26th February 1915

[michaeldr]

At just after 2.00 p.m. on 26th February 1915, a party of Royal Marines under Maj Granville Heriot DSO., together with the Vengeance’s torpedo officer and explosives expert, Lt. Cdr. Eric Gascoigne Robinson, were landed at Kum Kale, from de Robeck’s ships which were returning from another bombardment of the Dardanelles forts. The landing party comprised about 50 seamen carrying the gun-cotton charges and a covering force of about 50 Royal Marines.

Robinson’s “orders were to destroy any serviceable guns in the vicinity of Kum Kale and Orkanieh, a dangerous mission, rendered even more hazardous, by the lack of information concerning the strength or disposition of the Turks.................

From Kum Kale, they followed the Mendere River as it flowed past a cemetery and then took the road south-west towards a rise known as Achilles Mound. Beyond it lay the Orkanieh battery and Yeni Shehr…………………………………………………………

One of the Vengeance’s officers later recalled:

“We saw them go past the cemetery, up to the semi-circular hollow, and they then signalled that they were attacked: so Dublin fired a salvo at the Yeni Shehr [wind] mills, which downed three mills and stopped the enemy’s fire from there. We also gave Yeni Shehr a few rounds: however, the Marines still remained in the hollow firing fairly hard. It appears they were attacked from the Mendere on their left flank, and from hidden snipers in the cemetery; also, till the guns stopped them, by a large force from Yeni Shehr…”

Instead of retreating Robinson pressed on towards Achilles Mound. “An eyewitness from the Vengeance recorded: “When half way up the slope (under fire all the time from Yeni Shehr) Robinson’s party stopped and took cover, with the exception of one who went forward up to Achilles Mound, where the Vengeance’s shells had earlier dislodged two Turkish anti-aircraft guns nearby, got inside the crater at the top, walked calmly down again and, when he was just clear, we saw an explosion, and up went both the anti-aircraft guns.”

The lone figure, whose actions were plainly visible to friend and foe alike, was Eric Robinson…………………Not content with this, or perhaps heartened by it, he decided to capitalize on the crushing impact of the Dublin’s salvo directed at Yeni Shehr by leading a small portion of his force against the left-hand 9.4-inch gun which remained in the Orkanieh battery……………With a small party, he led a dash into the battery site which was also unoccupied and they were able to destroy the weapon…………………………...

The Vengeance’s commander, Capt. Bertram Smith, later recalled:

“We had been watching Eric Robinson…strolling around by himself …under heavy rifle fire from the neighbouring rise, like a sparrow enjoying a bath from a garden hose, until Dublin turned the hose off with some nicely placed salvoes. He and his party and escort were returning to the boats, while the Admiral and I were happily arranging our recommend for his V.C., when a fresh turmoil started all around them.

They had now passed out of sight in the trees of Kum Kale cemetery and none of us could see what was happening.

At length, they got a signal through to say that they were held up with the main body of the enemy in a large domed tomb. The control could see the tomb and I could just distinguish its top when they put me on. It was invisible at the guns, but I was able to note its whereabouts in the treetops, and went down to let off a 6-inch lyddite. The range was short and the range-finder laid it exactly, so the first shot sent the tomb and fragments of its inmates, both ancient and modern, flying heavenwards. Using the burst as a starting point there was no difficulty in taking the guns on to any other target to get our people clear.”

The Marines, however, did not escape unscathed. During the fire fight, Sgt. Ernest Turnbull was killed and three men, Cpl. Harold Charlwood, Pte. Frank Toms and Pte. George Mandle, wounded…………………………………………………………………

Robinson’s V.C. citation in the London Gazette (16 Aug ’15) includes:

“Lieut Commander Robinson on 26th February advanced alone, under heavy fire, into an enemy’s gun position, which might well have been occupied, and, destroying a four-inch gun, returned to his party for another charge with which the second gun was destroyed. Lieut Commander Robinson would not allow members of his demolition party to accompany him, as their white uniforms rendered them very conspicuous………….”

Condensed from ‘VCs of the First World War – Gallipoli’ by Stephen Snelling, published by Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd., 1995, from where the photograph below was also taken

[michaeldr]

Postscript:

Lt. Cdr Robinson commanded an unarmoured, converted trawler sweeping mines in the Dardanelles on 13/14 March 1915 under heavy fire when the ship was struck no less than 84 times. He commanded the operation to destroy the stranded E15 on 18/19 April 1915 and was once again under heavy fire from the shore only 300 to 500 yards away. Commodore Roger Keyes thought that Robinson should have received a second VC for this action, but he had to make do with promotion to Commander. Robinson was ‘badly wounded, not dangerously’ during the Suvla landings on 7 August 1915 and did not return to the Dardanelles. On his recovery from his wound Robinson commanded M21 off the Palestine coast. He received the Order of the Nile in 1917 and was MiD. In 1919 he was in command of a flotilla of Coastal Motor Boats on the Caspian Sea and took the surrender of the Bolshevik held port of Fort Alexandrovsk; he was awarded the Russian Order of St. Anne and an OBE.

Robinson was promoted Captain on 31 December 1920 and retired with the rank of Rear Admiral in 1933. He was recalled to active service on the outbreak of the Second World War and served as a convoy commodore until ill health forced his second retirement in 1941. Sadly, both of Admiral Robinson’s sons were killed in the war.

Rear Admiral Eric Cascoigne Robinson V.C., O.B.E. [born 16 May 1882] died at Haslar Naval Hospital on 20 August 1965.

Exactly 33 years later, on 20 August 1998, a headstone was unveiled on Admiral Robinson’s previously unmarked grave in the churchyard of St. John the Evangelist, Langrish, near Petersfield, Hampshire.

Details from Snelling, and from ‘The Gallipolian’ No.88, Winter 1998