FORTY-ONE
men were going to die this day
April 25, 1915 GallipoliFive o’clock, in the uncertain pale light of an Aegean morning, the village of Sedd El Bahr was now clearly visible. The beach below the village had been scanned and studied from the sea and was known to be entrenched and strewn with barbed wire. However, the invasion planners assumed that a heavy barrage from guns of the battleships HMS Albion and Cornwallis would so devastate the beach and demoralise the defenders, that little resistance would be met as the troops waded ashore.
The SS River Clyde, converted into a troop carrier with 2000 troops aboard, slowly eased towards the beach, the sea calm and placid.
Then the barrage commenced, gunfire crashed out, heavy naval gunfire, screaming over Edgar’s head, making him jum
