Current Information:

Born-Kew

Alexandria (Chatby) Military & War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt

Gallipoli 1915

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 an heroic failure.

The 29th 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 behind only the dead, over 56,000 of them.

During the night of 28th-29th  April, the extent of the exhaustion of the Australian and New Zealand troops at ANZAC after four days and nights of continuous fighting, became obvious and four battalions of the Royal Naval Division were sent there to take some of the burden. These were the Portsmouth, Chatham, Deal and Nelson battalions and they were put straight into the line. General Birdwood, the commander of the ANZAC forces described the marines as, “children under untrained officers”. Whether or not this was the case they found themselves facing the Turks and had to learn on the job. 

Wilfred Howes died of wounds on 8th May having been evacuated from Gallipoli to Egypt but there is no information as yet as to when he was wounded.