2nd May 1915

[Andrew P]

On the 2nd of May 1915 the 4th Australian Bgde, NZ'ers & British Marines launched an attack whose objective was Baby 700.

The 13th & 16th Battalions clung to their gains for a while but were gradually forced back by the Turkish fire.

http://www.awm.gov.au/histories/ww1/1/page.asp?page=707

Lt Kieran Leopold Anderson of the 16th Battalion was one of the many Fremantle men to die that day

[christine liava'a]

General Godley...planned to overcome the inevitable problems by attacking at night. He stressed the success of the operation depended on close co-operation between the units, a near impossible task during darkness with impassible bluffs between each prong of the attack.

The already difficult task was made even more difficult by other factors. The Auckland, Wellington and Canterbury battalions were all exhausted and depleted in numbers after a week's hard fighting. The 4th Australian brigade was in much the same condition after continual attacks on Pope's, Quinn's and Courtney's.

Bloody Gallipoli; Richard Stowers

[christine liava'a]

At 7pm the surrounding Turkish positions were bombarded by guns from the fleet and artillery onshore. The warships HMS Triumph, Queen Elizabeth, Prince of Wales, London, Majestic, Bacchante, Dartmouth, and Canopus contributed to the heaviest bombardment yet at Anzac. Men ashore cheered as the explosions ran along Baby 700, but the barrage was not as effective as it looked. The bombardment ceased at precisely 7.15 pm when the 11th Battalion Australians clambered up the slopes of Bloody Angle and charged towards Baby 700....

The Otago Infantry Battalion arrived at the base of the hill at 7.45 pm , and still had to climb in single file and haul their machine-guns up the steep face with ropes. Darkness was falling, the men were unfamiliar with their surroundings, and rain had turned the clay slopes on Pope's Hill into a greasy slide.....

Following orders the first attackers of the 4th Otago Company pushed towards Baby 700, but the following companies got disoriented and separated in the dark and slowly drifted to the right. The 4th company continued almost unchecked for between 200 and 300 yards and actually reached the fopremost Turkish trenches. At this point the Turkish line, which was inwardly curved, opened up with a withering fire from machine guns and rifles, and with the help of illumination shells, subjected the Otagos to fire from 3 directions. Apart from the men who had managed to reach the Turkish trenches, the bulk of the Otagos were caught in the open some 150 yards short of their objective. The attack came to an abrupt end.

Bloody Gallipoli; Richard Stowers

[christine liava'a]

The 4th Otago took dreadful casualties. (They) lost about 1/2 their strength as killed, wonded and missing. During the morning of 3 May the remnants of the Otago Infantry Battalion mustered on the beach, just as the Aucklanders had done after the first day. Over half the men were absent from the rollcall. Other Otagos would rejoin the unit during the day, but of the 4th Otago Company alone, only 57 of about 200 answered.

Bloody Gallipoli; Richard Stowers

[michaeldr]

Anzac - The Attack on Baby 700 – 2nd May

“On 2 May all the RND battalions at Anzac were allotted roles in this ambitious assault on heavily defended Turkish trenches on the high ground, recorded as ‘The Attack on Baby 700 – 2nd May’ in the Official History of the War. Initially the Nelsons were held in reserve and they were soon called forward to fight. Half of Nelson Battalion, ‘A’ and ‘B’ Companies under the command of Lieutenant Commander Primrose, had been allotted as brigade reserve to Colonel John Monash…………………………………………

Charles Swales recorded that they were called forward in the darkness in the small hours of 3 May to climb up the Monash Gully cliffs south of Pope’s Hill and support the 13th (NSW) Battalion of the Australian 4 Infantry Brigade……………………………

…the ANZACs, in the small hours of the morning, were only maintaining a tenuous grip on positions dug on the very edge of the plateau, with precipitous drops into Monash Gully behind them. The 1st Naval Brigade War Diary noted that

‘Firing had practically ceased at 9 p.m. but at 9.15 p.m. increased and heavy maxim and rifle fire kept up all night.’

It was into this desperate situation that the two Nelson companies climbed in the dark and, after order and counter-order, to first support one battalion and then another,

‘They remained… till dawn fruitlessly digging in with entrenching tools in rear of the thinly held Australian support line.’

……………….At dawn on the 3 May the exhausted marines of Portsmouth and Chatham Battalions (they had been out of the front-line for less than twenty-four hours) were also being called up the cliffs from reserves waiting positions in the gully below to try and save the deteriorating situation. At the same time

‘…an ill-fated order was given, in the centre of the battle front, for the Nelson Battalion companies to attempt, by attacking to a flank, to protect the 13th Battalion.’

This flanking attack in dawn light, across the flat plateau with no protection against concealed Turkish machine-gun positions, failed and the Nelsons were ordered to retire. It was probably in this early morning attack that most of the Nelson casualties occurred………

The Official History of the campaign describes the situation as dawn broken over Anzac with stark clarity:

‘By this time there was a good deal of confusion in that sector. Streams of wounded were pouring down the valley; the Marine battalions, strung out in extended line, had lost all cohesion; and though heavy firing could be heard at the top of the scrub-covered heights above them, where the ridge rose like a wall on their right, there was great difficulty in learning the situation. After considerable delay the leading platoons of the Portsmouth Battalion began to climb the steep hill-side, but a moment later a few shells from Australian guns, falling short, dropped on the summit ridge. The troops in the neighbourhood came pouring back into the valley, the marines came back with them, and the whole line broke.’

After regrouping in Monash Gully, Jerrold records that the Nelsons, under Sub-lieutenant Sowerby, went forward again to the Australian trenches. The Chatham and Portsmouth Battalions, who had been called forward at 2.00 am, arrived at the base of the cliffs at first light and they too fought their way up to the Australian lines. The sailors and marines of the RND held them from 6 a.m. to dusk on 3 May………….. In the end, as positions flanking them were given up, the Nelsons and the Marines had to fall back………..

The losses to Nelson Battalion in the attack on Baby 700 were extremely serious: nearly 200 killed and wounded from the two companies engaged – about forty per cent casualties…………..Most of those killed were unrecoverable. The bodies of the Nelson dead were, perforce, left to decay with those of many Marines and Anzacs ……………”

Taken from Chapter 5 of ‘Nelson at War 1914-1918’ by Captain Roy Swales RN rtd. Published 2004 by Pen & Sword Select

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Helles

Sunday, 2 May: Battle raged furiously all morning till eleven o’clock and off and on all day. No time for dinner to-day. Gun Section got the order to move forward about 2 p.m. – a slow process as we were under shell fire and had to rush from one piece of cover to another. David Anderson, Bartleman and I advanced together – Anderson carrying the gun, Bartleman tripod and I the ammunition. Shell burst right over us killing Anderson and blowing off back of Bartleman’s head – I escaped. Never heard such a blood-curdling yell as Anderson let out. I rushed to Bartleman and found he was still alive but unconscious. Waited with him until stretcher-bearers came, but he died on way down.

Took cover behind natural mound for a while, then advanced again. Kennedy, Kemp, Aitken and I put into a gun pit in an important corner beside the Munsters and Dublins. Had a lot of digging to do to make pit suitable. Greirson and I then went away back to fetch up more stuff and rations. Had to run the gauntlet in some exposed parts. As we were returning we were just in time to catch an Essex man badly wounded in the leg with shrapnel as he was falling over a cliff. Bound him up as well we could. Advanced up the Gully. Apparent here that Turk had suffered severely. Dead lying everywhere and piles of Turkish equipment, rifles etc. Got back to pit and made tea – our first meal to-day. Turks attacked several times during the night. Could see their bayonets glittering in the moonlight. Kept the gun going all night. Fired thousands of rounds of ammunition. Turks’ attacks easily repulsed. Would not have felt so secure in our pit had we known the Hants were bombed out of it the previous night.”

from the ‘Diary of John F. Goate, Machine Gun Section, 5th Royal Scots, 29th Division’ [discovered after his death in 1946, by his daughter Ms Dorothy Goate] as reproduced in ‘The Gallipolian’ issue No.91, Winter 1999

[Malcolm]

To the memory of Private Alick John Baker, KIA 90 years ago and all the others.

Aye

Malcolm