24 April 1915

ANZAC LANDING - As the ANZAC Corps set off for Colonel Ewen Sinclair-MacLagen was aboard the destroyer Colne. He was the man in command of the 3rd Australian Brigade and thus charged with the task of making the first landings north of Gaba Tepe and then covering the landings of the main force. It was a grevious responsibility.


"The commander of the destroyer Colne gave me his bunk, but I simply could not sleep. Although I knew that all the orders for the operations had been clear and most carefully thought out, had we, the Brigade Staff, provided for any and every eventuality? How was Brigade Headquarters to keep in touch with the units of the Brigade scattered over a 4,000 to 5,000 yard front and on foot? If opposition was even only moderately serious, could units keep touch with one another? Was the reserve battalion placed the right position? Were the 'poor' maps issued to us accurate enough to be depended on, especially for the naval covering fire? If that was wire-entanglement in the water [on the] north shore of Gaba Tepe, could the men get through it, or would they be drowned and so leave my right flank open? How could I replace them from the reserve? These and many other thoughts of a similar nature kept me wide awake until we got into the boats for the last few yards to shore."

Source: Armada Moves: Egypt to Gallipoli (Reveille, 31/3/1932), p.59

Photograph: Colonel Ewen Sinclair-MacLagen, GOC 3 Brigade, 1st Australian Division

 

25 April 1915

ANZAC LANDING - Battleship Hill, Anzac - One half company of 11th Battalion commanded by Captain Eric Tulloch had pushed determinedly up towards Chunuk Bair in one of the very few forward movements made after the first couple of hours. With them was Corporal Herbert Hitch who was acting as a singaller. By about 09.30 they managed to advance onto the Incebayor Spur of Battleship Hill but found themselves more or less isolated with the bulk of 3rd Brigade still stalled back on Second Ridge.



Photograph: Anzac area from a collection of Aerial Photos of Gallipoli taken by Murat Soylemez

Corporal Herbert Hitch, 11th (Western Australia) Battalion, 3rd Brigade

"I was supposed to keep in touch with any unit on the flank, any unit in the front or the rear as we advanced through the scrub. Whenever I reached any vantage point where I could wave the flag - a small flag white with a blue stripe through it. I was watching out for answering signals, I didn't get any - we were out of touch. It was quite a distance between us and the next unit on the right as far as I know. By that time our numbers were down to about twenty, perhaps thirty." 

As he was receiving a signal, he got a sudden and terrible shock.

"The Turkish artillery had opened up and were firing salvos, dropping the range a 100 yards at a time, searching the ground. I was right in the line with two bursts. I thought, “My goodness, the next one will catch me!” It burst behind me and the whole contents of the shell went round me. I had the rifle leaning against my crutch and that spun to the ground. The pellets flew past and they sounded like a flight of parrots and puffs of dust rose here and there where the pellets struck the ground. I fell down thinking I must have been hit; twitching my muscles. When I picked the rifle up it had three hits on the barrel. Two close together on a hand guard knocking the woodwork away, leaving the springs on the barrel and one on the hand guard casing above the barrel. I also had one through my clothing I found later on. That was remarkable because there were about 300 odd bullets in a shrapnel shell." 

As the Turkish 57th Regiment arrived they first formed a firing line and were then sent into to attack the tentative Australian positions on Baby 700 and Tulloch’s men on Incebayor Spur. The Australians partially dug in on Battleship Hill were caught totally unawares by Kemal’s counter-attack. Some had never guessed that the Turks would counter-attack; imagining that once a position was taken then it was only onwards and upwards to success. Now they found themselves suddenly out-numbered by the Turks. Tulloch’s men were unable to do anything much more than cower down in small folds in the ground. Retreat was unavoidable if they wanted to live.

"Then the order came, retire in sections from the right and being on the right flank I jumped up to run and as soon as I jumped up to run the air was alive with bullets, most of them going overhead. We ran back about 200 yards, but by the time we reached the top of the next ridge all the rest were in motion. We opened fire and we fired about six or seven rounds each just to keep the enemy from coming on too quickly and then we all ran back together for about another 150 yards and the order was passed along, “Reform left, Turks advancing on the left!” They were a fine looking body of men. They weren't running but were walking very quickly. As they came under our fire they ran back and I had two shots at a running man and missed him each time - I thought my rifle must have had the barrel bent. Then suddenly down from the sky as if by magic came the shells – their artillery observer had put them on to us. Providentially they were bursting late and the shrapnel was shredding the scrub behind us." 

Back they tumbled during a gap in the shellfire. By this time in all the confusion Hitch lost touch with his comrades.

"I burst through the scrub suddenly and found myself on the edge of a steep ravine. I broke through so suddenly I had to grasp a sapling to save going over. There seemed no way of getting out from there. I thought, "I'm going to get across here somehow!" and I threw my rifle down into this ravine and jumped. I sailed through the air about 25 feet and landed on a slope of 1 in 1. As I jack-knifed I felt as though I had landed on a couple of bayonets. I pitched over head first and seemed to be heading for a precipice, but I was lucky enough to grab a root with my left hand and swing round and go down feet first. I went over two or three vertical falls of about 8 to 10 feet and landed like a sack of spuds each time until finally I reached the breakaway with a drop of about 30 feet and I managed to stop there with about 6 feet to the next drop. As I stopped the earth I had dislodged came tumbling after me." 

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SOURCE: Brotherton Special Collections Library, Leeds University, Liddle Collection: H. V. Hitch, Transcript of tape 235 & 252

 

26 April 1915

ANZAC - Both sides spent the night of 25-26 April trying their best to consolidate their positions wherever they had been washed by the tides of battle on 25 April. When the next day finally dawned they could at last see where they were. And of course their enemies could share that view.

The Turks had succeeded in smuggling several men through the porous Australian lines to take up concealed positions on Russell’s Top which was almost vacant of Anzac troops. From here they could shoot straight into the backs of the men in the trenches on Second Ridge and Pope’s Hill. Amongst them was Private Harry Murray.

"Dawn showed at last and all had their rifles ready for a shot. Percy Black grabbed his and, sighting carefully, dropped a Turkish sniper, who had been crawling along the side of a cliff about 90 yards away. The poor wretch fell down the steep side, caught his legs in a low fork and there he hung for days. We all hoped that the shot had killed him and that he did not have to linger in such a position. Our own casualties began to mount up unpleasantly. One by one men hurtled down the steep hill, often shot through the head." (Private Harry Murray, 16th (Western Australia and South Australia) Battalion, 4th Brigade, NZ&A Division, AIF)

Their left flank was seriously exposed but the 16th Battalion machine guns on Pope’s Hill played a vital part in defending The Nek and the half-open route to Russell’s Top.

"There was no organised attack on us for some hours, but rifle fire was increasing in both volume and accuracy. Black never missed a chance with his machine gun and he was a deadly shot. As the day wore on, the Turks tried to cross some open country and Black caught them in enfilade in lines. They simply sank and died. In one case, when overtaken by that death rain, they hunched together for protection and very few escaped. This drew on Black a concentrated ‘hate’ from the Turks. A mountain gun shelled him. He got a shrapnel through the ear and another through his hand, both painful wounds which bled profusely, but still he managed to deliver his lethal spray whenever opportunity offered. His gun casing was now holed with rifle bullets. Suddenly a party of seventy Turks jumped out of a small depression some 80 yards in front. "Here they come," roared Percy, and a steady stream of fire roared from his gun. The nearest of them got to within 40 yards of us before collapsing. All were exceptionally brave men, who pushed home the attack in the name of Allah, but none were able to get back. A soldier by intuition, Black pointed out the weakness of our open left flank to an officer and offered to take a few men and line listening posts across the valley, but the officer seemed inclined to disregard the suggestion as being unimportant! Some Turkish snipers later got through the unguarded valley, as might have been expected and that officer was one of their first victims."

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SOURCE: H. W. Murray, The First Three Weeks on Gallipoli (Reveille, 1/4/1939), p.60

Peter Hart

 

27 April 1915

ANZAC - The arrival of Turkish reinforcements allowed Colonel Mustafa Kemal to attempt to drive the invaders into the sea'. Yet when his troops began to deploy on 27 April they encountered many of the same problems that had thwarted the Australian attempts to advance two days earlier. Before the start of the battle the Turkish regiments became dispersed amongst the broken ground to the east of the Anzac line and as a result they were late arriving at their starting points.



 

 

Photograph: The picture shows the 15" guns of HMS Queen ELizabeth - the Lousy Lizzie referenced below.

This confusion was then exacerbated by the fire of the British warships which caused not only serious casualties, but also badly damaged their morale. The combination of these problems made the attacks so disconnected and irresolute that the ANZAC Corps Headquarters did not realise that this was a determined attack. At the front though it was a different matter as reflected in the memories of Captain Dixon Hearder who was in command of a machine gun section of the 11th (Western Australia) Battalion.

"After a heavy bombardment all the morning, attacks were made in force on our right and left. First the right wing broke and we had the mortification of seeing our boys retire at a double. I ordered my gun to swing round and we checked the pursuit by pouring in a heavy enfilade fire on the pursuing Turco. This broke him up and gave our boys time to collect and take up a fair position which their supports had managed to get ready. Just then we noticed that the new line was in the rear of us, so that our position, which had been isolated all through was now liable to a daring enfilade on the right. We at once started digging and throwing up a parapet to meet this new danger, when I was thunderstruck to see our left, which had been really well reinforced, give way and retreat. You can guess our opinion of our chances. There we were, out in front, dug right in, no protection on our right or left and enfilade fire coming on us and our retreating troops. When suddenly the "Lousy Liz" lost her name for ever. She is now "The Lady." Like a bolt from the blue a 15" shell fell fair in among the pursuing enemy. Before they could rally another fell, then another. A panic set up and the momentary triumph of John Turco was over." (Captain Dixon Hearder, 11th (Western Australia) Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, AIF)

 

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SOURCE: IWM DOCS: D. Hearder, Typescript account, Landing of the 3rd Brigade, p.10

Peter Hart

28 April 1915

ANZAC - Our first New Zealand perspective of the fighting at Anzac. Colonel William Malone was a gruff old civilian-soldier born in 1859 and with little tolerance for those he that did not match his own high standards in every respect. He had a bias against Australians that he rarely failed to express with his habitual bluntness.

Lieutenant-Colonel William Malone, Wellington Battalion, New Zealand Brigade, NZ&A Division, NZEF

"There is no question but that the New Zealander is a long, long way the better soldier of the two. The Australian, is a dashing chap, but he is not steadfast, and he will not or would not dig, work. He came here to kill Turks, not to dig, and consequently, we have suffered. There are lots of good men and good officers among them, but they are not disciplined or trained like our men. The New Zealander is a long way the better soldier, more steadfast, better disciplined and a worker. I don't like the average Australian a bit, in fact I dislike him!"

In the extremely stressful conditions that existed in the Wellingtons positions up on Walkers Ridge on 28 April it is not surprising that Malone thought and said things that a more mature reflection or armchair analysis might find abhorrent.

"We are well dug in. The Turks keep trying to blast us away and thro the day killed three or four and rounded eight or nine The ground is covered with scrub. We go on digging and are shelled and rifle fired at night and day, but thanks to our excellent digging our casualties get less. I insisted on the Australians being all withdrawn. General Walker asked if I could hold on without them. I told him they were a source of weakness. All last night they kept up a blaze of rifle fire, into the dark at the Turks who they could not see and thus drew fire. The Turks knowing where we were. I tried to stop them but it was useless. About lam Colonel Braund came to me for more ammunition. I refused to give it to him telling him he was wasting enough and only informing the Turks that he was scared. He insisted and said responsibility on me. I sat tight and told him to go see General Walker as without his order I absolutely refused to give him any more ammunition. At 6am the Australians left. It was an enormous relief to see the last of them. I believe they are spasmodically brave and probably the best of them had been killed or wounded. They have been I venture to think badly handled and trained - officers in most cases no good. I am thinking of asking for a Court Martial on Colonel Braund. It makes me mad when I think of my grand men being sacrificed by his incapacity and folly. He is I believe a brave chap because he did not keep out of the racket. If he had it would have been better for us."

It is worth noticing that many other people admired the performance of Lieutenant Colonel George Braund (an Australian Member of Parliament who had raised and then commanded the 2nd Australian Battalion) who had helped hold the exposed positions up on Russell's Top and the Nek above Walkers Ridge..

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SOURCE: W. G. Malone quoted J. Crawford, "No Better Death: The Great War Diaries and Letters of William G Malone"(Auckland: Reed Publishing Ltd, 2005), p.167 This is an excellent book and in my view should be in everyone's Gallipoli library. The photo shows the Wellingtons digging in on Walkers Ridge. It is from the Malone Family Collection and was is reproduced from p.166 of No Better Death.

Peter Hart

 

29 April 1915

GALLIPOLI - The manifold problems facing his expeditionary force were already very clear to General Sir Ian Hamilton, the commander of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, as he pondered his fast-diminishing prospects aboard the flagship Queen Elizabeth.

"A biggish sea running, subsiding as the day went on - and my mind grew calmer with the waves. For we are living hand-to-mouth now in every sense. Two days' storm would go very near starving us. Until we work up some weeks' reserve of water, food and cartridges, I shan't sleep sound. Have lent Birdwood four Battalions of the Royal Naval Division and two more Battalions are landing at Helles to form my own reserve. Two weak Battalions; that is the exact measure of my executive power to shape the course of events; all the power I have to help either d'Amade or Hunter-Weston. Water is a worry; weather is a worry; the shelling from Asia is a thorn in my side. The sailors had hoped they would be able to shield the southern point of the Peninsula by interposing their ships but they can't. Their gunnery won't run to it - was never meant to run to it - and with five going aeroplanes we can't do the spotting. Our Regiments, too, will not be their superb selves again - won't be anything like themselves - not until they get their terrible losses made good. There is no other way but fresh blood for it is sheer human nature to feel flat after an effort. Any violent struggle for life always lowers the will to fight even of the most cut-and-come-again: - don't I remember well when Sir George asked me if the Elandslaagte Brigade had it in them to storm Pepworth? I had to tell him they were still the same Brigade but not the same men. No use smashing in the impregnable sea front if we don't get a fresh dose of energy to help us to push into the, as yet, very pregnable hinterland. Since yesterday morning, when I saw our men scatter right and left before an enemy they would have gone for with a cheer on the 25th or 26th, - ever since then I have cursed with special bitterness the lack of vision which leaves us without that 10 per cent margin above strength which we could, and should, have had with us. The most fatal heresy in war, and, with us, the most rank, is the heresy that battles can be won without heavy loss - I don't care whether it is in men or in ships. The next most fatal heresy is to think that, having won the battle, decimated troops can go on defeating fresh enemies without getting their 10 per cent renewed "

Notice that Hamilton is still underestimating the seriousness of the situation and blaming relatively trivial matters like the fact that the ten per cent reinforcements were not sent out with the original units. What he misses is that perhaps if his plans had concentrated the resources they had instead of dissipating them, then they might have achieved a little more.

After Hamilton had paid a visit ashore in the Helles sector, HMS Queen Elizabeth then steamed off up to Anzac where the old warrior obviously wanted to get closer to the action. There is much to admire as well as criticise about Hamilton.

"After watching our big guns shooting at the enemy's field pieces for some time I could stand it no longer - the sightseeing I mean - and boarded the destroyer _Colne_ which took me towards the beach. Commodore Keyes came along, also Pollen, Dawnay and Jack Churchill. Our destroyer got within a 100 yards or so of the shore when we had to tranship into a picquet boat owing to the shallow water. Quite a good lot of bullets were plopping into the water, so the Commodore ordered the _Colne_ to lie further out. At this distance from the beach, withdrawn a little from the combat, (there was a hottish scrimmage going on), and yet so close that friends could be recognised, the picture we saw was astonishing. No one has ever seen so strange a spectacle and I very much doubt if any one will ever see it again. The Australians and New Zealanders had fixed themselves into the crests of a series of high sandy cliffs, covered, wherever they were not quite sheer, with box scrub. These cliffs were not in the least like what they had seemed to be through our glasses when we reconnoitred them at a distance of a mile or more from the shore. Still less were they like what I had originally imagined them to be from the map. Their features were tumbled, twisted, scarred - unclimbable, one would have said, were it not that their faces were now pock-marked with caves like large sand-martin holes, wherein the men were resting or taking refuge from the sniping. From the trenches that ran along the crest a hot fire was being kept up, and swarms of bullets sang through the air, far overhead for the most part, to drop into the sea that lay around us. Yet all the time there were full five hundred men fooling about stark naked on the water's edge or swimming, shouting and enjoying themselves as it might be at Margate. Not a sign to show that they possess the things called nerves. While we were looking, there was an alarm, and long, lean figures darted out of the caves on the face of the cliffs and scooted into the firing line, stooping low as they ran along the crest. The clatter of the musketry was redoubled by the echoing cliffs, and I thought we had dropped in for a scrap of some dimensions as we disembarked upon a fragile little floating pier and were met by Birdie and Admiral Thursby. A full General landing to inspect overseas is entitled to a salute of seventeen guns - well, I got my dues. But there is no crisis; things are quieter than they have been since the landing, Birdie says, and the Turks for the time being have been beat. He tells me several men have already been shot whilst bathing but there is no use trying to stop it: they take the off chance. So together we made our way up a steep spur, and in two hours had traversed the first line trenches and taken in the lie of the land. Half way we met Generals Bridges and Godley, and had a talk with them, my first, with Bridges, since Duntroon days in Australia. From the heights we could look down on to the strip of sand running northwards from Ari Burnu towards Suvla Bay. There were machine guns here which wiped out the landing parties whenever they tried to get ashore North of the present line. The New Zealanders took these with the bayonet, and we held five or six hundred yards more coast line until we were forced back by Turkish counter-attacks in the afternoon and evening of the 25th. The whole stretch is now dominated by Turkish fire from the ridges, and along it lie the bodies of those killed at the first onset, and afterwards in the New Zealand bayonet charge. Several boats are stranded along this no man's land; so far all attempts to get out at night and bury the dead have only led to fresh losses. No one ever landed out of these boats - so they say. Towards evening we re-embarked on the Colne and at the very moment of transhipment from the picquet boat the enemy opened a real hot shrapnel fire, plastering with impartiality and liberality our trenches, our beaches and the sea. The Colne was in strangely troubled water, but, although the shot fell all about her, neither she nor the picquet boat was touched. Five minutes later we should have caught it properly! The Turkish guns are very well hidden now, and the Queen Elizabeth can do nothing against them without the balloon to spot; we can't often spare one of our five aeroplanes for Gaba Tepe. Going back we had some long range shots with the 15-inch guns at batteries in rear of Achi Baba."

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SOURCE: I. Hamilton, "Gallipoli Diary", Vol. I, (London; Edward Arnold, 1920) 175-176 & 178-179

 

Peter Hart

30 April 1915

DARDANELLES - Lt-Commander Henry Hugh Gordon Dacre Stoker - Submarine AE2, commanded by Irishman Stoker, was on its way to rendezvous with Lt-Commander Edward Boyle VC and Submarine E14, just off Kara Burnu Point in the Sea of Marmara. For Stoker and his crew their luck was quickly running out. Stoker surfaced at the prearranged point and noticed a Turkish torpedo boat approaching from the west. He immediately dived AE2 to avoid detection, but it was too late, his submarine was spotted.

The Turkish boat was Sultanhisar, commanded by Captain Ali Rıza Bey with predominantly a German crew. Riza had only just been ordered to return to Istanbul because another torpedo boat, Basra, was on its way to replace them, when their luck was about to change. At around 8.00 am on 30 April, when she was off the Marmara Island, a crew member of the Sultanhisar spotted a submarine surfacing. Riza immediately gave the order to open fire on the periscope and gave chase. He recalled the action:

"I did not want the enemy to escape; I was certain that we had damaged the submarines periscope with our shots. I was circling around the point where I had last spotted the submarine,, hoping to see her again. Suddenly I heard one of my men shout: "Its surfacing!". I saw the big black shadow of a giant monster surfacing right in front of our ship. Our distance to the submarine was approximately 1500 metres. I gave instruction to start firing and immediately put the engine at full speed, approaching the already submerging monster. At the same time I saw a torpedo rushing towards us through the water like a dolphin breaking the waves, missing us by only a few metres." [Ali Rıza's account does differ at this point when compared to Stokers official report. Stoker argued that he did not fire any torpedoes".

The AE2 was in trouble and damaged. Riza had fired his last torpedo, the first fell overboard, whereas the second was a miss. It looked to Riza like the submarine was going to escape when it started to emerge once again, almost in front of Sultanhisar. Riza recalled:

"This is when I read 'AE2' along her side. I thought something must be wrong, otherwise why would she surface so recklessly. Having no torpedoes left, we continued firing our cannons. I did not have much hope in fatally damaging the submarine by cannon fire, so I decided to ram into the 800-ton monster with my meagre 93-ton boat, hoping to tear a hole in her big hull. At that very instance, I saw a British flag being raised and sailors coming out on deck and diving into the sea. The last sailor on board, whom I later learned to be the captain of the submarine, was standing on the deck of the sinking vessel and saluting the flag. I felt a deep respect for this brave man performing his last duty for his beloved submarine. I sent two dinghies to pick up the sailors and the captain. I instructed my sailors to be gentle with the enemy and show them the traditional Turkish hospitality as much as could be appreciated in the circumstances. When the captain of the enemy submarine came up on board, I shook his hand and introduced myself as Ali Riza. He introduced himself as Captain Stoker."

AE2's war was over, and Stoker and crew were on their way to spend the next three and a half years in a Prisoner of War camp were treatment was not always 'gentle'. Unfortunately, four of AE2's crew would not be returning, their bodies remain interred in Turkish soil. For Turkey this little action would be turned into a great propaganda boost, and would make Ali Riza a national hero.

 

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SOURCE: AE2 Denizalti Gemisini Marmara'da Nasil Batirdim? (How I Sank the AE2 Submarine in the Sea of Marmara) Publisher unknown, Istanbul 1947.

 

Stephen Chambers