25th April 1915

[michaeldr]

Gallipoli

Always remembered,

but especially today, the 25th April.

With thanks for my grandfather, who survived

and with respect for those of all nations who fought there

but who did not return to their families

Remembered With Pride

[Jonathan Saunders]

Arguably the most inhospitable battlefield of the Great War.

Remembering all but particularly the men of the Royal Naval Division. Also the men of the 2/4 Royal West Kents and the West Kent Yeomanry who landed on the Peninsula much later on.

[Tony Lund]

Private (746) Frederick Dent, who had emigrated to Australia before the war, described the landings at Anzac in a letter to the Vicar of Hepworth. He had enlisted in the Australian Army on August 22nd 1914, with F Company, 7th Battalion, which embarked at Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A20 Hororata on October 19th 1914. A nineteen year old single man, he had previously worked as a farm labourer at Kyneton, Victoria. He was wounded on his first day in action, but he survived the war, ending it as a sergeant. His letter says:

“On the 25th April, a date I shall never forget, we landed on the Gallipoli Peninsular, and as there is no landing stage where we landed, we had to go from transports to the coast in boats, and the enemy’s shells and bullets were dropping all around us. It was my first experience under fire, and it was quite unique. I never felt any fear, and we chatted and joked as we went along. They had steam and motor tugs belonging to the navy to take us ashore. The tars were magnificent. There is a song which calls them ‘Sons of the Sea’, but no one can realise what that means more than we did that Sunday morning.

“Well, eventually we landed, our boats suffering no casualties, which is more than can be said of a great many other boats. We advanced towards the Turkish position, and they had a very good one indeed. I feel confident in saying that if we had their position, they would never have landed at all. They are terribly frightened of the bayonet, the least flash of it and we can see them run for their lives. We had to take a few hills in that way when we landed. I have heard that we won the admiration of the Jack Tars, and it says in the papers here that the admiration of the British tar is something to be proud of. Fellows who have been at Mons says it was nothing to our work on the 25th, and an old Boer War man told me that he saw more fighting on that Sunday morning than he saw in six months in South Africa. It was a grim, desperate and successful struggle.

“Of course, we had the help of the warships, especially our grand old Queen Elizabeth (Good old Lizzie). Didn’t we give a cheer every time she sent a shell. Otherwise we had only our rifles against the enemy’s ordinary artillery, howitzers, machine-guns, and rifles. We could not land our guns until we had captured the hills overlooking the sea. We captured one hill and then the second, and when we had captured the third we came into contact with the main body of the Turkish forces, with a lot of Germans amongst them.

“We formed a firing line on the third hill to hold what we had captured. Twice I went a little way back to a gully with wounded men, and then the third time I had got about thirty yards off our firing line when a shrapnel burst, and I was hit. We knew well enough what the Turks would do if they caught us wounded, so I knew my best plan was to get back to the beach, where the RAMC were, as quickly as I possibly could. It was noon when I was hit, and it took me three hours to get to the beach, and get fixed up there. No one can praise the RAMC too much. I reckon that every stretcher bearer there that Sunday won the VC, if ever it was won. It was terrible! They simply rained shrapnel on us, also explosive bullets and dumdums.

“I had some narrow escapes before I was hit. I was wearing my CEMS badge on a watch chain through the button hole of my left breast pocket, and it was shot clean away. I thought I was shot until I looked, and then you can perhaps understand my surprise when I found what had happened. In another case a bullet whizzed past my arm, taking part of my tunic with it, and scarring my arm. All the wounded were taken on board and taken to Alexandria, Egypt, where I am now. Through loss of blood, and very likely through trying to walk, I haven’t been out of bed yet. The bullet is still in. I was to have gone under the X-rays two days ago, but they are so busy.

“War is a terrible thing, but it brings out of mankind all that is noblest, truest, and best. When we (the wounded) were on board there was not enough grub for all. The ship’s officers gave up their own biscuits, bully beef, and cigarettes for the wounded.

“The night before we landed at Gallipoli I was laying down for the night when one of the rough lads in my section said ‘Now Dent, you’re a muzzen, (the term they give to a man who does not drink or run wild) so give us a prayer’. I was nearly dumbfounded, but I complied with his request. I said the first one ‘Oh Lord, for as without Thee’. Then I offered one bearing on our following day’s adventure, and in the peace and quietness that followed one would not have thought that a war was on, and that we should be in the thick of it on the morrow.”

Tony.

[Jonathan Saunders]

The diary entry of 25th April 1915 written by Pte Horace Bruckshaw of Plymouth Bttn, Royal Marines, Royal Naval Division. He landed at "Y" Beach.

Sunday: 25 April 1915:

At daybreak the fleet commenced a heavy bombard¬ment of the coast of the Gallipoli Peninsula, whilst we waited a short distance out, in a trawler, for the word to get ashore. When the signal came we got into the cutters and were taken close in to the shore by bluejackets. It was necessary to wade waist deep to get to the beach from the boats and it was as much as we could manage to get along with our equip¬ment, rifles, and with either a shovel or a pick, with waves banging into the middle of your back. Luckily we had no real opposition on the beach itself. Anyhow we got to dry ground in safety.

Contrary to expectations the K.O.S.B.s went up the cliff first and we followed. It was a climb too; for the cliffs rose sheer from the narrow strip of stones called the beach. I must mention that the landing took place at a point between Cape Hellas & Gaba Tepe and was designated Y beach.

While the K.O.S.B.s were making their way up the cliff, our ships by some mischance planted two shells just in their path. Fortunately only one was killed and another wounded. Nevertheless it made me feel nervy when our turn came.

Once at the top the K.O.S.B.s advanced a short distance, making up a firing line and dug themselves

in as soon as they met opposition. We formed supports and awaited events in a ravine. While things were

quiet for us we made several trips to the beach and brought up ammunition. During the early part of the morning things were fairly quiet. We could hear the I rifles cracking out and our ships were pumping shells in all right, and we soon got plenty of confidence and commenced making ourselves comfortable. We were soon wakened up however and we had a real lively time trying to take cover from the stray bullets which soon came our way in streams. During the afternoon we were nearly paralysed by three of our own shells from the ships, six inches apparently, land¬ing amongst us one after the other at intervals of distance up the ravine. They literally followed us. God, I shall never forget it. There were one or two killed and several injured but we were extremely lucky things were not worse. Talk about a shaking. We managed to get a signal through and so stopped any further damage. About five o'clock we went to the head of the ravine expecting a signal to reinforce. It came about 6:30pm and we rushed forward towards the firing line with bayonets fixed. The K.O.S.B.s, I understand were expecting a charge to he made, for the Turks had been reinforced. There was room for comparatively few of us in the line and we got the order to retire again. Before we could cross the open however the Turks opened rapid on us and the Maxims cracked like Hell let loose. We simply dropped flat in the open where we were and set to work with our little entrenching tools to get as far down as we could. The fire however got so hot that one dare not move the little finger. I managed to get down about four inches. I scratched a little hole for my nose to fit in and so made the best of the four inches I had dry. About 10:30pm, we again advanced under very heavy fire to the firing line to reinforce it. They were now crying out for more ammunition and a lot of our chaps worked liked trojans under a hail of lead getting boxes of it from the gully.

Upon reaching the firing line for the second time, I was unable to find room, so I laid flat on my face just in the rear. This was on the right centre of the line, I remained here until about 12:30.

[seaJane]

Commemoration in Wiltshire: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/7366857.stm

[Krithia]

25th April 1915

Remembering the Adcock brothers, one of several brothers killed on the first day.

Frank, 24, and Frederick Adcock, 21, died whilst serving with 11th Battalion, the Australian Imperial Force, during the Anzac Landing. Originally natives of Melton Mowbray, England they settled in Perth, Western Australia before the war. Frank was killed on Baby 700 where his resting place is marked by a grave in that cemetery and Frederick died of wounds and was buried at sea. He is commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial.

[Ozzie]

Wonderful posts people.

Ta

Lest We Forget.

Kim

[Andrew P]

25th April 1915

Remembering the Adcock brothers, one of several brothers killed on the first day.

Frank, 24, and Frederick Adcock, 21, died whilst serving with 11th Battalion, the Australian Imperial Force, during the Anzac Landing. Originally natives of Melton Mowbray, England they settled in Perth, Western Australia before the war. Frank was killed on Baby 700 where his resting place is marked by a grave in that cemetery and Frederick died of wounds and was buried at sea. He is commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial.

Hi Krithia

The Adcock Brothers were living at Solomon Street in Fremantle prior to the war. I've managed to visit Frank's grave at Baby 700 twice and a few years back submitted the Adcock name as a suggestion to the future Fremantle street database. Recently this was taken up and there is now an Adcock St in Fremantle.

Adcock St is not too far from where they used to live.

Cheers

Andrew

[michaeldr]

My thanks to everyone who has joined in this particular tribute

It's especially satisfying to hear from Andrew his example of how the process of commemoration is being continued right up to the present time

Best regards

Michael

[Krithia]

... a few years back submitted the Adcock name as a suggestion to the future Fremantle street database. Recently this was taken up and there is now an Adcock St in Fremantle.

Cheers

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

I didn't know that, any reason for you choosing Adcock?

Below are Fred (left) and Frank (right). I wonder if they are in the famous group shot of 11AIF on the pyramids?

[Andrew P]

Good to see the familiar faces of the Adcock brothers.

I submitted quite a few names of Fremantle WW1 dead for the roads database, however I had to sadly ignore some of the more common names as Watson, White etc as there were too many of those street names in WA and some such as Wheeler (6 brothers enlisted from Freo) were named in adjoining suburbs or municipalities which also ruled them out. Fortunately Adcock was one of those accepted and has been the first one to be used of the lot I submitted.

If I get time this week I'll take a photo of it.

As Michael said it's one way of continuing commemoration.

Cheers

Andrew

[nbrehaut]

I have had the privilige of visiting Gallipoli and running a number of small Battlefield tours there. I can honestly say that the men who fought, died and survived that place have a very special place in my memory. Although I concentrated on the landings at V and W beaches i also presented on The Nek and can certainly confirm the saying " there is hell waiting here".

RIP all those who gave their all.

[rodonisle]

Hi all;

Just back from Gallipoli and the Dawn Service. A couple of photos at:

http://rodsdispatchesmiddeeast.blogspot.com/

- Rod

[Ozzie]

The blogs are fascinating, thanks Rod.

Cheers

Kim

[Krithia]

... and thank god there were no Bee-Gees there this year!

[michaeldr]

Andrew,

a small technical point re street names as memorials:

Do your city fathers give any sort of explanation with the street name so that people will know the origin?

(In Tel Aviv there are streets named after Wedgwood, Margoline, Monash and another which is called the Gallipoli Fighters Street. The name plaques for this latter have the added note explaining that it refers to Joseph Trumpeldor and the ZMC)

regards

Michael

[Andrew P]

Hi Michael

At the moment the only way to research the street names is to come to the Council History section to find out who they refer to. I'm hoping that in the future Fremantle will have a small explanantion attached to the sign of who the street name refers to. Subiaco Council in WA has done this and it looks good.

Cheers

Andrew

[michaeldr]

quote: I'm hoping that in the future Fremantle will have a small explanantion attached to the sign of who the street name refers to

Good luck with that Andrew

I think that it is a really good idea [otherwise the names are just names]

and well done Subiaco!

regards

Michael