03 August 1915

SUVLA - Major General Frederick Hammersley, GOC 11th (Northern) Division and Brigadier General Felix Hill, GOC 31 Brigade, 10th (Irish) Division, IX Corps - Due to the secrecy surrounding the plans for the next major offensive, and working with vague and changing orders, the objective of the Suvla operation had become blurred.

Photograph: Major General Frederick Hammersley, GOC 11th (Northern) Division, with some of his staff.

So blurred that at one stage Major General Frederick Hammersley, commander of 11th (Northern) Division, actually believed that one of the main reasons for the Anzac operation was in fact to distract attention away from the Suvla landings, and not the other way around!

However there was one glowing omission in the Suvla planning, which was what to do with 10th (Irish) Division. They were not given any task in the orders with the exception of one brigade being mentioned as support for the Anzac Corps.

During an earlier dinner on 3 August aboard SS Andania, with Brigadier General Felix Hill, 31 Brigade, 10th (Irish) Division, Compton Mackenzie observed:

"Every officer present believed that the Brigade was going to land somewhere in Asia Minor. I would not be sure that even General Hill himself knew the real objective. The group of officers seated near me were anxious not to ask awkward questions; at the same time they hungered for information."

Amazing to say, Hill did not find out the plan for his brigade until he had been landed at Suvla!

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SOURCE:
C. Mackenzie, Gallipoli Memories, (Cassell & Co, London 1929) p.353., S. Chambers, Suvla: August Offensive (Pen & Sword, Barnsley, 2011) pp.25-25.