ON the evening of April 24, 1915, there was a general movement among the great gathering of warships and troop transports in the harbour of Lemnos, the little Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea.

One of the most powerful seaborne assault forces of the First World War was on the move.

Slowly the huge troop ships Dongola and Aragon, carrying the whole of the British Army's 88th Brigade, moved out of the bay and crept eastwards at five knots over a quiet sea beneath the moon.

On the Aragon were the 957 officers and men of the Worcestershire Regiment's 4th Battalion, recalled from Burma unaware it was destined to take part in one of the most disastrous military adventures of the war.

The Gallipoli campaign, as it was known, was launched to capture Constantinople and subdue Turkey, Germany's new allies in the region. Instead it ended in embarrassing, if heroic, failure and forever cast a shadow over the career of one of its chief proponents, First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Spencer Churchill.

A month earlier embarkation at Avonmouth had been a cheerful business.

After a week's preparation in camp at Leamington, the 4th Battalion diaries recorded: "Thousands of the civilian population turned out to see the troops off and a whole army of relations from Birmingham were there."

They cheered and waved and cried as their sons and brothers and friends boarded three trains at Leamington station, which steamed steadily across country to Stratford-upon-Avon and down the Great Western line to Bristol.

On arrival, foreign-service helmets were issued before the men began the long process of boarding the huge ships at the quayside.

"It was a lovely morning, bright warm sun, so everyone was as cheerful as could be," says the entry in the diaries.

The mood was still buoyant, although more tense and determined, as the Aragon and Dongola slipped through the calm Aegean waters early on April 25 towards the Gallipoli Peninsula.

At about 3am the moon set and in the ensuing darkness, the transports approached the coast of the appropriately named Cape Helles.

With the first light of dawn the battle began.

From all sides came the flash and thunder of the great guns on the British warships. The troops, crowded on the decks of their transports, watched the spectacle and saw through the smoke of the bursting shells the dark, rising outline of the land.

The Aragon was not in the first wave and as it approached the cliffs, soldiers on board could see the beaches, where already the leading troops were fighting their way forward.

The smooth sea was dotted in every direction with battleships, transports, destroyers and weaving among them steam launches, which towed strings of barges carrying troops into the fighting and bringing back wounded.

Boatloads of injured men were already nearing the Aragon, when at 8.30am a minesweeper came alongside to take off the troops she carried.

Thus did the 4th Battalion, the Worcestershire Regiment enter the Gallipoli Campaign.

The initial plan had been for the battalion to land on a section of coastline codenamed V Beach. However, it soon became clear this had been heavily fortified by the Turks and was a virtual death trap. So the troops were diverted to the neighbouring W Beach, where their orders were to capture the high ground on the right of the beach with a view to working onwards towards V Beach.

As with almost everything connected with this ill-starred adventure, it was a hard and bloody and desperately dangerous slog.

Much of the advance was blocked by thick belts of high barbed wire. Military strategists had planned for this to be blown apart by heavy bombardments from the warships, but the reality facing the infantry was very different.

The wire had hardly been touched and the only way through was to cut it by hand.

Volunteers stepped forward for cutting teams, knowing they faced almost certain death.

Crawling on their backs through the grass, they clipped away at the wire above them.

Every time a hand appeared out of the grass to reach upwards, it was met by a furious volley of fire from the Turkish side until it appeared no more. Then another of the cutting team moved forward, crawled over the body and continued the work.

From the safety of a warship out at sea, the Allied commander Sir Ian Hamilton watched the tense scene.

"Through our glasses," he wrote later, "we could see the men quietly snipping away under a hellish fire as though they had been pruning in a vineyard".

This was to typify the spirit, bravery and determination of the 4th Battalion throughout the costly campaign, which was finally abandoned in January, 1916.

But not before the Worcestershire Regiment had won its first VC.

At 9am on July 2, 1915,

26-year-old Lt Herbert James, of the 4th Battalion, led a raiding party of 30 men on the Turkish trenches at an area called Gully Ravine.

A Regimental history takes up the story.

"At first all went well. The enemy, surprised by the unusual hour of attack, fell back along the trench and Lt James' party were able to make their way up the saphead. Their advance was difficult, for the winding trench was full of dead bodies. Since June 4th fight after fight had raged along it and soldiers of all ranks were now heaped in the trench, some half buried by fallen sand, others but newly killed.

The bombers advanced up the saphead to the trench junction at its further end. There the enemy were in waiting, and a furious bombing fight ensued. The enemy were well provided with bombs (In Gallipoli the British forces had at that date only "jam-tin" bombs. The Turks were supplied with spherical bombs of archaic appearance, but of much greater effect) and in rapid succession the men of Lt James' party were struck down. Presently only four were left standing - the subaltern, one lance-corporal and two privates. These four maintained an obstinate fight, hoping for reinforcements (A message had been sent asking for help; but the messenger had been killed on the way back). Several Turkish bombs fell into the trench and were thrown out or thrown back before they could burst; but at last one bomb burst among them and killed the two privates.

Lt James sent Lance-Corporal R Reece back to bring help and faced the enemy alone. The Turks were organising a counter-attack.

A cluster of bayonets could be seen over the top of the trench. Presently came a shower of bombs and the bayonets moved forward. Before that attack the subaltern fell back along the winding trench, holding back the pursuit by bombing from each successive bend.

The enemy followed. Halfway back along the saphead, Lt James came to a point where a heap of dead bodies blocked the trench. There he found one of his bombers, Pte Parry, lying wounded. To protect him, Lt James turned to bay. Hastily forming a low barricade of sand bags (At that point was a small "dump" of bombs and sandbags) on top of dead bodies, the subaltern organised a temporary defence.

With two rifles and a sack of bombs, Lt James held the trench single handed, alternately lying behind his barricade to fire and then rising to bomb the Turks after his rifle fire had driven them back behind cover. Amid a shower of bombs he held his ground until the arrival of reinforcements headed by Sergt-Major Felix. A barricade was built further down the trench, and the wounded Private Parry was got back to safety. While the barricade behind was being built Cpl Reece joined Lt James and assisted in his defence. He was awarded the DCM for his gallant work.

The exact length of time during which Lt James held his barricade can never be known, but during that time he expended nearly the whole of his sack of bombs. Then at last Lt. James fell back behind the new barricade. The Turkish attack was stopped and the fight died down."

For his gallantry in that fight and in a preceding action when seconded to the 5th Royal Scots, Lt James was awarded the Victoria Cross. He subsequently gained the rank of major and died in Kensington, West London in 1958 at the age of 69.

As the troops finally left Gallipoli, a Brigade Order was issued about the 4th Battalion.

"The Brigade Commander," the order ran, "wishes to place on record the great gallantry and devotion to duty displayed by Lieut Colonel D E Cayley and the officers and men of the 4th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment during the operations.

"The Battalion has always been well in hand and not a single straggler has been reported. They are a splendid example to the Brigade."

In the stiff upper lip language of the day, there was no higher praise.