12th July 1915, Gallipoli

[PPCLI]

The Dardanelles, 12th July 1915, from the 1/5th KOSB perspective:

Unfortunately for the 52nd (Lowland) Division, one final attempt was made to breakthrough at Helles. The plan for the 12th July was to attack towards Krithia along Achi Baba Nullah (dry river bed). One brigade (155th Bde., including 1/5th KOSB) would attack in the morning and the other (157th) in the afternoon, so that the full weight of artillery support could be lent to each brigade.

On the 11th July 1/5th Bn. KOSB moved into their allotted attack positions and at 7.35am the following morning four ‘waves’ charged simultaneously. The first two waves were made up of the 1/4th KOSB and the third and fourth by the 1/5th KOSB, all having to negotiate very difficult terrain. Lt.-Col. William J. Millar described the attack in the Battalion war diary:

“Within 150 yards the charge became a walk but there was no wavering. The 1/4th R.S.F. and the French failed to advance beyond the line of the 1st Turkish trench. Hence the 1/4th K.O.S.B. was absolutely in the air, as also was the right of my leading (the third) wave. The first two waves (1/4th K.O.S.B.) failed to find any trace of the objective assigned to them…A certain number returned on my right but about 300 officers and men are still missing and unaccounted for.”

The diary continues:

“The 3rd wave was gradually bombed towards our left until a party of about 40 men under Lieut. Douglas was left. In spite of all efforts to dislodge him, Lieut. Douglas held on until reinforced, when the line was made good. The 1st Turkish trench was captured at once, consolidated and held.”

1/5th KOSB casualties:

Killed in action – 4 officers, 55 ORs

Missing presumed dead – 21 ORs

Died of wounds – 2 officers

Wounded – 5 officers, 183 ORs

I do not have the breakdown of the 1/4th KOSB casualties, but they fared even worse because they made up the first two waves of the attack.

1/4th KOSB casualties: 535

[Derek Robertson]

A Hawick veteran, Nichol Robertson of the 1/4th KOSB found himself well forward during the charge of the 12th July:

‘And of course the Turks could concentrate everything they had on one small sector, course so could we but you see the Turks were on the defensive and we just got everything they could possibly lay in to us. And then as far as we were concerned we were to take three lines of trenches, well, when we got over the first, there was another practically obliterated, and there was no such thing as the third line and when we got right out in the open, we were outflanked on either side and when we turned to come back, we came into our own artillery fire as well as the Turk’s. Some of us had pieces of biscuit tin on our backs and of course, when we turned that flashed in the direction of the Turks and we just got it.'

[Derek Robertson]

On the 12th July, 1916, exactly one year after the tragic charge, a wreath was laid at the 1514 Memorial (The "Horse") in Hawick by the Hawick Callants’ Club.

Attached to the wreath was a card bearing the words:

“In remembrance of the Hawick Territorials, members of the 1/4th King’s Own Scottish Borderers, who fell bravely charging the Turkish trenches in Gallipoli, 12th July, 1915. ‘The ancient spirit of our fathers hath not gone.’”

And every year since on the anniversary of the l2th July, a wreath is laid at both the 1514 and the Hawick War Memorial in perpetual memory of those local men who died at Gallipoli.

[Derek Robertson]

My thanks to my friend Ian who took these photographs for me on the 12th July, 2005, in Hawick.

[PPCLI]

I do not have the breakdown of the 1/4th KOSB casualties, but they fared even worse because they made up the first two waves of the attack.

1/4th KOSB casualties: 535

I have found the details of the 1/4th KOSB casualties, as stated in "The K.O.S.B. in the Great War", Capt. Stair Gillon:

Officers: 12 killed or died of wounds, 6 wounded

Other ranks: 319 killed, 203 wounded, 13 taken prisoners

One passage from the history of the 52nd Lowland Division by Lt.-Col. Thompson tells the final moments of two of the officers:

"Come away, Borderers! Don't be beaten!" was the stirring cry of Captain A. Wallace as he continued to advance, although badly wounded and with blood streaming down his face, until he was hit again, this time to fall a dying man. Lieut. J.B. Innes had one of his arms shattered by a bursting shell. He got his cousin, Lieut. W.K. Innes, to cut it off, asked for a cigarette, and continued to cheer the Borderers on until he died from loss of blood.

Impossible to imagine, really.

Stuart