1 of 6.

The landing from the River Clyde at Ertuğrul Cove (V Beach) on 25 April 1915 as featured in H W Wilson and J A Hammerton (eds), The Great War, London, 1916, p.7. This imaginative reconstruction of the Landing shows the men of the Munster Fusiliers and the Hampshire Regiment rushing out of the sides of the specially cut doors in the sides of the steamer. The original plan called for the soldiers to then reach the shore by passing over barges forming a bridge between the ship and the beach. In reality, the barges did not reach the beach and dozens of men were killed as they tried to make their way across the barges and into the water.

2 of 6.

Seddülbahir Fort and Ertuğrul Cove (V Beach) photographed from the deck of the River Clyde on the morning of 25 April 1915. Dead and wounded British soldiers can be seen in the barge just below the ship and the dark mass in the centre of the photograph on the beach are soldiers pinned down by the machine gun fire of the Turkish defenders in the fort. [AWM A03076]

3 of 6.

This photograph shows the damage done to the walls of the Seddülbahir Fort by the shells of the Allied warships during bombardments in 1914 and 1915. [AWM H10283]

4 of 6.

The grave of Colonel Charles Doughty-Wylie VC, Royal Welch Fusiliers, at Seddülbahir. Doughty-Wylie had spent much time in Turkey and during the Balkan War of 1912-1913 he had commanded a Red Cross unit serving with the Turks. For this he received the Order of Medijdieh, 2nd Class, from the Ottoman Empire. Such was his regard for the Turks that, when he led the British charge up from V Beach which drove them from Seddülbahir, he did so unarmed carrying only a stick. General Sir Ian Hamilton wrote: "The death of a hero strips victory of its wings".

5 of 6.

The special memorial for Private Patrick Lynch, Royal Dublin Fusiliers, in V Beach Cemetery, Ertuğrul Cove. Lynch died on 25 April 1915, almost certainly one of those who lost his life to the stout Turkish defence of the cove.

6 of 6.

The Ilk Sehitlir (First Martyrs) monument inside the fort at Sedüllbahir. It commemorates a number of Turkish soldiers who were the first Turkish casualties of the struggle at the Dardanelles between November 1914 and January 1916. The fort contained a number of guns and a powerful searchlight. On 3 November 1914, British warships, four days after the outbreak of war with Turkey, shelled Sedüllbahir and Kumkale on the Asian shore. A lucky shot hit the ammunition magazine at Sedüllbahir which exploded killing 89 of the garrison and shattering many of the heavy guns at the fort. Rhodes James described the scene:

A dense pall of smoke hung in the short November afternoon over the entrance to the Dardanelles as the British warships turned away, with a few Turkish shells splashing harmlessly in the sea. [Rhodes James, Gallipoli, London, 1999, p.13]

Close