The battle at Gallipoli had been a stalemate for months, but the Allies had landed tens
of thousands of troops last week in a fresh attempt to gain the high ground, but what
happens when new recruits who’ve never seen battle take on a battle hardened enemy? You’ll find out in just a minute.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to the Great War.
Last week Warsaw, the capital of Russian Poland, had finally fallen to the German juggernaut
after its evacuation. The Germans now had the Russian fortress of Kovno, or Kaunas,
under siege in Russian Lithuania. At Gallipoli the British had made a successful landing
at Suvla Bay but had only advanced a short way across the plain before halting, while
New Zealander troops finally held the high ground of Chunuk Bair, and the new synchronization
gear developed by Anthony Fokker for the Germans that allowed a machine gun to fire between
propeller blades of a plane gave the Germans mastery of the skies.
That was over on the western front at the moment, and I’ll take a look there first this week.
On August 7th, the Germans attacked in the Argonne and the Vosges, but were knocked back
with casualties estimated at around 4,000. Twice more they would try this week to break
through in the Argonne, failing both times. Also in the west, zeppelin raids on the east
coast of Britain the 9th and 13th claimed 29 civilian lives.
Still, the civilians in Britain had it far better than those in Eastern Europe, many
of whom were in full flight, destroying their property and burning their farms as they fled from the German colossus.
The German army that took Warsaw advanced eastward and the Russian army fell back, leaving
as defense the fortress of Novogeorgievsk, with 90,000 men as the garrison. This was
were the Vistula and Bug Rivers come together, but it didn’t slow the German advance at
all; they surrounded it and set siege to it, but continued on, leaving 80,000 non front
line soldiers as the siege troops, and beginning to bring in the big howitzers- the 16 inch
guns that had demolished Antwerp last fall with the same commander from that siege, General Hans Hartwig von Beseler.
That was a lot of German and Russian action far to the north as the Germans made moves toward both Riga and Kovno.
Twice this week the German navy bombarded Riga, but were driven off both times, while
on the 7th near Riga itself, the Russians pushed back the Germans. At Kovno, German
artillery began bombarding the forts on the 8th with the great Gamma-Gerät howitzer,
whose shells weighed a ton and had a range of 14 kilometers, but the Russians fought
off several attempts to break through the perimeter, inflicting severe casualties on
the Germans. On the 9th, the Germans tried a night attack, but lost a full three battalions
to the Russian counter attack. Just a side note here, the German artillery bombardment
was so fantastic that it could apparently be heard as far away as Vilnius. 100km away!
Even though the Russian counter attacks were effective at the beginning of the week, by
the end of it both Vilnius and Kovno were being evacuated, though the Germans still
could not break through, but the artillery was wreaking havoc on the forts defending the fortress.
Back at home in Berlin, the Kaiser this week authorized a battalion of 2,000 men that would
be entirely Finns, to fight against Russia. The recruits were to be smuggled out of Finland,
which had loads of Russian police, so everything was done in total secrecy.
One other thing that happened this week involving Germany:
At the end of the week, Austro-Hungarian and German armies made contact west of Brest-Litovsk.
They now formed an unbroken line encircling three Russian armies and probably foreshadowing
yet another disaster for the Russians.
And one of the greatest disasters of the war, Gallipoli, continued this week with fresh attacks.
On August 9th, the attack on Koja Chemen Tepe was renewed. British and Gurkha forces actually
reached the top and fought off the Turkish counter attack with a bayonet charge. They
were even about to drive the Turks down the far side when British naval gunners, unaware
of their success, fired upon them and forced them back.
The New Zealand forces that had held Chunuk Bair for a couple of days now faced an attack
by Turkish forces commanded by Mustafa Kemal. They counter attacked brilliantly and had
the Turks in disarray. Kemal’s staff wanted to retreat, but the recently promoted Kemal,
now a colonel and awarded the Iron Cross first class by the Germans, said this, “Don’t
rush it, my sons. Don’t be in a hurry. We will choose exactly the right minute, than
I shall go out in front. When you see me raise my hand, look to it that you have your bayonets
sharp and fixed, and come out after me.”
Meanwhile, the New Zealanders had finally been relieved, by two battalions from Lord
Kitchener’s new army who had never seen action: the 6th Loyal North Lancashires and
the 5th Wiltshires. On the morning of August 10th, at 4:45 AM, Mustafa Kemal raised his
hand and walked forward. His now SIX Turkish battalions charged the Lancashires and bayoneted
them to the man, and in an incredible stroke of bad luck for the British, the Wiltshires
below had just put down their rifles to rest and could only helplessly run away.
So the Turks charged down the slope, hoping to force the Allies completely from the hill,
but New Zealand machine gunners on the next spur opened fire and stopped the Turkish left
flank. The right flank reached a plateau called the Farm, where they met the 38th Brigade.
Hand to hand fighting broke out, and after half of the Brigade had been killed or wounded,
including Brigadier General A.H. Baldwin, the survivors on both sides fell back, the
British further downhill and the Turks up to the ridge. Once again, Chunuk Bair was
in Turkish hands. The Allied lines were further inland than before, yes, but still stuck on
the Western side of the peninsula. Just think, for a short while, those New Zealander troops
that had held the top of Chunuk Bair could actually see the waters of the Narrows shimmering
and glistening below them. The target, the main goal. Perhaps they’d one day see them again.
At Suvla Bay, where British troops had successfully landed last week, there were several days
of fighting early this week. In fact, 25 British battalions were ashore by the 7th and German
Admiral von Tirpitz wrote that day in his diary, “Heavy fighting has been going on
since yesterday at the Dardanelles. The situation is obviously critical. Should the Dardanelles
fall, the World War has been decided against us.” Now, as we saw last week, the troops
that landed didn’t advance across the coastal plain toward Achi Baba, and this hesitation
would prove disastrous over the next few days.
British official historian, Brigadier General Aspinall-Oglander, there’s a mouthful, was
harsh on them, “By the hesitation and delay of the 7th and 8th of August, the advantages
gained by the surprise landing at Suvla had all been thrown away... It was now to be a
fight between forces of equal numbers with the British troops in the open... and the
Turks in possession of every point of vantage... once surprise had gone there was little chance
with anything approaching equal numbers of scoring a British success.” He also noted
that the British battalions were New Army troops straight out of England and the Turks
were experienced and far superior to them.
So for the total four days of battle for Suvla Bay and Chunuk Bair, 50,000 British and ANZAC
troops had fought, with 10,000 killed and 2,000 wounded, but more than 22,000 sick and
wounded men were taken from Gallipoli to hospitals in either Egypt or Malta. By the end of the week, the hospitals were full.
And completely failing to learn from their earlier mistake, when the assault was renewed
the 13th, the troops again advanced from Suvla Bay, stopped, and dug a line of trenches when
they reached Anafarta Ridge, even though there were no Turks, or Turkish trenches anywhere
in sight and they could’ve continued a lot further and captured higher ground. Within
24 hours, the Turkish fifth Division had driven them back toward the bay.
Also on the 13th, the Allied troop transport the Royal Edward, all 11,000 tons of her,
was sunk by a German sub off the island of Kos. 1,865 soldiers drowned.
And we come to the end of the week. The German and Austro-Hungarian forces linking up in
a solid line that spells trouble for the Russians. The Russians under siege in Kovno and Novogeorgievsk.
The Germans failing in the Argonne, and the Allies failing at Gallipoli.
For you can’t call it anything but a failure. Taking a few dozen meters of new ground isn’t
a success when you have entire battalions being basically wiped out. I can understand
that those New Zealander troops holding Chunuk Bair desperately needed relief, and the Lancashires
and Wiltshires may have been the only troops available, but those men, those raw recruits
who’d never seen combat, were simply sent to the slaughter. I don’t think there’s
any strategy that can justify that, but- you know- 20/20 hindsight is easy, but 20/20 foresight is absolutely impossible in modern war.
And in the end there were multiple people who said beforehand that taking the Dardanelles
is impossible. Even Winston Churchill who came up with the plan in late 1914 said so
a few years earlier. Still they tried and it didn’t look good from day 1. Click here
to find out how the Gallipoli landings worked out a few months ago.
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