I am reading German sources on Gallipoli, and I have just read an interesting passage. (I will translate it.) I believe that I recently read a similar account from another German source. The account is in regard to the allied landings on the tip of the Gallipoli Peninsula on April 25th.

"Only a few days before a master in the installation of obstacles, Major Effnert of the Pioneers, had built in torpedo warheads, put at his disposal by the Navy, as tread mines."

The reference citation is: Prigge, Major E. R., Der Kampf um die Dardanellen , 1916, Verlag Gustav Kiepenheuer, Weimar, 114 pages, p. 46.

Prigge was Liman von Sanders Pascha's Adjutant at Gallipoli. (Turkish) Major Effnert was a Prussian Pionier=Hauptmann who commanded a Turkish Pioneer Battalion before the fighting and who was the commander of the Turkish Pioneers at the South Group (Cape Helles, etc.) during the fighting at Gallipoli.

I have completed the book, and the book generally seems reliable. (I am deeply suspicious of any source from any side published during the war.) However, I believe I did encounter one statement seemingly twisted so as to conceal a defensive feature of the Straits. (After all, it was 1916!) Given that caveat, Prigge certainly was an authorative source.

Any of the students of the Allied side of the campaign recall the landing forces encountering these mines? (I am not sure if they were installed in the sectors where the Allies landed.) Whether or not they exploded, the discovery of such large mines would have been a note-worthy event. The Turks/Germans were of course short of every sort of supplies and munitions; some of the sea mines utilized were old Russian mines swept at the other end of the Bosporous, refurbished, and re-planted in the narrows. (Nice work if you can get it!) The torpedo warheads could have been very old and obsolete. The British torpedo firm Whitehead (this is from memory, but I think that it is right.) established a torpedo factory at Constantinople in the 1880's. The Naval Museum at Istanbul has an extensive display of these old torpedos. Ask me and I will elaborate.

Bob Lembke

Sounds like massive overkill for what would effectively be APMs Could there be a confusion between warhead and the trigger/fuse from the front ent of a torpedo? I could imagine the latter being used to set off a land mine. Indeed I believe that some British torpedo triggers were used in WW2 for semi improvised railway mines.

Also - may be of interest from the IWM exhibits list

AutoID 686076 DeptName Exhibits IDNO MUN 3272 ItemName Land Mine, 'Tufenjieff' ObjectType mine IndexPlaces Gallipoli IndexUnits TU.A & Turkish Army IndexHistPeriod First World War FullSummary First World War period Turkish land mine dug up at Gallipoli. RelatedImageFile MUN_003272.jpg UncatTransferDate 08/03/2007 05:51:39 URLEncodedDeptName Exhibits FormatDescription land mine in the form of an 11cm cube; the case is made from cast iron. When filled, it would have weighed about 4kg, containing about 780gms of 'Bombite'. It was exploded by means of an electrical detonator. Access On display at IWM London IndexPlace Gallipoli, Turkey Theme Gallipoli 1915 CoLStatus Published DigitalAsset Y IWMImageOwned Y AutoID

Hi Bob,

I'm not sure about the other sectors but land-mines at Suvla are mentioned in a few accounts. None specifically say they were adapted torpedo warheads (but of course that doesn't mean they weren't).

Anyway. here are a couple - one from the official history, the other from a soldier of the 8th Duke of Wellington's (West Riding), recounting the landing of the 11th Division:

'…In place of machine guns five of the eight mountain guns were emplaced in the three forward strong-points to give the infantry close support, and as no barbed wire was available a few contact mines and trip-wires were placed in front of the trenches. Contact mines and trip-wires were also put out on the various likely beaches in Suvla Bay..'

'….The menace was mines, these were equally cleverly concealed in the ground and to all appearance made the place where they were as innocent as a kid. But we soon found out all about them for some of our unfortunate comrades happened to tread on this innocent-looking soil and the next moment there was a loud report and explosion and before one had time to escape, the result was he was being hurled through space minus a limb and in many cases his life. So no wonder our progress was really of a slow nature.'

Tunesmith

Bob,

Liman von Sanders in his 'Five Years in Turkey' also mentions (see page 62) "The available Turkish means of obstruction were as short as were the tools, but we did the best we could. Torpedo heads were used alomgside with the regular land mines and the fences of gardens and fields were stripped of their wood and wire. In places particularly suitable for landings barbed wire was stretched under water."
I remember a thread on this in the very early days of this forum if you want to search back that far

regards
Michael

PS: the old thread was headed 'Land mines and Torpedo heads at Gallipoli beaches' and begun by me on 2 April 2005
sorry but I am currently at the wrong machine and cannot provide a link to this old thread

The word Prigge used was "Torpedokoepfe", or "torpedo head". If it was the fuze they would have said "Torpedozunder". German officers in Constantinople were poking in all sorts of storerooms and collections of junk sending odds and ends to Gallipoli, and Prigge shows a probably bronze mortar taken out of a museum and sent to the front. I understand that a number were sent, but it was found that they (probably being fired with black powser) produced such a cloud of smoke that they revealed their position too well, and they were sent back to the museums.

The other source that I read recently also rang the warhead bell. Thanks for the citation from Liman von Sanders, but I have not read him in years, so it seems that the idea is well corroborated.

There could not have been a lot of these, perhaps none went up, or were even found. Tunesmith's useful quote almost certainly does not refer to these, 300-400 lbs of explosives would remove more than a limb. If one of these went off the event would have been spectacular. However, it might also have been taken for the explosion of one of those 8" shells that the Allied sources freqently mention, but which the Turks surely never had. One useful thing about a bomb is that it destroys the evidence. Perhaps a few of these went off and were ascribed to "Asiatic Annie".

Bob

Your comment about rummaging around in store houses sparks a thought. The Turks were actually pioneers of the submarine and the torpedo boat with the early Nordenfelt steam powered submarine and boats armed with spar torpedos and towed torpedos. The collar carried torpedos on the Nordenfelt and other early boats were comparitively small affairs as were the spar and towed torpedos. It is probable that there would be stocks of warheads for these by now obsolete weapons available - they would be much easier to transport and plant so it may be a reasonable speculation that this is what they were used for. The Turks had land mounted 'modern' torpedo tubes in the narrows and I would have thought that any up to date torps would be reserved for these (hitting a warship is a more efficient use of the things than blowing up some poor infantryman) - pure[ish] speculation though. Would explain why their explosion might be less noticed however.

The yard of the Naval Museum in Istanbul is cluttered with old torpedos, some going back to the Whitehead factory set up, I think, in the 1880's. And these were "modern" torpedos. The Germans who had largely taken over the production of Turkish munitions first sent out requests that useful material be collected, and when the haul was not sufficient German officers went out and poked about in old workshops, arsenals, etc. and found all sorts of things.

Certainly the observation on modern torpedos being more valuable in a torpedo tube than buried in the mud is well taken, and the Navy would not have turned over modern torpedo heads. The spar torpedo idea is good, also. I think that three British battleships were sunk by torpedos, two by a U-boat and one by a Turkish torpedoboat destroyer. I am sure that there supply of these was also tight, and Turkish torpedos might have worked in German torpedo tubes. Sneaking torpedos thru neutral but hostile Romania would have been a lot harder than MGs cast into a block of concrete, or an artillery shell in a barrel of beer. The bribes would have been horrific.

The Naval Museum is on the European shore of the Bosporus, about 1-2 miles north of the Galata Bridge and the Golden Horn. There is a water ferry station right in front. Three years ago we took a ferry over to Aisa from a station near our apartment in Stanbul for $0.40, and then a $0.65 ride over to the ferry station at the Museum. (I may have the fares reversed. It was not rush hour and no ferries seemed to be running directly north up the European shore line. Tea served at your seat on the ferry in a fairly formal fashion was $0.50.)

Bob