Machine gunners at Chunuk Bair
Leonard Leary was an ammunition handler with a Wellington Infantry Battalion machine gun team, and was wounded at Chunk Bair. The outdated Maxim machine guns used by New Zealand troops on Gallipoli were operated by a team of six men. These teams had to carry their guns up to vantage points and assemble them there in the heat of battle.
Listen to Leonard Leary reading from his memoir about the battle of Chunuk Bair.
Year:1915
Location:Gallipoli, Turkey
Machine gunners at Chunuk Bair
Leonard Leary was an ammunition handler with a Wellington Infantry Battalion machine gun team, and was wounded at Chunk Bair. The outdated Maxim machine guns used by New Zealand troops on Gallipoli were operated by a team of six men. These teams had to carry their guns up to vantage points and assemble them there in the heat of battle.
Listen to Leonard Leary reading from his memoir about the battle of Chunuk Bair.
Year: 1915
Length: 14:45
Source: Radio New Zealand Collection, Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision
Catalogue Reference: 247028 [Gallipoli veteran Leonard Leary talks about conditions and fighting on Chunuk Bair.]
People: Leonard Leary
Location: Gallipoli, Turkey
Tags: Chunuk Bair, Machine Guns, Offensives, Casualties, Gallipoli
Image Title: Len Leary in retirement
Image Source: Auckland War Memorial Museum, Cenotaph, http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/C48182
Although machine guns were not widely used by the Anzac troops at Gallipoli, each New Zealand infantry brigade was allocated a machine gun section with two Maxim guns.
These were an early form of machine gun, already superseded on the Western Front by the Vickers. The Maxim required six men to operate it: one to shoot, one to continually reload, two to pass forward parts and ammunition, and two to signal and scout. In this extract, Leonard Leary describes his role as an ammunition handler.
Generally, machine guns would be set up at vantage points prior to a battle. However, at Chunuk Bair this was not possible, and the guns had to be carried into positions formerly occupied by Turkish soldiers. The teams therefore had to wait until the infantry had cleared these areas before they could carry their guns forward and set them up. Their positions remained very exposed, and Turkish troops concentrated their fire on the threat of the machine guns.
After the Anzac troops withdrew from Gallipoli, the machine gunners were combined into a specialist Machine Gun Corps to fight on the Western Front. The Maxims were replaced by newer Vickers guns.