Third attack on Anzac Cove
Third attack on Anzac Cove | |
---|---|
Part of the Adrianople Vilayet, Ottoman Empire 40°14′24″N 26°17′33″E / 40.24000°N 26.29250°E | |
Result | Allied victory |
5th Division
16th Division
19th Division
The third attack on Anzac Cove (19 May 1915) was an engagement during the
On 25 April 1915, the
The Turkish assault began in the early hours of 19 May, mostly directed at the centre of the ANZAC position. It had failed by midday; the Turks were caught by
Expecting an imminent continuation of the battle, three Allied brigades arrived within twenty-four hours to reinforce the beachhead, but no subsequent attack materialised. Instead, on 20 and 24 May two truces were declared to collect the wounded and bury the dead in no man's land. The Turks never succeeded in capturing the bridgehead; instead the ANZACs evacuated the position at the end of the year.
Background
Beachhead
On 25 April, at the start of the
The First Turkish counter-attack on Anzac Cove in April, by the 19th Infantry Division (57th, 72nd and 77th Infantry Regiments) commanded by Colonel Mustafa Kemal, had initially pierced the ANZAC line but was eventually repulsed. On 5 May the Turkish Army commander, the German officer Otto Liman von Sanders, ordered his troops to adopt a defensive posture. However, the Turkish General Staff considered the ANZAC beachhead to be such a precarious position that even a small Turkish success would "drive them back into the sea". Another consideration was that eliminating the ANZAC position would release four or five divisions to move against the British and French beachhead at Cape Helles.[11]
Turkish forces
The
The assault was under the direct command of
ANZAC forces
By now the ANZAC Corps comprised two divisions, with around 17,300 men and 43 artillery pieces. The
The ANZAC command had no inkling of the impending attack, and as late as 16 May they recorded that they were opposed by only between 15,000 and 20,000 troops.
At about 23:45 18 May, a Turkish bomb detonated at Quinn's Post, and the Turks opened fire with their
Attack
No.2 Section
The first sign of the coming battle was shortly after stand-to at No.2 Section, where the Australian
To the immediate south, opposite Lone Pine, the Australian 2nd and 3rd Battalions had been digging a new trench into no man's land. It was intended to provide a better firing position and, starting from both battalions' lines, headed into no man's land at an angle of forty-five degrees to the old line. Eventually it was expected that the two extensions would meet in the middle, but by the time of the attack there was still a gap of around fifty yards (46 m) between them. It was here the Turkish 16th Division attacked. At first the Turks were in a gully which sheltered them from Australian fire. The 48th Infantry Regiment, moving through the heavy Australian fire, advanced into the gap between the two battalions. Despite one of the 3rd Battalion's machine-guns jamming, this assault and the following waves were beaten back, although some Turks did reach the Australian trenches. The Turks came so close to the supporting Australian artillery that the artillerymen disabled their guns, so they could not be used against them, and joined the infantry in the trenches.[36] The 16th Division attempted four successive assaults, but each wave was mown down by the Australian fire.[37] At Wire Gully a group of Turks got close enough to a 2nd Battalion machine-gun to destroy it with a hand grenade, allowing them to move forward and reach the Australian trench. Some individual Turkish soldiers also reached the trench before they were all shot down. This continued until around 05:00, when the surviving Turks started withdrawing to German Officers' Ridge.[35][38]
No.1 Section
Part of the 16th Division also attacked the 3rd Brigade in No.1 Section from Lone Pine southwards. They advanced in two waves through a field of wheat, but only three men survived the Australian fire to reach the
No.3 Section
Another part of the 5th Division had gathered unseen below Courtnay's Post, which was held by the
Next in the line, to the north, was Quinn's Post, defended by the
On the other side of Monash Valley, the right flank of the 5th Division and the 19th Division attacked Pope's. Sentries from the
No.4 Section
On Russell's Top the
Daylight
All along the ANZAC perimeter, Turkish troops continued trying to advance using fire and manoeuvre. This gradually petered out as the morning progressed, and the Turks tried to regain their own lines instead. The Australians and New Zealanders continued to fire on them, sometimes showing themselves above their trenches. The Turks were now able to return fire, which caused the majority of the ANZAC casualties.
The seriousness of the Turkish defeat gradually dawned on the ANZAC commanders. At 05:25 Birdwood suggested to his junior commanders that they counter-attack against the Turkish flanks. But he was convinced that any attack into the Turkish artillery was doomed to failure. However, at 15:35 British General Headquarters (GHQ) ordered him to exploit the situation and use any opportunity to attack. Birdwood replied that anything less than a general assault would be futile.
Aftermath
By the end of the day the ANZAC artillery had expended 1,361
The next day, 20 May, the smell of rotting corpses in no man's land and the numerous wounded still located between the lines convinced the New Zealand and Australian Division staff to suggest an
By now the beachhead had been reinforced; the New Zealand Infantry Brigade, the 2nd Light Horse Brigade and the 3rd Light Horse Brigade had all arrived during the day. Communication between the two sides resulted in a more formal truce on 24 May. At 07:30 all firing ceased and parties moved out to bury the dead. This lasted until 16:30 when the truce ended and both sides returned to their own lines.[63][64]
Private Victor Laidlaw of the 2nd Australian Field Ambulance, described the truce in his diary:
The armistice was declared from 8:30 a.m. this morning till 4:30 p.m. it is wonderful, things are unnaturally quiet and I felt like getting up and making a row myself, the rifle fire is quiet, no shell fire. The stench round the trenches where the dead had been lying for weeks was awful, some of the bodies were mere skeletons, it seems so very different to see each side near each others trenches burying their dead, each man taking part in this ceremony is called a pioneer and wears 2 white bands on his arms, everybody is taking advantage of the armistice to do anything they want to do out of cover and a large number are down bathing and you would think today was Cup Day down at one of our seaside beaches.[65]
Firing recommenced at 16:45.[63][64] The Turkish commanders now realised just what would be required to capture the beachhead. Instead of trying again they left two of their depleted divisions, the 16th and 19th, to man their lines while the others were withdrawn. The still independent 77th Infantry Regiment also remained behind, in the same position covering the south.[66]
The Turks never succeeded in capturing the beachhead, and at the end of the year the ANZAC forces were evacuated to Egypt. During the 260 days of the Gallipoli Campaign, the British Empire forces took 213,980 casualties.[67] 35,000 of those were from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps,[68] which included 8,709 Australian and 2,721 New Zealand dead.[69][70] The exact number of Turkish casualties is not known, but has been estimated at 87,000 dead[71] from a total of around 250,000 casualties.[72]
References
- Footnotes
- Ottoman Turkish Empire. While the terms have distinct historical meanings, within many English-language sources the terms "Turkey" and "Ottoman Empire" are used synonymously, although sources differ in their approaches.[1]The sources used in this article predominantly use the term "Turkey".
- ^ By comparison a British infantry company had ten sergeants, and several more junior NCOs.[16]
- ^ The patent for the British Mills bomb hand grenade was not filed until 15 June 1915.[18]
- ^ The mine was eventually detonated in the early hours of 29 May.[22]
- ^ Some Turkish sources differ on the numbers of troops involved. Amin Bey says there were 47,000 men, while Kiazim Pasha says there were only 30,000 men.[23]
- ^ While the mounted and light horse brigades had an establishment of around 1,900 men, when dismounted their rifle strength was only the equivalent of an infantry battalion.[27]
- ^ Moorhead in 1997 claimed there were 5,000 dead.[56]
- Citations
- ^ Fewster, Basarin, Basarin 2003, pp.xi–xii
- ^ "No. 29115". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 March 1915. p. 3099.
- ^ "Dardenelles (sic) Commission report: conclusions". National Archives. Archived from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
- ^ "The landing at Anzac Cove". The Australian War Memorial. Archived from the original on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
- ^ "ANZAC Cove". Australian Government. Archived from the original on 11 February 2014. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
- ^ Fewster, Basarin, Basarin 2003, p.12
- ^ Waite 1919, p.136
- ^ Powles 1928, p.27
- ^ a b Moorhead 1997, p.146
- ^ Moorehead 1997, pp.146–147
- ^ Bean 1941, p.132
- ^ Erickson 2007, p.1
- ^ Erickson 2007, p.16
- ^ Erickson 2007, p.18
- ^ Erickson 2007, p.26
- ^ Gudmundsson 2005, p.28
- ^ Waite 1919, p.149
- ^ "Mills Grenade and other like apparatus". US Patents. Archived from the original on 29 April 2014. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
- ^ Nicolle 2010, p.20
- ^ Bean 1941, p.133
- ^ a b Bean 1941, p.136
- ^ a b Cameron 2013, p.39
- ^ a b Bean 1941, p.135
- ^ a b Bean 1941, p.139
- ^ Bryne 1922, p.36
- ^ Sumner 2011, p.8
- ^ Kinloch 2005, pp.30–32
- ^ Bean 1941, pp.137–138
- ^ Bean 1941, p.138
- ^ a b Bean 1941, p.140
- ^ Bean 1941, pp.138–139
- ^ Moorehead 1997, p.149
- ^ Bean 1941, pp.140–141
- ^ Bean 1941, pp.141–142
- ^ a b c d e f g "No. 29303". The London Gazette (Supplement). 20 September 1915. p. 1.
- ^ Bean 1941, pp.142–143
- ^ Bean 1941, p.144
- ^ Bean 1941, pp.147–148
- ^ Bean 1941, pp.145–146
- ^ Bean 1941, p.146
- ^ Bean 1941, pp.149–150
- ^ "No. 29240". The London Gazette (Supplement). 23 July 1915. p. 7279.
- ^ Bean 1941, p.152
- ^ Bean 1941, pp.154–155
- ^ a b Bean 1941, p.151
- ^ Waite 1919, p.140
- ^ Bean 1941, pp.155–156
- ^ Morehead 1997, p.150
- ^ Bean 1941, pp.157–158
- ^ Bean 1941, p.159
- ^ a b Bean 1941, p.164
- ^ Wilkie 1924, pp.21–23
- ^ Nicol 1921, pp.42–43
- ^ a b Bean 1941, p.162
- ^ "Early Battles". New Zealand History. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
- ^ Moorhead 1997, p.151
- ^ a b "Turkish counter-attack". Australian Government. Archived from the original on 11 February 2014. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
- ^ "Simpson and his donkey". Australian War Memorial. Archived from the original on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
- ^ "John Kirkpatriick". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Archived from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
- ^ Moorhead 1997, pp.152–153
- ^ Bean 1941, p.166
- ^ Waite 1919, p.142
- ^ a b Bean 1941, pp.166–168
- ^ a b Waite 1919, pp.142–145
- ^ Laidlaw, Private Victor. "Diaries of Private Victor Rupert Laidlaw, 1914-1984 [manuscript]". State Library of Victoria. Archived from the original on 7 February 2023. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
- ^ Bean 1941, p.168
- ^ "Dardanelles Campaign". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 3 February 2014. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
- ^ Tucker 2013, p.56
- ^ "Australian fatalities at Gallipoli". Australian War Memorial. Archived from the original on 29 January 2014. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
- ^ "Gallipoli Campaign". New Zealand History. Archived from the original on 22 January 2014. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
- ^ "Gallipoli". New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affair and Trade. Archived from the original on 2 January 2014. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
- ^ Fewster, Basarin, Basarin 2003, p.6
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