First Edition. The story of the IXth British Corps and of the whole Suvla landing would be incredible if it were not true.” – Winston Churchill
266 p. , [22] p. of plates : ill. ; 23 cm.
Includes index.
Bibliography: p. 258-259.
#0921 (No dustjacket.) World War, 1914-1918 — Campaigns — Turkey — Gallipoli Peninsula.
The landing at Suvla Bay was an amphibious landing made at Suvla on the Aegean coast of the Gallipoli peninsula in the Ottoman Empire as part of the August Offensive, the final British attempt to break the deadlock of the Battle of Gallipoli. The landing, which commenced on the night of 6 August 1915, was intended to support a breakout from the ANZAC sector, five miles (8 km) to the south.
Although initially successful, against only light opposition, the landing at Suvla was mismanaged from the outset and quickly reached the same stalemate conditions that prevailed on the Anzac and Helles fronts. On 15 August, after a week of indecision and inactivity, the British commander at Suvla, Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Stopford, was dismissed. His performance in command is often considered one of the most incompetent feats of generalship of the First World War.
The 32nd and 33rd Brigades of the 11th Division began to come ashore at “B Beach” south of Nibrunesi Point shortly before 10 pm. In the first action fought by a New Army unit, two companies from the 6th Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment, drove the Ottoman defenders off the small hillock of Lala Baba which overlooked the beach. In doing so, the British took heavy casualties, with all but two of the Yorkshires’ officers being killed or wounded, along with one third of the unit’s other ranks.
Shortly afterwards the 34th Brigade attempted to land at “A Beach” within Suvla Bay but the landing went awry from the start. The destroyers conveying the brigade anchored 1,000 yards (910 m) too far south, facing shoal water and on the wrong side of the channel that drained the salt lake into the bay. Two lighters grounded on reefs and the men had to wade ashore submerged up to their necks. The 9th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers waded ashore in darkness and were pinned down between the beach and the salt lake by sniper fire and shelling. The CO was shot in the head around dawn and 9th Battalion lost 6 other officers killed and 7 wounded. The 11th Battalion, The Manchester Regiment, having come ashore from the destroyer HMS Grampus, had the greatest success of the landing, managing to find its way to the Kiretch Tepe ridge and fight its way some distance along it to the east for the loss of 200 casualties.
Elsewhere the landing was in chaos, having been made in pitch darkness which resulted in great confusion with units becoming mixed and officers unable to locate their position or their objectives. Later, when the moon rose, the British troops became targets for Ottoman snipers. Attempts to capture Hill 10 failed because no one in the field knew where Hill 10 was. Shortly after dawn it was found and taken, the Ottoman rearguard having withdrawn during the night.
Stopford had chosen to command the landing from HMS Jonquil but as the landing was in progress, he went to sleep. The first news he received was when Commander Unwin came aboard at 4 am on 7 August to discourage further landings in Suvla Bay.
British war correspondent Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett witnessed the landing shortly after dawn from the transport Minneapolis. While he could hear the fighting continuing at Anzac, Suvla was comparatively quiet and “no firm hand appeared to control this mass of men suddenly dumped on an unknown shore.” The British official history, written by Captain Cecil Aspinall-Oglander who was on Hamilton’s staff, was blunt in its assessment; “It was now broad daylight and the situation in Suvla Bay was verging on chaos.”
The Royal Australian Naval Bridging Train, a 300-strong engineering and construction unit (and the only Australian presence at Suvla), landed early in the first day, but was left without orders until late in the afternoon, when they were set to building piers to receive the men and supplies of the later stages of the landing.
Progress on 7 August was minimal. The two brigades of the 10th Division came ashore, adding to the confusion. In the heat of the day, the soldiers became desperate for drinking water. Towards evening two hills east of the salt lake were captured; these represented the sole gains for the first day ashore at Suvla. IX Corps had suffered 1,700 casualties in the first 24 hours, a figure exceeding the total size of Willmer’s detachment. At 7 pm, Willmer was able to report to Von Sanders: “No energetic attacks on the enemy’s part have taken place. On the contrary, the enemy is advancing timidly.”[citation needed]
Von Sanders now ordered two divisions from Bulair, the Ottoman 7th Division and Ottoman 12th Division, under the command of Feizi Bey, to move south to Suvla.
Stopford did not go ashore from Jonquil on 7 August. By the end of the day, the British chain of command had completely broken down.
General Stopford is blamed for the failure of the Suvla operation but responsibility ultimately lay with Lord Kitchener who, as Secretary of State for War, had appointed the elderly and inexperienced general to an active corps command, and with Sir Ian Hamilton who accepted Stopford’s appointment and then failed to impose his will on his subordinate. On 13 August Hamilton had written in his diary, “Ought I have resigned sooner than allow generals old and inexperienced to be foisted up on me.” By then it was too late and Stopford’s departure contributed to Hamilton’s downfall which came on 15 October when he was sacked as the commander of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force.
Under General de Lisle’s command, the Suvla front was reorganized and reinforced with the arrival of the 29th Division from Helles and the 2nd Mounted Division from Egypt (minus their horses). The fighting climaxed on 21 August with the Battle of Scimitar Hill, the largest battle of the Gallipoli campaign. When it too failed, activity at Suvla subsided into sporadic fighting until it was evacuated by the British in late December. Conditions during the summer had been appalling because of heat, flies, and lack of sanitation. On 15 November there was a deluge of rain and again on 26/27 November a major rainstorm flooded trenches up to 4 feet deep. This was succeeded by a blizzard of snow and two nights of heavy frost. At Suvla, 220 men drowned or froze to death and there were 12,000 cases of frostbite or exposure. In surprising contrast to the campaign itself, the withdrawals from Gallipoli were well planned and executed, with many successful deceptions to prevent the Turks realising that withdrawals were taking place. Minimal losses were experienced, and many guns and other equipment were also taken off.