4.3 Helles

The aim was that in a first phase, 5000 troops would land in small rowing boats. The River Clyde, a collier that had been rebuilt for the occasion, was to be grounded on V-beach, with another 2000 troops on board.  

In a second wave, 1200 additional troops would land.  

In the evening of 24th April, Euryalus, Implacable, Cornwallis, 1 minesweeper, three transports and the River Clyde left the islands for Helles. At dawn on 25th April, they were two miles out of the coast and started to bombard the beaches. At 6 o' clock, the boats went on their way to the different landing areas.

At X-Beach, the first wave was composed of the 2nd Royal Fusiliers and a company of the 1st Lancashire Fusiliers, both of them units belonging to the 86th Brigade. They were confronted by exactly 12 Turks, who understandably offered no resistance. To the troops, X Beach became known as "Implacable Landing", because of the covering fire given by HMS Implacable, only 500 m out of the coast, while the 2nd Royal Fusiliers were rowed to the shore.  

After the beach and the cliff top had been secured, they were reinforced by the 1st Border Regiment and the 1st Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. When the Turks, who had been completely surprised by a landing at this spot, started to react, a field gun firing from Krithia was silenced by Implacable and all other opposition was quickly overcome On their right flank however, on Hill 114 between X and W-Beach, there were defensive positions of the enemy. Before noon however, these too were captured in a combined action with the Lancashire Fusiliers at W Beach..

What followed then, was probably one of the big Allied  mistakes during the first day of the campaign : instead of moving inland, the British troops stayed where they were, and dug in to defend their small perimeter. Through lack of proper orders, no initiative was taken to threaten the village of Krithia, although from their position they were in eye contact with the troops at S Beach, who reacted in the same fashion at the other side of the landing area. 

A resolute advance against the Turkish defences would almost certainly have prevented a lot of misery at the other landing places.

W Beach was much better defended : although only one company of the Turkish army had been posted there, they had machine gun emplacements, on the hills at both sides of the landing area. The beach itself had been prepared against a possible landing with belts of barbed wire, some of which were to be found under water.

The storming of this position by the Lancashire Fusiliers is generally considered as one of the most remarkable feats of arms of the entire campaign : they suffered terrible losses, but during their action won no less than six Victoria crosses 'before breakfast'.

At 7.15 h the beach was in their hands. On their left flank, supported by the 1st Essex of 88th Brigade, they captured Hill 114 and linked with the troops that had landed on X Beach. To the right, Hill 138, just north of the lighthouse between V and W Beach,  was also conquered.

Before sunset a continuous line had been established between Hill 114 and Hill 138. A further advance inland might have been considered, but the enormous losses and the exhaustion of the survivors prevented that and the order was given to dig in and consolidate.

The situation at V Beach has been compared to the setting of an Greek drama : the two companies of Turkish defenders looked down on the beach below as so many spectators in an antique theatre. They occupied well-protected positions in and around the small village of Sedd-el-Bahr. The preliminary bombardment by the fleet had not caused substantial damage to their defensive positions.  

Many sources, among which the diary of Commander Samson who flew over the landing area in his aeroplane, mention the fact that the sea around the lighters was literally red with blood. For days after the landing, dead bodies would be washed ashore.

At 16.00 h, a new attempt to get the troops off the ship was made, but with the same disastrous outcome : it proved simply impossible to advance against the Turkish storm of fire. At 18.30 h the fleet again bombarded the positions of the defenders, but in the end the only possible solution to get the remaining 1000 troops on land was to wait till night had fallen.

At S Beach one single platoon of Turkish defenders was no match for the South Wales Borderers of  87th Brigade. As the commander of the latter had received orders only to advance in concert with the troops at the two central beaches, he took this very literally and waited for new orders to arrive.

Also the landing at Y Beach, some 3 km north of X, was a success. The 1st King's Own Scottish Borderers, the 2nd South Wales Borderers and the Plymouth Battalion of the RND, landed here without any Turkish opposition. After climbing the cliffs using Y Ravine, they stayed inactive for the better part of the day. In total, 2000 men were assembled here, exactly as many as the complete Turkish presence in the area.

As nobody knew exactly what to do next, the troops installed themselves comfortably to have tea, while their commanding officers tried to contact the divisional commander. Hunter-Weston however, was so occupied with what was going on at V and W Beach, that he did not send a reaction, not even when Hamilton himself and Keyes suggested ferrying more troops to Y Beach.

At 16.00 h the Turks attacked and a battle developed, which was to last all night. The following morning, confusion among the Allied forces about who was in command, a number of other misunderstandings and a serious lack of ammunition and water, led to an unforeseen withdrawal. Ironically, at that precise moment, their opponents took exactly the same decision. While the British soldiers were being picked up by the Navy, the Turkish forces, who had lost half of their strength, also fell back.

At 11.30, after an occupation that lasted 29 hours, Y Beach was completely deserted again.

At the same time of the British landings, the French bombarded Besika Bay and successfully landed at Kum Kale. They kept the Turkish forces on the Asiatic coast occupied till the night of 26th April, when they ended their diversionary operation and withdrew under cover of darkness.

Also at Bulair, the Turkish positions were bombarded. Just before dusk, the Royal Naval Division, went on board of landing boats, and started to move in the direction of the coast, to make the Turkish defenders believe that a landing was imminent. Only one single man did effectively land : lieutenant Freyberg reached the shore after a swim that lasted one hour and a half, fired a number of rockets, made a quick reconnaissance of the defences and then swam back. When he was miraculously discovered by a waiting boat, he was more dead than alive and had clearly deserved his DSO.