World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Turkey -- Gallipoli Peninsula; World War, 1914-1918 -- New Zealand
But the advance towards Achi Baba was held up some distance from the
village of Krithia, and General Sir Ian Hamilton made up his mind to
undertake one big final assault before the Turks could receive their
reinforcements.
On the night of Wednesday, May 5, the New Zealand Infantry Brigade and
the 2nd Australian Infantry Brigade, were assembled on the bullet-swept
Anzac beach, placed in destroyers and barges and landed just east of
Cape Helles early next morning. Here was the battered "River Clyde,"
and on the cliff to the right Sedd-el-Bahr fort, completely wrecked by
the naval guns.
[Illustration: NEARING "V" BEACH, CAPE HELLES.]
As the troops moved from the landing place, they saw deep Turkish
trenches and formidable barbed-wire entanglements. The landscape was
vastly different from the hungry hills of Anzac. This was fairly easy
rolling country, intersected with sod walls, through which gaps had
been worn by passing troops; most of the land was cultivated, and
dotted here and there with clumps of fir trees, from behind which the
French 75's and British 18-prs. threw their hail of shrapnel. Among the
18-prs. was the 3rd Battery of New Zealand Field Artillery that had
lain off Anzac, but was not disembarked until landed here at Helles on
May 4. This battery stayed at Helles until the middle of August.
[Illustration: MAP OF CAPE HELLES SECTOR.
This map shows the route taken by the New Zealand Infantry Brigade on
May 6-7.
On April 25, a landing at "Y2" or Gully Beach was not attempted.
The troops that landed at "Y" Beach were consequently isolated and
eventually withdrawn. The landing at "X" Beach was very successful
and is some times spoken of as the "Implacable Landing." "W" Beach,
afterwards called "Lancashire Landing," and "V" Beach, made famous by
the "River Clyde," were the two most costly landings. The landing at
"S" Beach in Morto Bay was successfully carried out by the 2nd South
Wales Borderers, covered by the "Cornwallis" and the "Lord Nelson."]
Having climbed the heights from the beach, the eye took in at once the
great hump of Achi Baba, the crest just five miles away. Two ridges,
like sprawling arms, ran down to the sea--one towards the Narrows, the
other to the Gulf of Saros. From Sedd-el-Bahr a road traverses the
centre of the Peninsula, running through the village of Krithia, which
is four miles from Sedd-el-Bahr; it skirts the lower slopes to the left
of Achi Baba, rounds the northern shoulder of the Kilid Bahr Plateau,
and so to Maidos, on the shores of the Narrows, thirteen miles in a
direct line from Sedd-el-Bahr. At Krithia, for which village most of
the subsequent desperate fighting took place, the Peninsula is about
three and a half miles across.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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