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DESPATCHES FROM THE

DARDANELLESASHMEAD-BARTLETT’S

DESPATCHES FROM THE

DARDANELLES

LONDON

GEORGE NEWNES, LTD.Third ImpressionCONTENTS

CHAP.

I	PREPARING FOR THE START

II	THE ALLIES’ GREAT TASK ....

III	A BATTLESHIP IN ACTION ....

IV	ASSEMBLING OF A MIGHTY FLEET
V “WAITING FOR THE signal”

VI THE STORY OF THE LANDING

VII FUTILE TURKISH ATTACKS ON COLONIAL TROOPS
VIII SEDDUL BAHR LANDING ....

IX	THE FIRST STAGE—IMPREGNABLE POSITION .

X	FURIOUS ATTACKS ON AKI BABA MOUNTAIN .

XI	DESPERATE ATTACK ON COLONIAL TROOPS
XII GRAPHIC STORY OF BRITISH HEROISM .

XIII	THE GULLY RAVINE .....

XIV	PRODIGAL WASTE OF LIFE .

XV	BATTLE OF JULY 12-13

9

19

28

43

55

62

82

88

102

109

128

136

*45

i53

158

VRICHARD CLAY & SONS, LTD.
PRINTERS

THE CHAUCER PRESS
BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.ASHMEAD-BARTLETT’S DESPATCHES
FROM THE DARDANELLES

CHAPTER I

PREPARING FOR THE START

April 8

Malta has played many great roles in the history
of Europe. “ The little rock of Malta,” says Gibbon,
“ defies the Turkish power, and has emerged under the
government of its military order into fame and opulence.”
On June io, 1798, the island which the eagle eye of
Napoleon had discerned before starting on his expedition
for Egypt as “ La place la plus forte de l’Europe,” passed
into the hands of the French. Their occupation was,
however, brief, and the expedition to Egypt having
failed, on September 4, 1800, General Vaubois, who had
been left in command, surrendered to General Pigot, who
commanded the British and Allied forces. These events
of over 100 years ago have a most important bearing on
the present operations of the Allies against the Dardanelles.
Malta has remained ever since our principal dockyard and
arsenal in the Eastern Mediterranean, and when General
Pigot took over the island, on September 4, 1800, all
unknown to himself he was making possible and practical
the present operations against the Turkish empire.

Little could any one have dreamt in the year 1800
that a century later a combined English and French
Expeditionary Force would be using the famous island
as its base. The importance of Malta cannot be over-io Despatches from the Dardanelles

estimated. Both the English and French fleets and
transports are based on it—over ioo French ships and an
even larger number of British. All supplies, munitions
and ammunition are drawn from its arsenals; to it
damaged ships retire to be docked and repaired; the
wounded find accommodation in its spacious hospitals;
and it is the port of call for all transports on their way
to Egypt and the islands. Happy, indeed, is the nation
which has complete command of the sea. It was the
unfulfilled dream of the Great Napoleon to make the
Mediterranean “ a French lake." His dream has half
come true. At the present moment, when Europe is
ablaze, the Mediterranean is a French and English lake.
The enemies of the Triple Entente have been absolutely
swept from this highway to Egypt and the East. It is
almost as safe now for unarmed merchantmen, transports,
colliers and warships as it is in times of peace. The
smallest and slowest vessels pass up and down it un-
molested, without any escort. The Austrian fleet lies
securely bottled up in the Adriatic, watched day and
night by the latest and most powerful vessels of the
French navy.

No German Warships

There is not a single German warship on the high seas.
Once an English vessel has left the radius of submarine
activity around our shores, and finds herself in the Bay
of Biscay, she can continue her journey practically in
safety to Malta, to the Dardanelles, Egypt, or on to the
Far East. Such is the strength of the Allies at sea, and
such an ascendancy have they established over their
enemies, that whilst Sir John Jellicoe and the Grand
Fleet is blockading the German coast, and whilst the
French are bottling up the Austrian fleet in the Adriatic,
practically the whole of our powerful pre-DreadnoughtPreparing for the Start	n

squadrons are free to attack the Dardanelles and to
assist the French and English armies to open the iron
gate which leads to Constantinople.

Having travelled overland via Rome, I reached Syra-
cuse on March 31, to find an Italian steamer leaving the
same evening for Malta. In Italy I found such con-
flicting views as to Italy’s attitude in the near future
that I finally was glad to abandon any further attempts
to solve the problem and was happy to escape to actu-
alities. But there is an interesting point which seems to
have escaped the notice of many which may yet act as
a powerful inducement to the Italians openly to throw
in their lot with the Allies. In Syracuse I found ten
powerful German and Austrian steamers interned. I
am told that the principal Italian ports are full of Austrian
and German steamers which have been lying idle ever
since the declaration of war. Now, if Italy declares war,
all these vessels will be given forty-eight hours’ notice to
clear out. I do not suppose many will even make an
effort to get away, as they are stranded between the devil
and the deep sea, so to speak, and even if they escape
from the Italian coast they have no ports to shelter them
and must fall into the hands of ourselves or the French.
I am also told that, granted they are given forty-eight
hours to clear from port, they have no crews and could
not get ready in that time. Thus the moment Italy
decides to take the fateful step for which the mass of
the population are undoubtedly longing, she will obtain
a very important acquisition to her mercantile marine,
and after the war a further grave economic loss will be
felt by Austria and Germany.

On arriving the following day at Malta I reported
myself to Vice-Admiral Limpus, who promised to send
me on to the Fleet in the first available vessel. “You
must not mind,” said the gallant admiral, who only gave12 Despatches from the Dardanelles

up the control of the Turkish fleet last August, “ if you
have to sail in a collier, because if you want to reach the
Fleet without delay I believe one is sailing this evening.”
However, it chanced that the ss. Sunik, a brand-new oil
tank steamer carrying 6000 tons of water to the Fleet,
put in to Malta for instructions that same day, and
the admiral informed me I could sail in her on the
following afternoon.

Spirit of the Navy

We are all proud of our Navy, of the great deeds it
has performed, and of the exemplary patience under the
most trying conditions with which the great blockade
has been kept up in the North Sea throughout the winter.
But we ought to be equally proud of the officers and men
who man our mercantile marine, and without whose
cordial and unhesitating co-operation the efforts of the
Navy would be largely wasted. The officers are a splendid
body of men, who deserve well of their countrymen.
They work unnoticed and without hope of reward. This
ship, the Sunik, has spent the winter off the coast of
Scotland and in the Irish Channel. She has braved
storms, submarines, and mines like hundreds of others.
She carries no guns to protect her against the deadly
foe from below, and, as far as I know, the only weapon
on board is the captain's revolver. Whilst off the
English coast from hour to hour no one on board knew
when the summons might come. The officers and crew
carry their lives in their hands. They can expect no
warning and no mercy from the cowardly enemy who
has thrown the laws of war and the time-honoured
dictates of humanity to the winds.

When ordered out to the Mediterranean the Sunik
made her way unescorted down the Irish Channel, across
the mouth of the English Channel, and then on into the13

Preparing for the Start

Bay. After the North Sea, the coast of Scotland, and
the Irish Channel, a cruise down the peaceful Mediter-
ranean comes as a delightful respite to these brave men.
The sunshine of the south has a cheering effect on the
spirits of the crew. You know and feel that you are
absolutely safe from man, and have only the ever-
changing elements to face. These have not been over
kind to the cause of the Allies up to the present. Time
and time again the operations against the Dardanelles
have been hampered by storms, rain and thick
mists.

We left Malta on Friday, April 2, under ideal condi-
tions—bright sunshine overhead, and not a ripple on
the water. It was impossible to believe that Europe
was at war. On Saturday the weather held, and we
made good progress, but on Monday morning we ran
into a storm of wind and rain, which continued almost
without cessation for three days and nights. Many of
our merchant captains and their crews have never
traversed the waters of the Mediterranean; its currents,
changing weather conditions, its lights, and the innumer-
able islands of the Archipelago are a new field of discovery
to them. Amazing as it may seem, the charts are also
old and very inaccurate, all of which adds to the difficulty
of correct navigation. As long as the weather holds, and
you have a long horizon, these difficulties do not count
for much, but when the sea is running high, and every-
thing in front is blotted out by thick, driving sleet and
bursting spray, and when you are not sure of your reckon-
ing, and know from the map there should be an island
somewhere on your port bow, and two smaller ones to
starboard, and that your correct course lies somewhere
through a narrow channel between the two—why, then
even the stoutest-hearted sailor has moments of
anxiety.i4 Despatches from the Dardanelles

Perilous Journey

But we are a Fleet messenger, under orders to arrive
at our destination without delay; the same blood and
spirit of enterprise of the Elizabethan era courses through
the veins of the officers and men, and we press on, groping
our way blindly and risking bumps with the Archipelago.
The captain never leaves the bridge for nearly forty-
eight hours at a stretch. The sea is breaking over our
decks, leaving the well a huge bath of raging surf. Once,
when the sun appears for a moment, we see, a quarter
of a mile away, a small tug towing a lighter and making
very bad weather. She signals, “ Can you tell me where
I am ? Have lost my reckoning.” We reply as approxi-
mately as possible, although our captain frankly admits
privately that he knows little more than the tug. Then
she replies, “ Have lost three of my four lighters, broken
loose; have you sighted them? ” We have not, and
tell her so. One more signal and we part company.
“ You might tell the admiral when you get in.”

Then we are off, and the tug and the lighter, which
have come all the way from Malta, are swallowed up
from view by the huge seas. That night we have to
slow down, because a well-known island, which I will
not name, but which is sacred to Venus, the Goddess of
Love, refuses to reveal her whereabouts under such
conditions, and the captain remarks, “ We can’t have a
love affair in the middle of a war like this.”

Plucky Young Officers

At dawn the sea has risen even more, but it is rather
clearer, and the Isle of Love is visible not far off. Then
we sight two little black dots a long way to port, and
the captain pronounces them to be trawlers. They are
obviously making frantic efforts to overtake us, so wePreparing for the Start	15

slow down and wait in the trough of the sea. They
are having about as rotten a time as any one could wish
for. Every sea sweeps them from bow to stern. They
roll right under the waves and disappear from view for
minutes at a time, and then come bobbing up again,
only to disappear once more. The low bridges are swept
by the surf, and even the funnels and masts are hidden
in the white cloud of breaking foam. “ They are two
North Sea trawlers,” says the captain, “ and wonderful
sea boats they are, but a bit uncomfortable in weather
like this.”

This mild estimate of what the crews must be suffering
sounds almost cruel and callous to the layman’s ears.
When they come up we can make out on the tiny bridges
two figures covered in oilskins, but nevertheless drenched
through and looking like drowned rats. They are two
young sub-lieutenants, not out of their " teens,” who
have been placed in charge of these trawlers to take
them to the Dardanelles. They have come straight from
the North Sea, and have suffered every imaginable form
of discomfort on the way. For the last forty-eight hours
they have been swept fore and aft by the huge waves,
and their officers have not been able to leave the bridge.
But both are cheerful and happy and perfectly frank.
They hail us through the megaphone : “ We are quite
lost; haven’t an idea where we are; where are you
bound for; can we follow you in? ” Our captain gives
our destination, which I am not allowed to do, and
once more we get under way.

The two trawlers, trying to keep close up, have to
increase their speed, and get more buried in the waves
than ever before. They dance on the top of a wave,
are lost to view, then roll their gunwales under and twist
and turn like freak dancers. They fall behind, but keep
us in view until at length we sight our destination.16 Despatches from the Dardanelles

Every full ship—whether a battleship, transport, or
cargo boat—is moving eastwards in the Mediterranean.
Those which go west are empties returning for fresh loads
of warriors, ammunition, or stores. All are animated by
the same indomitable spirit. You see it on the battle-
ship, on the transport, and in the little tug. For the
first time since the last Crusade the West is turning
against the East. The Christian world is about to
avenge the great conquest of the Byzantine Empire
achieved by Mahomed II on that fateful May 29, 1453.

The “Queen Elizabeth”

Now we round a bend and come in sight of a portion
of the Fleet. The first sight which greets our eyes are
the fighting-tops of the mighty Queen Elizabeth—the most
powerful warship afloat in any waters. Her huge body
is hidden by some low-lying land. Shades of Nelson !
But suddenly we see a destroyer dashing her way towards
us and flying the French flag. It is hard to believe that
within two days’ gentle steam of where the Battle of
the Nile was fought, a century after Trafalgar, a French
destroyer is engaged in protecting England’s battleships.

We give our number and the destroyer retires satisfied,
and we make our way slowly in. Then a torpedo-boat,
this time flying British colours, dashes up and asks if we
know our way among the rocks and shoals. We do not
and frankly admit the same, so she gives us a friendly
lead. Half an hour later we are amongst the battleships,
cruisers, store-ships, and destroyers. Everything in the
Navy is organised down to the smallest detail. Our captain
sees a comfortable-looking, unoccupied berth, and makes
for it to anchor. On a battleship close by a sailor sits
astride the bridge and starts furiously waving little flags.
These cannot be read from our bridge and both officersPreparing for the Start	17

and men lack practice at the rapid reading of signals,
so we have to turn the ship and go back. The little
flags tell us that a berth has been assigned for us at
the other end of the bay. When we are half-way across
a pinnace steams up and two officers come on board
who take charge of the ship and conduct us personally
to our anchorage.

On a Super-Dreadnought

This same pinnace, once we are safely anchored, takes
me across to the Queen Elizabeth to visit the admiral.
This, the latest of our super-Dreadnoughts, is a revelation.
She only carries eight great 15-in. guns, and a secondary
armament of 6-in. But those eight make every other
gun you have ever seen look ridiculous and contemptible.
The gunners say they can almost land on a penny at
15,000 yards, even with three-quarter charges. They
have already done some wonderful shooting right across
the Gallipoli Peninsula, over the low-lying ground near
Gaba Tepe. The great ship has in turn received her
baptism of fire, and has been struck by three shells,
one of which came through the gun-room, but fortunately
all the midshipmen were at their stations, and no one
was hurt. Another came through her unprotected side,
high up, but burst without doing any damage. The
third, I think, hit her funnel.

You get a good idea of what a complete command
of the sea we have obtained when you see how we are
able to spare this, our latest and most powerful Dread-
nought, for the operations against the Dardanelles, instead
of hurrying her off, as soon as completed, to Sir John
Jellicoe somewhere in the North Sea. Very shortly there
will be four other Queen Elizabeths ready for active
service; therefore, if the Germans ever intend to leave
the shelter of the Kiel Canal, they had better do so soon.18 Despatches from the Dardanelles

They have no ships afloat which can compare in gun-
power with the Queen Elizabeth class.

A short distance from the Queen Elizabeth lies the
Dreadnought cruiser Inflexible. This ship has seen more
fighting in the war than almost any other vessel in the
Fleet. She was one of Admiral Sir Doveton Sturdee's
squadron when he put an end to Von Spee and his
squadron off the Falkland Islands. The officers tell you
that that action was child's play to what they had to
face on March 18, when the great attack was made on
the Dardanelles. The Inflexible suffered heavily. Her
foretop was hit by a shell, which killed or wounded all
of those up aloft but two seamen. At the same time
another shell set fire to some woodwork at the base of
the mast, and the flames spread upwards, rendering the
task of bringing down the wounded from the fighting-top
impossible until they were extinguished. She will shortly
rejoin the Fleet, as good as ever.

The admiral promised to find me accommodation on
the first battleship available, and I returned for two
days to the Sunik. On April 8 a cutter comes alongside
with orders for me to transfer to the battleship Triumph,
which will take me to the Fleet, which is keeping its
ceaseless watch outside the Dardanelles. On reaching
the Fleet I am transferred to the battleship London,
where for the present I shall remain.CHAPTER II

THE ALLIES’ GREAT TASK

April 12

The days of the Turk in Europe are numbered, but
no one will deny that he is dying hard and game. It
came as a disagreeable shock to many to read on the
morning of March 19 that two British battleships and
one French had been sunk in the Dardanelles, whilst
several others had been hit and damaged. The blow
was all the more sudden because the public had been
led to believe from previous official and unofficial reports
that all was going well.

We were told that the outer forts had been completely
destroyed, and that the work of mine-sweeping had made
excellent progress. This news was given in perfect good
faith, and was also quite true, but we built up on it
too great a structure of hope, few realising the immense
difficulties the Fleet has had to face, obstacles which do
not really commence until the Narrows are approached.
The combined advance of the Allied Fleet up the Dar-
danelles on March 18 was not an attempt to pass the
Narrows. It was merely intended as a great demonstra-
tion against the forts, in order that the destroyers and
sweepers might clear the mine field under cover of the
guns of the ships.

This work was carried out in the most gallant manner,
and was perfectly successful, but, unfortunately, the
further advance had to be abandoned, owing to the
sudden and unexpected disasters to three vessels inflicted

1920 Despatches from the Dardanelles

by drifting mines. Yet the price paid cannot be con-
sidered too high when one remembers the issues at stake,
and the vast bearing they may have on the future of
the war. The Turks have always believed the Dardanelles
to be impregnable, and this belief had been accepted as
the truth by most lay minds until the Navy started to
put the issue to the test. Then for some unknown reason
there came a quite unjustifiable wave of optimism, which
swept over the country until the eyes of the public were
opened by the events of March 18.

Changed Conditions

In the old days of sailing ships the Dardanelles were
a most formidable obstacle, which no admiral would have
faced with confidence. But then the guns of both forts
and ships had only a very short range, and the chief
difficulty was to find a favourable wind which would
carry the old three-deckers past the Narrows up into
the Sea of Marmora. They could have got through had
they been able to keep in the centre of the channel and
make their way against the four-knot current which
comes swirling down. But unless the wind was dead
aft they had to tack from side to side, thus coming
within close range of the forts, whose fire it was almost
impossible to keep down by broadsides.

If it was almost impossible to overcome these obstacles
in the early days of the nineteenth century the difficulties
and dangers of the passage have been increased tenfold
now by long-range weapons, torpedoes, and mines.
Nevertheless, the Navy is of opinion that the Narrows
can be forced, in spite of these obstacles, and this opinion
has been strengthened and confirmed by the great trial
of March 18. It might mean the loss of ships, but if
the occasion justified the sacrifice the Fleet would not
hesitate to make the attempt.The Allies* Great Task

21

But, unless there were a powerful army ready to
occupy the Gallipoli Peninsula the moment the Fleet
passed into the Sea of Marmora, or made its way to
Constantinople, the Straits would immediately be closed
behind it, and, supposing the Turks, backed up by
German officers and German intrigues, decided to con-
tinue the war, it would have to fight its way out, and
again clear the mine field. It has long been an accepted
axiom of naval warfare that ships are of no use against
forts, or that they fight at such a disadvantage that it
is not worth while employing them for such a purpose.

Remarkable Resistance

This axiom must now be modified, after the experience
which the Fleet has gained in the present operations
against the Dardanelles. Any fort built of stone or
concrete, however strong, can be put out of action by
direct fire from guns, if only a clear view of it can be
obtained, or provided aeroplanes are available to “ spot ”
for the gunners, to signal back results, and correct the
fire. Yet nothing has amazed the gunners out here
more than the resisting power of these old forts round
the Dardanelles.

For instance, those at Seddul Bahr and Kum Kale,
at the northern and southern entrances to the Dardanelles,
were subjected to a terrific bombardment by the com-
bined Fleets on February 19, both at long and short
range. They were so completely smothered with fire
that no one believed a stone or a gun could be left stand-
ing. Their fire was, in fact, completely silenced. Yet,
when the landing parties were put ashore to examine
them, the material damage was found to be comparatively
small, although they were mere shambles.

Many of the guns were still intact, and one 9-in. was
actually found loaded. The work of destruction had to22 Despatches from the Dardanelles

be completed by the landing parties, and the forts are
now heaps of unoccupied ruins, with their guns lying
about at all angles. In like manner the forts at Chanak,
on the Asiatic side of the Narrows, and at Kilid Bahr,
on the European, together with the batteries known as
Nos. 7 and 8 lower down the Straits, were silenced tem-
porarily on March 18, because they were so completely
smothered by a tremendous volume of fire that the
gunners were driven from the guns to the cover of their
bomb-proof shelters; but in view of experience gained
on February 25 the Fleet does not claim to have knocked
out many guns in them, and after the disaster to the
Irresistible and Ocean some of the guns were manned
again, and concentrated a tremendous fire on these
unfortunate ships during the work of removing the
crews to destroyers.

Germans’ Valuable Aid

It must also be borne in mind that the Turks were
not relying on their heavy guns alone to defend the
Straits. They knew that their mine field was to a great
extent intact, and that the Fleet would have great
difficulty in getting through without heavy loss. Never-
theless, all those works which actually overlook the
Dardanelles, and are situated right on the shores of the
Straits, can speedily be placed out of action by the guns
of ships, or else smothered with such a volume of fire
that the gunners will be forced to take shelter in the
bomb-proofs. But such works as these only come within
the category of obsolete defences. They are no longer
the real obstacles which must be overcome before the
passage can be forced.

The Turkish soldier fights very well behind entrench-
ments, but he is a very bad gunner and possesses abso-
lutely no knowledge of the science of war. Had theThe Allies* Great Task

23

defence of the Straits been left in his hands alone the
Allied Fleet would most probably have been off Con-
stantinople by now. But the Turkish army, directed by
highly trained German officers, and having the advantage
of their science and technical skill, is a very different
enemy. One must give the Germans their due meed of
praise for the manner in which they have adapted the
defences to meet the immense power of the ships' guns,
and for having built up a kind of secondary defence out
of any material available—which is now proving far
more formidable than the old forts mounting the heaviest
guns.

The Fleet has three main obstacles to overcome, and
to achieve decisive results the assistance of a very large
expeditionary force, supplied with powerful artillery, both
field and howitzer, is essential. First and foremost are
the mine fields, which are constantly being renewed, and
the floating mines, which are carried down by the four-
knot current. It is now generally accepted that it was
mines of this description which sank the Bouvet, the
Irresistible, and the Ocean.

Formidable Obstacles

The second obstacle which must be overcome is
formed by the concealed batteries of heavy howitzers
and direct-fire guns which have been placed in position
since the first attack on the outer forts. The movable
batteries of field guns and light howitzers, which are
shifted from point to point under perfect cover, and
which open up on the ships from the most unexpected
positions, present the third obstacle. All these defences
have an important bearing on each other. For instance,
field guns and light howitzers can do little or no damage
to a battleship cleared for action except to those in her
control tops. Several ships have thus suffered. But24 Despatches from the Dardanelles

they can inflict very serious damage on trawlers and
destroyers engaged in the task of sweeping the Straits.

The work has often had to be checked on account of
the severity of this fire. The destroyers and trawlers go
up the Dardanelles under the protection of a battleship
and commence their operations. They are immediately
subjected to a tremendous fire from the enemy’s light
guns, which are so carefully concealed that the secondary
armament of the battleship in charge finds it almost
impossible to pick up a target. They can only aim at
the flashes of the guns when these are visible, or else by
the map, after an aeroplane reconnaissance has located
a battery. Some guns and batteries are temporarily
silenced, but on the following day they are shifted to a
fresh position and the task of locating them haj to
commence all over again.

Thus the task of clearing the fixed mine field is
rendered extremely difficult. The Germans have also
mounted many heavy guns inland, where it is extremely
difficult to locate them, and some of these are powerful
enough to inflict very serious damage on battleships.
Anything made of stone or concrete which is visible will
be speedily smothered by the direct fire of naval guns,
and by indirect fire, assisted by accurate “ spotting ” from
an aeroplane.

Strength of Earthworks

In this sense the old axiom that ships are of no use
against forts is quite inaccurate, but the enemy has dis-
covered that even the heaviest shells can do but a minimum
of damage to a well-constructed emplacement of earth
thrown up in front of a gun. The great shells from the
ships throw up an enormous amount of smoke and earth,
but the actual damage is small. It can, in fact, generally
be made good during the night, or when the weather isThe Allies’ Great Task

25

too thick to allow of shooting. A battleship has to score
a direct hit on the gun itself before guns mounted in
this simple manner can fairly be said to be out of action.
The difficulty of scoring direct hits is enormous, especially
when the fire is indirect and has to be corrected by
aeroplanes, which are themselves constantly exposed to
heavy shrapnel fire which it is impossible to keep under.

If the ground on the European and Asiatic sides of
the Straits were flat the task would be comparatively
easy, because the enemy’s guns could be kept out of
range by the long-range 6-in. of the ships. Unfortunately,
it is just the reverse. The Gallipoli Peninsula is a jumble
of hills, valleys, small rivers, low-lying ridges, and spurs,
which assume no regular formation, and which seem to
have been especially designed by Nature to assist the
defence of the Straits. In parts the country is thickly
wooded, in others the trees are sparse, and there are
patches of low-lying ground which have been cultivated.
The ascent from the shore is steep and fairly high, and
the ships must clear this initial obstacle before they can
reach their mark.

Concealed Batteries

Amongst this hilly country there are innumerable
positions where guns can be concealed, in valleys, behind
hills, or amongst trees. When a gun or battery has been
located by an aeroplane it is often necessary to fire right
over the top of several ridges of hills, and the smoke of
the bursting projectiles cannot be seen, even from the
control tops. The Asiatic shore of the Straits is lower,
and is commanded along almost its whole length by the
European. The hills are not so flush with the water,
and it is therefore easier to locate batteries on that side.

But even with this small assistance it has been found
impossible to silence the enemy’s guns. Amongst the26 Despatches from the Dardanelles

hills and broken ground they conceal them with ease and
security, and they are also, apparently, able to move
guns with much greater facility on the south side.

The more the task of forcing the Straits is examined,
the more stupendous proportions does it assume. We do
not know what number of troops the Turks have on the
Peninsula and on the Asiatic side, but it must not be
forgotten that they have had ample time and ample
warning to bring up any reinforcements which are avail-
able from the needs of the other theatres of war. They
are entrenched up to their necks, and have placed barbed
wire round every position. The Fleet has done, and is
doing, everything possible to assure success, in the face
of obstacles such as no Fleet has taken on before. The
tale of gallant deeds is a long and glorious one. But the
facts must be faced. They are briefly these—

No Fleet can advance even close to the Narrows,
much less through them, until the mine field has been
cleared. The enemy’s heavy concealed guns and light
mobile artillery render this task impossible, even under
the covering fire of the battleships, for the reasons I have
already explained. In addition, there is every known
reason to believe that the Turks have placed a large
number of torpedo-tubes along both shores. Therefore,
the only way the Straits can be opened is from the land
side. To accomplish this a very large expeditionary
force is required, and also a very large number of field
howitzers, with which to deal with the concealed batteries.

The guns of the battleships can cover a landing, and
their fire will be able to assist an advance inland up to a
certain point, but once the army is on shore it must do
the real work of taking the enemy’s positions in reverse
by its own unaided efforts. We do not know the enemy’s
numbers, but he is entrenched everywhere, and the
lessons of Flanders have brought it clearly home whatThe Allies* Great Task

27

the cost of assaulting entrenched positions means. Every-
thing will depend on the number of guns available for
shore work, and the numbers of infantry.

A great army is required to ensure success. The
occupation of the Gallipoli Peninsula would probably
enable the Straits to be cleared for the ships to pass,
because, as I have already said, the northern shore com-
mands the southern, and the enemy’s artillery on the
Asiatic side could thus be kept at a distance.CHAPTER III

A BATTLESHIP IN ACTION

April

The average man, were he given his choice, would
much rather fight under a blue sky in an even temperature
and amidst beautiful surroundings, than in the cold rain,
fogs, and eternal grey of northern Europe in winter time.
Out here in the Mediterranean we are just entering on
ideal conditions. The weather is fine and it is not too
hot, although already the warmth of the coming summer
can be felt towards noon; the sea for several days has
been perfectly calm, and its deep blue is only rivalled
by the clear sky above. The surrounding islands sparkle
like great jewels in the shining atmosphere. They are
green, and blue, and yellow in turn, as the sun reflects
different points, and over them all tower the still snow-
clad peaks of Samothrace. It is the commencement of
the season so beloved by yachtsmen in past days, when
Constantinople was still governed in the old-time way by
Abdul Hamid, when every one, except the Armenians,
felt secure, and the European colony disported innumer-
able little steam yachts and sailing vessels in the Bos-
phorus, along the shores of the Sea of Marmora, and down
the fateful Dardanelles. But few thought of war then,
and no one anticipated that the East would close the gate
of Byzantium against the West, and that in the year
1915 a huge fleet of British and French battleships would
be cruising outside, waiting to fight its way through the
Narrows.A Battleship in Action	29

Out here, the setting for war does not seem real. It
does not seem right or fitting that Nature should provide
such a beautiful arena for this tremendous conflict of
nations. You have to keep your mind concentrated on
the fact that there is a great war on, and a very grim
tragedy to be played out in the course of the next few
weeks, which will restore the possession of Saint Sofia to
Christianity, or leave the Crescent more triumphant
than at any time since that fateful May 29, 1481, when
Mohammed II entered Constantinople at the head of
his blood-stained Janissaries. At times your mind is
apt to wander, and you imagine you are the guest of
some captain of your acquaintance, who has invited you
to spend a few pleasant weeks on a cruise in Eastern
waters.

Off Duty

When your ship forms part of the squadron which is
off duty, you lie at anchor off Tenedos, and have little
to do except to watch the aeroplanes soaring upwards
from the aerodrome—a fine natural piece of ground,
which might have been specially designed by Nature
for the arrival of Commander Samson and his gallant
crowd of aviators, observers, and mechanics—and then
disappearing towards the Straits, which are only eight
miles away. In the distance you can just see the hulls
and the smoke of the battleships which are on patrol
duty, and you wonder whether they are shelling the enemy
or not, because the sound of the guns seldom travels in
this direction. Otherwise you do little except to try and
find something to read or something to write about.

At night, an atmosphere of greater reality is added
to the scene, because you are battened down. That is
to say, you are sitting in your cabin watching a matchless
sunset, when a huge marine enters, and without a word30 Despatches from the Dardanelles

closes both your ports and fastens down the steel shutters
on the inside. On your first night you ask him why, and
he replies, “ War time, sir, no lights to be shown after
dark.” Thus, throughout the remainder of the evening,
and all through the nights, which are just beginning to
get hot, you have to dwell in this stuffy atmosphere,
and generally wake up with a slight headache, which
soon leaves you when the ports are opened at daybreak.

Then, one evening, it is your turn for patrol, and you
know that for the next forty-eight hours something
exciting may happen. That night we are off the Straits,
and watch the enemy’s powerful searchlights, which
still flash defiantly seawards. We cruise up and down,
and at dawn are just off the entrance. It looks as if
there was nothing to stop your ship from passing right
up into the Sea of Marmora, and on to Constantinople.
There are the battered ruins of Seddul Bahr and Kum
Kale to remind you there has been a fight, but other-
wise you cannot see a fort, a battery, or a single human
being. They might all have cleared out for all the in-
terest they take in us, although we are only half a mile
from the shore, and well within rifle shot. We are on
the bridge, examining the enemy’s positions, when a
sharp-eyed signalman calls out, “ Aeroplane coming over-
head, sir.” We pick it up with our glasses, and see it
is one of the latest which has just arrived from England;
it is flying high, and passes over Gallipoli. Then another
signalman calls out, “ They've fired at it, sir.”

Cruising up the Coast

These remarks have been addressed to the captain.
Just beneath the yellow wings, so it appears, but in
reality much further off, a little ball of white smoke
unrolls itself against the blue sky. It is shrapnel, and
a little later the faint boom of a gun is wafted across theA Battleship in Action	31

glass-like water to our ears. It is followed by another
ball of white smoke, and yet another, but the shots are
not very near. The aeroplane takes not the smallest
notice, but continues on its way like some wild duck in
full flight, undisturbed by the pellets of some sportsman
who is almost out of range in the marsh beneath. The
gunner officer alone becomes fidgety. He edges nearer
the captain, and seems to want to say something, but
waits for yet another puff of white against the blue
background. This does not disappoint him, and he speaks
out: “ Shall I try that battery with a few rounds of
six-inch, sir? ” The captain turns on him, and quells
him. “What is the use? You can’t see where they
are firing from, and, besides, that machine isn’t spotting
for us, for so you won’t be able to correct the aim.”
The gunner leaves the bridge with the look of a man
who has just been refused by a millionairess.

Then we cruise up the Gallipoli coast, a short distance
from the shore, as far as Gaba Tepe. We examine every
yard of the ground, but fail to see a gun or an enemy,
only entrenchments and barbed wire thrown up at various
points where a landing might be attempted. It is a
disappointing morning, and we all long for something
to happen. At Gaba Tepe we turn outwards, and the
captain reminds us that it is Sunday morning by re-
marking to the officer of the watch : “You can pipe
hands for service on the quarter-deck.” A mixed crowd
of marines, bluejackets, stokers, ship’s boys, midship-
men, and officers assemble in a few minutes, and the
band strikes up an Easter hymn. But Easter has already
passed, and I wonder why.

A Delayed Easter Service

Our parson then appears, in his white surplice and
mortarboard, looking rather incongruous on the war-32 Despatches from the Dardanelles

stained quarter-deck, with the crew, no longer in smart
trim uniforms, in front of him, and with the ruins of
Seddul Bahr as a background. All is ready, and an
officer, in a voice which conveys absolutely no meaning
to the lay mind, gives an order, which brings all hats off.
Our parson is a volunteer who was a curate in an East
End parish when war broke out, and who has signed on
for its duration. He is a fine fellow, has a love of fighting
under his clerical exterior, and is a great favourite with
all. He begins, “As we were unable to hold our Easter
Service last Sunday, for reasons which you all know, I
propose to hold it this." Some of the ship’s boys smile,
and a grim look comes over the faces of some of the
older hands. I will here explain that the Easter Sunday
service was not held because the ship was a long way
up the Dardanelles, engaged in a furious duel with the
enemy’s batteries whilst covering trawlers at work mine-
sweeping. The band strikes up a hymn, but the re-
sponse is very feeble. Something seems to have gone
wrong, either because only half the band is able to be
present, or else the crew are disappointed with the quiet
manner in which the morning has passed, and contrast
it sadly with the previous Sunday. A few prayers are
said, a brief extract is read, the Blessing is pronounced,
and all is over.

Lunch is the next item on the programme with which
we concern ourselves, and then those who are not on
duty retire to read or to sleep, and later on to play deck
games just as you do in a liner. Tea comes at 3.30,
followed by a further effort to pass the time. It is now
a little after five. Most of us are gathered on the quarter-
deck, while our parson has just disappeared, fully robed,
into the starboard battery, where he is to hold a service
for the crew only. Suddenly some one rushes up the
companion ladder and says, “ Have you heard theA Battleship in Action	33

news?” "What news?” we ask listlessly. “To-
morrow we are to enter the Dardanelles, and go as far
as the edge of the mine field, to cover a destroyer which
is to make a reconnaisance.” Immediately, as if by
magic, the weary, bored look disappears, and every one
springs to life. You would hardly know you were on
the same ship, and amidst the same companions. Sud-
denly, from the starboard battery, the muttered intona-
tions of the parson are succeeded by a tremendous roar
from hundreds of voices singing, or rather shouting in
unison—

"Abide with me, fast falls the eventide.”

" They didn’t sing like that this morning,” I venture
to remark. " No, they’ve just heard the good news,”
some one replies at my elbow. It is indeed true, and as
the words of that fine old hymn are wafted across the
still waters, they must have been almost audible to the
waiting Ottomans round Seddul Bahr and Gaba Tepe.

Fight in Prospect

The prospects of a fight on the following morning
had a cheering effect on every one on board. The ward-
room mess is gayer that evening; chances are discussed,
and mild disputes arise as to which is really the safest
place on a battleship in action. That evening I was
handed out a patent waistcoat, which keeps you afloat
if your ship strikes a mine, but there is a good deal of
doubt as to which way up.

Those who are accustomed to active service with
armies cannot fail to be struck by the different conditions
which prevail in the Navy. For instance, if a regiment
hears it is to attack the enemy’s position on the following
morning, there are endless preparations to be made,
which will keep every one up most of the night. Maps
must be studied, ammunition and rations served out to

B34 Despatches from the Dardanelles

the men, arrangements must be made for striking camp,
and the regimental transport got ready to move forward
to the new position. Every one of the thirty odd officers
must have his definite and precise instructions as to the
particular role he will be called upon to play. Steps
must be taken to ensure a sufficient reserve of ammuni-
tion, and perhaps rations for two or three days must be
served out to the men. A regiment is, in fact, a body
composed of a thousand odd units, each one of which
has an independent existence during an attack, all of
whom have it in their power to do the right or the wrong
thing. But a battleship is entirely different. On active
service she is always ready for action, and the final
preparations take about five minutes. Thus, your
normal life continues right up to the psychological
moment when the bugle sounds the call to “ Action
Stations.” You can have your bath, and shave, and
dress, and will find your breakfast carefully laid out to
be eaten comfortably just as on any other morning of
the year. There may be a suppressed air of excitement,
and you may notice the crew moving more briskly, but
that is all.

The Captain's Responsibility

Unlike conditions in the Army, there is not that
margin for individual error, and but few have to receive
special instructions, because each of the 800 odd minds
on board knows his special place and special job in action,
and all he has to do is to double there as quick as he
can when the bugle announces that the real work is
about to commence. One brain alone controls every-
thing on broad, and that is the captain’s, who is in the
conning tower with a small staff of assistants. Thus,
when a battleship goes into action, only the captain
knows where she is going and what she is doing. All35

A Battleship in Action

the responsibility rests with him alone, and the large
majority of the ship’s company, buried deep down be-
tween decks at their stations, are led blindly to victory
or destruction without seeing, hearing, or knowing what
is taking place. They are engaged in purely mechanical
tasks, such as stoking, passing up ammunition, minding
the engines, or working the guns. The final efficiency of
a ship’s company can, of course, only be estimated, not
by what the captain does in action, but by the manner
in which the several tasks are carried out.

That night, when I went to bed, I had to pass through
a passage filled with the midshipmen’s hammocks.
You felt almost as if you were back in a public school,
and it seemed strange indeed that so many still in their
teens would be facing just the same risks on the following
morning as the oldest veteran on board. When I awoke
the next morning, I expected to find a scene of bustle,
excitement, and apparent confusion prevailing every-
where. But not at all. At eight a.m. the band struck
up “ God Save the King,” followed by the French and
Russian National Anthems. In the wardroom I found
breakfast going on just as quietly as usual, and many
of the officers reading the papers which had arrived the
night before. On mounting the quarter-deck I found it
was being washed down as usual.

Clearing for Action

We are now lying just off the entrance of the Dar-
danelles. About nine o’clock a stir becomes eviden; on
board. A marine enters my cabin, shuts the portholes,
and carefully screws down the steel shutters. I find
others enaged in a similar task in the wardroom. On
deck I find the crew busily clearing for action, which
consists in closing the companion ways and skylights,
fastening down the steel shutters, and removing the deck36 Despatches from the Dardanelles

rail so that there is nothing to interfere with the fire of
the guns. Between decks I find others stowing all the
hammocks down below, and removing anything which
is inflammable. Others are closing watertight doors,
and to the layman it becomes difficult to move from one
part of the ship to another. These simple preparations
having been made, we assemble once again in the ward-
room, from which most of the furniture has been removed.
Here we sit discussing our prospects in the coming fight,
and some jokingly put forward the best thing to do in
the event of the ship striking a mine. Suddenly " General
quarters ” is sounded, and the whole party double off to
their respective posts, leaving me to roam about the ship
at will.

I first visit the starboard battery, which is deserted
because there is no object in manning the small twelve-
pounders, as their crews would not be behind armour.
There are two six-inch casemates in this battery, and I
glance into these. Here the crews are busy getting
ready the gun, arranging the ioo-pound shells, and
hauling up ammunition from the passages beneath.
Except for these four casemates, the upper part of the
ship seems to be quite deserted, so I descend to the main
deck, where I run across the Fleet engineer, who carries
a somewhat bored look. I ask him where his station is
in an action. He replies, “ When I’m not wanted in
the engine-room I wander about and try and learn what
is happening. It is very dull down below, cut off from
all the news.” I then descend another iron ladder, and
find myself in what is known as the “ Bag Flats,” where
I meet the parson, who says, “ Come and see the sick
bay, where I stay during action.” I pass along endless
stuffy passages, crowded with men and boys, who ap-
parently have nothing to do except to sit still and wonder
if the ship will strike a mine or not, and after passingA Battleship in Action	37

through innumerable doors, some of which are closed
after me, I enter the sick bay, which is equally crowded.

A Maze of Machinery

Here is the Fleet surgeon and his assistants, ready
to handle any casualties. Knives, saws, basins, lint,
chloroform, are all laid out with that neatness and pre-
cision which is typical of everything in the Navy. The
sight is depressing, and the atmosphere so stuffy that
I speedily accept the invitation of a chief gunner to
descend to another floor to the ammunition passages and
see the six-inch shell room. On the way I pass the
lieutenant-commander and a lot of men, and I ask him
what his job is. He replies, " We have to wait here
until the ship catches fire, and then we try and put it
out.” In the ammunition passages I find men busy
placing six-inch shells in canvas carriers and hoisting
them up by pulleys to the six-inch casemates. I then
glance into a small room which contains innumerable
speaking tubes, navyphones and telephones, electric
bells, wires and electrical plant. This is the transmitting
room, and all the range and results of shots taken in
the control chamber on the foretop are telephoned down
here to be passed on to the various guns. It all seems
confusing and incomprehensible to the lay mind. Every
step you take you stumble over or on fresh machinery.
Below decks is a jumble of electric engines, hydraulic
steam pumps, wires, tubes, 'phones, and a hundred other
complications of science, until you wonder how any mind
can ever master their use.

The gunner then says, “ Would you like to see the
cordite-chamber? ” I climb through a round hole and
descend a steel ladder. It is amazing how many decks a
battleship has. I have, in fact, now gone down so many
that I have lost all count; all I know is that I am a long38 Despatches from the Dardanelles

way below the water level and somewhere near the double
bottom.

When I reach the starboard battery once again I do
not see a soul. Every one has vanished below armour
as if by magic, and we are slowly steaming towards the
Dardanelles. It is, however, pleasant to find oneself
again in the fresh air, and to be able to see with your
own eyes what is happening. I sincerely feel sorry for
the hundreds whom I have just left below. I make my
way towards the conning tower. The captain is standing
just outside it, and invites me to enter. I find myself
in a little round steel chamber, with an opening about
eight inches high, all round at the top. It is packed with
eleven officers and men. One is at a tiny little wheel,
which looks hardly big enough to control a Thames
launch, but the great ship is responding to every turn.

On the Foretop

I then leave the conning tower and make for my
final destination, which is the control station on the
foretop. The ascent is made by a steel ladder, and before
you can enter the fighting top you have to turn a corner,
climb out on the shrouds, and then up through a kind of
small coal hole, such as you see in any London street.
I hate this climb, which is terrifying to any one who is
not accustomed to climb great heights in a wind on a
pole stuck on a moving and very often highly unsteady
platform. The weather has been very bad all the morning,
with storms of wind and rain, which at this moment
almost blot out the shore and the battered forts of Seddul
Bahr and Gaba Tepe. On safely negotiating the shrouds
and the coal hole, I find myself in a small oblong chamber
of thin steel, which would not even keep out a bullet
fired at close range. It is open all round at the top,
and has a similar thin steel roof. Inside are a lieutenantA Battleship in Action	39

of marines, a naval lieutenant, two midshipmen, and
three sailors, a rangefinder, several pairs of glasses, some
telescopes, and the eternal voice pipe, navyphones, and
telephones for speaking to the conning-tower, the engine-
room, the batteries, and the transmitting station. We
are very crowded, and our tempers are ruffled by the
heavy rain.

My sensations are very strange when I find myself
aloft. They are quite different from those which you
get when about to go into action on land. A feeling
of intense insecurity comes over me, and also one of
extreme loneliness. On the ship beneath not a soul is
visible, all are hidden below, and will know nothing until
it is over. In an hour they will probably be still safe
and sound, or else drowned like rats in a huge trap.
The thought occurs to me that it is very strange to be
perched up here, a hundred feet above the sea, with a ship
full of high explosives beneath you, and a sea which you
imagine must be full of mines beneath the ship. Then a
kind of feeling follows that you have lost your individual
existence, and are merely a fitting on this great steel
monstrosity, which is gliding so slowly, yet remorselessly
towards the danger zone. You say to yourself : “ What-
ever happens, we shall all survive, or go together,” and
you have the satisfaction of feeling that you cannot be
left lying wounded on the battlefield. The land on either
side looks so firm and secure, whilst up in the fighting
top you cannot shake off the feeling of some great un-
known danger, such as you have never faced before,
continually lurking around you.

Speaking Tubes Busy

But these reflections only last a few moments, and
you become interested in what your companions are
doing. The lieutenant of marines is trying to pick up4° Despatches from the Dardanelles

ranges on the Asiatic coast. The two midshipmen,
whom you feel ought to be back at school and not about
to enter the Dardanelles, seem perfectly happy and
contented with their lot, and are discussing what happened
in the last fight. The lieutenant is using very strong
language down a voice tube to some unknown individual
buried somewhere in the bowels of the ship, who will
not reply audibly to him. The three sailors each have
their ears to a telephone and their mouths to a tube.
They seem to be indulging in a solemn Gregorian chant,
which never ceases, and the only words I can catch are
“ Foretop to F Battery,” “ Foretop to X Battery,”
" Foretop to A Battery.” The words are drawled and
drawn out. They are followed by instructions as to various
ranges which have been taken by the marine lieutenant.

Some of the speaking tubes are not very audible, as
the rain has got down them. This causes further trouble,
and the lieutenant orders one of the midshipmen to go
down and find out what is wrong. I feel sorry for him,
as he crawls through the coal hole out into the wind and
rain, on to the shrouds, and then round the corner, and
so on down that horrible steel ladder. But he seems to
regard it as a very small matter, and hangs on like a
monkey to a cocoanut tree. Then a solemn discussion
arises between the two lieutenants as to whether it is
agreed that we shall all duck when we hear a shell coming
our way. In an ordinary naval engagement, if a shell
hits the control top, it is all over with every one in it
unless some one has abnormal luck, and no amount of
ducking would help you; but the Turks have, in addition,
numerous field guns which fire shrapnel at the tops,
and although our thin steel protection will not keep out
a shell, it might turn a shrapnel or rifle bullet. There
have, in fact, been several casualties from these small
guns. So it is agreed, to every one’s satisfaction, thatA Battleship in Action	41

we shall all get our heads under cover when we hear a
shell coming.

Under Fire

We are now well up the Straits, and wondering when
the enemy will begin. The destroyer is about 200 yards
ahead when some one shouts out: “ They're off," just
as if it was a race. You hear the whistle of a shell, and a
jet of water rises up just astern of her. At the same
moment there is a deafening roar, which makes you
spring a yard in the air, and you hear one of our six-inch
shells roaring its way through space, landwards. We
watch for the explosion, and, knowing the position of
the battery on the chart, we are to signal the proximity
of the shot down a speaking tube. Then we hear the
screech of more shells, and more great splashes of water
rise up ahead, astern, and at the side of the destroyer.
You can watch her small bridge crowded with officers,
for they are taking up some officers to make a reconnais-
sance. Our guns now blaze away freely at the Asiastic
and European shores, and the noise is deafening. There
is a medley of sounds caused by guns being fired, shells
screaming overhead, some hitting the water with a flop,
others bursting in the air, the eternal Gregorian chant
of “ Foretop to Y Battery," " Foretop to X Battery,”
from the three sailors.

The enemy’s fire is concentrated on the destroyer,
whose movements are interesting and instructive to
watch. She is writhing about on all sides, as if she had
a bad pain inside her, at other times she reminds you
irresistibly of one of Gaby's strange dances. Then it
dawns on you that she is engaged in putting the enemy
off their aim. One moment she is steaming slowly ahead
and a shell drops astern of her, and she shoots off at full
speed towards the Asiatic coast, when another drops in42 Despatches from the Dardanelles

front, which sends her scooting towards the European.
She is no sooner over there when a battery on that side
drops some quite close, whereupon she turns suddenly
in her own length, and dashes back towards us, which
brings the enemy’s fire just ahead of our ship. This
sends her straight ahead again, and so on, from side to
side, up and down, twisting and turning, dancing about
like a mad Dervish.

Enemy’s Bad Aim

All this time our six-inch guns are blazing away at both
shores, the gunners firing at the flashes of the enemy's
guns, as it is difficult to pick up their location from the
foretop. The Prince of Wales, astern of us, has also
come into action, and fires some rapid salvoes, which
cause a terrible disturbance to somebody's property, even
if they miss the Turkish guns. We have now almost
reached the point where our instructions have told us
to stop, and let the destroyer go on alone, whilst we
afford her what protection we can. She goes on some
little distance, with shells dropping all around her, but
is in luck and is not hit. Then, having apparently ac-
complished her mission, she turns and dashes past us
down the Straits. This brings the enemy’s guns directly
on us, and the shells scream overhead. You imagine
that each is coming direct into the foretop, but they all
miss and either burst short or in the water beyond.
Then we slowly and majestically turn under a desultory
fire, and follow her down to the entrance. The enemy’s
aim is very bad, some of their shells passing right over
the Straits, and hitting the opposite shore. The Prince
of Wales comes up astern, and follows us round, and after
a few more shots the “ cease fire ” is sounded. It has
only been a small affair, and we have not been hit, but
just as interesting as a big battle to those who have never
seen a battleship in action before.CHAPTER IV

ASSEMBLING OF A MIGHTY FLEET
April 19

Whatever may be the eventual fate in store for
this combined naval and military expedition against the
Dardanelles, it certainly appeals most powerfully to the
imagination. As a spectacle also it is superb. As I
look out on the Bay of Mudros from the quarter-deck of
the London I see such an assembly of different types of
warships, transports, and smaller craft as has never been
brought together before. The whole of this immense
bay is studded with ships and small boats plying between
them. They vary in size and shape from the mighty
Queen Elizabeth, with her eight 15-in. guns dominating
the whole picture, to the little blue-painted fishing smacks
of the islanders. Their number is too great to count,
even with the most powerful glasses. It would seem as
if every type of warship and every type of transport
which can possibly be spared from the other theatres of
war have been collected here in Mudros Bay for this,
probably the last crusade the Christian world will ever
make against the Ottoman Turks.

Other crusades have not been noteworthy for the
success which has attended them. We can only hope
that this, the last and the greatest, will avenge the
chivalry of the Middle Ages, whose bones lie scattered
and unknown throughout all parts of the old Ottoman
Empire, from the gates of Vienna to Jerusalem. But
when one sees the immense difficulties which attend an

4344 Despatches from the Dardanelles

enterprise of this sort, even in these days of huge steam-
ships and rapid transit, it certainly increases the admira-
tion and respect that you feel for the knights of old, who
attempted the same task without any of the advantages
which we enjoy.

Armada in Mudros Bay

The whole of the expeditionary force is now assembled
in Mudros Bay, waiting for the order to start on this
historic expedition, on which the eyes and the hopes of
so many different nations are concentrated. The trans-
ports are being protected by many warships which are
anchored, covering the entrance with their guns, in case
the enemy’s torpedo craft should attempt a dash—a
very unlikely contingency. Other divisions of our fleet
are keeping up their ceaseless watch on the entrance of
the Straits, or else conveying officers from the Staff up
and down the coast to examine every yard of the enemy’s
positions. No stone is being left unturned to ensure
success.

This is an experiment on a huge scale previously
unknown in the annals of this or any other nation. Its
nearest parallels are, perhaps, the Spanish Armada;
Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt in 1798; and the Anglo-
French expedition to the Crimea. But here parallels
cease. The Armada had not to force one of the most
powerful positions in the world, protected by a large
covering army, under skilled leaders. The feeble forts
of Alexandria could offer no resistance to the guns of
Napoleon’s covering fleet once the expedition had escaped
Nelson’s pursuit; and when the Anglo-French troops
landed in the Crimea to fight the Battle of the Alma they
found an army in position, but not a veritable network
of entrenched positions covered by barbed wire and
protected by innumerable heavy guns.Assembling of a Mighty Fleet	45

When the difficulties and dangers of all these expedi-
tions are calmly examined by the historian in the future,
and when all the facts are available, it will probably
be conceded that the preliminary obstacles to be over-
come—in spite of our unchallenged command of the sea—
are greater in this attempt to force the Dardanelles than
in any of the others. Some may maintain that this is
an exaggeration, but it must be remembered that all the
lessons of the war show the enormous advantage which
the defence enjoys against the attack, unless the numbers
employed in the latter are overwhelming and a flank is
available which may be turned. But this is no ordinary
offensive movement which can be developed simultane-
ously along a big front after having been carefully pre-
pared by an overwhelming artillery fire. It is impossible
to land an army of the size we propose—although none
will maintain that it is too large and few even large
enough for the role assigned to it—in a few hours. In
spite of the most elaborate preparations and constant
practice, it will take days before the whole army and its
artillery and material are safely put ashore at the place
or places selected. I am, of course, not allowed to
mention numbers or the landing sites. Until sufficient
stores and ammunition are available no general would
dare risk a big advance against the enemy’s prepared
positions.

Under the Guns of the Fleet

Provided the weather holds there should not be much
difficulty in putting the troops ashore, because the dis-
embarkation will be covered by the guns of the Fleet,
which should be able to keep at a respectful distance
any counter-attack which the enemy may make against
the first troops who attempt to seize and hold a stretch
of the shore, and thus to provide room for the remainder46 Despatches from the Dardanelles

of our forces. As long as the Army is under the guns of
the Fleet there is every reason to be confident of success.
But as it moves forward to clear the Gallipoli Peninsula,
or across it, according to whichever plan is decided on,
the support which the Fleet’s guns will be able to afford
grows less and less, until a point is reached where the
issue must really be decided by the Army alone. It
would not be right at this stage to discuss the merits
of the various plans for an advance which are at the
disposal of the Allied commanders. They are wrapt in
profound secrecy. We do not even know whether the
Straits will be attacked on both the European and
Asiatic sides, or whether the military operations will be
confined to the Gallipoli Peninsula. I am merely en-
deavouring to point out some of the difficulties which
lie ahead, from the general standpoint.

An estimate has been made of the numbers of Turks
available for the defence of Gallipoli, but on what these
figures are based, or how correct they may eventually
turn out to be, I cannot say. But one point is obvious.
If only the Turkish army can be driven back north of
the low-lying ground stretching from Gaba Tepe, in the
Gulf of Syros, to the Bay of Khelia Liman, east of the
Narrows, the main strategic object of the Allies will have
been achieved. The scheme of the land expedition is
primarily to assist the Fleet to clear the Narrows and
to open the road to Constantinople. Once this task has
been accomplished, the business of the Army, or at least
a portion of it, will be to hold the Gallipoli Peninsula
and to prevent the door from being shut behind the
Fleet and the mine field replaced. What we do not
know, and what it would not be right at this juncture
to comment on, are the steps which the military autho-
rities will take to achieve this result. Time will shortly
show. The expedition should succeed, but war is full47

Assembling of a Mighty Fleet

of painful surprises, which often upset the most carefully
laid plans. No object is, however, served in under-
estimating the difficulties and thus disappointing the
public if anything goes wrong. We are gambling for
the biggest stake in our history. If it comes off, we
shall be immensely the richer and the end of war will
be advanced; if we fail, we shall not have weakened our
position in the West materially, but we shall have suffered
a moral defeat which may reverberate unpleasantly
throughout the Mohammedan peoples of our Empire,
while at the same time greatly encouraging our opponents
to continue the struggle.

Confident of Victory

The chief factors in the situation which will lead to
victory or defeat are these : What are the numbers of
Turkish troops available ? Have they bestowed as much
time and care to preparing the peninsula against an army
landing from the Gulf of Syros as they have on the
actual defences of the Straits against naval attack alone ?
Is this expeditionary force of sufficient strength to
drive the enemy from his positions and firmly to establish
itself astride the peninsula and maintain its positions
there? Will the guns of the Fleet be able to afford the
Army as much assistance and protection to its flanks as
is hoped and calculated on ? How far are the enemy’s
guns available for use against an army from their present
position, or will they have to be shifted to meet this
fresh menace?

These are all potent considerations, which can only
be answered by “ putting these grave issues to the test.”
One fact seems obvious—namely, that as long as the
Germans maintain their control of the Turkish army
they will leave no stone unturned to defeat the object
of the Allies, and that the military authorities must48 Despatches from the Dardanelles

calculate on just as high a measure of skill and enter-
prise on land as the Fleet has encountered by sea.

According to Napoleon, the moral force animating
an army is eight-tenths of victory. If this estimate
only held good in these days of long-range weapons,
machine guns and deadly artillery, the victory would be
already assured. But war is no longer a hand-to-hand
fight, in which individual prowess counts for so much
at close quarters. There is much hand-to-hand fighting,
as has been proved in the last seven months all over
Europe, but, unfortunately, the bravest and the strongest
are often shot down before they can ever close with the
enemy and take their toll of his numbers. Both the
rank and file of the Army and Navy are confident of
victory, and are longing for the real work to begin.
The Navy have their comrades who were lost on March 18
to avenge, and they are longing to prove to the Turks
and to the Germans that they only retired from the
Straits on that occasion because it was highly undesirable
to force the Narrows until an army was at hand to
prevent the gate being closed behind the Fleet after it
had passed into the Sea of Marmora and on to Constanti-
nople.

Lads from “ Down Under ”

The enthusiasm amongst all ranks is intense. It
would do those at home good to see our splendid crews
slaving away day after day at a hundred heavy tasks,
practising for the great day which is so soon to come.
Every soldier is being taken from the transports and
trained at embarking and disembarking from warships
and transports to the shore, and from the shore to the
ships. All this has to be carried out by the ships' boats,
which are away at dawn, and only return at dusk, with
their crews worn out but ever cheerful. The feeling49

Assembling of a Mighty Fleet

between the Army and the Navy is one of mutual admira-
tion and respect. The sailors help the soldiers, who are
not versed in this semi-nautical warfare, in a dozen little
ways. You see bluejackets showing the men, heavily
laden with their kits and rifles, how to climb rope ladders
which have been fixed to the sides of the ships to facilitate
the task of rapid disembarkation; you see them teaching
the soldiers to row and handle the boats, and how to
bring them alongside. Others will be giving instruction
in the art of correct steering, or how to handle boathooks.
The entente between the two services is complete. The
troops pass the time cooped up on the transports in
every form of military exercise, and they will land in
perfect condition, and very well trained for their peculiar
task. In the afternoons large parties row round the
Fleet on “ joy-rides,” visiting the warships, where they
are always sure of a hearty welcome.

What can I say about the Army ? It is no ordinary
body of men. It is essentially Imperial in its composition,
and only the British Empire could have brought together
such a force from all comers of the earth. Also the
majority of the men are volunteers and Colonials. It is
the great counter-attack of Australia against the enemy
in the East whilst our regular armies are holding the
line so gallantly in the West. Nevertheless, in spite of
our immense efforts in France and Belgium, we have a
seasoning of our regular army, which will fight side by
side with the lads from “ down under.”

I do not suppose that any country in its palmiest
days ever sent forth to the field of battle a finer body of
men than these Australian, New Zealand and Tasmanian
troops. Physically they are the finest lot of men I have
ever seen in any part of the world. In fact, I had no
idea that such a race of giants existed in the twentieth
century. Some of their battalions average 5 ft. 10 in.,50 Despatches from the Dardanelles

and every man seems to be a trained athlete. The flood
of volunteers to the colours was so great that thousands
had to be rejected and only the most perfect selected.
There are doctors, lawyers, civil engineers, gentlemen of
independent means, farmers, cowboys and miners in the
ranks ready to fight side by side, each carrying his
seventy-odd pounds of equipment and ammunition as if
he had been born with it on his back. Many have left
lucrative professions bringing in thousands a year to
fight for the Mother Country at the King’s wage.

High Standard of Training

Their discipline is different from what we are accus-
tomed to at home. There is not that social fine of
demarcation between the officers and the men. Many
of the privates hold better positions in civil life than
their officers. Yet there does not seem to be any friction,
and the discipline is excellent, arising as it does rather
from a mutual understanding between all ranks than
from a written code which has been ingrained in the
blood for centuries. Of course, it is not to be expected
that either officers or men have such a deep knowledge
of their profession as some of our regular troops, but
the level of intelligence in the ranks is so fine that even
after the comparatively short time the battalions have
been raised the standard of training is very high. Above
all else, you feel you are in the presence of a body of
men who are absolutely sincere and absolutely determined
to carry through the great and honourable task which
has been assigned to them to a successful conclusion,
or else to leave their bones on Ottoman soil. There is
none of the “ picnic spirit " about these Australians,
Tasmanians and New Zealanders. They know what
they are up against, and do not think they have beenAssembling of a Mighty Fleet 51

dragged from their homes by false pretences. They are
spoiling for a fight in order to prove they are worthy to
fight side by side with the heroes of Mons, Ypres and
Neuve Chapelle. Many of them were disappointed in
Egypt, and their .only fear is that at the eleventh hour
they may have a walk-over here. But there is not much
chance of that. Every man should be assured of enough
fighting to satisfy the most truculent before we can call
the, Narrows our own.

Truly this is a heterogeneous force which has been
brought together for the last crusade. Many types and
many races and many interests, which have often in the
past been divergent, are represented. There are regular
battalions from outlying stations of the Empire, a few
weeks ago separated by thousands of miles of water,
now lying side by side in Mudros Bay; there are Naval
Volunteers from England, men of all ranks and all pro-
fessions who have flocked to the colours, determined to
join something, even if they had no personal qualifica-
tions; there are battalions of Marine Reserves, most of
them with wives and families at home; there are Austra-
lians, New Zealanders and Tasmanians, and Indians;
there are Frenchmen, Zouaves and dark-skinned Sene-
galese, and Colonial infantry. Other types are here, but
I have not yet had the chance of seeing them all.

The Sea Spectacle

Then the fleet of warships and transports. Will the
world ever see such a spectacle again—such a motley
collection of types stretching back for well-nigh thirty
years or even more? The mighty Queen Elizabeth is
our flagship, and the equally mighty spirit of the Great
Queen seems to animate every man afloat on warship
or transport.5 2	Despatches from the Dardanelles

There is the Dreadnought cruiser Inflexible. Then
we come to that long line of pre-Dreadnought battleships,
headed by the Agamemnon and Lord Nelson, followed in
periods ranging back to the year 1900 by the Queen,
London, Prince of Wales, Implacable and Cornwallis.
Then two good ships, purchased at the time of the Russo-
Japanese War—the Swiftsure and the Triumph.

We are carried back into the ’nineties by the Albion,
Majestic, Canopus, Vengeance, Goliath and Prince George.
These old pre-Dreadnought battleships, which were pro-
nounced to be out of date when war broke out, are
ending their careers gloriously in Eastern waters. Many
of these ships have spent month after month patrolling
the Channel, exposed to submarine attack, their officers
and crews feeling all the time that when the Germans
did put to sea they would only be called upon to play
a secondary role, or even go through the whole war
without firing a shot.

Now, as if by a stroke of the enchanter’s wand, they
find themselves engaged in a glorious enterprise of ex-
treme danger and difficulty, which will stamp the names
of all indelibly on the pages of history if it succeeds,
whilst, if it fails, many will have died game, with their
colours still flying, knowing well that before peace is
signed they will have been avenged.

No longer do they envy the lot of their comrades who
man the Grand Fleet, which is keeping up its incessant
watch on German shores. They are sorry for them, and
would not change places with the finest Dreadnought
afloat. Supporting our great fleet of pre-Dreadnoughts
are the old French battleships, the Charlemagne, Jauri-
guiberry, Gaulois, Suffren and Henri IV. They date back
to the early 'nineties, the veteran of the fleet being the
old high-sided, round-bodied Jaurbguiberry, now in her
twenty-third year.Assembling of a Mighty Fleet

Infinite Variety

These ships are of a period when French constructors
seem to have had no fixed design in mind. They look
strange indeed alongside the Queen Elizabeth and our
pre-Dreadnoughts. The Henri IV is a never-failing sub-
ject for interest and comment to both soldiers and sailors.
From her low freeboard astern, scarcely a foot above the
water, there rises a series of towers and turrets and
storeys, giving her the appearance rather of an ancient
castle than a warship.

To support the battleships we have a powerful fleet
of cruisers, the Bacchante, Euryalus, Dartmouth, Dublin,
Talbot, Doris and Minerva, and the five-funnelled Russian
Askold, which escaped, with four of her funnels, to
Shanghai, accompanied by the battleship Tsarevitch, after
the battle of Round Island on August io, 1904, when
the Russian fleet made its last abortive sortie from Port
Arthur. How times have changed. Within a cable
length of the Askold are the Triumph and Swiftsure. Be-
hind the cruisers are our eight depot and repair ships,
numerous destroyers, torpedo craft and submarines.

This is a great fleet of infinite variety, but what of
the transports which have been collected together from
all parts of the world to carry the crusaders to Gallipoli
and Constantinople? From the quarter-deck I can see
many familiar names of famous liners which have carried
the British flag in every ocean and every sea. The list
of their names alone would give a sufficient idea of the
extent and variety of the mercantile marine resources
at the disposal of the Allies, and of how completely the
enemy's flag has disappeared from the high seas.

By day this spectacle is grand, as this immense fleet
lies in the great bay on a surface as smooth as glass,
with innumerable flags flying, and the smoke risingDespatches from the Dardanelles

quietly from hundreds of eager funnels. At night
thousands of lights sparkle from the water, and the
signals heliographed by electric lamps twinkle like the
stars above. In a few days this immense armada will
be launched to its fate, either to meet a second Salamis,
or to carry the crusaders once more victoriously to
Byzantium after 462 years of Ottoman misrule. What-
ever happens in the future, nothing can ever eliminate
from the mind the majestic splendour of the scene in
Mudros Bay.CHAPTER V

“WAITING FOR THE SIGNAL ”

April 21

The whole expedition is still assembling in Mudros
Bay, and we are waiting every hour for the signal to
start. There are, however, so many details to be worked
out, and so many important matters to be considered,
that no one knows when the naval and military authorities
will have completed their final arrangements.

Up to yesterday, Tuesday, April 20, for eight days
the weather has been perfect for landing operations on
a large scale. There has been no wind, it has been de-
lightfully warm, and the sea as calm as an inland lake.
Now, just when every one was hoping we were about to
start, the weather has broken. Yesterday a strong east
wind arose and a considerable sea got up, in the face of
which it would have been impossible to land troops,
even had the authorities been ready to start. To-day
there is still a wind and heavy rain, and a considerable
sea. Therefore, it will be impossible to do anything
until the conditions improve and we are assured of
several days of comparative calm.

The weather this spring in the Mediterranean is
playing strange tricks. The winter was very mild and
calm, but a Naval Reserve officer who has spent many
years in Eastern waters tells me he has never known such
an unsettled April. This sudden break in the weather
is discouraging, because the moon is getting fuller every
night, and if we attempt a surprise with the first landing

5556 Despatches from the Dardanelles

parties it is essential to have a dark night. However,
those who know the Mediterranean hope that this wild
storm will be succeeded by an unbroken period of calm
long enough to allow of the whole army and its munitions
and guns being safely got ashore. If the weather goes
on playing these unnatural tricks it will add enormously
to the difficulties and responsibilities of the admirals and
generals. For instance, had we put the first landing
parties ashore last Sunday and Monday they would have
been cut off from all supports owing to the gale which
sprang up yesterday. They might have held their
positions covered by the guns of the ships, but the enemy
would meanwhile have had ample warning, and could
have brought up any reinforcements available with which
to oppose a further advance. These contingencies may
arrive in the future, and have to be provided against as
far as human ingenuity will allow.

Landing Plans

It seems to be the general opinion that the success
or failure of these operations will be decided in the first
twenty-four hours. That is to say, if the original selected
landing parties are able to carry at the first rush the
positions which the military authorities consider must
be held to allow of the disembarkation of the main army
and its guns and munitions, then all will be well. There
are others, however, who do not anticipate much trouble
in landing, but who think the army will be up against a
much stiffer proposition when it moves inland away from
the coast to try and seize the coast up to the Narrows.
Although the final plans are kept a profound secret, it
is now known that the disembarkation will take place
at several points simultaneously, and that each will, of
course, be covered by the guns of the ships. The original
landing parties, those to which are assigned the role of57

‘Waiting for the Signal’

rushing positions which must be held to allow of the
disembarkation of the remainder, will be landed from
warships, and have been practised daily for their task.

The warships have been divided into several divisions,
each under a separate commander, and the divisions are
divided in turn into landing ships and covering ships.
That is to say, some will carry troops and will move
close in to put them ashore in their boats, which will be
towed by steam pinnaces, whilst the covering ships will
keep further out and endeavour to dominate any artillery
the enemy may bring into action, and also to shell his
infantry entrenchments.

Every evening for some days past we have had a full-
dress rehearsal of embarking and disembarking at night
time from the warships which are to convey the covering
force ashore. At dusk about 600 Australians are brought
on board, and stay there until after dark. They are
then formed up by companies on places which have been
painted and numbered on the quarter-deck. Each
company has a separate wooden ladder by which it must
descend to its particular boat. When all are aboard, the
steam pinnace takes the boats in tow and conveys them
to the shore, when they disembark, form up, and rush
some selected position in absolute quiet. The men are
then practised in digging shelter trenches in the dark,
and are afterwards rapidly re-embarked and conveyed
back to the transports.

“ Keen as Mustard ”

Sir Ian Hamilton generally manages to snatch the
time from his heavy labours to have a short walk on
shore most days. Yesterday when I met him he was
full of praise for the Australians, whom he considers a
magnificent lot of men, and as keen as mustard for
the job. He told me he considered they had reached58 Despatches from the Dardanelles

a very high standard of efficiency, especially in these
landing operations, which require great rapidity, good
discipline, and, above all, no noise. In fact, the general,
who himself looks very fit, is delighted with the spirit
and efficiency of the troops under his command. The
Australians, of course, have their grumbles, like all other
soldiers. They are very weary of being cooped up on
board the transports, where many of them have been,
off and on, with brief intervals ashore, for six weeks
past.

Life under these conditions is no bed of roses, especially
when the ships are crowded and the weather hot. Al-
though food is plentiful, luxuries, which make so much
difference to the soldier’s temper, are becoming scarcer
and scarcer. Tobacco, cigarettes and cigars are running
very low. On many of the transports whisky and beer
have become exhausted, and wines and spirits are
quite unobtainable. Now these Australians like their
drink, and are accustomed to it. Thus they are anxious
to get ashore and stretch their limbs in a real fight, when
these temporary discomforts will be forgotten. In a
letter one of them wrote home the other day the following
was found by the censor : “ We are having an iron time;
we live in an iron ship, sleep on an iron floor, have nothing
to eat but our iron rations, and now, to crown all, I hear
we are commanded by a fellow called ‘ Iron Hamilton.’ "

Everybody is, in fact, getting very weary of the sus-
pense of waiting, and it will be a happy moment when
the order is given to start. An expedition of this sort
gives endless scope for originality, and the invention
of ingenious devices to assist the landing of troops and
stores. All these suggestions and inventions are care-
fully considered by the authorities. We are almost
within sight of the plains of Troy, and although we
cannot have our wooden horse filled with eager warriors‘Waiting for the Signal’	59

to take the enemy by surprise, we are going to have a
ship which will be utilised in much the same manner.

There is a vessel here called the River Clyde, which
just escaped from Smyrna at the outbreak of war. She
has been painted a khaki colour, which is hard to dis-
tinguish from the beach round the mouth of the Dar-
danelles. Her decks and machinery have been pro-
tected by sandbags, and great doors have been cut in
her sides. She is to be filled up with as many soldiers
as she can carry, and then she will be run on shore and
left as high and dry as circumstances will permit. The
troops will be disembarked on pontoons if the water is
too deep to allow them to wade. In this manner 2000
should be got ashore in a minimum of time. The River
Clyde will then play another important role if she is not
knocked out by the enemy’s guns. She has powerful
condensing machinery on board, which can turn out
forty tons of fresh water a day, and this supply will be
used for the army if they find a scarcity on Gallipoli,
or if the Turks have tampered with the springs—an
idea the Germans are almost certain to give them. A
number of machine guns will also be disembarked from
her.

The Work to Do

By the time this letter reaches England the efficiency
of all the arrangements which have been made to ensure
success will have been put to the test. If the expedition
fails, we must accept the inevitable with the best grace
possible under the circumstances. This is not a question
of “If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again,”
because unless enormous reinforcements can be spared
from the Western theatre of war, Constantinople will
have to be taken from the Black Sea by a Russian army
landing in Thrace. We shall have to admit that we60 Despatches from the Dardanelles

undertook a task that was beyond our powers with the
forces available, and leave it to others, or only strike
again when the Russians can co-operate at the Bosphorus.
It will not be fair to blame the admirals and generals,
who have done everything in their power with the ships
men and material at their disposal. But, judged from
any standpoint, the task involves enormous difficulties.

We have to land an army in the face of an enemy who
has had ample warning ever since February 19 that he
may expect such an attempt. We have to put on shore
food, water, guns, horses, munitions, ammunition, and
all the thousand odd things necessary to keep an army
in the field, besides making arrangements to remove a
large number of wounded and sick. In this we are very
largely dependent on the state of the weather, which, if
if continues capricious, may leave one part of our army
ashore, whilst the remainder and the supplies are held
off the coast by a rough sea. Again, an army which
has perforce been kept on transports for a long period
cannot have the manoeuvring efficiency of an army
which has been trained and handled by its generals on
land. The command will also be a very difficult one to
exercise, and will depend largely on the efficiency of the
leaders of brigades, as when the army is finally ashore
at various points, widely separated, the headquarters
staff will only be able to exercise a very general control.

I do not believe we can hope to surprise the Turks,
led as they are by German officers, by the sudden arrival
of this huge force off the shores of Gallipoli. We may
effect a local night surprise, and that is all. You cannot
keep the news of the assembly of a huge expedition such
as this from leaking out in the East. The news of the
concentration of this mass of warships and transports
in Mudros Bay has undoubtedly found its way by a
hundred different channels to Constantinople. Neither‘Waiting for the Signal*	61

can we overlook the fact that the enemy is fighting for
his very existence, and will therefore bring every available
man and gun into the field. The moment the first
British ship is past the Narrows, the Turkish Empire
in Europe has ceased to exist. No one knows this better
than the Turks themselves. Had they their own way
they would probably prefer to make an eleventh-hour
peace rather than put this tremendous issue, affecting
as it does their very existence as an independent nation,
to the test. But they know they have gone too far,
and can only expect terms which would leave them very
little better off than if they lose all by fighting. Therefore
they must fight, and stand or fall by the result. They
are in a desperate position, and may be expected to fight
like desperate men.CHAPTER VI

THE STORY OF THE LANDING

April 24

The great venture has at last been launched, and the
entire fleet of warships and transports is now steaming
slowly towards the shores of Gallipoli. Yesterday the
weather showed signs of moderating, and at about five
o’clock in the afternoon the first of the transports slowly
made its way through the maze of shipping towards the
entrance of Mudros Bay.

Immediately the patent apathy which has gradually
overwhelmed every one changed to the utmost enthusiasm,
and, as the huge liners steamed through the Fleet, their
decks yellow with khaki, the crews of the warships cheered
them on to victory whilst the bands played them out
with an unending variety of popular airs. The soldiers
on the transports answered this last salutation from the
Navy with deafening cheers, and no more inspiring
spectacle has ever been seen than this of the last great
crusade setting forth for better or for worse.

Splendid Organisation

It required splendid organisation and skilled leader-
ship to get this huge fleet clear of the bay without
confusion or accidents, but not one has occurred, and
the majority are now safely on the high seas steaming
towards their respective destinations.

The whole of the Fleet and the transports have been
divided up into five divisions, and there will be three

62The Story of the Landing	63

main landings. The 29th Division will disembark off
the point of the Gallipoli Peninsula, near Seddul Bahr,
where its operations can be protected both from the Gulf
of Saros and from the Dardanelles by the fire of the
covering warships. The Australian and New Zealand
contingent will disembark north of Gaba Tepe. Further
north the Naval Division will make a demonstration.

The difficulties and dangers of the enterprise are
enormous, and are recognised by all. Never before has
the attempt been made to land so large a force in the
face of an enemy who has innumerable guns, many
thousands of trained infantry, and who has had months
of warning in which to prepare his positions. Neverthe-
less, there is a great feeling of confidence throughout all
ranks, and the men are delighted that at length the delays
are over and the real work is about to begin.

Start of the Armada

Last night the transports were merely taking up their
positions, and the real exit of the armada from Mudros
Bay commenced this afternoon at about two o’clock.
The weather, which was threatening at an early hour,
has now become perfectly calm, and if it only lasts
the conditions will be ideal for a rapid disembarkation.
Throughout the morning transports steamed out to take
up their respective positions in the open sea, and the same
enthusiastic scenes were witnessed as of yesterday. The
covering forces will be put ashore from certain battleships,
whilst others will sweep the enemy’s positions with their
guns and endeavour to prevent them from shelling the
troops whilst disembarking.

It is generally considered that the critical period of
the operations will be the first twenty-four hours, and the
success or failure of the whole enterprise will depend
on whether these covering parties are able to obtain a64 Despatches from the Dardanelles

firm foothold and seize the positions which have been
assigned to them. Every detail has been worked out
and rehearsed, and every officer and man should now
know the particular role which has been assigned to him.

The Navy will have entire charge of the landing of
these thousands of men. Beach parties will go ashore
with the first of the troops, and officers from the ships
will direct the movements of all the boats as they bring
the troops ashore.

This battleship belongs to the division which will con-
sist of the Australians, who are to land near Gaba Tepe.
We are one of the landing ships, and this afternoon
received on board 500 officers and men of the Austra-
lian contingent, who are to form part of the covering
force. They are a magnificent body of men, and full of
enthusiasm for the honourable and dangerous role given
them.

Splendid Spectacle

At two o’clock the flagship of this division took up
her position at the head of the line. We passed down
through the long line of slowly moving transports,
amidst tremendous cheering, and were played out of the
bay by the French warships. No sight could have been
finer than this spectacle of long fines of warships and
transports, each making for a special rendezvous, without
any delay or confusion. At four o’clock this afternoon
the ship’s company and the troops were assembled on
the quarter-deck to hear the captain read out Admiral
de Robeck’s proclamation to the combined forces. This
was followed by a last service before battle, in which
the chaplain uttered a prayer for victory, and called for
the divine blessing on the expedition, whilst the whole
of the ship’s company and troops on board stood with
uncovered and bowed heads.The Story of the Landing	65

We are steaming slowly through this momentous
night towards the coast, and are due at our rendezvous
at three a.m. to-morrow (Sunday), a day which has so
often brought victory to the British flag.

The Covering Force

Slowly through the night of April 24 our squadron,
which was to land the covering force of the Australian
contingent just north of Gaba Tepe, steamed towards its
destination. The troops on board were the guests of the
crews, and our generous sailors entertained them royally.

At dusk all lights were extinguished, and very shortly
afterwards the troops retired for a last rest before their
ordeal at dawn.

It was a beautiful night, lit up by a very bright half-
moon, and the sea was absolutely calm. At one a.m. the
ships arrived off their appointed rendezvous, five miles
from the landing place, and stopped. The soldiers were
aroused from their slumbers and were served with a last
hot meal.

Cool Australians

A visit to the mess decks showed these Australians,
the majority of whom were about to go into action for
the first time under the most trying circumstances, which
require that four-o’clock-in-the-moming courage, to be
cheerful, quiet, and confident. There was no sign of
nerves or undue excitement, such as one might very
reasonably have expected.

At 1.20 a.m. the signal was given from the flagship to
lower the boats, which had been left swinging from the
davits throughout the night. Our steam pinnaces were
also lowered to take them in tow. The troops fell in
in their assigned places on the quarter-deck, and the
last rays of the waning moon lit up a scene which will66 Despatches from the Dardanelles

ever be memorable in our history. On the quarter-deck,
backed by the great twelve-inch guns, this splendid body
of Colonial troops were drawn up in serried ranks, fully
equipped, and receiving their last instructions from their
officers, who, six months ago, like their men, were leading
peaceful civilian lives in Australia and New Zealand,
thousands of miles away. Now, at the call of the Empire,
they were about to disembark on a strange, unknown
shore in a foreign land, and attack an enemy of a different
race.

Sailors’ Landing Party

By the side of the soldiers the beach parties of our
splendid bluejackets and marines were marshalled,
arrayed in old white uniforms dyed khaki-colour, and
carrying the old rifle and old equipment. These men were
to take charge of the boats, steer them ashore, and row
them to the beach, when they were finally cast off by
the towing pinnaces. Each boat was in charge of a
young midshipman, many of whom have come straight
from Dartmouth, after a couple of terms, and now found
themselves called upon to play a most difficult and
dangerous role like men.

Of the splendid conduct and courage of these youths
I shall have much to say later, but it was a strange contrast
to see these youthful figures, clad in every kind of gar-
ment which could be scraped together for shore work,
and carrying revolvers, which appeared almost as big as
themselves, standing side by side in the dim light with
these giants from Australia.

Commanders, lieutenants, and special beach officers
had charge of the whole of the towing parties, and went
ashore with the troops.

At 2.5 a.m. the signal was given for the troops to
embark in the boats, which were lying alongside, and thisThe Story of the Landing	67

was carried out with great rapidity, in absolute silence,
and without a hitch or an accident of any kind.

Each one of the three ships which had embarked
troops transferred them to four tows apiece, consisting
of three boats, each towed by a steam pinnace, and in
this manner men of the covering force were conveyed
to the shore.

More of the Australian brigade were carried in
destroyers, which were to go close in shore and land them
from boats as soon as those towed by the pinnaces had
reached the beach. At three a.m. it was quite dark, and
all was ready for the start.

The tows were cast off by the battleships, the ladders
taken in, and the decks cleared for action, the crews going
to general quarters. Then we steamed slowly towards
the shore, each of the battleships being closely followed
by her tows, which looked exactly like huge snakes gliding
relentlessly after their prey.

I do not suppose the suppressed excitement of this
last half-hour will ever be forgotten by those who were
present. No one could tell at the last minute what would
happen. Would the enemy be surprised, or would he be
ready, on the alert to pour a terrible fire on the boats as
they approached the beach ?

The whole operation had been timed to allow the
pinnaces and boats to reach the beach just before day-
break, so that the Turks, if they had been forewarned,
would not be able to see to fire before the Australians
had obtained a firm footing and, it was hoped, good
cover, on the foreshore.

Searchlights Ready

Exactly at 4.10 a.m. the three battleships, in line
abreast, four cables apart, arrived about 2,500 yards
from the shore, winch was just discernible in the gloom.68 Despatches from the Dardanelles

The engines were stopped, guns were manned, and the
powerful searchlights made ready for use if required.

The tows, which up to this time had followed astern,
were ordered to advance to the shore. The battleships
took up positions somewhat further out on either flank,
for to them was assigned the duty of supporting the attack
with their guns as soon as the light allowed.

Very slowly the twelve snakes of boats steamed past
the battleships, the gunwales almost flush with the water,
so crowded were they with khaki figures. Then each lot
edged in towards another so as to reach the beach four
cables apart. So anxious were we on board the battle-
ships that it seemed as if the loads were too heavy for
the pinnaces, or that some mysterious power was holding
them back, and that they would never reach the shore
before daybreak, and thus lose the chance of a surprise.
The distance between the battleships and the boats did
not seem to increase, but only for the reason that
we steamed very slowly in after them, until the water
gradually shallowed.

Landing in the Dark

Every eye and every glass was fixed on that grim-
looking fine of hills in front, so shapeless, yet so
menacing in the gloom, the mysteries of which those in
the boats, which looked so tiny and helpless, were about
to solve. Yet for some time not a sound and not a light
was heard or seen; it appeared as if the enemy had been
completely surprised and that we would get ashore with-
out opposition. The stars, showing above the dark out-
line of the hills, were frequently mistaken for lights in
our nervy state. On the bridge a sharp-eyed signalman
would suddenly call out, “ There’s a light on shore, sir,"
but then, after a brief examination it would be pronounced
a star, and the discoverer would retire in confusion.The Story of the Landing	69

The progress of the boats was, indeed, slow, and dawn
was rapidly breaking, so that at one time it did appear
as if they would never land covered by the darkness.
Something definite did happen. Exactly at 4.50 a.m.
the enemy suddenly showed an alarm light, which
flashed for ten minutes, and then disappeared. The next
three minutes after its appearance passed in breathless
anxiety; we could just discern the dull outline of the
boats, which appeared to be almost on the beach.

Just previously to this, seven destroyers, conveying
the other men of the brigade, glided noiselessly through
the intervals between the battleships, and followed the
boats inshore.

Enemy's First Shot

At 4.53 a.m. there suddenly came a very sharp burst
of rifle-fire from the beach, and we knew our men were at
last at grips with the enemy. I believe the sound came
as a relief to the majority, as the suspense of this prolonged
waiting had become intolerable. This fire lasted only
for a few minutes and then was drowned by a faint British
cheer, wafted to us over the waters. How comforting
and inspiring was the sound at such a moment I It
seemed like a message sent to tell us that the first posi-
tion had been won and a firm hold obtained on the
beach.

At 5.3 a.m. the fire intensified, and we could tell,
from the sound, that our men were firing. It lasted until
5.28, and then died down somewhat. No one on board
knew what was happening, although the dawn was grad-
ually breaking, because we were looking due east, into
the sun, slowly rising behind the hills, which are almost
flush with the foreshore, and there was also a haze.

Astern, at 5.26, we saw the outline of some of the
transports, gradually growing bigger and bigger as they7© Despatches from the Dardanelles

approached the coast. They were bringing up the re-
mainder of the Australians and New Zealand division.

The first authentic news we received came with the
return of our boats. A steam pinnace came alongside
with two recumbent forms on her deck, and a small figure,
pale but cheerful, and waving his hand, astern.

They were one of our midshipmen, just sixteen years
of age, shot through the stomach, but regarding his injury
more as a fitting consummation to a glorious holiday
ashore than a wound, and a chief stoker and petty officer,
all three wounded by that first burst of musketry, which
caused many casualties in the boats just as they reached
the beach.

From them we learnt what had happened in those
first wild moments. All the tows had almost reached
the beach, when a party of Turks, entrenched almost on
the shore, opened up a terrible fusillade from rifles, and
also from a maxim. Fortunately, most of the bullets
went high, but, nevertheless, many men were hit as they
sat huddled together, forty or fifty in a boat.

A Trying Moment

It was a trying moment, but the Australian volunteers
rose as a man to the occasion. They waited neither for
orders nor for the boats to reach the beach, but, springing
out into the sea, they waded ashore, and, forming some
sort of a rough line, rushed straight on the flashes of the
enemy’s rifles.

Their magazines were not even charged, so they just
went in with cold steel, and I believe I am right in saying
that the first Ottoman Turk since the last crusade received
an Anglo-Saxon bayonet in him at five minutes after
five a.m. on April 25.

It was over in a minute. The Turks in this first trench
were bayoneted or ran away, and a maxim gun wasThe Story of the Landing	71

captured. Then the Australians found themselves facing
an almost perpendicular cliff of loose sandstone, covered
with thick shrubbery, and somewhere half-way up the
enemy had a second trench, strongly held, from which
they poured a terrible fire on the troops below and the
boats pulling back to the destroyers for the second landing
party.

Here was a tough proposition to tackle in the dark-
ness, but these Colonials are practical above all else, and
they went about it in a practical way. They stopped
a few moments to pull themselves together and to get
rid of their packs, which no troops should carry in an
attack, and then charged their magazines.

Then this race of athletes proceeded to scale the
cliffs without responding to the enemy’s fire. They lost
some men, but did not worry, and in less than a quarter
of an hour the Turks were out of their second position,
either bayoneted or in full flight.

Blessing in Disguise

After the events I have previously described the light
gradually became better, and we could see from the
London what was happening on the beach. The shore
in front gradually opened up as the sun rose, although,
shining as it did directly in the eyes of the ship’s gunners,
they were not in a position to support the attack in the
early hours of the morning.

It was then discovered that the boats had landed
rather further north of Gaba Tepe than was originally
intended, at a point where the sandstone cliffs rise very
sheer from the water’s edge. As a matter of fact this
error probably turned out a blessing in disguise, because
there was no glacis down which the enemy’s infantry
could fire, and the numerous bluffs, ridges, and broken72 Despatches from the Dardanelles

ground afford good cover to troops once they have passed
the forty or fifty yards of flat sandy beach.

This ridge, under which the landing was made,
stretches due north from Gaba Tepe and culminates in
the height of Coja Chemen Dagh, which rises 950 ft. above
the sea level. The whole forms part of a confused
triangle of hills, valleys, ridges, bluffs, and dales, which
stretches right across the Gallipoli Peninsula to the Bay
of Bassi Liman, above the Narrows.

The triangle is cut in two by the valley through which
flows the stream known as Bokali Deresi. It is indeed
a formidable and forbidding land. To the sea it presents
a steep front, broken up into innumerable ridges, bluffs,
valleys, and sandpits, which rise to a height of several
hundred feet. The surface is either a kind of bare yellow
sandstone, very soft, which crumbles when you tread on
it, or else it is covered with very thick shruberry about
6 ft. in height.

Ideal “ Snipers’ ” Country

It is, in fact, an ideal country for irregular warfare,
such as the Australians and New Zealanders were soon
to find, to their cost. You cannot see a yard in front of
you, and so broken is the ground that the enemy’s snipers
were able to lie concealed within a few yards of the lines
of infantry without it being possible to locate them. On
the other hand, the Australians and New Zealanders have
proved themselves adepts at this form of warfare, which
requires the display of great endurance in climbing over
the cliffs, and offers scope for a display of that individu-
ality which you find highly developed in these Colonial
volunteers.

To organise anything like a regular attack on such
ground is almost impossible, as the officers cannot seeThe Story of the Landing	73

their men, who, the moment they move forward in open
order, are lost amongst the thick scrub.

In the early part of the day very heavy casualties
were suffered in the boats which conveyed the troops
from the destroyers, tugs, and transports to the beach.

As soon as it became light the enemy's sharpshooters
hidden everywhere simply concentrated their fire on the
boats when they got close in. At least three boats, having
broken away from their tows, drifted down the coast
under no control, sniped at the whole way, and steadily
losing men.

All praise is due to the splendid conduct of the officers,
midshipmen, and men who formed the beach parties, and
whose duty it was to pass backwards and forwards under
this terrible fusillade, which it was impossible to check
in the early part of the day. The work of disembarking
went on mechanically under this fire at almost point-
blank range.

Gallant Boats’ Crews

You saw the crowded boats cast off from the pinnaces,
tugs, and destroyers, and laboriously pulled ashore by
six or eight seamen. The moment it reached the beach
the troops jumped out and doubled for cover to the foot
of the bluffs over some forty yards of beach, but the
gallant crews of the boats had then to pull them out
under a dropping fire from a hundred points where the
enemy’s marksmen lay hidden amidst the sand and shrubs.

Throughout the whole of April 25 the landing of
troops, stores, and munitions had to be carried out under
these conditions, but the gallant sailors never failed their
equally gallant comrades ashore. Every one, from the
youngest midshipman straight from Dartmouth and under
fire for the first time to the senior officers in charge did
their duty nobly.74 Despatches from the Dardanelles

When it became light the covering warships endeav-
oured to support the troops on shore by a heavy fire from
their secondary armament, but at this time, the positions
of the enemy being unknown, the support was necessarily
more moral than real. When the sun was fully risen
and the haze had disappeared, we could see that the
Australians had actually established themselves on the
top of the ridge, and were evidently trying to work their
way northwards along it.

At 8.45 a.m. the fire from the hills became intense,
and lasted for about half an hour, when it gradually died
down, but only for a short time; then it reopened and
lasted without cessation throughout the remainder of
the day.

The fighting was so confused and took place amongst
such broken ground that it is extremely difficult to follow
exactly what did happen throughout the morning and
afternoon of April 25,

The Further Landings

The role assigned to the covering force was splendidly
carried out up to a certain point, and a firm footing
obtained on the crest of the ridge, which allowed the
disembarkation of the remainder of the force to go on
uninterruptedly except for the never-ceasing sniping;
but then the Australians, whose blood was up, instead
of entrenching themselves and waiting developments,
rushed northward and eastward inland in search of
fresh enemies to tackle with the bayonet.

The ground is so broken and ill defined that it was
very difficult to select a position to entrench, especially
as, after the troops imagined they had cleared a section,
they were continually being sniped from all sides. There-
fore they preferred to continue the advance.

It is impossible for any army to defend a long beach75

The Story of the Landing

in any force, especially when you do not know exactly
where an attack will be made, and when your troops will
come under the fire of the guns of warships.

The Turks, therefore, had only a comparatively weak
force actually holding the beach, and they seemed to
have relied on the difficult nature of the ground and
their scattered snipers to delay the advance until they
brought up reinforcements from the interior. Some of
the Australians, who had pushed inland, were attacked
and almost outflanked by these oncoming reserves, and
had to fall back, after suffering very heavy casualties.
It was then the turn of the Turks to counter-attack, and
this they continued to do throughout the afternoon.

But the Australians never yielded a foot of ground
on the main ridge, and reinforcements were continually
poured up from the beach as fresh troops were disem-
barked from the transports; but the enemy’s artillery
fire presented a very difficult problem.

As soon as the light became good the Turks enfiladed
the beach with two field guns from Gaba Tepe, and with
two others from the north. This shrapnel fire was in-
cessant and deadly. In vain did the warships endeavour
to put them out of action with their secondary armament.
For some hours they could not be accurately located,
or else were so well protected that our shells failed to do
them any harm.

Deadly Shrapnel

The majority of the heavy casualties suffered during
the day were from shrapnel, which swept the beach and
the ridge on which Australians and New Zealanders had
established themselves. Later in the day the two guns
to the north were silenced or forced to withdraw to a
fresh position from which they could no longer enfilade
the beach, and a cruiser, moving in close to the shore, so7 6 Despatches from the Dardanelles

plastered Gaba Tepe with a hail of shell that the guns
there were also silenced, and have not attempted to reply
since. As the enemy brought up reinforcements towards
dusk his attacks became more and more vigorous, and
he was supported by a powerful artillery inland, which
the ships’ guns were powerless to deal with.

The pressure on the Australians and New Zealanders
became heavier and heavier, and the line they were
occupying had to be contracted for the night.

General Birdwood and his staff went ashore in the
afternoon, and devoted all their energies to securing the
position, so as to hold firmly to it until the following
morning, when it was hoped to get some field guns in
position to deal with the enemy’s artillery.

Some idea of the difficulty to be faced may be gathered
when it is remembered that every round of ammunition,
all water, and all supplies had to be landed on a narrow
beach and then carried up pathless hills, valleys, and
bluffs several hundred feet high to the firing line. The
whole of this mass of troops, concentrated on a very
small area, and unable to reply, were exposed to a relent-
less and incessant shrapnel fire, which swept every yard
of the ground, although, fortunately, a great deal of it
was badly aimed or burst too high.

Courageous Wounded

The reserves were engaged in road-making and carry-
ing supplies to the crests, and in answering the calls for
more ammunition.

A serious problem was getting away the wounded
from the shore, where it was impossible to keep them.
All those who were unable to hobble to the beach had
to be carried down from the hills on stretchers, then
hastily dressed and carried to the boats. The boat and77

The Story of the Landing

beach parties never stopped working throughout the
entire day and night. The courage displayed by these
wounded Australians will never be forgotten. Hastily
dressed and placed in trawlers, lighters, and ships’ boats,,
they were towed to the ships. I saw some lighters full
of bad cases as they passed the battleship. Some of
those on board recognised her as the ship they had left
that morning, whereupon, in spite of their sufferings and
discomforts, they set up a cheer, which was answered by
a deafening shout of encouragement from our crew.

I have, in fact, never seen the like of these wounded
Australians in war before, for as they were towed amongst
the ships whilst accommodation was being found for
them, although many were shot to bits and without hope
of recovery, their cheers resounded through the night,
and you could just see, amidst a mass of suffering
humanity, arms being waved in greeting to the crews of
the warships. They were happy because they knew they
had been tried for the first time in the war and had not
been found wanting.

They had been told to occupy the heights and hold
on, and this they had done for fifteen mortal hours, under
an incessant shell fire, without the moral and material
support of a single gun ashore, and subjected the whole
time to the violent counter-attack of a brave enemy, led
by skilled leaders, whilst his snipers, hidden in caves and
thickets and amongst the dense shrub, made a deliberate
practice of picking off every officer who endeavoured to
give a word of command or to lead his men forward.

No finer feat of arms has been performed during the
war than this sudden landing in the dark, this storming
of the heights, and, above all, the holding on to the posi-
tion thus won whilst reinforcements were being poured
from the transports. These raw Colonial troops in those
desperate hours proved themselves worthy to fight side7 8 Despatches from the Dardanelles

by side with the heroes of Mons and the Aisne, Ypres,
and Neuve Chapelle.

Repeated Attacks

Throughout the night of the 25th and the early
morning of the 26th there was continual fighting, as the
Turks made repeated attacks to endeavour to drive the
Australians and New Zealanders from their positions.

On several occasions parties of the Colonials made
local counter-attacks, and drove the enemy off with
the bayonet, which the Turks will never face.

On the morning of the 26th it became known that
the enemy had been very largely reinforced during the
night, and was preparing for a big assault from the
north-east. This movement began about half-past nine
a.m. From the ships we could see large numbers of
the enemy creeping along the top of the hills, endeavour-
ing to approach our positions under cover, and then
annoy our troops with their continual sniping. He had
also brought up more guns during the night, and plastered
the whole position once again with shrapnel. The rifle and
machine gun fire became heavy and unceasing.

But the enemy were not going to be allowed to have
matters all their own way with their artillery.

Seven warships had moved in close to the shore,
whilst the Queen Elizabeth, farther out, acted as a kind
of chaperone to the lot. Each covered a section of the
line, and when the signal was given, opened up a bom-
bardment of the heights and valleys beyond which can
only be described as terrific. As the Turkish infantry
moved forward to the attack, they were met by every
kind of shell which our warships carry, from 15-in.
shrapnel from the Queen Elizabeth, each one of which
contains 20,000 bullets, to 12-in., 6-in., and 12-pounders.

The noise, smoke and concussion produced was unlikeThe Story of the Landing	79

anything you can ever imagine until you have heard
and seen it. The hills in front looked as if they had
been transformed into smoking volcanoes, the common
shell throwing up great chunks of ground and masses of
black smoke, whilst the shrapnel formed a white canopy
above. Sections of ground were covered by each ship
all around our front trenches, and, the ranges being
known, the shooting was excellent.

Nevertheless, a great deal of the fire was of necessity
indirect, and the ground affords such splendid cover that
the Turks continued their advance in a most gallant
manner, whilst their artillery not only plastered our
positions on shore with shrapnel, but actually tried to
drive the ships off the coast by firing at them, whilst
their desperate snipers, in place of a better target, tried
to pick off officers and men on the decks and bridges.
We picked up many bullets on the deck afterwards.

Unique Scene

An enemy warship started to fire over the peninsula.
The Triumph dropped two 10-in. shells within a few
yards of her, whereupon she retired up the straits to a
safer position, from which she occasionally drops a few
shells into the brown, but so far has done no damage.

The scene at the height of this engagement was
sombre, magnificent and unique. The day was perfectly
clear, and you could see right down the coast as far as
Seddul Bahr. There the warships of the First Division
were blazing away at Aki Baba, and the hills around
it, covering their summits with a great white cloud of
bursting shells.

Farther out the giant forms of the transports which
accompanied that division loomed up through the slight
mist.

Almost opposite Gaba Tepe a battleship and a cruiser80 Despatches from the Dardanelles

close in shore were covering the low ground with their
guns, and occasionally dropping shells right over into
the straits on the far side. Opposite the hills in possession
of the Australian and New Zealand troops other ships
kept up an incessant fire, the ships themselves being
enveloped in great rolling clouds of cordite. Beyond lay
our transports, which had moved farther out to avoid
the Turkish warships’ shells and those of some battery
which fires persistently; beyond all, the splendid sil-
houette of the Queen Elizabeth, with her eight huge,
monstrous 15-in. guns, all pointed shorewards, seemed
to threaten immediate annihilation to any enemy who
dared even aim at the squadron under her charge.

Two Hours Attack

On shore the rifle and machine gun fire was incessant,
and at times rose into a perfect storm as the Turks
pressed forward their attack. The hills were ablaze
with shells from the ships and the enemy’s shrapnel,
whilst on the beach masses of troops were waiting to
take their places in the trenches, and the beach parties
worked incessantly at landing stores, material and
ammunition.

This great attack lasted some two hours, and during
this time we received encouraging messages from the
beach: “Thanks for your assistance; your guns are
inflicting awful losses on the enemy.’’

The Turks must, in fact, have suffered terribly from
this concentrated fire from so many guns, and from the
infantry in the trenches. The end came with a flash of
bayonets and a sudden charge of the Colonials, before
which the Turks broke and fled, amidst a perfect tornado
of shells from the ships.

They fell back, sullen and checked, though not yet
defeated, but for the remainder of the day no big attackThe Story of the Landing	81

was pressed home, and the Colonials gained some ground
by local counter-attacks, which enlarged and consolidated
the position they were holding.

The Turks kept up their incessant shrapnel fire
throughout the day, but the Colonials were now dug in,
and could not be shaken by it in their trenches, whilst
the reserves had also prepared shelter trenches and dug-
outs on the slopes.

Some prisoners were captured, including an officer,
who said the Turks were becoming demoralised by the
fire of the guns, and the Germans now had difficulty
in getting them forward to the attack. We are well
entrenched, and they will probably do likewise, and we
shall see a repetition of the siege warfare out here.CHAPTER VII

FUTILE TURKISH ATTACKS ON COLONIAL
TROOPS

April 28

Throughout the night of April 26 the Turks harassed
our lines, creeping up and endeavouring to snipe the
Australians and New Zealanders in their shelter trenches,
but never daring to press home an attack, although in
overwhelming numbers compared to our force ashore.
At one section of the line they paid dearly for their
temerity, for the New Zealanders charged them with
the bayonet and drove them off in disorder.

It was obvious on the morning of the 27th that the
Turks had not recovered from the terrible hammering
they had received on the previous day, and had no
stomach for another big attack on the entrenchments
now firmly established on a semicircular front which
covered the whole of the foreshore which is being used
for the disembarkation of troops, supplies, guns and
ammunition, supported by the fire of many warships.

Also the position of the Colonials had been immeasur-
ably improved by the landing of some of our field guns
and several Indian mountain batteries.

Turks Disillusioned

The Turks had evidently intended to drive us into
the sea on the previous day by a great concentration
of infantry, supported by an unceasing shrapnel fire,

82Turkish Attacks on Colonial Troops 83

•xpecting to find a line thinly held by men exhausted
by their losses and exertions on the day of landing.

But they were soon disillusioned, for these Australians
and New Zealanders were determined from the first rather
to die to a man than surrender the ground so dearly won
on April 25, and every man knew that his only hope of
safety lay in victory, as it would have been impossible
to re-embark the whole army once the ring of hills com-
manding the beach had been lost.

Most of the troops were under fire for the first time,
and the volunteers, with only a few months' training
behind them, feel their losses very much at the beginning,
more especially if they occur before they have had time
to settle down and to become accustomed to their new
surroundings in the field.

But these Australians and New Zealanders are an
exception to the rule, and although many battalions
have losses, the survivors, far from being discouraged,
are just as keen and full of fight as ever.

Enemy’s New Tactics

On the morning and throughout the entire day of
April 27 the enemy resorted to new tactics in the forlorn
hope of driving us off the shore, and in order to prevent
supplies and reinforcements reaching the beach. During
the night he had brought up and got into fresh positions
a great number of field guns, and with these he opened
up a tremendous bombardment of the foreshore and sea
in front, whilst at the same time he kept up an incessant
rain of shrapnel on the trenches.

He could no longer enfilade the beach, as every
attempt to place guns for this purpose was immediately
checkmated by a few well-aimed salvos from the war-
ships. The Turkish gunners tried to put a great curtain84 Despatches from the Dardanelles

of shrapnel over the sea between the warships and the
transports and the shore.

Great Storm of Shrapnel

It was truly an amazing sight to watch the shells
bursting, dozens at a time, above the water, and then
the spreading bullets churning up the water as if a great
hailstorm had suddenly come on. Some fell far out,
being aimed at the warships and transports, without ever
making a hit, whilst others, concentrated nearer the shore,
made a great danger zone through which all the boats
and trawlers to and from the shore had to pass.

But this hail of lead made not the smallest difference
to the gallant crews of the pinnaces, boats, lighters and
tugs manned by men of the Royal Navy, and in charge
of our sub-lieutenants and midshipmen. There was never
any hesitation or delay for the storm to moderate. They
took just as much notice of this hail of bullets as they
would have of a tropical thunderstorm, and although the
spectacular effect of the bombardment was extremely
fine, the material damage inflicted was practically nil.

Throughout the day the warships kept up an incessant
fire on any of the enemy’s infantry who attempted to
advance and were frequently "spotted” by the hydro-
plane, which did excellent work. The fire of the warship
is an interesting study of scientific gunnery. Every day
the ships’ gunners become more efficient at this indirect
firing on land, and so great is their accuracy at the present
time that nothing can live in a section fired at provided
the target has been accurately spotted.

Ineffective Turkish Guns

The Turks frequently fire guns of heavy calibre from
the other side of the peninsula, hoping to hole a trans-
port, but have never yet succeeded, and if these comeTurkish Attacks on Colonial Troops 85

from a ship in the Straits she is speedily forced to fly
up the channel by a salvo or two from the big guns of
one of the warships. Our most persistent opponent is a
ship which, with her heavy guns, every morning between
six and seven fires three or four of her huge shells right
amongst us. The scream they make passing through the
air, the tremendous splash as they hit the water, and
the violent detonation if they happen to burst, arouse
every one from their slumbers prematurely, and there is
a rush to the deck to see where they have fallen.

Sailors generally find an appropriate name for every-
thing, and this ship is now known throughout the Fleet
as “ Christians, Arise.”

" Folkestone Leas ”

The stretch of foreshore and cliffs occupied by the
Australians and New Zealand troops has been named
the Folkestone Leas, and the ground certainly does bear
a striking resemblance to what Folkestone must have
looked like before the town was built on the cliffs.

On going ashore through an avalanche of bursting
shrapnel you land on a beach about thirty yards wide,
between the water and the cliffs, which then rise very
steeply for several hundred feet. There are regiments
waiting to move to the trenches, fatigue parties unloading
boats and lighters, others making great pyramids of
tinned meat and biscuits, others fetching water, of which
a supply has been found on shore. There are trains of
mules endeavouring to drag field guns into position,
Indians in charge of mountain guns, dressing stations
where the wounded are hastily tended before being piled
into barges and sent to the ships, other fatigue parties
are laying telegraph and telephone wires, others carrying
supplies up the cliffs.

You run across your beach parties from the battle-86 Despatches from the Dardanelles

ships, and see young midshipmen who have been working
incessantly for days now building themselves a bomb-
proof shelter, and complaining that their last one was
considered such a perfect model of its kind that some
superior officer, no sooner saw it than he appropriated it
for his own use.

Busy Colonials

Thousands of hardy New Zealanders and Australians
are concentrated on this narrow shore, each engaged in
some occupation, for no sooner does a man get out of the
front trenches than he is required for fatigue work, and
very few have had more than a few hours’ sleep for days
past.

The generals and staff officers fare no better than
their men. General Birdwood is high in his opinion of
his troops. He told me that he could not praise the
courage, endurance and soldierly qualities of his Colonials
enough, and said the manner in which they hung on to
the position the first day and night was a magnificent
feat which has seldom, if ever, been surpassed, considering
their very heavy losses, the shortage of water, and the
incessant shrapnel fire to which they were exposed without
cover, not to mention the unceasing attacks of the
enemy’s infantry.

That night, when they were obliged to retire to a
more contracted line, and when that line was reached,
they set their teeth and refused to budge another foot.

A Strange Scene

The whole scene on the beach irresistibly reminds
you of a gigantic shipwreck. It looks as if there was
not a gun within miles.

These Colonials are extraordinarily cool and callous
under fire, often exposing themselves rather than takingTurkish Attacks on Colonial Troops 87

the trouble to keep in under the shelter of the cliff. One
of the strangest sights of all was to see numbers of them
bathing in the sea with the shrapnel bursting all around
them.

This Colonial colony suddenly planted on the shores
of Gallipoli is now assuming a definite form. The whole
face of cliffs is being cut away into roads, dugouts, and
bombproof shelters. Thus a kind of improvised town
is springing up as the troops slowly dig themselves in
and make themselves comfortable.

In the Front Trenches

As you climb up the newly made paths to the front
trenches you realise some of the difficulties the Austra-
lians and New Zealanders had to face when they first
advanced from the beach on Apiil 25. We are now
holding a semicircular position. The trenches are well
made, and provide ample cover, but if you show your
head above the parapet for a second you are certain to
get a bullet in or close to it.

This incessant sniping is one of the great puzzles of
the men in the trenches, and the great problem to deal
with at the present time. Apparently even when an
advance post is thrown out to hold some commanding
point the enemy’s sharpshooters remain behind and
continue to pick off any unwary man who either through
carelessness or indifference exposes himself. Volunteers
go out at night and hunt about for these snipers, but up to
the present they have not been able to keep them under.

The cheerfulness of the men in the trenches is most
marked. They feel that they have overcome the initial
difficulties, and have paved the way for success.

These Colonial divisions now occupy a position, and
have entrenched it so thoroughly that all the Turks in
Thrace and Gallipoli will never turn them out of it.CHAPTER VIII

SEDDUL BAHR LANDING

April 30

Whilst the Australians and New Zealanders have
been fighting so gallantly against heavy odds north of
Gaba Tepe, the British troops have crowned themselves
with equal laurels at the southern end of the Gallipoli
peninsula.

The story of the landing of the 29th Division, assisted
by units of the Naval Division and by the crews of the
battleships, is, indeed, a splendid one, and could have
only been brought to a successful conclusion by the
most devoted heroism and self-sacrifice of our officers
and men. But the results justify the sacrifices. A firm
foothold has been obtained, and already our line stretches
across the southern end of the whole of the peninsula
along the lower slopes of the height of Aki Baba, with
both its flanks secured by the fire of our warships.

Army’s Heavy Task

The task before the Army is a heavy one. Our position
is now perfectly secure, and the Army holds a fine tract
of flat country with many convenient landing places,
where troops, stores, munitions and guns can be landed
in perfect immunity from the enemy's guns, except for
the occasional shelling of some battery on the Asiatic
shore.

The problems which the landing parties had to face
when landing in Southern Gallipoli were of a different
character from those which the Australians successfully

88Seddul Bahr Landing	89

solved farther north. The cliffs are not high and irregular,
but rise from fifty to a hundred feet from the water’s
edge. In places there is no foreshore, and jagged rocks
make a landing impossible, but there are at intervals
stretches of beach, and five of these were selected for
the disembarkation of troops, each under the covering
fire of warships.

Two of these landing places are on the western shore,
and are known by the letters Y and X. A third, known
as W beach, lies between Cape Teke and Cape Helles.
A fourth, known as V beach, is between Cape Helles and
the fort and castle of Seddul Bahr, and the fifth, known
as S beach, is east of Seddul Bahr in Morto Bay.

Heights of Aki Baba

Once you have climbed the low cliffs at any of these
points you find yourself on an open grassy plateau, which
stretches inland for about two miles until the ground
becomes more hilly and broken as you approach the
village of Krithia, and the slopes of the dominating
heights of Aki Baba, which rises some 700 feet above the
sea. The immediate flat plateau is partly cultivated
and partly grass, covered with scattered brushwood.

It was hoped that the trenches would be rendered un-
tenable by the fire of the ships' guns, but these expecta-
tions failed to be realised. I shall explain in detail as
I describe what happened on each beach, starting from Y
on the left and gradually working round the southern
point of the peninsula to S beach in Morto Bay.

The landing on Y beach was covered by the cruisers
Dublin, Amethyst, and Sapphire. Two battalions and
one company were put ashore there. The landing at
this point was accomplished without opposition, and the
troops obtained a firm footing on the cliff, but when they
attempted to advance inland according to the pre-arranged90 Despatches from the Dardanelles

plan they encountered a very stiff opposition, and the
attacks from W and V beaches being held up on the edge
of the coast all day, the troops advancing from Y beach
were outflanked and obliged to retire after suffering
heavy losses.

It was then decided to re-embark this force on Monday
morning, and this was successfully accomplished under
a heavy covering fire from the ships’ guns.

Battleship Action

The landing on X beach was the most successful of
all, as it was carried out without any loss, chiefly owing
to the tactics adopted by the landing ship, the Implacable.

At dawn the covering ship, the Swiftsure, opened up
a fierce bombardment of the cliffs above X beach, and
then at 5.52 a.m. the Implacable herself stood in close
to the shore with an anchor down until she actually
reached the six fathom limit.

From this, only 500 yards from the shore, she plastered
the top of the cliffs with 12-in. shrapnel, and the fore-
shore with her 6-in. The enemy could not show his
head above the cliffs under this terrible storm of shell,
and the tows went right in and obtained a firm footing
on the edge of the cliff, where they entrenched.

The troops advanced about 1000 yards inland, but
were then counter-attacked in great force, and found
their right wing exposed owing to the advance from W
beach being held up all day. They were also greatly
annoyed by a Turkish battery near the village of Krithia,
but the position being signalled it was knocked out by
the fire of the Implacable's guns.

A Desperate Struggle

Nevertheless, in spite of these attacks, the troops
from X beach held their ground inland for the whole day,91

Seddul Bahr Landing

but at night the Turks counter-attacked in force, and
our men were slowly driven back to the cliffs. Here
they hung on all night in a most gallant fashion in shelter
trenches, and on the following morning (Monday, April 26)
they were once more able to advance.

The cliffs along this stretch are covered with Turkish
trenches and bombproof shelters, and they seem to have
suffered very little from the previous bombardments,
and that which preceded the landing. The ground is
cut up into huge craters by the 12-in. and 6-in. shells,
but in very few instances have the shells actually de-
stroyed the trenches.

We now come to the desperate struggle which raged
all day for W beach and the adjoining hills between Cape
Teke and Cape Helles. Here there is a bay with a broad
stretch of sand, and the shore recedes, a valley running
inland. This sandy beach is commanded on the left by
Cape Teke, 100 feet high, and on the right by the con-
tinuation of the cliffs which end in Cape Helles. Thus,
the landing parties had to land on a wide expanse of
sand, commanded on both sides by hills, and to force
their way up this semicircular valley inland.

Deadly Fusillade

Everywhere the Turks had made trenches, protected
by barbed wire and held in force, whilst their snipers
hidden in the broken ground covered every yard of the
foreshore with a deadly fusillade. The place can only be
described as a death-trap. At dawn for three-quarters
of an hour it was swept by a tremendous fire from the
covering ships, which it was hoped would effectively
destroy the barbed wire on the foreshore which was
known to exist.

Just at daylight the troops were taken inshore from
the cruiser Euryalus in eight tows. Three of these tows92 Despatches from the Dardanelles

made for the cliffs on the right, three others for the beach
itself, and the other two kept more in to the left under
Cape Teke. All were exposed to a heavy fire while ap-
proaching the shore, but the tows which had made for
the cliffs to the right reached the beach, and the men
immediately scaled the cliffs and obtained a footing on
the crest right under the Turkish trenches. Here they
were held up, and could advance no farther.

The conduct of our troops throughout the day was
splendid, and they literally clung to the edge of the cliff
on both sides of the fatal beach, for the tows on the left,
which had made for the shelter of Cape Teke, also got
ashore, and hung on in the same tenacious manner. But
the unfortunate boats which landed on the beach itself
found themselves confronted by a solid hedge of uncut
barbed wire, and exposed to a terrible cross-fire from
pompoms, maxims, trenches, and snipers concealed
everywhere. In the cliff you can see holes dug out, in
which these maxims were concealed, that rendered them
perfectly immune from the shell fire from the ships.

Storming the Cliffs

Every effort was made to cut the wire, but almost all
those who landed in the centre were shot down. The
beach party, detachments of Engineers, and some of the
Royal Naval Division, who were coming ashore in the
second tows, made for the shelter of Cape Teke, and,
hearing the shouts of our men on the top of the cliffs, they
swarmed up, rifles in hand, to their assistance.

This timely aid enabled our troops to advance a little,
and they captured a Turkish trench, in which they in-
stalled themselves, and thus in a measure checked the
enfilade fire on the foreshore. Thus, these parties on
either cliff hung on and shot so accurately that the Turks
did not dare leave their trenches and charge them, andSeddul Bahr Landing	93

showed no inclination to come to close quarters with
such an indomitable foe.

At ten a.m. another regiment was landed, which,
sweeping up the valley, cleared the Turks off the skyline.
It then became possible to remove the wounded from the
beach, to cut the barbed wire, and to start disembarking
stores and ammunition.

That afternoon our men even succeeded in advancing
a little inland, and some companies worked their way
east along the cliffs to try to assist the troops who were
endeavouring to get ashore on the beach between Cape
Helles and Seddul Bahr. This advance was for a time
successful, and some of the enemy's trenches were
captured; but the line having become very attenuated,
our men had to fall back to the immediate crests com-
manding W beach. Here they occupied the trenches
out of which they had driven the Turks earlier in the
day.

Heroic Midshipman

That night the situation again became very serious,
for the Turks, having brought up large reinforcements,
counter-attacked most determinedly. The beach parties
of officers and bluejackets and the detachment of Engineers
and of the Naval Division who were disembarking stores
on the foreshore, were ordered to pick up their rifles and
reinforce the firing line. In the darkness many of the
rifles could not be found, but every man who could obtain
a weapon went forward to assis the troops, whilst the
remainder carried up a continual stream of fresh ammuni-
tion from the beach to the firing line in a most gallant
manner.

One midshipman, whose name I unfortunately have
not got, covered himself with dozens of bandoliers and
carried them forward. Before he reached the firing line94 Despatches from the Dardanelles

he was hit three times full in the chest by bullets, all of
which struck the bandoliers without doing him any harm
except to knock him down.

With this reinforcement the thin khaki line held on
throughout the night, and the Turks were driven off with
heavy loss.

On the following day more troops were landed on
W beach, and the whole line, joining up with the troops
on X beach, was able to move forward and get astride
the peninsula.

Everywhere there is a scene of destruction and desola-
tion, trenches knocked into shapeless heaps by shell fire,
abandoned kits, broken rifles, and so forth. It is only
by visiting the ground that you can realise what a wonder-
ful feat of arms was accomplished there on that historic
Sunday, April 25.

Most Terrible Landing

We now come to the most terrible of all the landings
which took place, that on V beach, between Cape Helles
and Seddul Bahr. The general configuration of the
ground is much the same as that of W beach, which I
have already described. There is the same sandy fore-
shore, with a broken valley running inland to the hills
behind, enfiladed by hills on either flank. But these hills
are very different to those overlooking W beach, because
on them are built the forts of Seddul Bahr, which formerly
defended the entrance to the Straits until they were
knocked out by our guns.

The work on the left is a solid one, which has stood
the bursting of innumerable shells very well. The two
great guns mounted there have been knocked out and
their emplacements badly shattered, but the bombproofs
and ammunition chambers remain intact. Running
back from this fort is a perfect network of trenches andSeddul Bahr Landing	9 5

barbed wire, which go right round the semicircular
valley overlooking the beach, and finally join up with
the old castle and fort of Seddul Bahr on the farther
side.

The Turks had mounted pompoms on the Cape
Helles side of the position, and had the usual snipers
concealed everywhere. On the right the picturesque
old castle of Seddul Bahr fronts the Straits. It is now
sadly battered about by our shells, but nevertheless still
presents a solid mass of masonry, in which sharpshooters
and maxims could lie concealed.

Ruined Seddul Bahr

Just east of the castle are the remains of the great
battery which was silenced by our guns on February 19
and 25, and whose 12-in. guns were finally demolished
by a landing party of marines and bluejackets. Behind
the fort and castle lies the remains of the village of Seddul
Bahr, in which there is not a single house left standing,
for all have been destroyed by the repeated bombard-
ments of the castle and fort. Nevertheless, the ruins
and gardens provide excellent cover for the enemy’s
sharpshooters from which they could snipe the foreshore.

Behind the remains of the village the ground again
rises to a height known as 141, on which the Turks had
constructed a perfect maze of trenches and barbed wire,
and from which they could dominate the beach at point-
blank range. The foreshore and valley leading inland
were likewise protected by trenches and wire, and the
whole position is, indeed, one of the most formidable
which troops have ever attempted to take, even under
normal conditions. But when it is remembered that they
had to be landed in boats rowed ashore without a particle
of cover, the feat becomes almost inexplicable.9 6 Despatches from the Dardanelles

Liner run Ashore

The landing on V beach will ever remain memorable
for the novel experiment of running a liner full of troops
deliberately ashore, and thus allowing them to approach
close in under cover without being exposed as is the case
in the open boats. There seems to be a general consensus
of opinion that a great many lives were saved by the
cover which her steel sides afforded to the hundreds of
soldiers crammed between her decks.

Great doors were cut in her sides to allow of a rapid
disembarkation, and wooden gangways slung fiom ropes
sloped gradually down from these doors to her bows, so
that men could pass down on both sides in single file,
and either jump into the water if it was not too deep,
or on to the lighters which were towed in with her. Her
bridge was made a citadel with steel plates, and twelve
maxims, also protected by these improvised casemates,
and manned by the maxim section of the Naval Division,
were placed in her bows and lower bridge to sweep the
shore when the troops disembarked.

Over 2000 men were stowed on board when at dawn,
after a rapid bombardment from the battleship Albion,
the River Clyde slowly steamed towards the shore. She
was preceded by the usual eight tows of steam pinnaces
and boats which were to land the covering party, but it
would seem as if the River Clyde and the boats reached
the shore simultaneously. Those in the boats suffered
terribly from a tempest of rifle fire, machine guns, and
the four pompoms, which swept the foreshore.

Exciting Scenes

Along the front of the beach is a bank of sand about
four or five feet high, and the survivors and wounded
crawled behind this, which gave them some cover from
the leaden storm.97

Seddul Bahr Landing

Meanwhile the River Clyde had gone ashore farther
east than had been intended, bow on close to a reef of
rock. The rock was too deep to allow of men leaping
from her and wading, but this contingency had been
foreseen, and a steam hopper was brought up and also
run ashore to provide a gangway from the wooden gang-
ways on either side.

But this was not sufficient, and it was necessary to
drag a lighter to the far side of the hopper before the troops
on board could attempt to disembark. Some gallantly
volunteered to get a line ashore and hold the lighter in
position. They ran down the gangway under a hail of
bullets, leapt on to the hopper, and from there into the
sea, and reached the reef of rock which runs out from the
shore. Here they held the lighter in position, and called
on the soldiers to leave the ship.

During the whole of this time the River Clyde was
being subjected to a perfect tornado of rifle, maxim, and
pompom fire, the bullets rattling against her sides like
hailstones. The troops on board knew it meant almost
certain destruction to leave her, yet at the call of their
officers about 200 dashed down the gangway on the
starboard side and attempted to reach the reef. Some
were shot on the gangway, others were killed as they
reached the hopper, others on the reef, and many of the
survivors no sooner reached the beach than they fell.
A few only survived, and lay under the shelter of the
bank, of which I have already spoken.

It was seen that it would mean annihilation to the
whole force if any further attempt to disembark was
made, and the attack was accordingly postponed.

Pelted with Bullets

Later in the morning another attempt was tried. On
seeing the movement had failed, the battleships Cornwallis

D98 Despatches from the Dardanelles

and Albion, and also the Queen Elizabeth opened a furious
bombardment on Seddul Bahr, the hills behind, and on
the Turkish trenches, endeavouring to silence the pom-
poms. Throughout the entire day the River Clyde lay
ashore with her 2000 men packed like sardines between
her decks, and with officers crowded on her protected
bridge. The bullets rattled against her steel plates, but
could not penetrate them, whilst the sharpshooters on
shore picked off every one who dared show his head above
cover. The Turks on the Asiatic shore endeavoured to
destroy the River Clyde by howitzer fire, but this was
kept under by the covering warships in the straits.
Nevertheless, she was pierced by four big shells, all of
which, fortunately, failed to explode.

It was decided to postpone all further movement
until after dark, and then to endeavour to get the troops
ashore. In the afternoon some companies of the troops
landed on W beach, advanced along the shore, and
captured some of the Turkish trenches on the hill over-
looking V beach on the left, and also two of the pompoms,
but they were forced to retire at night.

The Disembarkation

Thus the position remained unchanged until eight
p.m., when it was sufficiently dark to make a fresh attempt
to disembark. Strange to say, almost the entire force
was got ashore without the Turks firing a shot. On
landing, the troops were not pushed straight up the valley
in front, but eastwards to get the shelter of the cliffs
under the castle of Seddul Bahr.

At eleven o'clock the enemy was alarmed, and again
opened up a furious fusillade, sweeping the whole beach,
but our men had received instructions to lie down under
cover, and suffered but small loss.

Thus, on the night of April 25 a firm hold was obtained99

Seddul Bahr Landing

on the shore, the castle being partly occupied, and the
old ruined fort and the cliffs beyond. On Monday morn-
ing a further advance through the ruined village was tried.
On the left the attack was held up by machine guns
placed in some of the towers of the castle, and our men
had again to take cover whilst the Cornwallis demolished
it with her guns.

There was a lot of hard fighting amidst the ruins of
the village behind the castle before our troops could clear
out the snipers and thus gain the open country beyond,
where the wearied attack found itself confronted by the
earthworks and barbed wire on Hill 141.

Attack on Trenches

About eleven a.m. commenced a final attack on the
Turkish trenches on Hill 141. The losses were severe,
but at noon the position was taken and the Turks fled.

Thus at length, after these unparalleled exertions,
V beach, like the others, was cleared, and the way paved
for a further advance inland.

The ruins of Seddul Bahr present an amazing spectacle.
The castle, forts, and village are now little but a jumble
of crushed masonry. The guns in the forts lie smashed
into huge pieces of steel, and have been thrown by the
force of the explosions several yards from their mountings.
Great piles of unused ammunition are stacked up beside
them. The old towers of the castle are partly standing,
although riddled by huge shells. The barracks at the
back have been gutted by shells and flames.

In the village beyond it is difficult to follow the line
of the streets, as the houses, orchards, and gardens seem
to have been thrown into a great pot and all boiled up
together. Everywhere the ground is scattered with
debris of this terrible fight, fragments of shell, scattered
graves, great stains on the stones, knapsacks, greatcoats,ioo Despatches from the Dardanelles

broken rifles, twisted bayonets, soldiers’ caps and helmets,
and tattered heaps of uniforms and clothes.

Not a living soul is left in the village, which is deserted
except for the stray soldiers sightseeing, and a horde of
starving cats prowling around amidst the ruins of their
former homes. The interior and roofs of the houses have
fallen in and lie mixed up with furniture, bedding, fire-
grates, and cooking utensils. It is a scene of awful
desolation.

Astride the Peninsula

Beyond the village you can follow the line of the last
attack, which ended in the capture of the Turkish
trenches on Hill 141, by the graves, the barbed wire,
and the amazing maze of trenches, which twist and turn
in all directions, many having disappeared altogether
under the terrible rain of shell from the ships.

It only remains to mention what happened on S beach,
which lies between Seddul Bahr and De Totts battery.
Here some 700 men were put ashore from trawlers and
succeeded in establishing themselves on the cliffs, and
held their position in the face of a stiff opposition until
this wing was taken over by the French. A company
was also landed at Camber, the little boat harbour nest-
ling just east and under the ruined fort of Seddul Bahr,
but it could make no progress up the steep cliffs into
the village in face of the enemy’s fire, and had to be
withdrawn.

It has cost us dearly to get astride the Gallipoli pen-
insula, but there is no finer tale in our history than that
of the deeds which were performed on Sunday, April 25,
by Australian, New Zealand, and British troops, supported
with equal gallantry by the officers and men of the war-
ships. Neither must we forget the role played by the
French, who, landing on the Asiatic shore, occupied KumIOI

Seddul Bahr Landing

Kale and captured 500 Turkish prisoners, but were then
withdrawn according to the pre-arranged plan.

Many are the stories of the individual gallantry of
officers and men which will probably remain for ever
untold, and many a hero who deserves the Victoria Cross
now lies beneath the soil.CHAPTER IX

THE FIRST STAGE—IMPREGNABLE POSITION

May io

The first stage of the great battle for the possession
of the heights of Aki Baba has come to a close, and
although the British army is not yet in possession of
this commanding position, the enemy has been forced
to disclose his strength and the character of his defences,
and we are now in a position to estimate the full measure
of the task which lies ahead.

Aki Baba is the first of the commanding positions on
which the Turco-German force can take its stand before
we are able to move up the Gallipoli peninsula and thus
command the northern shore of the Narrows. There are
others just as formidable, even if not more so, behind
it, and unless the enemy suddenly loses heart and decides
to give in, a contingency on which we have no right to
speculate, all these positions must be taken, hill by hill,
valley by valley, and trench by trench, before the army
can open the gate to the Fleet and enable it to pass
through to Constantinople. Onde our Fleet is past the
Narrows the end has come.

Those who in their ignorance of the true state of
affairs on the Gallipoli peninsula expected a speedy and
triumphant success will be disappointed, but those who
have studied the lessons of modem warfare in France
and Poland will at once realise that the Anglo-French
armies have not only accomplished marvels considering
their strength, but also that the soldiers of both nations

102The First Stage—Impregnable Position 103

in two weeks of continuous fighting have performed deeds
which have never been surpassed in the history of either
nation.

A Tenacious Enemy

It is only just that all false illusions as to the task
before us should be cleared away, once and for all.
Victories leading to decisive results can no more be gained
in a day on the Gallipoli peninsula than they can be in
France or Belgium.

We are fighting a brave and tenacious enemy, who
is most skilfully led, and who has always proved himself
a most formidable foe when driven into a comer and
placed on the defensive.

The men our troops are fighting to-day are of the
same stamp as those who held Plevna under Osman.
They are fighting for their existence as a factor in Euro-
pean politics; for the retention of the city which is the
pride and delight of every Turk.

They are not going to give in and let us through to
the Narrows, so we have got to fight our way yard by
yard, and the war here has become, as it has been so
long in France, a question of how many men you can
afford to the capture of each trench and each kilometre
of soil. Victory can only be gained here, as in France,
by more men and a continuous supply of ammunition.

Our gallant troops and those of our Allies have made
enormous sacrifices to prepare the way for the reinforce-
ments from home to follow up the successes which this
band of heroes, so many of whom lie beneath the soil,
have achieved. Our positions are impregnable, and no
force the Turks can bring against us will move our men
from the lines which they have won by sheer hard fighting.

But apparently the Turk, who in modem times has
never loved offensive tactics, has grasped this fact, and104 Despatches from the Dardanelles

now hopes that we will hurl ourselves against his entrench-
ments and redoubts.

Blow to Turco-Germans

That both the Turks and Germans have received a
staggering blow we know, for they were convinced that
the Gallipoli peninsula was impregnable, that no enemy
could possibly land on any of the beaches, and that if
by chance an isolated force should get ashore they could
drive it into the sea at the point of the bayonet. Indeed,
the enemy had every right to suppose that his defences
would prove impregnable to all attacks.

The more you examine the positions the more apparent
is the extraordinary feat of arms performed by the 29th
Division, the Naval Divisions, and the landing parties
from the ships on that never-to-be-forgotten morning of
April 25. Each beach was a fortress in itself, not only
protected against attack from the sea, but also offering
an equal measure of protection against attack from the
land, a precaution which it was confidently anticipated
would have removed the last chance of a hostile force
retaining a footing on the shore, even supposing it did
succeed in effecting a landing at any one point.

But all these obstacles were overcome by our men,
who proved themselves just the same determined fighters
who astonished the French, and even Wellington him-
self, a hundred years ago at Badajoz and Ciudad Rodrigo.
The superlative merit of the achievement, however, lies
in the fact that the same men who went through this
dreadful ordeal of the 25th maintained their position
without receiving any reinforcement for several days in
the face of most determined counter-attacks, and actually
advanced their lines until they were firmly established
astride of the peninsula, facing the heights of Aki Baba.
The Turks fought with extreme bravery, and made theThe First Stage—Impregnable Position 105

most determined efforts to drive us into the sea, not
only on the night of the landing, but also in a sustained
effort on the night of Wednesday, April 28.

Great Turkish Losses

They pressed forward on our thinly held lines in
close-order formations after the manner of the Germans,
hoping by sheer weight of numbers to smash their way
through the enfeebled khaki line, but they were every-
where repulsed, and long rows of their dead lying in
perfect military formation in front of our trenches
indicate the high-water mark of their futile efforts.

Since that night their efforts against our line have
only been spasmodic, and their main efforts have been
directed against the French, who, after their landing at
Kum Kale, were taken from the Asiatic shore and placed
on the right of our line. On the night of the 28th they
attacked them in dense masses which melted away under
the rapid fire of the Lebels, and were finally routed in a
fierce and well-directed counter-attack at the point of
the bayonet.

On the following Saturday (May 1), the Turks again
pressed forward against this part of the line, which was
the scene of desperate fighting. At one time a portion
of the French trenches actually passed into their hands,
but the situation was saved and the ground held.

We know from prisoners that the enemy was largely
reinforced from Adrianople and from Asia Minor, and
all are unanimous in saying that the Turkish losses were
enormous in these futile efforts to carry out General
Liman von Sanders’ orders to drive us into the sea at
the point of the bayonet. But it was not the policy of
the Allied commanders to sit still and allow their lines
to be attacked. They were quite content to see the
enemy break himself in waves of dead and wounded106 Despatches from the Dardanelles

against our entrenched positions while they were pre-
paring for the great counterstroke, the first stage of
which has just been ended.

Navy and Army Co-operate

But before I deal with these events I will just touch
on the immense work which has been accomplished by
the Navy during the last two weeks. The whole of the
responsibility for landing the troops and keeping up the
supplies of food and ammunition is in their hands, and
in addition, the responsibility of protecting the flanks
of the combined armies, and in keeping down the enemy’s
artillery fire, lies with the warships. All the troops,
animals, guns, wagons, stores, ammunition, and a thou-
sand other things, have to be taken from the hundred
transports lying off the Straits, which arrive full and
leave empty for a fresh cargo at all hours of the day
and night, and conveyed in trawlers or lighters to two
narrow beaches, neither of which is more than two
hundred yards in width. The cliffs prohibit landing
anything at any other point.

Our naval commanders, lieutenants and midshipmen
in charge of this work have developed an efficiency which
has astounded even the most tape-ridden theorists on
how such matters should be carried through smoothly
and with a minimum of delay. Piers have been built
out into deep water by our sappers, so that the largest
lighters can come alongside. Roads have been cut along
the cliffs to increase the area of disembarkation, and a
hundred devices have been hit upon to lessen labour
and increase efficiency, including systems of lighting
which enable the work to go on uninterruptedly night
and day. F r it never stops, and even when the day's
work is over and the last lighter has discharged herThe First Stage—Impregnable Position 107

cargo, the streams of wounded are walking or being
carried down to the beaches, where they are embarked
on the empty barges and dispatched, for transportation
to Egypt, to the hospital ships and transports. They
keep watches on shore just as they do at sea, and their
devotion to duty and keenness is just as marked as when
facing the enemy’s batteries in the Dardanelles.

“ Our Young Kitcheners ”

The line of demarkation between the authority of
the Army and the Navy is strictly drawn. As long as a
soldier, a horse, a gun, or a biscuit is on a ship or on a
lighter on its way to the shore all are under the control
of our beach parties. You see standing on one of the
piers in the sweltering heat of the last few days, with
the beach behind him crammed with men, stores and
animals, one of our young Kitcheners with a megaphone
in his hand, shouting orders to a dozen different lighters,
each towed by a steam pinnace, in the offing. One
contains mules, another guns, a third biscuits, a fourth
tinned meat, a fifth ammunition, a sixth troops, a seventh
generals and staff officers.

Every one is directed to its right destination as if
by some enchanter’s wand, and no one dare step ashore
until he has received his orders.

At the end of the pier the naval authority ceases and
that of the Army begins. Here are Army Service Corps
officers, whose efficiency has become a commonplace
throughout all the hungry soldiers of our Allies or
enemies, waiting to seize what the Navy has given them,
and the thousand miscellaneous articles which look as
if they never could be sorted out are speedily divided,
checked, and sent on their way down the lines of com-
munication to the troops in the front trenches.108 Despatches from the Dardanelles

Marvel of Organisation

The whole is a marvel of organisation; how it is
managed will ever remain a mystery to me; but certainly
such a task has never been attempted by an army and
navy before.

Neither let it be supposed that the work is carried
out in peace and quiet: far from it. The Turks on the
Asiatic shore shell the beach almost every day, and our
warships are continually engaged in trying to locate
their guns and knock them out or force them to change
their positions. There is one gun known as the “ Jewel
of Asia,” which continually drops shells, but with a
minimum of result. You hear the shriek of its arrival,
and then the explosion, followed by a cloud of sand, out
of which emerge figures of men and animals who should
have been killed or injured, but who very seldom are.

On this beach the sight of the “ Ship of Troy ” or
River Clyde seems to excite the enemy’s peculiar indigna-
tion, and they fire round after round at her whilst the
work of disembarkation goes on uninterruptedly. Some-
times the enemy’s aircraft sweep down and attempt to
drop their bombs on our ships or crowded beaches, but
these missiles from the sky only excite derision. The
most successful shot from the Asiatic coast blew up a
gun caisson, killing seven horses and one man.

At night this southern end of Gallipoli, which was
formerly so deserted and barren, has the appearance of
being one of the world’s greatest ports. The masses of
lights ashore look as if several towns had suddenly sprung
up, whilst at sea a hundred great transports and numerous
warships he packed outside the forbidding and still
defiant Straits.

These are some of the difficulties which have been
faced and overcome before the Army could assume its
offensive.CHAPTER X

FURIOUS ATTACKS ON AKI BABA MOUNTAIN

May io

On May 6 reinforcements reached our army and also
the French, and, sufficient stores and ammunition having
been got ashore, the Allied commanders were able to
resume the offensive against the enemy’s positions, which
had been suspended, save for some local advances, since
Wednesday, April 28.

Now commenced one of the most remarkable battles
which have ever been fought, and every detail of which,
owing to the peculiar nature of the country, could be
followed almost with the naked eye, and with the
utmost ease through glasses.

It has been a battle of quite the old-fashioned type,
only on a larger plane, where the commanders could
direct the movements of their troops through the tele-
phone and field telegraph, not only on reports received
from their brigadiers at the front, but chiefly from what
they could watch going on under their own eyes.

The eventual objective of this great offensive was to
obtain possession of the height of Aki Baba, but before
this could be attempted it was necessary to obtain
possession of the two great arms of that sombre mountain
which stretch out, the one to the Gulf of Saros and the
other to the shores of the Dardanelles.

From a hill above the beach a perfect view is obtained
of the entire battlefield, and it is from this standpoint
that I shall attempt to describe the memorable scenes

109no Despatches from the Dardanelles

which have occurred during the past few days, culminating
as they did in the tremendous combined infantry assault
on the enemy’s whole line on the evening of May 8.

A Forbidding Mountain

From this hill the top of Aki Baba is exactly six miles
to the north-east, and the stretch which it covers with
its two wings from the Gulf of Saros to the Dardanelles
is almost the same distance. In fact, you may say that
the Allied Armies were fighting for the side of a rhomboid
culminating in the peak of Aki Baba, the rest of which
was already in their possession and covered by the fire
of the warships.

The mountain itself has a peculiarly forbidding aspect.
It most nearly resembles an old Chinese idol, with a
great, round, stupid-looking head and two short, thick-
set shoulders, and then two long arms stretching out on
either side to the sea.

Between these two arms lies the plain, very broken
in parts into low plateaux and deep dongas, and the old
Chinese idol sitting directly in front of you looks exactly
as if he had been placed there to devour in his fiendish
grasp all the soldiers, guns and material discharged from
the ships in the offing. This he has not succeeded in
doing, and a large portion of both his lower arms have
been cut off in this three days’ battle.

The right arm of the mountain ends at the head of
the great donga which, running inland from the beach
on the Gulf of Saros, has been a source of endless trouble
to our troops ever since we first landed. It is rugged
and rocky, and covered with dense scrub, and in it and
above it the enemy’s snipers lie concealed, and have to
be driven, or rather hunted, out man by man. But the
donga was finally occupied on April 28, after fierce
fighting, and our trenches now he across the top of it.Furious Attacks on Aki Baba Mountain 111

Endless Trenches

From the top of this donga the long, broken slope
leads up to the village of Krithia. The ground is covered
with this awful scrub and broken into patches of heath
and Scotch firs. There are ravines, low hills, and dead
ground which everywhere afford every sort of conceal-
ment to an enemy. The Turks have dug endless trenches,
which are only located with extreme difficulty, while
their machine guns are concealed with that masterful
skill which is such a prominent feature of German warfare.
As you approach Krithia the last mile is more open and
partly cultivated, but here again there is any amount
of dead ground in which an enemy can lie concealed.

Krithia is a fairly large village, made up of scattered
white houses with red roofs and a fringe of trees, while
outside the trees are numerous round stone mills, the
most prominent features of the landscape, and which
take an awful lot of hammering from the ships’ guns.
From Krithia the ground rises more steeply to the right-
hand shoulder of Aki Baba itself.

The left arm of Aki Baba stretches to the Dardanelles
ending at De Totts Battery. On the far side is the river
or stream of Kereves Dere. This arm is less broken than
that stretching to the Gulf of Saros, and the ground is
not covered with the same dense scrub; in fact, there is
not so much dead ground.

In the morning the plain which is embraced by the
arms of Aki Baba is a beautiful and fertile garden. You
gaze down upon a landscape of dark green, light green,
and bright yellow. It abounds in green fields covered
with a coarse grass and is dotted with trees. There are,
besides, many scattered farms,112 Despatches from the Dardanelles

A Wonderful Garden

In a short ride across it you will find yourself amid
olives, Turkey oats, witch elms, apricots, almonds,
Scottish firs and small tamarisks. On the cliffs are
great bunches of yellow plantagenesta and yellow poppies.
You ride over fields and through gardens in which flowers
abound in a reckless and beautiful profusion. There are
white orchids and rock roses, while mauve stock and iris
abound. There are fields of poppies, white marguerites,
and blue borage, intermingled with deep purple vetches,
brick-red pea and yellow clover, pink and white campions,
and asphodel.

As you ride through this wonderful garden, which
seems designed by nature for the especial benefit of
those who love peace and retirement, you forget alto-
gether that you are on a field which will shortly be the
scene of a bloody battle, and you are only brought to a
realisation of your true position by having your horse
stop dead before barbed wire or by the sight of deserted
trenches, the scenes of the earlier fighting, or by the
whistle of a bullet or the shriek of a shrapnel overhead
warning you that it is time to turn back or dismount.
The whole of this plain is littered with the debris of
war, broken rifles, barbed wire, deserted trenches, tattered
uniforms, hastily dug graves, and abandoned equipment.

On this memorable morning of May 6 there stood
drawn up in front of the Huns and Ottoman Turks the
Army of the Last Crusade. The main road to Krithia
runs through the centre of the position and roughly
divides the ground into two portions, that on the left,
facing the right arm of Aki Baba, being held by the
English, and that on the right by the French, but some
of our troops were over the road supporting the French
left wing. Thus, the British left rested on the Gulf of
Saros and the French right on the Dardanelles,Furious Attacks on Aki Baba Mountain 113

Battle of Nations

I suppose this three days' struggle will go down to
history as the Battle of Aki Baba, but it might well
be called the Battle of the Nations. I doubt whether
so many different nationalities have ever before been
brought together on to one battlefield. Side by side in
the Anglo-French Army there fought English, Scottish
and Irish Regiments, Australians and New Zealanders,
Sikhs, Punjabis and Gurkhas, whilst our Navy was
represented by the Naval Volunteer Division and Marines.

On the other side of the Krithia road, in the French
ranks, were drawn up Frenchmen, Algerians, Zouaves,
Goumiers, Senegalese, and the heterogeneous elements
which form the Foreign Legion. Neither was the picture-
esque element of colour absent from the scene, as in most
modem battles, for amidst the green and yellow of the
fields and gardens the dark blue uniforms of the Sene-
galese, the red trousers of the Zouaves, and the new
light blue uniforms of the French infantry, showed up in
pleasant contrast amidst the dull-hued masses of the
British brigades.

On either flank, out in the Dardanelles and along the
Gulf of Saros, lying close in to the shore, lay our battle-
ships and cruisers, with their guns trained to sweep
every yard of the enemy’s position, and further off lay
the forest of masts and funnels of the immense fleet of
transports which had disgorged this mixed host between
the forbidding sombre arms of Aki Baba.

All the trenches occupied by our troops in the firing
line, the long lines of the supports, and the closer forma-
tion of the reserves were visible to spectators, and you
could follow every movement made on this strange
chessboard of war.114 Despatches from the Dardanelles

Formation of the Line

But what of the enemy ? What was this great army
drawn from so many climes and so many nations facing ?
That was the mystery we were about to solve. Not a
Turk, nor a Hun, nor a gun, or hardly even a trench was
visible. Aki Baba and his two long arms might have
been deserted for all we knew on this beautiful spring
morning.

Nothing has been more remarkable than the manner
in which the Turks have succeeded in concealing them-
selves. They are experts in digging themselves in and
never disclosing their position by any movement above
ground. The Anglo-French army was in front of a
position, to outward observation and nothing more, and
a stranger arriving on the scene might naturally have
thought it was merely a great parade set out at his feet,
to be followed by a forward march to occupy the hills in
front. A deadly stillness pervaded the air, broken
occasionally by a little cloud of white smoke from a
shrapnel bursting over a far trench.

Our army was drawn up in the following order on
this the first day of the battle. On the extreme left the
87th Brigade held the great donga and the trenches on
the hills. Beyond, the line was prolonged to the right
by the 88th Brigade and then on to the Krithia road by
part of the Naval Division. On the other side of the road
was another brigade of the same division.

Behind the line the Indian Brigade, the Australians,
and New Zealanders stood in reserve, and behind them
the newly arrived Territorial division.

On the right the French stood with the blue-coated
Senegalese in their front line, and the light blue French
infantry, the Red Zouaves, and the Foreign Legion in
reserve.Furious Attacks on Aki Baba Mountain 115

The immediate objective of the English was to push
forward our left wing and, at the same time, to endeavour
to occupy Krithia and the ridge on which it stands.
The immediate objective of the French was to advance
up the spurs and get astride the Maidos road, and at
the same time to advance into the valley of the Kereves
river.

It was decided that our left wing could not advance
until the French had made good their footing on the
right, otherwise our advance could be enfiladed. There-
fore the first day’s fighting was almost entirely confined
to the right wing.

Exactly at eleven the French 75’s round Seddul Bahr
began a fierce and sustained bombardment of the right
arm of Aki Baba and the broken country under its summit
to the right of the Krithia road. The shells, fired in
salvoes, four at a time, swept every yard of the ground
over which their infantry were waiting to advance, and
this rapid fire was kept up incessantly for half an hour.
At the same time our battleships in the Dardanelles,
which included the Agamemnon, turned their big guns
to the upper slopes of Aki Baba and the Turkish trenches
in the Kereves valley.

At 11.30 the blue-coated Senegalese crept from their
trenches and swept forward in open order up the right
arm of the mountain. For some time they made steady
progress, their artillery covering the advance beautifully,
bursting shrapnel fifty yards ahead of the firing line with
that precision peculiar to the French gunner. When
the infantry topped the slope overlooking the valley
they found themselves most strenuously resisted by the
Turks from their entrenchments on the other side of
the crest, and the advance was held up.116 Despatches from the Dardanelles

Attack held Up

Part of the firing line wheeled to the left, and moved
forward up the arm towards the Maidos road, whilst our
Naval Division, supporting the French left, also advanced
across the low, broken ground under a heavy fire which
caused many casualties. The advance towards the
Maidos road was partly successful, but was eventually
held up by a redoubt and carefully concealed trenches.
In vain did the ships’ guns and the 75’s pour shrapnel
and common shell on to the position. Nothing checked
the fire of the Turkish infantry.

Time and time again long waves of dark blue-coated
Senegalese swept forward, only to break before the storm
of bullets. Then they were withdrawn to the second
line and the light blue regiments took their place. The
fighting ebbed and flowed all day, but the Turkish in-
fantry could not be shaken by our terrific shell fire, or
rather, our guns could inflict but little damage on their
well-made trenches, which were found to be eight feet
deep and extremely narrow.

At 4.30 it was finally reported that the advance was
held up, and as it was not considered advisable for our
left wing to push forward until the French had made
good their footing, the fighting gradually died down at
half-past five.

Although the French had not succeeded in getting
astride of the Maidos road, they had made substantial
progress, having pushed forward their line almost due
east for over a mile, and had obtained a foothold over-
looking the Kereves valley. The Turks scarcely fired
a round from their guns all day, and this gave rise to
the belief that they had withdrawn them or were short
of ammunition.Furious Attacks on Aki Baba Mountain 117

A Forward Move

That night, between ten and two in the morning, the
Turks delivered a series of counter-attacks against the
French lines, which were repulsed.

On Friday, May 7, at ten a.m., our ships opened up
a furious bombardment of the right arm of Aki Baba,
sweeping the broken country at the head of the great
donga and the slopes leading up to Krithia. The shells
smothered every yard of the ground and it seemed im-
possible for any one to live within this zone, as the scrub
and ravines were yellow with bursting lyddite. After a
quarter of an hour of this rapid fire from the ships and
batteries on the shore there was a general advance of
our left wing.

The 87th and 88th Brigades pressed forward through
the scrub at the top of the donga and in the centre
towards the Krithia road. No sooner did they leave
the shelter of their trenches than the Turkish infantry,
who had been lying absolutely quiet, opened up a tre-
mendous fire from concealed trenches, the existence of
which had been suspected but whose true position it
had been impossible to locate, and it was obvious that
his morale had suffered but little from the fire of the
Fleet’s guns.

Nevertheless, our infantry, advancing in perfect
order, with fines of reserves and supports occupying
the vacated trenches as they moved forward, gained
considerable ground and captured some of the enemy’s
trenches, only to find themselves held up by others.

Throughout the morning the enemy used his field
guns actively against our left wing, generally concen-
trating his fire on the reserves and supports. At 1.45
one of our regiments, which had got too far forward and
had occupied a dense patch of scrub and Scottish firs,118 Despatches from the Dardanelles

was obliged to retire under a tremendous hail of bullets
from machine guns.

The fighting along this part of the line went on all
the morning, but finally died down towards two o'clock.

Hail of Shrapnel

Meanwhile, on the right wing, the French had been
very quiet all the morning, but at noon their artillery
again opened up a furious bombardment, and at three
o’clock there was a general advance up the slope towards
the Maidos road, whilst the Naval Division on their
left also pushed forward. This movement gained con-
siderable ground.

At 4.45 the Turks brought a great many guns into
action against the French, plastering their advance
trenches with shrapnel, and sweeping the ground behind
them to prevent supports being brought up.

The French batteries replied furiously, shelling the
Turkish trenches and the redoubt, which was the chief
obstacle in the way of a further advance. Nevertheless,
their infantry again swept forward and were met by
such a hail of shrapnel that the line wavered, then broke,
and came sweeping down the slope, part of the fugitives
passing right throught the lines of the Naval Division.

Indeed, the fire which the Turks were now developing
was unbearable, and it was impossible to locate their
batteries, concealed somewhere on the other side of Aki
Baba. The situation looked serious and as if all the
ground which had been won would be abandoned, but
General D’Amade sent forward his reserves, who gallantly
delivered a counter-attack and reoccupied the abandoned
trenches. Night came with the French still holding
tenaciously on under a heavy fire from the enemy’s guns.

Meanwhile, throughout the afternoon, there had been
no further fighting on our left wing, and between two andFurious Attacks on Aki Baba Mountain 119

four the firing died down to an occasional exchange of
rifle shots, whilst our men were busy making good the
positions they had won earlier in the day. At 3.15 a
brigade was moved from the centre to support our left
wing. It had been lying concealed all day in the broken
ground, and the companies, marching by platoons in
artillery formation, swept along the coast towards the
great donga, providing a very fine spectacle.

Waves of Khaki

At five o’clock another furious artillery fire was con-
centrated from all our guns on the right arm of Aki Baba
and on the village of Krithia, and a quarter of an hour
later our infantry again pressed forward on the left
centre. Once again the rifle and machine gun fire
became fast and furious, but our men made steady
progress, capturing further patches of the scrub and
occupying more of the ravines.

At 6.10 p.m., on the extreme left by the sea coast,
long lines of khaki figures suddenly seemed to emerge
from the head of the great donga and to press forward,
making a sweeping movement towards Hill 400, behind
Krithia. They were met by a tremendous shrapnel fire
from the Turkish guns, just as the French had been on
the right. The shells burst right over our men, and
whole companies disappeared from view in the dense
clouds of earth and sand thrown up by the bullets.

But these great khaki waves never hesitated. One
after another they pressed forward, losing heavily, but,
fortunately, the enemy’s aim being high, most of the
wounds were slight. This advance on the left gained
much ground and was finally brought to a stop by the
darkness. Fighting had been furious all day. All
reports from the front showed the extreme difficulty
of locating and attacking the enemy's positions. His120 Despatches from the Dardanelles

trenches and machine guns, concealed in the dense scrub
and in the ravines, proved impervious to the fire of even
the biggest guns, and every one of them had to be taken
one by one by our infantry, who had fought with extreme
determination and bravery.

It was obvious that the enemy’s morale could not be
shaken by artillery fire, however severe. But on the
whole we had gained considerable ground, and on the
right were now within about 800 yards of Krithia village,
with our men strongly entrenched and in a position to
resist any attempt at a night attack.

Determined Enemy

The Turks had fought with extreme bravery and
determination, whilst the handling of their artillery had
been masterly. They only employed it in any volume
when the absolute necessity arose—namely, to check the
further advance of the French on our right wing and our
own great sweeping movement on the left. Either they
were husbanding their ammunition or were afraid to
disclose the position of their artillery, through fear of
the ships’ guns.

On the morning of May 8, at ten o'clock, this battle,
which had now lasted for two days without cessation,
was continued with even greater violence, for our troops,
although weary from their great exertions, were deter-
mined to obtain a decisive success if it were possible.
The ships opened up another tremendous bombardment
of the right arm of Aki Baba off Krithia village and the
ground behind.

When this had lasted for half an hour our infantry
on the left and left centre again advanced to the attack,
and again commenced one of those furious outbursts of
rifle and machine gun fire which showed the Turks were
still holding their trenches with their old determination.Furious Attacks on Aki Baba Mountain 121

Nevertheless the 87th and 88th Brigades were not to
be denied, and continued to gained ground. In fact,
on the left, an entire Turkish trench was taken, and our
khaki lines disappeared altogether from view in the
thick shrub. Throughout the morning the fight became
a series of local combats of intense ferocity for odd ravines,
trenches and hills. Sometimes we were driven back,
but gradually the whole fighting line was pushed forward
in front of Krithia, at a distance which rendered a final
assault on the village possible.

Perfect British Attack

Throughout this fierce fighting in the broken ground
on the slopes leading up to Krithia, the plain at our feet
looked as if some annual manoeuvres were taking place
on it. Across the whole front successive fines of khaki
figures were pressing forward across the green fields and
through the farms and orchards towards the firing fine.
The enemy’s shrapnel burst over them, but inflicted
small damage, owing to the open formations adopted,
and when each successive fine reached the fire zone it
doubled across the open ground, resting in the different
vacated trenches and then passing on to the next.

The whole of the plain seemed alive with this khaki-
clad infantry. It was, indeed, a perfect example of the
classical British attack, carried out over a broad front
so as to concentrate the maximum number of men in
the firing fine for the final assault on the enemy’s position
with a minimum of loss. Had the Germans advanced
over the same ground in their close order formations
they would have been swept away by the rifles, machine
guns and shrapnel before ever reaching their objective—
namely, the most forward shelter trenches.

These reserve troops, who were now moving forward
to the firing fine, were the New Zealand brigade, which122 Despatches from the Dardanelles

moved up to pass through the 88th Brigade for the final
assault, and on their left the Australian brigade, who
passed through the Naval Brigade on the left of the
Krithia road for a like purpose. The 87th Brigade still
held the ground at the top of the great donga, while the
Indian Brigade and Lancashire Fusilier Brigade acted as
a general reserve.

Aeroplane Appears

At 1.30 p.m. these final movements were completed,
and there came a complete lull all over the battlefield,
the only incident being the appearance of one of the
enemy’s aeroplanes, which attempted to drop some
bombs on the beaches and ships, without, however,
doing any damage. On the right, held by the French,
there had been no movement throughout the morning,
and even the artillery had hardly fired. The afternoon
passed very slowly. It was obvious that something was
going to happen, but no one except the Staff knew
when the next move would come or what form it would
take.

There were various reasons for this delay. In the
course of the advance in the morning the line had become
very broken up, and it had to be straightened out and
the position of the various units accurately ascertained,
as it was hard to tell whether certain trenches and posi-
tions were in our hands or were still held by the enemy.
All this information had to come from the front, and was
then distributed to the batteries and ships, so that they
could ascertain the ranges accurately and not run the
risk of shelling our own men.

As the afternoon wore on there were many who thought
that the fighting was over for the day, and some of the
spectators who had come ashore or who had climbed up
from the beaches to look on returned.Furious Attacks on Aki Baba Mountain 123

Exactly at 5.15 p.m. there suddenly opened from
every ship afloat and from every battery ashore the most
stupendous bombardment it has ever been my lot to
see. In fact, those officers who had previously served
in France declared they had never seen anything like
it there.

Smoke-wreathed Hills

All the battleships and all the cruisers with their
heavy guns and secondary armament opened a rapid
fire on both arms of Aki Baba, on Krithia, and on every
patch of shrub and every ravine which could possibly
conceal a Turk or a Hun. The 15-inch shells charged
with lyddite made the most awful explosions, apparently
consuming whole hills in immense clouds of yellow smoke
and fumes. The 12-inch shells of the other battleships,
either charged with lyddite or shrapnel, searched every
yard of the slopes leading up to Aki Baba, whilst the
6-inch and smaller guns sprayed the country nearer our
trenches.

There were, in fact, three separate zones of fire, the
great guns on Aki Baba and its higher slopes, the secondary
armament lower down, and then, just in front of our
trenches, the field guns and field howitzers poured a
continuous shower of shrapnel over the ground over
which our infantry had to advance.

The noise was something frightful, the hills echoing
back the reports of the great guns and the detonations
of the thousands of bursting projectiles. As a spectacle
the scene has never been surpassed, for from the extreme
left at the head of the great donga to the extreme right
of the French line, the whole country did not have the
appearance of being shelled, but rather as if it had sud-
denly been set on fire, covered as it was in a few minutes
by a solid bank of yellow, green, and white smoke, out124 Despatches from the Dardanelles

of which great volcanoes seem suddenly to burst into
irruption as the shells exploded on the higher ridges.

In the midst of this inferno you occasionally caught a
glimpse of the solid round head and thick-set shoulders
of Aki Baba, still gazing defiantly on the plain beneath.
The tremendous disturbance to earth and atmosphere
caused by this unprecedented bombardment caused all
work to be suspended on the beaches, and soldiers and
sailors, seized by a common desire to witness the grand
finale of this three days’ battle, rushed up to the higher
ground, from which a view could be obtained.

Bayonet Charge

The bombardment had lasted exactly a quarter of an
hour. Every one knew that something decisive must
happen soon, and the suspense was great. According to
all preconceived theories of artillery fire the enemy should
have been wiped out, or so stunned by the exploding
lyddite that he would not be capable of resisting the
advance of our infantry. Not a Turk was to be seen,
and their artillery had not fired a round, or else we had
failed to notice it amidst the terrific uproar.

Suddenly, as if controlled by a single will, the guns
ceased to fire for a few seconds. This was the signal for
the infantry, who had hardly been visible, so carefully
were they lying concealed amidst the scrub and in the
trenches. As one man the entire line, from the head
of the great donga to the Krithia road, leaped forward
and rushed to the assault of Krithia. At the same
instant light and dark blue columns were seen to burst
from the French trenches. They also had lain quiet
all day, and they rushed forward up the slopes towards
the Maidos road.

Line after line of khaki figures emerged from cover
and dashed forward, with the sun glittering on theirFurious Attacks on Aki Baba Mountain 125

bayonets, and no sooner were they clear of the trenches
than the bombardment was resumed, the ships’ guns
again shelling the higher ground, and our own artillery
keeping up a white surf of shrapnel only fifty yards ahead
of the firing line.

Shooting and Stabbing

In spite, however, of all this preliminary preparation,
the enemy was waiting ready. No sooner had our men
emerged from cover than a perfect storm of rifle and
machine gun fire was opened up on them from the
trenches and shrub over which the shells had burst and
were still bursting. The rifle fire rose fast into one
continuous roar, only broken by the more rapid note of
the machine guns. But our men never hesitated for a
moment. The New Zealanders hurled themselves for-
ward in a solid phalanx, passing through the 88th Brigade,
and many of the gallant men of those regiments, refusing
to yield any right of way to them, joined their ranks
and rushed forward in a thin, mad charge.

The line entered one Turkish trench with a rush,
bayoneted all there, and then passed on into broken
ground, shooting and stabbing, men falling amidst the
terrible fusillade, but not a soul turning back. No
sooner had one line charged than another pressed on
after it, and then a third.

On the right of the New Zealanders the Australians
advanced at the same moment, but over much more
open ground, which provided little or no cover. They
were met by a tornado of bullets, and were enfiladed by
machine guns from the right, and the artillery in vain
endeavoured to keep down this fire.

The manner in which these Dominion troops went
forward will never be forgotten by those who witnessed
it. The lines of infantry were enveloped in dust from126 Despatches from the Dardanelles

the patter of countless bullets in the sandy soil, and from
the hail of shrapnel poured on them, for now the enemy's
artillery concentrated furiously on the whole line.

The lines advanced steadily as if on parade, sometimes
doubling, sometimes walking, and you saw them melt
away under this dreadful fusillade, only to be renewed
again as the reserves and supports moved forward to
replace those who had fallen.

In spite of all obstacles, a considerable advance
towards Krithia was made, but at length a point was
reached from which it was impossible to proceed further.
Not a man attempted to return to the trenches. They
simply lay down where they were and attempted to reply
to their concealed enemy, not one of whom disclosed
his position. Only a few hundred yards had been won,
it is true, but these Australians and New Zealanders
were determined not to budge, and proceeded to entrench
themselves where they were. But it became obvious
at the end of an hour that the attack had spent its force,
and that the hope of taking Krithia by direct assault
must be abandoned.

On the right much the same scenes were being enacted
on the ground over which the French were advancing.
Whenever I could tear my eyes away from the khaki
lines moving forward, thinned but still steadfast, I watched
the French. A confused memory remains of solid lines
of Senegalese and light blue infantry charging forward,
then recoiling, breaking, and retiring a little under a hail
of shrapnel, only to renew the attack a few minutes
later.

There seemed to be a succession of desperate bayonet
charges taking place all over the slopes of Aki Baba’s
left arm, and the French at one time made a most pro-
nounced advance, covered by their 75’s, which kept up
an unceasing fire on the Turkish trenches. The attackFurious Attacks on Aki Baba Mountain 127

looked as if it would lead to great results, especially
when a light blue infantry regiment stormed one of the
Turkish trenches at the point of the bayonet. It was
one of the most dramatic moments of the whole scene,
for the Turks could not retreat to the valley beyond,
being cut off by the fire of the 75’s.

Temporary Check

The French lines of glittering bayonets were now
within fifty yards of them, when the survivors came
boldly out, stood on the top of their trenches, and fired
into the advancing line. The French hesitated for a
moment, as if expecting a surrender, and then rushed
forward, and both lines clashed on the top, finally dis-
appearing from view over the crest amidst a cloud of
dust and shrapnel. I do not think any of the Turks got
away.

No sooner had this position been won, however, than
the French were driven back again by the fire of another
trench and the rapid salvoes of shrapnel, the Turks or
Germans handling their guns with great skill. But this
check was only temporary, and a counter-attack by a
large number of Senegalese retrieved the position.

Confused fighting went on all along the line, until
at 7.30 p.m. the gradual approach of darkness put an
end to this terrible combat. Everywhere the Allies had
gained some ground, but the main object of the attack
had not yet been achieved. Aki Baba still looks defiantly
on the plain beneath, and it is obvious that positions
such as those held by a foe as indomitable as the Turks
can only be won by extreme patience. Our men have
done everything mortal man can do.CHAPTER XI

DESPERATE ATTACK ON COLONIAL
TROOPS

May 21

General Liman von Sanders has just made a further
effort to carry out his threat to drive the British Army
into the sea, with the sole result that his unfortunate
dupes, the Turks, have received another “ hiding ” from
the Australians and New Zealanders. Their losses have
been enormous, amounting at the very least to seven or
eight thousand killed and wounded.

The cost of this most encouraging success has been
trifling, amounting to some 500 Colonials killed and
wounded, whilst the moral effect on our splendid com-
rades, who were becoming rather bored with sitting
tight day after day in the narrow trenches, must be
equivalent to the addition of nearly an entire army
corps to their ranks.

I have already described the position in previous
dispatches. This is indeed one of the most remarkable
positions ever seized and occupied by an army on a hostile
coast, and the more you see of it the more extraordinary
does it seem that the Colonials were ever able to climb
it and afterwards hold it on that historic Sunday, April 25.
It is certainly the most remarkable climb in the history
of war since Wolfe stormed the heights of Quebec.

The ground occupied by the Colonial Corps consists
roughly of two semicircles of hills, the outer higher than
the inner, and rising in places to over 600 feet. A great

128Desperate Attack on Colonial Troops 129

valley, known as Shrapnel Valley, runs north-east up
the centre of the position, roughly dividing the position
into a northern and southern sector, both of which are
rough and broken ground, consisting of lesser hills and
deep gullies covered with thick shrub or bare yellow
earth of the colour of sandstone.

Topical Names

Every camp, hill and gully now has a distinctive
Australian or Colonial name. The position facing north
is known as Walker’s Ridge, and following the perimeter
of defence right round until it again strikes the coast to
the south you are introduced in turn to Pope’s Hill, Dead
Man's Ridge, the Bloody Angle, Quinn’s Post, Courtenay's
Post, McLaurin Hill, Scott’s Point, Johnstone's Jolly,
Bolton's Hill, and Point Rosenthal, each of these names
recalling some incident of the campaign or some memory
of peaceful times in " Down Under.”

Within this position are many other topical designa-
tions, such as Plugger’s Plateau, Maclagan’s Ridge,
Queensland Point, Hell Spit—where the landing was
,ery bad—Brighton Beach, Shell Green, Sapper's Post,
MacCoy Hill, the Razor Back, Monash Gully, to mention
just a few.

The enemy is entrenched almost right round the
position, except where the ships’ guns keep him off the
coast. Generally speaking, to the north and north-east
his trenches are on higher ground, while to the south
and south-east they lie lower than ours. The distance
between the two front lines varies from about a quarter of
a mile to twenty yards at one point, and the average is
about 200 yards.

Between Walker’s Ridge and Pope’s Hill the enemy
is strongly entrenched. He can look right down the valley
and snipe all those going up it at long range, while his130 Despatches from the Dardanelles

guns never weary of pouring an incessant hail of shrapnel.
But if the actual area of ground held by the Australians
and New Zealanders remains the same, the general aspect
has changed, and instead of resembling the temporary
home of a vast number of shipwrecked mariners the cliffs
have the appearance of being a prosperous mining camp
in full swing. Good roads have been made from the fore-
shore up to the front lines, and in those places where you
are exposed to shrapnel or sniping they have been banked
to give some protection. For, although the Turks have
made no attack, until the one I shall attempt to describe,
for some time, they have never ceased to shell the whole
position not only with shrapnel but with high explosive
shells of large calibre, against which the strongest of
bombproofs are liable to fail if there is a direct hit.

A Thorn in the Side

The front trenches are now very different from what
they were when I last visited them. Every precaution
has in fact been taken to render the position impregnable.
Every section is self-contained, and unlimited supplies
of ammunition are ready at hand.

The spirit of these Colonial troops has been excellent
throughout, but they naturally feel sitting still doing
nothing day after day far more than regular troops,
and it is no secret to say they were getting a bit bored
with the hold-up when Liman von Sanders decided on
May 18 to make another abortive effort to drive them
into the sea, and thus provided, to quote a keen-eyed
Bushman, “ the finest bit of shooting I ever had."

The presence of the Australians and New Zealanders
north of Gaba Tepe is a thorn in the side of the Turks,
which handicaps all their operations against our forces
in the south of Gallipoli, for whenever he attempts an
offensive movement on the south, or is called up to resistDesperate Attack on Colonial Troops 131

an attack in force, von Sanders is obliged to leave a very
high proportion of his forces facing the Colonials, who,
unless they are held in strength, might cut right across
his lines of communication. Therefore, as a preliminary
measure, before attempting a further offensive against
our forces at the southern end of Gallipoli, von Sanders
seems to have made up his mind on a final effort against
this position.

Fresh Turkish Troops

For this movement the Germans seem to have brought
up from Constantinople at least five fresh regiments,
including a corps d’elite of picked gendarmes, who wear
a light blue uniform of much the same colour as the new
French cloth. Von Sanders himself directed the opera-
tions which have just ended so disastrously for his prestige.
On May 18 various movements of troops were reported
by aeroplane reconnaissance and by the ships observing
at various points along the coast. Not only was the
enemy seen to be disembarking men from steamers in
the Straits, but a general movement was reported from
north and east of Krithia towards the west.

Further evidence that some new move was meditated
was the heavy bombardment opened on the position
throughout the 18th, not only from field guns but
from 12-inch guns, 9-inch guns, and howitzers. There-
fore a warning was sent to the trenches at ten o’clock on
the evening of the 18th for every one to be on the qui
vivc.

At midnight a heavy rifle and machine gun fire broke
out from the enemy’s positions at the head of Monash
Gully and from Hill 700, which was chiefly directed on
Quinn's Post. This fire was the hottest the Australians
have yet known, but the men lay low in their trenches,
and suffered but few casualties. Under cover of this132 Despatches from the Dardanelles

fire a line of snipers crept forward from the Turkish
trenches close up to our front line, and attempted to
snipe the defenders. When the latter replied to this
fusillade, more Turks crept forward, until a thick line
was established within very close range.

These groups offered a splendid target to the Colonials
when they surged forward to the assault shortly after
three a.m. This attack from the top of Monash Gully
was repulsed with heavy loss by four a.m.

Enemy's Fierce Attacks

A series of attacks against various points were now
delivered, being directed with special severity against
Quinn’s and Courtenay’s Posts, but these faded away
beneath our rifle fire, delivered at close range, piles of
dead being left in front of the trenches.

At five a.m. on the 19th, as soon as it was light, the
Turks opened up a very heavy bombardment on our
trenches, the beach, and the interior of the position,
bringing into action 12-inch, 9-2’s, howitzers and field
guns. From six a.m. until 9.30 a.m. the Turks made
a serious of desperate attacks against Quinn’s and
Courtenay’s Posts, but the Colonial line never yielded,
and not a Turk ever set foot inside the trenches, although
hundreds lie dead within a few yards—some even on the
edge of the parapet.

By ten a.m. the enemy began to give way and to
retire under a deadly fire from our field guns and howitzers,
which inflicted terrible losses, and the enemy retired to
their trenches, unable to face the rifle and machine gun
fire any longer.

Throughout the morning the Turks kept up their
incessant bombardment and heavy rifle fire; but it was
obvious at eleven a.m. that the impetus of the attack hadDesperate Attack on Colonial Troops 133

failed. At three p.m. there were evidences of a fresh
movement, but it came to nothing, and throughout the
remainder of the 19th and up to dawn on the 20th the
enemy contented himself with an incessant rifle fire and
sniping.

There was never a more utter or expensive fiasco than
this attack. It was supported by a very heavy artillery
fire, and, according to the reports of prisoners, at least
30,000 men were massed against our positions. The
Turks attacked bravely enough, and there are signs that
they were advancing more under compulsion than with
any confidence of success. Our official estimate puts
the Turkish losses at 7000 killed and wounded. Judging
from the enormous numbers of dead lying in front of
the trenches unburied this is most likely an under-esti-
mate, and probably at least one-third of the whole army
was wiped out.

Huge Turkish Losses

The ground presents an extraordinary sight when
viewed through the trench periscopes. Two hundred
yards away, and even closer in places, are the Turkish
trenches, and between them and our lines the dead lie
in hundreds. There are groups of twenty or thirty massed
together, as if for mutual protection, some lying on their
faces, some killed in the act of firing; others hung up in
the barbed wire. In one place a small group actually
reached our parapet, and now lie dead on it, shot at point-
blank range or bayoneted. Hundreds of others lie just
outside their own trenches, where they were caught
by rifles and shrapnel fire when trying to regain them.
Hundreds of wounded must have perished between the
lines, for it was only on the 21st that the enemy made
overtures for an armistice for burying the dead; but upi34 Despatches from the Dardanelles

to the present this has not been granted owing to the
suspicious number of troops in his front trenches.

In places the Turks made four or five separate efforts
to charge home, using hand grenades, but they all failed
dismally.

A Costly Failure

The effect of this success, achieved at such small cost,
on the Australians and New Zealanders has been very
great. Hitherto they have been fighting under most
difficult conditions, against great odds, and their losses
have been heavy, both in the early days and amongst
the two brigades which took part in the recent attack
against Krithia and Aki Baba. They have seen many
of their comrades fall without obtaining the results for
which they hoped, and they felt that they had many
old scores to wipe out on the enemy ever since. Their
revenge has exceeded their utmost expectations, for
without having to expose themselves they have wiped
out thousands of the enemy.

After the attack General Birdwood took me all round
the front lines with him, and it at once became evident
that the troops were more contented with themselves
and life generally than they have been for a long time
past. The men were resting after their exertions of the
last few days, lying in their bombproofs consuming
large quantities of tinned meat, biscuits, jam—of which
they are extremely fond—and tea.

In reply to a question of the general, “ How many
did you kill? ” the answer came, “That I can’t say,
General; but, look out here, and there are eight acres of
them lying around.”

Another happy warrior remarked:	“You put 'em

up for us, General, and we’ll shoot all you want.”

There are many signs that the moral effect of thisDesperate Attack on Colonial Troops 135

repulse on the Turks has been very great. They are
asking continually for armistices, and are busily digging
themselves in as if it were their intention to remain
strictly on the defensive. It is not surprising if they
become weary of being repeatedly led to the slaughter,
or rather driven there by their German masters.CHAPTER XII

GRAPHIC STORY OF BRITISH HEROISM

June 30

The British Army in Gallipoli has just gained a
great local tactical success on its left wing, in a battle
which lasted nearly all day on June 28. The net result
is a gain of a whole mile along the coast, the capture of
four lines of Turkish trenches, about 200 prisoners, three
mountain guns, an immense quantity of small-arms
ammunition and many rifles.

We have, in fact, made good a triangular wedge on
our left wing, the total gain being a right-angled triangle,
each side of which is about a mile long.

Successes such as this cannot be gained without
sacrifice, but our losses, considering our gains, have been
comparatively small. This has, in fact, been far the
most successful engagement fought on the peninsula,
because not only did our infantry on the left carry out
the entire programme assigned to them, but they were
also able to make good and hold the positions thus won
against vigorous Turkish counter-attacks.

Only on the extreme right of our advance were our
troops unable to carry all the enemy’s trenches after
several most gallant assaults had failed, but our front,
in spite of this, has been made good by connecting up
our advanced trenches on the extreme left with those
we won on the right, and the enemy has failed to drive
us from our new line and has himself suffered very heavy
losses in these abortive night attacks.

136Graphic Story of British Heroism 137

Important Success

This success is still more important when judged by
the effect on the morale of our own troops. Our superb
infantry, whose courage, endurance and capacity for
taking a prolonged hammering surpass anything believ-
able unless actually witnessed on the spot, now feel they
have at length got the whip hand of the Turks.

Our success on the 28th is mainly due to the change
of tactics adopted and to the enormous improvement in
the support afforded by our artillery and to the splendid
co-operation between the two arms. The Battle of the
Gully Ravine, as it has come to be known, is a classical
example of the sectional attack which alone leads to
decisive results in modern warfare. That is to say, there
was no general advance along the whole line. A section
of it was selected. Every available gun was concentrated
on the works to be assaulted, and they were battered to
pieces or completely smothered by high-explosive shells,
whilst the wire in front was cut to pieces by twenty
minutes’ concentrated shrapnel fire. And thus when our
infantry were let loose they were able to walk into some
of them almost without opposition, the Turks who were
not dead running away or surrendering.

Our left wing has constantly been held up by the
strength of the Turkish positions. In the action of June 4
our centre made a most successful advance, but our left
wing was unable to gain the ground assigned to it, and
we were obliged to abandon much of the ground we had
won, at the same time suffering very heavy losses.

Creeping Round Krithia

On June 24 the French, by a most gallant and success-
ful advance, straightened out the line on the right, and
now our left wing has done the same thing, so that our138 Despatches from the Dardanelles

extreme left is even more advanced than onr centre,
and we are gradually creeping round the village of
Krithia.

This success has had a most inspiriting effect on the
whole army, and seems to open up the brightest prospects
for the future if only our gunners are kept supplied with
an unlimited quantity of ammunition.

The brunt of the fighting fell on the 29th Division,
whose deeds in Gallipoli will assure them a place in
history only equalled by the Tenth Legion and Welling-
ton’s Peninsula veterans; on the gallant Indian Brigade;
and on one brigade of the hitherto untested 156th Brigade
of the Lowland Division.

It would only be natural to suppose that the 29th
Division, which has suffered such losses in officers and
men, there being some battalions without a single officer
who originally landed on that historic April 25, would
have lost a great deal of its fighting efficiency. The
battalions have been brought up to strength by drafts
of young soldiers from the depots, and many of the
officers are also young, but on June 28 they attacked
with a vigour and a dash which could not have been
surpassed.

The Lowland Brigade have also come out of their
first battle with flying colours, and their success has
given them confidence for the future, only marred by
the loss of their brigadier. The Indian Brigade also
lived up to its high reputation.

Opening of the Action

The action opened at nine a.m. on the 28th by a
tremendous bombardment of the Turkish trenches with
heavy artillery, the high-explosive shells bursting all
over the trenches and throwing up clouds of earth and
smoke so that the whole section to be attacked soonGraphic Story of British Heroism 139

disappeared from view and looked like one huge furnace.
At the same time the cruiser Talbot, escorted by five
destroyers and a great fleet of trawlers, came out and
enfiladed the enemy’s trenches from the sea with great
effect, being assisted by the fire of the destroyers
Wolverine and Scorpion, which stood close in-shore and
themselves came under a heavy fire of shrapnel.

To our land batteries the enemy made but little
reply, and throughout the day he was very sparing in
the use of field guns, only firing two or three hundred
rounds. Twenty minutes later our field batteries opened
up with shrapnel against the enemy’s wire, which was

cut most effectively, especially in front of the ----

Battery, R.F.A., which shot with extraordinary skill
and success all day, earning the unstinted thanks of
our infantry and the General Officer Commanding 29th
Division.

The French lent our infantry the assistance of some
of their trench mortars. These are deadly weapons
which drop bombs containing 30 lb. or 70 lb. of melinite
vertically into the enemy’s trenches at short range.

Brilliant Infantry Rushes

At 10.45 a.m., after a final bombardment from all
the guns, lasting twenty minutes, our infantry advanced.
The trenches about to be assaulted lie on both sides of
the famous ravine, which runs up from Gully Beach
for several miles inland, and which has caused us so
much trouble ever since we landed. The first of these
positions is known as Boomerang Fort, on the right of
the ravine, and it has already been taken and retaken
many times. At 10.45 this work was rushed and captured
by the 1st Battalion Border Regiment almost without
opposition.

Exactly at eleven a.m. the artillery lengthened their140 Despatches from the Dardanelles

range to check any attempt to rush up reinforcements,
and at the same moment the King’s Own Scottish Bor-
derers, the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, and the South
Wales Borderers, of the 87th Brigade, rushed the first
two lines of Turkish trenches between Gully Ravine
and the sea.

In spite of the terrific bombardment to which they
had been subjected the Turkish infantry made an effort
to check this advance, but it swept irresistibly forward,
many Turks being found buried in the trenches, whilst
100 surrendered. At the same time, on the right of the
Gully Ravine, the 4th Battalion Royal Scots and the
7th Battalion Royal Scots, of the Lowland Division,
delivered the most spirited attacks, and also captured
two lines of Turkish trenches.

A Forward Wave

Two battalions of the same brigade farther to the
right met with very heavy opposition, and, suffering
severe losses, failed to make good their holding. Nothing
seemed able to check our infantry, who, admirably
supported by our artillery, which covered their advance,
firing a hundred yards ahead of the firing line, swept
everything before them on the left.

At 11.30 a.m. the 86th Brigade of the 29th Division,
led by the 2nd Battalion Royal Fusiliers, which had
hitherto been in reserve, passed right through the two
lines of trenches captured by the 88th Brigade, and
swept forward in great waves against two more lines in
front.

Magnificent Sight

This advance was a magnificent sight, the men never
wavering or losing their formations under a heavy
artillery and rifle fire. At the same time, the IndianGraphic Story of British Heroism 141

Brigade, on the extreme left, moved forward along the
cliffs, and reached the green knoll which was our extreme
objective. Some companies of the Lancashire Fusiliers
advanced to a nullah which runs into Gully Ravine from
the north and dug themselves in, thus connecting up the
advanced positions with the 86th Brigade.

Throughout the afternoon there was a lull in the
engagement, except for a desultory fire from our guns
if the enemy showed any signs of massing for a counter-
attack, the artillery, in fact, effectively putting a screen
behind the Turkish firing lines to prevent his reserves
from coming up.

At 5.30 p.m. a further attempt was made to capture
the trenches on the right facing Krithia village. Un-
fortunately this proved unsuccessful.

The great difficulty out here has been to hold captured
positions against fierce counter-attacks during the night.
The ground is so broken, and provides so much natural
cover, that the enemy, who knows every detail of its
configuration—which we do not—is able to creep up
under cover and retake portions of the trenches with
the use of grenades. On the night of the 28th and the
morning of the 29th the Turks resorted to their old
tactics, but met with no success. Our infantry with-
stood every attack, and repulsed these efforts with heavy
loss.

There was no fighting on the 29th, the enemy being
apparently exhausted by his efforts, which enabled our
men to make good their positions and to run connecting
saps to our positions on the right, thus forming a diagonal
line facing the enemy.

On the night of the 30th the enemy advanced against
the green knoll along the coast, but his columns were
dispersed before they ever reached within striking
distance of our trenches by the fire of our destroyers.i42 Despatches from the Dardanelles

A second attack further to the right met with no better
success. Two battalions took part in it, and, by making
a skilful use of cover, some of them managed to creep
up to within thirty yards of our trenches, but were
then annihilated by our infantry.

Since then there have been reports of the enemy
massing for a fresh effort, but his infantry show no
disposition to advance, being greatly dispirited by the
loss of so much ground and their heavy casualties.

A Great Feat of Arms

An examination of the captured Turkish positions
proves our victory on the left wing to have been even
more decisive than could have been hoped for, consider-
ing the enormous strength of the works. The Turk is a
splendidly stubborn fighter behind entrenchments, and
he has always been an adept in constructing field works,
as was proved at Plevna and Kars. Now, with the
assistance of German knowledge and science, and working
on a ground which provides almost every known natural
obstacle to assist the defence, it is a great feat of which
any general and any troops may justifiably be proud,
to have driven him back for over a mile, capturing
en route four successive lines of trenches and small forts
protected by barbed wire entanglements.

The captured trenches present an extraordinary
appearance, of which I shall send a detailed description
later. It is sufficient to say that they are smashed by
high-explosive shells, and the entanglements have been
cut to shreds in places by the shrapnel.

Capture of Munitions

We captured hundreds of rifles and thousands of
rounds of small-arms ammunition. Every rifle taken is
as good as a prisoner or a dead Turk, because the enemyGraphic Story of British Heroism 143

has only a limited number, and in one engagement
recently there were troops in the front line armed only
with Martinis.

The prisoners captured are a very mixed bag, coming
from all parts of the Empire, whilst most of the officers
are young and inexperienced, with only a few months’
service behind them. They are, as a rule, extraordinarily
ignorant of everything which occurs on the peninsula
except in their own immediate environment, and one and
all tell the same story—namely, that they have been
informed over and over again that the Allies kill all
their prisoners. Thus, immediately they find them-
selves treated with the greatest kindness and are well
fed, they become eternally grateful to their captors and
very communicative, denouncing the war as unjust and
impolitic.

Turks Weakening

Having been away from the front for a few weeks
it certainly seemed to me that the enemy's powers of
resistance have appreciably weakened, and that his spirit
is nothing like what it was. This may be due to the
tremendous effect of our concentrated artillery fire on a
small section of his line, which crushed and smothered
the defenders, but I am more inclined to the belief that
the Turk is gradually losing faith in the German star,
and is becoming more and more dissatisfied with the
amount of support he receives from his own artillery.

The very essence of German tactics on these occasions
is to cover an infantry advance by an overwhelming
fire from every available gun in the particular sector to
be assaulted, but on this occasion the Turkish counter-
attacks were preceded by a few rounds of ill-aimed
shrapnel and nothing more. In consequence, the infantry
did not dare to make a move on a big scale during the144 Despatches from the Dardanelles

day. They had to wait and try to creep up under cover
of darkness without the help of their guns. Many of
the prisoners expressed themselves as being very dis-
satisfied with their artillery; yet others are emphatic
in stating that the Army has just received a large fresh
supply.

It is dangerous to draw too far-reaching conclusions
from outward signs, but it would seem as if the Turkish
star has already passed its meridian. A long and bitter
struggle may lie ahead, for the Turkish infantry are
stubborn fighters and gallant men.CHAPTER XIII

THE GULLY RAVINE

July 4

The successful advance of our left wing on June 28
took place on both sides of what is now universally known
as the Gully Ravine, and although our troops made
no effort to advance directly up the ravine itself, the fall
of the enemy’s trenches on either side placed another
mile of this valley of death in their hands. I suppose
that years from now, when the surviving veterans of
this campaign in Gallipoli are gathered round some festive
board holding the annual celebration to commemorate
the fall of Constantinople, that the name which will be
most frequently on their lips, and which will recall to
them the most sombre memories, will be the Gully Ravine.
Some one described it as “ a devil of a place,” and that
description is not inaccurate. Steaming along the western
coast of Gallipoli you would not suspect its existence.

The gully varies in depth, in width, and in security,
as you pass up it—in the latter case according to the angle
the road occupies towards the enemy’s trenches. For
although after leaving the seashore it takes a general
direction towards the north-east—that is to say, towards
Krithia—it twists and turns in a remarkable manner,
and at one point you may walk in perfect security behind
a bluff, while at another you may catch a stream of bullets
from the Turkish trenches in front. The Turks, who
know every inch of the ground, formerly fired a tremendous
number of shells into the ravine, but of late there has

145146 Despatches from the Dardanelles

been a distinct falling off in the volume of this fire, point-
ing to a growing shortage of ammunition. Nevertheless,
there is quite enough shrapnel bursting about your head,
especially when an attack is in progress, for then, in
addition to the shells deliberately aimed, you catch a
large number of stray ones fired at our batteries, and
also thousands of dropping bullets which have missed
the trenches in front. The Gully Ravine lies between
overhanging craggy hills, which are in places 200 ft. in
height, and are covered with a thick green shrub, varied
by patches of yellow sandy soil, which seems common
to the whole of the southern end of Gallipoli.

Picturesque Scene

But for the grimmer business of war, you would
naturally stop and admire the surprising beauty of the
scene, which resembles the Highlands in its rugged
grandeur. The heat in summer is, however, almost
unbearable, because no sea breezes penetrate its depths,
and the sun beats down on this war-worn road with
pitiless severity. But there is plenty of good water for
men and horses, parched by the sun and the sand. These
springs are carefully guarded against pollution, and are
known and beloved by every thirsty warrior to, or on
his way from, the trenches. There are some which,
flowing from the interior of the hills, enter the valley in
a tiny, trickling stream, clear as crystal and icy cold.
Crowds of perspiring, dusty, thirsty men will wait in-
definite periods in a long queue, each with his water-
bottle in hand, for the privilege of obtaining a draught
from one of these springs, which are valued more in
Gallipoli than the choicest brand of champagne would
be at home.

No wine has, or ever will, taste as good as a glass of
icy cold spring-water after you have spent hours in the*47

The Gully Ravine

trenches, stooping to avoid the enemy’s snipers, cramped
by the weight of your kit and the narrowness of these
earthen passages in which you live, whilst all day the
sun scorches your back and neck, and makes you long
for the cool of the evening, when for a few hours these
human ovens cool down.

Along the road in every spot sheltered by the over-
hanging cliffs from the sun you will find hundreds of
weary men who have just come from the trenches, and
who have flung themselves down to snatch a few hours’
sleep whilst they may. They lie there unconscious and
indifferent to the shells bursting overhead and the stream
of stray bullets which come “ sizzing ” along. A man
drops and is immediately carried to the dressing station,
but no one takes the smallest notice or even seeks cover,
for prolonged experience has had the effect of making
nearly all indifferent or fatalists. In the ravine you are
constantly coming upon lonely graves, each marked with
a cross and a name, marking the last resting-place of
some soldier who has fallen in one of the early engage-
ments, or who has been killed on his way to the front
and who has been buried just where he fell.

This last advance, on June 28, placed nearly another
mile of the gully in our hands, and every yard we progress
it becomes narrower and the hills lower. Who will ever
forget the scenes they witnessed in the captured Turkish
trenches on either side and in the ravine itself the day
after they were taken by our infantry ? The first obstacle
one came upon was a solid hedge of barbed wire placed
right across the gully, fastened to thick stakes of wood,
which our engineers were busily engaged in cutting
through to open a road for reinforcements and transport
beyond. Our troops made no effort on the 28th to pass
this way, for they captured the high ground on either
side, and the Turks in the ravine were either killed, or148 Despatches from the Dardanelles

fled. His positions are invariably filthy, and if the
enemy goes through the campaign without some great
epidemic he will have undue luck.

Captured Equipment

All the way up that portion of the gully, only twenty-
four hours before in the enemy’s possession, there is a
litter of d6bris of the camp and of the great fight. Scat-
tered bodies half protruding from the ground, hastily-
dug graves, hundreds of rifles and bayonets, some broken,
but the majority intact, thousands upon thousands of
rounds of ammunition—we made a very big haul indeed
in this last engagement—entrenching tools, loaves of
bread, soldiers’ packs, Turkish letters, a Mullah’s praying-
stool (a souvenir eagerly sought after), greatcoats and
kits, blankets and old sacks, cooking utensils, and fire-
wood, left just where the enemy abandoned them when
our gallant infantry broke through at the bayonet’s point.
Great fires are burning at intervals. They are avoided
by all, and give forth a horrid, sickly stench. On these
the Turkish dead, who have been hastily collected, axe
being burnt, for it is all important to get the dead out of
the way as quickly as possible in this hot climate.

There is no well-defined road up this portion of the
ravine, and you can no longer ride on account of the
obstacles and stream of bullets coming from the trenches
in front. Every one is on foot, and you come upon the
divisional commander and his staff, who are returning
from a tour of inspection of the newly occupied trenches.
You also pass a continual stream of stretcher-bearers,
who have been working without a rest for the last twenty-
four hours bringing in our wounded. Our advance has
been so successful that they tell you with pride not a man
has been left alive lying out in front of the line. TheyThe Gully Ravine	149

are also bringing down our dead to bury them in one
of the newly formed little cemeteries.

The place is packed with debris, like the gully. The
same awful stench pervades everything, and the flies
swarm in millions. In one corner seven Turks, with their
rifles across their knees, are sitting together. One man
has his arm round the neck of his friend and a smile on
his face, as if they had been cracking a joke when death
overwhelmed them. All now have the appearance of
being merely asleep, for of the seven I only see one who
shows any outward injury.

Neat Artillery Work

Peeping carefully over the top of the Boomerang,
which is being heavily sniped by irate Turks in the broken
gorse and trenches ahead, you see how our infantry forced
their way in. The barbed wire has been swept away by
the accurate fire of the artillery, twenty minutes before
our infantry made their assault. A very neat job the
gunners made of it, for the uprights and wire have been
cut to shreds, allowing our infantry a free passage, of
which they took full advantage. You see a number of
our men’s rifles, helmets and packs lying about which
have not yet been collected. Some of these packs and
helmets belong to the wounded and killed, others have
been left behind or thrown aside when our men swept
forward to the next trench. They will be collected and
taken to the ravine, and later claimed by their owners, or
kept for other drafts on their way out from home.

It is really extraordinary the amount of articles which
you always find scattered over a battlefield. The modern
soldier goes into action decked out like a Christmas-tree.
At the start they would rather carry any weight than
leave any of their precious goods behind. But as they
advance, and become more and more weary and hot, and150 Despatches from the Dardanelles

find their freedom of movement in these wild rushes
hampered, they gradually shake off the superfluous.
Also, if you leave your pack lying about, it is a common
fate to have it looted by your reserves, for the motto of
the soldier in battle is “ Everything comes to him who
takes.” I heard of one regiment which was ordered to
leave its packs behind when assaulting the trench in front.
They successfully accomplished their task, and another
battalion took their place in the trench where they had
left their packs. Then this battalion relieved them in
the captured trench, and they went back to find all their
packs had been carefully “ gone through.” The men
could scarcely be restrained from again advancing to the
attack of the trench in front to recapture their property
from their own comrades, within a few hundred yards of
the enemy ! All this debris is carefully collected and
sorted after each fight, for when equipment is hard to
obtain every article has its value.

Leaving the Boomerang Fort, I next visited the one
in front, known as the “ Turkey Trot.” This was even
more formidable in its construction than the other, but
fell easily before the splendid dash of our infantry. Like
all the other positions, it is full of debris and dead. On
going up a deserted sap I suddenly came upon a wounded
Turk, lying on his back all by himself, with his chest heav-
ing and his hands clenched above his head. He was
muttering to himself—I think, praying—but was too far
gone to live much longer. He had been overlooked by
the stretcher-bearers, a party of whom were immediately
sent to bring him in.

Cheerful Young Soldiers

I then went down again to the gully. Here I came
upon masses of our infantry making their way forward to
relieve the troops in the front fine. The companies, asThe Gully Ravine	151

they passed, were being inspected by their brigadier.
The men were staggering along in the excessive heat,
carrying their heavy loads, supplemented by entrenching
tools, empty sandbags, and their rations, but, in spite of
their fatigue and the heat, these young soldiers, recruits
for the most part, were cheery and full of confidence.

Our soldiers are, indeed, extraordinary. Whatever
happens, they never seem to lose their spirits, although
constantly exposed to danger, to every kind of hardship,
with little sleep for days at a time, and living in an atmo-
sphere the stench of which defies description. Several
were discussing the relative merits of tinned beef and
tinned mutton; others were regretting that biscuit had
been served out that morning instead of bread; others
were filling their canteens with tea which was being served
out from “ dixies ” as they passed along; and others were
talking of the recent fight. To hear them speak you
would tremble for the fate of any of the enemy who fell
into their hands, and yet the moment a trench is taken
and the enemy holds up his hands those who are not killed
in the heat of action are treated with the utmost kindness,
and our men will share their precious water and their
rations with them.

In the front trench our men are working like bees.
Across the head of the gully they are building up a “ Ute
de font ” under a continuous fire from the enemy’s sharp-
shooters, whilst others, for whom there was no room in
the trench, are calmly sleeping behind, oblivious of every-
thing, just waiting until they should be summoned to
resist the expected counter-attack. In this trench war-
fare units become so mixed in an attack that it is often
several days before the new line is accurately known.
When you think you have won a trench you may find
that the enemy is still holding a portion of it, or that he
holds some communicating trench, from which he delivers152 Despatches from the Dardanelles

constant bomb attacks. Thus, there is continual fighting
for days after a position has been won before it is con-
solidated and properly held.

Scenes of desperate fighting are plainly visible all
around our front line. On a small rise a little to the left
lie half a dozen of our men killed in the final advance,
who it had been impossible to get at and bury. Right in
front a line of khaki figures lie in perfect order only a few
yards away, yet the sniping is so heavy that even at night
it is almost impossible to bring them in. Further up
the ravine are heaps of Turkish dead, piled together, who
have fallen in the big counter-attack. In a gorse patch
further to the left lie a further large number of the enemy,
mixed up with some of our men, for there seems to have
been a general melee in the open at dawn on the 29th,
when our men issued from their trenches and hunted the
enemy out of the gorse, killing large numbers of them.

The weary troops, worn out with fighting and digging,
are now relieved, and I make my way down the gruesome
valley with them. They snatch at the tea which is
handed them from the “ dixies,” and drink it in huge
gulps. Tea is the mainstay of our soldiers. They will
take any quantity, and it seems to keep them going better
than anything else. Thus revived, they pass on down the
valley to their billets, and, throwing off their kits, hurl
themselves on the ground, and in spite of the shells and
bullets, the sand and heat, the stenches, and, above all,
the millions of flies, they are no sooner prone than asleep,
for they know on the following day, or it may be that
same night, they will have to return to their ceaseless
vigilance and digging.CHAPTER XIV

PRODIGAL WASTE OF LIFE

July 7

The successful advance of our left wing on June 28
seems to have alarmed the enemy most seriously, and to
have caused him grave anxiety for the safety of his right
flank. Having brought up fresh troops, some of them
raw levies, from Asia, he has been counter-attacking
vigorously ever since, making the most desperate but
vain efforts to recover the lost trenches.

It is reported that Enver Pasha himself has come
down from Constantinople to stimulate the faithful to
fresh exertions by his presence, and a great banner was
hoisted on Aki Baba, symbolical of his arrival. There
are also dissensions in the Turkish camp, for the generals
on the spot, who have gained experience of the futility
of these massed counter-attacks against entrenched
British infantry and under a superior artillery fire, were
opposed to any attempt to recover the lost ground, argu-
ing that it would be better to strengthen the trenches to
which they have fallen back, and there to wait our fresh
advance.

Enver’s Obstinacy

But Enver Pasha would not hear of it. He insisted
on a general attack along the whole of our line, and it is

153154 Despatches from the Dardanelles

said that some thirty fresh battalions were engaged in
this move.

It is impossible to give a detailed account of these
various attacks, which have generally been delivered at
night or at early dawn. The enemy has been particularly
severely handled on our left wing, where he was caught
not only by our field guns and heavy howitzers, but also
by the enfilading fire of the destroyers. In fact, his
massed advances have simply faded away before our
artillery and the accurate fire of our infantry, who have
suffered a minimum of loss in resisting these abortive
efforts.

British repulse Attacks

In our centre and on our right wing the Turks have
on occasions sapped up close, and have fought on more
even terms, but not in one single instance have they
been able to maintain a lodgment in our trenches. Their
artillery, which was so very inactive on June 28, has
apparently received fresh supplies of ammunition, and
has fired a large number of rounds—for the Turks—in
the last three days. The effect of this fire has been
practically nil.

The Asiatic batteries have also been very active, and
both V Beach and Lancashire Landing have been having
a very hot time, but except for causing general annoyance
to the working parties, the casualties have been very few,
because every one is now too well dug-in to suffer any
harm except from direct hits.

Turkish Gallantry

All our officers are loud in their praises of the extreme
gallantry and indifference to death shown by the TurkishProdigal Waste of Life	155

infantry. Superlative as he has proved himself to be in
defence, his methods in attack are crude and wasteful, for
he possesses no knowledge of carrying out scientifically
an assault such as our infantry do, supported by their
artillery. If he is entrenched close to our front lines the
Turk is clever at sapping and in the use of bombs, of
which he possesses a large supply, but when he has to
advance over the open and carry our positions at the
point of the bayonet, he invariably is beaten back with
enormous loss.

Before an attack he masses several battalions in any
natural features of the ground under cover and hidden
from view, and then this mass surges forward in no regular
formation, advancing slowly and without any apparent
enthusiasm for the task.

Often our artillery are informed of these concentra-
tions before the attack is launched, and, knowing the
range to a foot, they break up the gathering before it
ever has a chance of leaving cover. Sometimes a few of
the bravest and most determined reach our parapets,
only to be shot down, but the majority scatter, leaving
large numbers of snipers in the broken ground, who cause
most of our casualties.

Enemy’s Great Losses

The net result of their efforts to recapture the lost
ground has been to cause the Turks an enormous number
of killed and wounded during the past week. All along
our lines the dead are lying in hundreds. Large numbers
we cannot see on account of the configuration of the
ground, and thousands of wounded are reported to have
arrived in Constantinople.

The exact figures cannot be stated, but they must156 Despatches from the Dardanelles

number quite 10,000 killed and wounded, and possibly
many more.

Under these circumstances, Enver’s intervention has
been a singularly happy inspiration from our standpoint.
As a general he has always proved himself beneath con-
tempt, as was clearly shown by the unparalleled disasters
which the armies led by him suffered in the Caucasus.
Possibly his activity is only temporary, and he has taken
the opportunity of General von Sanders’ wound to try
his methods of driving us into the sea.

The very heavy losses which the Turks have suffered
during the past eight days, and the reckless manner in
which they have thrown away thousands of lives points
to their having an unlimited number of troops in the
peninsula. In fact, it would seem as if we are fighting
the entire Turkish army, which has been withdrawn from
the other fronts and concentrated in Thrace and Gallipoli.
The successful offensive of the Germans and Austrians
in Galicia and Poland has probably enabled Enver to
denude Armenia, for the enemy has certainly been very
prodigal of life in the last few days.

New Turkish Trenches

From captured orders it is evident that the Turkish
commanders are much worried over the facility with
which we have taken their trenches in our last two ad-
vances. Most drastic steps are being adopted to prevent
a repetition of this in the future, for the men are strictly
forbidden to retire, and their officers have orders to shoot
them if they do, and any officer who refuses to shoot
his men is to be shot himself. This order, sent round by
one of the divisional commanders, has to be signed by
all the officers of battalions, who undertake to carry out
the instructions contained therein.Prodigal Waste of Life	157

Meanwhile the Turks have constructed four new lines
of trenches of great strength in front of our left wing,
whilst they are daily digging all around Aki Baba and
Krithia, and have turned the plain beyond it, between
Aki Baba and the Kilid Bahr plateau, into a regular
fortress.CHAPTER XV

BATTLE OF JULY 12-13

July 14

As a result of two days’ severe fighting our line has
gained considerable ground.

On July 12 a brigade, after a terrific bombardment
lasting one hour, successfully advanced, capturing a
strong redoubt and several lines of trenches on the left.

On the right a brigade took two lines of trenches, and
obtained a lodgment in a third, but were driven out,
holding the first two.

During the night of July 12-13 bitter hand-to-hand
fighting took place in the trenches and saps, the Turks
counter-attacking vigorously, and the brigade were forced
to evacuate some advanced trenches.

In the afternoon of the 13th the attack was reorganised.

At 4.30 p.m., after a further bombardment, a general
assault was delivered. In conjunction with the French
our infantry on the left swept irresistibly forward, re-
capturing all the evacuated trenches, and advancing a
considerable distance beyond. The Turks fled in disorder.

On the right two lines of trenches were again taken,
but the attack was held up at the third. The result was
that a whole section of the enemy’s line was captured
and consolidated on the left, but on the right the attack
was only partly successful.

Enormous Obstacles

This success has only been achieved after desperate
fighting. Any one who has not seen the ground can

158Battle of July 12-13	159

have no conception of the obstacles our heroic infantry
have to face in gaining even a few yards of fresh soil in
Gallipoli.

In the last three months the Turks have constructed
a perfect network of trenches and small redoubts, all
protected by barbed wire and connected by saps and
communicating trenches.

They have now realised that no infantry can withstand
these tremendous bombardments with high-explosive
shells concentrated on a small section of the defence.
Therefore they withdraw most of their men down the
communicating trenches whilst the bombardment lasts,
and our infantry are thus able to occupy two or three lines
with but small loss, but the majority of our casualties
occur in holding the trenches after they have been won.
For the enemy, knowing the ground and the plan of
their trenches better than our men, attack them with
bombs through the saps, and the fighting takes place at
close quarters.

Parties of men get too far forward and are frequently
lost for hours, whilst it is no uncommon occurrence for
our men to gain possession of an advanced trench whilst
the Turks are still holding sections of those behind them.

“ Brutal Bludgeon Work ”

Thus after each advance it takes a long time to
straighten out and consolidate a captured position. The
cost of this particular kind of warfare can be worked out
with almost mathematical exactness, for so many men
must be sacrificed, so many shells fired, and so many
grenades are required for every fresh hundred yards of
ground occupied.

It is bludgeon work, brutal and unattractive, and
giving little or no scope for skill in tactics or strategy.

But in front of Aki Baba the situation is exactly the160 Despatches from the Dardanelles

same as it is before Ypres or in the zone of the French
operations before Souchez. Victories cannot be won in a
day here any more than they can be in France.

The Territorials have had many opportunities of
proving their merit on the peninsula, and have come out
of the fiery ordeal with a greatly enhanced reputation.
For, once they have been given time to settle down and
and have become accustomed to the novel conditions,
they have proved themselves to be in most instances first-
class fighting men, possessing great intelligence and great
dash, worthy to fight side by side with a Division such as
the famous 29th.

At dawn on the 12th, after a heavy bombardment,
the brigade on the right assaulted and captured two lines
of Turkish trenches and reached a third, where they
failed to establish themselves and were driven out, and
we failed to establish a liaison with the French on our
right.

Throughout the day our heavy guns were busy register-
ing on the enemy’s positions, and at four p.m. a terrible
bombardment was opened on the left of this section of
his line where it touches the Aki Baba nullah.

The Turkish positions looked appallingly strong.

In addition, on their right, overlooking the nullah,
the Turks held a regular rectangular redoubt perched on
the edge of the ravine, down which he had concealed
machine guns. At four p.m. every available gun was
turned on the enemy’s trenches and on the redoubt,
hundreds of high-explosive shells falling into the trenches
and saps and throwing up great masses of earth, sand-
bags, and wooden beams to an immense height. It was
an extraordinary sight, and it did not seem possible for
any infantry to live under such a fire. But I fancy the
majority had been withdrawn down the communicating
trenches.Battle of July 12-13	161

During this bombardment our infantry lay low and
not a man was visible.

Exactly at five p.m. our guns lengthened their fuses
and concentrated on the enemy’s reserve trenches and
on any dead ground where he might be massing his
reserves for a counter-attack, and a warship bombarded
the observation station on the top of Aki Baba with
12-in. shells, which was most valuable in upsetting his
arrangements for directing the operations.

Picture from the Inferno

At the same moment, as if animated by a common
will, the regiments of the brigade leapt from their trenches
and surged forward towards the great redoubt and the
network of saps and trenches.

The whole scene resembled some picture from the
Inferno, for our guns, shelling the works behind, made a
great background of earth and smoke; whilst no sooner
did our advance become apparent than the enemy's
batteries, which had been keeping very quiet, opened
upon our infantry with shrapnel and high explosives,
smothering his own works which we were about to
enter.

The ground resembled a gigantic steaming cauldron,
into whose thick vapours the gallant brigade poured
without once hesitating or looking back. Individuals
soon became swallowed up in the mist, and all you could-
see were black dots rushing about or jumping into the
trenches with bayonets flashing in the shrouded sun
amidst a continuous roar of musketry, which showed
that the Turks were resisting valiantly.

But when the smoke lifted somewhat our men were
everywhere in possession of the enemy's trenches.

For a few minutes it looked as if the redoubt might

F162 Despatches from the Dardanelles

give some trouble, but the Scots never gave the Turks
a chance, swarming up the escarpment on all sides,
and jumping in on top to settle the argument with
the bayonet.

For an hour and a half parties of Turks held out
at various points and the fighting was continuous and
furious, but our artillery made such a curtain of shrapnel
that his reserves never had a chance of counter-attacking.
Thus at sunset on the 12th the brigade had captured
all the works assigned to it on the left, but on the right
they had been forced to evacuate two lines of captured
trenches.

“ A Great Day ”

Nevertheless it had been a great day for these soldiers,
who in spite of the extreme heat and the difficult task
had fought like veterans.

It was impossible to see what was happening, but
throughout the night of the 12th and the 13th the rifle
fire hardly ever ceased, and at dawn it rose into a
crescendo.

The Turks, bringing up reinforcements, attacked our
weary men through the communication trenches with
bombs and bayonets. The kilted troops fought gallantly,
but could not maintain all the ground they had won on
the previous afternoon. They were driven out of two
lines of trenches, but never lost their hold on the redoubt.
The enemy's losses were heavy,

When day broke on the 13th the Staff were able to
examine accurately the position and to count what
sections of the enemy’s line we still held and what had
been lost. It was decided to give him no rest, but to
follow up with another attack. For this purpose the two
brigades exhausted by twenty-four hours' continuousBattle of July 12-13	163

fighting were withdrawn from the front trenches and the
Naval Division was moved np.

At four p.m. on the 13th our Field Artillery opened
up once again on the battered shambles of trenches, now
knocked almost out of recognition. A high wind was
blowing, and the bursting shrapnel threw up immense
clouds of dust, which hid the horizon from view.

Infantry’s Dash

At 4.30 our right moved forward amidst a terrible
rifle fire, regaining the two trenches taken on the previous
day, but again being held up by a third and fourth. They
then moved more to the right and advanced a long
distance, skirting the enemy’s works without being able
to enter them.

For nearly three hours this fighting continued on the
right, hidden partly from view and no one knowing
exactly what was happening. But the attack on our
left was completely successful. It was conducted with
the utmost skill and dash, and our infantry simply swept
over everything in their front, bayoneting those Turks
who did not succeed in escaping down the saps.

Having carried everything assigned to them there
was no stopping our infantry, who swept forward in
small parties, often in twos and threes as if they would
never stop, in spite of the shell and heavy rifle fire.
At one time it looked as if they intended to assault a
fresh position behind on a low hill, but fortunately this
further advance, which would have been premature, was
checked in time.

The Turks seemed thoroughly demoralised on our
left by this final charge, and fled a long way back to the
foot of Aki Baba, pursued by our shells.164 Despatches from the Dardanelles

At sunset on the 13th the whole of the enemy’s left
was in our possession, and was firmly consolidated
during the night, but on the right, in spite of every
effort, we could not take the last two lines of works, but
remained in possession of the two first, which were also
consolidated, and that is how the position stands at
present.

We were opposed by three of the best Turkish
regiments, and have captured some 500 prisoners. Our
infantry fought splendidly, and our artillery rendered
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