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Military History Group U3A Dorking Newsletter Number 6

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14 January 2021 Military History Group U3A Dorking Newsletter Number 6 Meetings via Zoom during Pandemic From Group Leader Barrie Friend Parish Notes Fellow enthusiasts Greetings and good hopes for a speedy permanent change in direction of those wretched Covid graphs as we remain sensibly isolated and the vaccine’s effect starts to show. Our monthly talks will continue on Zoom for a little while longer yet and we will be introducing more guest speakers. Our January Zoom talk was well attended by over forty members and guests. You gave our first guest speaker, Mike Smith, a warm welcome and positive comments on his talk on The Battle of Gallipoli 1915/16. One of the guests invited to hear the talk was Mike Fox, U3A’s Military History Advisor, and member of the U3A Banstead group. 1 He has sent a link to his talk on Arnhem which includes errors in the film A Bridge too Far: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTUC79o4Kmc We look forward to his support in the coming months. Another guest invited was our speaker’s cousin, Valerie Steele, who lives in New Zealand showing the reach of Zoom as a powerful communication tool. Maybe Dorking U3A can claim to be the first British U3A group which has a New Zealand ‘Chapter’? New Zealand has some 84 U3A groups across both North and South Islands and viewing their website www.u3a.nz makes for extremely interesting reading. In The Great War the troops from New Zealand were described as ‘coming from the furthest ends of the earth’ to fight for king and country and further support came from Britain’s other colonies and dominions. Without the help of these countries the British Expeditionary Forces at Gallipoli and the Western Front would have suffered severe setbacks. The statistics are eye opening. 12% British population, some 5.7 million, served in the war. The colonies and dominions supplied a further 3 million, increasing the British figure by nearly 50% . 8.5% of the Australian population and 12% of the New Zealand population served. 18,000 New Zealand troops were killed, 60,000 Australians. Their memorials and headstones remain sad reminders on the Western Front and Gallipoli. The story of the Australians and New Zealanders were included in Mike Smith’s talk on Gallipoli, the first battle for the ANZACs. This talk is now available Dorking U3A YouTube. Our next Zoom talk is on Tuesday 2nd February at 1030 am. Was the Royal Navy ‘Invincible’ in 1914? Find out the truth behind this headline in George Blundell- Pound’s talk. Our Royal Navy ‘ruled the waves’ but lost its first battle against the Imperial German Navy in November 1914 at Coronel, off the Chilean coast. Five weeks later the tables were turned at the Battle of The Falklands. It’s all in George’s talk! MH Zoom Meeting Time: Feb 2, 2021 10:30 AM London Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/94980775518?pwd=Vnk3Ukt0TGJlT1JSYVAyaFpIZ1UyQT09 Meeting ID: 949 8077 5518 Passcode: 247543 2 Programme for 2021 February 2 Was the Royal Navy ‘Invincible’ in 1914? George Blundell- Pound’s March 3 Jim Barnes April 6 May 4 June 8 July 6 August 3 September 7 Zoom Presentations https://www.danhillmilitaryhistorian.com/archive DARDANELLES / GALLIPOLI February 1915 to January 1916 Michael Smith – January Zoom presentation to MHG YouTube link to Mike's talk: https://youtu.be/ExmfxReZ9gI Recurring and enduring perceptions of this campaign in the Great War include: • It was an unmitigated disaster for the Allies • It was the sole idea & responsibility of Winston Churchill, as First Lord of the Admiralty • The greatest contribution was by the ANZACs (Australia & New Zealand Army Corps), who were under incompetent British field officers • Mustafa Kemal’s (later Ataturk) leadership was largely responsible for the Ottoman Victory • The only successful aspect from the Allies side was the evacuation Mike Smith’s presentation sought to review and re consider the above, as well as the chronology of the campaign. Germany’s strategy for the Great war (mainly the Schlieffen Plan) was to NOT be fighting on two fronts. To this end it would firstly, quickly knock out France 3 in the West, then using its railway network move its army to the East to fight the real threat: Russia, which would take much longer to fully mobilise than the French. There is some argument that when the Germans failed to capture Paris (the miracle of the Marne, etc) in 1914, it would then inevitably eventually lose the war, as it was then destined to fight on two fronts Britain’s role in this early part of the war was to dominate the seas and blockade Germany with its huge Navy; contributing only a small army force (The BEF) to help Belgium & France. The Ottomans were seen as a collapsing empire, “The Sick Man of Europe “(by 1914 they had lost almost all of their European possessions) and perceived as a soft touch for circling predatory powers (Russia, France, Britain. Germany and its Central Powers allies naturally wanted the Ottomans as allies. As early as 3 November 1914 Churchill ordered a Naval attack on the Dardanelles (2 British Battle cruisers & 2 French Battleships). The 20-minute bombardment was to test the Ottoman defences and of course alerted the defenders to strengthen their defences and lay more sea minefields. The Ottomans declared war on the Allies on 11 Nov 1914 and the defences of the Dardanelles/ Gallipoli were under the direction of senior officers from Germany (General Otto Liman von Sanders). With the strategic situation in Europe in stalemate in winter 1914/1915 a new front using part of Britain’s huge Navy (which had been engaged in relatively small battles, while waiting for German Navy to try to break out of port into the North Sea) to mount a Naval attack through the Dardanelles to capture Constantinople ( Istanbul ) thereby allowing supplies through the Black Sea to help keep struggling Russia in the War seemed like a god plan….to some . 4 The Navy, however, was not over enthusiastic and part grudgingly allocated a rather second division pre dreadnought fleet, in addition to the modern battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth, Battlecruiser HMS Inflexible and the world’s first seaplane carrier: HMS Ark Royal. The fleet set sail with contingents from Britain, France, Russia & Australia. Long range bombardment of the Ottoman forts guarding the Dardanelles started on 19 February 1915 and the attempt to sail through the narrow would be made on 18 March 1915. The Dardanelles are 38 miles long and 1500 metres wide at narrowest point, heavily defended by gun emplacements and multiple ranks of sea minefields. The fleet losses were the highest since Trafalgar and the decision was made to withdraw. The failure was attributed to gross underestimation of Ottoman/ German defences, outdated fleet, failure to realise extent of minefields (despite use of Scout planes), accurate fire from stable land-based howitzers and lack of aggressive follow through. The invasion plan was revised and it was decided to deploy a Combined Operations assault by the Navy, the Army and a few aircraft. The army’s role would be to knock out the forts allowing the Navy to sail through the Dardanelles, capture Istanbul and so on, as before (note Army to enable Navy: not to invade Gallipoli, as such) The British army contingent contained only one regular division: the 29th under Lt Gen Aylmer Hunter-Weston, who Douglas Haig had described as “ rank amateur” ) and a three Gurkha battalions, all the rest of the Army , including the ANZACS ( who were ALL volunteers) were basically recently recruited “ Citizens soldiers”, who had never been in battle & were scarcely trained. The Navy was to land the Army at several beaches: the French on the Asian side, the main force on five beaches at Helles Point in the South of Gallipoli and the Anzacs further north on the European side. There was also a feint towards Bulair from Skyros (where the Germans had initially expected the amphibious assault was to take place) 5 There was not the slightest element of secrecy or surprise The targets for the first day were capture of the town of Krithia and the heights of Achi Baba by the main force and the heights of Gaba Tepe by the ANZACs. A brief summary of the Cape Helles beaches: “S” beach:2/South Wales Borderers: Largest beach; smallest force; almost no opposition: a complete success “V” beach: the main landing force (1/Royal Munster Fusiliers; 1/ Royal Dublin Fusiliers & 2/ Hampshires) from converted collier SS River Clyde. Very heavily opposed, small beach surrounded by high cliffs. Very heavy British casualties (1,200). 6 “W” beach (aka “the Lancashire landing”). Men of the 1/ Lancs Fusiliers were awarded the famous Six VCs before breakfast. Very well defended, but British had firm hold after 533 casualties “X” beach 2/ Royal Fusiliers: almost no opposition “Y” beach 1/ Kings Own Scottish Borderers: landed unopposed; a British officer strolled into Krithia & bought some fruit. “Z” Beach (aka Ari Burnu/ Gaba Tepe / later called ANZAC Cove) Troops landed north of intended landing area (various reasons cited) but this, at least, meant that landings were only lightly opposed and almost all of the 16,00 were able to make their way inland: to then face fierce, mainly trench based, opposition. 7 Again, the plan was to take & hold the high ground, but again this largely failed due to underestimating Ottoman opposition & numbers who were fighting from the high ground and on their homeland soil. In the south the French, who had made only 7 km progress on the Asian side crossed back over the strait and joined the British in three major assaults to attempt capture Krithia, and Achi Baba (28 April; 6-8 May and 4 June): remember this had been planned to be done on first day: April 25th In addition to the above listed causes of failure could be added: inadequate artillery and disease accounting for 50% of casualties.
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