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The Graveyards of Gallipoli; A Digger History Associate Site |
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A Tribute to the Men of all the Nations that took part in the Gallipoli Campaign of 1915 |
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Allied Air Forces (& Armoured Cars) at Gallipoli |
| In one of those great conundrums that only the Brits understand the only "armour" at Gallipoli was operated by the Royal Naval Air Service. These armoured cars (Rolls Royce) were there but not very useful, there were almost no roads. | |
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Headstone of F/1466 Petty Officer (Mechanical) E R Scott, Armoured Car Division Royal Naval Air Service 25 September 1915, Pink Farm Cemetery Gallipoli |
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| Photo from The War Illustrated, 7 August 1915. Caption reads: Crude garage of the iron war-horse. This photograph shows how armoured cars are hidden from Turkish observation posts. The value of such weapons on Gallipoli, where there are no roads to speak of, must be rather questionable, though armoured cars have rendered great service to the Allies in France and Flanders. | |
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Gallipoli Peninsula,
Turkey. 1915.
A 'home made' gun carriage which can be placed behind a fast motor. It was constructed by the men of the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) Wing based on Tenedos Island, which took part in the operations at the Dardanelles. [Nieuport 10 and Morane-Sauliner Type L French aircraft in background] |
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Short 184 Torpedo bombers at Gallipoli |
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These planes were also used for artillery spotting for the Royal Navy and to warn of troop concentrations when the Turks were preparing to attack. | ||||||||||||
Designed by Short Brothers as a torpedo carrying seaplane, Short 184s were the first aircraft to be built at Yeovil with a contract to build 12 aircraft. Completed aircraft were delivered by rail to Hamble on the Solent for final assembly and test. A Westland built Short 184 served with the fleet at Jutland, the remains of this aircraft are on view in the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton, Somerset. The Admiralty Type 184 was extensively used during the First World War. One even made history during the Dardanelles campaign when it became the first aircraft in the world to sink an enemy ship at sea by means of a torpedo.
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HMS ''Ben-my-Chree was a passenger ferry built in 1908 by Vickers for the England - Isle of Man route. The name means "Girl of My Heart'' in Manx. She was chartered by the Royal Navy on January 1, 1915 and converted to a seaplane carrier by Cammell Laird in Liverpool, England. A hangar occupied much of the aft part of the ship with cranes at the back for lifting the seaplanes from the sea. |
| A flying off deck covered most of the forward part, and a workshop for aircraft maintenance was also added. The ship was commissioned on March 23, 1915. After a period based at Harwich, England, she was transferred in May 1915 to the Dardanelles where one of her Short 184 seaplanes (piloted by Flight Commander Charles Edmonds) made the first ever aerial torpedo attack on August 12, 1915. Although the 14 inch (356 mm) diameter torpedo hit the Turkish ship and exploded, the vessel had been previously torpedoed by the British submarine E-14 and beached. This was followed by a successful attack on August 19 against a 5000 ton ship by Edmonds and Flight Lieutenant George Dacre. Ben-my-Chree subsequently operated off Egypt and Aden. She was sunk on January 11, 1917 by shore-based Turkish artillery fire whilst at anchor at Castellorizo, in the Dodecanese Islands. The hulk was salvaged for scrap in 1921. | |
RNAS aircraft torpedo attacks
- A new form of warfare appeared on the 12th, when a Short 184 seaplane
piloted by Flt Cdr Edmonds and flying from the converted fast packet
"Ben-my-Chree" off the Gallipoli coast, hits a beached Turkish
merchantman (recently torpedoed by Boyle's "E-14") in the Sea
of Marmara with a 14in torpedo. In a similar attack five days later, a
transport may have been sunk. This
is the first use of torpedoes dropped from aircraft. |
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French aircraft at Gallipoli |
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| Nieuport M10. The model 10 was the first in the long and successful series of Nieuport "V" strutters. It was used primarily for observation, however, many were converted to single seat fighters by simply covering the front cockpit, and adding an upward firing Lewis machine gun to the center section of the top wing. Year:1915. Engine: Le Rhone. Horsepower:80 hp. Wingspan: 25'-11" (7.90 m). Length: 22'-11" (6.98 m). Top Speed: 87.5 mph (140 km/hr). |
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Morane-Saulnier Model L This plane carries German markings because one was shot down and captured by the Germans, early in the war. |
| The brothers Leon and Robert Morane designed this monoplane with fellow engineer Raymond Saulnier in 1913. The fragile L was meant for reconnaissance, but by the war's start Saulnier had attached steel plates to the plane's propeller, allowing the pilot to fire rounds from a fixed 8-millimeter Hotchkiss machine gun without bombarding the propeller. (The plates deflected bullets away from the propeller blades.) French ace Roland Garros tested the Morane-Saulnier L in April of 1915 and scored three victories in as many weeks. By month's end, the Germans had managed to capture the airplane (note the German insignia painted on the tail) and they began work on a copy. Crew: one or two Length: 6.88 m (22 ft 6 in) Wingspan: 11.20 m (36 ft 9 in) Engine: 1x Gnome rotary piston engine, 80 hp. Maximum speed: 115 km/h (71 mph) Range: endurance of 2 h 30 min Service ceiling: 4,000 m (13,123 ft) Weapons: 1 x .31 in (7.9 mm) Hotchkiss machine gun. | |
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Aircraft over Gallipoli |
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by Wing Commander Geoff Willans |
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It began as a naval operation, escalated into a ground offensive and even involved an air component. WGCDR Geoff Willans looks at the role of aircraft at Gallipoli.
AIR support in World War I served as the crucible
for the development of military aviation.
The Turks abandoned these forts and landing parties destroyed
their heavy guns on February 26-27 and March 1.
A forward airfield was constructed on Cape Helles to allow urgent reports
to be made, but as the airfield was under observation and artillery fire,
aircraft were not based there. The value that the Turks attached to the
air effort can be gauged by the fact that a decoy aircraft drew 650 rounds
of artillery fire in three days.
In mid-September, a moving staff car was observed and bombed, the
occupants taking cover. When the occupants resumed their trip, thinking
the aircraft had moved off, they were re-attacked, the second bomb just
missing. One of the Turks was later found to have been Mustapha Kemal –
the legendary commander who later became president of Turkey.
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