August 29, 2013

Finest Hour 106, Spring 2000

Page 21

BY WILLIAM R. DALES


FURTHER to Stephen McGinty’s very interesting notes on the Gallipoli campaign in Finest Hour 97,1 feel it important to mention the “missed opportunity” which ensured the Gallipoli campaign’s failure. It involved the successful assault on the Sari Bair massif, which dominated the peninsula. Alas, in tune with the rest of a badly mismanaged campaign, the assault came to naught.

What was left of the 1st Battalion 6th Gurkha Rifles (1/6 GR), now under the command of a Major Allanson, had been ordered to attack, take and hold the strongly entrenched Turkish position atop Sari Bair. At the time, Allanson had with him only four other 1/6 GR British officers and the battalion’s medical officer, and a numerically depleted battalion. However, over a period of two days and three nights, during which the four British officers were lost and the battalion suffered many more casualties, the l/6th reached the crest.

2024 International Churchill Conference

Join us for the 41st International Churchill Conference. London | October 2024
More

After fierce hand-to-hand fighting, involving fists, kukris and bayonets, the 1 /6th evicted the Turks and pursued them down the slope of Sari Bair.

Allanson was severely wounded but managed to stay in command of the situation. The taking of Sari Bair had been achieved. But the British battalions which were to take over and exploit this success had lost their way in the maze of gullies leading up to the crest and never arrived on the scene. Further, shortly after the position was captured, the British Navy began shelling it. Appreciating their opportunity, the Turks rallied and made a successful counter-attack.

The 1/6 GR, now under the command of the medical officer but with the assistance of the Gurkha Subadar Major, was able to pull off a withdrawal which Michael Hickey in his book Gallipoli recalled with admiration: “It is doubtful if any other unit under [General] Birdwood’s command on that terrible evening behaved with the classic professionalism of the l/6th Gurkha Rifles.”

In passing, may I add that, after witnessing all this, a young Royal Warwick’s officer named William Slim applied for a transfer to the 6 GR, from which base he eventually achieved World War II fame as Commander of the British 14th Army in Burma.


Mr. Dales, a Churchill Center Associate, wrote from personal experience about the Malakand Pass in Finest Hour 100.

A tribute, join us

#thinkchurchill

Subscribe

WANT MORE?

Get the Churchill Bulletin delivered to your inbox once a month.