Item 01: Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett diary, 1915-1917 - Page 219
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[Page 219]
main on March 18th, we proceeded to try another forlorn hope on April 25th« Our armies were far too small to attempt any such ambitious programme. The force which originally landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula at Anzac and Seddul Bahr was of about the right strength to have accompanied the Fleet in the first instance for the purpose of effecting a surprise. Had it "been at hand on March 18th we would now in all reasonable probability be in possession of Constantinople, But as an army which was ab out to undertake an independent operation in which it would only receive a very limited assistance from the Navy, the campaign was doomed to failure from the starts
There is no object in concealing the fact that the original landing very nearly ended in a disastrous failure and the situation was only saved both at Gaba Tepe and Seddul Bahr by the superb heroism of our troops led by the most devoted and self-sacrifing officers. Yet is is now generally recognised that the Turks actually holding the beaches were extremely few in numbers. Fortunately, the enemy's reserves were slow in coming up; otherwise we would probably have been driven into the sea. This seems to have been due to the optimism of Liman von Sanders,
[note in margin] he had put Lindan
who did not believe we could possibly carry the beaches in the face of such obstacles. One cannot blame him for this belief, because the more they are examined the more incredible does the feat become. But the fact remains that nearly fifty per cent of our best troops were