Position on Kiretch Tepe Sirt

[Guest francmyles]

Hi all, I'm new here and have just come back from a few days in and around Suvla with my dad (80) and son (12). I wish I'd seen this thread before I left Dublin! Basically, I'm a field archaeologist with an interest in mapping twentieth-century conflict. My grandfather was the CQMS with D Company RDF so I suppose most of our time was spent along the coast north of Suvla looking at what remains of the supply depots, hospital sites, piers etc. I've done a bit of fieldwork in very similar terrain on ridge tops in western Catalunya and I congratuate everyone here on all the work undertaken on mapping the positions on the Kiretch Tepe. Having spent the past three hours on this thread, I'm wondering the extent to which shell craters have obscured or confused trench lines along the ridge? I'm also wondering if anyone has put together a bibliography of the maps and sketches you're all using? I'd be very interested in taking a small survey team up there perhaps this time next year, but I believe it would have to be done under the radar so to speak?! For us at any rate (and I know this is a separate discussion), the most thought-provoking piece of modern archaeology we noticed was the deterioration of the road immediately you leave the ANZAC sector travelling north towards Suvla! Anyway, thanks again for ensuring that I'll get very little work done this week!

[Norrette]

Welcome to the forum Fran(?) not sure if that's your first name. Do keep us updated with your project on the Tepe, sounds really interesting.

[michaeldr]

I'm in two minds as to whether or not these should be added to this thread, or to a new one, but there are so many goods maps here of the Kiretch Tepe ridge & of Jephson's that these might as well be here too

The images are borrowed from the 'Sea Your History' web-site

http://www.seayourhistory.org.uk/component/option,com_rnm_homepage/Itemid,81/

but try as I might, I cannot seem to find there any further information on Watson or his diary. If anyone else has better luck than I, then please let me know how: it must make an interesting contribution to the history of the Navy's efforts on land at Gallipoli and at Suvla in particular

"The officer who runs the machine guns at Jephson's post, which belong to the armoured car section of the R.N.A.S., is Arthur Borton, from Cheveney. Extraordinary running up against him out here. He is doing very good work there, and has a lively time; the enemy shell the place all day."

from The Naval Review, Vol. IV,

The IWM have added some new photographs to their on-line collections since I last visited;

this one is new to me and although the caption does not give much away

to me it looks like a couple of the RNAS [RNACD] machine gunners on Kiretch Tepe

see http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205284299

[michaeldr]

I has been nearly a year since this thread last saw active service...... I happened to be at the Royal Hampshire Regiment Museum today and the Secretary to the Trustees Lt Col Colin Bulleid kindly gave me access to the Regimental archives. Among the papers and albums of the 1/8th Hampshire Regt (TF) The Isle of Wight Rifles were two photos of 'One Tree Gully' which I have posted below. I think the smaller one will match very closely with one of Gully Ravine and V Beach's pictures.

My best guesstimate from the bright sunlight and the info contained in the 163rd Bde War diary and 1/8th Hants War Diary is that these photos were taken sometime between 18th-28th Aug 1915when the units were in the area of Kiretch Tepe Sirt). Interesting to see the MGs sited bang in the middle of the open area and the photographer clearly standing up.

With thanks to the Trustees of the Royal Hampshire Regiment Trust. Please respect the copyright. MG

Also available now is another shot of Lone Tree Gully

see http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205307183

[Hedley Malloch]

What an inte resting thread. I was up Kiritch Tepe yesterday with my wife trying to make sense of thie locations of Jephson's Post, the Pimple, and Kidney Hill on the ground, and we found it to be difficult going on impossible. I think the middle cairn has collapsed, at least I could not find it, and, using binocs, there is only one cairn visible from the valley below. In previous years, I distinctly remember being able to find two albeit with binoculars.

It's not the first time I have been up there. I have been up five times since my first visit in 1998. On previous visits I have traversed the ridge at least until the second cairn. But this time I had no luck. The gorse, brush and undergrowth were simply impenetrable in places, but of course it is all 17 years more mature than on my first visit, as indeed I am. Perhaps we need a good brush fire up there? It's nature's way of giving a good clean out.

The reason why we went is that we have been in Gallipoli for the past two weeks and the Anzac commemorations of the centenary of Lone Pine have absolutely dominated everything. Lone Pine was important, but so was what was happening at Kiritch Tepe. It's a shame that the actions of the 10th and 11th Divisions at Suvla have been overshadowed by what was happening at Anzac and that there was no official commemoration on Kiritch Tepe. As a partial remedy we left a small floral tribute to the British and Turkish soldiers who fought there at somewhere I assumed (probably erroneously) to be just behind Jephson's Post and Kidney Hill.

[AlastairSP]

On 13/04/2015 at 20:27, francmyles said:

Hi all, I'm new here and have just come back from a few days in and around Suvla with my dad (80) and son (12). I wish I'd seen this thread before I left Dublin! Basically, I'm a field archaeologist with an interest in mapping twentieth-century conflict. My grandfather was the CQMS with D Company RDF so I suppose most of our time was spent along the coast north of Suvla looking at what remains of the supply depots, hospital sites, piers etc. I've done a bit of fieldwork in very similar terrain on ridge tops in western Catalunya and I congratuate everyone here on all the work undertaken on mapping the positions on the Kiretch Tepe. Having spent the past three hours on this thread, I'm wondering the extent to which shell craters have obscured or confused trench lines along the ridge? I'm also wondering if anyone has put together a bibliography of the maps and sketches you're all using? I'd be very interested in taking a small survey team up there perhaps this time next year, but I believe it would have to be done under the radar so to speak?! For us at any rate (and I know this is a separate discussion), the most thought-provoking piece of modern archaeology we noticed was the deterioration of the road immediately you leave the ANZAC sector travelling north towards Suvla! Anyway, thanks again for ensuring that I'll get very little work done this week!

HI Franc, was your grandfather the Finlay Myles in "D" Company of the 7th RDF? Two of my great uncles were in The Pals: Charles Edward Dowse was killed on 16 August 2015 in the "D" Company charge on the bomb-throwers near The Pimple on KTS. Henry Harvey Dowse received "a severe gunshot would in the chest" but we don't know how it happened. He survived to end up as observer in two-seaters in the RFC/RAF. His Bristol Fighter was shot down on the Italian Front. He died ten days later – 10 November 1918. I'm researching their respective stories now. Anything you might have or know about The Pals would be of great interest. (I have Henry Hanna and Ken Kinsella.)

 

This is my first post. GWF has excellent information.

 

Rgds

Alastair Sharp-Paul