Battle of Pentemili beachhead

Battle of Pentemili

Pentemili beach

Date	20–22 July 1974
Location	Pentemili, Cyprus
Result	Decisive Turkish Victory, Turkish troops gain a beachhead on Cyprus.

Belligerents

Turkey

Cyprus

Greece

Pentemili is the Cyprus beach where troops first landed on the morning of 20 July 1974 in the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. It is located 5 miles (8 km) west of Kyrenia, thus the name. For 3 days (20–22 July 1974), heavy fighting took place around the beachhead between Turkish and Greek Cypriot forces.

The Turkish task force set sail from Mersin port at 11.30 on 19 July. At about 05.00 on 20 July the fleet reached the northern coast of Cyprus. It initially missed the designated beach of Pentemili, and approached the unsuitable rocky beach of Glykiotissa, 3 km west of Kyrenia. The planned time for the beginning of the disembarkation was 05.30, but because of this mistake, the landing of the first crafts took place at 07.15. The landing finished at about 13.00.

The landed force was the "Cakmak" one infantry marine brigade, consisting of 4 battalions with a nominal strength of 3,500 men, 12 M101 howitzers (105mm calibre) and 20 M113 armored personnel carriers. The task force also carried 15 M47 Patton tanks on the decks of the LST Ertugrul (L401), but those were unable to disembark, as the small size of the beach didn't allow the Ertugrul to approach. One unit of company size was also transported with helicopters to the hills south of the road. A total of roughly 3,000 men was unloaded on the Pentemili beachhead that day.

Two Cypriot torpedo boats were sent to intercept the approaching Turkish flotilla, but were destroyed by Turkish air support. The landing itself occurred under no fire, as there were no units of the Cypriot National Guard in the area. The objective of the landed forces was the port town of Kyrenia, some 8 km to the east of the beach. The Turkish forces, immediately after landing began expanding the beachhead, to give it a safe depth.

The event of a such landing was predicted in the Cypriot National Guard's "Aphroditi 1973" plan. Realization of this plan was thus ordered by the National Guard High Command (GEEF) at 07.00. The unit closest to the beach was the active 251st infantry battalion under Lt. Colonel Pavlos Kouroupis. The 1st company and the support company took position opposing the Turkish beachhead at about 09.30, while the 2nd and 3rd companies retained their positions against the Turkish Cypriot village of Templos. The 251st battalion was aided by a tank platoon of 5 T-34/85 tanks, of the 23rd tank battalion (based in Nicosia). The 1st company took positions immediately to the east of the Turkish beachhead, while the support company was positioned southwest of the beachhead, at the location Pikro Nero.

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Wikipedia