THE BATTLE OF KRITHIA, CAPES HELLES, DARDANELLES, GALLIPOLI

Pte Richard Glass (Lilydale), 5^th Battalion: Is wounded in action, gunshot wound to the thigh, and is evacuated from Cape Helles to hospital in Malta. In a letter to friends in Lilydale – ‘Our brigade left ten days after we landed to go to Gallipoli to assist the French and British troops there. We were told by our CO that on account of our good work at the first place we were given the honor of the centre attack in the general advance. I will not trouble you with the horrors of that advance. We started at about 10 o’clock in the morning; we got behind the last line of reserves early in the afternoon and entrenched ourselves. We thought that we must be going to act as reserves but about 4 or 5 o’clock we got the order to advance. We crossed three lines of reserve trenches full of men. I do not know why we advanced before them as they were in front of us. We suffered horribly in that advance. I got stopped about dusk and was carried back after dark to the marines’ trenches and from there to the first dressing station’.

Pte Lyndon Watt (Lilydale), 6^th Battalion: Is wounded in action, gunshot wound to left arm and forearm, and is evacuated from Anzac Cove to hospital in England. In a letter to his friends in Lilydale – ‘On the 8^th May we were told that our job was to take Krithia that night, at any cost. We moved off at 4pm and advanced nearly a mile under heavy fire. I had previously been in two glorious bayonet charges and was looking forward to a third. On, on, we went, rush after rush, till at last I could see our objective – a Turkish trench and Krithia. By this time, we had worked up to a high fever of madness. The fire through which we forced our way was terrific, not only coming from the front but the left also, and comrades were dropping all around us. We were just about to make another rush – it would have been the last – when my left arm got in the road of a Turkish bullet. I was never so wild in my life after getting so far and then to be put out of action without having a shot at the beggars’.

Pte Ralph Goode (Lilydale), 2^nd Field Ambulance: At Cape Helles. In his diary – ‘Moved up near the firing line. Our brigade went into the trenches this afternoon at 5.30pm, they charged the Turks, gained one thousand yards, but what slaughter. Goodness knows how many of our boys are left; we had to carry the wounded four miles during the night’.

Pte Felix Hargrave (Lilydale), 7^th Battalion:  At Cape Helles. In a letter to his sister in Lilydale – ‘I was in the bayonet charge at Cape Helles. A bullet bent and twisted the badge on my hat and another went through the crown of it; on another occasion I got one through the pocket of my tunic, clean through a packet of cigarettes. My poor old rifle which I brought from Australia was knocked out of my hand by a piece of shrapnel, which bent the barrel into the shape of the letter S. Talk about close calls – I could write a book about them’.

Pte Archie ‘Smiler’ Williams (Lilydale), 8^th Battalion: At Cape Helles. In a letter to a friend in Lilydale – ‘On Saturday 8^th May at 4.30am we moved forward to the attack passing over the firing line, occupied by the Naval Division. They cheered us till they were hoarse, for they had been hung up without relief for a week.

We then charged about 500 yds in face of a deadly hail of shrapnel, machine gun and rifle fire. One of my comrades remarked ‘will we ever get out of this! Hell is turned inside out!’ We formed a new firing line 500 yards further on and dug in there. We were in the trenches we formed till Tuesday, May 11, and had a hard time for two days through scarcity of food and water and very little sleep, until supplies could be brought to us at midnight on Tuesday, when we were relieved by the Manchesters’.

Dvr Richard Pendlebury (Seville), 2^nd Field Artillery Brigade: Letter written to his brother George from Gallipoli – ‘My mate Billy Jew is missing. He was in a charge down at Cape Helles, and is posted as missing in the camp. His battalion, the 5th, gave the Turks a horrible scare. They charged right over the English and Indian trenches, then dug themselves in 600 yds further on but Billy did not come back’.

Lt William McLeod (Lilydale), 5^th Battalion: Is killed in action in the attack on the village of Krithia. He is 30 years old and is buried at the British Commonwealth War Cemetery at Cape Helles.

Cpl William Aicher (Mt Evelyn), 6^th Battalion: Is killed in action in the attack on the village of Krithia. He is 23 years old and is buried at the British Commonwealth War Cemetery at Cape Helles. He is the first from Mt Evelyn to die in the war.

Pte Herbert Read (Seville), 6^th Battalion: Is wounded in action, bullet wound to his left eye and ear, and is evacuated to hospital in England where he would lose the sight in his left eye. In a letter written to his sister Florence: ‘I had a fortnight at it hot and strong, and pitched over a few…It is wonderful how we shifted the Turks out of the rough area, nothing but hills and gullies…I suppose that you have heard by this that I got cracked on the 8 of May. The bullet cut my eyebrow and went into the corner of my eye and came out just above my ear, the left eye and ear. All of us that got hit was dressed, put on a boat and brought here’.

Pte Richard Grossman (Mt Dandenong), 7^th Battalion: Is wounded in action, bullet wound to the right foot, and is evacuated from Anzac Cove to hospital on Cyprus.

Pte William Long (Silvan), 8^th Battalion: Is landed at Anzac Cove with his regiment and moved up into the front line trenches.