Hi,

Wonder if any of you can help - be gentle with me am new to this site!

My Father has possession of my Great Grandfather's and great great Uncle's medals from WWI.

My GtGt Uncle was on board HMS Implacable and we believe he was during the Gallipoli campaign, I have searched on the internet and have come across some info on the Implacable but not a cracking amount - wondered if you knew more?

I know about it's role around Beach 'X' - but that's about it.....

One thing that has confused us is the presence of Turkish Star amongst these medals....not that I'm saying he was a thief - but you have to wonder how he got it unless I'm missing something......just wondering if you have any theories on that too ?!

Thanks

Jules

My grandfather served on HMS Implacable from pre-WW1 to 1916. In 1914 they were in action along the Belgian coast, largely doing escourt duties, and then in early 1915 moved to the Aegean sea to take part in the Gallipoli campaign. On 25th April 1915 the ship was off X Beach and landed 2nd Royal Fusiliers, but one party also landed the 1st Lancashire Fusiliers on W Beach: my grandfather was in that party. The ship also supplied fire support throughout the campaign, and I know my grandfather spent most of his time on Cape Helles; presumably working on a Naval shore party seeing the boats carrying troops in and out. As a child I used to play with his entrenching tool in my grandma's back garden in East Ham!

The ships logs are at the National Archives in London, but sadly they don't give much detail.

Hope that helps.

Your great great uncle's service register, listing all the ships he served on will be in ADM 188 at Kew.

A scan or a picture of the Turkish star would help identify it. The Turks or their representatives gave out a lot of medals to British personnel before WW1.

Jules, got this on the Implacable but don't know anything about the medals.

HMS Implacable
Built Devonport Dockyard, laid down July 1898, completed September 1901, cost £1,063,616.

Size:
Length 411 feet waterline 431 feet 9 inches overall, beam 75 feet, draught 26 feet 9 inches, displacement 14,658 load 15,805 tons deep.

Propulsion:
2 shaft Triple Expansion, 15,500 ihp, 18 knots
Trials:
Implacable 15,262 ihp = 18.22 knots

Armour:
9in belt, 12in barbettes, 10in gun houses, 3-1in decks

Armament:
4 x 12in 40 cal BL (2 x 2), 12 x 6in QF (12 x 1), 16 x 12pounder QF (16 x 1), 6 x 3pounder (6 x 1), 4 x 18in TT

World War 1 Service:
5th Battle Squadron Channel Fleet.
Late October 1914 attached to the Dover Patrol for bombardment of the Belgian coast.
March 1915 transferred to the Dardanelles.
25 April 1915 supported landings at Helles.
22 May 1915 detached to the Adriatic to support the Italian Navy.
November 1915 3rd Detached Squadron at Salomika supporting the blockade of Greece.
November 1915-April 1916 Suez Canal Patrol.
April 1966 refit at Plymouth.
June 1917 present at Athens for the abdication of the King.
March 1917 paid off so crew could be used for anti-submarine ships.
March 1918 depot ship.
1921 sold for scrapping.

Best wishes

David

Jules

A couple of mentions in "Dardanelles - A Midshipman's Diary", H.M.Denham (on board the Agamemnon):

[1915]
Sunday May 9th. 5.30. Came to anchor off Cape Helles in order to change places with Implacable. ................... Very peaceful day. ................

Tuesday May 11th. Weighed at 5.30a.m. and proceeded Cape Helles to coal. .................... Asiatic batteries dropping many shells into Seddul Bahr, and Implacable, being new on the job, cannot stop them, so the Admiral has ordered us to resume our original jobs this morning.

Cheers, Frev.

Quotation..........

Gallipoli The Allied Failure
by T.H.E. Travers
(http://www.worldwar1.com/neareast/gallfail.htm)

'....Since the Helles area was specifically chosen for the major landing because naval gunfire would be available, it is surprising to read that Admiral Wemyss' naval conference of 21 April left open the very important question of whether ships would shell the coast ridges or the beaches during the landings, although the earlier plan had been to shell the beaches. The naval attitude evidently was that it did not matter particularly which option was chosen, the men would get ashore and automatically fight forward as of old. But it did not matter. Only at "X" Beach did Captain Lockyer bring HMS Implacable close in to support the landing with his 12-inch guns and largely make it successful, while it seems that Captain Davidson of HMS Cornwallis could have saved many lives at "V" Beach if he had just brought his ship around after landing his charges at "S" Beach, as originally instructed.'

Mark

Thanks all for your replies....PAPMPT regarding the medal here's a link

http://www.grantsmilitaria.com/militariaph...ges.asp?key=164

Hope that helps?

Jules

The medal is the Turkish War Medal awarded for distinguished service. It was instituted very early on [I have seen one quote giving 1st March 1915] and it was certainly awarded for the Turkish victory in the Dardanelles on 18th March 1915. This may have begun the common but erroneous practice of calling it the Gallipoli Star. Perhaps your relative got it from a PoW?

Lockyer, the Implacable’s captain, was an expert seaman and navigator; he was involved in surveys and charting off east Africa, the Mediterranean, Newfoundland and the English Channel. As Navigating Officer of the Fearless in 1891-93 during their survey at Mudros, his team was worked particularly hard by their Captain, A. C. Corry RN. Lockyer had his revenge however when he named four hills around the harbour mouth; Yam, Yrroc, Eb and Denmad. Apparently Corry never bothered to read these names backwards! [May Corry be damned]

Confidence in his own and his team’s ability also allowed him to go out on a limb at Gallipoli. On 21st April 1915 at a captains meeting with Wemyss in the chair, the Chief of Staff, Roger Keyes opposed Lockyer’s idea for a bombardment on the way in to the beaches; “You will never be able to pick up the range quick enough.” Despite this, Lockyer, ably supported by his gunnery officer, Lt-Comm. John Scott RN, went ahead anyway.

On the night of 23rd April, the infantry sailed for Tenedos, where their transports lay during the day of the 24th and at about 7 p.m. that evening they trans-shipped to the Implacable. She sailed for Gallipoli at about 10.30 p.m. that night. “They [Implacable] fed the men in the evening and gave them a splendid meal at 03.30 a.m. in the morning, which made all the difference to them in the bad time coming.” Lockyer had an anchor slung over the bow on a spar and he took the Implacable in towards the beach until the anchor dragged. The bombardment started at 04.45 a.m. and the fusiliers started off in their tows at about 05.15 a.m. The Implacable got to within 450 yards of the beach; closer than any other big ship that day.

“As we got to shore the Implacable raised her sights and fired further over our heads. We got off very lightly while getting ashore; I can only put it down largely to the way our mother-ship plastered the beach for us at close range” Lt-Col Henry Newenham, 2nd R.F.

Lockyer’s tactic of getting in close was taken-up by others the next day e.g. the Albion at V Beach, but what a pity that they were not more widely adopted on the 25th [and how many lives could have been saved if they had?]

The picture below is clipped from a photograph which appears as the Frontispiece to ‘With the Twenty-Ninth Division in Gallipoli’ by Rev. O. Creighton, originally published in 1916 but today available as an N & M reprint. It shows “HMS Implacable firing, with 2nd Royal Fusiliers in boats, towed by pinnaces making for landing on ‘X’ Beach” and has the following additional note “This photograph must be unique. Taken on a mine-sweeper at dawn on April 25.”

Regards
Michael D.R.