Charge of the 2nd Infantry Brigade (Australian) at Krithia (detail)

Sir, this is a sheer waste of good men.

Joseph Gasparich
New Zealand soldier, Krithia, 8 May 1915

Also on 25 April the British landed at Cape Helles, the southern point of the Gallipoli peninsula. This force was to push north to the Kilitbahir plateau. However, determined Turkish opposition held the British to a small area at the tip of the peninsula. In an attempt to break out of the position at Helles, seize the village of Krithia and the commanding hill, Achi Baba, a combined assault by British, Australian, New Zealand and French troops was planned to begin on 6 May.

Little initial progress was made and on 8 May the Australians and New Zealanders were ordered forward. Moving over open and exposed ground towards Krithia (Alçitepe), the troops found the enemy fire so accurate and intense that some men raised their shovels in front of their faces to protect themselves. However, the Turkish lines were not reached and over 1,000 Australian and 800 New Zealand soldiers were killed or wounded.

Charge of the 2nd Infantry Brigade at Krithia (detail) by Charles Wheeler. (Australian War Memorial)

Why was this image chosen?

The original artwork on which the third interpretive panel is based: Charles Wheeler’s painting Charge of the 2nd Infantry Brigade at Krithia [AWM ART09558]

For most Australians the name Krithia means next to nothing. The Landing, Lone Pine and the Nek – these are the actions that have burnt themselves on the popular consciousness of Gallipoli, encouraged by Peter Weir’s 1982 film Gallipoli which featured the charge of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade at the Nek as its climactic finale.

Krithia is a small village near the tip of the Gallipoli peninsula where British troops landed on 25 April 1915. As on Anzac, the advance in this area gradually bogged down into trench warfare. On the evening of 8 May, the four battalions of the 2nd Brigade, AIF, approximately 2,900 strong, advanced over flat open ground against the Turkish trenches south of Krithia. The attack failed and within a matter of an hour and a half 1,056 – 36 per cent – of that 2,900 had been killed or wounded. Most of the Australian dead at Krithia were never identified for burial and their names are on the Helles Memorial to the Missing and not at Lone Pine. By comparison with Anzac, relatively few Australians visit Helles or are aware of the tragedy of the 2nd Brigade on 8 May 1915.

The painting on this panel – ‘Charge of the 2nd Infantry Brigade at Krithia’ – was executed by Charles Wheeler. It shows an incident in the advance when the brigade commander, Brigadier J W McCay, urged his men forward from a position about half way to the Turkish line known as the Tommies’ trench. With enemy bullets flying all around, McCay walked out to his advancing troops waving his periscope and yelling ‘Come on – Run!’