World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Turkey -- Gallipoli Peninsula
In the forenoon of the 28th June, the English divisions advanced the
left of the Allied position by a full 1,000 yards. This attack, which
was one of the most successful of the campaign, was the first of which
it could be said that it was a victory. Of course our presence upon the
Peninsula was in itself a victory, but in this battle we were not trying
to land nor to secure ourselves, but (for the first time) to force a
decision. Three of our divisions challenged the greater part of the Turk
army and beat it. And here, for the first time in the operations, we
felt, what all our soldiers had expected, that want of fresh men in
reserve to make a success decisive, which afterwards lost us the
campaign.
Our enemies have often said, that the English cannot plan nor execute an
attack. In this battle of June 28th, the attack was a perfect piece of
planning and execution. Everything was exactly timed, everything worked
smoothly. Ten thousand soldiers, not one of whom had had more than six
months' training, advanced uphill after an artillery preparation and won
two lines of elaborately fortified trenches, by the bayonet alone. Then,
while these men consolidated and made good the ground which they had
won, the artillery lengthened their fuses and bombarded the ground
beyond them. When the artillery ceased, ten thousand fresh soldiers
climbed out of the English lines, ran forward, leaped across the two
lines of Turk trench already taken and took three more lines of trench,
each line a fortress in itself. Besides advancing our position a
thousand yards, this attack forced back the right of the Turks from the
sea, and won a strong position between the sea and Krithia, almost
turning Achi Baba. But much more than this was achieved. The great
triumph of the day was the certainty then acquired that the Turks were
beaten, that they were no longer the fierce and ardent fighters who had
rushed V beach in the dark, but a shaken company who had caught the
habit of defeat and might break at any moment. They were beaten; we had
beaten them at every point and they knew that they were beaten. Every
man in the French and British lines knew that the Turks were at the
breaking point. We had only to strike while the iron was hot to end them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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