Countdown To ANZAC 22 April 1915

1st Battalion War Diary, "Battalion remained on board , weather too windy for boats".

1st Brigade War Diary, "Fine and cold. East wind still high and veering to north.  Weather unsettled. Starting postponed 24 hours...."

Sir Ian Hamilton

Sir Ian Hamilton's diary for this day:

22nd April, 1915. S.S. "Arcadian."

Lemnos. Wind worse than ever, but weather brighter. Another twenty four hours' delay. Russian Military Attaché from Athens (Makalinsky) came to see me at 2.30 p.m. He cannot give me much idea of how the minds of the Athenians are working. He says our Russian troops are of the very best. Delay is the worst nerve-cracker.

Charley Burn, King's Messenger, came; with him a Captain Coddan, to be liaison between me and Istomine's Russians.

The King sends his blessing.

The following gracious message has been received to-day by the General Commanding—

"The King wishes you and your Army every success, and you are constantly in His Majesty's thoughts and prayers."

Countdown To ANZAC 21 April 1915

Charles Bean's History again, " The orders (Operation Order No.1) of the Army Corps were issued on April 18th, and those of the 1st Australian Division on the 19th.  In the interval the harbour had filled with transports.  Accurate information as to the expedition and its composition had, of course, reached the Turks who had made speedy and carefully organised preparations to meet it.

The first definite expectation of a military attack forced itself upon the Turkish Staff after the failure of the naval assault on March 18th.....(yet)..at the same time (they) had no inside

General Otto Liman von Sanders,
German commander
of turkish forces.

information whatever as to where the landing would take place, nor as to the date of it.

The Turks met the now obvious danger by forming, on March 24th, a special army - the 5th Turkish - for the defence of the Dardanelles.....Its fighting strength is given by Turkish documents as 62077 all told....

...Orders were (given) to build the bridges and improve the roads, especially the then impassable track between Gallipoli and Maidos.  A landing stage was begun at Nagara, in order to render easier the line of communication across the straits.  Field bakeries were built. Arrangements were made for dumps of ammunition, clothes and material....The training of troops in hand grenade work and sniping was commenced, and a defence scheme was drawn up with one objective - that of having the troops so placed that they could hurry to meet the blow upon either side of the straights, wherever it might fall.  The movements of the troops to their new positions were to be made at night, so that the Allied airmen might gain no hint of the new plans.

Commander of Turkish 19th Division
 Mustafa Kemal (later Ataturk)
inspecting preparations

Both on the Peninsular and on the Asiatic side the Turks strengthened their positions every night, the engineer companies putting wire upon or above beaches where they expected a landing and the infantry digging trenches.

The Turks were thus well prepared on the Peninsular."

The 1st Battalion History relates their feelings at this time, "We received a General Order containing the famous address from Sir Ian Hamilton, which began, 'Soldiers of France and of the King,' and described the proposed attack on the Peninsular as 'an adventure unprecedented in modern war.'  That didn't trouble us much at the time; we were more concerned with the desire to be doing something.  We were heartily sick of training and being cooped up on a troopship."

The following is the entry for this day in the diary of Sir Ian Hamilton.  It includes the address referred to above:


21st April, 1915. S.S. "Arcadian." Lemnos. Blowing big guns. The event with which old mother time is in labour is so big that her pains are prodigious and prolonged out of all nature. So near are we now to our opening that the storm means a twenty four hours' delay.
Have issued my orders to the troops. Yesterday our plans were but plans. To-day the irrevocable steps out on to the stage.

General Headquarters,
21st April, 1915.

Soldiers of France and of the King.

Before us lies an adventure unprecedented in modern war. Together with our comrades of the Fleet, we are about to force a landing upon an open beach in face of positions which have been vaunted by our enemies as impregnable.

The landing will be made good, by the help of God and the Navy; the positions will be stormed, and the War brought one step nearer to a glorious close. "Remember," said Lord Kitchener when bidding adieu to your Commander, "Remember, once you set foot upon the Gallipoli Peninsula, you must fight the thing through to a finish."

The whole world will be watching your progress. Let us prove ourselves worthy of the great feat of arms entrusted to us.

Ian Hamilton, General.

(Editor's note: Readers may be interested in reading a newspaper article from 1916.  The article appeared in "The Queenslander" - a weekly summary and literary edition of the 'Brisbane Courier' - on April 15 1916.  Headed Lemnos, March, 1915, it tells the story of the 9th Battalion - part of the 3rd Brigade, the covering force and the first to land at Gallipoli - during its period at Lemnos.  The author is unknown, although, from the style of writing, I suspect Charles Bean who was, after all, a newspaperman. The link is here 

Countdown To ANZAC 19 April 1915

Battalion Diary, "Men employed in boats all day."

Nothing from Jack Reilly.  His next entry won't be until the 24th of April.

The planning continues. Charles Bean again:  "The northern parties of the 3rd Brigade were to reach and hold Battleship Hill, while the rest of the brigade was to seize outstanding knolls on the ridge from Scrubby Knoll to Gaba Tepe.  Seaplanes had reported that there were gun-emplacements just behind the ridge connecting it with the mainland.  With a formidable position such as this on its flank and rear, the task of the 3rd Brigade would be almost impossible.  Bridges therefore informed Colonel MacLagan (the commander of the 3rd Brigade) that he considered it important to clear Gaba Tepe

and disable any guns upon it.  MacLagan assigned to the first two companies of his right battalion - the 9th - the duty of swinging to their right immediately upon landing, and rushing the battery on the neck of Gaba Tepe, a mile south of the landing place.  The other half of the 9th was to seize a knoll (afterwards known as 'Anderson's Knoll') in the objective ridge a mile due east of the landing place; the 10th to seize a knoll and a redoubt further north on the objective ridge; and the 11th the height (later known as 'Scrubby Knoll') still further on the same ridge, and Battleship Hill on the main ridge near the point where the objective ridge joined it.  The 12th Battalion was to go ashore with the later companies of its three sister battalions, and was to form the immediate reserve of the 9th, 10th and 11th.

The 3rd Brigade was to land, not from its transports, but from three battleships and seven destroyers."

Countdown To ANZAC 18 April 1915

Jack Reilly's diary for this day, "General Birdwood spoke a few words to us.  He is a fine stamp of a man and one couldn't help but like him. A seaplane flew around the harbour this afternoon.  It was a fine sight."

Battalion War Diary entry, "Church parade - sent men ashore to bathe. Provided Town Guard of 50 men under AC orders."

The planning continued behind the scenes.  Charles Bean again, "Birdwood knew that there were Turkish batteries at three points in the area about his landing place; two were in the scrub of the valley half a mile inland.  The other was said to be behind the neck of land connecting Gaba Tepe with the main ridge.  Birdwood's conviction was that, if his first troops could make a surprise landing and rush these three batteries with the bayonet before dawn,

he would be able to use the troops who landed immediately after them for extending up the main ridge to the north. (See map on 17 April 1915, ed.)  He had decided to make the landing with the 1st Australian Division, following it later with the NZ&A Division.  He therefore instructed General Bridges that the covering brigade should seize and occupy the ridge from Gaba tepe towards Chunuk Bair. The rest of the Australian Division, landing immediately after it, would secure the main ridge to the north of it and attend to the left flank.  The covering brigade was to advance inland on as wide a front as possible, so that, if part of it were held up, other parts could still penetrate.  The troops were to be specially instructed to push on as rapidly as they could to the covering position on the ridge from Chunk Bair to Gaba Tepe.  In accordance with these orders General Bridges detailed the 3rd Brigade to land as the covering force.  in instructions which were drawn by him and Colonel White the main part of the brigade was ordered to push inland, rushing the batteries in the scrub and forcing its way a little over a mile from the shore to the long spur which was its objective."

Countdown to ANZAC 16 April 1915

Jack Reilly must be really tired from all the jumping in and out of boats, for again there is no entry in his diary.  

The Battalion War Diary, however, never misses a day, "Disembarked on beach with Brigade and practiced attack."

The 1st Battalion History provides us with a little more detail.  "We did it again (practiced landing, ed.) on the 16th under better conditions and in better time.  All hands had a swim, and thought of the creaming combers of Coogee and Bondi.  Stripped, the men were splendid specimens - a credit to their training and men to make Johnny Turk ponder!  This experimental landing was carried out as far as possible under conditions which could be expected at the actual landing.  Long strings of boats were towed by naval steam pinnaces, sometimes as many as ten boats, all packed with troops, being in one tow.  The pinnaces were commanded by midshipmen - we were impressed by their efficiency and by the way in which these youngsters exercised command.  The work of the Navy throughout was one of the outstanding features of the Gallipoli campaign."

Below are a few photographs, courtesy of the Australian War Memorial, which illustrate the preparations and training.

Countdown To ANZAC 17 April 1915

On this day Jack Reilly had a little to say, "Went ashore today & had a good walk around island. It is very pretty country. The hills are very green & covered with pretty wild flowers. Everywhere are green fields of wheat and growing thickly between the stalks are beautiful red poppies.

Lemnos route march

We marched through the village of Madros. The houses are built of stone with tiled roof are very close together but look clean & picturesque & remind me of picture I have seen of a Swiss village. There are soldiers everywhere, English, French & Australians. The Harbour is a fine sight from the hills being almost crammed with troopships, man of wars, submarines, etc. we return to the ship about 3pm. Our chaps captured a Turk spy yesterday & brought him aboard."

The Battalion War Diary states simply, "Took the battalion ashore to bathe and route march."

During this period planning was continuing.  The chance of a surprise attack had been seriously compromised by the total lack of secrecy or discretion in the early stages of the Dardanelles campaign.  Numerous attempts had been made to breach Turkish defences through Naval attacks and small landings.  Supplies and equipment were being purchased from nearby ports and troops had been in Lemnos for many weeks.  Enemy spy's would have made light work of reporting the build-up.  

Charles Bean continues, "At the same time a chance did exist that the Turks might not guess the exact time or places of the present landing.  There was still room for a partial surprise.  Accordingly Birdwood planned to attack Gaba Tepe suddenly and silently in the hours befor dawn.  The moon sets directly opposite the Gaba Tepe coast-line.  On the night originally proposed for the landing it would set some hours before dawn.  It was decided that, after the moon was down, the ships should steam in the last few miles and send off their boats to reach the land shortly after 3.30 - an hour before the dawn.....

Birdwood was not quite so sanguine as Hamilton and Braithwaite in regards to the Australian force reaching and storming Mal Tepe. 'I might find this difficult,' he wrote, 'as Mal Tepe is likely to be commanded by guns from all directions, and I shall really not know in which direction to expect attack.'   He decided that his first task was clear. It was to seize the mass of the mountain comprising 971 and its seaward spurs.  Hamilton's plans had suggested that he should in the first instance occupy at least the central portion of the main ridge about Chunuk Bair and what was later known at Battleship Hill, and their spurs running to the sea on on either flank.  This arrowhead of ridges would form a strong covering position, and Hamilton left it to Birdwood's discretion whether to extend it by seizing the actual summit of 971 or not."

Anzac landing plan