News | WDYTYA? Olympia 2012 - Come and meet the Gallipoli Association

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WDYTYA? Olympia 2012 - Come and meet the Gallipoli Association

After the successes of last years Who Do You Think You Are? in London, we are pleased to announce that the Gallipoli Association will again having a stand at the show. Have you a family member at Gallipoli and would like to find out more? Why not drop in and visit the Gallipoli Association, who will be sharing a stand with our friends at the Western Front Association (WFA).

Members manning the stand on behalf of the Gallipoli Association this year will include John Crowe, Simon Kleinig, Mal Murray and Stephen Chambers. Each of them will be on hand each day to help as the resident expert, and if you haven't already, you can join both the WFA and Gallipoli Association there.

This is the UK's biggest and most comprehensive family history event! Who Do You Think You Are? Live, sponsored by Ancestry.co.uk in association with the Daily Telegraph is now going into its sixth year and returns to Olympia, London, from 24 - 26 February 2012, so put the dates in your diary now and make sure you don't miss this highlight of the family history.

For more information and tickets see the official website at http://www.whodoyouthinkyouarelive.com or call 0844 8737330.

WFAStand

Photo: The WFA stand last year: Come and meet the Gallipoli Association in 2012.

On This Day...

Monday, 17 May 1915

GALLIPOLI - Flight Commander Reginald Marix and his observer Charles Samson were involved in an interesting mission on 17 May 1915. That morning Marix....

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GALLIPOLI - Flight Commander Reginald Marix and his observer Charles Samson were involved in an interesting mission on 17 May 1915. That morning Marix had noticed an unusual degree of activity at the port sighting four transports and several smaller craft visibly unloading stores and troops at the small port of Ak Bashi Liman.

Aerial Samson
Photograph: Taken by Squadron Commander Charles Samson on 17 May.

He also saw a large camp filled with soldiers further inland. He returned in the afternoon with Samson as his observer. They took the opportunity to try out a new aircraft as Samson would later recall.

"On May 17th Marix had his big Breguet ready for action. As our principle objective with this aeroplane was an attack on Constantinople, we had to test it out well before allowing the attempt to be made, so in order to see what it could do I made one of my infrequent trips as passenger. We carried no less than one 100-lb and fourteen 20-lb bombs, and also a Lewis gun, a pretty formidable amount for those days. Off we set with the idea of giving Ak Bashi Liman a look-over. Arriving there, we found the place a scene of great activity. We let go all our bombs and created complete panic, and also did a lot of damage. I have since talked with Turks who were actually on the spot at the time, and they all said that we put a complete stop to work for two days, as the labourers fled to the hills. The loss of life was severe, thirteen killed and forty-four wounded. Marix and I came back delighted with the Breguet; but rather doubtful if the engine was reliable enough as it was missing fire most of the time." (Squadron Commander Charles Samson, No. 3 Squadron, Royal Naval Air Service)

The two then carried out a more detailed reconnaissance and when their reports reached the GHQ it was concluded that a new Turkish division (it was the 2nd Division) was in transit and would be launching an attack on Anzac in the near future. Warnings reached the trenches on 18 May and as a ressult the Turks would be slaughtered when they launched mass attacks on the early morning of 19 May.