One hundred years ago today the 10th (Irish) Division landed at Suvla Bay in Gallipoli. Its 17,000 men were mostly volunteers who had signed up at the outbreak of the First World War and were drawn from all communities and social classes in Ireland.
A dispatch from Captain Poole Hickman, the officer commanding D Company of the 7th Royal Dublin Fusiliers, which was published in The Irish Times three weeks after the initial landings, shows how the division suffered terribly at Suvla Bay.
D Company, known as the "toffs in the toughs", was drawn from the middle classes. Captain Hickman, a 35-year old barrister from Knock, Co Clare died on August 15th, 1915, a day after writing his dispatch.
Within six weeks the 239 men from D company who went ashore in Gallipoli were reduced to 79.
Captain Poole Hickman, August 14th, 1915, Gallipoli: Our first two boats, consisting of A and C Companies, started landing at 5.50am (on the morning of August 7th, 1915) but did not get ashore without mishap, as shrapnel struck the boat, killing one man and wounding eleven.
At about 8am we commenced a general advance. It was allotted to us, and to another Irish regiment, to take a certain hill which was exactly three and a half miles from where we landed.
We had not advanced 100 yards when we were greeted with a perfect hail of shrapnel. And shrapnel is not a pleasant thing. You hear a whistle through the air, then a burst, and everything within a space of 200 yards by 100 yards from where shrapnel burst is liable to be hit. The wounds inflicted are dreadful – deep, big irregular gashes, faces battered out of recognition, limbs torn away.
The enemy guns had got the range to a yard and a tornado of high explosives and shrapnel swept the place. Your only chance was to start immediately after a burst and run as fast as you could across this place as there was some cover at the other side.
The heat was intense and the going very heavy. We advanced in long lines with two paces between each man and about eight such lines altogether at the start.
About three o’clock in the afternoon we were within 600 yards of the hill which was fairly high – a network of trenches and sides covered with furze and thorny scrub, which afforded cover from view.
A and D Companies, led by Major Harrison, took the hill at the point of the bayonet, the Turks fleeing in all directions. It was a magnificent performance and we have been personally congratulated on it. We called the hill Fort Dublin.
Our casualties were over 100 including Major Tippett, shot dead and Lieutenant Julian who has, I hear, since died. D Company lost 22 altogether, but only one killed outright though I am afraid some of the others will not recover.
It was just dusk when the hill fell and then we had to go and get water for men who were parched with the thirst.
At 1.30 on Sunday morning I eat a biscuit which was my first food since breakfast the previous morning. The enemy counterattacked during the night but were easily driven off.
All Sunday morning and afternoon a furious fight was going on on the ridge to our right where our forces had the advantage. Meanwhile all day shrapnel and high explosives were spoiling our day’s rest and the place was full of snipers.
These snipers are the very devil. If you put your head up at all, bullets whizz past you. They are up trees, in furze and every conceivable hiding place, and it is very hard to spot them.
On Monday there was a tremendous fight for the hill on our left by an English division. The brigade on the right ran out of ammunition and D Company was called upon to supply them. I sent 40 men under Captain Tobin to bring up 20,000 rounds to the support, and took 80 men myself with 40,000 rounds.
One of my best sergeants, Edward Millar, was killed. He died gallantly and his name has been sent forward for recognition.
Our Company’s casualties amounted to 40 out of 188 men landed on Saturday morning. I forgot to say that we discarded our packs at the landing and have never seen them again and all this time we never had even our boots off, a shave, or a wash, as even the dirtiest water was greedily drunk on the hill where the sun’s rays beat pitilessly down all day long, and where the rotting corpses of the Turks created a damnably offensive smell. That is one of the worst features here, unburied bodies and flies, but the details are more gruesome than my pen could depict.
Taken from the eBook 'Twas Better to Die - The Irish Times and Gallipoli 1915-2015, published by Irish Times Books. Available to subscribers and on Amazon and Kindle, priced €4.99. For more information, go to: www.irishtimes.com/more/ebooks See also Clare and the Great War by Joe Power, published by The History Press.
