1915:05 Stalemate

 

By now both sides had come to a standstill. Neither would retreat and neither could move forward. They 'dug in' by building trenches at least two metres deep. They ate, slept, fought and died in those trenches.

 

A Field Of Daisies

 

On 5 May the New Zealand Infantry Brigade and the 2nd Australian Brigade were shipped to Helles to reinforce Hamilton's efforts to capture Achi Baba.

 

On 8 May, the New Zealanders and then the Australians attacked Cape Helles. The attack was again poorly planned and the Turkish soldiers, in their trenches, shot the attackers down as they advanced in broad daylight over the open fields of daisies.

 

Casualties were extremely high in covering the ground known as 'The Daisy Patch' and the three day operation, later designated the Second Battle of Krithia, cost the Allies 6500 men in gaining about half a kilometre of ground of no major significance. The "Kiwis" lost 800 men.

 

"They go forward whenever they are ordered although they know in many cases they are walking to their death."

   8/1039 Private Peter M Thompson, Otago Battalion

 

"The dead lay like stooks after the harvest."

Charlie Clark, Wellington Battalion

 

Armistice

 

As May dragged on, the ground around the trenches grew thick with the bodies of the dead men. The smell became sickening and unbearable.

 

"It was a smell that was with you all the time because you had dead bodies about all the time, it's a smell that you never lost. I can smell it still."
8/834 Private Henry B G Lewis, Otago Battalion

 

Eventually an agreement was made and a 'cease fire' was held on 24 May. Burial parties from both sides, mingled together, shared a cigarette, collected their wounded from 'no man's land', and buried their dead. When nine hours had passed, the communication stopped and shots rang out on the Gallipoli Peninsula once more.