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Countdown to Gallipoli - Landing at Cape Helles
There are wars that define a nation, US have the war of independence, while the Brits have Battle of Hastings, for the Canadian, it was the war of 1812. All these war or battle are the defining moment for their own respective country, that those country found out what they are. And in the tiny continent in the South Pacific. The Gallipoli Campaign would serve as their defining moment to find out who ANZAC really are.
April 25 of each year is the ANZAC day in Australia ad New Zealand, the 1 of 2 days that commemorate veteran of both countries, it is of the same calibre as Veteran day in the US, the term ANZAC was coined, along with the term "Digger" after Gallipoli and the ANZAC legend starts in that tiny piece of land over in modern day turkey. And this year, it would be the 100th anniversary of ANZAC day, which the battle was fought exactly 100 years ago, on April 25.
This article would be the first of 5 to count down toward the ANZAC day, each day, i will write an article and introduce a battle that fought between the Commonwealth and the Turks and the 5 days, the 5 most important battle during the whole campaign will be covered. Today, we start with Landing at Cape Helles.
Background
The Gallipoli campaign was born out of Turkey (known as Ottoman Empire back in WW1) alignment toward Germany back in 1910, having release the 2 German battleship into Turkey via Dardanelle signal the alignment of Ottoman Empire to Austro-Hungarian Empire as well as Imperial Germany.
Turkey, situated in the exit of Black sea is the quickest connection point between Russia and Continental Europe, not wanting to see Europe lose this viable route to Russia, British an French Navy first tired to be diplomatic and persuade the Turks not to join the German side, when all diplomatic means fail, the Franco-Anglo Navy try to force into the Dardanelle themselves rip the strait out of Turkey control, but the Naval campaign failed spectacularly and hence the need to occupied the whole peninsular were needed and an amphibious assault were ordered as a result.
Hence the land campaign for Gallipoli were devised.
The plan called for 5 Divisions from 3 Corps (Australian 1st Division, Australian and New Zealand Division from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corp (ANZAC), British 29th Division and the Royal Naval Division from the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force and the French Oriental Expeditionary Corps.
The ANZAC would land at Gaba Tepe, a position North of the British landing at Cape Helles while the French will land at Asiatic side of Gallipoli after the ANZAC and British landed.
The Battle
The battle called for 2 waves of landing force landed at 5 beaches at the same time, the first wave, known as covering force would land between 0600 to 0700 on target beaches, their task is to secure the beaches and clear out obstacle and allow the main force to move inland
The second wave, known as the main force, would land at 0900 onward and proceed to engage inland and capture the first day objective, when goes according to plan, the main force in V and W beach will assault the objective heads on, when the main force at Y and X beaches will flank the objective and the force with S beach will pin the enemy and cut off retreat.
V Beach
Landing of V beach can and did often compare to the Omaha Beach landing almost 30 years later. The landing on V beach is a disaster for the commonwealth troop.
The V beach is a gentle sloped beach which leads to an opening, up in the banks are turkish fortification, which overlooking the beaches.
The assaults started with element of Royal Dublin Fusiliers landing with small boat to secure a landing route from the further main game, the landing of SS River Clyde with 2,000 men of the Munster
Landing started at 0630, met with deadly cross fire upon landing. The smaller boat the Dublin travel in offer no protection when landing troops. And were a constant subject of machine gun attack, the only reprieve the Dublin got is when the SS River Clyde Breached and starting to land troop, that is when the Ottoman fire directed at the SS River Clyde
The first wave have been rendered ineffective by ottoman fire and the communication broke between First wave and the party off shore, not knowing the momentum stalled. The overall command ordered the main force to go ahead into an unsecured beach.
What follow is absolute chaos. What it does is, when the beach were not cleared, and British put more troop in, the only result is to jam the beach with people and soldier in the edge of the beach cannot move forward, as the beach is not cleared. But they can't move back either as the reinforcement jammed up the rear. What can they do is literally waiting their turn to get killed. And the group weren't moving anywhere and at 1030, the command suspending landing on V beach.
W Beach
W Beaches lay South West of Cape Helles with 2 cliffs on either side of the approach and the approach was mined and machine gun position are set on top of the hill top.
The defensive position can see clearly the beach and onto the ocean. Landing in the first wave will be the Lancashire Fusiliers, coming in with 31 wooden boat, or tug, they are to storm the beach and cut the defences for the main assault force.
As with V beach, the boat itself were not heavily armoured and were targeting before landing troop, troop dies in their boat and the first waves were soon declare ineffective.
The different between W beach and V beach is, troop does not land in one giant ship in W beach, so eventually, defensive fire were diverted enough to allow a good number of troop storm ashore. Once that happen, they unpinned the ottoman observing position. Hence completing secure at least part of the beach.
Main force hit the beach at 0915, after the partly secured beach are established and pushed on to Hill 114 and stopped there due to ottoman pressure
S Beach
S Beach is the only beach on the Asiatic side of the cape, and is an inland coast, which was lightly defended, by a single platoon of ottoman infantry. The landing party, and understrength battalion soon overwhelm the platoon and secure the beaches. The following main force landed at 0900 to consolidate the beach area without any incident
The lost is 65 attacker in the first wave, and none lost in the main group
X Beach
landing at X beach at 0600, by 0630, the cliff was fallen to the attacker without casualty, the defender, a single ottoman squad have retreated prior to land by the pre-landing bombardment, the force then assault hill 114 connect W beach to X beach, with Hill 114 taken before 1100
Main force landed in order to push onto Hill 114 and Hill 138 further inland, the troop succeed to attack Hill 114 with help from troop W beach, but cannot move further due to increase Ottoman persistence, the forces in X beach consolidate for the rest of the day.
Y Beach
Y beach is the furthest north of all position, over the ottoman defence line and the closest to the first day objective.
The landing is done by a battalion of Royal Naval Division and King's Own Scottish Borderers, the force landed between 0515 to 0530 under the cover of darkness unopposed, move up the cliff and send out scout party further inland.
While the scout assumed to nothing, the first wave dig in and wait for the main assault force, main force landed somewhere before 0900 and forces are dig in to form an perimeter. during the first night, the ottoman counter attacked with a reinforced battalion, forcing the British landed on Y beach to run out of ammunition. With the defence of the beachhead stretched very thin. Although the counter attack had been defeated and routed, the defending British troop sees that the beach is untenable, re-embark and vacate the beach at the second day.
Post Mortem
The landing itself comes in a mixed result, the landing at W beach and V beach were a disaster, while the landing on S beach, Y beach and X beach are cake walk. The problem lies in the way the initative being taken by the British
The landing at V beach is especially hard and lead to a point unrecoverable. Yet W beach also met with heavy resistance, but the different, which learnt in this battle and apply 30 years later is that, by landing a whole battalion (2000 people) in one single ship, the attacker concentrate their force so they are easier to be pinned down by the defender, instead of 30 boats (Which mean 30 targets) to hit the beach at the same time, which dilute the incoming fire, one single ship would mean all gun will be diverted to the ship once they release their troop. And the bottle neck of exiting port means troop are going to be slaughter as soon as they emerge out from the port.
Another problem is based on the relation of the beaches, where 5 beaches were given individual objective and either they complete their or not, they would be looking over their area of operation. That give rise to two situation.
1.) Once an objective is completed, the on site commander would not take any initiative and either move further inland or help the other beach by flanking other position. Instead, they would stay and wait for instruction.
2.) If an objective would not complete, they were to pin down over their own objective, without any communication, they were to be pinned and left to their own device.
It's important that overall commander should give the local force enough encouragement to exploit their advantage and fight their own war as the situation allowed. Instead, the situation in Helles is that no exploitation were done by those who achieve their local objective, and those who cannot, are left to wither and dies.
Essentially, the force steam halfway around Europe to land and dig in on the Turkish coast.
There are wars that define a nation, US have the war of independence, while the Brits have Battle of Hastings, for the Canadian, it was the war of 1812. All these war or battle are the defining moment for their own respective country, that those country found out what they are. And in the tiny continent in the South Pacific. The Gallipoli Campaign would serve as their defining moment to find out who ANZAC really are.
April 25 of each year is the ANZAC day in Australia ad New Zealand, the 1 of 2 days that commemorate veteran of both countries, it is of the same calibre as Veteran day in the US, the term ANZAC was coined, along with the term "Digger" after Gallipoli and the ANZAC legend starts in that tiny piece of land over in modern day turkey. And this year, it would be the 100th anniversary of ANZAC day, which the battle was fought exactly 100 years ago, on April 25.
This article would be the first of 5 to count down toward the ANZAC day, each day, i will write an article and introduce a battle that fought between the Commonwealth and the Turks and the 5 days, the 5 most important battle during the whole campaign will be covered. Today, we start with Landing at Cape Helles.
Background
The Gallipoli campaign was born out of Turkey (known as Ottoman Empire back in WW1) alignment toward Germany back in 1910, having release the 2 German battleship into Turkey via Dardanelle signal the alignment of Ottoman Empire to Austro-Hungarian Empire as well as Imperial Germany.
Turkey, situated in the exit of Black sea is the quickest connection point between Russia and Continental Europe, not wanting to see Europe lose this viable route to Russia, British an French Navy first tired to be diplomatic and persuade the Turks not to join the German side, when all diplomatic means fail, the Franco-Anglo Navy try to force into the Dardanelle themselves rip the strait out of Turkey control, but the Naval campaign failed spectacularly and hence the need to occupied the whole peninsular were needed and an amphibious assault were ordered as a result.
Hence the land campaign for Gallipoli were devised.
The plan called for 5 Divisions from 3 Corps (Australian 1st Division, Australian and New Zealand Division from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corp (ANZAC), British 29th Division and the Royal Naval Division from the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force and the French Oriental Expeditionary Corps.
The ANZAC would land at Gaba Tepe, a position North of the British landing at Cape Helles while the French will land at Asiatic side of Gallipoli after the ANZAC and British landed.
The Battle
The battle called for 2 waves of landing force landed at 5 beaches at the same time, the first wave, known as covering force would land between 0600 to 0700 on target beaches, their task is to secure the beaches and clear out obstacle and allow the main force to move inland
The second wave, known as the main force, would land at 0900 onward and proceed to engage inland and capture the first day objective, when goes according to plan, the main force in V and W beach will assault the objective heads on, when the main force at Y and X beaches will flank the objective and the force with S beach will pin the enemy and cut off retreat.
V Beach
Landing of V beach can and did often compare to the Omaha Beach landing almost 30 years later. The landing on V beach is a disaster for the commonwealth troop.
The V beach is a gentle sloped beach which leads to an opening, up in the banks are turkish fortification, which overlooking the beaches.
The assaults started with element of Royal Dublin Fusiliers landing with small boat to secure a landing route from the further main game, the landing of SS River Clyde with 2,000 men of the Munster
Landing started at 0630, met with deadly cross fire upon landing. The smaller boat the Dublin travel in offer no protection when landing troops. And were a constant subject of machine gun attack, the only reprieve the Dublin got is when the SS River Clyde Breached and starting to land troop, that is when the Ottoman fire directed at the SS River Clyde
The first wave have been rendered ineffective by ottoman fire and the communication broke between First wave and the party off shore, not knowing the momentum stalled. The overall command ordered the main force to go ahead into an unsecured beach.
What follow is absolute chaos. What it does is, when the beach were not cleared, and British put more troop in, the only result is to jam the beach with people and soldier in the edge of the beach cannot move forward, as the beach is not cleared. But they can't move back either as the reinforcement jammed up the rear. What can they do is literally waiting their turn to get killed. And the group weren't moving anywhere and at 1030, the command suspending landing on V beach.
W Beach
W Beaches lay South West of Cape Helles with 2 cliffs on either side of the approach and the approach was mined and machine gun position are set on top of the hill top.
The defensive position can see clearly the beach and onto the ocean. Landing in the first wave will be the Lancashire Fusiliers, coming in with 31 wooden boat, or tug, they are to storm the beach and cut the defences for the main assault force.
As with V beach, the boat itself were not heavily armoured and were targeting before landing troop, troop dies in their boat and the first waves were soon declare ineffective.
The different between W beach and V beach is, troop does not land in one giant ship in W beach, so eventually, defensive fire were diverted enough to allow a good number of troop storm ashore. Once that happen, they unpinned the ottoman observing position. Hence completing secure at least part of the beach.
Main force hit the beach at 0915, after the partly secured beach are established and pushed on to Hill 114 and stopped there due to ottoman pressure
S Beach
S Beach is the only beach on the Asiatic side of the cape, and is an inland coast, which was lightly defended, by a single platoon of ottoman infantry. The landing party, and understrength battalion soon overwhelm the platoon and secure the beaches. The following main force landed at 0900 to consolidate the beach area without any incident
The lost is 65 attacker in the first wave, and none lost in the main group
X Beach
landing at X beach at 0600, by 0630, the cliff was fallen to the attacker without casualty, the defender, a single ottoman squad have retreated prior to land by the pre-landing bombardment, the force then assault hill 114 connect W beach to X beach, with Hill 114 taken before 1100
Main force landed in order to push onto Hill 114 and Hill 138 further inland, the troop succeed to attack Hill 114 with help from troop W beach, but cannot move further due to increase Ottoman persistence, the forces in X beach consolidate for the rest of the day.
Y Beach
Y beach is the furthest north of all position, over the ottoman defence line and the closest to the first day objective.
The landing is done by a battalion of Royal Naval Division and King's Own Scottish Borderers, the force landed between 0515 to 0530 under the cover of darkness unopposed, move up the cliff and send out scout party further inland.
While the scout assumed to nothing, the first wave dig in and wait for the main assault force, main force landed somewhere before 0900 and forces are dig in to form an perimeter. during the first night, the ottoman counter attacked with a reinforced battalion, forcing the British landed on Y beach to run out of ammunition. With the defence of the beachhead stretched very thin. Although the counter attack had been defeated and routed, the defending British troop sees that the beach is untenable, re-embark and vacate the beach at the second day.
Post Mortem
The landing itself comes in a mixed result, the landing at W beach and V beach were a disaster, while the landing on S beach, Y beach and X beach are cake walk. The problem lies in the way the initative being taken by the British
The landing at V beach is especially hard and lead to a point unrecoverable. Yet W beach also met with heavy resistance, but the different, which learnt in this battle and apply 30 years later is that, by landing a whole battalion (2000 people) in one single ship, the attacker concentrate their force so they are easier to be pinned down by the defender, instead of 30 boats (Which mean 30 targets) to hit the beach at the same time, which dilute the incoming fire, one single ship would mean all gun will be diverted to the ship once they release their troop. And the bottle neck of exiting port means troop are going to be slaughter as soon as they emerge out from the port.
Another problem is based on the relation of the beaches, where 5 beaches were given individual objective and either they complete their or not, they would be looking over their area of operation. That give rise to two situation.
1.) Once an objective is completed, the on site commander would not take any initiative and either move further inland or help the other beach by flanking other position. Instead, they would stay and wait for instruction.
2.) If an objective would not complete, they were to pin down over their own objective, without any communication, they were to be pinned and left to their own device.
It's important that overall commander should give the local force enough encouragement to exploit their advantage and fight their own war as the situation allowed. Instead, the situation in Helles is that no exploitation were done by those who achieve their local objective, and those who cannot, are left to wither and dies.
Essentially, the force steam halfway around Europe to land and dig in on the Turkish coast.
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