Landing at Cape Helles
Map of the Dardanelles
| date | April 25 , 1915 |
|---|---|
| place | Cape Helles , Gallipoli , Ottoman Empire |
| output | narrow British victory with high losses |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 12 battalions | 1 battalion (initial) 1 regiment (total) |
Naval Operations - Arıburnu - Helles - Krithia I - Krithia II - Krithia III - Zığındere - Sarı Bayır - Kirte Bağları - Kanlısırt - Anafartalar - Anafarta - Kılıçbayır - Conk Bayırı - Scimitar Hill - Height 60
The Landing at Cape Helles was part of the amphibious landing on the Gallipoli peninsula by British and French troops during the First World War . It took place on April 25, 1915.
Cape Helles on the extreme southwest tip of the peninsula was the main landing point. With the support of the British naval artillery, the British 29th Division tried on the first day to advance six miles inland and occupy the heights of Aci Baba. From there they were to take the forts that guarded the entrance to the Dardanelles Strait. A second landing operation was carried out at the same time further north at Gaba Tepe by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC).
The landing at Cape Helles was carried out on the two main stretches of the beach - although it met only a few defensive forces - u. a. caused by the incompetence of the British division commander Major General Aylmer Hunter-Weston to a bloody disaster. Hunter-Weston, who did not even have maps of the area to be attacked and who did not overlook what was going on on the beach from his command post, failed to take advantage of the successes achieved on the poorly or not at all defended beach sections and to track troops there.
Although the British finally managed to gain a foothold on the beach and erect a landing head, they did not reach their destination for the day, the village of Krithia (Turkish Kirte , today Alçitepe ) approx. 6 km inland. During the next two months they tried again and again in several loss-making attempts to reach the stage goal they had missed on the first day and to force the decisive breakthrough; but they would not succeed again by the end of the campaign.
Starting position
The Ottoman Empire was informed of the impending attack on the Dardanelles well in advance. The British Navy had already undertaken a series of attacks that culminated on March 18 when the Anglo-French fleet under Admiral John de Robeck failed in an attempt to enter the strait with 16 battleships. Several warships were sunk through an overlooked Turkish mine belt.
After this failure it was decided that a new attempt should not be made until British landing forces had succeeded in eliminating the Turkish coastal artillery, which was guarding the entrance from several forts. The British and French were so sure of their cause that they did not even attempt to keep the preparations for this operation in Egypt a secret. The French commander spoke openly about this in an interview with an Egyptian newspaper.
By the time the British Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (MEF) was ready to land, the Turks had used the time to prepare their defense and built trenches above the beaches with barbed wire. The Ottoman 5th Army had occupied the peninsula and the Asian bank of the strait. General Otto Liman von Sanders , the German commander in chief of the 5th Army, made no particular effort to defend the beaches. He positioned only two regiments of his 9th Division (Halil Sami Bey) along the Aegean coast of the peninsula, from Helles to north of Suvla , and kept the rest of his forces in reserve to be able to quickly throw them where the landings actually took place should.
There were only two Turkish battalions between Aci Baba and Cape Helles, at the headland, where the landing finally took place, the defenders were positioned in company strength, sometimes even in platoon strength.
The British landing plan
General Sir Ian Hamilton , the commander in chief of the MEF, chose Cape Helles as the landing point because the headland there could be taken under fire by the Navy from three sides. A disadvantage of this point was the great distance to the Dardanelles forts. The forts on the Cape itself had already been eliminated in February by naval artillery and raid troops of the marine infantry ( Royal Marines ). There were two strong natural obstacles between Helles and the forts: the Aci Baba massif and the Kilitbahir plateau. In addition, the beaches at Cape Helles were only narrow and offered little space, so that only a small number of soldiers could be dropped there at a time.
Since the space at Cape Helles was limited, the Australian-New Zealander ANZAC was supposed to undertake a separate attack on its own stretch of beach 20 km further north, closer to the forts, although the terrain was less favorable. It was planned that if the attack failed there, the Australians and New Zealanders should embark again to reinforce the British troops at Cape Helles. The French were supposed to undertake a mock attack on Kumkale , on the coast of Asia Minor, opposite Cape Helles, and then cross the strait and land next to the British troops.
For the landing at Cape Helles the British 29th Division was chosen, a regular army division, which had been formed in January with units consisting of active professional soldiers from the entire British Empire . Major General Hunter-Weston was in command of the division and was to direct the entire landing operation. To this end, the division had been reinforced by the Plymouth and Anson battalions of the Royal Naval Division (RND) to a total of twelve battalions. The landing was to take place in two stages: first, a smaller advance department was to be set down with the task of manning the beach and securing the landing of the main contingent. After that, the battalions should advance to the milestones planned for the first day, the town of Krithia and Mount Aci Baba.
The landing should take place in the early morning in daylight and be initiated by a one-hour barrage of the ship's artillery, starting at 5:00 a.m. Since the ANZAC attack was planned as a surprise attack, it was to take place before sunrise and without artillery support.
The beach had been divided into five sections. These were from east (within the Dardanelles) to west (on the Aegean coast) the sections S, V, W, X and Y. The beach section of the ANZAC, in the north, was designated as Z. The main landing points were sections V and W at the extreme end of the peninsula, to the left and right of the Cape Helles headland. Section S lay within the Dardanelles and Y about 5 km further north on the Aegean Sea ; flanking landings were to be made from them to lure the Turkish defenders away from the main landing points.
The attack was to be supported by a fleet consisting of 18 ships of the line, 12 cruisers and 29 destroyers , plus a large number of merchant ships that served as troop transports. The units deployed were the Royal Munster Fusiliers (Lt Col Henry Tizzard), the Royal Dublin Fusiliers (Lt Col Richard Rooth; † April 25, 1915), the Hampshire Fusiliers (Lt Col Herbert Carrington-Smith, † April 25, 1915), the West Riding Field Royal Engineers , the RND's Anson Battalion, and some field ambulances.
Beach section V
Beach section V was about 300 meters long and was bordered on the left by Cape Helles and Fort Ertugrul (Fort No. 1) and on the right by the old Byzantine fortress Sedd el Bahr (Fort No. 3). Directly ahead was height 141. The beach section was defended by a Turkish company (from the 3rd Battalion of the 26th Regiment) with four machine guns .
The first to go ashore was the 1st Battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers with the help of tug trains - rowboats connected with ropes that were pulled by motor pinasses. Most of the troops were on board the SS River Clyde , the only ship in the squadron that had been converted for this operation. The River Clyde was a Trojan horse , a converted 4,000-ton coal tender, in which exit gates for the soldiers had been built above the waterline. The approximately 2,000 soldiers on board - the 1st Battalion of the Royal Munster Fusiliers , two companies of the 2nd Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment (of the 88th Brigade) and a company of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers - were supposed to go through these gates . leave the ship, which was set aground parallel to the beach, and reach the shore via catwalks and tied barges.
The barges of the Dubliners started at 6:00 a.m. After the previous bombardment , the bank was dead and the Dublin Fusiliers initially believed they would encounter no resistance, but as the boats neared the beach, the surviving Turkish soldiers opened a devastating fire from their carbines and machine guns. Turkish guns hit the beach and killed most of the British while they were still in the boats. Of the 700 men, only 300 made it to the beach, many of them wounded. They sought protection behind sandbars and under overhanging banks. Captain Guy Nightingale of the Munsters noted in his diary that the Dubliners lost 560 men and 21 officers in 15 minutes that day.
(Engl. V Beach Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery )
The River Clyde followed closely behind. To make it easier for the men to get to the bank, the steamboat Argyll was supposed to be a bridge between them and the bank. This maneuver failed, however, and the Argyll lay across the bank, with no connection to the River Clyde . The captain of the River Clyde , Commander Edward Unwin , eventually led a squad of men from the ship who were able to assemble a bridge of three landing craft. Two Munsters companies got off the van and tried to reach the beach, but were shot down by machine gun fire. Their rate of loss was 70 percent. At around 9:00 a.m. another company tried again, but also failed.
Hunter-Weston remained blind to the dramatic development on Beach Section V. At 8:30 am he ordered the main contingent to begin landing. At 9.30 am he ordered the vanguard to make contact with beach section W. For this purpose, a company of the Hampshire regiment left the River Clyde in a third attempt , but was also killed. The leader of the main contingent, Brigadier General Henry Edward Napier , commander of the 88th Brigade, was killed trying to lead his troops ashore. At 10:21 a.m., Lieutenant General Hamilton, who had observed what was happening on board the Queen Elizabeth , which served as the flagship and command post , ordered Hunter-Weston to abandon the operation and to land the main contingent on section W of the beach north of the Cape . The 1,000 men remaining on board the River Clyde waited the night before trying again to reach the beach. Six soldiers from the Royal Naval Division , who had kept the jetties intact, earned a Victoria Cross that day , Britain's highest honor for bravery. Lieutenant Colonel Charles Doughty-Wylie of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers , who on the morning of April 26th led the attack that eventually led to the capture of the Sedd el Bahr fortress , received his medal posthumously. The British casualties at Cape Helles amounted to around 2,000 soldiers.
Beach section W ( "Lancashire Landing" )
Beach section W, on the other side of the headland from Cape Helles, was about 350 m long and 40 m wide at the deepest point. Since there were no strong fortresses there like in Section V, the beach was mined and reinforced with extensive barbed wire barriers. The only passage was a gully that was easy to defend. About three platoons of Turkish soldiers were on this section. British sources speak of at least one machine gun, while Turkish sources claim there was none.
The 1st Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers (Major HO Bishop, the actual commander, Lt Col HVS Ormond, had already been wounded during the reconnaissance) made their way to the beach , crowded together on 32 cutters . As in Section V, the defenders did not open fire until the boats were close to the beach, but unlike there, the soldiers reached their destination and continued to work their way despite their horrific losses - knowing that it was safe to remain on the beach Meant death. The battalion lost 533 men, over half of its original strength. At 7.15 a.m., about an hour after the start of the landing, the beach section was secured. Since there was no progress in section V, the main contingent on section W went ashore.
Six soldiers of the Lancashire Fusiliers acquired a Victoria Cross on this stretch of beach, which later became known as "Lancashire Landing". The recipients were chosen by the surviving soldiers of the battalion, as all of its members were considered "equally brave and excellent".
Beach section W remained the main British base throughout the Gallipoli campaign.
Beach sections S and X
Beach sections S and X were smaller landing zones on the flanks of Sections V and W. Section S lay within the strait in Morto Bay, about 3 km from Section V. Section X was equidistant from Section W below the cliffs of the Aegean coast. The troops that landed on these sections were the division reserve and therefore had no intermediate goals of their own apart from securing the respective landing head.
The landing at Section S was carried out by three companies of the 2nd Battalion of the South Wales Borderers under Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Cassel and was completed at 7:30 a.m. The defense consisted of 15 Turkish soldiers who were captured. Their own losses were very small. This landing was assisted by the battleship HMS Cornwallis . The three companies remained without enemy contact for the next two days and were then relieved by the French when they took over the right flank at Cape Helles.
At Section X two companies from the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers were on the beach at 6.30 a.m. They didn't suffer a single failure. The twelve defenders had fled before the guns of the battleship HMS Implacable and the cruiser HMS Dublin were bombed.
Later that day, the two companies were almost thrown back into the sea by a Turkish counterattack. The 1st Battalion of the Border Regiment (Lt Col Robert Hume) and the 1st Battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (Lt Col Francis George Jones, † May 9, 1915) landed on Section X later that day.
After the first phase of the fighting, the three battalions stayed on beach section X and, as ordered, expected the main contingent to approach from sections V and W.
Beach section Y
The plan for the fifth landing had not been drawn up by General Hunter-Weston, but by Sir Ian Hamilton. Section Y lay on the Aegean coast at a considerable distance from Cape Helles, near the village of Krithia and at the rear of the Turkish defense on the Cape. The bank was narrow and essentially consisted of cliffs. The only possible path was a steep gully. Since this section seemed unsuitable for an enemy landing to the Turks , it was completely undefended. If the landing on this section had been better planned and managed, the outcome of the entire expedition would have been influenced and the fiasco could have been averted.
2,000 soldiers landed on Section Y at 5:45 a.m. They consisted of the Plymouth Battalion , RND, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Godfrey Matthews and the 1st Battalion King's Own Scottish Borderers (KOSB) under Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Koe and a company of 2nd Battalion of the South Wales Borderers .
Matthews noted that there was not a single Turkish soldier in the entire section. He and his adjutant could walk unhindered up to 500 meters from Krithia, which lay completely deserted in front of them and could have easily been taken. The British would never get so close to the village again. The orders from the landing force were very vague. They were given the task of eliminating the Turkish artillery , but found none. In addition, there were disputes over competence between the two commanders Matthews and Koe. The British did not begin to fortify their landing head until around 3:00 p.m., so their trenches were not yet completed when the Turks counterattacked at dusk.
The fighting continued all night and by dawn the British had 697 dead and wounded, including Colonel Koe. The desperate calls for reinforcements were completely ignored by Hunter-Weston. When boats were finally sent to remove the wounded, the British withdrew in complete dissolution. The landing operation on this stretch of beach was finally canceled at 11.30 am on April 26th.
In the afternoon a naval officer returned to the bank to look for the wounded who had been left behind. He was able to search the battlefield for two hours without encountering a single Turk. The Turks had all marched south to reinforce the defenders on the lower stretches of the beach.
Aftermath
The British started the Gallipoli expedition believing they would find a weak enemy. The failed Turkish attack on the Suez Canal and the Turkish raid at Alexandretta , which ended catastrophically, had reinforced this belief. This first day at Cape Helles ended the fatal misjudgment of the British leadership. By the end of the war , the British believed they were dealing with two Turkish divisions south of Aci Baba . In fact, there were only two battalions at the landing area. Three others (the remainder of the 26th regiment and one from the 25th) were not set off until the first day to Cape Helles. The remainder of the 9th Division held the Australians and New Zealanders in check in Anzac Bay near Gaba Tepe.
The Turks intended to hold a line south of Krithia. On the morning of April 27, the British initially remained in their positions and waited for the French to catch up on their right flank. Not until 4:00 p.m. did they advance together about 3 km inland. The next day the attack against Krithia and Aci Baba, which developed into the First Battle of Krithia , was supposed to start from this starting line . The April 27 delay had given the Turks the opportunity to reinforce their troops, strengthen their defenses and take the battle on a site of their choice.
The two battalions that landed on Section V - the 1st Royal Dublin Fusiliers and the 1st Royal Munster Fusiliers - were so decimated that they were merged into a mixed battalion known as "Dubsters" . They were only set up again after the evacuation of Gallipoli. The Munsters were assigned to the 48th Brigade of the 16th (Irish) Division in May 1916, the Dubliners also joined the 16th Division in October 1917. Of the 1,100 Dubliners , only eleven survived the Gallipoli expedition unscathed.
Web links
- For more information about Landing at Cape Helles on the site of the Imperial War Museum (English)
- Panoramic film of the cape, from section V to the lighthouse, seen from the sea (Quicktime 4.0; 786 kB)
- Short film with a view of section V from a Turkish perspective (Quicktime 4.0; 290 kB)