By the time darkness set in, Brigadier-General F. F. Hill was making up the Asiatic coast from Mitylene (120 miles) with his 31st Brigade and two battalions of the 30th (10th Division), which had been transhipped from their transports into ten trawlers and passenger steamers. Brigadier-General L. L. Nicol was on his way from Mudros (60 miles) with the remaining two battalions of his 30th Brigade and the 5th Royal Irish (Pioneers), accompanied by Sir Bryan Mahon and his Divisional Staff. At Imbros, the three brigades of the 11th Division (the 32nd, 33rd, and 34th, under Brigadier-Generals Haggard, Maxwell, and Sitwell) were embarked in destroyers and “beetles” (motor-lighters), about 500 men being packed in each destroyer and “beetle.” The “beetles” were under charge of Captain Unwin, the hero of the River Clyde. Three of each kind of vessel were allotted to each brigade, the destroyers towing the “beetles.” Two cruisers (“blister ships”) also carried 1000 men apiece, to be landed by the “beetles” as soon as their own contingents and those on the destroyers had been discharged. Behind the infantry followed trawlers towing horse-boats with horses and guns;[178] and the sloop Aster with 500 men, presumably gunners, towing a lighter with eight mountain-guns, and four water-lighters specially provided by Brigadier-General Lotbinière, then Director of Works.
THE WATER SUPPLY
Each of the water-lighters carried about 50 or 60 tons, and was to be refilled from two water-ships, the Krene and Phido, each carrying 250 tons of water brought from Alexandria. The men embarked with full water-bottles, and each “beetle” and destroyer was supplied with water for refills on landing, and for the wants of beach-parties. It was also confidently expected that plentiful water would be discovered during the advance. But, though some water was there, it was not discovered, or was not accessible. Inexperienced soldiers might be expected to drain their water-bottles soon, and in the excitement and confusion of landing to neglect the precaution of refilling. So it happened, and to this natural carelessness must be added the absence of the Prah, an Elder Dempster vessel of 3000 tons, carefully equipped with water-pumps, hose, tanks, troughs, and the implements required for the development of wells or springs—exactly the stores which the experience of the April landings had proved essential to relieve the torture of thirst among men exhausted by the nervous excitement of battle, and by the heat, which in August had risen to glaring intensity. The danger of thirst had always been present in the minds of General Headquarters and the Administrative Staff. Petrol tins, milk cans, camel tanks, water-bags, and pakhals for mules had been provided in large quantities from India and Egypt. More than 4000 mules for carrying water as well as rations and ammunition were by this time collected for Anzac and Suvla, about 600 being allotted to Suvla alone for the first landing. Critics after the event suggested that the men should have carried half a dozen water-bottles apiece instead of their packs. But, as a matter of fact, the 11th Division, at all events, carried only their haversacks with two days’ iron rations, and left their packs at Imbros. As to carrying more water-bottles, no one could have foreseen the partial failure of the most elaborate precautions, partly owing to the inexperience of a New Army Staff.[179]
The naval side of the whole landing—the organisation of all transport until each detail came ashore—was in charge of Rear-Admiral Arthur Christian, on board the sloop Jonquil, together with General Stopford and his Chief of Staff, Brigadier-General H. L. Reed, V.C. Vice-Admiral de Robeck, with his Chief of Staff, Commodore Roger Keyes, was also present on the light cruiser Chatham, and on the light cruiser Talbot was Brigadier-General S. C. V. Smith, R.A., in command of the guns. Soon after 8 p.m. the flotilla began to glide northward through the winding narrows of the netted and buoyed passage from Kephalos Bay. The last of the vessels except the Prah and water-lighters cleared about 10 p.m. We heard the firing round the Vineyard at Helles, and the perpetual whisper and rumble of rifles and guns at Lone Pine. On our right front as we advanced past Anzac the New Zealanders were standing mustered for the great assault. The water was dead calm, which was a mercy for the soldiers crowded on the destroyers and “beetles.” No lights were shown. There was no light but the brilliant stars. No one except the Generals and Admirals knew our destination.
THE LANDING BEACHES
Sir Ian’s original design had been to land the whole of the 11th Division at the continuous beach just south of Nibrunesi Point. Here the shore is “steep to,” and the water comes up deep. A large part of the force would be concealed or sheltered by the cliffs and hills, but the beach itself is level and wide enough for mustering. The brigades, after capturing the Lala Baba promontory, could then have advanced in unison along the marshy but practicable ground south of the Salt Lake, or before dawn even over the centre of the Lake itself, to the assault upon Chocolate and W Hills. Meantime, we must suppose, Sir Ian had intended the two brigades of the 10th Division to land on the north side of the bay near Suvla Point and occupy the commanding razor-edge of Kiretch Tepe Sirt. Most unfortunately, as it turned out, against his better judgment he accepted General Stopford’s desire to land one brigade inside the bay itself, apparently with the intention of advancing across the plain on the north of the Salt Lake. Accordingly, the navy was directed to put the 34th Brigade (Sitwell’s) ashore on the sands of the north-east segment of the bay, while the 32nd (Haggard’s) and the 33rd (Maxwell’s) were to land on the beach south of Nibrunesi Point. This beach was divided into C (nearer the Point) for the artillery, and B for the infantry, but it was one and continuous. The navy originally chose the south-east arc of the bay for landing, hence called “Old A Beach.” Among the rocky creeks near Suvla Point, A East and A West were found on the 7th, and A West ultimately became the main landing-place. But the true A Beach on which the 34th Brigade was ordered to land was the long and sandy stretch just beside the entrance or “cut” into the Salt Lake; and there the 34th Brigade landed.
Together with the two brigades of the 10th Division the total number of all ranks and arms, including transport and supply, was from 25,000 to 27,000 to be landed. There was no wire entanglement along the shore; the entrenchments were few and slight; the Turkish force holding the district was estimated under 4000, apart from possible reserves behind Sari Bair; and the actual bay was guarded, as was believed, only by about 1000 gendarmes—700 on Lala Baba, 300 on Suvla Point. Sir Ian confidently expected, therefore, that the two Divisions, though short in numbers (showing a total of about 20,000 rifles or rather less), almost destitute of guns apart from the fleet, and unavoidably destitute of experience in actual war, would certainly be able to occupy the inner semicircle of the bay and the outer semicircle of the commanding heights, or at all events the vital points of Kiretch Tepe and W Hill, by the following morning.
But, like nearly every movement in war, the landing took longer than was expected, and the customary delay was increased by partial confusion. In the darkness of midnight the 32nd and 33rd Brigades approached the shore at B Beach south of Nibrunesi Point. The destroyers stopped and slipped the “beetles,” which crept ashore under their own power. Driving close in, they dropped their elevated drawbridges right on the beach itself, and the crowded men swarmed over them as over a landing-stage. The “beetles” then returned to the destroyers for their second load, and so the two brigades came to shore in good time and without mishap. As soon as the battalions were formed up, two from the 32nd Brigade (the 6th Yorkshire and the 9th West Yorkshire) were instructed to occupy Lala Baba. Advancing in that order along the beach and up the hills from the south, they stormed the trenches with the bayonet in the darkness, but the 6th Yorks lost heavily. Colonel Chapman, in command, was killed while cheering on his men. Fifteen officers fell and 250 men, but apart from that battalion the loss was not great, and the occupation of the Hill gave us command of the southern side of the bay.
MISFORTUNE OF THE 34TH BRIGADE
With the 34th Brigade things did not go so smoothly. The navy brought up the destroyers with the “beetles” in time with the rest; but after the “beetles” had been cast off as they approached the shore in the middle of the bay, it was found that they could not make A Beach at all, but went aground with their weight on the sandy shallows. The disaster might have been anticipated even from the distant appearance of shelving shore, which possessed all the familiar features of a children’s bathing-place. Led by their officers, the men plunged into the water, which in places came up to their armpits, and struggled ashore. Dripping wet, they reached the sands well below the centre of the bay’s arc, and south of the entrance to the Salt Lake, considerably south of the appointed position. Both in the lighters and on shore they were exposed to considerable fire from Lala Baba (not yet occupied) and the rocky promontories towards Suvla Point. Many Turks even crept into their midst in the darkness, and at close quarters killed them unawares. Nearly the whole of the northern shore had also been sown with land-mines, exploding on contact and causing some casualties.