earthbank at v-beach

It so happened that it was impossible to land at ‘V’ Beach until nightfall. The Dublins and Munsters tried many times but were mown down. Only a handful reached the shore and they were pinned behind a low bank of sand only a few yards from the water’s edge. They remained in this hopeless position all day, unable to move. Hundreds of their comrades left the River Clyde which had been run ashore. Those who survived the run down the gangway were shot on the barges or were drowned in the deep water. Barges were carried out of position by the current and hauled back. More

I had to run about 100-150 yards in the water and being the first away from the cutter escaped the fire a bit to start with. But as soon as a few followed me the water around seemed to be alive – the bullets striking the sea all round us. Heaven alone knows how I got thro’…. When I was about 50 yards from the water’s edge I felt one bullet go thro’ the pack on my back and then thought I had got through safely when they put one through my left arm. I could find only 30 or 40 men intact and we commenced to dig ourselves into the low cliff. Why the Turks with their vast preparations did not level

men tried and more men died. More open boats made or the shore with their forty or so occupants standing shoulder to shoulder to meet the same fate as the twenty others that had preceded them. A few scrambled ashore to join their comrades behind the sand bank but the majority lay dead in the boats as they floated with the current.

"Gallipoli 1915", ( London-1977), Joe Murray, p. 185

this bank of earth down I cannot imagine. Had they done so, none of us would have escaped.

Major David French (RDF) quoted in “Gallipoli”, Robert Rhodes James, p. 121-122.