Maclagen's change of plan, morning of the Anzac landing

[Plugges Plateau]

Hi, new to the forum so be gentle with me. I have had a long time interest in Gallipoli which l am only recently reawakening after my first visit to the peninsular.

Anyway my first effort on here is asking for thoughts on the events of the first morning of the landing involving the 3rd Brigades Colonel Maclagen's diversion* of much of the 2nd Brigade's forces to the vacinity of Plateau 400. This I am to assume happened as early as 5.30am just after Elliot and his 7th Battallion arrived ashore.

By 6am when McCay arrived on the field he 'reluctantly agreed to conform to Maclagen's change of plan' but there was an air of fait accompli as a majority of the Battalion was advancing on the right now already due to Maclagen's earlier re-directions.

So my questions are two fold really, firstly was this diversion necessary and especially at such an early stage of the battle? And secondly bearing in mind the later battle for the heights around Baby 700, the potential opportunities maybe missed in not taking out Kemal early in the peice!? and the subsequent poor positioning of the line on the left was this decision by Maclagen really justified? Was the battle lost there and then?

Throwing it out there, I am eager to learn more.

*the 2nd Brigade had been ordered to advance (left) to the heights with their ultimate objective being Hill 971

[gilly100]

Plugge's

As you have me already running around Russell's Top in August I shall decline from getting involved in this one! You could read plenty of good recent books that cover this, such as Peter Hart's 'Gallipoli' and Chris Robert's 'The Landing at Anzac' and perhaps of course CEW Bean's Official History.

As I remain in the there were MG's at the Landing early camp which potentially might sway ones thoughts on MacLagan, I shall defer to others to point you in some form of direction. Was MacLagan so wrong? Maybe, maybe not. Good luck on this one!

Ian

[Plugges Plateau]

Thanks again Ian,

I have Peter's Gallipoli book lined up and will make it next cab off the rank. My personal library on Gallipoli has exploded in the last couple of months so I will endeavour to read more on others thoughts of this first morning.

Have read a lot of Bean too but will probably need to revisit to read the specifics but believe he supports MacLagan's position but despite his great work I would prefer a more 'neutral' perspective.

I know also Harvey Broadbent has identified numerous missed opportunities on the first day in his tactical analysis. I guess it would depend on exactly what forces were supposed to be opposing the Anzac's on that first morning but I do personally feel that perhaps 5.30/6am was too early in the peice to be making such whole scale changes to the plan. Certainly McCay appears to have thought this also that first morning.

I take your point about the MG issue and will bear this in mind in my endeavours to understand more.

Thanks for your input.

JP