Current Information:

Age-18

38, St. Erkenwald Road, Barking

Born-Plaistow 

Gallipoli 1915

On 25 April, 1915, 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.

The 29^th Division and the Royal Naval Division landed at five separate beaches around Cape Helles.  Some were not defended, others were fiercely contested. Some ground was gained but within days the familiar pattern of trench warfare had set in. A similar pattern emerged further north where the ANZACS landed. The Turkish soldiers were much tougher fighters than had been given credit for and they were of course fighting an invasion of their homeland. The terrain, a series of steep rocky ridges and deep gullies made the fighting much more difficult and during the hot summer of 1915, the flies arrived in biblical proportions. Another seven British divisions were sent to Gallipoli during the summer but little or no progress was made. In the end, a new Commander was appointed and plans to evacuate the entire force were drawn up. By January 1916, all British, Australian and New Zealand forces had left Gallipoli, leaving only behind the dead, over 56,000 of them.

On 25^th April, 1915, the day of the Gallipoli landings, HMS Agamemnon, a pre-Deadnought battleship was in Morto Bay supporting the main landings and covering the mine sweeping operations as part of 5^thSquadon. There is no report of her being in action on that day so the circumstances of the death of Frank Reed are unknown. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission site states that he was killed in action but the very comprehensive Naval History website says that he died of wounds. If the latter is the case then perhaps he was wounded seven days earlier on 18^th March when a Turkish battery opened fire on HMS Agamemnon and did considerable structural damage to the ship.