Gully Ravine

Gully beach was first reached by allied troops on 28th April 1915. The size and extent of the ravine clearly came as something of a surprise. As the official history of the 29th Division indicates, 'it was a formidable military obstacle.'

Ironically, the landing at Y beach on 25th April meant that the troops were already well over half-way up the gully, and indeed, some scouting parties entered the ravine and walked within half a kilometre of Krithia without opposition. Unfortunately, due to a combination of poor leadership, confusing or non-existent orders and a phenomenon known as straggling (whereby men, lacking instructions, simply made their way back down to the beach) the opportunity was lost and Y beach was evacuated. It would take several weeks and many hundreds of lives to regain it.

The presence of Gully Ravine was however also an opportunity. The gully has numerous offshoot gullies to either side, and the stream bed follow a course that brings it within about a kilometre of the village of Alcitepe, known as Krithia during the war. This was one of the allies' objectives.

The side gullies were quickly utilised as the front line extended forward. Everything from field dressing stations, food and ammunition dumps, stables, brigade HQs and even a practice shooting range were established. Communications trenches and roads were built linking the gully to either spur, giving the impression on an overhead map of a gnarled tree, with Gully Ravine being the trunk, and the radiating trenches on either side the winter-bare branches. In strategic terms, Gully Ravine can be considered a huge naturally-formed communications trench.

Krithia, mentioned below, gives it name to the battles in the general area. It is now known as Alcitepe, and is still a small devout muslim village. The allies never took it, although shelling reduced it to ruins.

Although the sections below refer to specific battles, it will be appreciated that conflict was continuous at some level from the time of the occupation of the ravine in late April 1915 to its evacuation in early January 1916. After the Suvla landings in early August, the Helles sector and Gully Ravine in particular is rather ignored in popular accounts. However, individual regimental histories, and Ray Westlake's superb book 'British regiments at Gallipoli'*, make clear that this sector was far from abandoned or unoccupied in the latter parts of the campaign.

* British regiments at Gallipoli. Ray Westlake. Leo Cooper, Imprint of Pen and Sword Ltd. 1996. ISBN: 08505251

The First Battle of Krithia

The first battle of Krithia, on 28th April 1915, was essentially an extension of the landings. Advancing troops, including the 1/Border Regiment and 1/Inniskilling Fusiliers reached Gully beach and pushed up the ravine, but these and other forces, such as the 2/SWB in reserve, were already reduced, battered and exhausted by the landings. Turkish guns on the spurs took an early toll, and by nightfall, the advance had stalled as soldiers, bereft of orders and water and barely able to stand through exhaustion, simply dug in or retreated.

This action was part of an advance across the whole peninsula. It called for a complex 'right hook' in which the entire force was to turn east to face the straights. It is doubtful whether this plan ever made it conceptually to the soldiers on the ground. artillery support was a fraction of what it should have been. Starting from different points, brigades across the peninsula were soon halted by enfilade fire.

The Turkish counter-attacked in force on the night of 28th April and forced their way through the allied front line in the southern part of Gully Ravine. The gallant advances by the allies along Gully Spur in response were nullified by the problems encountered by the 88th and 86th brigades to the centre and right, the gains to the left having to be relinquished in order to 'straighten the line'.

The Second Battle of Krithia

The pressure was on due to the constantly arriving Turkish reinforcements and developing trench system beyond no man's land, so a further concerted attack was planned for 6th May. The aim was the capture of Krithia and Achi Baba hill beyond. Elements of Australian and New Zealand forces were involved, having been moved to the Helles area from Anzac.

Advances were made through the gully and both spurs, but by this time the Turks were well entrenched, and the toll in dead and wounded was huge. The woodland on Fir Tree spur, (ironically carpeted with poppies) became a killing ground, and both British and ANZAC troops died and were wounded in the advance, which secured just a few hundred metres.

On Gully Spur, to the left of the ravine, a Turkish strong point above the abandoned Y beach was causing mayhem. On 11th May, 86th Brigade were relieved by the 29th Indian Brigade, and on the rainy day of 12th May 1915, Gurkha and Punjabi forces, supported by shelling from capital ships offshore, over-ran this stronghold, at the cost of hundreds. To this day, the area captured above Y beach is known in the UK as 'Gurkha Bluff' in honour of those who took it.

Consolidation took place over the next week, and communications routes, telephone lines, supply dumps and all the other paraphernalia of trench warfare were put in place.

On 25th May a huge rainstorm occurred, flooding the gully and the trenches up on the spurs, a reminder that in spite of the tenuous hold that men had on the land, nature still reigned supreme.

The Third Battle of Krithia

By early May, a system of identifying the facing Turkish trenches had been established. On the left of Gully Ravine, on Gully Spur, the trenches were designate 'J' and those on Fir Tree Spur to the right as 'H'. An attack involving some 30,000 men was planned for 4th June, and artillery support, whilst still rather wanting, was certainly more coherent. A bombardment of the Turkish lines began at 8am and ceased at 10.30am, to begin again at 11am for 20 minutes, in a plan to lure Turkish soldiers back into the trenches in the lull. A further ruse of this kind followed. At 12 noon the infantry went over, and the Lancashires and Indian Brigades, amongst others, ran into a hail of lead which cut them to pieces. Some advances were made, but in a macabre echo of previous battles, lack of artillery support and reserve troops and the need to keep the line straight meant that sections of bitterly-won trench were relinquished. An important and costly lesson learned here was that shrapnel bombardment has largely failed to cut the very robust Turkish barbed wire.

The Battle of Gully Ravine

On 21st June 1915 the French forces, to the right of the British line, made some advances in their sector around the Kereves Dere, and Hamilton, commanding, determined to capitalise on this with a further push through Gully Ravine and on the spurs to either side. An advance was planned for Monday 28th June 1915.

On the left, the Indian Brigades were in charge, with 86th and 87th Brigades in Gully Spur. In the Gully itself, 1/Border Regiment was to advance, and on Fir Tree Spur, newly arrived elements of the 156th Brigade were supported by 88th Brigade in reserve. Mistakes were made from the outset. Because the left flank was considered the tougher option, artillery support on the right was proportionally lacking, with very few high explosive shells available. In fact a mere 12000 rounds in total were allocated for the battle, with only about half the field guns generally considered adequate for the force sent in.

After almost 2 hours of artillery bombardment, the 1st Border Regiment went forward on Fir Tree Spur against a Turkish machine gun post and trench system known as 'the Boomerang'. The redoubt was taken, but the neighbouring 'Turkey trench' proved much harder. The following waves of the 156th brigade were cut down by hitherto unknown Turkish machine guns dug in at the further 'H' trenches.

Over on Gully Spur, progress was swifter, albeit not without significant losses, and no less than five Turkish 'J' trenches were taken. Fighting continued until early July, and after consolidation, the allies had advanced about a kilometre on the left and 500 metres on the right. In Gully Ravine itself, a new front line had been established, named 'Border Barricade' after the 1/Border regiment who established it.

The battle of Gully Ravine marked the allies' furthest advance at Helles, and cost some 3800 lives, half of these from amongst the new and inexperienced 156th Brigade on Fir Tree Spur. The Turks admitted to losing some 14,000 men dead, 10,000 alone on 28th June.

For further reading see Gallipoli: Gully Ravine (Pen & Sword)