The Fighting at Gallipoli, 1st July 1915

On 1st July 1915 an official press piece regarding the progress of the Gallipoli campaign appeared in the local press. It regurgitated a number of myths, particularly that German troops were playing a larger role in the defence than was actually the case.

“GALLIPOLI FIGHTING.

“IMPORTANCE OF GRENADES AND MACHINE GUNS.

“AUSTRALIAN BOMB-THROWING.

“The Press Association’s special correspondent at the Dardanelles sends the following despatch, dated June 22nd :

“On returning to the Peninsula after a brief absence, I find little change in the situation since the assault on June 4th. Fighting continues, especially on our left, where we are persistently pushing our line forward by slow degrees in the teeth of a determined opposition. Mostly these encounters are purely local, one or two battalions being engaged, the object being to capture a particular trench, or segment of a trench, but twice recently engagements on a big scale developed, both of which ended unsatisfactorily for the enemy.

“On the evening of June 18th the Turks, whose artillery has lately been extremely active, opened a general bombardment of our trenches with field guns and heavy howitzers, preparatory to an infantry attack. It was then about seven o'clock. The British and French artillery replied, and the affair quickly developed into a full dress artillery duel between the two armies. The Turks are estimated to have fired nearly 500 high explosive shells during this bombardment and the subsequent night fighting, and did a good deal of damage to the trenches, although they inflicted little loss on our troops, who were quite unshaken by the hammering they received.

“OUR SUPERIOR ARTILLERY.

“Watching the fight from a point of vantage behind our artillery positions, one took away the impression that, although the Turco-German gunners are all out for making the greatest effort yet made, our artillery was more numerous and more rapidly served, and able to concentrate a heavier weight of fire than the enemy’s. After dark the enemy launched a feeble attack against our left, but a more formidable one against the centre.

“Here the situation was complicated by the fact a brigade had prepared that night a local attack on its own account, and when it advanced, found the enemy in great force in his trenches, being himself about to launch an attack. We lost a trench, which was recovered during the night. On the left we gained ground, which we held successfully against a very strong Turkish counter-attack after dawn, which repelled with heavy loss to the enemy.

“Now that it was daylight, the artillery on both sides resumed activity, which the Turks kept up all day. They made no further attack, however. As the morning advanced they turned the fire of their howitzers on our landing beaches which must have at least another 500 high explosive shells during the day.

“TERRIFIC FRENCH BOMBARDMENT.

“Yesterdav the French, acting independently, delivered a heavy attack on the enemy’s defences in front of them. The French have immediately in front of their position a deep nullah, through which runs the Kerevesdere river on the right, where the nullah is widest and deepest. It is extremely difficult to pass it under the present circumstances, but further inland where the nullah shallows the passage is more practical, and here it was that the French, who were established on the ridge overlooking the nullah, made their attack at four in the morning.

“A tremendous bombardment by the French batteries, supported by the deeper note of the French battleships’ big guns in the Straits, announced that the attack was under way. Charging behind the famous curtain of shrapnel from the 75’s, which were firing so rapidly that the reports merged into each other, even when an observer was close behind them, the French infantry quickly secured the first line of Turkish trenches, and, pressing on, captured in all three lines. The Turks, as usual, counter-attacked with great courage and tenacity, and the French right had to fight all day before the enemy relinquished the conquered ground.

“On the day the French gained and held two lines of enemy trenches, and destroyed an important redoubt, the fighting was of the very heaviest kind, the French attacking, and the French infantry being continually under heavy rifle and artillery fire for 18 hours and more.

“A few nights ago one of our Irish battalions captured a Turkish trench in a night attack, making 30 prisoners, and accounting otherwise for about 80 Turks.

“TROUBLESOME BOMBS.

“Hand grenades and machine guns play an increasingly important part in these trench encounters. The enemy rarely waits for the bayonet, but he causes a good deal of trouble with his bombs, using the common German cricket ball type, made of iron and fired by a fuse. These our men throw back at the enemy if time allows. There are stories of bombs which have been thrown from one trench into another and back again like tennis balls.

“The Australians recently organised a bomb-throwing competition at the enemy’s trenches, with the first, second, and third prizes, and an elaborate code of rules. Any thrower who exposed himself was ruled rigorously out of action.

“The machine guns, of course, are a still more important factor. They are, in fact, the Alpha and Omega of Turkish defence. Were both sides deprived of them the campaign would be as good as won, as without them the Turk could not stop our attacks, and it is very doubtful if would make any attacks himself if it were not for the Maxims served by Germans in the second line of trenches, which he knows would be turned on him if he failed to get forward with the requisite degree of alacrity.

“The enemy’s front trench is usually practically empty unless our front is too close for this to be safe. The Turks wait in the trenches behind, and if trouble is brewing reach the front through numerous deep communication trenches. To protect themselves against artillery fire, they dig trenches of an extraordinary depth, as much as ten feet down, leaving a ridge along the front on which they stand to fire. The parapet is always loopholed every yard just above the ground. Squatting in the bottom of such a trench with six feet of earth between him and our shells, and his flanks comparatively safe, the Turk is doubtless in a position which peculiarly suits his temperament.

“There are signs, however, that the enemy’s reserves of trained men are giving out. Among the prisoners is a proportion of quite old men and others who seem to have done no soldiering at all.

“GERMAN NAVAL GUNS ON LAND.

“Lately the enemy's enfilading fire from the Asiatic shore of the Dardanelles has increased in intensity. The Turks have mounted behind ridges over-looking the plain of Troy several powerful modern guns of calibres close upon six inches, which, from the character of the projectile they fire, seem to be naval guns. It is safe to assume that they have been taken from the secondary armament of the Goeben or Breslau, and presumably they will cease to worry us as soon as the stock of ammunition for guns of this on board the two ships is exhausted. The shell travels with tremendous velocity, therein suffering greatly from the old howitzers which the Turks still have on the Asiatic side. One heard the whistle of the shells from these several seconds before the shell arrived, and the troops used to regard them in quite a friendly spirit, because they gave one a sporting chance to scuttle into the dugout before they struck.

.“On Saturday 500 of these shells fell on the southern end of the Peninsula. The Turks probably believe that enormous damage was done, but as a master of fact the loss inflicted is ridiculously disproportionate to the amount of ammunition expended, especially if, as probably is the case, the ammunition expended cannot be replaced.

“HARMLESS SHELLS.

“After what I have seen myself the last day or two I quite believe the story of the Matanzas mule. Shells — at any rate, Turkish shells — are too freakish to build on. The other day I watched a number of men working in a place on which the was dropping high explosive shells. A dozen shells fell in a quarter of an hour. All burst into fragments, and flew over and through the groups of men, yet not a man was touched, and not a man left his work, although a shelter was close at hand. On the other hand, a man was killed on Saturday in what was reckoned be the safest place on the peninsula.

“One day a battleship appeared suddenly in the entrance to the Straits, and spent the afternoon hammering the Turkish batteries. Then they were silent for 24 hours, but they have since recovered their energies.

“This morning a Taube appeared over Sedd-el-Bahr beach, and dropped an extremely powerful bomb, killing one man. This evening we have the consoling news that the Taube was attacked by our aeroplanes, aided by gunfire, and was apparently brought down crippled in the Turkish lines.”

'Nottingham Evening Post', 1st July 1915.

Image: IWM Q 13340.