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eight month campaign in Gallipoli was fought by Commonwealth and French
forces in an attempt to force Turkey out of the war, to relieve the
deadlock of the Western Front in France and Belgium, and to open a
supply route to Russia through the Dardanelles and the Black Sea.
The
Allies landed on the peninsula on 25-26 April 1915; the 29th Division at
Cape Helles in the south and the Australian and New Zealand Corps north
of Gaba Tepe on the west coast, an area soon known as Anzac. At Helles,
the 29th Division landed troops at 'S', 'V', 'W', 'X' and 'Y' Beaches,
five small coves at or near the southern end of the peninsula.
The
landing at 'V' Beach was to be made by boats containing three companies
of the 1st Royal Dublin Fusiliers, followed by the collier 'River Clyde'
with the rest of the Dublins, the 1st Royal Munster Fusiliers, half the
2nd Hampshire Regiment and other troops. The place was very strongly
fortified and heavy casualties were sustained during the landing.
On the
morning of 26 April, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Doughty-Wylie and
Captain Garth Walford led the survivors on the beach to the capture of
Sedd el Bahr village and the old castle above it. Both won the Victoria
Cross but were killed during the fight. (Captain Walford is buried at V
Beach, Colonel Doughty-Wylie is buried in an isolated grave on the spot
where he was killed).
That evening, the main body of the French Corps
began to land at 'V' Beach and after the following day, the front line
had advanced about three kilometres beyond it. The cemetery used during
April and May 1915 and a few further graves were brought in after the
Armistice for burial in Row O. There are now 696 servicemen of the First
World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery.
480 of the burials
are unidentified but special memorials commemorate 196 officers and men,
nearly all belonging to the units which landed on 25 April, known or
believed to be buried among them.
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