Assault on Krithia - Gallipoli

[amy1915]

I wonder if anybody could give me details of the assault on Krithia on June 4th 1915.

My great uncle was serving with the 1st/10th Battalion of the Manchester Regiment and was killed in action during this assault. His name was Edward Brown and his service number was 1269.

His name appears on a panel on the Helles memorial.

Any information would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Joyce

[Desmond7]

I believe forum member Steve Fuller has a website dedicated to actions in this area at the relevant time?

Try a forum search using those terms.

Des

[michaeldr]

Joyce,

the battle of the 4th June 1915 is known as the Third battle of Krithia, however the attack took place across the whole of the Helles front and the 1st/10th Battalion (TF) The Manchester Regiment were actually involved in it on the western side of the line near a place called Gully Ravine. That day they were attached to the 88th Brigade

The following is from Chapter II "The Valley of Death - The Battle of the Fourth of June" of Steve Chambers' book 'Gully Ravine'

'The attack's failure on Gully Spur was arguably due to the weakness of the artillery support. This failed to cut the Turkish wire and destroy their entrenched positions, and at the last moment it was diverted to support attack on Fir Tree Spur. The heavy machine gun and rifle fire from the Turkish posts on both banks of Gully Ravine proved devastating to the advancing troops, whom the Turks were able to destroy with ease from behind the protection of their barbed wire. Because the Lancashire Fusilier attack failed in the middle of the Indian Brigade, this neutralised the success of the Gurkhas nearer the coast, and of the 14/Sikhs in Gully Ravine. This failure on Gully Spur in turn affected the 88th Brigade's advance east of the ravine, which found its left flank wide open and enfiladed from across the ravine. It soon became clear to all that the whole attack was a failure.'

Steve is a member of this forum and his book was published by Pen & Sword in 2003, in their Battleground Europe series [iSBN 0 85052 923 9]

regards

Michael

[Teamski]

I'll have to check that book out. I have a casualty trio from the 1/6 Manchesters who was killed in that attack as well. Thanks for the heads-up!

-Ski

[Teamski]

I wonder if anybody could give me details of the assault on Krithia on June 4th 1915.

My great uncle was serving with the 1st/10th Battalion of the Manchester Regiment and was killed in action during this assault. His name was Edward Brown and his service number was 1269.

His name appears on a panel on the Helles memorial.

Any information would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Joyce

Joyce,

Here is a really good acount of the battle. It should explain a lot to you on what happened that day!

http://www.iwm.org.uk/upload/package/2/gal...es/Krithia3.pdf

-Ski

[John_Hartley]

Joyce

You may also want to look out for a book called "Amateur Soldiers" by K W Mitchinson. It's a recently written history of the Battalion.

John

[Kurt1959]

Just to give an impression of the other side see the attached map from the official booklet about the campaign made by the Turkish General Staff 2002.

The German view of the Landungsabteilung, which was located with 8 machine guns on both banks of the Sigindere (Gully Ravine), was as follows:

"In the morning of 4th June the enemy opend a heavy and steady fire with all navyguns and artillery pieces, which was followed by a attack (Sturmangriff). The most forward trench left of the Sigindere with the machine guns got lost, while on the right side the machine guns could stop the attack. With reserve forces the enemy was throwed back. Most of the machine gun crews were dead, but reserve personal was able to restart the weapons. After a new heavy artillery fire a new attack started around 1 o'clock in the night, which could be repelled."

Interesting is that the counting of the three battles of Krithia are just a term of the allied side. The Turkish view is different and never counted the battles of the southern egde of the peninsula. During that phase of the campaign the so called "Südgruppe" (southern group), which was the whole defence in the south, was commanded by General Weber, who followed 4th May Colonel von Sodenstern. The 9th division on the right side of the defence was commanded LTC Kannengiesser, who should give support to the official commander, Sami Bey, but was de facto leading the division, because Sami preferred to stay with his staff in the depth of the AOR.

[cecil]

the most up to date pics of the ground known as the vineyard where the manchester regiment arttacked on 4th june

regards

[cecil]

another pic of the ground

[Guest Bill Woerlee]

Mates

Just a small add to this very informative topic - a 1:10000 map of the British trenches produced in September 1915.

Just click on the thumbnail.

You can see the positions of the Vineyard and the 12 Tree Copse in relation to each other as shown in the fabulous pic above.

Hope this helps add to the understanding of this topic.

Cheers

Bill