Tony Barton
Company Commander
GALLIPOLI :~
The campaign is pretty well known: the attempt in 1915 to knock the Turkish Empire out of the Great War by capturing Istanbul by an amphibious landing .
It was a bloody stalemate , the first of a lamentable series of amphibious disasters promoted by Churchill in two wars.
The planning was pathetic , the tactical leadership timid and chaotic, and the Turks were not going to be rolled over by anyone , especially as security was so lax they had a month to prepare .
Troops from all over the British Empire were involved, notably the Anzacs , but the bulk of the troops were British , including Territorials like the 8th Lancashire Fusiliers from Salford. This was not the Lancashire Fusiliers of “ five V.C.s before breakfast” fame ( those were from the Regular 1st Battalion in the initial landing ) , but a unit in the 42nd Division who were amongst the very first Territorials sent overseas, first to Egypt, then landing at Cape Helles in May 1915.
They lost over half their men before the evacuation.
There is this splendid pic of them about to land :~
The main interest is in the archaic outfit, faintly redolent of the Boer War.
The Wolseley helmet was standard during the Great war in hot climates , but they also wear the Infantry version of the1903 Bandolier equipment.
I recently took delivery of all the lost-wax brass castings I commisioned to make this , so felt I had to get on with it !
The 1903 Equipment was a stop-gap introduced after the Boer War to replace the buff leather Slade-Wallace, and had some advantages : it was light, and didn’t have the carrying capacity to be overloaded , which was good for the soldiers. It did however compress the chest , and had most of the weight on the belt , which the 1908 web equipment which replaced it was designed to avoid.
By and large it vanished from frontline service by late 1915 , except by the cavalry , who found it suited them well, and retained it until dismounted in 1942.
He also carries the Long Lee-Enfield rifle , modified before the war for charger-loading and thus known as the CLLE .The official SMLE was still in short supply, and went to the Regulars in France .
Our Corporal is hardly in the first flush of youth : many Territorials , who had signed on cheerfully as weekend soldiers in the pre-war atmosphere of a social club , were getting a bit old for this sort of thing in the field .
The belt carries the bayonet, E-tool (the helve in another frog ), messtin and 60 rounds ; the bandolier another 50 rounds ; and his food and drink go in the haversack and waterbottle. The webbing skeleton carrier holds the rolled greatcoat.
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The figure itself :~
Inspired directly by a Mike Chappell plate , he's a Soldier Story body wearing a dyed and retailored Sideshow uniform .
I made this before the recent DiD figure with the SD uniform became available , and I still have a backlog of these uniforms to get through ; the rest scratchbuilt.
The leather is from PAD75, dyed. All the buckles have been specially cast for me from my patterns by Beechcraft in Birmingham ( if anybody wants a set , get in touch ) . The rifle and helmet are my own resin castings, the badges my own pewter and etched brass.
The rank stripes are the cross-woven pattern common at the time : a little hand –painting job.
His shoulder titles follow the usual Territorial style , with a T above 8 above the L bomb F.
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I’ve shown him straight off the boat and essentially unweathered.
Once ashore, they were committed to living in trenches under constant fire, in all the climatic misery that the Aegean can inflict, with the occasional frontal attack to cheer them up. There was nowhere to get out of the Line , except on the beach , which was under sporadic fire which the resting soldiers seem to have treated as an amusing gamble .
*******************************************************************************************************
The campaign is pretty well known: the attempt in 1915 to knock the Turkish Empire out of the Great War by capturing Istanbul by an amphibious landing .
It was a bloody stalemate , the first of a lamentable series of amphibious disasters promoted by Churchill in two wars.
The planning was pathetic , the tactical leadership timid and chaotic, and the Turks were not going to be rolled over by anyone , especially as security was so lax they had a month to prepare .
Troops from all over the British Empire were involved, notably the Anzacs , but the bulk of the troops were British , including Territorials like the 8th Lancashire Fusiliers from Salford. This was not the Lancashire Fusiliers of “ five V.C.s before breakfast” fame ( those were from the Regular 1st Battalion in the initial landing ) , but a unit in the 42nd Division who were amongst the very first Territorials sent overseas, first to Egypt, then landing at Cape Helles in May 1915.
They lost over half their men before the evacuation.
There is this splendid pic of them about to land :~
The main interest is in the archaic outfit, faintly redolent of the Boer War.
The Wolseley helmet was standard during the Great war in hot climates , but they also wear the Infantry version of the1903 Bandolier equipment.
I recently took delivery of all the lost-wax brass castings I commisioned to make this , so felt I had to get on with it !
The 1903 Equipment was a stop-gap introduced after the Boer War to replace the buff leather Slade-Wallace, and had some advantages : it was light, and didn’t have the carrying capacity to be overloaded , which was good for the soldiers. It did however compress the chest , and had most of the weight on the belt , which the 1908 web equipment which replaced it was designed to avoid.
By and large it vanished from frontline service by late 1915 , except by the cavalry , who found it suited them well, and retained it until dismounted in 1942.
He also carries the Long Lee-Enfield rifle , modified before the war for charger-loading and thus known as the CLLE .The official SMLE was still in short supply, and went to the Regulars in France .
Our Corporal is hardly in the first flush of youth : many Territorials , who had signed on cheerfully as weekend soldiers in the pre-war atmosphere of a social club , were getting a bit old for this sort of thing in the field .
The belt carries the bayonet, E-tool (the helve in another frog ), messtin and 60 rounds ; the bandolier another 50 rounds ; and his food and drink go in the haversack and waterbottle. The webbing skeleton carrier holds the rolled greatcoat.
********************************************************************************
The figure itself :~
Inspired directly by a Mike Chappell plate , he's a Soldier Story body wearing a dyed and retailored Sideshow uniform .
I made this before the recent DiD figure with the SD uniform became available , and I still have a backlog of these uniforms to get through ; the rest scratchbuilt.
The leather is from PAD75, dyed. All the buckles have been specially cast for me from my patterns by Beechcraft in Birmingham ( if anybody wants a set , get in touch ) . The rifle and helmet are my own resin castings, the badges my own pewter and etched brass.
The rank stripes are the cross-woven pattern common at the time : a little hand –painting job.
His shoulder titles follow the usual Territorial style , with a T above 8 above the L bomb F.
******************************************************************************
I’ve shown him straight off the boat and essentially unweathered.
Once ashore, they were committed to living in trenches under constant fire, in all the climatic misery that the Aegean can inflict, with the occasional frontal attack to cheer them up. There was nowhere to get out of the Line , except on the beach , which was under sporadic fire which the resting soldiers seem to have treated as an amusing gamble .
*******************************************************************************************************
