Turkey Guide On Line
Turkey Guide On Line
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For Istanbul and its museums and monuments istanbulexpert, For Cappadocia and its fantastic landscapes visit cappadociaguideonline For Turkish Carpets and kilims turkishcarpetsguide. For Bodrum ancient Halicarnassus guidebodrum. and bodrumrehberi This site sponsored by inpopanda and incicuhadar
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by RON AUSTIN photos by Mehmet CUHADAR The British landings at the Cape Helles beaches were underway before dawn on April 25th. The main landings were at V Beach where the SS RIVER CLYDE was run ashore, and at W Beach. The minor landings at S, W and Y beaches were effected with little or no opposition. Although the feint at Kum Kale by the French was successful, the French were withdrawn prematurely and shipped to Helles on the night of 26th April. The V Beach landing from the RIVER CLYDE by the Dublin, and Munster Fusiliers was a disaster, as the troops were caught by the Turkish machine guns hidden in the cliffs. The W Beach landing, like V Beach was the scene of carnage and unparalleled heroism. The commander of the British 29th Division, Major General Hunter-Weston, focused his entire attention on W Beach and ignored the tactical opportunities offered at the subsidiary beaches. Despite their heavy losses, the British gained control of Cape Helles by 26th April, and embarked on an assault on the village of Krithia on the 28th (First battle of Krithia). This attack was repulsed by the Turks, who in turn launched a major counter-attack against the British and French lines on the night of Ist May. General Hamilton, thwarted in his original attempt to capture Krithia and the Achi Baba hill, attacked for three days, using British, French, Australian and New Zealand troops. The Second Battle of Krithia is largely remembered for the inept tactical handling of the numerous advances, and for the spirited advance by the 2nd Australian Brigade on the late afternoon of 8th May. The failure of the Allied May attacks lead to a further attempt to capture Krithia on 4th June (3rd Battle of Krithia). This attack using 20,000 troops, fared no better than the May attacks, with the Turkish counter-attacks two days later recapturing most of the ground lost in the initial attack. The inability of Hamilton's army to advance up the peninsula, at last convinced London to provide the necessary reinforcements to undertake a major offensive at Suvla Bay. Lieutenant General Stopford's 10th and 11th Divisions landed at Suvla on the night of 6th August and surprised the small Turkish force holding the area. Despite having the advantage of surprise and superiority of numbers, the British IX Corps in one of the most dismal performances in modern military history, frittered away its advantages to such an extent that the Turks led by the ubiquitous Mustafa Kemal regained the initiative and prevented the British from advancing southwards and linking up with the Anzacs. Meanwhile the attacks toward the Sari Bair range and Chunuk Bair in particular (such attacks coinciding with the Australian attack at Lone Pine, the 4th Australian Brigade's advance on Hill 971, and a diversion at Helles) saw the New Zealanders get to within 400 yards of the Chunuk Bair summit. The inability of the Suvla force to link up left the New Zealanders with their left flank 'in the air' and forced them to withdraw from Chunuk Bair after suffering heavy losses. On 15th August, Hamilton sacked the bumbling Stopford, and the 21st, and 29th Divisions brought up from Helles attacked Scimitar Hill, and the 11th Division, towards W Hills. The lack of success led to Hamilton in turn being sacked on 16th October, and replaced by General Sir Charles Monro. The lack of success that followed almost every aspect of the Gallipoli campaign led the Asquith Government to now contemplate the unthinkable-evacuation Lord Kitchener, the Secretary for War, arrived at Anzac on 13th November, and reached the conclusion that with the onset of winter and the inability of the Allies to achieve victory, the Gallipoli Peninsula should be evacuated. In what was one of the few successful Allied operations, Anzac and Suvla were evacuated on 20 December 1915, and Cape Helles on 8 January 1916, amazingly without loss of life The eight months Campaign which promised so much, ended in a Turkish victory and a humiliating defeat for the Allies. The combatants suffered appalling losses-British 43,000; Australian 7594; New Zealand 2431; French 8000; Turks 66,000 killed. In retrospect it could be claimed that the Turks won the Gallipoli battle but lost the war, for in November 1918, Turkey surrendered to the Allies. |
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