The Yellow Devils at Gallipoli

Lieutenant Ralph Brighten

Monday 16^th August: Yesterday the 1st/5th Bedfords who, we understand, have been given the nickname of the Yellow Devils, went into action for the first time. The battalion paraded just after midday and the subsequent attack, in conjunction with 10th Division, was carried through with tremendous dash – both target hills were taken and entrenched, though casualties were heavy - 14 Officers and 300 men.

A weary Lieutenant-Colonel Brighten told us this morning: “We are now in the middle of a fight which started at one o’clock on Sunday. We have had a hell of a time. I can never describe to you what we have been through, but the regiment has done well, splendidly. We’ve got the ammunition and I’ve sent it up to Shoosmith, who knows how to kill Turks with it. He has done top whole, fought his guns splendidly, though most of his men were knocked out”. Lieutenant Frank Shoosmith is the Battalion’s Machine Gun Officer.

“What cuts me up is to think about our losses. They are all of them a gallant lot. Poor Brian Cumberland is dead, leading his company most gallantly. I got him last night and he is buried about 20 yards from his dug-out and I am writing to his father and hope to get it off after dark tonight”(1).

“The men are full of fight and confidence”

From information received it is clear that the battalion made a successful advance, cutting through the Turks and capturing three lines of trenches. From other sources we have determined that the Battalion was acting as support on the right to 10th (Irish) Division, which was making a frontal assault on a high ridge.

As soon as their advance began, at 1 pm, the Bedfords came up against the Turks in occupation of a hill. B Company, under the command of Captain C T Baker, son of the Rector of Dunstable, was posted on the right flank of the Battalion. A Company, under Captain Brian Cumberland of Luton was extended back on the left flank. The Machine Gun Section, commanded by Lieutenant F S Shoosmith, was detailed to act in support of A Company. The Battalion Headquarters followed in the rear of the two leading companies, while C and D Companies, commanded by Captain W K Meakin and Captain R Forrest, formed the Battalion Reserve.

“As we advanced up the hill” one man told us “my thoughts and, I suppose those of most of the other fellows, turned to home and to the girls we had left behind us. These thoughts saddened me but they also strengthened my determination to do my duty to the utmost of my ability”.

“But all thoughts of home were soon banished as we came under heavy rifle and shell fire. Men who had passed through previous campaigns, or were gifted with nerves of steel, might have viewed such a sight with cold-blooded calmness; but we boys who were advancing now under such awful fire might have been excused if our steadiness had deserted us, But instead of shrinking as we saw our comrades fall, the sight rather braced up our strength to the sticking point and we forged ahead. We had the Colonel to thank for that, for he had driven it into our minds that the only way to protect our wounded would be by keeping our line intact and by holding the ground that we had taken”.

The hill which the Battalion attacked was very strongly held by the Turks. A, B and C Companies were ordered to storm the position. They went to their work with a will. Well as the leading companies attacked, however, it became obvious they needed further aid. D Company was at once flung in to support the charge. The whole line went at it again and this wave of brave, intrepid and well-disciplined men, only too anxious to blood their steel, soon cleared the position at the point of the bayonet.

Then came a brief pause as the Battalion reorganised before the second leg of its advance, against a position called Kidney Hill from its shape. Casualties had not been particularly heavy, but Kidney Hill was to prove a far more formidable obstacle. To reach its objective the Battalion had to cross an open stretch of land, about a quarter of a mile in depth.

Captain Cumberland

A Company, splendidly led by Captain Brian Cumberland, had borne the brunt of the fighting in the taking of the first objective. As soon as the second advance started the Battalion came under heavy shrapnel fire from the Turkish guns in front and was harassed by galling rifle fire from the right flank. Many severe casualties resulted.

As the advance went on direction and cohesion was lost in the wilderness of bushes, rocks and gullies and Major J E Hill and the Adjutant, Captain H Younghusband, performed prodigies of valour, as they moved from place to place maintaining or re-establishing touch between the companies and platoons. The Brigadier, himself wounded and seeing the plight of the Bedfords issued orders for two more battalions to move up to the support. Before these reinforcements could arrive, however, the Bedfordshire men had achieved their objective and Kidney Hill was taken. They had advanced through a veritable hell of fire and they had cleared it at the point of the bayonet.

Captain Baker

Casualties were heavy: as the last advance was made Captain C T Baker, his arm completely shattered, went on at the head of his Company until he fell, mortally wounded; Lieutenant C R Lydekker, of Harpenden, also went down, while an eye-witness has described how Captain Brian Cumberland called on his Company for the last charge up the crest and, in the act of waving them on, was shot through the head”. Private Harold Scott of Luton tells us that his last words were “Come on boys, we’ve got them now!”

Almost in the same moment the Colonel’s brother, Lieutenant Ralph Brighten, commanding No. 1 Platoon, A Company, was killed. No one knows when Captain W K Meakin, commanding C Company was killed; although he is believed to have led his men almost up to the last moment when they got busy with their bayonets. The body of Lieutenant Derek Rising, believed killed, has not been recovered.

Captain Meakin

Sources: X550/6/8; Luton News 2nd September 1915; The History of the Fifth Battalion Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment (TA) by F A M Webster

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(1) His grave was not found later and he is commemorated on the Helles Memorial