Gallipoli inspects the 29th Division at
Dunchurch, 12 March 1915. The 29th Division, commanded by Major General
Aylmer Hunter-Weston, an officer of the
Royal Engineers who had distinguished himself in command of an infantry brigade on the Western Front, served on the Gallipoli peninsula, a point in the strategic
Dardanelles straits between the
Black Sea and the
Aegean Sea (and thus the
Mediterranean). The division was there for the duration of the ill-fated campaign. It made the first landings as part of the
Mediterranean Expeditionary Force in April 1915. On the morning of 25 April 1915 the
Battle of Gallipoli began when battalions from the division's 86th and 87th brigades landed at five beaches around Cape Helles at the tip of the peninsula. Three of the landings faced little or no opposition but were not exploited. The two main landings, at V and W Beaches on either side of the cape, met with fierce
Turkish resistance and the landing battalions were decimated. The original objectives of the first day of the campaign had been the village of Krithia and the nearby hill of Achi Baba. The first concerted attempt to capture these was made by the division three days after the landings on 28 April. In this
First Battle of Krithia an advance up the peninsula was made but the division was halted short of its objective and suffered around 3,000 casualties. The attack was resumed on 6 May with the launch of the
Second Battle of Krithia. On this occasion the 88th Brigade attacked along Fig Tree Spur and, after two days of fighting without significant progress, it was relieved by the New Zealand Infantry Brigade. On 24 May Major-General
Beauvoir De Lisle took over command of the division from Hunter-Weston who had been promoted to command
VIII Corps. On 4 June the 88th Brigade was once more required to make an advance along Fig Tree Spur in the
Third Battle of Krithia. In the subsequent counter-attacks,
Second Lieutenant G.R.D Moor of the 2nd Battalion,
Hampshire Regiment, was awarded the
Victoria Cross for shooting four of his own men who attempted to retreat. . The division finally saw successful fighting at Helles during the
Battle of Gully Ravine on 28 June when the 86th Brigade managed to advance along Gully Spur. As a prelude to the launch of the
August Offensive, a "diversion" was carried out at Helles on 6 August to prevent the Turks withdrawing troops. In what became known as the
Battle of Krithia Vineyard, the 88th Brigade made another costly and futile attack along the exposed Krithia Spur. At Suvla, the
Battle of Scimitar Hill on 21 August was the final push of the failed August Offensive. The 29th Division had been moved from Helles to Suvla to participate. The 87th Brigade was briefly able to capture the summit of the hill but was soon forced to retreat. The division was evacuated from Gallipoli on 2 January 1916 and moved to
Egypt for several weeks before being sent to France in March. From this time the division was put into the British Front in the area north of the Ancre River, near to the German-held village of Beaumont Hamel. For the following three months the battalions in the division spent their time doing tours of trenches and training behind the lines to prepare for the large British offensive against the German position planned for the end of June. Following a 7-day artillery bombardment of the German front and rear areas, the battalions of the 29th Division were in position in their Assembly Trenches in the early hours of Saturday 1 July. of the 4th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment resting by the roadside near Aveluy, France, September 1916. At 07:20 hours the huge Hawthorn mine was blown on the left of the division's position. The leading battalions in the attack left the British front line trench at 07:30 hours. The British casualties were severe, with many men never reaching the German front line. The men of the Newfoundland Regiment moved forward at about 09:00 hours to follow on behind the leading battalion in the advance of 88th Brigade. Many of them were shot down trying to clamber overground to cover the few yards from where they were in the rear of the British front line to start their advance down the hill. == Order of battle ==