8 St 24 Apr 1915 Jahr - S beach landing

Beschreibung:

S Beach lay inside the Straits at a small break in the cliffs at the north end of Morto Bay, two miles (3.2 km) from V Beach. On top of the cliff lay de Tott's Battery a derelict fortification. No defences had been prepared in the area and only one Ottoman platoon guarded the beach, with another platoon 0.5-mile (0.80 km) inland. Four trawlers, each with six lifeboats in tow, made slow progress against the Dardanelles current and mine sweepers in the Straits but Ottoman artillery on the Asiatic shore fired at other targets and the trawlers came inshore without incident and when the trawlers reached the shallows the tows were cast off. The landing party of three companies of the 2nd Battalion, South Wales Borderers covered by the battleship Cornwallis made landfall under fire from the Ottoman platoon in a trench half-way up the cliff. Two companies landed on the beach and one escaladed the cliffs at Eski Hissarlik point to capture de Tott's Battery.[57]

Captain Davidson of Cornwallis made an unauthorised landing with a party of sailors and marines to supplement the landing force, casualties for all of the landing parties being 63 Borderers, sailors and marines.[58] At the battery the British overlooked the Ottoman platoon and took fifteen prisoners; by 8:00 a.m. the landings were complete. From the cliffs, the disaster at V Beach could be seen but the instructions given to the commander were to wait for the advance from the south. After a prisoner claimed that there were another 2,000 Ottoman troops nearby, the commander continued to consolidate the position, rather than attack the rear of the Ottoman position at Sedd el Bahr.[59] It was later found that the only Ottoman troops near the landing was a company less the platoon killed and captured during the landing and another company sent from Krithia but diverted to Sedd el Bahr before the landing commenced.[59] The landing by the captain of Cornwallis led to a delay in the arrival of the ship at V Beach, where it was scheduled to regulate the landing.

Zugefügt zum Band der Zeit:

Datum: