1915:04 The Landing

 

On 24 April, the Fleet sailed from the island of Lemnos for the Turkish coast.

 

The 1st Australian Division landed before dawn on 25 April 1915 on the wrong beach. The Royal Navy had blundered and landed them 3 kilometres to the north of the planned landing place. Instead of low plain, they were confronted with a mad tangle of cliffs and ravines that completely disorganised the Australians.

 

The first New Zealanders hit the beach at 10.00am and immediately came under attack. Men from the Auckland Infantry Battalion and later the Canterbury Infantry Battalion were tasked to reinforce the Australians on 'Baby 700'.

 

Few reached Baby 700. The ground was steep and the men made little progress against the outnumbered but brave and determined Turks.

 

"I have often been through hail and snow storms but these lead storms were the limit" 

      3/84 Private Roland Chadwick, NZ Medical Corps

 

On the beach of Anzac Cove (as it would become known), it was chaos. The wounded were evacuated by ship, often with no doctors or medical supplies on board.

 

"The carnage was indescribable. Many were gunned down while still in the water. Corpses lay in rows on the sand or half way up the cliffs, men lay about cut, bleeding and dying...
That night on Anzac beach conditions were worsened by a steady drizzle which chilled the [troops] as they stumbled among the scores of wounded lying on the beach."  
Unknown Gallipoli Survivor

 

Commanders of the Anzac Force wanted to evacuate but Sir Ian Hamilton refused. "Dig, dig, dig until you are safe."

 

Some 3100 New Zealanders landed on that first 'Anzac Day' and it is estimated there were 600 - 700 casualties with over 150 men killed. The Anzacs occupied 400 acres on an unhospitable coast, two ridges and the gullies between. Nowhere were they safe from Turkish fire.

 

The first news that the New Zealand public received was of 'success'. It was only later that the trickle of casualties grew into a constant flow of dead and wounded which would fill the daily papers with faces of New Zealand's cost.