Current Information:

Age-30

66, Byron Road, Leyton

Alexandria (Chatby) Military and War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt

Gallipoli

On 25 April, British, Australian and New Zealand forces landed on the Gallipoli peninsula . The plan was that these forces would soon defeat a demoralised Turkish army, knock Turkey out of the war, open up the Mediterranean to the Russian navy and threaten Austro-Hungary from the south. None of these things were achieved despite nine months of hard fighting in terrible conditions. It was a heroic failure.

By July, 1915, and after much fierce fighting, stalemate had set in at Gallipoli both at Cape Helles where the British and French had landed and at Anzac Cove where the Australian and New Zealand Corps were unable to break out of their beach head. Fresh troops were needed and they were on their way in the shape of four divisions from Britain and things were put on hold until they arrived.

The plan for August was for a landing at Suvla Bay to the north of Anzac Cove whilst at the same time, the ANZAC Corps, reinforced by some of the new British troops would effect a breakout from Anzac Cove and establish a line across the peninsula. Whilst this was going on the troops in the south at Helles would stage a number of diversionary attacks. But it all went horribly wrong and much of the reason for this can be explained by inadequate planning and leadership. Nobody seemed to know what they were supposed to be doing and Lieutenant-General Stopford, in charge of the Suvla landings was particularly out of his depth. The landings at Suvla failed to link up with the forces at Anzac and the breakout from there did not happen despite valiant efforts by all concerned. The loss of life on all fronts was again enormous. L.A. Carlyon’s excellent book “Gallipoli” gives a superb yet chilling account of the events.

By 17th July, 1915, all three brigades the 13th Division had reached Helles and on 3rd August, the 4th South Wales Borderers battalion of 40 Brigade moved to Anzac Cove in readiness for their participation in the August attack. During the night of 6/7th August they were the lead battalion of the force that made their way northwards up the coast before turning inland to attack the heights of Sari Bair from the north with the objective of capturing Hill 971. They were part of the covering column rather than the assaulting force and made good progress despite meeting some rifle and machine-gun fire from Bauchop’s Hill and Table Top. They made their way up the Chailak Dere valley and then came under fire from near the mouth of the Aghyl Dere. D Company charged and cleared the Turkish trenches here before the battalion moved to the high ground to cover the advance of assaulting column. The 8^th August was a largely wasted day as the attacking force tried to make some sense of the terrain they had to cross which was extremely difficult and confusing with deep gullies and steep ridges branching off in all directions. There were no maps to assist them nor had the ground to the north of the ANZAC beach head been reconnoitred. It was no wonder that they got lost. Gradually some sense of order emerged and 4^th South Wales Borderers found themselves holding an extended front along the Damakjelik Spur in a position that became known as Gillespie Spur after their commanding officer who was killed there on the following day. They consolidated as best as they could which was just as well for shortly after 4am on 9^th August there was a concentrated enemy attack by four battalions in line and two in support against them and the 4^th Australian Brigade. In both cases the attack was repulsed. The Turks managed to reach the parapet held by 4^th South Wales Borderers but were driven back by a counter-attack and suffered a similar reverse when they tried once more in the evening. On 11^th August the battalion attacked and gained some ground at Kabak Kuya and then remained in these positions until 21st August when they took part in the attack on Hill 60. George Hemmings died from wounds on 24th August after having been taken back to Alexandria in Egypt but it is not known when and where he was wounded.