The troops holding the short line at the tip were the 29th division less two battalions, on the left and in the centre; four French bat talions on the right, and beyond them the South Wales Borderers on the extretne right. The heavy casualties which the landing entailed had made this line dangerously thin, but it was essential to make a move quickly before the enemy could recover and receive fresh rein forcements. A general advance was therefore ordered for 28 April. The 29th division was to march on Krithia, the French were to extend their left in conformity with the British movements and to retain their right on the coast line south 'of the Kereves Dere. Al though by this time the troops had had no proper rest for four days, they responded vigorously to the call. It was soon discovered that the enemy trenches and wire entangle ments presented almost insuperable obstacles to a rapid advance. The French reached to within a mile of Krithia and could get no farther; the Turkish resistance grew stronger; nearly the whole Allied line was thrown into the battle; ammunition was running short and the men were exhausted. The small amount of trans port was insufficient to keep them supplied. For the time being hopes of securing a footing on Achi Baba, a 600-foot hill, had to be aban doned. The best that could be expected was to hold what had been taken. A partial retire ment was ordered, in which the Worcester regiment suffered severely. During the day's fighting the units got mixed up; the French had lost many officers and needed time to re organize. April 29 was devoted to straighten ing the line and .consolidating the positions. Nothing happened on the 30th. More French and Indian troops had meanwhile arrived and were formed into a reserve. On the night of 1 May the Turks opened a hot shell fire and delivered a series of fierce attacks in three solid lines. The enemy officers carried colored Bengal lights to fire from their pistols, red indicating to the Turkish gunners that they were to lengthen their range; white that the Allied front trenches had been stormed; and green that the main position had been carried. The Turk method was to crawl on hands and knees until the time came for the final rush. The first momentum of this ponderous on slaught fell upon a brigade whose officers had nearly all been killed or wounded, so that when the Turks came right on without firing and charged into the trenches with the bayonets they made a big gap in the line. This was instantly filled up by the 5th Royal Scots (Territorials), who faced to their flank and charged the enemy with the bayonet. The storm next brolce in fullest violence against the French left which was held by the Sene galese, who gave ground after several charges and counter-charges. A company of the Wor cesters was thrown into the gap and the po sition was maintained for the night. At 5 in the morning the Allied line again advanced, and by 7:30 the British left had gained some 500 yards, while the c,entre and right also gained some ground with the French left, but the remainder of the French line was unable to malce progress. Enemy machine guns now battered the British centre and left; it was found impossible to hold the ground, and the whole line was withdrawn to its former trenches. The enemy also had lost many men and spent a day (2 May) burying his dead under a red crescent flag. At 9 that night they again attacked the whole Allied line, malting their chief effort against the French, where the ground was favorable to approach. For the next few days the French were again attacked with severe losses, and a portion of their line was taken over by the 2d Naval brigade. The Allied losses up to this stage had been extremely heavy; exclusive of the French, the Allies had 177 officers and 1,990 other ranks killed; 412 officers and 7,807 other ranks wounded; 13 officers and 3,580 other ranks missing. The first battle for Krithia had failed. The second attempt began on the 6th. 13oth sides had drawn heavily upon their stock of energy and munitions; each side had fallen back (the Turks half a mite), and it seemed clear that whichever could first summon up spirit to make another da.sh must secure at least a few hundreds of yards of the ground between the two fronts. Even so small a portion of territory, whatever it might mean to the enemy, was a matter of life or death to a force crowded together under gun-fire on so narrow a tongue of land. For three days (6-8 May) a violent battle raged on the western end of the peninsula; the net result was an Allied gain of 600 yards on the right and 400 yards on the left and centre. The French had made a valuable capture of ground from which the enemy made desperate efforts to dislodge them on the 9th and 10th. On 11 May, the first time for 18 days and nights, the 29th British division was withdrawn from the firing line and replaced by the 42d division and the 29th Indian Infantry brigade, both newly arrived a.shore. During the whole of the fight ing the naval guns on the ships took a promi nent part, though the enemy's main position had not been seriously touched. From time to time Turkish warships from Nagara (beyond the Narrows, in the straits) tried to intervene, but the Queen Elisabeth kept them off. The forti fied works at the Black Sea end of the Bos porus were occasionally shelled by Russian warships, while one Russian vessel, the Askold, was attached to the French squadron off Gallipoli.
After the second battle for Krithia a period of trench fighting and siege tactics followed, but points of vantage were gained and lost in many days of heroic effort. A notable instance was the capture of the Gurlcha Bluff, a pre cipitous point from which enemy machine guns had frequently held up the left of the attacks. During the night of 10-11 May the Gurlchas started off to seize this bluff. Their scouts descended to the sea, worked their way for some distance through the broken ground along the shore, and crawled on hands and lames up the precipitous face of the cliff. On reaching the top they were heavily fired on. As a surprise the enterprise failed, but as a reconnaissance it proved very useful, for on the 12th a grand attack was carried out with the 29th Indian brigade (to which the Gurkhas be longed) with the co-operation of the Manchester brigade and two battleships. Early in the
evening the Turkish trenches were bombarded by land and sea, while under cover of this fire the Gurkhas once more crept along the shore and assembled below the bluff (now called ((Gurkha BlufP) and, the attention of the Turks being taken up with the bombardment, they swiftly scaled the cliffs and carried the position with a bayonet rush; their machine-gun section was hurried forward. and at 4:30 A.m. a second double ccanpany was rushed up to join the first An hour later these two double com panies extended and began to entrench. At 6 A.m. a third double company of the fiery Gurlchas advanced acrdss the open from their former front line of trenches under violent fire and established themselves on a diagonal line on the newly captured redoubt. Numer ous exploits of this nature took place; indeed, no day passed without something of the sort being attempted or achieved either by the French or the British.
Turning now to where the Anzacs had landed and dashed for the cliffs, their line formed a rough semi-circle inland from the beach with a diameter of about 1,100 yards. The firing line was everywhere close to the enemy's trenches and in all sections there were continuous sanping, counter-sapping and bomb attacks. The Turks scattered their shells over the trenches and beaches with a liberal hand. As many as 1,400 shells fell on Anzac Cove within an hour, and these were of all calibres, from 11 inches to field shrapnel. The Anzacs were perched on the cliffs of Sari Bair, about three miles above Gaba Tepe. Their special mis sion was to hold as large a body as possible of the enemy in front of them ; to keep open Ft door leading to the vitals of the Turkish position; and to lessen the strain at Cape Helles. On 9 May a night assault, supported by enfilade fire, was carried out on the enemy's trenches in front of Quinn's Post; the ground was taken at the point of the bayonet. At dawn on the 10th a strong counter-attack forced the Anzacs to evacute the trenches and fall back. In this fight the Allied guns wrought great havoc, for on that day two Turkish regiments lost 600 killed and 2,000 wounded. A sortie was made on the night of 14-15 May from Quinn's Post with the object of filling in Turkish trenches in which bomb throwers were inconveniently active. The attempt failed with a loss of 70 casualties; the commander, Gen. Sir W. B. Bird wood, was wounded. On 14 May General Gouraud arrived and took over from General d'Amade the command of the French expedi tionary force. On 15 May Maj.-Gen. W. T. Bridges, a highly popular officer commanding the Australian division, was severely wounded and died a few days later. Born in Scotland and educated in Canada, General Bridges ob tained his commission in' the New South Wales artillery in 1885 and had served in the South African War of 1899. In 1904 he was Inspector General of the Commonwealth Military Forces.
Turkish reinforcements had meanwhile arrived in great numbers — according to pris oners' accounts, 30,000 fresh troops under the command of Liman von Sanders. These were thrown against the Anzacs on 18 May and a stiff battle accompanied by intense artil lery fire raged for over a day. Repeated bayonet attacks by the Turlcs were repulsed with much slaughter ; over 3,000 dead were lying in open view of the British. trenches. During the next four days negotiations toolc place for a suspension of arms. The first move in this direction occurred on 20 May, at 5 in the after noon, when white flags and red crescents (the Turkish equivalent to the Red Cross) began to appear all along the line. A Turkish staff officer, two medical .officers and a company commander came out into the open. They were met by Major-General Walker, cornmanding the Australian division. half-way between the trenches. The staff officer explained that he was instructed to arrange a suspension of arms for the removal of dead and wounded. He had no written credentials, and he was informed that neither he nor the Australian general had the power to arrange such a sus pension of arms, but that at 8 P.M. an oppor tunity would be given of exchanging letters on the subject, and that meanwhile hostilities would recommence after 10 minutes' grace.. At this time some stretcher parties on both sides were collecting wounded, and the Turkish trenches opposite were packed with men stand ing shoulder to shoulder two deep. Matters were less regular in front of other sections, where znen with white flags came out to col lect wounded. Meanwhile it was observed that columns were moving in the valley up which the Turks usually brought their rein forcements. On hearing the report of these movements, General Birdwood ordered his trenches to be manned against a possible attack. As the evening drew in the enemy's concentra tion continued, and everything pointed to his intention of making use of the last of the day light to get his troops into position without being interrupted by British artillery. A mes sage was therefore sent across to say that no clearing of dead or wounded could be allowed during the night, and that any negotiations for such purpose should be opened through the proper channel and initiated before noon on the following day. Immediately after this inter esting interlude the stretcher and other parties fell bacic and general fire broke from both sides. In front of the British right masses of men advanced behind lines of unarmed men holding up their hands. Firing grew fiercer all along the line, accompanied by a heavy bombard ment of the whole British position, leading to the belief that the attack was prearranged. Machine-gun and rifle fire continued until about 4 in the morning. Negotiations were resumed on 22 May with the representatives of Essad Pasha (who must not be confounded with Essad Pasha of Albania), resulting in arrangements for a suspension of arms from 7:30 A.m. until 4:30 P.M. on 24 May. The whole sale funeral ended about 3 o'clock on that day: some 3/000 Turkish dead were removed or buried in the area between the opposing lines — No Man's Land. The whole of these had been killed or had died there of wounds on or since the 18th, a space of seven days. Punctually on the expiration of the time limit hostilities recommenced.