Second battle of Krithia

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Second battle of Krithia
Map of Cape Helles
Map of Cape Helles
date 6. bis 8. May 1915
place Cape Helles , Gallipoli , Ottoman Empire
output Turkish victory
Parties to the conflict

United Kingdom 1801United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland United Kingdom Australia New Zealand France
AustraliaAustralia 
New ZealandNew Zealand 
FranceFrance 

Ottoman Empire 1844Ottoman Empire Ottoman Empire

Commander

MajGen Aylmer Hunter-Weston

Troop strength
25,000 20,000
losses

6,300

The Second Battle of Krithia was after the landing at Cape Helles on April 25, 1915, the second attempt to move the front line on the Helles Front further inland and to take the village of Krithia with the neighboring Achi Baba massif, in order to find the way to clear the Dardanelles forts. The battle took place during the First World War as part of the British Dardanelles Expedition and lasted from May 6 to May 8, 1915. In the end, the Allies managed to gain some terrain with heavy losses, but the real goals remained outside of their own Range.

location

After the failed first battle of Krithia , the exhausted soldiers of the 29th British Division had initially consolidated their positions and successfully repulsed two counter attacks by the Turks on May 1st and 3rd. Another counterattack against the ANZAC beachhead at Arıburnu had been repulsed on May 2nd, so that Lieutenant General William Birdwood , the local commander and commander of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps , considered his front sufficiently safe to send two brigades to the Helles- To be able to submit front. These were the Australian 2nd Infantry Brigade and the New Zealand Infantry Brigade of the New Zealand and Australian Division . But the Turks, too, had strengthened their defenses around Krithia in the meantime.

Other British reinforcements were the brigades of the Royal Naval Division and the 125th Brigade of the 42nd (East Lancashire) Division . The 87th and 88th Brigades should again be at the forefront of the attack. The Anzac Brigade and the 29th Indian Brigade under General Cox formed the reserve.

The commander on the Helles front, Major General Aylmer Hunter-Weston , had little ammunition for his artillery, and what little was largely shrapnel shells , which were ineffective against fortified positions. On the other hand, the navy withheld supplies of ammunition for the anticipated attack on Constantinople.

The battle

The attack plan had three phases and was in principle a repetition of the first, failed attack on April 28th. In the first phase, approx. 1.5 km should be advanced across the entire width of the front. As soon as the French had taken the Kereves ridge on the right flank, they should dig in there. The British units in the center and on the left flank were then to advance further in the direction of Krithia in the second phase, based on this pivot, and take it. In the third phase, Aci Baba should finally be filled.

The advance of the Allies began on May 6th, later than planned, at 11 a.m. and was quickly stopped by the fierce resistance of the Turks. The 88th Brigade of the 29th Division , which advanced on the Fir Tree Ridge, was able to take the Fir Tree Forest and the 6th Battalion of the British Royal Naval Division advanced successfully through the Kanli Depression. However, the gain in terrain was nowhere more than 350 meters and the first Turkish positions were not reached by the end of the day.

The attack was therefore repeated on May 7th without changing anything in the overall planning. The result on that day was a complete failure of all attempts.

On the morning of May 8th, the 88th Brigade was relieved in its positions on the Fir Tree Ridge by the New Zealanders, whose renewed attack was repulsed with heavy losses. The Wellington, Canterbury and Auckland battalions were able to gain another 350 meters of terrain through the Fir Tree forest, but were finally nailed to the "Daisy Patch", still out of sight of the Turkish trenches. Flanking machine gun fire from Gully Ravine to their left made further advance or retreat impossible.

Despite this predicament, Hunter-Weston ordered the New Zealanders, including the Otago battalion from the reserves, to resume the attack at 5:30 p.m. The brigade commander, Colonel Francis Johnston, protested the order, but Hunter-Weston insisted on continuing. However , after landing at Cape Helles to gain an overview of the progress of the attack , General Sir Ian Hamilton , the MEF's Commander in Chief, had ordered a resumption of the advance along the entire front at 5:30 p.m. with the aim of To take Krithia and Aci Baba.

The Australian 2nd Infantry Brigade, under the command of Brigadier General McCay , was only informed 25 minutes beforehand that it should also take part in the attack. The Australians were supposed to advance on the fir tree ridge between the right flank of the New Zealanders and the edge of the "Krithia Nulla" channel and had to advance about 700 meters from their reserve position to the starting line of their attack, the "Thommy Trench". The brigade managed to gain another 450 meters of terrain, but suffered 50% losses.

Meanwhile, the New Zealanders made a new attempt to advance beyond "Daisy Patch", and some troops came within sight of the Turkish position. On the right flank, the French resumed the attack around 6am and made good progress reaching the Turkish trenches at Kereve Dere. They succeeded in taking and holding the Bouchet Redoute, but were thrown back in all other places.

Review

Of the approximately 25,000 Allied soldiers who took part in this attack, approximately 6,000 were wounded and killed. After this renewed failure, Hamilton demanded from the British Secretary of War Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener , the reinforcement of his armed forces by another four divisions. At his request, he was only promised the 52nd division. No further attempts to take Krithia were made until mid-June.

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