http://www.anzacsite.gov.au/2visiting/t ... bahir.html
Above Ertuğrul Cove and in the old fort of Seddülbahir (Barrier of the Sea) the Turks had only a small number of men and four old machine guns. As the British boats came into the beach, and when men tried to land from the River Clyde, these machine guns did terrible work. A Royal Naval Air Service observer flying above the battle that morning reported that the shallow waters of the cove were ‘absolutely red with blood’. Midshipman George Drewry, who was awarded the Victoria Cross for his courage at this landing, wrote to his father: ‘I never knew blood smelt so strong before’.
To the left of the Ertuğrul Rampart is a monument to the Turkish soldiers who defended Ertuğrul Cove - the Yahya Çavuş Şehitlik ve Aniti, the Sergeant Yahya cemetery and memorial. Sergeant Yahya, 10th Company, 3rd Battalion, 26th Regiment, took over the company when the commander Lieutenant Abdürrahim was killed. For most of 25 April 1915 the sergeant and other isolated pockets of Turks in the Seddülbahir Fort beside Ertuğrul Cove, fought back the British landings. The Sergeant Yahya memorial imagines him and his men charging with bayonets fixed towards the cove; in reality, they did far more damage with their rifles.
The defence of Ertuğrul Cove was a desperate affair for the Turks. In charge of the 3rd Battalion, 26th Regiment, was Major Mahmut who, when he ordered one of his platoon commanders, Abdul Rahman, at Seddülbahir Fort to lead a charge at the enemy, received this response:
Send the doctors to carry off my wounded, alas! alas! My Captain for God’s sake send me reinforcements because hundreds of soldiers are landing. Hurry up, what on earth will happen, my Captain.
However, the Turks managed to pin the British down during 25 April and it was only under cover of darkness that the remaining men on the River Clyde could be landed. On the morning of 26 April 1915, a charge was led up from the beach and through Seddülbahir village by Colonel Charles Doughty-Wylie. Force of numbers now pushed the Turks back. Doughty-Wylie was killed and his grave, the only single Allied grave outside a cemetery on Gallipoli, stands today just above Seddülbahir. Of the small Turkish garrison who defended Ertuğrul Cove, the British official historian wrote that:
… they rendered a service to the defence which it would be difficult to exaggerate … There can be little doubt that the failure to capture ‘V’ Beach till the 26th was the main cause of the collapse of the British plan.
http://www.salihsaydam.com/Canakkale_En.html
More than 4650 shells were fired by the Allied fleet in support of the three battalions of British troops trying to land at Ertugrul Bay (V Beach). Many of the Turkish soldiers defending the position were buried alive in their trenches.
However, the 63 men of the 1st Platoon of the 10th Company of the 26th Regiment's 3rd Battalion, commanded by Sergeant Yahya of Ezine managed to halt the landing. For 10 hours they prevented the three British battalions from advencing. According to some sources, the sea was red for 50 meters from the shore stained by the blood of fallen British soldiers. Such was the weight of fire directed against them that some of the British troops thought they were opposed by at least a division of the Turkish army. Most of Sergeant Yahya's platoon were killed in action. When he became too badly wounded to fight, the sergeant withdrew with the few surviving men of his unit to the nearby field hospital at Alçitepe, where he later died of his wounds.