'Lancashire Landing'

At dawn on 25 April 1st Battalion, The Lancashire Fusiliers, part of the British 29th Division landed on W Beach, to the west of Cape Helles the southernmost tip of the Gallipoli Peninsula. The Turks waited until the Fusiliers were almost ashore then opened fire.

Despite heavy losses the Fusiliers kept a toehold on the beach and eventually advanced up both sides
of the cliff driving the defending Turks out of their trenches.
Later that morning other units were diverted to W Beach to reinforce the troops who were
advancing on their inland objectives.

Six VCs were eventually awarded for this action and W Beach was renamed
Lancashire Landing in honour of the Battalion that had captured it.

Sale 5012 Lot 527 Sergeant Alfred Richards VC

The Gallipoli 'Lancashire Landing' Victoria Cross Group of Seven to Sergeant A. Richards, 1 Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers,
one of the famous 'Six Before Breakfast'
(a) Victoria Cross, reverse of suspension bar engraved 'Sergt A. Richards, 1st Bn Lancashire Fusrs', reverse of Cross engraved
'25 April 1916', the arms of the cross additionally engraved 'Sergt A Richards 1 Battn Lancs Fusrs'
(b) 1914-15 Star (1293 Sjt. A. Richards. Lan. Fus.)
(c) British War and Victory Medals (1293 Sjt.A. Richards. Lan. Fus.)
(d) 1939-45 Defence Medal
(e) Coronation 1937
(f) Army Long Service & G.C., G.V.R. (1293 Sjt: A.Richards. V.C. Lanc: Fus, the group good very fine
(g) A Silver Cigarette case (Hallmarks for Birmingham 1914), the outside cover engraved
'Presented as a Token of Esteemed Regard to Sergt. Alfred Richards V.C. 1st Batn Lancs Fus
from the Sergts 7th (R) Batn Lancs. Fus. 3rd June. 1916.'
(h) Box for 1939-45 Defence Medal addressed to Mr A Richards, Southfields, Wandsworth
(i) A quantity of original documents, including Certificate of Discharge 1906 and Character on Discharge 1907,
Certificate of Discharge from Second Enlistment 1915, 'Small Book' , various Certificates of Attainment, etc. (7)
Estimate ? 130,000-150,000

Sergeant Alfred Joseph Richards V.C. born 25.8.1880 in Plymouth, Devon, the son of Charles N. Richards,
late Colour Sergeant, 2nd Battalion, 20th Lancashire Fusiliers; educated at St Dominic's Priory School, Newcastle-upon-Tyne;
giving his trade as 'musician', he enlisted in the Lancashire Fusiliers as a bandboy at Newcastle 4.7.1895,
and served in Ireland with the 1st Battalion, where he was appointed full drummer; served in Crete, 1899,
and promoted to Lance Corporal; served in Malta, Gibraltar and Egypt, returning to England in 1907;
after two months in civilian life Richards re-enlisted, and rejoined his old Battalion in India; in 1915
the Battalion embarked for the Dardanelles, destined to take part in the greatest amphibious
operation carried out during the course of the Great War. As the spearhead of 86 Fusilier Brigade,
the Lancashire Fusiliers were to seize a small sandy cove lying between Cape Helles and Tekke Burnu.
The cove, named 'W Beach', was well defended, the Official History stating 'So strong were the defences
that even though the garrison was but one company (3rd/26th Regt.) of infantry, the Turks may well have
considered them impregnable to an attack from open boats'. The attack was timed for 6.00 a.m. on 25 April 1915.
Any element of surprise was sacrificed in favour of a naval bombardment of the enemy positions.
The landing was to become famous as 'The Lancashire Landing.'

V.C. London Gazette 24.08.1915 'Richard Raymond Willis, Capt.; Alfred Richards, No. 1293, Sergt.,
William Keneally, No. 1809, Private, 1st Battn. The Lancashire Fusiliers. Date of Acts of Bravery: 25 April 1915.
On the 25th of April 1915, three Companies and the Headquarters of the 1st Battn. Lancashire Fusiliers,
in effecting a landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula to the west of Cape Helles, were met by very deadly fire
from hidden machine guns which caused a great number of casualties. The survivors, however, rushed up
to and cut the wire entanglements, notwithstanding the terrific fire from the enemy, and
after overcoming supreme difficulties, the cliffs were gained and the position maintained.
Amongst the very gallant officers and men engaged in this most hazardous undertaking,
Capt. Willis, Sergt. Richards and Private Keneally have been selected by their comrades
as having performed the most signal acts of bravery and devotion to duty.'

Captain Clayton, who was killed six weeks later, wrote: "There was tremendously strong barbed wire where
my boat was landed. Men were being hit in the boats and as they splashed ashore. I got up to my waist in water,
tripped over a rock and went under, got up and made for the shore and lay down by the barbed wire.
There was a man there before me shouting for wire-cutters. I got mine out, but could not make the slightest impression.
The front of the wire by now was a thick mass of men, the majority of whom never moved again?.
The noise was ghastly and the sights horrible. I eventually crawled through the wire with great difficulty,
as my pack kept catching on the wire, and got under a small mound which actually gave us protection.
The weight of our packs tired us, so that we could only gasp for breath. After a little time we fixed bayonets
and started up the cliffs right and left. On the right several were blown up by a mine (It was in fact a British naval shell.)
When we started up the cliff the enemy went, but when we got to the top they were ready and poured shots on us."

Major Shaw, who also did not survive the campaign, wrote: "About 100 yards from the beach the enemy opened fire,
and bullets came thick all around, splashing up the water. I didn't see anyone actually hit in the boats, though several were;
e.g. my Quartermaster-Sergeant and Sergeant-Major sitting next to me; but we were so jammed together that you
couldn't have moved, so that they must have been sitting there, dead. As soon as I felt the boat touch,
I dashed over the side into three feet of water and rushed for the barbed wire entanglements on the beach;
it must have been only three feet high or so, because I got over it amidst a perfect storm of lead and made for cover,
sand dunes on the other side, and got good cover. I then found Maunsell and only two men had followed me.
On the right of me on the cliff was a line of Turks in a trench taking pot shots at us, ditto on the left. I looked back.
There was one soldier between me and the wire, and a whole line in a row on the edge of the sands.
The sea behind was absolutely crimson, and you could hear the groans through the rattle of musketry.
A few were firing. I signaled to them to advance. I shouted to the soldier behind me to signal, but he shouted back
'I am shot through the chest'. I then perceived they were all hit."

Captain Willis, who led C Company into the attack, later recalled 'Not a sign of life was to be seen on the
Peninsula in front of us. It might have been a deserted land we were nearing in our little boats.
Then crack! The stroke oar of my boat fell forward, to the angry astonishment of his mates.
The signal for the massacre had been given; rapid fire, machine guns and deadly accurate sniping opened from the cliffs above,
and soon the casualties included the rest of the crew and many men.

The timing of the ambush was perfect; we were completely exposed and helpless in our slow moving boats,
just target practice for the concealed Turks, and within a few minutes only half of the thirty men in my boat were left alive.
We were now 100 yards from the shore, and I gave the order 'Overboard'. We scrambled out into some four feet of water
and some of the boats with their cargo of dead and wounded floated away on the currents still under fire from the snipers.
With this unpromising start the advance began. Many were hit in the sea, and no response was possible,
for the enemy was in trenches well above our heads.

We toiled through the water towards the sandy beach, but here another trap was awaiting us, for the Turks had cunningly
concealed a trip wire just below the surface of the water and on the beach itself were a number of land mines,
and a deep belt of rusty wire extended across the landing place. Machine-guns, hidden in caves at the
end of the amphitheatre of cliffs enfiladed this.

Our wretched men were ordered to wait behind this wire for the wire-cutters to cut a pathway through.
They were shot in helpless batches while they waited, and could not even use their rifles in retaliation since the sand
and the sea had clogged their action. One Turkish sniper in particular took a heavy toll at very close range
until I forced open the bolt of a rifle with the heel of my boot and closed his career with the first shot,
but the heap of empty cartridges round him testified to the damage he had done.

Safety lay in movement, and isolated parties scrambled through the wire to cover. Among them was
Sergeant Richards with a leg horribly twisted, but he managed somehow to get through.'

The Lancashire Fusiliers had started the day with 27 Officers and 1,002 other ranks.
The next morning they numbered 16 Officers and 304 men.

Richards was evacuated first to Egypt, where surgeons amputated his right leg above the knee, then home to England.
He was discharged 31.7.1915, after 26 years with the colours. His discharge papers read 'no longer fit for war service
(but fit for civil employment)'.

At the time of the award of his Victoria Cross Richards was living alone at the Princess Christian Soldiers' and Sailors' Home
in Woking. He had no family in England, and the newspapers referred to him as 'The Lonely V.C.'
In September 1916 he married Miss Dora Coombes, who had nursed him during his period of convalescence in Woking.
Despite his disability he remained an active member of the Regimental Old Comrades Association and even joined the
Home Guard during the Second World War, serving as Provost Sergeant, 28 County of London Battalion.
He died at the age of 73 in Southfields, London, in 1953, and is buried in Putney Vale Cemetery.

Joe
Omnia Audax XXth

Capt. Richard Raymond Willis

Richard Raymond Willis was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry
in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

He was 38 years old, and a Captain in the 1st Bn., The Lancashire Fusiliers, British Army
during the First World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.

On 25 April 1915 west of Cape Helles, Gallipoli, Turkey, three companies and the Headquarters of the
1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, when landing on W Beach, were met by a very deadly fire from
hidden machine-guns which caused a large number of casualties. The survivors, however, rushed up and cut the wire
entanglements notwithstanding the terrific fire from the enemy and after overcoming supreme difficulties,
the cliffs were gained and the position maintained.

Captain Willis was one of the six members of the regiment elected for the award, the others being
Cuthbert Bromley, John Elisha Grimshaw, William Keneally, Alfred Joseph Richards
and Frank Edward Stubbs. Willis later achieved the rank of Major

Cheltenham Borough Cemetery
Crematorium Chapel

Commemorative plaques in the chapel cloisters

The commemorative plaque to Major Richard Willis, VC, 1st Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers, who died in Cheltenham on 9th February 1966.
He was awarded the Victoria Cross for outstanding bravery on 25th April 1915 at the landing at Cape Helles,
Gallipoli. Full details of the award can be viewed here.

He is not a native Cheltonian being born in Woking in 1876.

This is the newspaper clipping Griff brought to Blackpool for me. You will see that it refers to"The Royal lancashire Fusiliers" but there is nothing we can do about it (we have informed the newspaper of their error !)

Sgt Frank Edward Stubbs V.C.

Birth: Mar. 12, 1888
Death: Apr. 25, 1915

World War I Victoria Cross Recipient. Born in the Walworth section of London, not much is known of Stubbs’s personal life other than that he enlisted in the Army at a very young age and served with the 1st Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers in India before his World War I service. Sergeant Stubbs was awarded the V.C. for action during the landings at W Beach during the Gallipoli Campaign, April 25, 1915, one of the group known in the press as “The Six V.C.s Before Breakfast” (the others were Capts. R.R. Willis and C. Bromley, Sgts. A. Richards and W. Keneally, and L/Cpl. J.E. Grimshaw). From Stubbs’s citation: “On the 25th April, 1915, headquarters and three companies of the 1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers in effecting a landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula to the West of Cape Helles, were met by very deadly fire from hidden machine guns, which caused a great number of casualties. The survivors, however, rushed up to and cut the wire entanglements, notwithstanding the terrific fire from the enemy, and after overcoming supreme difficulties, the cliffs were gained and the position maintained. Amongst the many very gallant officers and men engaged in this most hazardous undertaking, Captain Bromley, Serjeant Stubbs, and Corporal Grimshaw have been selected by their comrades as having performed the most single acts of bravery and devotion to duty.” (The citation for Bromley, Stubbs, and Grimshaw was not issued until March 15, 1917, due to War Office regulations and red tape; the citation for Willis, Richards, and Keneally, worded identically, had been issued on August 23, 1915.) Stubbs was awarded the medal for his leadership in getting his men through the wire and up the cliffs. He was killed later in the day making the assault on his company’s the final objective; his body was never recovered. Stubbs’s V.C. medal is on display at the Lancashire Fusiliers

A boat carrying Lancashire Fusiliers, bound for Gallipoli.
W Beach, on the other side of Cape Helles from V Beach, was about 350 yards long and 40 yards wide at its widest point.
While it lacked the strong defensive positions provided by the fort and castle at V Beach, it was mined,
had extensive barbed wire entanglements and
the only exit was via a gully that could be easily defended. There were about three platoons of Turks at W Beach. British
accounts say there was at least one machine gun, Turkish accounts say there were none.
The 1st Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers came ashore from 32 cutters. As at V Beach, the defenders held their fire
until the boats were almost to the shore. Unlike V Beach, the Lancashires were able to get ashore and, knowing that to
stay on the exposed beach meant being annihilated, they kept moving forward, despite suffering horrendous losses. The battalion suffered 533 casualties, over half its strength. At 7.15am, about an hour after the landing began, the beach was secured.
With V Beach still closed, the main force began to come ashore at W.
Six Victoria Crosses were awarded at W Beach, which thereafter was known as Lancashire Landing.
The VC recipients were elected by the survivors of the battalion because it was deemed to contain "equally brave and distinguished" men.
W Beach would become the main British base at Helles through the campaign.