Start of the evacuation of Suvla and Anzac

The British chronology of the war records under 19 December 1915 the start of the evacuation of the Suvla and Anzac bridgeheads on the Gallipoli peninsula. In reality troops had been taken off them since 8 December, when the government’s order reached General William Birdwood. Over ten nights, on an exceptionally calm sea, the garrisons of the two bridgeheads were reduced from more than 80,000 to about 40,000 men. The night of 18/19 December was fixed as the start of the last and most dangerous stage: in two nights all the remaining 40,000 soldiers were to embark without the Turks noticing anything.

The first night

After dark on 18 December the first units set off for the beaches in complete silence, without smoking. At the assembly points they were divided into groups of 400 men, the capacity of a motor landing lighter, known to the British as a “beetle”. At the same time ships were quietly approaching from the islands of Imbros and Lemnos. By about seven in the evening the lighters were already waiting at the piers. At Anzac the anchors were not dropped but lowered, so that the rattle of the chains would not be heard. Among the ships was the old battleship Mars, which took 2,000 soldiers off Anzac that night. The destroyer Rattlesnake lay off Gaba Tepe and shone her searchlight towards a Turkish observation post to dazzle it.

Everything went according to plan. From Anzac 9,900 men were taken off in three trips, and from Suvla, by half past three in the morning, about 11,000 men and nearly half of the remaining guns. There were no casualties. A full moon veiled by light cloud made the march easier, and towards morning a mist hid the deserted beaches. The Turks went on strengthening their positions, and two Turkish deserters even came over to IX Corps at Suvla during the night. Before dawn all the ships had vanished from sight.

A Sunday of pretence

19 December fell on a Sunday. The British official history says that for the soldiers in the trenches and the beach parties few days had ever dragged so long. Only about 10,000 men were left on each bridgehead, and everything depended on whether the Turks could be deceived. Detailed soldiers showed themselves in conspicuous places, campfires burned in the camps, and mules and carts went round in circles like extras in a theatre. In the trenches men pretended to dig, throwing earth onto the parapet, from which it slid back again. Meanwhile others buried ammunition, smashed pots and tins with picks, sawed through the wheels of limbers and poured caustic soda over tarpaulins.

At about eleven in the morning at Suvla a recently arrived battery of heavy Austrian howitzers began shelling Lala Baba hill and South Pier, from which most of the soldiers from the southern part of the bridgehead were to embark that night. The shells finally hit the pier, and the battery then shifted its fire to the main assembly point. It looked dangerous but turned out to be chance. After about 50 shells there was only one man wounded, and the pier was repaired within a few hours. The German colonel Hans Kannengiesser, who commanded the Turks opposite IX Corps, later recorded that he himself had not believed in an evacuation, and his gunners showed from their firing log that the enemy batteries had fired as much as usual on 18 and 19 December.

At 2.15 p.m. at Cape Helles, at the southern tip of the peninsula, mines exploded and naval guns roared. On Birdwood’s orders General Francis Davies’s British VIII Corps carried out two small attacks to divert the Turks’ attention from the north. At Fusilier Bluff one of the mines failed to throw up a crater and the soldiers had to fall back, but elsewhere the captured trenches were held despite counter-attacks. According to the British official history, news of this fighting helped convince the Turkish high command that there was no question of an evacuation.

In the evening the sea was still smooth, although the meteorologists were forecasting an early end to the fine weather. At dusk the ships came in again, and the first units of the second and last night began to leave the trenches.