The Landing on V Beach

From a newspaper cutting pasted in Captain Guy Nightingale's Diary - October 1915, 

The brunt of the fighting fell on the 29th Division, whose deeds in Gallipoli will assure them a place in history only equalled by the 10th Legion and Wellingtons Peninsular Veterans.

The plan for landing the 29th Division on the Gallipoli Peninsula at Cape Helles on 25 April 1915 was that five beaches were to be attacked simultaneously.

The main attack was to be on V and W beach, a subsidiary attack on X beach and flanking parties on S beach (Morto Bay) and Y beach

It was decided by the Allies to make a daylight landing because of the navy’s fears about local currents and reefs, which made them hesitant about landing a large body of men at night.

The landings were supported by 18 Battleships, 12 Cruisers, and 29 Destroyers

The landing at 'V' Beach was to be made by  The Royal Munster Fusiliers, The Royal Dublin Fusiliers, Hampshire Fusiliers, West Riding Field Royal Engineers, together with Field ambulances and Anson Battn RN Division

All the troops were under the command of Lieut-Colonel Carrington-Smith of the Hampshire Regiment

When I first read Morriarty's diary what struck me was the casual first entry which seemed to underplay the horror of that first day.

Sunday 25 April 1915

Landed on Turkish soil under a terrific fire from enemy entrenchments. Battalion lost about 17 killed and 200 wounded.

I lay in the open from 7am till 5pm and did not get a scratch. Dug ourselves in that night snipers going all night but we did not return their fire. Food for 24 hrs 2 biscuits and some water.

In fact there were very heavy casualties, on the landing and in the subsequent actions. Captain Guy Nightingale of the Munsters wrote in his diary (PRO 30/71/5) on 25 April 1915 that the Dublins lost 560 men and 21 officers in 15 minutes landing in open boats and in August 1915 he wrote  "number of men serving with the battalion (Munsters) when it left the UK was 1000 men, now there are 149, of these 149 men, 75 have been wounded and returned to the battalion 

V beach was to prove a difficult task and Sir Ian Hamilton admitted that he wished he had left it alone. 

Douglas Jerrold in the History of the RND says – V beach was, of all the landing beaches the most suitable for defence. The beach itself was no more than 10 yards wide and edged by a small but perpendicular bank of sand, not above 5 or 6 feet high. Beyond was a green amphitheatre rising over a gentle slope some 200 yards long to a height of 200 feet above the sea. It was commanded by Sed el Bahr castle and the slope was covered with trenches and dugouts invisible from the shore and deep enough to withstand the preliminary bombardment.

It remains a mystery why the Turks with their resources didn’t level the bank which would have made the landing much more difficult, even impossible.

Captain Geddes description - V Beach formed an Amphitheatre about 300X in diameter with Sed-Ell-Bahr fort on the Right, and on the Left high cliffs surmounted by Fort No.1. In no instance was the range greater than 300 yards.

There were two lines of trenches in front of each barb wire fence, the most fearsome I saw on any front. Solid metal stakes riveted to plates sunk in the ground. Each belt of wire was about 15 feet thick. 

I estimated the strength of the Turks at 400 to 500, with 2 Pom-Pom and 6 Machine Guns.

There was little or no fire from Sed-Ell-Bahr. The fire came chiefly from the high ground in enfilade from the Left. and the Village itself.

On Four Fronts with the RND - V Beach is admirably suited for defence and the enemy had taken full advantage of the lie of the land. Sedd el Bahr village although severely handled by our ships, still afforded great protection for Turkish machine gunners and snipers, and every house had been turned into a miniature fort.

Mistakenly it had been presumed that the preliminary barrage from HMS Albion would devastate the willingness of the Turkish troops to resist but it was not the case.

Part of the 29th Division was to be landed from the River Clyde on V Beach preceded by some 700 men in boat tows

Deploying about 2800 men V beach was to be the most important of the landings on Cape Helles and success depended on the forts being taken early and the troops from the other beaches being able to join up.

The River Clyde was a collier of around 2000 tons and was converted into a 'Horse of Troy' by cutting sally ports through the steel plates in her sides. She held about 2,100 troops together with the necessary crew, and had eight machine guns mounted on her decks at the bows in a protected barricade.

The orders for the day are in the Munster War diaries as follows

Operation Order no 1 by Lt Col Tizzard, commanding 1st Battn Munster Fusiliers 24 April 1915

1. Information 

Information points to a landing on Turkish territory being opposed. The detail of landing of the covering force has already been issued

2 Intention

The first objective is the village of Sed-Ell-Bahr (exclusive) and Forts 1 and 2 inclusive. This line will be attacked vigorously as soon as a landing has been effected.

3 Objectives.

Z coy will land on the starboard side of the vessel and attack the line from the village to half way between it and Fort 1. X coy will land on the port side and attack the line extending from half way between the village and fort 1 to fort 1

W coy will support Z coy

Y coy will support X coy

2 m/c guns will follow X coy and select positions to assist attack

As soon as the line allotted to the Battn has been secured the Battn will push on and effect a junction with the Dublin Fusilier’s on the right and the Lancashire Fusiliers on the left

The plan being that half an hour after the towed boats had landed the River Clyde would run aground on V beach, troops would emerge through the sally ports on to gangways running along each side towards the bows of the vessel. These gangways then led down to two barges, which were to form a gangway to shore.

The barges which would form the gangway to shore were to be towed alongside the vessel, and with the forward impetus, they would shoot forward when the vessel was beached. They could then be manoeuvred into position so that the troops could run along them to shore and so land quickly, form up, and develop the attack.

That was the plan!!!

What follows is a combination of reports from the Munster’s war diaries in PRO ref no WO 95, and the source books mentioned

Captain G W Geddes X Company Commander 1st Royal Munster Fusiliers -

Dawn broke on April 25th. a beautiful morning and not a breath of wind and a slight haze which rapidly disappeared.

At 05.00 hours the naval bombardment of the Turkish defences commenced, all troops were ordered below decks.

About this time three companies of Royal Dublin Fusiliers and one platoon of Anson Battallion RND embarked from mine sweepers into Six tows of boats, each made up of a pinnace and four cutters. They were intended to land half an hour in advance of the men from the River Clyde. Five tows onto V beach and 1 tow to Camber, a small harbour to the right of V beach.

Defeat at Gallipoli

- The boats were near to the entrance to the Dardenells, they encountered the full force of the current and their progress was delayed. When they failed to appear the naval bombardment of V beach continued until about 6:30 am

The River Clyde had begun her approach intending to beach half an hour after the boats but started to overtake them. To avoid the confusion of the second wave of troops landing before the first, Commander Unwin steered the Clyde on a circular course through the crowded water. After turning 360 degrees the River Clyde began her second approach, she was still slightly ahead but nothing could be done.

Reports talk of the many small boats that were milling about – lighters, tugs and auxiliary craft – all necessary for landing troops from open boats onto a hostile shore.

Gallipoli by Robert R James

- The Turks had been shaken but not obliterated by the naval bombardment. The interval between the shelling and the actual landing was a reprieve for them; they had time to return to their trenches to take up fighting positions again.

The River Clyde beached according to plan in water that was out of the men's depth. (And there she remained throughout the whole of the campaign.)

Captain Guy Nightingale who was on the Clyde wrote in a letter dated 1 May 1915 -  the water was shallower than they thought and the Clyde was stuck about 80 yards out.

Geddes -

None of us felt it, there was no jar. As she beached 2 Companies of the Dublins in "Tows" came up on the Port side and were met with a terrific rifle and machine gun fire. They were literally slaughtered like rats in a trap. Many men sank owing to the weight of their equipment and were drowned. The carnage on 'V' Beach was chilling, dead and wounded lay at the waters edge tinted crimson from their blood.

Gallipoli – Nigel Steel

After being set adrift by their steam pinnaces, the boats had to row the last few hundred yards to the shore. The Turks waited until the men tossed their oars and were within 20 yards of the shore and swept them with fire.

Lt Col Tizzard

said - I don’t think that out of the 240 men in the boats more than 40 got ashore without being hit – most were killed outright, many sank from exhaustion and loss of blood and were drowned, the water by this time was red with blood

Guy Nightingale – As each boat got near the shore snipers shot down the oarsmen. The boats then began to drift, and machine gun fire was turned onto them, you could see the men dropping everywhere, and of the first boat load of 40 men only 3 reached the shore, all wounded. In his diary entry for 25 April 1915 he says the Dublins lost 21 Officers and 560 men in 15 minutes.

Another source (Defeat at Gallipoli) says that there were 700 men in the boats and only 300 made the shore

The troops on the River Clyde waiting under cover to disembark watched in horror as their comrades in open boats were annihilated

Lt Col Tizzard  - As the River Clyde came inshore a very heavy fire from rifles, machine guns and pom-poms was directed at her, also at the boat tows that ran in along side soon after. This fire was so accurate that those in the boats were practically wiped out and very few got ashore. Wounded men jumped from the boats and took cover on the far side but were all eventually shot down and drowned. The lighters alongside the vessel which were to have formed a gangway to the shore went wide of the vessel and very gallant efforts were made by Commander Edward Unwin RNR – attached to the River Clyde and midshipman Drury to rectify this, which was eventually done

Defeat at Gallipoli -

In fact this was a remarkable feat, they had to connect a line to a rocky spit instead of the shore, there was nowhere to fix the boats so Unwin (who was 51 years old) submerged himself and wound the line around himself using his body as an anchor point. He was helped by Drury,

The first few men got ashore then a shell splinter hit Drury. To prevent him drowning Unwin released the line and the heavy lighter was pulled away by the current just as the second wave led by Captain Geddes was starting to emerge on the port gangway

Geddes -

The lighters swung crossways across the bows of the River CLYDE. In the meantime the Dublin’s were struggling to get ashore.

Within five minutes of the "Clyde" beaching Z Company got away on the Starboard side. The gangway on the Port-side jammed, and delayed X. Company for a few seconds. and off we went the men cheering wildly, and dashed ashore with Z. Company.

We got it like anything, man after man behind me was shot down but they never wavered. Lieut. Watts who was wounded in five places and lying on the gangway cheered the men on with cries of "follow the Captain".

Captain French of the Dublins told me afterwards that he counted the first 48 men to follow me, and they all fell. I think no finer episode could be found of the men’s bravery and discipline than this - of leaving the safety of the River Clyde to go to what was practically certain death.

Leaving the Clyde I dashed down the gangway and found the Lighters were already holding the dead and wounded from the leading platoons. I stepped on the second lighter and looked round to find myself alone, and yelled to the men following out of the Clyde to come on, but it was difficult going across the lighters then I jumped into the Sea and had to swim some dozen strokes to get ashore. There is no doubt that men were drowned owing chiefly, I think, to the great weight they were carrying - a full pack, 250 rounds of ammunition, and 3 days rations - I know I felt it. All the Officers were dressed and equipped like the men.