The Dardanelles campaign

by Henry Woodd Nevinson

FAILURE TO ADVANCE ON KIRETCH TEPE

So the harassing conflict continued. It continued all next day under the burning sun. The loss was extreme. Many of the very best officers fell. The 5th and 6th Royal Irish Fusiliers were almost exterminated. During the night of the 16th-17th the shattered brigades were withdrawn from the untenable position. It was never recovered. Jephson’s Post and the steep slopes leading down on either side, one to the sea, the other to the plain, remained the farthest points held by our lines along the Kiretch Tepe Sirt.

This attack of August 15 was General Stopford’s last order. That evening he gave up the command of the IXth Corps, and Major-General De Lisle took his place, awaiting the arrival of Major-General Julian Byng. Brigadier-General H. L. Reed, however, remained as Chief of Staff to the Corps. Meantime, in place of De Lisle, Major-General W. R. Marshall (87th Brigade) took command of the 29th Division. A few days later, Major-General Lindley (at his own request) gave up the command of the 53rd (Welsh) Division, and was appointed to the military command at Mudros. Major-General Hammersley retired from command of the 11th Division owing to serious illness. The same cause unfortunately removed Major-General F. C. Shaw from the 13th (Western) Division, which he had commanded with such skill and firmness during the assault on Sari Bair. Brigadier-General Sitwell was succeeded in command of the 34th Brigade by Brigadier-General J. Hill. Soon afterwards the command of the 31st Brigade was taken over by Lieut.-Colonel J. G. King-King in place of Brigadier-General F. F. Hill, who fell seriously ill. It became known that, besides General Julian Byng, Major-General E. A. Fanshawe and Major-General F. Stanley Maude (afterwards the hero of Bagdad) were coming out.

Note.—Subsequent Turkish information gives the Turkish forces on the Peninsula on August 6 as follow:—

At Helles, 4 divisions in the line, and 1 in reserve (c. 40,000 men) with 94 guns; at Anzac, 3 divisions and 1 regiment in the line, with 2 regiments in reserve (c. 20,000 men) with 76 guns; at Suvla, 3 battalions (c. 2000 men) and 20 guns; between Helles and Anzac, 1 division on guard, and 1 in reserve (c. 10,000 men); at Bulair, 3 divisions (c. 20,000 men) and 80 guns; on the Asiatic coast, 3 divisions. Total on the Peninsula, c. 92,000 men and 270 guns.

CHAPTER XIII
THE LAST EFFORTS

The great assault of the second week in August, extending from Lone Pine to Kiretch Tepe Sirt, and having the mountain height of Chunuk Bair as the centre of its line, must be described as a failure. It failed of its objects—the objects of the whole military campaign—to open the Straits for the fleet, to secure the possession of Constantinople, to hold all the Balkan States steady for our Alliance, to complete the blockade of the Central Powers by land and sea, to divert any possible threat towards Egypt, or towards the Persian Gulf, and so to hasten the termination of the war. The aim of this fine strategical conception was not accomplished, and the causes of failure have been suggested in the narrative of the three preceding chapters. Incidents and accidents contributed—the gallant but hopeless attempt to cross the Nek in face of the Chessboard redoubt, the gallant but unsuccessful attempts to hold the summits at Chunuk Bair and “Hill Q,” the error of Baldwin’s brigade, the confusion of the landing inside Suvla Bay, the separation of the units in the 10th Division, the immobility of the 11th Division on August 7 and 8, the breakdown of the water supply through want of receptacles, the unwitting recall of a battalion from Scimitar Hill on the evening of Sunday the 8th, and the apparent failure of the Higher Command at Suvla to realise the vital necessity of speed and energy, no matter at what cost, during the four critical days from the morning of the 7th to the evening of the 10th.

But at the back of all these causes of failure lay the ultimate reason that many of the troops employed, especially at Suvla, were not strong or experienced enough for the difficult task of attacking an enemy posted in the most favourable positions for defence, over an unknown, complicated, and deserted country, and in unaccustomed conditions of intense heat and insatiable thirst. Few in the New Army or Territorial Divisions were acquainted with the realities of war; few had been exposed to its sudden and overwhelming perils. They had neither the traditions, nor the veteran experience, nor the disciplined self-confidence of the Regular Army. They had neither the physique, nor the adventurous spirit, nor the intense national bond of the Anzacs. What they might have done under more decisive or youthful or inspiring leadership we can judge only from their subsequent rapid improvement even upon the Peninsula, and from their excellent service in later campaigns—such service as was performed in Palestine by these Territorial Divisions. But in August 1915 their leadership was not conspicuously decisive, youthful, or inspiring. And so it came about that General Stopford suffered the worst fate which can befall a commanding officer in the field.

GAINS AND FAILURES

On the other hand, the gain had been considerable. The important, though not vital positions of the Vineyard at Helles, and Lone Pine on the right front at Anzac, had been won. In the centre, the Anzac Corps were relieved from an arduous, if not untenable, situation. It could now move freely over a widely extended ground; many points formerly harassed by the enemy’s guns and snipers were now secure; water-springs had been gained; and the lines were drawn three or four miles nearer the summits of Sari Bair. On the left, Suvla Bay afforded a more sheltered winter roadstead than Kephalos. The lofty ridge of Kiretch Tepe Sirt was ours to the summit, and the wide plain around the Salt Lake, including Chocolate and Green Hills, was ours also. We held the entrance of the broad valley leading up to Biyuk Anafarta, and, but for the risk from occasional snipers, communication with Anzac was freely open.[197] To these great advantages must be added the heavy losses inflicted upon the Turks—losses, however, which were counterbalanced by our own, and could be more speedily replaced.