Current Information:

Age-15

Gallipoli 1915

On 25 April, British, Australian and New Zealand forces landed on the Gallipoli peninsula. The plan was that these forces would soon defeat a demoralised Turkish army, knock Turkey out of the war, open up the Mediterranean to the Russian navy and threaten Austro-Hungary from the south. None of these things were achieved despite nine months of hard fighting in terrible conditions. It was a heroic failure.

Aware that an invasion of Gallipoli was coming, the Turks laid mines in the Dardanelles to which the Royal Navy responded by sending minesweepers to clear these obstacles. One of these was HM Trawler Okino which, on 8th March 1915 hit one of these mines and was sunk. Ten of her crew, including Charles Beer, lost their lives.