August OffensiveCommitted to battle, General Sir Ian Hamilton's force was to be reinforced in order to break the stalemate. Meanwhile, the Queen's
Own Dorset Yeomanry (QODY) had already been redeployed from duties on the coast of East Anglia to Egypt but the first of the Dorset
units to fight at Gallipoli were the 5th (Service) Battalion, The Dorsetshire Regiment. Formed entirely of Kitchener Volunteers
from the county, the Battalion left England on 3rd July aboard the 'Aquitania', as a part of the 11th Division, sailing to Lemnos.
Here they became acclimatised to the conditions by digging wells for the growing force and making roads. However, a virulent stomach
bug laid many low and was a portent of things to come in the Suvla trenches.
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