Unforgotten past

On vessels such as the River Clyde and the Aquatania were thousands upon thousands of Hampshire troops from the 2nd Battalion, The Hampshire Regiment and the 8th battalion Hampshire regiment (including The Princess Beatrice Isle of Wight Rifles) ready to fight for their country, and, in short, change the tide of that bloody war.

The River Clyde, manned by the Royal Navy, grounded without a tremor 40 yards from the beach; a beach the men on board knew only as "V".

Smaller boats loaded with troops were lowered into the still waters and headed for the silent and apparently deserted beach.

Within seconds the sea erupted into a foaming mass, as if lashed by whips, as the hidden Turkish machine guns opened fire on the helpless troops packed shoulder to shoulder in the boats.

Back-up troops using a bridging gap to meet the shore fell in heaps as they ran for cover. The living continually took the place of the dead, only to die within a few steps themselves, never getting to the shore. After a time the waves lapping the shore were red, tinged with the blood of these young soldiers who'd been so eager to do their bit for the campaign.

Amazingly there were those who reached the shore. Stumbling over the still warm bodies of their fellow men, weighed down by 200 rounds of ammunition, full packs, haversacks and three days of iron rations all totalling more than 84lb they waded through the blood-soaked waters, dodging artillery fire to reach the tenuous safety of the sand dunes.

They gained a strip of beach, only a few yards of bullet-whipped sand, but they held it until darkness came again - and with it reinforcements.

It was this same unit that fought till the bitter end though reduced time after time to less than a skeleton of a full battalion.

Slowly they clawed their way forward, advancing from the beaches into the teeth of the enemy guns.

For weeks on end they were called upon to launch attack after attack.

Short of artillery support, depleted in numbers, weakened by illness, tired by days and days without sleep, lice-ridden and unwashed, sniped at constantly by machine-gun fire. That was the life of every British, Australian and New Zealand soldier who managed to survive, for eight long months.

At times battalions which sailed to the Dardanelles over 800-strong were reduced to a token force of 100 or so.

Four chapters of CT Atkinson's History of the Royal Hampshire Regiment are devoted to Gallipoli, illustrating how the Hampshires never once lost their nerve or will to fight on.

In fact, it says that so high was their morale and standard of discipline in the face of the most horrific casualties and all the horror of the battle spread out before them that when the evacuation was ordered they were picked to be the last regiment to leave Suvla Bay.

So skillfully did they do it that in the final stages only 40 men, one to every 30 yards of the front line, were left. When they crept out to make for the shore and the boats, their rifles still fired towards the Turks.

The Turks were completely "hood-winked'' and the evacuation of Suvla was completed on December 20 without loss.

After this successful mission - if it could be called that - the Hampshires were ordered to re-embark from Imbros on December 22 and land again at Cape Helles to take over the trenches in order to secretly evacuate them.

Once more the 2nd Battalion outwitted the enemy and all got away by destroyer.

Many acts of gallantry were performed by the Hampshire soldiers. Some were recognised with decorations but many more went unnoticed and unrewarded.

Two other Hampshire regiments, the 8th and the 10th, were also heavily engaged in the fighting. They were thrown into the fight when all their chances of success had all but vanished.

Had it succeeded, the attack on Gallipoli would have been a masterstroke which would have had a significant influence on the length of the First World War.

However, it did not succeed, and in fighting as severe as anything experienced in France and Flanders during the whole of the war the Allies suffered some 250,000 casualties, the vast majority of whom were British, mainly of the Hampshire regiments.

On April 25 every year the battle at Gallipoli is remembered and the memories of those who died saluted.

Gallipoli Day is better known to millions across the world as Anzac Day - and in history books the world over the battle on these blood-soaked shores is as legendary as the war itself.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.