The Gallipoli Campaign, also known as the Dardanelles Campaign, was
conceived by the British at the start of 1915. The war on the Western Front had
become deadlocked with the combatants on both sides entrenched. The Allies
(Britain, France and Russia) planned the Gallipoli Campaign to get around the
Central Powers’ (German, Austro-Hungary and Turkey) entrenched western
defences. If successful, the campaign would provide relief to Russia’s army by
diverting the Turkish forces and threaten the Ottoman capital of Constantinople
(Istanbul). Finally, it would open a sea route for supplies to and exports from
Russia’s Black Sea ports.
But the campaign was a major failure for the Allies. Historian
Liddell Hart described it as “a sound and far-sighted conception, marred by a
chain of errors in execution almost unrivalled even in British history”.
The initial plan was to force the Dardanelles strait with a
naval attack on the Turkish fortifications guarding it. But following the
sinking of three Allied battleships by mines on 18 March 1915, plans were
reformulated to make an attack by land. The plan involved landing British
forces at five beaches around Cape Helles at the tip of the Gallipoli peninsula,
named from east to west as S, V, W, X and Y Beaches. French forces were to land on the Asiatic
side of the strait as a diversion from the main attack. The Australian and New
Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) were to land at a small cove – now known as Anzac
Cove – to the north of ‘Y’ beach.
The first landings took place on the morning of 25 April. It
is a date commemorated annually in Australia and New Zealand as Anzac day. The
landings at some sites on that first day were initially relatively unopposed,
but the main landings at V and W Beaches were chaotic and bloody, with great
loss of life. Allied soldiers disembarking from their landing craft were caught
up in submerged barbed wire and were shot by the Turkish defenders who were
situated on high ground overlooking the beaches.
Several CONDR*Ns died in the Gallipoli campaign, and I shall
write more of the progress of the campaign and of those men in subsequent
postings.
Private John CONDRON
(service no. 11362) was killed in action on 26 April 1915 on V Beach. He
was born on 3 February 1894 and baptised the following day in the Roman
Catholic parish of Rush, County Dublin. He was the son of Michael and Mary
CONDRON.
John CONDRON was described as a “labourer” in the 1911
census, when he was living at home with his widowed mother, four brothers and a
sister. He joined the 1st Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers, also
known as “Torquay’s Regiment”: the regiment was billeted at Torquay until St.
Patrick’s Day 1915, and left their regimental colours there for safe-keeping
when they set sail for the Mediterranean. The “1st Dublins”, as part
of the 86th Brigade of the 29th Division, landed at V
Beach on 25 April.
John’s parents were married in 1881, in the Balrothery
registration district in which Rush is situated. Michael CONDRON was baptised
in Rush in 1835. His bride, Mary CASHELL (or KESHAN or KESHELL) was 25 years his junior, born about 1860, also in Rush. Michael is described as a farmer in the
1901 census: he died in 1905. The couple
had nine children: Patrick (born 1882), Margaret (1884), William (1887), Mary
Ellen (1889), Michael (1891), John (1894), Sarah (1896), Christopher (1898) and
Joseph (1901).
It appears that John’s grandparents were Patrick and Mary
(nee ARCHBOLD) CONDRON. The couple were married in Rush on 6 December 1834.
Patrick, who was a labourer, died in 1876: his wife Mary died in 1887.
John CONDRON’s death was reported in the Western Times for
Tuesday 8 June 1915, under the headline, “Heavy Losses in the Dardanelles
Fighting”. He is memorialized on Special
Memorial A.26 at the V Beach Cemetery, Turkey.
For other blog posts about CONDR*Ns in the
First World War, click on "First World War" in the Labels list on the
right of the blog web page. Comments and corrections welcome, either by
leaving a comment below or by email to me: CONDRAN[AT]ONE-NAME.ORG
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