Inniskillings land at Gallipoli

The Inniskillings landed here: X Beach today, looking north. The track was constructed later in the campaign.

On 25 April 1915, the 29th Division landed at five beaches around Cape Helles. The 1st Battalion The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers' task was to land at X Beach, following an initial assault by the Royal Fusiliers, and to consolidate the beachhead at the top of the cliffs.

The Battalion landed at 0900 hours without difficulty and advanced some 600 yards inland. They were ordered to dig in, and later that night repulsed an attack. There they awaited a general advance in concert with troops from the other landing beaches. But the delay proved to be disastrous as Turkish resistance soon stiffened.

By the time the general advance was organised three days later, only limited progress was made, and every yard gained thereafter was to be a hard and bloody slog. Who can say how different the result might have been if the Inniskillings and other units had been allowed to exploit the Turks’ initial weakness?

Click on The Gallipoli Campaign for links to more stories about our former regiments at Gallipoli.