Being the head of the
Allied countries the British made up the bulk of the army force that attacked
the Gallipoli peninsula. The experience many horrible occasions, one of these
occasions was the landing of Cape Helms. One British landing squad was
attacking the south-western side of the Peninsula when hundreds of Turkish
soldiers jumped out of hiding and fired thousands of bullets out of rifles and
machine-guns (SBS1, 2011) Every 1 in 3 soldiers survived the attack. With over 1200 of
their friends and fellow soldiers in the blood-red water the British soldiers
were forced to retreat, unable to gain a handhold on the small beach (Baker, 2012).
Along with the landing the British soldiers also endured months inside the trench lines fighting Turkish soldiers. The extract below is from Arthur Taylor's diary about the experience of being in a trench.
A pitch dark night and you standing in a narrow trench just wide enough to stop your shoulders from rubbing the sides, you can only see a handsbreadth in front of your face you hear the hiss of bullets passing overhead you cannot strike a match as the flare might cost one of your mates his life you move silently along pass the Officer on Duty he is muffled up to the eyes for the cold is bitter you look on one platform and there is the machine gun stripped of his outer casing ready to deal out death to any Turks that try to rush our trench we were only 40 yards apart.
- Arthur Taylor, British soldier