The 42nd (East Lancashire) Division 1914-1918Gibbon, Frederick P.
History
The 42nd (East Lancashire) Division 1914-1918
Gibbon, Frederick P.
Great Britain. Army. Division, 42nd; World War, 1914-1918 -- Regimental histories -- Great Britain
The line of trenches from the Achi Baba Nullah to the Krithia Nullah
(both inclusive) was held by the 125th Brigade on the right and the
127th on the left, the 126th being in reserve. The French were on the
right of the 125th Brigade and the 29th Division on the left of the
127th. The 5th Manchesters, who were acting in conjunction with the 88th
Brigade (29th Division) had for objective a Turkish trench on the right
of that Brigade. The bombardment began at 2.30 p.m. on the 6th, and
soon H.E. shells could be seen bursting in the trench which the 5th had
been ordered to take. At 3.50 p.m. they attacked, but on reaching the
objective, found that they had been enticed into a dummy trench, without
cover, and exposed to enfilade fire. To prevent the right flank of the
29th Division being left “in the air,” Captain Fawcus, commanding the
first line of the 7th Manchesters, was ordered, about 8 p.m., to get into
touch. Arriving at a trench which he expected to find occupied by the
88th Brigade, he called out: “Are the Worcesters there?” and was heavily
fired upon. Moving to the left he still found the enemy in occupation of
the trench, and fell back. On his way to rejoin the second line he came
across a small party of the Worcesters and took them with him. The two
lines regained the firing-line in the small hours of the morning, having
lost 40 men out of 200. That Captain Fawcus returned safely was amazing,
his clothes being riddled with bullets.
A few hours later the Battle of the Vineyard began, the bombardment by
British and French batteries opening at 8.10 a.m., and increasing in
intensity at nine o’clock when the naval guns joined in. The fire on
the trenches south-east of Krithia Nullah was both heavy and accurate,
but the trenches within the triangle formed by the fork of the nullahs
suffered but little. Half a battalion of the 126th Brigade was attached
to the 125th Brigade on the right, and another half-battalion to the
127th Brigade on the left. One battalion of the 126th Brigade was to hold
the original line. Two batteries of machine-guns assisted by bringing a
cross fire to bear on the enemy’s trenches.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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