Gallipoli
Page 30
Private Daniel Joiner, 1st KOSB, 87th Brigade, 29th Division
It had been a fantastic performance against the odds, but could they consolidate and hold their gains when the Turks reorganised and brought up their reserves? Behind the Borderers were the 1/5th Royal Scots. Captain Albert Mure had a first-class view of the pathetic performance of the RND armoured cars as they were thwarted by a combination of trenches and Turkish road blocks.
An armoured car came with them, spitting and puffing and lumbering along. Nothing so ugly or so awkward ever was seen outside of a zoo! The very amateur bridge that the Engineers had tossed up for them was just beside my phone. The car made for it. She got on to the planks all right; then her off hind-wheel slipped over the side, and down she came on to the axle, and pretty well on to my head. Nothing could be done, so the naval officer in charge and the gunner climbed out. In getting out the naval petty officer was seriously wounded.58
Captain Albert Mure, 1/5th Royal Scots, 88th Brigade, 29th Division
Armoured warfare seemed a very long way in the future. Soon the ditched armoured car attracted the shell fire of the Turks and Mure had a remarkable escape.
I had just written out two messages and given them to two orderlies. I felt restless, and got up, turned about aimlessly, and moved away some 10 yards. That restlessness saved my life. At that moment a shell crashed into the trench and exploded precisely where I had been sitting. Frankly, it made me feel peculiar. I remember that I stumbled a bit as I walked on, thinking that if I had stayed where I was, or gone the other way, I should, by now, have been blown to little bits. I finished what I wanted to do and went back to the trench. I met one of my orderlies, who, fortunately for him, had left immediately with the first message I had written. He had bits of shrapnel in his jaw, in his elbow, and in his back. I bound him up and packed him off. I got back into the trench, and saw what I had not seen before, for the smoke had cleared now. My other orderly lay dead with my message still in his hand. His body and his head lay 4 or 5 feet apart. Two of my signallers were killed also, and mutilated so horribly that to describe their condition would be inexcusable. I stood for a moment and gazed at the wreckage: wreck of trench, wreck of phone, wreck of men, and then I sat dully down on the mud floor of the trench.59
Captain Albert Mure, 1/5th Royal Scots, 88th Brigade, 29th Division
To the right of the 29th Division was the 42nd Division. The Lancashire territorials had been rank amateurs when they had landed at Helles just four weeks before. Frightened by the noise of battle, afraid of the dark, terrified by the sight of mangled human remains, unable to perform even the simplest of military tasks, they had been all but useless. But they had matured in the trenches, learnt to control themselves under fire, and now they were ready for battle. The attack was carried out by the Manchesters of the 127th Brigade.
I shall never forget the moment when we had to leave the shelter of the trenches. It is indeed terrible, the first step you take – right in the face of the most deadly fire, and to realise that any moment you may be shot down; but if you are not hit, then you seem to gather courage. And when you see on either side of you men like yourself, it inspires you with a determination to press forward. Away we went over the parapet with fixed bayonets – one line of us like the wind. But it was absolute murder, for men fell like corn before the sickle. I had not gone more than 20 yards beyond our first trench, about 60 yards in all, when I was shot through the left leg about 5 inches above the knee. At once I realised what had happened, for it seemed as though someone had taken a red-hot gimlet and suddenly thrust it right through my leg. I dropped immediately and could not go any further.60
Private Ridley Sheldon, 1/6th Manchester Regiment, 127th Brigade, 42nd Division
Private Jack Gatley was more fortunate and made it through to leap down into the Turkish front line, where he became caught up in hand-to-hand battle.
It was a shambles and the slaughter was terrible on each side, and here we were at a disadvantage as the enemy were using bombs with deadly effect and we were being blown to pieces. This drove us into a frenzy of rage and we went at them like madmen, they nearly drove us out as they were three to one, but we rallied and at last we drove them out and had captured the trench and many prisoners as they were scrambling out. I caught hold of one that was carrying a flag on a long stick, he was almost over when I jumped at him and grabbed the end of the stick and tried to pull him down, suddenly he broke away and dropping his flag levelled his rifle straight at my face, I thought I was done for but I got the first shot in and he fired as he fell with the flag under him, I took the flag as a memento. It was a near thing for me.61
Private Jack Gatley, 1/7th Manchester Regiment, 127th Brigade, 42nd Division
They would now hold this trench while the other two companies followed up the retreating Turks.
The 127th Brigade managed to break through to a depth of between 1,000 and 1,200 yards, thereby taking the last organised Turkish trenches visible before the outskirts of the Krithia village in front of them. It was a considerable achievement that marked the coming of age of the 42nd Division.
Next in line were the RND, who launched the 2nd Naval Brigade into the attack. This previously ramshackle formation had gained an impressive variety of military skills over the past month, but the blast of fire after the temporary suspension of the bombardment had let them know that the Turks were well and truly ready for them. Still, over the top they went.
Off we go and up we went over the ladder. The moment we started to leave the trench at this traverse, 10–12 feet long, where we were, there were men falling back into the trench or on the parapet. There was dead all over the place. My Platoon Commander got through, I followed him up there. Parsons had already been killed. We got into dead ground. The Petty Officer said, ‘Well, come on, lad! C’mon!’ We moved again and then lay down to get a breather. He was an old reservist, his bald head glittering in the sun – he’d lost his helmet. He was up on the trench with his rifle and bayonet, ‘C’mon! C’mon!’ Around his head he’d got a white handkerchief and blood pouring down his face just like the pictures in the London Illustrated. He was bleeding dreadfully. I wanted to keep up with him but he was now 20 yards ahead of me. I got to the trench and in I go – it was 10 feet deep! There was one or two dead, nobody alive.62
Ordinary Seaman Joe Murray, Hood Battalion, 2nd Naval Brigade, RND
They had succeeded in taking three trenches but had suffered severe casualties. And their attack was faltering. Sustained success would depend on the rapid arrival of reserve troops.
On the far right of the line the French were faced by the Haricot Redoubt that still barred their progress along the western bank of Kereves Dere. The Turks had retaliated in devastating fashion with their own artillery. And then the dreaded rattle of the machine guns and massed small arms tore into the French poilus.
They weren’t able to advance a step. I was informed by telephone: on the English side they had made a little progress towards Krithia, but on our front it was a disaster. Our poor foot soldiers were slaughtered in the middle of the Turkish fortifications put up just the night before as if they had guessed our intentions. The enemy had benefited from the pause in our fire, and the moment of hesitation by our infantry (who were wondering if it had really finished) to reoccupy the front lines, that were hardly damaged and to get in place all their machine guns. The result was that our poor poilus, caught up in the barbed wire and chevaux de frise, were slowed in their tracks and then literally mowed down by the machine guns.63
Second Lieutenant Raymond Weil, 39th Régiment d’Artillerie, 1st Division, CEO
The French assault had been a disaster. It was not their fault: it was almost impossible for them to make progress against well-dug-in Turks, covered on one flank by the chasm of Kereves Dere. The consequences for the British would be dire. As the French attack broke down, the RND began to experience enfilading fire from their right flank. The Collingwood Battalion was slaughtered a
s they advanced in support of the Hood attack at 12.15, losing hundreds before they even reached the original British front line.
The battle now appeared to lie in the balance. Hunter-Weston and Gouraud had a choice whether to use their last reserves to support the success of the 42nd Division in the centre or order a renewed effort by the French and the 29th Indian Brigade. Historical commentators present this as a stark choice between supporting success or failure, with victory the reward for the right option, but this view ignores the Turkish position. For the Turks had plentiful reserves and the faltering Allied attack threatened little that firm resistance and counter-attacks could not contain. Hunter-Weston and Gouraud chose to try again on the flanks. A renewed attack was ordered. The French reserves were deployed on the right alongside the RND, while the reinforced 29th Indian Brigade were to try again on the left. In the event, almost nothing happened as the French were simply unable to mount another attack in the dreadful circumstances that still prevailed in front of the Haricot. The gallant efforts of the reinforced 29th Indian Brigade only added to the slaughter. Nothing had changed since the attack scant hours before.
The consequences of the French failure were now working their way across the battlefield as the Turks viciously counter-attacked, pressing into the right flank of the RND who had little chance to consolidate or dig vital communication trenches back across No Man’s Land. Sometime after 12.30 an ignominious retreat to their old front line began. It was a process fraught with danger. Ordinary Seaman Joe Murray was in a fairly dazed state in the Turkish second line.
I remember seeing two officers away to my left – Denis Browne was one – taking about fifty men going forward. We went forward about half a dozen of us to a bit of a ditch – that was considered to be the third trench. All of a sudden the right flank started retiring, the Anson Battalion. We were forced to retire, hopped back, jumped over the second trench; then we scampered back to his first trench. I thought, ‘Well now, if we can stop here we can hold them here!’ I kept on turning round and firing, but there wasn’t much opposition from the front, I couldn’t understand why we were retiring, we weren’t being pressed at all. We were almost near his first trench. I was out of puff, so tired and I thought, ‘One more trot and I shall be in the trench!’ But when I got there it was full of Turks! So instead of stopping over the trench I leapt over the top and I was helped over by a bayonet stuck right in the posterior – right in the nick!!!! I went falling right in front of the trench into a shell hole, lying flat in there.64
Ordinary Seaman Joe Murray, Hood Battalion, 2nd Naval Brigade, RND
Murray had to stay there for hours with a Turk, oblivious to his presence, firing a rifle through a loophole just above his head. He only managed to get back to the British front line when night fell. With the chastened men of the RND back in their jumping-off trenches the pressure shifted to the right flank of the 42nd Division. Private Jack Gatley was busy in the old Turkish front line when the Turks began to push along the trench.
We are consolidating our position and securing dugouts and take many more prisoners that are hiding in them. The whole trench is a shambles with dead and dying, limbless trunks are lying all over the place and the whole bottom of the trench is running with blood which we have to move about in, arms, legs and heads are strewn about and being added to every minute by shells from the front and bombs from the right. We searched for the dead and wounded and took all bombs from their haversacks, and used them on the right. Wounded were lying about groaning in pain until taken away to the dressing station.65
Private Jack Gatley, 1/7th Manchester Regiment, 127th Brigade, 42nd Division
If they had given way then his comrades who had advanced into the Turkish second and third lines would have been totally cut off. The old No Man’s Land lay like an open wasteland behind them, preventing reinforcement.
We are parched with thirst, the position here is terrible, what few men are left are spaced out at some distance apart with less chance of being hit. Lieutenant Hamilton and a few men started to fill all the spare sandbags we carried and with these built up the gap making a barrier between us, but a lot of men were lost in doing so. It eased the strain for a while. But they started lobbing bombs over amongst us and did terrible damage as we had no more to reply with, so we caught some bombs as they came over and returned them. A fellow named Rawlinson was hit by a bomb, it exploded under his chin and blew the whole of his face off from ear to ear and it hung down on his chest, the poor chap walked about groping his way and making an awful groaning noise, until someone placed an empty sandbag over his head and lead him away, he died before night, it is a sight that lives in my mind still.66
Private Jack Gatley, 1/7th Manchester Regiment, 127th Brigade, 42nd Division
The Manchesters just about managed to hold on and the Turks never got past their crude ramshackle barricade. During the night the shortage of men meant that the survivors had no choice but to fall back. Among them was Private Jack Morten.
We then got the order to retire to the first trench we had taken, which was about 500 yards to the rear, so we started off at the double. It seemed an awfully long 500 yards, as after advancing about 1,000 yards we were pretty jiggered. On I ran with the bullets whistling past and men on either side of me dropping down shot. I fell twice from sheer exhaustion and finished up walking. At last I reached the trench and dived over the parapet like a shot rabbit, none the worse, thank God, but absolutely jiggered.67
Private Jack Morten, 1/7th Manchester Regiment, 127th Brigade, 42nd Division
It was on 5 June that it became apparent that the Allies were no longer directing the course of the Third Battle of Krithia. The Turks were fully in control and at dawn launched a series of vigorous counter-attacks that not only threatened the remaining gains of the day before, but sought to undermine the entire Allied front.
There was a heavy sea mist hanging over everywhere and it was not properly light yet, they were almost on us before we realised they were coming. We poured a continuous rapid fire into the Turks, we had only two machine guns in our line and these joined in, we simply mowed the Turks down in front but they still came on yelling, ‘Allah! Allah!’ They were trying to drive us out and so link up with the Turks on our right and recapture all their own line back. We kept up rapid fire all the while they advanced on us and our rifle barrels are almost red hot and burnt our hands as we gripped them. Still they came on, and nearer, until it looked as though we should be swamped out by overwhelming numbers, still we kept up the fire and our slightly wounded men replenished our stacks of ammunition as we used them up. Then our artillery took a hand and set up a barrage on the advancing enemy with shrapnel and did terrible havoc. This was the turning point, they retreated and were chased by rapid fire.68
Private Jack Gatley, 1/7th Manchester Regiment, 127th Brigade, 42nd Division
The aftermath of battle proved too much for Captain Mure of the 1/5th Royal Scots. Suffering from a form of shell shock, he could not control either his body or his nerves.
I felt that there was something very wrong with me. I couldn’t quite diagnose what it was. My spine seemed to be misplaced, and to be made of glue rather than of bone; yet I could walk all right. I went back at about half-past seven, and started my usual evening’s work. But I was listless. I could neither rest nor really work. Nothing interested me – nothing! I gave it up and lay down, but I couldn’t sleep. At half-past seven I struggled down to the gully for breakfast. It was torture to walk. It was torture to think. It was double torture to be. I remember chatting quite cheerfully with someone, I cannot recall with whom, as I began to eat, and then something suddenly snapped, and I collapsed into a sort of maudlin, weeping condition. I was all in. I felt that I was going silly, and that I must have a rest, if only for one day. I had been under fire for forty-two days.69
Captain Albert Mure, 1/5th Royal Scots, 88th Brigade, 29th Division
In a daze of confusion Mure was evacuated from W Beach, at least for
the moment a broken man; one among many.
Over the next two days there was some desperate fighting. The Turkish counter-attacks were so vigorous that at times they threatened to break through themselves, there were so few Allied reserves at hand to plug gaps in the line. 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 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) ran back, promoting equal chaos in the second line (H11) whose garrison also fell back in terror. 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 managed not only to stop the rout, but to rally his men 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 the weak points in the line. Key to breaking up the Turkish attacks was the artillery. Australian Gunner Ralph Doughty of the 2nd Battery, 1st Field Artillery Brigade was among those who played a vital part in keeping back the rampaging Turks on 6 June.