The landing at 'V' Beach was to be made by boats containing three companies of the 1st Royal Dublin Fusiliers, followed by the collier 'River Clyde' skippered by 51 year old Commander Unwin who had come out of retirement. He had initially commanded the Torpedo Gun Boat HMS Hussar and brought with him some of her more experienced hands. On the day they would give him their best. The River Clyde was carrying have the rest of the Dublins, the 1st Royal Munster Fusiliers, half the 2nd Hampshire Regiment and other troops.

The River Clyde would be beached and floating walkways would allow the men aboard to land dry-shod. It is an axiom of war that “no plan survives contact with the enemy” and on April 25 the ship came under sustained fire from Sedd el Bahr fort overlooking V Beach. Exits had been cut in the hull but as the troops emerging one by one presented perfect targets to the Turkish machine gunners. Out of the first 200 soldiers to disembark, only 21 men made it onto the beach

Meanwhile the ship's crew fought to keep the floating walkway together and were to win six VCs that day

The recipients were Unwin, Midshipmen George Drewry (20) and Wilfred Malleson (18), Able Seaman William Williams (34), Seaman George Samson (26) and Sub-Lieutenant Arthur Tisdall (24) from the Royal Naval Division (RND). Of Williams was killed during the landing and Samson was severely wounded the following day. On leave in Scotland he was handed a white feather because he was wearing civilian clothes and the donor assumed he was a “cowardly” civilian who had not joined the forces.

Malleson the last VC survivor died in 1975 – River Clyde was refloated in 1919 and finally ended her days in 1966 being broken up for scrap in Spain. 

On the morning of April 26, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Doughty-Wylie and Captain Garth Walford led the survivors on the beach to the capture of Sedd el Bahr village and the fort. Both won the Victoria Cross, but were killed during the fight (Captain Walford is buried at V Beach). That evening, the main body of the French Corps began to land at 'V' Beach and the following day, the front line was pushed about three kilometres inland.

The grave of Colonel Doughty-Wylie is immediately north of Sedd el Bahr, opposite the point at which the River Clyde was beached. He is buried where he fell, close to the old fort to which he led the attack. His grave is the only solitary British or Commonwealth war grave on the Gallipoli peninsula: The Turkish authorities moved the graves of all other foreign soldiers to the "V Beach" graves except for his. Remarkably Doughty-Wylie at 46 a veteran of numerous colonial wars had also had a posting in Turkey where because of his work with the British Red Cross during the Balkan Wars had been awarded the Order of the Medjidie by the Turkish Government.