Captain Unwin of the River Clyde was having difficulty aboard the ship. Her bows were still divided by an expanse of deep water from the shore, and when they tried to bring the steam hopper round to fill the gap it was swept away to port by the heavry current and lay broadside to the beach, where it was useless. It was vital now that the two lighters should be brought round from the stern to make the causeway between the ship and the shore. Unwin left the bridge and dived overboard with a tow rope in his hand. He was at once followed into the water by an able seaman named williams. Together the two men swam to the shore, and managed to get the lighters lashed together and placed before the bows of the River Clyde. Bracing himself against the current, Unwin held the more of the landward of the two lighters in position.
the 29th division
When Captain Unwin shouted to Colonel Tizard of the Munsters that the gangways were ready, he ordered Captains Geddes and Henderson to advance and all poured out of the sally ports cut into the collier's side and tried to dash for the shore under the tornado of fire. Seaman Williams was hit. Not knowing that he was dead, Unwin propped him up in the water and in doing so let go his grip on the lighter. Immediately it was swepped away in the current, spilling its cargo of wounded into the sea. Gangways and barges were quickly choked with dead and wounded. A barge broke away and immediately Capatin Geddes jumped into the water and swam the 20 yards to shore. His men followed and many drowned with the weight of their equipment. Such was the slaughter that Captain Geddes wrote later " Men who were at Mons and La Bassee say it was sheer child's play to what we've gone through here. " The very few who got ashore sheltered behind a bank about eight feet high ten yards from the water's edge, barbed wire on their front and the beach swept by cross-fire. Geddes then tried to move his remaining men to protect the right flank under the base of the fort; two survived, he himself was shot in the shoulder. He was joined by Captain T.S Tomlinson and Sergeant Ryan, with three men of ' Z ' Company. Fourteen Dublins also joined them.
Air Commondore Samson came flying over Sedd-el-Bahr at this moment and looking down saw that the calm blue sea was ' absolutely red with blood ' for a distance of fifty yards from the shore, ' a horrible sight to see. ' Red ripples washed up on the beach and everywhere the calm surface of the water was whipped up into a ghastly discoloured foam by thousands of falling bullets. The sun was shining brightly.
Air Commondore Samson came flying over Sedd-el-Bahr at this moment and looking down saw that the calm blue sea was ' absolutely red with blood ' for a distance of fifty yards from the shore, ' a horrible sight to see. ' Red ripples washed up on the beach and everywhere the calm surface of the water was whipped up into a ghastly discoloured foam by thousands of falling bullets. The sun was shining brightly.
Captain ( Commander) Unwin Captain Geddes, Royal Munster Fusiliers
Turkish barbed wire
Sedd-el-Bahr
Fort
Fort
Surviving Dublins
Munster and Hampshires take cover beind small
bank on beach
Munster and Hampshires take cover beind small
bank on beach
Lighter floor covered with dead and wounded
Stray rope to lighter
Under magnification, it can be seen that this soldier has survived the Turkish machine gun fire
and is lying on his side, carefully watching the beach from the cover of the lighter.
and is lying on his side, carefully watching the beach from the cover of the lighter.
Above, Sedd-el-Bahr Fort and village seen from the SS River Clyde, 25th April 1915 during the landing at Cape Helles. The lighter in the foreground contains dead from the Royal Munster Fusiliers and the Hamprshire Regiment who were killed while attempting to get ashore.
By 9.30am when the casualties were being numbered in many hundreds, it was becoming apparent to the soldiers at last that they could do no more. Barely 200 had reached the shelter of the little bank on the beach. A thousand others remained inside the River Clyde and they were safe enough there with the bullets hammering on the armoured plates of the ship, but directly they showed themselves at the sally ports the killing began again. Only the machine guns mounted behind sand bags on the bows of the ship were able to keep firing.
Young Lieutenant Henry Desmond O' Hara of the 1st Dublins was among those who safely landed from the River Cyde later at night in darkness. The Reverened O. Creighton, Anglican chaplain of the 86th Brigade, met this quietly brave young Irishman and greatly admired him. In his book ' with the 29th Division in Gallipoli, he writes that O' Hara was little more than a boy ( aged about 23 ) when he landed on the 25th April. Major H.M Farmer, DSO, Lancashire Fusiliers, later summed up O' Hara's achievments when he went to consolidate the position after the end of April and found only this one officer of the Dublins left:
" Lieutenat O' Hara who rose to every occasion with the greatest coolness and competence, from commanding a platoon at the terrible landing from the River Clyde to the command of a company the next day, and after the 28th April to commanding the battalion. " O' Hara was awarded a well deserved DSO, gazetted 3rd June 1915. Creighton writes of O' Hara's acute sense of loneliness with all his brother officers dead. Of those terrible days of fighting in the Krithia area at the end of April and on the 1st May, O' Hara writes to his fiance:
Young Lieutenant Henry Desmond O' Hara of the 1st Dublins was among those who safely landed from the River Cyde later at night in darkness. The Reverened O. Creighton, Anglican chaplain of the 86th Brigade, met this quietly brave young Irishman and greatly admired him. In his book ' with the 29th Division in Gallipoli, he writes that O' Hara was little more than a boy ( aged about 23 ) when he landed on the 25th April. Major H.M Farmer, DSO, Lancashire Fusiliers, later summed up O' Hara's achievments when he went to consolidate the position after the end of April and found only this one officer of the Dublins left:
" Lieutenat O' Hara who rose to every occasion with the greatest coolness and competence, from commanding a platoon at the terrible landing from the River Clyde to the command of a company the next day, and after the 28th April to commanding the battalion. " O' Hara was awarded a well deserved DSO, gazetted 3rd June 1915. Creighton writes of O' Hara's acute sense of loneliness with all his brother officers dead. Of those terrible days of fighting in the Krithia area at the end of April and on the 1st May, O' Hara writes to his fiance:
This whole business is too horrible for words. I dont expect to come through it for an instant - it is a miracle for anyone who does . . .the survivors of us were bordering on lunacy.
Insert title text here ...His misgivings about his chances for survival were correct; he died on the hospital ship Arcadia on the 29th August of wounds received on the 12th August and was buried in the military cemetary at Gibralter.
Lieutenat Robert Bernard was another brave young officer of the 1st Dublins. Very early on the day after the landing he was killed while leading his men in a batonet charge in a ferocious fight which took the fort of Sedd-el-Bahr and the village, together with detachments of Hampshires, Munsters and Dublin Fusiliers, all under Lieutenat Colonel CHM Doughty-Wylie, who at the moment of victory was killed and subsequently awarded the Victoria Cross. Early that same afternoon Corporal William Cosgrove of the 1st Munster Fusiliers performed a remarkable feat that won him the VC. Men on the beach, now under Captain Stoney, were still pinned down. He, seeing the attack being made on the right, led his men forward to support it, but they found their way barred by heavy wire entanglements that had resisted the naval bombardment and all attempts to cut it. Cosgrove ' an Irish giant ' over six feet tall and of exceptional strength now volunteered and proceeded single handedly and under heavy fire to pull down the posts of the enemy's high-wire entanglements, wrenching them out of the ground and clearing a way through. Cosgrove's feat was witnessed from the River Clyde by Surgeon P. Burrows Kelly, RN, DSO, who recorded his admiration in his diary . . .
Lieutenat Robert Bernard was another brave young officer of the 1st Dublins. Very early on the day after the landing he was killed while leading his men in a batonet charge in a ferocious fight which took the fort of Sedd-el-Bahr and the village, together with detachments of Hampshires, Munsters and Dublin Fusiliers, all under Lieutenat Colonel CHM Doughty-Wylie, who at the moment of victory was killed and subsequently awarded the Victoria Cross. Early that same afternoon Corporal William Cosgrove of the 1st Munster Fusiliers performed a remarkable feat that won him the VC. Men on the beach, now under Captain Stoney, were still pinned down. He, seeing the attack being made on the right, led his men forward to support it, but they found their way barred by heavy wire entanglements that had resisted the naval bombardment and all attempts to cut it. Cosgrove ' an Irish giant ' over six feet tall and of exceptional strength now volunteered and proceeded single handedly and under heavy fire to pull down the posts of the enemy's high-wire entanglements, wrenching them out of the ground and clearing a way through. Cosgrove's feat was witnessed from the River Clyde by Surgeon P. Burrows Kelly, RN, DSO, who recorded his admiration in his diary . . .
