End of the fighting for Gully Ravine

On the evening of 2 July 1915 the Turks made their strongest attempt in several days to recover the trenches above Gully Ravine, on the western flank of the Helles front on the Gallipoli peninsula. The British 29th Division and the Gurkhas of the 29th Indian Brigade had taken them on 28 June. The Turkish attack across open ground collapsed under the fire of artillery, a warship and rifles. British official lists end the Action of Gully Ravine on this day, because it was the last in a series of Turkish attempts to retake the captured trenches themselves. The fighting had not yet died down, however: the largest Turkish assault, this time on the whole British front at Helles, was still to come.

The attack of 2 July was preceded by two nights of bombing fights. During the night of 30 June/1 July the Turks attacked the Gurkhas in trench J13 from a side gully, called the Nullah by the British. The Gurkhas had no grenades and had to fall back, but they recovered part of the trench in a counter-attack with their kukri knives. The following night the Turks struck at trench J12. The lost section was retaken by one and a half companies of a battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, and their commander, Captain Gerald O’Sullivan, and Corporal James Somers received the Victoria Cross for it. At dawn, however, as a result of a misunderstanding, the garrison of J12 fell back to the old barricade, and the Turks reoccupied the empty stretch of trench.

Encouraged by this, the local Turkish commander decided to break through the head of the British wedge on the evening of 2 July, at Fusilier Bluff and at the western end of trench J13, held by the Inniskilling Irishmen and the 1/5th Gurkhas. According to Turkish works, the attack was made by the fresh 1st Division, and some of them date it to 1 July. The British official history describes it as follows: at about 6 p.m., after a short and ineffective bombardment, strong bodies of Turkish infantry began to approach from the north, along the edge of the cliffs and over the steep coastal ridges. They were dispersed by the fire of the destroyer Scorpion, lying close inshore. An hour later the Turkish guns opened fire again, and just before dusk about 1,800 soldiers advanced across open ground from the northern end of the Nullah.

The Turks made a perfect target. The 10th Field Battery and five more batteries fired on them, and shrapnel, useless against trenches, proved very effective against infantry in the open. Gurkhas of the 1/6th battalion, who had come running up from the support trenches and could not fit into the overcrowded front line, lay down behind the rear parapet of the trench and fired together with the garrison. Most of the attackers fell far in front of the British lines. Only a few, led by officers, got to within about 40 yards, just under 40 metres. At dusk the remnants of the Turkish battalions were streaming back to their positions in disorder, and British patrols reported during the night that the ground in front of the trenches was “strewn” with dead.

The British held everything they had taken on 28 June, and for the next two days the Turks did not attack. It seemed that they had given up trying to recover the lost ground. General Otto Liman von Sanders, who according to Turkish works had ordered successive counter-attacks despite the reservations of the commander of the Southern Group, General Erich Weber, was nevertheless bringing three more divisions south: from Anzac, from the Asian shore of the straits and from Bulair. On 3 July he came to the Helles front himself and postponed the great attack to dawn on 5 July. That too collapsed, and Turkish losses since 28 June reached 16,500 men according to their official history.