The landing at Cape Helles (Turkish: Seddülbahir Çıkarması) was part of the Gallipoli campaign, the amphibious landings on the Gallipoli peninsula by British and French forces on 25 April 1915 during the First World War. Helles, at the foot of the peninsula, was the main landing area. With gunfire support from the Royal Navy, the 29th Division was to advance six mi (9.7 km) along the peninsula on the first day and seize the heights of Achi Baba. The British then planned to capture the forts that guarded the straits of the Dardanelles.
A feigned landing at Bulair by the Royal Naval Division and a real landing at Anzac Cove were made to the north at Gaba Tepe, by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, before dawn; a diversionary landing was made by French forces at Kum Kale on the Asiatic shore of the Straits. After dark, another demonstration was made by the French in Besika Bay.
The Helles landing was mismanaged by the British commander, Major General Aylmer Hunter-Weston. V and W beaches became bloodbaths, despite the meagre defences, while the easy landings at other sites were not exploited. Although the British managed to gain a foothold, their plans were in disarray. For two months, the British fought costly battles to reach their first day objectives but they were eventually defeated by the Ottoman defenders.
Background
Ottoman developments
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Ottoman Empire was called the sick man of Europe; weakened by political instability, military defeat and civil strife following a century of decline. Power had been seized in 1908 by a group of young officers, known as the Young Turks, who installed Mehmed V as a figurehead Sultan. The new regime implemented a program of reform to modernise the political and economic system and redefine the national character of the empire. Germany provided significant investment and its diplomats gained more influence at British expense, previously the predominant power in the region and German officers assisted in training and re-equipping the army. Despite this support, the economic resources of the empire were depleted by the cost of the First and Second Balkan Wars and the French, British and Germans offered financial aid. A pro-German faction influenced by Enver Pasha, the former Ottoman military attaché in Berlin, opposed the pro-British majority in the Ottoman cabinet and tried to secure closer relations with Germany. In December 1913, the Germans sent a military mission to Constantinople, headed by General Otto Liman von Sanders. The geographic position of the Ottoman Empire meant that its neutrality in the event of a European war was of significant interest to Russia, France and Britain.
During the July Crisis in 1914, German diplomats offered an anti-Russian alliance and territorial gains in Caucasia, north-west Iran and Trans-Caspia. The pro-British faction in the Cabinet was isolated, due to the British ambassador taking leave until 18 August. As the crisis deepened in Europe, Ottoman policy was to obtain a guarantee of territorial integrity and potential advantages, unaware that the British might enter a European war. On 30 July 1914, two days after the outbreak of the war in Europe, the Ottoman leaders agreed to form the Ottoman-German Alliance in secret against Russia, although it did not require them to undertake military action. On 2 August, the British requisitioned two modern battleships, Sultân Osmân-ı Evvel and Reşadiye which were being built for the Ottoman Navy in British shipyards, alienating supporters of the British in Constantinople, despite the offer of compensation if they remained neutral. During the strained diplomatic relations between the two empires, the German government offered two cruisers, SMS Goeben and SMS Breslau to the Ottoman navy as replacements. The Allies conducted the Pursuit of Goeben and Breslau which escaped, when the Ottoman government opened the Dardanelles to allow them to sail to Constantinople, despite being required under international law, as a neutral party, to block military shipping.
In September, the British naval mission to the Ottomans, which had been established in 1912 under Admiral Arthur Limpus, was recalled as it appeared that the Ottomans would soon enter the war and command of the Ottoman navy was taken over by Rear Admiral Wilhelm Souchon of the Imperial German Navy. On 27 September, the German commander of the Dardanelles fortifications unilaterally ordered the passage to be closed, adding to the impression that the Ottomans were pro-German. The German naval presence and the success of German armies in Europe, gave the pro-German faction in the Ottoman government enough influence to declare war on Russia. On 27 October, Goeben and Breslau, having been renamed Yavûz Sultân Selîm and Midilli, sortied into the Black Sea, bombarded the port of Odessa and sank several Russian ships. The Ottomans refused an Allied demand to expel the German missions and on 31 October 1914, formally entered the war on the side of the Central Powers. Russia declared war on Turkey on 2 November, the next day the British ambassador left Constantinople and a British naval squadron off the Dardanelles bombarded the outer forts at Kum Kale and Seddulbahir. A shell hit a magazine, knocked the guns off their mounts and killed 86 soldiers. Britain and France declared war on 5 November and the Ottomans declared a jihad (holy war) later that month, beginning the Caucasus Campaign against the Russians, to regain former Turkish provinces. Fighting also began in Mesopotamia, following a British landing to occupy the oil facilities in the Persian Gulf. The Ottomans prepared to attack Egypt in early 1915, to occupy the Suez Canal and cut the Mediterranean route to British India and the Far East.
Allied strategy and the Dardanelles
By late 1914, the race to the sea in France, a war of manoeuvre, had ended and trench lines had been dug from the Swiss border to the English Channel. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary closed the overland trade routes between Britain and France in the west and Russia in the east. The White Sea in the Arctic and the Sea of Okhotsk in the Far East, were icebound in winter and distant from the Eastern Front. The Baltic Sea was blockaded by the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial German Navy) and the entrance to the Black Sea through the Dardanelles was controlled by the Ottoman Empire. While the empire remained neutral, trade with Russia continued but the straits were closed before the Ottomans went to war and in November mine laying was begun in the waterway.
Aristide Briand made a proposal in November, to attack the Ottoman Empire, which was rejected and an attempt by the British to pay the Ottomans to join the Allied side also failed. Later that month, Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, proposed a naval attack on the Dardanelles, based in part on erroneous reports of Ottoman troop strength. Churchill wanted to use a large number of obsolete battleships, which could not operate against the German High Seas Fleet, for an operation against the Dardanelles, with a small occupation force provided by the army. It was hoped that an attack on the Ottomans would also draw the former Ottoman territories of Bulgaria and Greece into the war, on the Allied side. On 2 January 1915, Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia appealed to Britain for assistance against the Ottomans, who were conducting an offensive in the Caucasus. Planning began for a naval demonstration in the Dardanelles to divert troops from the Caucasian theatre.
Prelude
Ottoman preparations
The naval operations in the Dardanelles ended with the failure on 18 March, to push a naval force through the straits, during which three battleships were sunk and four capital ships were severely damaged by naval mines laid along the Asiatic shore. Preparations began for a landing to help the navy neutralise the forts and batteries guarding the straits but the preparations in Egypt were not concealed, the French commander even spoke of it in an interview with an Alexandria newspaper. On 24 March, Enver Pasha the Ottoman Minister of War unified the military forces around the Dardanelles, under the command of Marshal Otto Liman von Sanders and the Fifth Army headquarters. On arrival at Gallipoli, Liman ordered that the garrisons in the peninsula be concentrated and the 5th and 7th divisions were moved to Bulair. The 9th Division was deployed in the southern part of the peninsula, from Suvla Bay to Sedd el Bahr and the 11th Division garrisoned the Asiatic shore (the 3rd Division was sent later as a reinforcement). Near Boghali, the 19th Division was stationed as a reserve, under the command of the 5th Army headquarters, ready to move to Bulair, Gaba Tepe or the Asiatic side according to developments.
Liman emphasised a policy of mobile defence by the divisions in the three defensive areas, rather than persist with the attempt to guard the coast with continuous defences and the redeployment was carried out by night, to evade scrutiny by Allied reconnaissance aircraft. The 9th Division under Colonel Halil Sami Bey, deployed its forces according to the new defence scheme, creating a northern zone from the mouth of Aghyl Dere, north of Ari Burnu to Semerly Tepe, occupied by the 27th Regiment and some mountain artillery and a southern zone from Semerly Tepe to Sedd el Bahr, garrisoned by the 26th Regiment. The 25th Regiment was placed in reserve on the Kilid Bahr plateau near Serafim Farm, able to intervene in either zone. In the northern defence zone, the 27th Regiment commander Lieutenant-Colonel Ali Chefik Bey put the 2nd Battalion on the coast, with two 120 mm guns at Gaba Tepe and two 150 mm guns further inland; the 1st and 3rd battalions were held in reserve near Maidos (until bombed on 23 April, after which they were moved to an area within 1.5 mi (2.4 km) of Gaba Tepe). In the southern defence zone, Lieutenant-Colonel Kadri Bey the 26th Regiment commander, created three battalion areas, a northern or "Kum Tepe sector" from Semerly Tepe to Sari Tepe occupied by the 1st Battalion, with three companies supported by a field battery on the coast and a company in reserve, with two 150 mm guns south of Gaba Tepe.
In the central "Krithia sector", the 2nd Battalion covered the area from Sari Tepe, to the mouth of Gully Ravine and from Sedd el Bahr to the mouth of Tenkir Dere. One company was placed on the Aegean coast and one near Morto Bay, the other two were put in reserve at Kanli Dere, south-east of Krithia at the regimental headquarters. On the west bank of Kereves Dere, a battery of 105 mm howitzers commanded the Straits. The "Sedd el Bahr sector" ran from Gully Beach to Sedd el Bahr. The area was held by the 3rd Battalion, 26th Regiment, with a company of engineers, working on the beach defences. One company guarded W Beach, a company was placed at Sedd el Bahr with four Maxim guns on high ground overlooking V Beach and two companies were in reserve on low ground north-west of Morto Bay; twelve men watched X Beach. At the three beaches where the British were to make large landings, there were two infantry companies and 4–6 machine-guns, with two infantry and one engineer company in reserve. On the Asiatic shore, the 3rd Division had two regiments near Troy and one from Kum Kale to Yeni Shehr; the 11th Division lay in reserve near Ezine, with detachments on either side of Besika Bay.
Allied plan
The purpose of the military operation was to assist the fleet to force the Straits, by taking from the rear the Ottoman forts on the European side of the Narrows and to obtain a vantage point, from which the forts on the Asiatic side could be dominated. The objective was the Kilitbahir plateau which covered the Ottoman forts in the Narrows and which ran in a semicircle most of the width of the peninsula, between Maidos and Soghanli Dere. The plateau ran from Kilitbahir westwards for about 4 mi (6.4 km) was about 2 mi (3.2 km) wide at its broadest point and 600–800 ft (180–240 m) high. The Ottomans had entrenched and wired the plateau and extended the fortifications south to Kakma Dagh ridge on the Straits and north to Gaba Tepe, forming a defensive line where the peninsula was 5 mi (8.0 km) wide and which dominated the Kilia plain to the south-west.
General Sir Ian Hamilton, commander of the MEF chose to make two landings with two diversions. The Anzac Corps would make a surprise landing between Gaba Tepe and Fisherman's Hut, with the covering force landing just before dawn, with no preliminary bombardment. After consolidating the left flank the force was to advance eastwards towards Maidos to cut Ottoman communications with the garrisons further south. On the Gallipoli peninsula on either side of Cape Helles, where the navy could provide support from three sides a covering force of the 86th Brigade and additional units would land and secure the beaches, then the main force would follow up and advance to the first day objectives, the village of Krithia and the hill of Achi Baba. Five beaches were selected for the landing, from east (inside the straits) to west (on the Aegean coast), S, V, W, X and Y beaches. V and W beaches were the main landings at the tip of the peninsula, either side of Cape Helles.