‘Sunday April 25 all over again, but worse’
Gaba Tepe to the south had been a key objective of the landing, but was still firmly held by the Turks. The promontory, around 350 metres long and 60 metres high, its steep slopes covered in grass and belts of barbed wire, provided the Turks with an excellent observation post just a few kilometres south of Anzac. From here, the Turks observed sea traffic and parts of Anzac Cove and the surrounding heights and they had reinforced Gaba Tepe with another eight guns. Turkish artillery observers directed their fire against land and sea targets and, from a position called ‘the Olive Grove’ just inland from Gaba Tepe, these guns, collectively christened ‘Beachy Bill’ by the Anzacs, fired apparently at will into the Anzac sector, inflicting many casualties.1
A week after the landing, General Bridges ordered a reconnaissance in force against Gaba Tepe and Colonel Sinclair-MacLagan’s 3rd Brigade was assigned the job. Sinclair-MacLagan consulted Lieutenant George Thirkell of the Australian 3rd Field Company concerning the possibility of demolishing the entrenched Turkish post. Thirkell and his men had landed late on the night of 25 April with orders to help evacuate the troops — orders that were quickly rescinded. Sinclair-MacLagan asked Thirkell how long it would take to ‘demolish the observation station on that point’.2 Thirkell gave the matter some thought and respectfully suggested that it would be far more effective for a number of battleships, including Queen Elizabeth with her 15-inch guns, to sail alongside the promontory and pour broadsides into it.3 While this was a reasonable proposition, Sinclair-MacLagan told Thirkell that the purpose of the ‘raid’ was to capture the position which, if it could not be held, was to be destroyed by his sappers. Back at his bivouac later that day, Thirkell took a long, hard look at Gaba Tepe through his binoculars. He remained convinced that any infantry attack against the Turkish stronghold was utter folly and would result in needless slaughter. Thirkell could only hope that Sinclair-MacLagan would ‘decide to go no further with the scheme … I could see no earthly way of getting through the wire, let alone reaching it.’4
At the same time, Captain Ray Leane of the 11th Battalion had been told to report to Brigade Headquarters. Sinclair-MacLagan informed him that he was to command a raiding party against Gaba Tepe: ‘My orders were to land at Gaba Tepe from boats, attack the fort, capture or kill the garrison, destroy guns and materiel, and obtain papers, records, and information of value.’5 If possible, they were to occupy the position, and in this they would be supported by the big guns of the navy.6 A week before, two companies of the 9th Australian Battalion (around 500 men) had been given the objective of capturing Gaba Tepe with surprise on their side. Now, only a week later, Sinclair-MacLagan considered that a force of some 100 men would succeed despite facing an alert enemy who was primed and waiting. Sinclair-MacLagan argued that the promontory was likely to be only lightly defended. Leane was no fool; to believe that the Turks would thinly defend this crucial position with a British invasion fleet still just a few thousand metres offshore was ludicrous. Leane recalled: ‘Those of us who had been watching Gaba Tepe since the landing on April 25 did not agree with [Sinclair-MacLagan’s] opinion.’7
Like Thirkell before him, Leane put it to Sinclair-MacLagan that the task was ‘extremely difficult, if not impossible, because the Turks could watch all movements, and the whole of the approach to the fort was heavily wired and the narrow beach probably mined. I asked that I might have volunteers. This was approved and the attack was planned for the next day — just before dawn, 4 May.’8 His orders stated in part: ‘The force … will: ascertain what is on Kapa Tepe; destroy any communications found there; attack any personnel in occupation … these orders and verbal orders … do not prevent the officer commanding this special force in acting as he thinks best under any circumstances that may arise.’9
Leane returned to his battalion and, having conferred with his battalion commander, ordered his company on parade in one of the gullies just behind the front lines along the southern flank of Anzac. Not all his men were present as some were on fatigue duties. He informed those on parade of the ‘raid’, telling them that it would be extremely dangerous and that he wanted volunteers only. From their position all could see the looming promontory jutting out into the Aegean just a few kilometres away. Most of the men from C Company were miners and timber workers — a tough lot — and, after accurately explaining the hopelessness of the mission, Leane gave the order: ‘Men who desire to volunteer, two paces forward march!’10 Every man present stepped forward — there were far more volunteers than he was able to take on the raid. Leane recalled that, at that moment, he ‘felt a proud man indeed to have command of such men. It is still to me one of the most wonderful and inspiring incidents which occurred during the long campaign.’11 Leane was now forced to select the raid’s participants and he chose to take single men only. He needed additional numbers from the unmarried men who were on fatigue duties.
Among those on fatigues was 24-year-old Private George Metcalfe with his two cobbers, 25-year-old Private Alvared Clifton and 24-year-old Private Arthur Pleydell — they were digging a sap head for a machine-gun post when their platoon sergeant, 32-year-old Harry Pugsley, approached with his notebook in hand. He asked for unmarried volunteers to participate in the raiding party on Gaba Tepe the very next morning. Unable to make a decision, Metcalfe turned his attention to the wall of the trench. But his mate Clifton spoke up: ‘Put my name down.’12 The decision was made and Metcalfe and Pleydell also volunteered. That night the men slept on the stony beach pavement so that they would be ready to leave early next morning. Metcalfe could not sleep and asked Clifton, ‘How do you like the prospect, Alvie?’ There were a few seconds of silence before Alvie replied forlornly, ‘I’m afraid they’ll eat us.’13
Earlier that afternoon, Lieutenant Thirkell was with his men when Major Henry Clogstoun approached with bad news. Clogstoun told Thirkell in a ‘kindly voice, “Thirkey, I feel like a murderer and I don’t know what to say to your people if you don’t get through — but the brigadier wants information about Gaba Tepe and certain destructions done there.”’14 Thirkell assembled his men and, like Captain Leane, asked for volunteers; like Leane’s men, all Thirkell’s men stepped forward — again only single men were selected for what most agreed was a suicidal operation. That night Thirkell and his men began preparing their primers and detonating equipment. Each would carry 5 lbs of gun-cotton and rendezvous with the men of the 11th Battalion near the ‘sunken trawler’ pier just before 3.00 am.15
An hour before zero hour, the sergeants roused the men from their sleep; it was cold, dark and cheerless. The attacking force consisted of two officers and 98 men of the 11th Battalion, their medical officer, 28-year-old Captain Edward Brennan, and his six stretcher-bearers, along with Lieutenant Thirkell and his sappers. They took their places in four large rowboats that would be towed to Gaba Tepe by the destroyer HMS Colne.16 At the same time, a small party under 23-year-old Lieutenant Clarence Rumball of the 10th Battalion was making its way south via the beach to help cut the wire along the northern approaches to Gaba Tepe and assist Leane’s men to make their escape if they failed to capture the Turkish stronghold.17
The raiding party approached Gaba Tepe in their tows. Leane noted that the morning was dark but the sky clear. He and his men could see the sharp point of ‘Gaba Tepe standing out clearly against the star-lit sky. To the left rear occasional shells were bursting over the Anzac sector. The rat-tat-tat of machine guns and … [the] fire along the whole front made us realise we were on a desperate venture. Not a sign of life appeared at Gaba Tepe.’18 The tows were now just 500 metres from their objective, and some heard the sailors murmur quietly that it was time to ‘let the boats go’.19 The men took up the oars of the four boats and began to row towards the Turkish fort that looked down on their approach — a low mist covered them and, as they neared the shore, Leane looked to the beach on his left and saw Rumball and his men engaged in cutting the wire to the north. It was just on first light when the boats ground.
The boat containing Leane and Thirkell was the first to ground, some 30 metres from shore. Also aboard was Private Aitken, who recalled: ‘Sunday (April 25) all over again, but worse … we got out and rushed up the beach, taking cover under an over-hanging wall, but got no further … there were [wire] entanglements everywhere and it was quite impossible to go on.’20 Leane also commented on the wire: ‘Rows of Barbed wire, 3ft. 6in. high, ran all over the hill in front of the trenches.’21 The waiting Turks opened up with machine-guns, rifles, and artillery — Lieutenant Rockliff was hit in the abdomen, while one of his men was killed with a bullet to the chest. Several others were hit as they tried to clear the boats.22 Thirty-two-year-old Corporal Douglas Gallaher saw ‘two sailors from the ships and two of our other fellows … shot dead before we could get out. I was just in the act of doing so when a piece of shrapnel smacked me on the forehead and knocked me over. Poor old Charlie, my mate, got shot through the back and out through his chest.’23
As others attempted to cross the beach towards a low embankment, 32-year-old Sergeant Horace Thompson and some of his men were killed; their bodies lay on the beach and in the water. At least one machine-gun was turned against the destroyers — the bullets clanging against the metal plates sounding ‘like a hundred pneumatic riveters busily at work’.24 Thirkell clambered out of his boat and dashed for the beach. The water was ‘literally being churned, and how anybody escaped is still beyond my imagination. There was no time to think of being frightened now — it was a case of taking your chance and making for the nearest cover, which was still some distance away. To make things still more uncomfortable and difficult, we had unfortunately landed on a bit of a shoal, and the water became deeper, until it was nearly up to our arm-pits … A regular hail of missiles was whizzing and zipping right in among us and rattling on the boats we had just left.’25
Around a dozen were killed, while several others were wounded and lay exposed on the beach. Private Aitken later recorded in his diary, ‘I understand this was to have been our original landing place. All I can say is, that if it was so, it was indeed a providential mistake that landed us where we did’ [the intended landing place was actually about 750 metres further north away from the wire].’26 The survivors watched as Captain Brennan ignored the fire and moved to treat the wounded. The men were not surprised by his actions as they had seen him do the same during the landing the week before. Metcalfe later recalled, ‘this action of the battalion doctor tending the wounded in turn while bullets spluttered in the sand, forever ranked as the coolest and the bravest.’27 Thirkell also noted Brennan’s work, commenting that ‘Australia cannot boast any medical VCs during the Great War, but this man was worthy of the award, if ever a man was.’28
Brennan himself took it in his stride, later writing in a letter home that he had dragged the wounded to a place of temporary safety, but that the situation was hopeless. Many of the men had potentially fatal wounds and needed urgent assistance from those on the hospital ships. Brennan was kept busy for the first half hour or so, later recalling that ‘three destroyers were lying in close to shore and peppering it with their 12-pounders, but as the high end of the cape was riddled with tunnels they could not do much more than make them keep their heads down … As the stretchers had been dropped on the beach two of us had an exciting gallop out for them, then back to our holes like rabbits. We put the worst two of the wounded on stretchers and then, while I went out to see a man who was moving, my sergeant collected the identity discs and pay books of the dead. I found that the man I went out to see was shot in the head and moribund, so we left him.’29 He made his way back to the embankment and, crawling under, found a slight depression into which they were all packed.
Turks entrenched at the very point of the promontory to the right of Leane’s party — including two machine-guns — completely enfiladed the beach and low embankment behind which most were sheltering. The only way the men could avoid the fire was to burrow into the side of the cliff face with their entrenching tools. Any advance towards the entrenched Turks above and on either flank was suicide. Indeed, the heavy barbed-wire entanglements made any attempt impossible. Even so, some tried to do exactly that but paid the ultimate sacrifice. Twenty-eight-year-old Private John McCleery was sheltering in one of the hastily dug burrows when his mate, Private David Mahoney, rolled down from above and fell alongside him. Mahoney was hit in the leg, his femoral artery cut. McCleery tried to drag him to safety but was himself hit.30 Nearby, one of Thirkell’s sappers was hit in the forehead by shrapnel, while another was hit in the chest and a third hit in the mouth by a machine-gun bullet. All three were killed. Another of his men was soon hit by ‘four machine-gun bullets through his leg just above the knee’.31 Thirkell somehow managed to reach him under fire and drag him to the embankment.
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Gaba Tepe was defended by men from the Arab 77th Regiment under the command of Major Saip Bey. This regiment had performed poorly during the first day of the invasion. Major Saip quickly sent a message to his commander, Colonel Mustafa Kemal, that the enemy was landing and were attacking his position in force. The enemy boats ‘had arrived under the covering fire of two battleships and three torpedo boat ships; the soldiers landing from these boats have been cutting the barbed wire further to the right of the outpost [Rumball and his men]. Our soldiers there are resisting in their trenches. The artillerymen have fled. I am trying to locate the officer … They are attacking even by land, from the Ariburnu side. For the moment our soldiers are resisting and enduring.’32 Kemal ordered Saip to push the enemy back into the sea. At the same time, Kemal ordered Lieutenant Colonel Sefik Bey of the 27th Regiment, who commanded the southern flank at the Ari Burnu sector, to monitor the situation and be ready to reinforce Gaba Tepe if required.33
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For two hours, Captain Leane and his survivors were pinned down and trapped below Gaba Tepe. Leane sent ten men north to investigate whether there was any way of escaping through the wire which they hoped had been cut by the men of the 10th Battalion. One man killed during this foray was 22-year-old Private Alfred Wilkins; most of the survivors returned as there was no way ahead given that a second tier of barbed wire, previously undetected, still blocked any escape northwards. Despite this, Privates Les Pahl, Charles Steadman and Frank Goundrey managed to wade into the water around the wire and escape back to Anzac via the coastline. Goundrey later recalled that he had never run so fast in his life: ‘bullets were whipping up the sand and splashing in the water all around’.34 According to Goundrey, he must have broken all ‘existing records for speed in his mad dash for safety’ and he may have very well done so.35 However, Privates Arthur Gee and Jack O’Neil were stranded, pinned down close to the wire as any movement brought a hail of machine-gun fire.
Below Gaba Tepe, Captain Brennan made his way to Leane from his temporary aid post and told him that a number of the wounded men had to be evacuated immediately or they were as good as dead. The only way out was via the navy. Leane used semaphore flags to signal to the destroyers to send a boat as soon as possible to pick up the wounded. A vessel flying a Red Cross flag was soon on its way and, as the boat grounded, the first of the stretcher-bearers ran across the beach to the makeshift dressing station. At first the Turks continued to sweep the beach with fire but, on recognising the Red Cross flag, they ceased fire. The stretcher-bearers rushed the wounded to the waiting boat. Leane recalled: ‘The Turk that day proved himself not only a brave soldier, but a gallant gentleman. The wounded had to be carried to the boat, upon which a Red Cross flag was flying. We carried the wounded; the Turks ceased fire while it was done, and until we returned to our position, the boat with wounded went off to the destroyer without a shot being fired.’36
The raid had clearly failed and the party’s only options were to be killed, taken prisoner, or try to escape in navy boats. It was now approaching 6.00 am, and Leane signalled the destroyer to send two more boats to pick them up under cover of naval gunfire. At first, Colne’s captain refused: ‘Impossible, try the beach.’37 Leane knew that there was no escape from that direction as machine-guns completely covered the approach. ‘Impossible; any man who should be hit would have to be left. If boats sent, I could get wounded away in them.’38 There was no reply but, soon after, Anzac shore-based artillery and other destroyers began to shell Gaba Tepe and two picket boats were sent out to pick up the Australians. With the fort now a mass of flame, smoke and dust, the survivors of the raid dashed for the boats. Private Aitken recalled that ‘the smoke cloud they provided proved our salvation & we got away with about thirty casualties.’39
However, despite the strength of the artillery and naval gunfire, the Turks were still able to pour a ‘terrific fire from the fort’.40 In the dash for the boats, Leane was hit in the hand, while 27-year-old Sergeant Jack McCleery was badly wounded, along with a number of others, but all made good their escape. As one of the survivors declared: ‘Should never have returned if not for the navy lads.’41 The two men pinned down close to the wire just north of Gaba Tepe were evacuated later that day by a naval picket boat, somehow escaping the Turkish machine-guns that fired at them as they made their way to the boat and safety.42
As Captain Raymond Leane and Lieutenant George Thirkell had predicted, the raid had accomplished nothing and, on his arrival back at Anzac, the slightly wounded captain was approached by Lieutenant Colonel Brudenell White who asked him to write a report providing details of the defences at Gaba Tepe. Leane had nothing to report — he certainly had nothing of significance to add to what was already known about the Gaba Tepe defences and nothing to justify the casualties. Leane reported: ‘From my observation I decided that the position was too strongly held to attempt storming. I observed fire from 3 machine guns and 1 Pom Pom … I beg to bring to your attention the very brilliant way Captain Brennan carried out his duties under fire.’43 Leane and Thirkell’s wet, hungry and exhausted survivors, including Private George Metcalfe and his two mates Alvie Clifton and Fred Pleydell, now found themselves on the beach at Anzac with the ‘savoury odour of stew wafting from dixies simmering over a nearby fire’.44
Major Saip and his men had held their position and inflicted serious casualties on the stranded enemy force. Shortly after the Australians evacuated the beach below Gaba Tepe, Saip penned a report to Lieutenant Colonel Sefik Bey:
This morning at around half past four, part of a force of around two hundred men that tried to land at Kapatepe, under the covering fire of two battleships and up to eight torpedo ships, managed to land following the bombardment and, after suffering a few mortal casualties thanks to our soldiers resisting in the trenches, retreated. Later, the torpedo ships kept up the bombardment for about a half hour before finally desisting. At the moment the situation is favourable, but we are continuing with the observation; still, I ask you please inform me clearly of the point reached by our left flank. In this battle we suffered eleven wounded and three dead.45
Both Sefik Bey and Mustafa Kemal commended the Arab 77th Regiment and told the officers and men that their defence of Gaba Tepe had redeemed the regiment’s honour following its poor performance on 25 April.
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