NINETY years ago on Monday, the Gallipoli campaign entered into its bloodiest phase with the landing of thousands of Allied troops on the Gallipoli peninsula. Michael Gordon of the Royal Hampshire Regiment Museum in Winchester remembers the Hampshire Regiment's heroic but doomed part in the First World War battle...

ON April 25, 1915, an old collier, the River Clyde, steamed towards Cape Helles on the Turkish coast.

Among the troops waiting to disembark were the 2nd Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment.

The plan was to clear the coastline of the defending Turkish forces - most of whom, it was believed, had already been destroyed by naval bombardment - and spearhead an attack which would eventually lead to the surrender of the Turkish capital, Constantinople, and the removal of Turkey from the war.

So began the Hampshire Regiment's heroic but ill-fated landing during the now legendary Gallipoli landings.

Confident of success, the generals thought they could clear the peninsula in 72 hours.

They were wrong.

At 6.20am, crowded together in small boats and weighed down with heavy kit, the soldiers approached the deserted shore in silence.

Suddenly, a devastating volley of machine gun fire ripped through the exposed flotilla.

Turkish guns, carefully concealed among the cliff-tops, inflicted terrible losses, picking off the survivors of the first barrage as they jumped overboard.

A seaplane pilot, flying over the coast, reported that the water ran red for 50 yards from the beach, while boats full of dead and dying drifted out to sea.

Amid the carnage, Captain Unwin of the River Clyde and members of his crew let themselves down into the water to hold the remaining boats together as a makeshift bridge.

More troops emerged into a hail of bullets, the gunners on the deck being unable to accurately locate and destroy the Turkish machine guns.

Meanwhile, those few who had managed to scramble ashore were sheltering below a ruined Turkish fort.

The wounded lay exposed in the hot sun, easy targets for enemy snipers. All attempts to send more men ashore were abandoned by noon.

Brigadier General Napier, commander of the landing force, accompanied by 50 Hampshires, had arrived from another boat and was determined to reach the coast.

When warned that this would be impossible, he shouted that he "would have a damned good try" and pressed on - only to be immediately shot down.

Captain Spencer-Smith of the Hampshires gained the shore and, leading a small party, stormed and took the fort.

The remaining troops disembarked in darkness, and on the following morning began the advance inland.

Meanwhile, further up the coast, French, Indian and Anzac (Australia New Zealand Army Corps) units landed with mixed success.

Torpedo attacks resulted in the withdrawal of the supporting fleet, leaving the soldiers to fend for themselves.

A further landing at Suvla Bay proved disastrous. The Anzacs, providing a diversionary attack, were mown down yards from their trenches.

On August 16, the Hampshires experienced their worst casualties, losing 225 men while courageously attempting a similar diversion at Helles.

By the end of the year, the diseased and demoralised remnant of this brave expeditionary force withdrew, having gained nothing.

The Hampshires alone had lost 1,229 men.

One Australian soldier, about to board an evacuation boat, pointed to the graves of his fallen comrades and was heard to whisper: "I hope they don't hear us go."

The Royal Hampshire Regiment Museum in Winchester is open 10am to 4pm, Monday to Friday, and midday to 4pm at weekends. Information: 01962 863658.