Blizzard at Gallipoli.

[Guest]

Hello...just bumping this thread up the list....in a few weeks it will be the 98th anniversary of the Blizzard at Gallipoli...just wondered if anyone had any additional info or more quotes from any of the diaries or histories.

According to the Official History Medical Services; Casualties and Medical Statistics some 6,602 men suffered frostbite of which 6,368 eventually returned to duty (96.4%). 68 men died of frostbite which implies 166 men had such severe frostbite that it caused permanent damage. By way of reminder the RE recorded temperatures of -10 Celsius.

The Official History Medical Services Vol IV records 16,000 admissions from frostbite or exposure of this 12,000 were on the Suvla front. 280 were either drowned or died of exposure. I assume this includes the 68 who died of frostbite. The standing strength of the forces at Gallipoli in Nov 1915 was 125,763 suggesting that somewhere in the region of 12.5% of the troops were incapacitated by the Blizzard in just a few days.

The numbers taken out of the line in three days due to the Blizzard exceeded the numbers killed, died of wounds , wounded and prisoners of war in each month of the campaign except bloody August. Casualties from the Blizzard exceeded all other casualties by three times in Nov 1915.

MG

[stevem49]

Just found a chap who was sent home with frostbite (family story) on 16 Dec 1915 -

9/12853 Private George Gabbitas, 9th bn Sherwood Foresters. He was sent to 33rd FA and then moved to 26CCS on 24/12/1915 (Imbros) and 31/12/1915 invalided to England on M.S. Llanfranc, from Mudros. For some reason he was then sent to DLI but after service In UK was deemed to be physically unfit - 7/11/1917- debility. Annoyingly his papers have - 'originated Dardenelles' - Result of active service due to ?????.. to infection. Not permanent probable duration 6 months. SWB with DLI.

Steve

[Guest]

The Suvla Blizzard Papers Past

Mike

[pagius]

The centenary of the infamous flood at Suvla Bay is almost upon us (next Friday as I write).

Thanks to all the previous contributors to this thread for bringing this to mind. My great-uncle, Lt Richard Agius , was one of the few officer survivors of the 2/3rd Londons and we will be talking about in our family facebook group on the day. (He has almost 400 nephews and nieces in 5 generations).

The best account of the flood is by Lt Col Frederick Bendall CO of the 2/3rd Londons and I had the privilege of meeting his daughter (aged 88) a few weeks ago.

http://www.firstworldwar.com/diaries/floodatsuvlabay.htm

We will remember them.

[MartinWills]

The 9th Sherwood Foresters were badly hit by the blizzards and the subsequent torrents running down the communication tranches at Suvla Bay and the resulting casualties were buried in Hill 10 cemetery amongst others.

There is a first hand account of experiences in the blizzard to be found in At Suvla Bay. Being the Notes and Sketches of Scenes, Characters and Adventures of the Dardanelles Campaign by White Fox (John Hargrave) published in 1916.

[pagius]

You can find 'At Suvla Bay' free on-line. The author tells of how the division left the peninsula in October a few weeks before the night of the great flood 26th/27th Nov so there is no account of it in this book.

[stevem49]

Martin - all of the 4 9th Sherwood Foresters in Hill10 died pre storm. 27th Nov - 2 men - 1 buried in Azmak and 1 Helles memorial.

Pagius - which Division left in October?

Steve M

[Guest]

Hardest hit were 2nd Bn Royal Fusiliers and the 2/3rd Bn London Regt .... by a very long way.

Gee's account is in my opinion the most moving. He later was awarded the VC for other heroics later in the war but I think his stoicism during the blizzard simply beggars belief. Super-human. His CSM too and the tiny outpost that held out at all costs. MG

[Guest]

You can find 'At Suvla Bay' free on-line. The author tells of how the division left the peninsula in October a few weeks before the night of the great flood 26th/27th Nov so there is no account of it in this book.

Only the 10th Irish Div and parts of the original 2nd Mtd Div departed in Oct and missed the blizzard. The 11th (Northern) Div were there.

The worst impact of the blizzard was largely compounded by topography: the men on the northern slopes of KTS were hit the hardest by the wind-chill factor; they capitulated quickly. Subsequently it was the men in the flood plain of Suvla who were hit by the flash-floods who took the brunt of the storm. The dry deres were turned into raging torrents with no warning. The men on KTS and ANZAC at least had the benefit of gravity taking the water away; the men in the plain had to wallow in the water and the detritus that quickly froze around them. There are anecdotes that the men who suffered that night who later experienced the Western Front claimed that the blizzard was the worst experience of their War. MG

[PhilB]

Are there figures for Turkish losses during the storm? One assumes they were fairly exposed up on the high ground.

[Guest]

Mates,

Bean records our losses on page 846 vol 2 AOWH between 30 Nov to 8 Dec at Anzac of 3246 men including one from exposure.

He also lists the known British losses

Helles - 1459

Suvla - 11,086

total - 15,701

Cheers

S.B

[pagius]

Hi Martin and Steve (in response to above comments)

You can read 'At Suvla Bay' freely at https://openlibrary.org/books/OL7090188M/At_Suvla_Bay

AT SUVLA BAY

BEING THE NOTES AND SKETCHES Of

SCENES, CHARACTERS AND ADVENTURES

OF THE DARDANELLES CAMPAIGN

MADE BY

JOHN HARGRAVE

("White Fox")

WHILE SERVING WITH THE 32ND FIELD AMBULANCE,

X DIVISION, MEDITERRANEAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE,

DURING THE GREAT WAR

So that's the 10th (Irish) Division that left Suvla on 29th Sept , as you say Martin. http://www.1914-1918.net/10div.htm

In Chapter 10 Page 58 he describes the landing at Suvla Bay on Aug 6th (pg 57).

Chapter 27 "The Departure" Page 170 onwards describes the 10th Division leaving Suvla Bay late September ...

"Only three months ago we had landed 25,000

strong ; and now we numbered about 6000. A

fearful loss—a smashed Division."

So all I was saying was that, although this book is a brilliant account of life at Suvla Bay Aug-Oct, the author had left several weeks before

the great storm and flood of Nov 26th/27th and there is no account of said blizzard in this book.

My great-uncle Lt Richard Agius was a young (aged 19) officer in the 2/3rd Londons and was caught up in the worst of the flood. He survived

but couldn't walk for days from severe frostbite. He was invalided out to Mudros early December. He rejoined his regiment on the front line in 1916

and was killed at Poelcappelle (Paschendaele) early in the attack of 26/10/17 , lost in the mud and never found (despite his brothers knowing

almost the exact location and going to see if they could find him). His name is on the Tyne Cot Memorial.

Richard's CO was Lt Col Frederick Bendall and his graphic account of the flood can be read at http://www.firstworldwar.com/diaries/floodatsuvlabay.htm

Also have another great-uncle Lennie Samut, related to Richard Agius by marriage (Lennie's sister married Richard's brother in Malta in 1909), who was an officer of the Kings Own Malta Regiment in charge of the Maltese Labour Corps working as stevedores at Anzac Bay a little way down the coast from Suvla. By coincidence our family archive has a letter written from Anzac Cove on 27th November which simply says 'yesterday we had an awful thunderstorm'. He was unaware of the terrible flooding at Suvla.

[Guest]

Mates,

Asked on the other site about the Turkish accounts but found no one as yet with any details.

Ed E is quit on the subject in his book on Gallipoli while one bloke said this;

A good source is Ismail Hakki Sunata's memoir, "Geliboludan Kafkaslara", published by Is Bankasi yayinlari; there is a discussion of the blizzard staring on p. 181.

I can not find this book, so must be written in Turkish and not translated?

So we may never know what he said?

Cheers

S.B

[alantwo]

Erickson's book 'Gallipoli, The Ottoman Campaign' has Ottoman weather related casualties between 25th April 1915 to 19th December 1915 as 8,307, table 5.1 p199.

Regards

Alan

[Guest]

Allan,

Thanks must have missed it.

Further to my last these are the Turkish writters;

Ismail Hakki Sunata's memoir, "Geliboludan Kafkaslara"

Ismail Hakki Sunata was at the time mentioned he was a second lieutenant (actually, officer candidate - subway namzedi) commanding a platoon of of 2nd Company, 1st Battalion, 35th Regiment in the 12th Division. His account mentions conditions in the Turkish trenches after the blizzard and floods, but doesn't give numbers; he does mention that the 36th Regiment, which was then in the forward trenches, suffered many casualties from the flooding.

(these units of the 12th Div were fighting around the Chocalate Hills near Suvla, SB)

Another place to have a look might be the diary of Col. Izzettin Calislar, Ataturk's chief of staff - his memoir is "On Yillik Savas", again published by Is Bankasi Yayinlari.

Col. Selahhatin Adil's memoirs might also have information (Commander 12th Div to Sept then commander 13th Div).

Is Bankasi Yayinlari has actually published several memoirs of enlisted men and junior officers from this period, which are well worth a read.

Cheers

S.B

[Guest]

Mate,

Here is two other Turkish accounts;

Reserve 2nd Lt. Münim Mustafa wrotes about rain and snow storm at Gallipoli in his book "Cepheden Cepheye" (From One Front To Another) 1st Addition 1940

"......... After working hours under rain storm very hard I seved myself and my tent and my personal belongings. I myself and all my dry cothings, my bed were all wet. I trembled all night long in my tent. Next morning I noticed that not only me but everybody suffered that storm. We immediately lid fires and begun to dry ourselves arond the fire turning slowly like a döner kebab.
Four days after that rain storm as I woke up in my tent I found every where in white. Even my tent was full of snow because of it had many bullet holes It snowed on November! What wonder! The snow even covered my blanket and my trenchcoat. The snow looked like a white rug in my tent. I went out of my tent. The weather was windy and snowy. I learned our misirable situation. 2 of the sentries were frozen to death. Nobody had winter uniforms. We had still our summer uniforms. Who can resist such a cold in summer uniforms? The commanding officers might thought that we were of stone. Even stones can not resit cold. Our hand turned to blue. Nobody was able to hold anything. At that moment our regiment received orders to move to the village of Alaplı near Şarkoy to rest in dwellings. The order pleased us as if we hold the world in our hands. It was pitty that we lost 2 brave men. On Nov. 24th 1915 we moved towards Alaplı from Eksamil (Ortaköy) All the land turned into ice because of the last snow. It was very hard to walk on that icy land. The snowy wind was burning our faces. Even the mules were not easly walking on the ice. After a short time our regiment became a regiment of misirables. Every one was exausted. Many just laid on snow and waited their fate. The sanitaters, doctors, officers were encouraging the exausted soldiers to move to warm places. As the night fell our situation got worsned. We heard from everywhere cries and painful voices. "

and

In his memoirs, Gen. Izzeddin Calislar, Chief of Staff of the Anafarta group, reports a severe storm on 26 November 1915 that badly affected the 18th and 59th regiments at Azmak and the 36th Regiment in the Kucuk Anafarta valley. In his entry for November 30th, he notes casualties due to the storm as 190 frozen to death and 30 drowned. Presumably these figures cover all the regiments in the Anafarta Group.

Cheers

S.B

[meadowcroft]

To add to this topic of frost bite at Gallipoli, Private Harry Greed, 29th London Regiment, #781698 was returned home on the H.S. Britannic 03/01/1916 suffering from frost bite of the foot. Presumably it was severe as he afterwards received care at various orthopedic hospitals and also a "Valgas plate" to his foot. He was granted a pension of 12/6 week for this injury. Both his Medal Index Card and Service Record survive at Ancestry.uk .

He may have been one of the unfortunate who was caught in the blizzard. I don't know the exact location of his regiment on the night of the storm.

Jayne

[Guest]

1/1st West Somerset Yeomanry

"Rain began to fall on the afternoon of 26th [Nov 1915] but it was a mild day and the rain must be expected occasionally. Little did we foresee the cruel and sudden change in the temperature which was so soon to come: The rain continued fro twenty-four hours: the following twenty-four hours was a period of biting frost and wind; during a third period of twenty-four hours it blew an exceedingly bitter wind from the NE with piercing cold and driving sow, followed by severe frost, the temperature of the atmosphere having suddenly dropped more than twenty degrees. The first period was disastrous to all the trenches - not only to our own low-lying ones but also to the fire-trenches which in many spots were breastworks only. As the rain fell so the watercourses filled and pouring down fro the higher ground the water piled itself up against the parapets to sweep them away bodily for yards together in many places. With the water came many of the "missing".

A typical experience was that of our own machine-gun section, still in the line. The first indication that its commander had of the force of the deluge was to find himself pinned to the ground by the collapse of the sandbag walls of his sleeping place and all but drowned in a rush of water. Willing hands of the Devons rescued him and he emerged from what was all but his grave with everything that he possessed buried deep under water, mud and sandbags ad saw practically nothing again. Meantime the gunners were still at their position deep in water and now began to collect their gear with the flood up to their middles. At length the order came for the guns to be withdrawn from Yeoman's Knoll and off started the machine gunners floundering through the flood bearing their guns belt boxes and tripods. Total immersions were frequent and Captain Salaman RNDH passing along at the time disappeared completely in a newly-made river - only temporarily however. During the struggle of the section to reach Yeoman's Knolll the corporal of the section fell exhausted. Private Mear already burdened with belt boxes lifted his corporal across his shoulder and still carrying the belt boxes bore him through the flood some 300 yards to safety. The decoration which he received for the=is act of devotion and endurance was a well-merited one.

The state of the guns and ammunition on arrival was naturally deplorable as was that of the officer, NCOs and men who possessed on arrival at Yeoman's Knoll nothing butt the mud and water-soaked garments in which they escaped. Their experience was shared by all the yeomen unlucky enough to be stationed in that low-lying portion of the line.

Meanwhile after devastating the front line, the water flowed on to the low-lying ground behind and found a permanent resting place in the home of D Squadron. A marsh in dry weather, it rapidly became a bog and quagmire. During the night the parapet collapsed in masses into the trench behind it while dugouts fell wholesale. By a miracle no lives were lost but when morning broke the squadron found itself bereft of nearly all its equipment, rifles, blankets and possessions of every description. The men's packs, rifles and ammunition were simply swept away and buried while the reserve SAA some 37,000 rounds was entirely submerged and only rescued by terrific exertions on the part of officers and men. All cooking material and utensils were lost and it was in a pitiful state that the squadron saw the light of the morning and soaked to the sin faced the bitter frost and icy wind which came to complete their discomfort. But luckily the squadron was led by men and composed of men and in its officers and its SSM - Dommett - and SQMS - Glanville - possessed leaders upon whom adversity acted as a spur to increase endeavour.

Upon a conglomeration of tons of sandbagged parapet, thrown into the trench and peering up through the water, descended the frost - upon men who, first soaked to the skin and then frozen were in many cases bereft of their greatcoats.

The condition of B and C Squadron was similar but their discomfort did not come upon them with such sudden violence. A wonderful spirit kept all ranks going and indeed it shows a high, perhaps a perverted sense of humour when under the prevailing conditions it is possible to say as one man did that "he never laughed so much in all his life as he did when he saw a man under whose weight the sodden lip of the parados suddenly gave way, fall, without warning headlong and disappear into the mud and ice of what had been a trench."

Sgt Maj David too was quite willing to express his opinion that the dreadful weather was "better than no weather at all".

On the night of the 27th a squadron was called for to strengthen the RNDH who had been enduring the storm in the fire trench and B Sqn wading through their flooded trenches found employment in plenty. The squadron worked many hours in restoring gaps in the parapet and in re-wiring their work being rendered no more pleasant by the arrival of "missing" in their midst .....

....D Sqn meanwhile were busily employed in retrieving their lost property and their efforts were highly successful: in their own discomfort they yet found the means to provide hot tea for and to help to restore some of the worst cases of exhaustion in the Squadron of the 1st Devons who on relief by our own C Sqn came down from the trenches well-nigh dead-beat from all that they had gone through.

The effect of the exposure to the deluge and the frost brought many men of the Brigade to the limit of endurance: with the circulation gone from their feet and legs without any feeling in them they struggled on until they just dropped in their tracks. So severe had been the cold that in many, not isolated, cases sentries had to be lifted down from the parapet too numbed to hep themselves.

The sudden bitter blizzard and snow had fallen on troops quite unprovided with the means to combat them: warm clothing, trench boards, trench boots, cookers and hot-food containers were not among the equipment available for issue on the peninsula....

....Our losses in killed, wounded and admissions to hospital during these three days, November 27th, 28th and 29th, 1915 were three officers and 78 other ranks while after medical inspection following our relief so many further admissions to hospital took place that the strength of the Regiment fell from 294 on December 2nd to 11 on December 4th. The condition of our feet rendered marching a matter of great difficulty and in marching order after relief we covered less than two miles in three hours. Many of those who went to hospital in the early days of December left us for good but many rejoined later, some, indeed, before we left Lala Baba so that when we once again started for our old support trenches the Regiment mustered eleven officers ad 171 other ranks"