page_title: Landing at Cape Helles
section_title: Covering force
hierarchical_section_title: Landing at Cape Helles / Battle / W Beach (Lancashire Landing) / Covering force
caption_attribution_description: Lancashire Fusiliers of the 125th Brigade, 42nd (East Lancashire) Division, bound for Cape Helles, Gallipoli, May 1915. The soldiers have just disembarked aboard Trawler 318 from the transport SS Nile, from the deck of which the photo was taken.
context_page_description: The landing at Cape Helles was part of the amphibious invasion of 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 the support of the guns of the Royal Navy, the 29th Division was to advance six miles along the peninsula on the first day and seize the heights of Achi Baba. The British were then to go on 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 and 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 landings at other sites were not exploited. Although the British managed to gain a foothold ashore, their plans were in disarray.
context_section_description: W Beach lay on the coast to the north-west of Cape Helles, just south of Tekke Burnu, the site of a small gully. An infantry company from the 3rd Battalion of the 26th Regiment defended the beach, which was about 350 yards (320 m) long and from fifteen–forty yards (14–37 m) wide, with steep cliffs at the ends and a relatively easy approach over sand dunes in the centre, to a ridge with a view of the sea. The Ottomans had mined the beach and laid extensive barbed wire entanglements, including one along the shore and trip wires just under the surface of the water, a few yards offshore. Trenches on the high ground overlooked the beach and two machine-guns were hidden in the cliffs, to cover the wire in enfilade. The ridge beyond the centre of the beach was commanded by entrenchments on higher ground to the north-east and south-west and 600 yards (550 m) away lay one of two redoubts close to Hill 138, both extensively wired and behind slopes with no cover. Another barbed-wire entanglement ran from the southern redoubt to the cliffs near a lighthouse which blocked an advance from W Beach towards V Beach.
  The 1st Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers were embarked in the cruiser Euryalus and the battleship HMS Implacable, which took up positions off the beach. The troops transferred to thirty-two cutters at about 4:00 a.m. and Euryalus closed in on the beach at around 5:00 a.m. An hour later, the six tows from Euryalus sailed towards the shore, in line abreast at 50 yards (46 m) intervals, the tows from Implacable to the left. As the tows reached to within 50 yards (46 m) of the shore they were cast off and the sailors in the cutters began to row. The shore had been silent but as the first boat landed, Ottoman small-arms fire swept the British and caused many casualties. Euryalus and HMS Swiftsure lifted their bombardment ten minutes before the British landed and the Ottoman infantry had been able to emerge from cover. The survivors jumped from the cutters and tried to rush ashore but many leapt into deep water and sank under the weight of their equipment. The preliminary bombardment had not cut the wire along the shore and the surviving Fusiliers were fired on from three sides as they cut the wire or crawled underneath. A witness later wrote:
  It appeared as if the whole battalion must be wiped out. The wire on the beach was intact and to those watching anxiously from the Euryalus the situation appeared hopeless. It looked as each man was shot down as he left his boat.
  — Colonel Wolley-Dod
  Small parties of Fusiliers got through the entanglement, reached the dunes behind the shore and captured the trenches beyond. Some of the tows from Implacable diverted towards the north side of the bay and landed unopposed. A small party climbed the cliff and occupied a trench on the top, drove off an Ottoman counter-attack and then engaged the Ottoman troops on the northern flank of the beach. Ottoman small-arms fire against the main landing began to diminish after a trench was hit by heavy shells from offshore; the Fusiliers cut more paths through the wire and attacked the cliff at the south end of the beach. Naval observers could see the trenches on the cliff top and as the British attacked the ships were
  raking the ground with shells, and the Turks were also killed by the hundreds as they retreated.
  — Travers
  By 7:15 a.m., the British had got far enough inland to deny the Ottomans observation over the area. On the northern flank, Brigadier-General Hare and the others who had outflanked the Ottoman defences to the north, advanced towards X Beach but after 200 yards (180 m) were engaged from Hill 114 and Hare was wounded. The second wave of tows had landed with few losses at around 7:30 a.m. and prepared to attack Hill 138 with the survivors of the first wave. An inaccurate map caused delay as Hill 138 turned out to have another crest 400 yards (370 m) to the south-west crowned with another redoubt. During the landing, compasses, binoculars and watches had been soaked which added to the confusion. Two parties attacked the redoubts but were
caption: A boat carrying Lancashire Fusiliers, bound for Gallipoli. Photo by Ernest Brooks.
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