The Third Battle of Krithia (Turkish

Turkish language

Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...

: Kirte), fought on the Gallipoli peninsula during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, was the final in a series of Allied attacks against the Ottoman defences aimed at capturing the original objectives of 25 April 1915. The previous failures in the first

First Battle of Krithia

The First Battle of Krithia was the first Allied advance of the Battle of Gallipoli during the First World War. Starting at Helles on 28 April, three days after the initial landings, the attack broke down due to poor leadership and planning, lack of communications and exhaustion and demoralisation...

 and second

Second Battle of Krithia

The Second Battle of Krithia continued the Allies' attempts to advance on the Helles battlefield during the Battle of Gallipoli of the First World War. The village of Krithia and neighbouring hill of Achi Baba had to be captured in order for the British to advance up the Gallipoli peninsula to the...

 battles resulted in a less ambitious plan being developed for the attack, but the outcome was another costly failure for the Allies. The allied aim was, as always to facilitate the capture of Alçı Tepe (Achi Baba

Achi Baba

Achi Baba is a height dominating the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey.Achi Baba was the main position of the Ottoman Turkish defenses in 1915 during the World War I Gallipoli campaign.-References:...

) which commanded most of the peninsula.

Prelude

By late May, the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 contingent on the Cape Helles

Cape Helles

Cape Helles is the rocky headland at the south-westernmost tip of the Gallipoli peninsula, Turkey. It was the scene of heavy fighting between Turkish and British troops during the landing at Cape Helles at the beginning of the Gallipoli Campaign in 1915....

 front at Gallipoli had been expanded to three division

Division (military)

A division is a large military unit or formation usually consisting of between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, and in turn several divisions typically make up a corps...

 and a brigade

Brigade

A brigade is a major tactical military formation that is typically composed of two to five battalions, plus supporting elements depending on the era and nationality of a given army and could be perceived as an enlarged/reinforced regiment...

: the 29th Division (which had made the original landing), the Royal Naval Division (now reinforced to 12 battalion

Battalion

A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...

s), the 42nd (East Lancashire) Division and the 29th India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n Brigade. On 24 May, the commander of the 29th Division, Major General

Major General

Major general or major-general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. A major general is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the ranks of brigadier and brigadier general...

 Aylmer Hunter-Weston

Aylmer Hunter-Weston

Lieutenant-General Sir Aylmer Gould Hunter-Weston KCB DSO GStJ was a British Army general who served in World War I at Gallipoli and the Somme Offensive...

, was promoted to lieutenant general

Lieutenant General

Lieutenant General is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages where the title of Lieutenant General was held by the second in command on the battlefield, who was normally subordinate to a Captain General....

 and given command of the British VIII Corps containing all British units at Helles. Major General Beauvoir De Lisle

Beauvoir De Lisle

General Sir Henry de Beauvoir De Lisle KCB KCMG DSO was a British Army General who served in World War I.-Military career:...

 took over command of the 29th Division.

The early battles at Helles had been fought over thinly fortified ground, but by late May two lines of trenches had begun to demarcate the battlefield. The British, in readiness for a new offensive, had been advancing their front line by stealth during the night, eventually gaining half a mile in ground while incurring only slight casualties and placing themselves within striking distance of the Ottoman front line.

The French contingent at Helles occupied the right (eastern side) of the line along the Dardanelles

Dardanelles

The Dardanelles , formerly known as the Hellespont, is a narrow strait in northwestern Turkey connecting the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara. It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with its counterpart the Bosphorus. It is located at approximately...

 shore and astride the Kereves Spur. They were confronted by some of the strongest Ottoman defences, dominated by four redoubts. On 31 May, they managed to capture one of the redoubts but repeated attempts to take Haricot Redoubt failed making any advance on that front without overwhelming artillery

Artillery

Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...

 support a hazardous proposition.

The artillery situation at Helles, as at Anzac Cove

Anzac Cove

Anzac Cove is a small cove on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey. It became famous as the site of World War I landing of the ANZAC on April 25, 1915. The cove is a mere long, bounded by the headlands of Ari Burnu to the north and Little Ari Burnu, known as Hell Spit, to the south...

, remained perilous. The British had only 78 guns and howitzer

Howitzer

A howitzer is a type of artillery piece characterized by a relatively short barrel and the use of comparatively small propellant charges to propel projectiles at relatively high trajectories, with a steep angle of descent...

s and were still short of ammunition. When the battleship

Battleship

A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...

  was sunk on 25 May and another battleship——sunk on 27 May, both torpedo

Torpedo

The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...

ed, the situation worsened as the naval gunfire support was reduced. Those ships that remained in support could only fire while steaming at 12 kn (14.6 mph; 23.5 km/h), which did nothing to aid their accuracy.

The plan

Hunter-Weston's previous battle plans lacked subtlety or sense, and he had been unerring in his failure. For the latest attempt on Krithia, some elements of refinement had begun to appear in the plans. For one, General Sir Ian Hamilton, the commander of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force

Mediterranean Expeditionary Force

The Mediterranean Expeditionary Force was part of the British Army during World War I, that commanded all Allied forces at Gallipoli and Salonika. This included the initial naval operation to force the straits of the Dardanelles. Its headquarters was formed in March 1915...

, insisted that the objectives should be limited to an advance of 800 yd (731.5 m). This was to be made in two steps: the first step was to capture the Turkish trenches; the second was to advance a further 500 yd (457.2 m) and establish a new trench line.

The preliminary bombardment would also have two phases. The first bombardment would conclude at 11:20, at which point the British troops would feint an advance, hoping to draw the Turks to the firing line so that they would be caught in a second bombardment starting at 11:30.

The other innovation of the third battle was the use of eight armour

Armour

Armour or armor is protective covering used to prevent damage from being inflicted to an object, individual or a vehicle through use of direct contact weapons or projectiles, usually during combat, or from damage caused by a potentially dangerous environment or action...

ed cars of the Royal Naval Air Service

Royal Naval Air Service

The Royal Naval Air Service or RNAS was the air arm of the Royal Navy until near the end of the First World War, when it merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps to form a new service , the Royal Air Force...

 which were to advance along the main Krithia road in support of the Royal Naval Division's advance.

The disposition of the Allied troops from left to right (west to east) was as follows:

• On the left of the line (western side) by the Aegean
  Aegean Sea
  The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
  
   shore, the 29th Indian Brigade and the 1st Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers
  Lancashire Fusiliers
  The Lancashire Fusiliers was a British infantry regiment that was amalgamated with other Fusilier regiments in 1968 to form the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.- Formation and early history:...
  
   (from the 29th Division) would attack along Gully Spur and Gully Ravine.
• The 29th Division would attack beside Gully Ravine on the left side of Fir Tree Spur.
• The 42nd Division would attack on the right side of Fir Tree Spur to Kirte Dere.
• The Royal Naval Division would attack up Achi Baba Nullah (also known as Kanli Dere or Bloody Valley), supported by the armoured cars on Krithia Spur.
• The French would attack on the right along Kereves Spur.

The battle

The attack began at noon on 4 June, when the last bombardment ended. There was pause in bombardment to pull Ottomans back into trenches who were further decimated there by the renewal of the bombardment. Ottoman losses were around 6,000 on that first day.

On the left, the attack of the Indian Brigade was quickly halted except along the Aegean shore where the 1/6th Battalion of the Gurkha

Gurkha

Gurkha are people from Nepal who take their name from the Gorkha District. Gurkhas are best known for their history in the Indian Army's Gorkha regiments, the British Army's Brigade of Gurkhas and the Nepalese Army. Gurkha units are closely associated with the kukri, a forward-curving Nepalese knife...

 Rifles managed to advance. The 14th Battalion of King George's Own Ferozepore Sikh

Sikh

A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism. It primarily originated in the 15th century in the Punjab region of South Asia. The term "Sikh" has its origin in Sanskrit term शिष्य , meaning "disciple, student" or शिक्ष , meaning "instruction"...

s Regiment, advancing along the floor of Gully Ravine, were almost wiped out, losing 380 men out of 514 and 80% of their officers.

The 2nd Battalion of the Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

 Regiment from the 29th Division, advancing along Fir Tree Spur alongside Gully Ravine, managed to advance but having lost contact with the Sikhs on their left were forced to defend along the bank of the ravine as well as to their front. Elsewhere, the 29th Division advance was held up with heavy casualties by Ottoman strongpoints that had survived the bombardment unscratched.

The advance of the 42nd Division was, by Gallipoli standards, very successful, quickly reaching the first objective of the Ottoman trenches and moving beyond to advance a total of 1000 yd (914.4 m). This attack was made by the 127th (Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

) Brigade which broke through the Ottoman 9th Division's defences and captured 217 prisoners.

The Royal Naval Division's advance was led by the 2nd Naval Brigade which managed to reach and capture the Ottoman trenches. When the second wave—the Collingwood

Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood

Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood was an admiral of the Royal Navy, notable as a partner with Lord Nelson in several of the British victories of the Napoleonic Wars, and frequently as Nelson's successor in commands.-Early years:Collingwood was born in Newcastle upon Tyne...

 Battalion—attempted to continue the advance, they were caught in enfilade fire from Kereves Dere to the right where the French advance had failed. The battalion, one of the newly arrived reinforcements, was utterly annihilated and was never reformed. Further attempts to reach the second objective were successful, but the position was untenable, so within a couple of hours the RND units had retreated to their starting positions.

With the main attack decided—success for the 42nd Division in the centre, failure everywhere else—Hunter-Weston considered how to deploy his reserves. If he was to exploit the success in the centre, there was the potential to set the Ottoman flanks to flight but also the danger of creating a vulnerable salient. He decided to reinforce the flanks and renew that attack; however, the French insisted they were unable to continue the offensive so any further advances by the Royal Naval Division in Achi Baba Nullah were abandoned. Further attacks along Gully Spur and Gully Ravine failed.

At 16:00, Hunter-Weston ordered for the troops to dig in and consolidate their positions; however, this coincided with the Ottoman reserves counter-attacking against the Manchester Brigade in the centre. Within one hour, the brigade was under attack from three sides so was eventually ordered to withdraw. By the end of the battle, their new front line was a mere 200–250 yd (182.9–228.6 m) in front of their start line, passing through a patch of vines that earned the area the name of 'The Vineyard' which was to be the site of heavy fighting in August.

Aftermath

The objectives of the third battle of Krithia had been more realistic than the previous attempts, but it ended in failure all the same with only small gains in ground. Both sides were severely stretched following the battle. If the British had the troops to resume the attack on the following day, the Ottomans believed they would not have been able to hold.

As it was, when the Ottomans launched a counter-attack against the 29th Division at the Vineyard on 6 June, the British came close to breaking. Second Lieutenant

Second Lieutenant

Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...

 G.R.D Moor

George Raymond Dallas Moor

George Raymond Dallas Moor VC, MC & Bar was a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces....

 of the 2nd Battalion, the Hampshire Regiment was awarded the Victoria Cross

Victoria Cross

The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....

for stemming the retreat of his battalion by shooting four of his own men.