anzaccove

A hand-coloured version of this view, by Frank Hurley, added by the State Library of New South Wales

This is not Anzac Cove, but W beach at the south of the peninsula. Anzac Cove was a much more confined space with just a strip of narrow beach. After that the land rises steep to a plateau. This gave Anzac Cove protection against Turkish artillery fire. W-beach is a much more open space with a V shaped beach at the end of a gully. Nowadays you can reach this beach even with a touring car. The remnants of the piers can still be seen along the waterfront. www.flickr.com/photos/hansderegt/3411651456/in/set-721576...

"Russell's Top was part of a ridge line that stretched northwest from ANZAC Cove and joined the "second ridge", along which the ANZAC frontline was established, at the large round hill called Baby 700. Russell's Top was joined to Baby 700 by a thin bridge of land called the Nek. "The Top" was the highest point within the ANZAC perimeter and commanded views along most of the Turkish line to the south of Baby 700. On it was sited an artillery battery and at least eight machine-guns. It was named after Brigadier Andrew Russell, commander of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade, who established his headquarters on it in May 1915." — Australian War Memorial Rev Ernest Northcroft Merrington (the photographer), (1876-1953) was chaplain to the Australian Light Horse Regiment. He was a founding father of Emmanuel College.

He lived here

Jack's Australian Army papers can be seen here recordsearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/Imagine.asp?B=3108663 Originally presumed missing in action, his body now lies in Shell Green Cemetery. www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/606248/BRADLEY,%20JAC...

25th April 1915 was the date of the landings in Anzac Cove, the unit war diary (PDF) suggests that 12th Battalion AIF landed on Anzac Cove at around 4:10 AM, suffering a "large number of casualties on + before landing" from both artillery and machine gun fire. The commanding officer (Lt Col Lancelot Fox Clarke) was killed as were and four other officers and 25 other ranks (a further 90 other ranks being reported missing). Private Bradley's army papers (see Moominpappa06's link above) suggest that there was some confusion over the exact date of his death, at least initially.

Help piece together the Life Stories of more than 8 million men and women who made a contribution during the First World War at www.livesofthefirstworldwar.org/