The Assault on Gurkha Bluff – May 13th 1915.

In April and May 1915, Allied forces still maintained an idea of breaking through the Turkish lines at Gallipoli, despite heavy resistance to previous landings and assaults, and the onset of the bloody stalemate which would come to characterise the campaign. The First Battle of Krithia was an attempt by the allies to push forward in this vein, from the southern tip of the Gallipoli Peninsula at Cape Helles. On the left flank of this assault, at a beach referred to as ‘Y’ Beach, allied forces were halted at the steep and defended site named Gully Ravine. In order to break the deadlock and regain momentum, on May 12^th and 13^th 1915, during an artillery bombardment on the Turkish trenches,  a double company of 1^st battalion 6th Gurkha Rifles crept along the shore at Y Beach and assembled below a 300 foot bluff. Then, with the Turks distracted by the bombardment, they swiftly scaled the cliffs and carried the enemy trenches with a rush. The Gurkhas’ machine-gun section was hurried forward and at 0430 a second double company was pushed up to join the first. At 0600 a third double company advanced across the open from their former front line of trenches under a heavy rifle and machine-gun fire, and established themselves near the newly captured redoubt. The 4th double company moved up as a support and held the former firing line. This allowed the previously-stalled Allied left flank to advance nearly 500 yards. This success, at the cost of comparatively light losses,  was due to the Gurkhas’ bravery in the face of heavy fire and a formidable enemy.  

 

The following General Routine Order (16) was published on May 17^th, 1915:

 

“In order to mark the good work done by the 1/6^th Gurkha Rifles in capturing the Bluff on the coast west of Krithia. The General Officer Commanding has ordered that this Bluff will in future be known as ”Gurkha Bluff”.