The 2^nd battalion’s “A” Company had been detached to land with the King’s Own Scottish Borderers under the command of Colonel Koe and the Royal Marines under the command of Colonel Matthews at Y Beach on the Mediterranean shore. This landing was also unopposed and men from the KOSB were on the cliff tops at 5.15 am,  just 15 minutes after getting ashore and patrols sent inland, found little Turkish opposition.

However the Turkish area commander, Colonel Sami Bey, realized that the force at Y beach was a threat to the entire Turkish force to the south and committed one battalion of his 25th Regiment aided by a battery of field guns and a section of machine guns against the force at Y beach.

The British troops withdrew back to the cliff tops and began to dig in, the Turks moved their guns forward during the afternoon and began to shell the exposed cliff top positions. A frantic battle was raging in the darkness, Colonel Koe, the KOSB commanding officer, died of wounds during the night and many of his men were running out of ammunition.

Colonel Matthews sent messages during the night to HQ 29 Division that the situation at Y Beach was worsening; these messages were received but not acted upon by Hunter-Weston. However when a message was received at 7 a.m. that the situation was now desperate, Hunter-Weston passed it on to General Hamilton, stating he had no reserves to spare. Hamilton who had been concerned about events at Y Beach, ordered a French brigade to reinforce the men at Y beach, but it was too late

As dawn broke on 26th April, the Turks retreated inland to escape the attention of the fleet’s guns, but the British troops had no knowledge of this and many began to move back down to the beach, one young officer asked for assistance and his men were ferried back to the safety of the warships standing off the beach.  Other officers, thinking that a withdrawal had been ordered, told their men to make their way to the beach to be evacuated.

Colonel Matthews inspecting his contingent’s position found that many of the troops had left the cliff top, abandoning their equipment in the trenches. Both he and General Hamilton assumed that orders to evacuate had come from divisional headquarters.

“If anything can justify Matthews’s action, and previous inaction, it is his utter neglect by his superior, Hunter-Weston. Throughout the twenty-nine hours on land, no word of any kind reached him from divisional headquarters, no officer was sent to visit him, no reply was sent to his urgent appeals”, suggests Basil Liddell Hart.

The 2nd battalion SWB’s “A” Company covering the British retirement to the cliff top had to make a gallant counter attack with the bayonet, losing their Company Commander and 26 men killed and missing, and an officer and 42 men wounded.

2nd October 2004

Hello Valerie,

Major Margesson

Find attached three pages from my study on the South Wales Borderers at Gallipoli with reference to Major Margesson.

I understand from the staff of Brecon Barracks that a TV company are doing some research for a programme on the SWB Officers killed at Gallipoli.

Yours Jack Kemp

Jack Kemp, Stafford.

The 2nd Bn. South Wales Borderers’ Landings at Gallipoli on 25th April 1915.

At 5 a.m. on 25th April 1915, the warships started the bombardment under cover of which the landings on the Peninsular were to be made. The 29th Division proceeded to make its historic 'Landing at Helles', the majority of the troops landed in broad daylight on open beaches, which were heavily defended by barbed wire, and covered at close range by rifles and machine guns, many of them were to face certain death within minutes of landing.

The 2nd SWB were instructed to take ‘S’ Beach, on the shores of Morto Bay just inside the Straits, this end of the bay was dominated by cliffs that rose sharply to de Tott's Battery point. It was intended that the 2nd SWB would create a bridgehead behind the main Turkish lines facing ‘V’ and ‘W’ beaches from which they could threaten or harass the Turkish retreat.

Map.1. The 2nd Battalion SWB landed at ‘S’ beach and it’s ‘A’ company landed
with the 1st KOSB & the Plymouth battalion RM at ‘Y’ beach.

 

The naval bombardment of these main beaches was intended to last for thirty minutes, during which time the naval force carrying 2nd SWB, destined for ‘S’ Beach was supposed to enter the Dardanelles and complete its preparations for landing. 

A severe shortage of naval resources meant that the 2nd SWB boats would have to be pulled by trawlers which were slower and less powerful than the naval steamboats and more importantly, caused the number of soldiers in the 2nd battalion’s landing party to be limited to only three of the battalion's four companies, these were ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’.

An unofficial agreement was made between Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Casson, the commanding officer of the 2nd SWB and Captain Alexander Davidson RN, captain of HMS Cornwallis, which was the attendant ship at ‘S’ Beach.  Captain Davidson agreed to provide a supplementary beach party of twenty-four sailors to supervise the landing of stores and allow the limited number of soldiers to concentrate on storming the beach.  The Navy was to bombard the area around ‘S’ Beach until the landing was underway.  ‘B’ and ‘C’ Companies and the Headquarters staff (a total of five hundred and twenty-six men) were to land on ‘S’ Beach inside Morto Bay, with the naval beach party on their left.

The two hundred and four men of ‘D’ Company led by Major Margesson, would land outside the Bay at the foot of the cliffs, which rose up steeply for around 180 feet to De Tott's Battery.  Their task was to scale the cliffs and attack the Turkish defences that overlooked the beach and the landing area inside the Bay.

Although the trawlers conveying the 2nd battalion moved into the Dardanelles entrance as planned at 05.00, they became delayed almost immediately both by the strong current flowing against them and by the mine sweeping flotilla which had collected there.  The bombardment was due to be lifted at 05.30 a.m. and the tows for the main beaches would then begin their approach inshore, however it was seen that the 2nd SWB trawlers were still a considerable distance from Morto Bay.  In an attempt to maintain a simultaneous landing along the coast from ‘X’ to ‘S’ Beach, Rear Admiral Wemyss held back the tows for the main beaches and prolonged the bombardment.  But shortly before 6 a.m., it was felt that it would be unwise to hold up the other beaches any longer and the 86th Brigade's tows were ordered to start their approach.

The boats carrying the 2nd SWB continued slowly into Morto Bay and it was not until 7.30 a.m., about ninety minutes later than planned, that the trawlers finally cast off the tows.
As ‘B’ and ‘C’ companies’ boats approached the beach, Captain Aubrey Williams (the Adjutant) noticed that the Turks waited until the very last moment before opening fire on the boats, an action he believed to be mistaken as the Turks failed to inflict heavy casualties on the British troops packed tightly in their open boats.

‘D’ Company under Major Margesson landed unopposed at the foot of the cliffs at the end of the beach in the Dardanelles.  As soon as these men were ashore, they stormed up the cliffs and within a short time had established a position overlooking the Turks firing on the troops landing inside the Bay and soon cleared De Totts battery.

Despite the stronger opposition, ‘B’ and ‘C’ companies inside the Bay also landed successfully and, once the trench above them had been silenced, they were able to storm up the cliffs into the Turkish positions, taking about 15 prisoners.

The naval beach party landed about the same time as the SWBs’ boats and several sailors were unable to resist the temptation of picking up a rifle from the wounded men and linked up with the soldiers to join in the assault on the trenches.