The landing at Cape Helles was part of the amphibious invasion of the Gallipoli peninsula by British and French forces on 25 April 1915 during the First World War. Helles, at the foot of the peninsula, was the main landing area. With the support of the guns of the Royal Navy, a British division was to advance 6 miles (9.7 km) along the peninsula on the first day and seize the heights of Achi Baba. From there they went on to capture the forts that guarded the straits of the Dardanelles. Another landing was made to the north at Gaba Tepe by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC).
The Helles landing was mismanaged by the British commander, Major General Aylmer Hunter-Weston. The two main beaches became bloodbaths, despite the meagre defences, while the landings at other sites were not exploited. Although the British managed to gain a foothold ashore, their plans were in disarray. For the next two months they staged a number of costly battles in attempt to reach the objectives that they had intended to take on the first day. In each battle they inched closer but they never managed to get there.
Read more about Landing At Cape Helles: Prelude, The British Landing Plan, V Beach, W Beach (Lancashire Landing), S & X Beaches, Y Beach, The Jewish Legion, Aftermath
Famous quotes containing the words landing and/or cape:
“I foresee the time when the painter will paint that scene, no longer going to Rome for a subject; the poet will sing it; the historian record it; and, with the Landing of the Pilgrims and the Declaration of Independence, it will be the ornament of some future national gallery, when at least the present form of slavery shall be no more here. We shall then be at liberty to weep for Captain Brown. Then, and not till then, we will take our revenge.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A great proportion of the inhabitants of the Cape are always thus abroad about their teaming on some ocean highway or other, and the history of one of their ordinary trips would cast the Argonautic expedition into the shade.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)