100 Events of the Gallipoli Campaign
April–May 1915
17 April 1915
The British submarine E15 was driven ashore by a strong current while trying to pass through the Dardanelles. A Turkish shell penetrated her conning tower, killing the captain and six of the crew. On 19 April, a small British picket boat torpedoed and destroyed the E15.
20 April 1915
More than 200 ships were assembled in the harbour at Mudros, Lemnos, in preparation for the British and French invasion of Turkey.
23 April 1915
A final pre-invasion report circulated by British General Headquarters on Lemnos read, in part:
It is the general opinion that the Turks will offer an energetic resistance to our landing, but when once we are firmly established on the Peninsula it is thought possible that this opposition may crumble away …
Young English poet and a member of the Royal Naval Division bound for Gallipoli, Rupert Brooke, died on the Greek island of Skyros. These are among the most famous lines of his poetry:
If I should die think only this of me;
That there’s a corner of some foreign field
That is forever England.
25 April 1915
Early morning: Sir Ian Hamilton wrote:
Almighty God, Watchman of the Milky Way, Shepherd of the Golden Stars, have mercy upon us … Thy will be done. En avant [forward] — at all costs — en avant.
4.30 — 6.30 am: Invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey, by British (29th Division), Australian and New Zealand forces (Anzacs) and of the Turkish mainland at Kum Kale by French forces. By the end of the day strong Turkish counter-attacks confined the British to two small pockets of land on the tip of the peninsula at Cape Helles (‘Helles’) and the Anzacs to a strip of rugged country further up the peninsula inland of Ari Burnu point (‘Anzac’). Both sides experienced heavy casualties. The French successfully got ashore at Kum Kale.
At Helles, Father William Finn died. He was the Catholic chaplain to the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. Although badly wounded himself, Finn attended to other wounded before collapsing and dying. He was the first chaplain to be killed in the war in any British or Dominion force.
Six members of the Royal Navy were awarded Victoria Crosses for their bravery at the landings at ‘V’ Beach, Helles: Commander Edward Unwin, 51; Midshipman George Drewry, 20; Midshipman William Mallison, 18; Able Seaman William Williams, 24; Seaman George Samson, 26; and Sub-Lieutenant Arthur Tisdall, 26. Tisdall and Williams were posthumous awards.
Six members of the 1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, received Victoria Crosses by election of the survivors of the battalion for their bravery at ‘W’ Beach, Helles, afterwards known as Lancashire Landing: Captain Richard Willis, 38; Sergeant Alfred Richards, 35; Private William Kenealy, 28; Captain Cuthbert Bromley, 36; Sergeant Frank Stubbs, 27; and Corporal John Grimshaw, 22.
In the Gulf of Saros to the north of Gallipoli, the Royal Naval Division carried out an unsuccessful diversionary attack aimed at convincing the Turks that the main attack was to be there.
26 April 1915
Between 25 and 28 April at Helles, British troops consolidated their position from the initial landing beaches to form a line across the tip of the Gallipoli Peninsula. However, on 28 April, at the First Battle of Krithia, they failed to take the village of Krithia or to make any headway against the Turks up the peninsula.
At Helles, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles ‘Dick’ Doughtey-Wylie, Royal Welsh Fusiliers died.Doughty-Wylie, because of his own affection for the Turks, led a charge against them armed only with a walking stick. For his bravery he was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross. Doughtey-Wylie’s is the only lone marked British grave on Gallipoli.
At Anzac, Turkish forces led by Lieutenant-Colonel Mustafa Kemal attacked and held on to the high ground at Baby 700 and 400 Plateau. The Australians and New Zealanders were unable to advance.
27 April 1915
French forces evacuated Kum Kale and took over positions on the right of the British line at Helles.
28 April 1915
Battalions of the Royal Naval Division began a temporary relief of Australian units at Anzac.
On 28 April, one shrapnel shell from the battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth, containing 24,000 bullets, wiped out a whole Turkish company as they charged against some demoralised British troops at Helles.
1 May 1915
The first Victoria Cross (VC) to be awarded at Anzac went to Lance-Corporal Walter Parker, a stretcher-bearer with the Royal Naval Division. He assisted the wounded in an isolated trench and, despite his own wounds, helped to evacuate the position.
2 May 1915
The following British warships gave artillery support at Anzac for a major attack aimed at extending the Anzac line to the top of the hill known as Baby 700: the battleships Canopus, London, Majestic, Prince of Wales, Queen, Triumph, the cruiser Dartmouth and the destroyer Bacchante.
5 May 1915
Death in action at Helles of Able Seaman T Houghton, Hood Battalion, Royal Naval Division. Houghton had been crawling forward to help a wounded comrade when he was hit. Joseph Murray, Hood Battalion, wrote:
While comforting him he was shot through the head … Poor Houghton died crying for his mother. He said he was 17, but if he was 16 he would be lucky. Totally unsuited for this rough life, he never once complained.
6 May 1915
Between 6 and 8 May, the British, with French, Australian and New Zealand forces, fought the Second Battle of Krithia but the Turkish lines held and the village did not fall.
On 6 May, Lieutenant-Colonel John Quilter, Hood Battalion, Royal Naval Division, was killed carrying an ‘oversized walking stick’ as he lead his men in the attack on Krithia. The following verse was written to his memory:
All honour to Colonel Quilter,
The Battalion mourns his loss.
The only things we could give him
Were a grave and a wooden cross.