Gallipoli: V-Beach and the fort of Sedd-el-Bahr, seen from the 'River Clyde', 25 April 1915 [Dardanelles campaign]

(Updated October 2014) This is a finished watercolour of V-Beach at Cape Helles on the Gallipoli peninsula during the morning of 25 April 1915. The Turkish fort on the right is Sedd-el-Bahr (or Seddülbahir). In the lower left foreground is one of the lighters that was placed ahead of the landing ship 'River Clyde' (1905). It is covered in dead soldiers of the British expeditionary force. The Imperial War Museum has a photograph (negative number A03076) of the Gallipoli landing at this point on a copy of which Wyllie is likely to have based this version of the event, which may have been intended as the basis of a magazine illustration, though that remains to be confirmed. It might also have been a drawing Wyllie considered for inclusion in his co-authored book 'Sea Fights of the Great War' (1918) but if so it is not suprising it was omitted and illustration of the Dardanelles campaign represented by images of the offshore bombardment and so on, rather than the slaughter on the beaches. PAE0996 is a preliminary grey wash sketch for it, extensively annotated.

Object Details

ID: PAE0974
Collection: Fine art
Type: Drawing
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Wyllie, William Lionel
Events: World War I: Gallipoli campaign, 1915-1916; World War I, 1914-1918
Date made: circa 1915
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Caird Collection
Measurements: 301 mm x 470 mm