The
first 'un-named objective'
Whilst
orders were issued, the Brigade stood to in preparation
for the attack, and at one o’clock on the afternoon
of 15th August, the Bedfords started their advance.
“B
Company, (under Captain
CT Baker, the son of the Rector of Dunstable) was
posted on the right flank of the Battalion. Its orders were
to keep in touch with the other troops taking part in the
attack. A Company (under Captain
Brian Cumberland of Luton) was extended back
on the dangerous left flank which had to be most carefully
watched. The Machine Gun Section (under
Lt FS Shoosmith of Luton, who was to lead “a
charmed life”
during the assault) was detailed to act in support
of A Company.
The Regimental HQ section followed
in the rear of the two leading companies, while C and D
Companies, (commanded
by Captain WK Meakin of Bedford and Captain R Forrest of
Biggleswade respectively) formed the Battalion reserve.”
Captain Forrest of the Biggleswade Company was the only
Company commander to survive the charge, mainly because
he “opened up an old wound early in the day”
so was not involved in the hottest parts of the action.
The
first objective was very strongly held by the Turks and
A, B and C Companies were ordered to storm the position.
“They went to their work with a will and with that
extraordinary verve which is so often characteristic of
troops receiving their baptism of fire, and who do not as
yet know the real meanings of wounds, and also, of war seasoned
veterans who have seen so many wounds that the have become
fatalists. Well as the leading companies attacked, however,
it became obvious that after a time their strength was not
sufficient for them to crown the hill and establish even
a temporary position without further aid. D Company was
at once flung in to support the charge. The whole line went
at it again and this wave of brave, intrepid and well disciplined
men, only too anxious to blood their steel, soon cleared
the position at the point of the bayonet.”
A
Company, superbly led by Brian Cumberland had borne the
brunt of the first bayonet charge, but casualties were described
as “fairly light”. Kidney Hill was to
prove different as his company were all but shattered during
the attack that followed.
After
a brief pause for reorganisation, the Bedfords gathered
themselves and formed up for the attack on the 2nd
and more difficult objective of Kidney Hill.
The 2nd
Objective; Kidney Hill
As
soon as the Bedfords left their trenches to form up for
the second advance, they came under heavy fire. It was so
bad that one company of the Bedfords (likely to be B Company)
recorded that it was ‘led from the outset by a
Private” as all Officers and NCO’s became
casualties “in the opening minutes of the (2nd)
attack’.
An
eyewitness from the 8th Hampshire Battalion positioned
high above on the Kiretch Tepe Ridge wrote that the 5th
Bedfords had to advance across a mile of open ground and
were subject to heavy fire all the way with “one
unfortunate soldier having an arm carried away by a shell
which did not burst for another 50 yards”. Watching
the advance from their position “caused one company
of the 8th Hampshires to refuse to move, and
they were sent to the beach.”
(Source
of quoted text; Prof Tim Travers “Gallipoli 1915”
pp160)
Private
Horace Manton of the 5th Bedfords wrote; ‘We’d
got no cover at all. One of the lieutenants was going aside
of me. We were in open formation. He got shot while we were
going up the hill, I said: “Do you need any help Sir?”
He said: “No, carry on, don’t break the line.”
Our commanding officer, Colonel Brighten, got through alright.
He gave us the name of the Yellow Devils. We got to the
top and then we got blasted by shrapnel. I saw my cousin
get killed in front of me. He was crying when he got shot.
It killed him anyhow; he was only sixteen. How I missed
it I don’t know, shrapnel was flying all the time.’”
Horace Manton survived both the charge and the war.
The
Brigade advanced along the broken southern slopes of the
ridge towards Kidney Hill with “all the enthusiasm
of inexperienced troops” and paid heavily for
it. Brigadier-General de Winton (the 162nd Brigade’s
commander) placed himself at the head of the Bedfords and
spurred them on until he was wounded himself.
Direction
was soon lost due to the difficult nature of the terrain
and Major JE Hill and the Adjutant Captain H Younghusband
“performed prodigies” by moving from
place to place and re-establishing contact between the separated
units of the Battalion.
The
Headquarters section were shelled constantly and few survived
unscathed. Lt FS Shoosmith’s machine Gun section was
left with only one man and Major Hill, fearing that the
machine guns would be knocked out completely - as Shoosmith
was the only officer with knowledge on their use - dashed
through the severe shrapnel and rifle fire to seek advice.
The incredible Lt Shoosmith cheerily replied “oh,
you just pull this and press that. Its quite simple”,
all the time continuously firing at the Turkish positions
“as if nothing was doing”.
Following
the dreadful advance through difficult terrain, under constant
shrapnel, enfilading machine gun, rifle and sniper fire,
having already lost many of their friends and with their
nerves in shreds, the furious men were finally given the
order to charge …
“It
was a great and glorious charge, but the position was won
at terrible cost. The whole advance had been made with bayonets
fixed and when the final stage was reached and the order
to charge rang out the men dashed to the attack. There was
no stopping these unblooded British Troops. London, Essex
and Bedford Territorials charged together, but the Bedford
men outstripped the Regiments on right and left and dashed
into the lead, causing the line to form a crescent and sweeping
everything before them. Turks went down before cold steel
in hundreds, and those who were not killed turned and fled.”
Amongst
the many casualties were the Payne brothers of Luton, who
had served as Territorial soldiers since before the war.
Sergeant Ronald McCormick of the 5th Bedfords
wrote; “There was only a handful of Bedfords left
with Captain Baker, including myself and Albert Payne and
Nathan, his brother. We were right at the front of the Battalion,
and Captain Baker had just given us the order to fix bayonets
when a shell shattered his left arm. Sergeant Payne bound
his arm up and sent him back with Private Findon, who was
wounded going back, and Captain Baker must have been hit
again, as he was killed. We held on for another three hours
until a party of Londons came up, and over the ridge we
went like fury. The Turks did not stop to ask after our
health. They ran like the devil and we shot them as they
ran. We took up position … and they came back, jabbering
to each other and making plenty of noise. He (Captain
Cowley of the London Regiment) spoke to them in their
own language but they had no answer so he gave the order
to fire and they fell like corn … we were ordered
to retire … but Albert and Nathan Payne must have
fallen as they were on the right, and a land mine went off
when we got over the ridge. If Albert had lived I think
he would have got something as he was a hero. All he troubled
about was his younger brother Nathan”. By that
time the Battalions “show Platoon” – No
1 Platoon, A Company - was all but wiped out. As well as
the soldiers mentioned above, the Battalion CO’s younger
brother - Lt Ralph Brighten, leader of No 1 Platoon - was
reported missing after leading a bayonet charge over a blind
crest. His body was found later that night, surrounded by
his men. They had reached the farthest point of the advance
on the North slopes of Kidney Hill, but “the nature
of their wounds” confirmed they had all
been killed in “furious hand to hand fighting”.
Lt
Harding was initially in reserve with the 1/11th
London Regiment. His company was ordered to carry forward
the firing line and attack Kidney Hill, although by the
time he arrived, the determined Bedfords had already taken
the position; ‘I hoped that I felt very brave and
warlike. I had an alpine stick in one hand and a revolver
in the other and on I went with my platoon. We went some
way and then dipped down into a small low valley where there
was a whole lot of troops standing around really under cover.
I said to one officer: “Are you the firing line?”
He said: “Well, I suppose we are.” “Well
you’ve got to come with me. My orders are to go forward
to capture the hill and to carry you with me.” I took
my platoon on, we went over the slope and rifle fire started
to knock around us. But there was no sign of the others
following at all. They stayed in the valley. I was out on
my own with my platoon deployed and my chaps started getting
hit. I thought: “Well, I don’t know about this,
it’s not much cop!” I halted and thought I’d
better try and get a message back to my company commander
to say that I’d halted, to say what the position was.
I got my orderly, wrote out the message on a field service
message pad and told him to go back and find company headquarters.
He didn’t get more than about ten or fifteen yards
and he was shot down. I thought: “Well, that’s
not much good, I shall loose the lot if I go on like this.”
So I decided to stay where I was. When darkness came we
decided to go back as there was nobody on our flank at all.
We started to withdraw carrying our wounded and left two
or three dead on the floor. We came to a line of troops
who said they were the front line, they were all mixed up
together and we joined forces with them. It was a mixture,
a muddle, a mixture.”
To
the West, the 30th and 31st brigades
of the 10th Irish Division had been through a
similarly tough time. The 31st brigade were advancing
along the exposed southern part of the ridge and suffered
badly. Little did they know that they were attacking a force
matching their own in terms of size, with an additional
72 Machine Guns in all and well plotted artillery support;
an incredible amount of firepower. After two hours of vicious
fighting, little ground has been gained. During the ensuing
firefight Major Jephson of the 6th Munsters was
mortally wounded on the peak that had only a week earlier
been named after him – Jephson’s Post.
By
6.00 pm very little headway had been made until the 7th
Munsters on the Northern slope made a desperate bayonet
charge. The Irish Battalions were keen to use their gleaming
bayonets and were disappointed that the terrified Turks
fled before them. One soldier was heard to say “I
don’t want ta stick ya behind. Turn around and Ill
stick ya belly dacent”. For a time it looked like
they may have taken the initiative but the unchecked concentration
of Turkish fire from the surrounding hills, added to by
the Turkish artillery blew huge gaps in their ranks. Eventually,
exhaustion, thirst and the reformed Turkish lines put an
end to the advance on the northern slope. At dusk the 5th
Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers ran into heavy opposition on
the southern slope, sustaining such heavy casualties that
the attack had to be called off as there simply weren’t
enough men left. The Battalion had been shattered.
The
failure of the attacks on the southern slope, coupled with
the success on the northern slope left the Division in a
“Z” shape along the ridge that night, as the
Territorials to their left clung onto their gains on kidney
Hill. The Dubliners, Munsters and Irish Fusiliers on the
northern ridge found themselves fighting an unseen Turkish
enemy a few yards away on the opposing side of the ridge,
and a bombing battle began. Several bayonet charges over
the ridge were swept away by deadly Turkish machine gun
and rifle fire, so it was apparent that advancing was a
hopeless task. However, staying in their meagre fox holes
and being constantly bombed by an unseen enemy was causing
great numbers of casualties. The Irish had run out of bombs
yet the Turkish had an ample supply, and used them to great
effect.
The
10th Division and the 162nd Brigade were by now
exhausted and could only dig in and consolidate their gains
on top of the Kiretch Tepe Ridge. Lt Colonel Brighten (commander
5th Beds) had instilled into his troops that
‘What we win, we hold’ as the best way
to protect their fallen comrades on the field behind them,
so they dug themselves in best they could and braced themselves.
That
night the aftermath of battle was terrible. Private Harold
Thomas of the 5th Bedfords, who was in one of
the many patrols sent out that night, wrote “I
remember the tremendous crash of rifle and machine-gun fire
close to us and the ‘thump’ ‘thump’
of bullets and sparks flying from stones while an officer,
sergeant and six of us pushed through the scrub towards
the curve of a hill which showed up darkly against the night
sky. Between the bursts of fire the silence was broken by
agonizing cries which will always haunt me: seemingly from
all about that hill there were voices crying ‘Ambulance’
‘Stretcher-bearers’ ‘Ambulance’
‘Oh damn you my leg’s broken’ and then
again ‘Stretcher-bearers.’ It was horrible,
we would start for a voice and it would cease and another
far away would begin. That hill-side was a shambles: evidently
there had been a fierce hand-to-hand fighting there a few
hours ago, rifles, kits, water-bottles, khaki, Turkish tunics
and headgear were strewn among the scrub. While we were
following a phantom-like voice we came suddenly on a half
dug trench which an RAMC officer had made into a combined
mortuary and first aid station; there we set furiously to
work sorting out the dead from the living; there reeled
among us out of the darkness an officer raving, ‘My
men have taken that bloody hill but they’re dying
of thirst.’ He passed on and we continued our ghastly
work.”
As
on Kidney Hill, attempts were made to recover the wounded
left on the ground by the Irish on the Kiretch Tepe Ridge.
“Second-Lieutenant Lyndon spent much of the night
rescuing them in the depth of Turkish lines, to earn the
first of two MCs he would gain during the war. In later
years he was to say that he only got the awards ‘because
there was nobody else left alive to receive them’.”
16th
August 1915; the Turks Counter Attack.
The
British troops had done well to take what ground they had.
Despite massive gaps in their ranks, being low on ammunition,
with no bombs available and suffering from extreme thirst,
they dug in and held their ground. However, at 4am on the
16th the reinforced Turks began a vicious series of bombing
and bayonet attacks. The attacks were unrelenting. The Irish
and English troops held their ground with a grim determination,
but without fresh troops and bombs the battalions just could
not realistically hold out much longer. Desperate appeals
for reinforcements and more ammunition fell on deaf ears
and the surviving men ”threw rocks when their meagre
supply of jam tin bombs ran out”.
“The
beleaguered troops had no chance of attracting the full
attention of their higher commanders on 16th
August because the simmering row between Hamilton and Stopford
with their various acolytes had finally blown up the day
before.”
(Source;
Nigel Steel & Peter Hart “Defeat at Gallipoli”
pp 283)
“At
this critical point in the battle, with the 10th
Division fighting for its life, a sensational rumour was
passed round. Its commander, Mahon, had resigned under the
most unusual circumstances.”
(Source
of quoted text; Col Michael Hickey “Gallipoli”
pp 301)
At
this very point on 16th August, with the Irish
Division and 162nd Brigade under tremendous pressure
and ‘fighting for its life’ with no reserves,
support or ammunition, it gets worse. The opinionated General
Stopford is sacked, General de Lisle takes over (temporarily
until General Byng arrives) and General Mahon resigns having
taken offence at being asked to serve under de Lisle who
was technically his junior. Mahon was commanding the 10th
Div and the 162nd Brigade at that precise moment,
which left the entire front without a Commander when it
needed one the most.
Ignoring
the atrocious conditions and determined efforts of both
the Turkish Army and the British Generals,
The English and Irish Brigades absolutely refused to give
way and stubbornly held the ground they had won at such
a terrible cost. Despite their brave efforts and “displaying
a skill and tenacity any Regular unit would be proud of”
the Territorials were isolated on Kidney Hill due to the
Irish Division being badly mauled and held up on the ridge
to their left, and were to retire that night “to
straighten the line out” finishing up level with
the 31st brigade’s original positions.
The
Bedfords alone lost 3 Captains, 4 Lieutenants, 8 Sergeants,
3 Corporals and 49 OR’s (Killed), with a further 7
Officers and over 300 OR’s becoming casualties on
15th August 1915 itself, but the Irish Battalions
were having an even worse time of it.
To
the West, the one sided bombing and artillery battle continued
overnight (15th to 16th August) and
by day break the strain on the Irish soldiers was apparent.
With huge gaps torn in their ranks, no hope of advancing
yet no orders to – and certainly no wish to –
retire being given, they clung onto their gains with a determination
that is both amazing and yet heartbreaking. Their anger
and fear were temporarily unleashed when a fresh charge
was made over the ridge by the 7th Dublins on
the morning of the 16th. Despite appalling losses,
they actually made it to the Turkish trenches against all
odds. Of the attacking troops, only 4 made it back over
the crest to their Battalion. Similar charges were made
all along the crest, with equally disastrous results. Whole
Platoons were lost, never to be seen again.
Despite
the complete hopelessness the men of the Irish Division
must have felt, they clung on and endured. It is impossible
to imagine their feelings - no where to go, with the corpses
of the comrades all around them and being continuously bombed
by their invisible enemy Nevertheless, they stayed put and
waited for either orders, or death – whichever came
first. Many events are recorded of this most trying of times,
such as Private Wilkin of the 7th Dublins. Tired
with being unable to reply to the constant bombing, he started
to catch the Turkish grenades and throw them back. “Five
times he performed this feat but at the sixth attempt he
was blown to pieces”. Whatever they did, the Irish
position was one of hopelessness.
By
sunset, the 6th Royal Irish fusiliers “exposed
both in front and on flank, had been practically annihilated”.
Their 5th Battalion came to reinforce them
but shared in their fate, and could do nothing to return
the constant rain of bombs falling on them. Nearly all their
officers had fallen and many of the other Battalions suffered
similar casualty figures, yet they were determined not to
disgrace the name and honour of their Battalions and line
still held.
Darkness
fell and the troops hoped for relief. Although it came,
it was not as expected as there were simply no troops left
to relieve them. Two battalions that had suffered the previous
day took over the line and suffered equally as badly until
they at last received the order to retire from “this
untenable position”. The shattered Division had
been trained for a year and destroyed in a week.
Aftermarth
The
enlisted men of the 10th Irish Division and the
Territorials of the 162nd Brigade withdrew to
their original lines on the night of the 16th
August. Over Four
Thousand British troops and similar numbers
of Turkish soldiers fell during the 2 days of fighting yet
no tactical or territorial gains were made whatsoever, as
would be the sad case during the rest of the Gallipoli campaign.
Sources.
As well as quoted sources, this story
draws mainly on the following sources:
- “The Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire
Regiment” GW Peters
- “The Story of the first – Fifth Bedfords” E Rimmer, 1917
- “History of the 5th Battalion, The Bedfordshire
and Hertfordshire Regiment” Captain FAM Webster
My thanks also go to Liam Curran for
information from the fascinating but very poignant book,
“10th Irish Division in Gallipoli”
and Eric Goossens who spent much time walking the hills
of Kiretch Tepe to understand the areas discussed here.
Eric is also responsible for the photographs of the ridge
contained in this site.
