Anzac. AWM (P02226.020)
The war diary gives the bare bones of what happened on the night of 10 June and the next morning.
I like Heald's gentle sense of humour. Here he reflects on how quickly he got used to the horrors of trench warfare in the front line at Helles.
Amidst all the political manoeuvring the Dardanelles Committee did not actually meet until 7 June. Hamilton had already asked for three more divisions in total, in addition to the 52nd Division that he had already been promised by Kitchener. For the moment he would have to make do with the 52nd Division. Everything else was left up in the air. Then there was a change of tack: Kitchener who considered evacuation far too damaging to even think of, decided that he was, after all, in favour of a full scale renewal of the campaign. The Dardanelles Committee agreed that Hamilton's request for four divisions should be met in full. As the 52nd Division had already been sent out to him as agreed on 10th May, the three remaining divisions of the first New Army not yet detailed for use on the Western Front, consisting of the 10th, 11th and 13th Divisions, would now also be sent to Gallipoli. This decision had been forwarded to Hamilton on 8th June. The question was what to do with the new legions? The answer came in a new plan being formulated by Birdwood for a break out to the north of Anzac to sweep through to capture Hill 971, the highest peak of the Sari Bair range, by surprise. On 11 June Hamilton checked the progress of the new scheme for what would be the August Offensives.
"The trenches are awful - very badly made - narrow, not bullet proof and smell absolutely revolting from dead bodies. We are occupying Turkish trenches which we captured, but there is an absolute maze of trenches. We are all round the Turk and they are all around us too. The Dublin's trenches have their back to Achi Baba and face our base, the Turks being between them and us! We share several trenches with the Turks, with a barricade between and throw bombs at each other over the top! The whole place is up and down hill not in the slightest bit like the trenches in France. To get to our trenches we go 4 miles up a deep nullah with sides 200 feet high. There is a great barricade up right across the nullah at the furthest point we hold. To get into our trenches we go up a zig zag track and enter a hole in the cliff which leads into our support trenches and from them there are innumerable communication trenches leading into the firing line. Of course you can't show your head above the trench for a second, but have to look through periscopes or through peep holes. The smell is awful, though we throw down quantities of chloride of lime and creosote. We are always sapping and digging day and night, and so are the Turks, who in places are about 30 yards away and in others 100, and where we share trenches only the other side of the barricade."
Photograph: Lord Kitchener, Secretary of State for War
"What tiresome people soldiers can be! Everybody above the rank of subaltern seems to think that he ought to have an Admiral's barge at his own disposal. Of course these stories only reach me through my staff and they, poor devils, are worried to death by the helplessness of them all. Truly a soldier is not the man of whom one can expect the manufacture of bricks without straw."
Photograph: Lone Pine Memorial - a noble memorial erected by the people of Australia on a high plateau overlookiing Anzac Cove.
Photograph: Hawke Battalion Officers, May 1915, before departing for Gallipoli.
Picture of cover of popular edition of Ashmead Bartlett's despatches published during the campaign.
It was decided to concentrate all possible artillery resources to support strictly localised attacks with the aim of biting off small chunks of the Turkish line and then using a wall of shells to assist the infantry in holding off the Turkish counter-attacks. The French were given the honour of trying out the new tactics. On 21 June they would launch a concentrated attack hammering into the Turkish lines between the Ravin de la Mort offshoot of Kereves Dere and the Haricot and Quadrilateral Redoubts that dominated the Kereves Spur. They would attack on a very narrow front of just 650 yards, but it contained three objectives of excessive difficulty in not only the Haricot and Quadrilateral Redoubts but also the trenches overlooking the Ravin de la Mort. The artillery support was crucial and centred on the deployment of seven batteries of French 75mm guns, two batteries of 155mm howitzers, trench mortars and seven British howitzers to shatter the Turkish defences. At the same time six more batteries of 75mm guns were assigned to fire into the rest of the Turkish lines facing the French to keep them busy, while other French long-range batteries accompanied by the pre-dreadnought Saint-Louis would be trying their best to suppress any interference from the Turkish guns on the Asiatic shore. In all it worked out at a gun or howitzer for every 10 yards of front to be assaulted. In the days leading up to the attack the level of French fire increased as they tried to smash down and blot out the Turkish trenches.
"My word it is baking 'ot today - the hottest we've had - no wind and 30 billion more flies than yesterday. I suppose there must be a maximum number allowed otherwise I don't know what will happen if each one is capable of laying so many thousand eggs per minute or whatever it is! They are getting so impertinent too - a reproving shake of the head is no longer enough to dislodge one off your nose, but a slap is necessary - which makes one hot and also in exasperation one sometimes slaps harder than was intended - which is more exasperating. There's been a dreadful calm all day most uncanny - very few guns and practically no rifle fire, so I suppose something devilish is brewing. We had the rare spectacle of a duel in the air this morning between a German Taube and one of our biplanes, who were indulging in a friendly bickering up aloft - we could hear their pistol shots at each other. The Taube managed to get away however - as he could turn twice as quick as our feller. So presently back comes our biplane and settles down on the aerodrome with her propeller making a sort of smug sort of whirr - just as if saying, "There you are - now I hope you'll cease saying we never do anything!" At that moment back shot the Taube from behind Achi Baba really with the sort of look of a mischievous puppy making a dart from underneath the sofa, but this time he proceeded to drop large bombs, one of them came disgustingly close! Ours of course went up at once but it takes some time to get up to a few thousand feet - so off went the Taube having distinctly scored. So ours came down to rest again not quite so blatantly as before but in a more subdued fashion."
"In the little gully running up from the beach, or rather on the eastern side of it, is an old Turkish cemetery. Apparently, it has not been used since some time last cemetery. But Moslems are very sensitive over any seeming disrespect shown to their dead - as, indeed, most people are. This little "God's acre" was quite unprotected, and, without ill intent, foot passengers and cart traffic were beginning to find their way over it, so that the wonderfully well-prepared tombstones were in danger. After conference with Major Blackburn, DA and QMG, Advanced Base, I had it fenced round with strong wooden posts and barbed wire, an act that received approval in high places. A Turkish officer lost his way and strayed into our lines. He was brought down to the base, quite smart in his attire, and manly in bearing. The Quartermaster-General told me in the evening that he had taken him out for walking exercise in the afternoon. They went by way of the little cemetery, "and," quoth the QMG, "although nothing was said, I took jolly good care that he saw what had been done." The Turk made no effort to conceal his satisfaction. Such little amenities may do something to soften the asperities of war."
"I am extremely busy here. I am officer commanding of this Post one which was causing our Generals great anxiety. I was shifted with my Battalion, from another post, and told that I was relied on to improve things. I have been here 16 days. The Turks [according to a deserter] think our troops here are wonderful shots and on account of the number of men shot in the head and face through the loopholes in the trenches, orders have been issued that men are to keep away from loopholes and when using them simply to put the rifle into position and fire. It has been and is strenuous work, night and day, rifles and bombs. Our daily average of bombs thrown is 182. Our frontage is only 200 yards. Owing to the Turks bombing 50 yards of our fire trench had been abandoned, that is no one could go into it, as the Turks from their trench 15 yards away pitched bombs into it. Bombing cuts two ways so the first day I came in I ordered two bombs to be thrown for every one of the Turks. Result, we have resumed occupation of the abandoned trench and the Turk trench opposite is an awful wreck. The more my men get to do the more they distinguish themselves. I am naturally very proud of them. No better soldiers in the world."
Photograph: HMS Mosquito, a Beagle-class destroyer
Photograph: 460th Howitzer Battery, one of those supporting the attack on the Boomerang on 28th June 1915.
Photograph of Ted Henty taken from J. Hamilton, Goodbye Cobber, God Bless You: The fatal Charge of the Light Horse, Gallipoli, August 7th 1915, (Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, 2004), opp, p. 178
Photograph: Scene at the Quadrilateral Redoubt