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LIEUT.-GENERAL SIR \V, BIRDVVOOD — "THE SOUL OF ANZAC."

;?^^Q^

THE LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES

AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

SOLDIER-SONGS
FROM ANZAC

By Signaller TOM SKEYHILL.

With an Introduction by

Major-General J. W. McCAY, C B.

Paper cover, is. net.

Private Skeyhill trained in Egypt from
January 1915 to April 1915. He landed
with his battalion on Anzac Beach on
25th April, taking part in the fighting
of that first fierce week. The next week
he was with his battalion at Cape Helles,
and shared in the well-known charge
by the 2nd Brigade on the 8th May,
when a high-explosive shell burst beside
him and sent him to hospital, a blind
and helpless man. There are hopes
that eventually he may recover his sight,
but at best the time must be long. His
poems breathe love of country and of
courage, the spirit of battle, soldiers' com-
radeship, and sympathy for the fallen.

T. FISHER UNWIN LTD., LONDON

AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

A NARRATIVE OF THE AUSTRALASIAN IMPERIAL
FORCE AND THEIR ACHIEVEMENT AT ANZAC

PHILLIP F. E. SCHULER

Special War Correspondent of The Age, Melbourne

WITH 9 MAPS AND 53 ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON

T. FISHER UNWIN LTD.

ADELPHI TERRACE

First published in igi6

THE MOTHERS OF THE HEROES

WHO HAVE FALLEN

I HUMBLY DEDICATE THESE RECORDS OF

GLORIOUS DEEDS

TO THE MOTHER COUNTRY

Because you (rusted them, and gave them dower
0/ your own ancient birthright, Liberty —
Forwent the meagre semblances of power
To win the deepest truth and loyalty —
Now, when these seeming slender roots are tried
Of all your strength, behold, they do not fnove ;
The stripling nations hasten to your side.
Impelled, as children sliould be, by their love.

And who shall grudge the pride of Motherhood

To this old Northern Kingdom of the sea ?

Indeed our fathers' husbandry was good ;

This is the harvest of our history;

Yet boast not. Rather pray we be not found

Unworthy those great men who tilled the ground.

F, D. Livingstons

PREFACE

One hot, bright morning early in the Dardanelles cam-
paign, so the story goes, Lieut .-General Sir William
Birdwood was walking up one of the worn tracks of
Anzac that led over the hills into the firing-line when
he stopped, as he very often did on these daily tours
of the line, to talk with two men who were cooking
over a fireplace made of shell cases. General Birdwood
wore no jacket, therefore he had no badges of rank.
His cap even lacked gold lace. Under his arm he had
tucked a periscope. But the Australian addressed did
not even boast of a shirt. Stripped to the waist, he
was as fine a type of manhood as you might wish to
see. He was burned a deep brown ; his uniform con-
sisted of a cap, shorts, and a pair of boots. His mate
was similarly clad.

" Got something good there? " remarked the General
as he stopped near the steaming pot of bully-beef stew.

" Ye-es," replied the Australian, " it's all right. Wish
we had a few more spuds, though." Conversation then
branched off into matters relating to the firing-line, till
at last General Birdwood signified his intention of going,
bidding the soldier a cheery " Good- day," which was
acknowledged by an inclination of the head. The
General walked up the path to his firing-line, and the
Australian turned to his mate, who had been very silent,
but who now began to swear softly under his breath —

"You fool! Do you know who you

were talking to? "

"No!"

" Well, that was General Birdwood, that was, yer
coot 1 "

" How was I to know that ? Anyway, he seemed
to know me all right."

Those were the types of soldiers with whom I spent

8 PREFACE

the first year of their entry into the Great War. I
watched them drafted into camps in Australia, the raw
material ; I saw them charge into action like veteran
troops, not a year later. Never downhearted, often
grumbling, always chafing under delays, generous even
to an alarming degree, the first twenty thousand who
volunteered to go forth from Australia to help the
Mother Country in the firing-line was an army that
made even our enemies doubt if we had not deliberately
" chosen " the finest of the race. Since then there
have been not twenty, but two hundred thousand of that
stamp of soldier sent across the water to fight the
Empire's battles at the throat of the foe.

This narrative does not pretend to be an " Eye-
witness " account. In most instances where I have had
official papers before me, I have turned in preference
to the more bold and vigorous stories of the men who
have taken part in the stirring deeds.

I left Melbourne on 21st October on the Flag-
ship of the Convoy, the Orvieto, that carried the ist
Division of Australian troops to Egypt, as the official
representative of the Melbourne Age with the Expedi-
tion. I landed with the troops and went with them
into the desert camp at Mena. It was then that I
realized what staunch friends these young campaigners
were. Colonel Wanliss and officers of the 5th Infantry
Battalion insisted that I should become a member of
their mess. I can never be grateful enough for that
courtesy.

I wish also to gratefully acknowledge the kindly help
and courtesy extended to me at all times by the
Divisional Staff, and especially by Brigadier -General
C. B. B. White, C.B. (then Lieut. -Colonel), Chief of
the Staff, whom I always found courteous and anxious
to facilitate me in my work as far as lay in his power.

It was while witnessing the welding of the Australasian
Army in Egypt that I met Mr. W. T. Massey, repre-
sentative of the Daily Telegraph, London, and Mr. George
Renwick, Daily Chronicle . We became a council of
three for the four months we were together in Egypt,
and it was a keen regret when Mr. Massey was unable
to accompany me to the Dardanelles on the trip we
had planned together, whereby, taking the advice of
General Sir Ian Hamilton that we were " free British

PREFACE 9

subjects and could always take a ticket to the nearest
railway-station to the fighting," we had intended to
witness together the landing. As it was, I went alone
on a small 500-ton Greek trading steamer ; but on
arrival at Mitylene I was fortunate to find Mr. Ren wick
there and Mr. Stevens, who was now representing the
Daily Telegraph, and they, having a motor-launch, invited
me to join them in a little enterprise of our own. For
a fortnight we watched the operations from the shores
of Imbros and the decks of the launch, steaming up to
the entrance of the Straits, living on what resources the
island might deliver to us, which was mostly a poor
fish, goat's milk, eggs, and very resinous native Greek
'wine. Eventually the motor-boat (and correspondents)
was banished from " The Zone " by British destroyers.

So I returned to Alexandria at the end of May, and
was able to visit the hospitals and chat with the men
from the firing-line. Then in July, General Sir Ian
Hamilton — who had told us prior to his departure that
he intended to do all in his power to help Mr. Massey
and myself to visit the Anzac front — wrote from his
headquarters at Imbros giving me his permission to come
on to the famous battlefields.

In four hours I was on my way to the Dardanelles
on a transport, and by stages (visiting the notorious
Aragon at Mudros Harbour) reached Kephalos Bay,
where the Commander-in-Chief had pitched his tent.
The cordiality of General Hamilton's welcome will ever
linger in my memory. I remember he was seated at
a deal table in a small wooden hut with a pile of
papers before him. He spoke of the Australians in
terms of the highest praise. They were, he said, at
present " a thorn in the sidte of the Turks," and when the
time came he intended that that thorn should be pressed
deeper. He advised me to see all I could, as quickly
as I could.

I received a passport through the British and French
lines and travelled from Helles to Anzac and Suvla Bay
at will. Lieut .-General Birdwood and his Staff, Major-
General Legge and the officers throughout the ist
Australian Division, and Major-General Godley and the
leaders of the New Zealand Brigades, extended to me
such courtesies as lay in their hands. I was able to
witness the whole of the August offensive from the

lo PREFACE

closest quarters, being in our trenches at Lone Pine
during the engagement of the 6th.

At Anzac I was heartily welcomed by Captain Bean,
the official correspondent with the Australian forces, who
of all men was the most enthusiastic, painstaking, and
conscientious worker that I have ever met, and 1 desire
to acknowledge my debt to him for kindly criticism
and good fellowship.

I would never be able to record the names of friends
in the force, both in the firing-line and at the base,
from whom I have received valuable suggestions and
practical help.

I wish to express my gratitude to Mr. Geoffrey Syme,
proprietor of The Age, for permission to use certain of
the war dispatches I sent him for publication ; to Mr.
Osboldstone for permission to utilize some of the
photographs he had already printed ; and to the Minister
of Defence for the reproduction of photographs and
orders.

I am deeply indebted also to Mr. J. R. Watson for
the spontaneous manner in which he offered to handle
the manuscript for me in London while I was far across
the water and corrected the proofs, thus enabling me
to join the ranks of our Army. The apparent delight
with which he entered on the work removed from my
mind all thought of overtaxing a friendship.

Finally, I am most anxious to remove, at the outset,
any suggestion that might be gained from this narrative
that the Australians alone were the outstanding heroes
of the Dardanelles campaign. When the history of the
British forces— the magnificent 29th Division, the Low-
land Division, and the Yeomanry — comes to be recorded,
and the story of the French participation in the assault
of Achi Baba told, it will be seen that, glorious as has
been the name won by the Australians, heroically as
they fought, proudly and surely as they held all they
gained, they played a part in this " Great Adventure,"
and it is of that part that I have written because it
was the only one of which I had full knowledge.

PHILLIP F. E. SCHULER.

Melbourne, 5//; April 1916.

CONTENTS

PART I
AUSTRALIA ANSWERS THE GALL

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE TOCSIN IN AUSTRALIA . . . -15

II. THE ASSEMBLY . . . . . .24

III. ADVENTURES ON THE CONVOY . . '35

IV. THE FIRST PAGE OF AUSTRALIAN NAVAL HISTORY —

FROM THE DECKS OF THE CONVOY . . 40

V. THE FIRST PAGE OF AUSTRALIAN NAVAL HISTORY

{continued) — the destruction of the emden . 46

VI. UP the red sea . . . . .61

VII. the camps round CAIRO . . . ■ ^7

viii. rumours OF the Turks' attack . . -75

IX. first SUEZ CANAL BATTLE . . . -78

PART II
THE ANZAG CAMPAIGN

X. THE PLAN OF ATTACK .

XI. THE DAWN OF ANZAC — THE LANDING

XII. A TERRIBLE THREE DAYS

XIII. A BATTLE PANORAMA OF GALLIPOLI

XIV, AN UNFULFILLED ARMY ORDER
XV. VICTORIANS' CHARGE AT KRITHIA

92
99

127
143

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

XVI. TURKISH MAY ATTACK AND ARMISTICE

XVII. ANZAC COVE ....

XVIII. THROUGH THE FIRING-LINES

XIX. LIFE AT QUINN's AND POPE'S

XX. JUNE AND JULY PREPARATIONS

PAGE
168

PART III
THE GREAT ADVENTURE

XXI. THE AUGUST PHASE AND NEW LANDING

XXII. LONE PINE ....

XXIIL THE HEROIC LIGHT HORSE CHARGE

XXIV. THE BATTLE OF SARI BAIR — FIRST PHASE

XXV. THE BATTLE OF SARI BAIR — THE CAPTURE
RIDGE AND ITS LOSS

XXVI. HILL 60, GALLIPOLI

XXVII. THE EVACUATION OF THE PENINSULA

OF THE

212
221

236

272

APPENDIX

I. DISTINCTIONS FOR GALLANTRY AND SERVICES IN THE
FIELD .......

II MENTIONED IN DISPATCHES ....

311

INDEX

318

ILLUSTRATIONS

LT.-GEN. SIR W. BIRDWOOD, " THE SOUL OF ANZAC " Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

THE STAFF OF THE FIRST AUSTRALIAN DIVISION

A QUIET AFTERNOON ON A TROOP DECK

TATTOOING WITH A HOME-MADE ELECTRICAL NEEDLE

H.M.A.S. SYDNEY ......

OFFICERS FROM THE EMDEN ON THE FLAGSHIP

THE DIRK OF PRINCE FRANCIS JOSEPH OF HOHENZOLLERN .

THE FIRST TENTS IN THE MENA CAMP

VIEW OF MENA CAMP ......

AUSTRALIANS COMING INTO CAIRO FROM THE CAMPS

GENERAL HAMILTON REVIEWING THE AUSTRALIANS AT ZEITOUN

AUSTRALIANS AT THE SUEZ CANAL

TURKISH PRISONERS IN CAIRO .

THE 29TH DIVISION ....

PRESENTATION OF COLOURS TO THE FRENCH COLONIAL TROOPS

AUSTRALIANS LEAVING FOR THE FRONT

BRIGADIER-GENERALS m'cAY AND MACLAGAN

FLEET IN MUDROS HARBOUR .

TRANSPORTS LYING OFF THE DARDANELLES .

GABA TEPE AND THE PLANNED LANDING BEACH

SHELLING ANZAC COVE

ANZAC COVE AS IT FINALLY BECAME .

EARLY VIEW OF ANZAC BEACH

HOSPITALS ON ANZAC BEACH .

" BEACHY bill's " SHRAPNEL OVER ANZAC COVE

BULLY BEEF GULLY ....

ARMY SERVICE WAGONS AT CAPE HELLES
THE RIVER CLYDE IN SEDDUL BAHR BAY
THE 29TH DIVISION DUGOUTS AT CAPE HELLES
THE GREAT DERE, CAPE HELLES

22
36
36

56
56
62
62

100

104

108

116

122

128

144

14 ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PACE

WATER CARRIERS FROM THE SPRINGS AT CAPE HELLES . I48

HEADQUARTERS 1ST AUSTRALIAN ARTILLERY BRIGADE . I48

THE ROAD INTO KRITHIA ..... 152

THE TURKISH EMISSARY LEAVING ANZAC BLINDFOLDED . 160

TROOPS GOING INTO THE FIRING-LINE ON THE FIRST DAYS

OF THE LANDING ...... 164

THE BEACH CLEARING STATION .... 164

BRIGADIER-GENERAL MONASH'S HEADQUARTERS, REST GULLY 172
SPHINX ROCK AND REST GULLY .... 172

SHRAPNEL AND MONASH GULLY . . . . 180

CHAPLAIN DEXTER AND A TRENCH MORTAR . . . 188

SHELL GREEN ....... 188

HEADQUARTERS OF 5TH INFANTRY BATTALION . . I98

THE GREAT SAP LEADING TO NO. 2 OUTPOST . . 2IO

TURKISH PRISONERS DIGGING DUGOUTS . . . 2IO

A GLIMPSE OF NO MAN's LAND .... 228

THE cooks' lines IN BROWN's DIP .... 232

DEAD ON THE PARAPETS OF LONE PINE TRENCHES . . 232

TURKISH MIA MIAS OCCUPIED BY THE AUSTRALIAN TROOPS . 250
WATER-TANKS IN THE GULLIES .... 250

THE OVERHEAD COVER AT LONE PINE . . . 260

A SAP LEADING UP AN EXPOSED HILL-SIDE . . . 260

A GERMAN OFFICER'S DUGOUT .... 278

MAPS AND PLANS

ANCHORAGE OF AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND TRANSPORTS

IN KING GEORGE SOUND, ALBANY, OCT. 3I, I914 face page 28
PLAN OF THE SYDNEY-EMDEN FIGHT . fagC 5I

PLAN OF THE ATTEMPTED CROSSING OF SUEZ CANAL ,, 87

ANZAC POSITION ON MAY I9, I915 . , face page 112

AN AERIAL RECONNAISSANCE MAP OF THE TURKISH TRENCHES

face page i8o

GALLIPOLI PENINSULA AND THE OUTSTANDING FEATURES OF

THE AUSTRALIAN AND BRITISH POSITIONS face page 2l6

AUSTRALIAN AND TURKISH TRENCHES AT LONE PINE „ 224

OPPOSING TRENCHES ON THE NEK . . . page 239

HILL 60, GALLIPOLI . . . . • v 273

AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

PART I

AUSTRALIA ANSWERS THE CALL

CHAPTER I

THE TOCSIN IN AUSTRALIA

It is impossible to look back and recall without a glow
of intense pride the instantaneous response made by
the young manhood of Australia to the first signal of
danger which fluttered at the central masthead of the
Empire. As time goes on that pride has increased as
battalions and brigades have followed one another into
the firing-hne ; it has (become noy a pride steeped in
the knowledge that the baptism of fire has proven the
young nation, has given it an indelible stamp of Nation-
hood, has provoked from the lips of a great English
soldier the phrase, " These men from Australasia form'
the greatest army that an Empire has ever produced."
To-day that pride is the courage with which the people
face and mourn the loss of their thousands of braves.
Let me recall the first dark days of August 19 14,
when the minds of the people of the Australian Common-
wealth were grappling with and striving to focus the
position of the British Empire in the war into which
they had been so precipitately hurled. On Sunday,
2nd August, I well remember in Melbourne an army
friend of mine being hastily recalled from a tennis party ;
and when I went to see him at the Victoria Barracks
that same night, I found the whole place a glare of
lights from end to end of the grim, grey stone building.
It was the same the next and the next night, and for
weeks, and so into the months. But even when the
Governor -General, Sir R.onald Munro Ferguson, sent to

1 6 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

the Prime Minister (Mr. Joseph Cook), at noon on
3rd August the telegram bearing the announcement that
we aU knew could not long be withheld, the strain
seemed unlifted. " England has declared war on
Germany " was the brief but terrible message quickly
transferred to the broadsheets that the newspapers printed
at lighming speed and circulated, while the crowds in
the streets cheered and cheered again as the message
was posted on the display boards.

That night the streets were thronged (as they were
for weeks to follow), and there was a series of riots,
quickly subdued by the poUce, where raids had been
made on German premises. Feeling was extraordinarily
bitter, considering the remoteness of the Dominion. The
Navy Office was barred to the casual visitor. Military
motor-cars swept through the streets and whirled into
the barracks square. Army and Fleet, the new Australian
Naval unit, were ready. More than one person during
those grey days felt a thrill of satisfaction and comfort
in the knowledge that of that Fleet unit the battle-
cruiser Australia was greater and more powerful than
any enemy vessel in Pacific waters.

Now it is no secret that arrangements exist with the
British Admiralty under which the Commonwealth naval
authorities receive at the first sigtis of hostilities a tele-
gram in the nature of a warning. The second message
simply says " Strike." The fact that the Navy Office
in Melbourne received its warning cablegram not from
the Admiralty, but from a message sent from H;.M.S.
Minotaur, then flagship of the China Squadron, asking
particulars concerning the Australian unit, and " pre-
suming " that the naval authorities had received their
warning, was only subsequently whispered. Where, then,
was the Australian message ? The original cable
apparently was sent at the moment when Mr. Winston
Churchill and Prince Louis of Battenberg between them
took steps to keep mobilized the Grand Fleet in British
waters, subsequent to the review, and sent them forth-
with to their war stations. According to the pre-arranged
understanding, the Australian unit was to pass auto-
matically under the control of the Admiralty. Urgent
wires were sent to the then Minister of Defence, Senator
E. D. Millen, who was absent in Sydney, and the missing
cablegram was brought to light in his possession. As

THE TOCSIN IN AUSTRALIA 17

soon as that final message came, the Australian ships,
having coaled and prepared, moved to their war stations.
It is not within the scope of this brief review to go
further into this naval mobilization, though I shall make
reference later on to the Fleet unit and its war history.

On everybody's lips there now '(4th August) arose the
question of the young nation's part in the war. Would
there be need of contingents ? For the first period,
at least, the Australian military authorities were too keenly
occupied with home defence to vouchsafe much atten-
tion to this question, though high officers told me that
it was inevitable that Australia would play her part very
soon — to what extent and when, they could not judge.
The immediate need lay in the mobilization of part or
all of the available forces at hand for coastal defence.
The nervous tenseness of the situation was apparent on
all hands ; an underflow of intense uncertainty was plainly
traceable in all the military movements. At the barracks
day and night I found the military machine that Australia
had so recently set running, rapidly speeding up.

All leave had been stopped on ist August, and officers
were hurrying back to their posts from various States
of the Commonwealth. The defences of the ports along
the coast were manned, and on the day when war was
declared arrangements were completed for the extension
of these defences to a mobile army, certainly of no great
size as armies now are, to be used as shore patrols
round the entrances of the great harbours of the capital
cities. These men were the first draft of the Citizen
Army that the Australian nation was training, and the
rapidity with which they were 'mobilized, albeit it was
only a small group, gave off the first spark from the
machine, tested in a time 'of need. Yet the question
that was ever to the fore during the first forty -eight
hours after the declaration of war, and in fact until
the following Wednesday, loth August, was whether the
whole of the Citizen Army was not to be mobilized. In
other words, would there be a general mobilization, the
plans for which were lying ready waiting to be opened
all over the Commonwealth ? The higher commands
were told to hold themselves in readiness, and every
one, from the youngest cadet to the Chief of the Staff,
was expecting the word.

What would have been the need for such action ?

1 8 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

Remotely, of course, the position of the German High
Sea Fleet and the integrity of the British Grand Fleet,
but more closely the proximity of the German Pacific
Squadron, consisting of two powerful cruisers, the
Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, a number of smaller war-
ships, colliers, and perhaps transports. Fortunately, the
battle-cruiser Australia had been kept in Australian waters,
and while she remained afloat, the German ships would
not venture in her vicinity. But the possibility to which
the military authorities looked was that of the German
squadron eluding our patrols that stretched across the
north of Australia from Darwin to the Marshall Islands,
and convoying a landing party, arriving off our eastern
or southern coasts. They might or might not land ;
they might content themselves with shelling the towns.
At one time it was believed that secretly Germany had
been pouring troops into German New Guinea and collect-
ing stores there. That she had intended New Guinea
or Papua as a base in the Pacific was evident enough .i
However, the worst fears were far from being realized.
The British Fleet in the Pacific (now containing the
Australian warships), and soon the Japanese Fleet co-
operating, after an unsuccessful attempt to trap the enemy,
edged them from the Australian coasts across the Pacific
to South America, where they were eventually destroyed
in the Falkland Islands engagement.

By this time the need for a general mobilization in
Australia was daily becoming less, as the enemy's ships
were swept from the sea and the High Sea Fleet had
been reduced to the category of floating forts. Accord-
ingly the Government and military authorities turned
their attention to the sending! of an army to help the
Motherland. German hopes had led them to suspect
that the war would present for the people of the
Commonwealth an excellent opportunity for revolt. Never
did a young Dominion cling more closely or show its
deep-rooted sense of gratitude and affection and responsi-
bility to the parent nation. Having helped to secure
herself, Australia immediately offered troops for active
service overseas. A tremendous wave of enthusiasm
swept over the land, and the acceptance by the Home
Government of the offer was the occasion of great out-
bursts of cheering by the crowds that thronged the
streets of the chief cities and eagerly scanned the news

THE TOCSIN IN AUSTRALIA 19

sheets and official announcements posted outside the news-
paper offices. Recruiting began without delay. Already,
in anticipation of events, the Defence Department had
received names of officers and men from every State
offering their services and anxious to join the first force.
The composition of the force, after due consideration
and consultation with the War Office, was to be a com-
plete Division and a Brigade of Light Horse, 20,000
men in all. Depots were established at the barrackis,;
and soon in the suburban drill-halls — halls which were
already the centres of the Compulsory Service movement
in Home Defence — as well. The men poured into the
depots. There was the keenest competition for selection.

In making these drill-halls centres for recruiting the
authorities were anxious to link up the regiments of
the established Citizen Army with those that were going
forth to battle across the seas, giving them in this way
a tradition for all time. Young as the new army was,
some 10 per cent, enlisted, those whose age was just
twenty-one years. In this way, throughout the battalions
was a sprinkling of the young Citizen Army, while the rest
of the men were from the old militia regiments that had
existed in past years. There were, I suppose, 60 per
cent, of these men who flocked to the colours, and of
these a proportion had seen service abroad, mostly in
the South African War. Only a small number that
went sloped a rifle for the first time.

Who would lead the force— Australia's first complete
Division to take the field ? No doubt seemed to cloud
the minds of the General Staff, however much the mind
of the Minister of Defence, Senator Millen, was swayed
hither and thither. Brigadier-General Bridges was just
entering on the fourth year of his command of the
Duntroon Military College. The success of that college
was already an established fact ; the men who have left
it have since proved that beyond question. It was,
therefore, on Brigadier-General Bridges (raised to the
rank of Major-General) that the choice eventually
fell, and he at once handed over the control of the
college to Colonel Parnell, Commandant of Victoria, and
immediately commenced, on or about the 14th August,
the selection of his higher commands for the force
designated " The First Australian Imperial Expeditionary
Force."

■10 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

His task was no light one. Essentially a just
man, but a man who demanded the utmost capacity
from those beneath him in rank, he soon drew round
him a brilliant Staff. The college, indeed, he robbed
of most of its English leaders, and their places were
filled by Australian officers. The Brigadiers were left
the choice of their battalion commanders, and that choice
fell on the men actively engaged in leading the young
Citizen Army in the various centres, each State con-
tributing its quota. The battalion commanders at first
had free choice to select their officers, but subsequently a
Board was established. Thousands of names were avail-
able, and, with one or two exceptions, it is with satis-
faction I can write that every man chosen has proved
himself in that force again and again as being worthy
of the trust put in him, from high leaders to the most
junior subalterns.

While recruiting went on apace, the Barracks remained
illuminated day and night, and the tension remained for
many weeks at a high pitch. Though the matter had
been pondered over, the truth was, little or no provision
had been made to form the nucleus of an Expeditionary
Force. All Australia's energies had been devoted to pre-
paring her Home Defence Army. Yet the machinery that
had been created for that army now proved itself to be
capable of such expansion as to provide all the piass
of material necessary for the organization and equip-
ment of the Division under Major-General Bridges. The
rapidity, the completeness, and efficiency with which
that First Australian Contingent was equipped (referred
to now by the men with such pride in comparison with
other Empire troops) is eloquent enough praise in itself
for the several war departments that met the strain, always
remembering that in addition there was the partially
mobilized Citizen Army to equip and maintain, and the
growing army of 30,000 young soldiers each year, to
train. Much impatience was exhibited at the delay in
getting the Expedition away from Australia. That delay
was inevitable in the circumstances, though apparently
comparing so unfavourably with the Continental armies
that were in the field in a few days, and in three weeks
numbered millions of men. Australia in times of peace
had never contemplated raising an Expeditionary Force,
and what reserve supplies she had were not intended

THE TOCSIN IN AUSTRALIA 21

for such an emergency as this. Nevertheless, the General
Staff rose to the occasion in a manner which, as I have
said, reflects on them not only the greatest credit but
high praise. Too much cannot be said either of the
manner in which the general public co-operated in the
assembling of the army, and especially in regard to
the gifts of horses for all branches of the service.

I consider myself indeed fortunate in having had an
opportunity of witnessing the march through the streets
of Melbourne of 4,000 Victorians who were to form
the backbone of Victoria's contribution to the first
20,000 men. When I think of those lads on that
bright August morning, and the trained army which
General Sir Ian Hamilton reviewed in the desert in
Egypt, one can laugh at those croakers who predicted
the need for eighteen months' training to make these
men real soldiers. I remember them on this morning,
a band of cheerful youths (for the army is, and always
must be, thought of as a young army — a mingling of
freshness, vigour, eagerness, and panting zeal, the stuff
that veterans are made of), headed by a band of High-
land pipes and bugles that had volunteered to lead them,
swinging with irregular, broken step along the main
streets . Their pride swelled in their veins as they waved
brown felt hats, straw-deckers, bowlers to their mates
watching from office windows and roofs. It was
the first sight of the reality of war that had come to
really grip the hearts of the people, and they cheered
these pioneers and the recklessness of their spirits.
There were men in good boots and bad boots, in brown
and tan boots, in hardly any boots at all ; in sack suits
and old clothes, and smart -cut suits just from the well-
lined drawers of a fashionable home ; there were workers
and loafers, students and idlers, men of professions and
men just workers, who formed that force. But — they
were all fighters, stickers, men with some grit (they
got more as they went on), and men with a love of
adventure. So they marched out to their camp at
Broadmeadows — a good ten-mile tramp.

As they swimg round through the break in the
panelled fencing of Major Wilson's property (placed
generously at the disposal of the Government), there
was weariness in their feet and limbs, but not in their
spirits. Some shuffled now, and the dust rose from the

2 2 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

attenuated column right along the undulating dusty road,
stretching back almost to the city's smoke, just faintly
visible on the horizon, where the smoke-stacks and tall
buildings caught the last rays of the setting sun. And
they found their tents pitched, and they had but to
draw their blankets and break up into groups of eight
or ten or eleven for each tent. Then they strolled
round the green fields till the bugle called them to
their first mess, cooked in the dixies. And the rising
odour of well -boiled meat and onions whetted their
appetite.

Then on the morrow they rose before the sun. Every
morning they were thus early roused, were doing
exercises with rifle and bayonet, and the drab black of
their clothing changed to khaki uniforms ; and as rapidly
as this change came, so the earth was worn more brown
with the constant treading of thousands of feet, and the
grass disappeared altogether from the camp and the
roads became rutted. More men and still more men
crowded in and filled the vacant tents till other lines
had to be pitched. The horses began to arrive, and
motor-lorries with immense loads thundered across the
paddocks to the stores, where huge tarpaulins covered
masses of equipment and marquees tons of meat and
bread. From four thousand the army grew to ten ; for
fresh contingents were offered, accepted, and sent into
training. Tents peeped from between pine-trees that
enclosed a field, and guns began to rumble in and were
parked in neat rows pointing to the road. They waited
for the horses which the gunners were busily lashing
into control. It was rapid, effective horsebreaking that
I saw in this artillery school, where the animals were
left to kick logs till they tired, and then were compelled
to drag them, in place of the valuable artillery pieces.
The foam gathered on their haunches at such times and
they flung themselves to the earth — ^and then they threw
their riders for a change — until at length they grew
weary of the play and subsided as fine artillery horses
as ever dragged guns

Into the jaws of death,
Into the mouth of Hell.

All around the hills were green still. Each day they
were covered with lines of moving troops. Infantry

THE TOCSIN IN AUSTRALIA 23

passed the guns on the road, and Light Horse passed
the infantry and wheeled in through the same break in
the panelled fence. The Commandant, Colonel Wallace,
inspected the units in the making, so did the Brigadiers
and the General himself or his representative. Then
the State Governor, Sir Arthur Stanley, took a part, and
the Governor- General spent an afternoon at the camp
and reviewed the whole of the troops. The people
flocked in thousands on holidays and Sundays to see
their soldier sons. The camp each night was full of
visitors till dusk, for those few precious hours permitted
after the day's duties were done when family ties might
be drawn close just a little longer. Every train and tram
was filled with bands of soldiers ; the traffic on the roads
showed its quota of khaki. Bands turned the people's
thoughts to war with their martial music, as they woke
the troops with their persistent beating in the early
morning.

What it was in Melbourne, so in every State capital
of the Commonwealth, where the camps lay scattered
on the outskirts of the suburbs. Each State trained its
own men for a common interest for the First Division,
and in each State the method, like the routine, was
the same.

The time was approaching for departure. Camps
were closed to the public. All leave was stopped.
Nobody knew the date of going, and yet everybody
knew it and chafed under the wait. But before the
men went they showed "the metal of their pasture."
In one never-to-be-forgotten glistening line they swept
through the centres of the cities, marching from end to
end. What once had been a heavy day — the march out to
camp — they made light of now ; and while the Light
Horse headed the columns, the horses prancing and
dancing to the drums, the guns rumbled heavily with
much rattling after the even infantry lines. And still
it was not farewell. Those tender partings were said
in the quiet of the hearth. It could only be taken as
the cities' greetings and tributes to the pioneers — those
men of the ist Australian Division — who went quietly,
silently, without farewells to the waiting transports in the
bright mid-October sunlight — train after train load of
them — down to the wharves.

And the people who watched them go were a fe\y
hundreds.

CHAPTER II
THE ASSEMBLY

Bugle Call.

:?=

While it was general knowledge that the First Australian
Contingent was about to leave its native shores — 26th
September — no exact date was mentioned as the day
of departure. For one very sound reason. The German
cruisers had not been rounded up and some of them
were still known to be cruising in Australian waters.
They could be heard talking in the loud, high-pitched
Telefunken code, but the messages were not always read-
able, lucky as had been the capture early in the war
of a code-book from a German merchant ship in New
Guinea waters. The newspapers were prohibited by very
strict censorship from giving any hint of the embarka-
tion of troops, of striking camps, or of anything that
could be communicated to the enemy likely to give him
an idea of the position of the Convoy that was now
hurrying from the northern capitals — from, indeed, all
the capital cities — to the rendezvous. King George's
Sound, Albany. That rendezvous, for months kept an
absolute official secret, was, nevertheless, on the lips of
every second person, though never named publicly. It
was apparent that the military authorities had an un-
comfortable feeling that though they had blocked the
use of private wireless installations, messages were
leaving Australia. I will say nothing here of the various
scares and rumours and diligent searches made upon
perfectly harmless old professors and others engaged in

THE ASSEMBLY 25

peaceful fishing expeditions along the coastal towns ; that
lies without the sphere of this book. It seemed almost
callous that the troops going so far across two oceans,
the first great Australian army that had been sent to
fight for the Mother Country, should be allowed to slip
away un cheered, unspoken of. For even the final scenes
in Melbourne, where there were some four or five
thousand people to see the Orvieto^ the Flagship of the
Convoy, depart, formed an impromptu gathering, and
for days before great liners, with two thousand troops
aboard, had been slipping away from their moorings
with only a fluttering of a few handkerchiefs to send
them off. Still, the troops had crowded into the rigging
and sang while the bands played them off to " Tipperary."
In every port it was alike. How much more touching
was the leaving of the Flagship, when the crowd broke
the barriers and rushed the pier, overwhelming the scanty
military guards and forcing back Ministers of the Crown
and men of State who had gone aboard to wish Major-
General Bridges success with the Division. It was un-
military, but it was magnificent, this sudden welling up
of the spirit of the people and the burst of enthusiasm
that knew no barriers. Ribbons were cast aboard and
made the last links with the shore. Never shall I for
one (and there were hundreds on board in whose throat
a lump arose) forget the sudden quiet on ship and
shore as the band played the National Anthem when the
liner slowly moved from the pier out into the channel ;
and then the majestic notes of other anthems weaved
into one brave throbbing melody that sent the blood
pulsing through the brain.

Britons never, never will be slaves

blared the bugles, and the drums rattled and thumped
the bars with odd emphasis till the ribbons had snapped
and the watchers on the pier became a blurred impres-
sionist picture, and even the yachts and steamboats could
no longer keep pace with the steamer as she swung
her nose to the harbour heads.

All this was, let me repeat, in striking contrast to the
manner in which the ships in Sydney Harbour, in Hobart,
in Port Augusta, and from other capitals had pulled
out into the stream at dusk or in the early hours of the

26 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

cold September mornings and hastened away to the
rendezvous. Before the final departure I have just
described on the afternoon of 21st October there
had been a false alarm and interrupted start. The
reasons for this delay are certainly worth recording.
The Flagship was to have left Melbourne — the last of
the Convoy from Eastern waters — on 29th Sep-
tember. That is to say, by the end of the month all
the details of the Division had been completed, and were
embarked or ready for embarkation. Indeed, some had
actually started, and a number of transports left the
northern harbours and had to anchor in Port Phillip Bay,
where the troops were disembarked altogether or each
day for a fortnight or more. For the reasons of this
we have to extend our view to New Zealand. It was
not generally known at the time that a contingent of
10,000 men from the sister Dominion were to form
portion of the Convoy, and that two ships from New
Zealand had already left port, when a hasty message
from the Fleet drove them back. Now it became the
Navy's job, once the men were on the ships, to be
responsible for their safety — the safety of 30,000 lives.
It had been arranged that the New Zealand transports
should be escorted across the Southern Ocean to Bass
Straits by the little cruiser Pioneer — sister ship of the
Pegasus, later to come into prominence — ^and another
small cruiser, as being sufficient protection in view of
the line of warships and destroyers patrolling the strategic
line north of Australia, curving down to the New Zealand
coast. The German cruisers, admittedly frightened
of an encounter with the Australia, had been suc-
cessfully eluding that battle-cruiser for weeks, and were
skulking amongst the islands of the Pacific destroying
certain trading and wireless stations, and apparently wait-
ing for an opportunity to strike at the Convoy. One
scare was, therefore, sufficient. The Dominion Govern-
ment refused to dispatch the troops without adequate
escort, and in consequence all the programme was thrown
out of gear, and the Minotaur — flagship of the escort — went
herself with the Encounter and the two original cruisers
to New Zealand and brought across the whole Maoriland
Contingent. The alteration in the plans resulted in a
delay of three weeks, for the warships had to coal again
before proceeding across the Indian Ocean. However,
it was better to be safe than sorry, and the delayed

THE ASSEMBLY 27

Australian Convoy was released in the third week of
October and the ships commenced to gather at the
appointed rendezvous.

Yet I am loath to think that this alone was the reason
for the delay. One can read now into events happening
at the heart of Empire a very significant cause for
hesitancy to send this Australian Contingent to England
for service in France. For matters in Turkey were
already unsatisfactory. On 25th September messages
had reached London of the preparations of the
Turks on the Sinai Peninsula and the activity of the
Germans in the Ottoman Empire, led by that extra-
ordinary personality Enver Pasha. It was certain that
every effort was being made by Great Britain to pre-
serve peace with the Turks, but the Porte was taking a
high hand, and it appeared that war would become
inevitable. How far the Australian Government was taken
into the confidence of the Foreign Office one can only
guess. It must be supposed that Major-General Bridges,
the Prime Minister, and Minister of Defence, together
with the Governor-General of the Commonwealth, were
in possession of the main points of the diplomatic rela-
tions between Great Britain and Turkey. Matters, too,
in the Persian Gulf were very unsatisfactory in the
beginning of October, and by the time that the last ship
of the Convoy had left port it was certain from the
attitude of Turkey, as reflected in the reports of Sir
Louis Mallet, British Ambassador at Constantinople, that
war would be declared. Military preparations pointed
to an attack on the Suez Canal being pushed forward
with all speed, and it was therefore necessary to liave
a large defending force available to draw on.. So far
as it is possible to read the inner history of events, this
was the actual reason for the holding up (strange paradox
as it may sound) of the Convoy until the destination of
the 30,000 men should be determined. For it must be
conceded that, with the Cape route open, not very much
longer and far safer, with the venomous Emden raid-
ing Indian waters and the German Pacific Fleet ready
to dart out from the Northern islands, it was more
feasible than using the Suez Canal with such a vast
convoy of ships . As a matter of fact, this was the route
chosen. True enough, when the time came, the landing
of this army in Egypt for training " and war purposes "
must have carried great significance to the Turks ; and

28 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

the plea of the badness of the English climate at the
time preventing training in England, served as good an
excuse as did the German cruiser menace in New Zealand
waters. For while there may have been a lingering
suspicion in Lord Kitchener's mind that perhaps the
camps at Salisbury might not be ready, it was a trump
card to have a body of 30,000 troops ready to divert
either at once or in the near future to a strategic point
against Turkey. Be all this as it may, the combined
Convoys did not leave Australian shores until ist Novem-
ber, and on the 30th October Sir L. Mallet had been
told to ask for his passports within twelve hours unless
the Turkish Government dismissed the German crews of
the Goeben and Breslau from Constantinople. So
actually when leaving the last port the Convoy were
directed against Turkey. Yet I suppose no one for a
moment read in all the portents of the future even a
remote possibility of the landing of the Australian troops
in Turkey. Later it was admitted that while training
they would simply defend Egypt — to German plotting the
one vital point to strike at the British Empire.

Let us return, however, with an apology for the digres-
sion, to the gathering up of the Convoy. iKing George's
Sound, the chosen rendezvous of the fleet, is a magnificent
harbour, steeped already in historical associations. It
offered as fine an anchorage as could be wished for the
forty transports and escorting warships . The harbour
might have easily held three or four times the number
of ships. Yet was this host of forty leviathians sufficient
to find no parallel in history ! True, the Athenians in
ancient times, and even the Turks in the sixteenth century,
had sent a fleet of greater size against the Order of St.
John at Malta, had entered on marauding expeditions,
but hardly so great an army had they embarked and
sent across the Mediterranean. Here was a fleet crossing
three seas, still disputed — though feebly enough, it is true .

Of many thrilling scenes it needs no great effort of
memory to recall that Albany Harbour as those on the
flagship saw it first through the thick grey mists of the
early morning of 26th October. Almost the last of
the Australian ships to enter port, the wind drove the
waves over her bows and cast the spray on the decks.
Most of the Divisional Staff, barely daylight as it was,
were on deck, peering through the mists to catch the
first glimpse of the host that they knew now lay at

SHIPS

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KIMG GEORSE SOUMO

THE ASSEMBLY 29

anchor in the harbour. First it was a visionary, fleeting]
glimpse of masts and funnels, and then, as the coast closed!
in darker on either bow and the beacons from the light-
houses at the entrance flashed', I could see ships grad'u-
ally resolving themselves into definite shape, much in
the way a conjurer brings from the gloom of a darkened
chamber strange realities. The troops were astir and
crowded to the ships' sides. They stood to attention as
the liner glided down the lines of anchored transports,
for the mass of shipping was ■ anchored in ordered
lines. The bugles rang out sharp and clear the
assembly notes, flags dipped in salute to the General's
flag at the mast-head. It was calm now inside this
refuge. A large warship was creeping under the dark
protection of a cliff like a lobster seeking to hide itself
in the background of rocks, and the men learned with
some surprise it was a Japanese cruiser, the Abuki. She
remained there a few days and then steamed out, lost in
a cloud of dense black smoke, while in her place came
the two Australian cruisers, the Mielhourne and Sydney.
Each night the troops watched one or others of these
scouts put to sea, stealing at dusk to patrol, and not
alone, the entrance to the harbour wherein lay the
precious Convoy.

On the morning of the 28th the New Zealand Convoy,
consisting of ten ships, arrived, and anchored just inside
the entrance of the harbour. From shore the sight was
truly wonderful. Three regular lines of steamers, each
crammed with troops and horses, were lying in an almost
forgotten and certainly neglected harbour. What signs
of habitation there were on shore were limited to a
whaling station on the west and a few pretty red-roofed
bungalows on the east; while the entrance to an inner
harbour, the selected spot for a destroyer base of the
Australian Navy, suggested as snug a little cove as one
might wish. Opposite the main entrance behind the
anchored Convoy was the narrow channel leading to
the port where the warships anchored, protected from
outer view behind high cliffs from which frowned the
guns of the forts. It was from these forts, commanded
then by IVIajor Meekes, that I looked down on to the
ships — that was after nearly being* arrested as a spy
by a suspicious vigilant guard. Each day three ships
entered the port to coal, until the bunkers of the whole
fleet were filled to overflowing, to carry them across the

30 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

Indian Ocean. All was in readiness. It only needed
the signal from the Admiralty to the Convoy and its
escort and the army of 30,000 would move finally from
Australian shores. This was the mustering of a com-
plete Division for the first time in the history of the
young Dominion. It had not as yet even been operating
as an army in the field, but here it lay, taking thirty
ships to transport (with ten more ships for the Maori-
landers), in the same historical harbour where as early
as 1780 a British frigate had put in for refuge from a
storm and for water. It was this port, too, that two
Princes of royal blood had visited ; while later, at the
beginning of the present century and a new era for
Australia — the Commonwealth era — the King of England,
then the Duke of York, had come. His visit was as
unavoidable as certainly it was unexpected, for he had
sought refuge, like the ancient British frigate from a
violent storm ; but, liking the spot, the King decided
to stay, and festivities were transferred to Albany in
haste. In 1907 the American Atlantic Squadron, under
Rear-Admiral Speary, during its visit to Austral shores,
had anchored in the broad bay. Thus had tradition, in
which this assembly of the First Australian Expeditionary
Force marked so deep a score, already begun to be
formed round the beautiful harbour.

It wiU not be out of place to quote here the disposi-
tion of the troops and the ships bearing the men of the
Contingent. It was the largest of any convoy during
the war, steaming over 6,000 leagues. The records
need no comment beyond pointing out that the indicated
speeds of the ships show how the speed of the Convoy
had to be regulated by the speed of the slowest ship —
the Southern — and that the arrangement of the three
divisions of transports was based on the pace of each, the
object of which is apparent when viewed in the light
of the necessity of the Convoy scattering on the approach
of enemy ships, and avoidance of slow ships hindering;
those of greater speed.

In the closing days of October the message was
flashed through the fleet that the Convoy should get
imder way on ist ^November^ and that right early in
the morning, for Major-General Bridges, no less than
Captain Gordon Smith, who had command of the Convoy
(he was Second Naval Member on the Australian Naval
Board), was anxious to be off to his destination. That

THE ASSEMBLY 3 1

that point was to some degree fixed when the ships left
port I have no doubt, though the masters of the trans-
ports actually did not know the route until they werq
some hundred miles clear of the coast and the Minotaur
set the course to the Equator. Incessantly all through
the night previous the tug-boats had churned the waters
round our vessel's sides, darting off now to the uttermost
ship of the Une — the Miltiades (she had English reservists
on board), now to return from the lighted town which
lay behind the Flagship with rebellious spirits, who had
come near to being left behind, to explain away their
return now as best they might. To and fro panted the
motor-boats, with their eyes of red as if sleepy from
overwork. The General of the Division, in fact all his
Staff, were up late settling these cases. I wondered at
the matters that needed his personal attention; even
though the ships were to be together for weeks, still they
were in a sense isolated. When the last tug had departed
and the last lingering soldier been brougTit from the shore
and sent off to his own ship, there stole over the whole
sleeping fleet a great peace. It was Sunday morning.
' Heaving up her anchor at six o'clock by the chimes
of the distant clocks on shore, the Flagship led the way
from port. The waters were calm. No white- winged
yachts came to circle round the fleet, only a tug with a
cinematographer on board waited for the ships as they
slowly went forth on to the perilous deep, each ship
dipping its flag, paying tribute to the General on the
Flagship, even down to the New Zealand transports,
painted all a dull warship grey. The cruiser Melbourne
lay in harbour still, while the other warships had gone
ahead to the open sea, the Minotaur and Sydney gliding
gracefully through the dull waters, leaving in their wake
a terrible wash of foam, as warships will. The bugles
still rang in our ears, though the wind from the south
blew the notes astern. Amongst a group of officers I
was standing on a skylight of the dining saloon watching
the moving panorama behind. To bring the fleet,
anchored facing th,e head of the Sound, into motion,
meant the gradual turning of each ship so that they
passed one another, and because the entrance to the
harbour was not quite wide enough, the Flagship went
out first, barely making lo knots, followed by the
Southern, and the others in their line behind. Wq
watched her bows buried in the sea one minute and then

AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

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THE ASSEMBLY

ORGANIZATION OF CONVOY.

■33

Name.

A3
A27

A4
A26
A12
A13

Ai
A23
A25

A18

A7
An

A15

A17

Aio

A21

A14

A8
A9
A19
A24
A22
A16
A20

A5
A28

1st Division.

Orvieto

Southern ...

Pera

Armadale

Saldanha ...

Katuna

Hymettus

Suffolk

A nglo-Egyptian . . .

2ud Division.

Wiltshire

Medic

A scant us

Star of England ...

Geelong

Port Lincoln

Karoo

Marerc

Clan MacCorquodale

3rd Division.

Euripides

Argyllshire

Shropshire

Afric

Benalla

Rangatira ...

Star of Victoria ...

Hororata ...

Omrah

Miltiades ...

Tonnage.

12,130

4,769
7,635
6,153
4,594
4,641
4,606
7,573
7,379

10,390

12,032
10,048
9,150
7,951
7,243
6,127

6,443
5,058

14,947
10,392

11,911
11,999
11,118
10,118
9,152
9,491
8,130
7,814

Speed

lOj

12
12

13
13

I3i

12^

13J

Officer Commanding Troops.

\ Lieut. -Colonel D. S. Wanliss

I (Flagship of G.O.C.)

Lieut.-Colonel R. T. Sutherland

Lieutenant E. W. Richards

Major P. W. Smith

Lieutenant P. A. McE. Laurie

Major S. Hawley

Major A. A. Holdsworth

Lieut.-Colonel C. F. Braund

Lieutenant W. Standfield

Lieut.-Colonel L. Long

(Divisional leader)

Major A. J. Bessell-Browne

Lieut.-Colonel S. P. Weir

Lieut.-Colonel R. M. Stoddart

Lieut.-Colonel L. F. Clarke

Lieut.-Colonel F. N. Rowell

Captain H. L. Mackworth

Captain C. H. Spurge

Major A. J. Bennett

Colonel H. N. McLaurin

(Divisional leader)

Major S. E. Christian

Colonel J. J. T. Hobbs

Lieut.-Colonel L. Dobbin

Lieut.-Colonel W. K. Bolton

Lieut.-Colonel C. Rosenthal

Lieut.-Colonel J. B. Meredith

Lieut.-Colonel J. M. Semmens

Lieut.-Colonel H. W. Lee

Major C. T. Griffiths

NEW ZEALAND TRANSPORTS,

No.

Name.

Tonnage.

Speed.

No.

Name.

Tonnage.

Speed.

1st Division.

2nd Division.

Maunganui

7,527

Arawa

9,372

Hawkes Bay ...

7,207

Athcnic

12,234

Star of India ...

6,800

Orari

6,800

Limerick

6,827

Ruapehu

7,885

Tahiti

7,58s

Waimana

10,389

34 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

the red of her keel, and saw her sp;eed cone at thei
mast-head. We smiled at the efforts of this craft to
keep pace, a smile which later in the voyage became
wry at the mention of the ill-speeded vessel's name.
Gradually on either quarter there crept towards us the
leaders of the other lines or divisions, the Euripides
and Wiltshire and their nine followers. Each ship was
coaling and threw her smoke in the air, and each ship that
left made a smoky trail, till the harbour became obscured
like in a fog. As the Orvieto, following the course of
the Minotaur half a mile ahead, now turned to the
westward, astern we saw nothing but a bank of dark
grey cloud, and from it masts and funnels and some-
times the bows of a ghip protruding. It was aU so
smoothly and finely planned that 'it seemed almost unreal,
as the ships took up their positions, our central line
slowing down to permit of the other ships making up
leeway. As I looked down the lines of ships each became
a little smaller and a little more indistinct, until the last
was scarcely more than " hull up " on the horizon. On
either hand a warship; ahead a warship. The coast
faded to a dim blue, more distinct once the sun rose
over the hills, but soon vanishing over the swelling
horizon. It was the last link with the Homeland, and
who knew how many would see those shores again — and
when ! It was at last the real start.

Two days out — on the 3rd November — during the
afternoon, the last two transports joined the fleet,
escorted to their places by the Japanese cruiser Ibuki
and the Pioneer. They came throug'h a storm, I
remember, and slipped into line without the least
fuss. The Minotaur had signalled across to the
Convoy, and soon we saw the warships that brought
our escort up to five. This is how they lay beside the
Convoy : the Minotaur a mile ahead marked the course
(at night we steered by a stern light) ; the Ibuki on
our right and starboard beam', a mile away ; the Sydney
on the left a similar distance. The M\elbourne was a
mile astern of the last New Zealand ship that followed
hard in the track of the Australian Convoy, their ten
ships ranged up on either side of the central division.
The Pioneer turned back. Each transport was two cables
length ahead of the one following ; each division (on
parallel courses) four cables from the other. So went
the fleet with its precious Convoy into the Indian Ocean.

CHAPTER III

ADVENTURES ON THE CONVOY

Now the course set by the Minotaur, once the Convoy
was well clear of the Western Australian coast, was
not the ordinary trade route to Colombo. In the first
place we steamed farther west, and then shaped a course
to pass some 60 or 70 miles to the east of Cocos Islands.
This was on the opposite side of that g'roup to the ordinary
track of the mail steamers. The reason for the change
of route was to ensure protection. Other courses were
open to us ; for instance, the one which would have
led us amongst the Deia Garcia Islands off the Mada-
gascar coast. However, our destinies were guided by
information received by wireless on the Flagship from
the Admiralty. The troops werei not aware of it, but
there was a Japanese squadron operating round the
coasts of Java and in this distant way protecting our
flank. The speed of the Convoy varied from 9^ to
1 1 knots an hour, though the usual run for a day was
about 244 knots.

The black sheep of the fleet — if one may call a vessel
such — ^was the Southern, the 4,000-ton vessel which
I have already referred to as following the Orvieto,
the Flagship of the central Hne. She became the
cynosure of every eye, regarded in turn with interest,
mirth, derision, and finally anger and compassion.
There was something in the attitude of the steamer
with her great heavy bows that suggested she was
always doing her best to keep up, and always she
seemed to be stoking. One pictures her ghost stalking
each night along her confined decks looking with alarm
at the terrific pace ! (10 knots) and wondering for how
long it would continue. Not the least amusing part was
that sometimes, gathering speed, she made spurts, and all
but " came aboard " the Orvieto, taking this opportunity
of hauling her speed cone part way down the mast,

36 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

with an arrogance that she hastily had to abandon some
ten minutes later. It was never quite understandable why
she was chosen as a transport, and I have heard since
that it was a hasty bargain of the Government when
an early departure of the force was contemplated. The
Medical Board had condemned certain ships as over-
crowded, and this ship was taken on as an extra vessel,
thereby reducing the speed of the Convoy by at least
a knot an hour. The shortsightedness of this policy
will be apparent when one calculates that the ships were
hired by the day. With the Southern absent, one and
a half knots an hour would have been added to the
speed of the Convoy. This meant the dropping of 36
knots in a day, which in a voyage of thirty-five days
was the same as two days wasted. Now, reckoning
coal at 15s. a ton, as a Government price, the cost of
that first Convoy a day was at least £6,000. That is to
say, probably a great deal more than £12,000 was flung
away by keeping the Southern. I cannot help including
this incident. Captain Kiddle, of the Minotaur, had
been given power by the Navy Office to discard the
vessel if she was a nuisance, and it was thought at one
time of turning her into a hospital ship at Colombo ;
in fact, that zealous officer signalled to Captain Gordon
Smith, commanding the Convoy, telling him " to distribute
the horses and men when you get to Colombo, and then
allow her [the Southern ] to return to the obscurity
from which she should never have emerged." Un-
fortunately, for some reason this was not done, and
she remained there faithfully with us till the end of the
voyage — the constant source of our gibes.

Routine on the transports was not a very strenuous
affair after the hard days of drill in the training camps
and the long marches. To begin with, there was very
little marching ; only on the Orvieto and ships like
the 'Euripides, where there was a certain length of deck
available, did it permit of companies of men being
marched round the ship. Many is the time I "have
sat writing in my cabin listening to the steady tramp
of unbooted feet along the decks above, and the bands,
stationed amidships, thumping out march after march.
Never, however, could I grow accustomed to the distant
squeal of the bagpipes, a band of which we were un-
fortunate enough to have with us. One threw down

ADVENTURES ON THE CONVOY -i-j

one's pen and tried to piece together some melody in
the panting pipes.

Each day the men roused out at reveille, sounded at six
o'clock, and did physical jerks (exercises) before break-
fast. Then they cleaned ship and prepared for the
ten o'clock inspection by the officer in command of
the troops, who went round with the Medical Officers and
the Captain. The troops by this time would be mustered
on deck, gathered in groups, learning all about rifles,
machine guns_, signalling, listening to lectures by the
officers on trenches and the way to take cover, sniping',
observation, and even aiming at miniature targets
realistically made by enthusiastic leaders. At 1 1 .30
the main work was over for the day. For an hour or
two in the afternoon there were more exercises, but
as the ships steamed into the tropics this afternoon
drill was relaxed. The officers attended classes, and
regular schools were formed and an immense amount
was done to advance their technical knowledge. Besides
all this, there were boat and life -belt drills and
occasional night alarms to vary the monotony — but
a precaution very necessary indeed. As the Convoy
for the greater part of the six weeks' voyage steamed
without lights, or only lights very much dimmed, work
for the day ceased at dusk. Always there were guards
and orderly duties, for the correct running of the ship,
which occupied about a hundred men on the largest
transport with a definite duty each day.

It was on the voyage that the skin sun -tanning
proces's began, to be carried to perfection in Egypt,
and later on the GaUipoU Peninsula. A pair of " slacks "
(short pants) and a shirt and white hat was enou^g'h
for the men to wear on deck. They did not put on boots
for three weeks, and their feet became as hard as those
of the mariners. One heard them stumping round the
deck with muffled tramp. But the physical exercises
regularly given, the rifle exercises and the earlier training,
and high standard demanded on enlistment, made this
first contingent into a force of young athletes.

It was the raiding Emdeti that rendered the pre-
cautions taken on the first Convoy that left Austraha
so very essential — a matter which subsequent contingents
knew nothing of, with the German commerce and war-
ships swept from the seas. The anxiety of Captain

38 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

Gordon Smith — the naval officer on the Flagship of the
Convoy responsible for the safe conduct of each trans-
port,^ as tlie Minofaur's captain, and subsequently Captain
Silver of the Melbourne, was responsible for the whole
fleet — at times turned to exasperation as he watched
the lines of transports through his telescope. The
dropping out of a ship from the long column through
a temporary engine defect, the) losing of position, the
constant disregard by the New Zealand transport of in-
structions (they pulled out of the line deliberately to
engage in target practice), and other matters, caused
caustic, and characteristically naval, signals to go
flying up and down the divisions. Once, when boxes
and the like were being thrown overboard, pro-
viding ample evidence to the enemy, if found, of the
track of the Convoy, the signal was made : " This is
not a paperchase." At night too, when some ship in-
cautiously showed lights through an open porthole, or
a saloon door was left open on deck, after certain
warnings, would buzz the message : " You are showing
too much light ; turn off your dynamos." When it
came to the merchant skippers steering by stern lights
hung over each vessel just above the propeller, throwing
a phosphorescent light on the whitened waters, it was
a task at the same time their terror and their despair",
especially when orders came to draw closer together,
during the nights' steaming in the vicinity of Cocos
Islands. The transports were forbidden to use their
wireless, and a buzzer was provided, with a " speaking '"
radius of about i 5 miles, for intercommunication through-
out the fleet. Relative to the tension at tliis period, I will
make an extract froin my notes written on the Orvieto : —
" So we sailed on, drawing nearer and nearer into
the middle of the Indian Ocean. Looking at the chart
each day, I feel that while we are a large fleet, the
largest that has ever crossed this ocean, after all the
seas are very broad. There is comfort as well as un-
easiness in the thought. It will be as difficult for a
foreign ship to find us as for us to run into a foreign
ship by some chance. However, the lads are taught to
grow accustomed to meet any emergency and to muster
on deck with lights out. ... It was on the night before
we reached Cocos Islands — to be exact, 7th November —
shortly after our evening meal, while the troops were

ADVENTURES ON THE CONVOY. 39

lying about the decks loath to turn in on such a
hot night, that the lights suddenly went out altogether.
I remember wandering out of the saloon, having last
seen the glowing end of General Bridges' cigar, and
stumbled on companies of troops falling into their lines.
I got to my station amidships, and remained there for
what seemed hours, but which in reality was fifteen
minutes, while I could only hear whispering voices round
me, and just make out dim, silhouetted figures and forms.
There were muffied commands. It was eerie, this
mustering in the dark. I had been in alarms at night
in a darkened camp, when I had risen from' warm
blankets and the hard ground and stumbled over guide-
ropes to one's company down the lines, but to feel one's
way round a crowded deck was a very different proposi-
tion. Over the whole fleet had been cast this shadow,
for, in turn, each of the ships disappeared from sight.
I hardly like to contemplate what would have happened
to the soldier who ventured, thoughtlessly, to light a
cigarette at this moment. The Australian is a good
talker, and it seems impossible to absolutely stifle con-
versation. The ship was strangely quiet. However, the
alarm was exceedingly well carried out. . . . Yet little
did we dream that this testing was shortly to be put
into stem actuality. On the following* Saturday night,
while we were steaming with very dimmed lights, cabin
shutters closed, making the interior of the ship intensely
stuffy, all lights went out. 'Yet that night, with a single
light thrown on the piano, we held a concert. "But
the very next night the evening meal was taken before
dusk, and at 7.30 all lights were again extinguished.
In not one of the ships was a dynamo generating. The
fleet had become almost invisible, like phantom ships
on a still sea. One undressed in the dark, and felt
one^s way from point to point, bumping' into people as
one went. A few candles stuck in heaps of sand flickered
in the smoke-room. It did not take long* to get round
that the reason for this drastic step was because it
was thought that, if any danger threatened — which none
of us thought it did, with the escort of warships around
us — then to-night was the night. ..."

How we passed the Emden on this very evening,
quite ignorant of our danger and of that daring cruiser's
destruction, needs to be related in a separate chapter.

CHAPTER IV
THE FIRST PAGE OF AUSTRALIAN NAVAL HISTORY

I. From the Decks of the Convoy

Taking events in their chronological order, I halt
here in the narrative of the advance of the Australian
Contingent into Egypt to deal with the incidents relating
to the chase and destruction of the notorious raiding
cruiser Emden by the Australian cruiser Sydney, which,
together with her sister ship, the Melbourne, at the time
of the action was part of the Convoy. It was singu-
larly significant that this first page of Australia's naval
history — a glorious, magnificently written page — should
have occurred in the very presence, as it were, of an
Australian army. Well did it merit the enthusiasm and
relief that followed the exploit not only throughout India,
but through the Straits Settlements and amongst all the
Allied merchant service that sailed the seas. About this
time the Minotaur, till then the Flagship of the escort,
had departed and was over 300 miles away on the
route, I believe, to the Cape of Good Hope to replace
the Good Hope, sunk by the German Pacific Squadron
off Valparaiso a few days before. She left at 5.30 on
the evening of the 8th November with the parting
message : " Off on another service. Hope Australians
and New Zealanders have good luck in Germany and
give the Germans a good shaking." This had reduced
our escort to the two Australian cruisers and the Ibuki.
It was, however, very evident that there was nothing now
to fear from the German ships after their short-lived
victory off the South American coast, so only the Emden
remained at large (the Konigsberg meanwhile having
been successfully bottled up on the South African
coast). At the risk of tiring the reader's patience I
will tell first of the relative position of the Convoy,
believing that the knowledge that this great fleet, carry-

THE FIRST PAGE OF NAVAL HISTORY 41

ing 30,000 Australasians, had so narrow an escape will
strengthen the dramatic interest of the naval battle when
it shall be told. I intend to quote from a letter written
at this time, but which the Censor in Australia, for
some reason I have been unable to discover, refused
to allow to be published, although approved by the
naval officers directly connected with the fight and the
escort. In consequence of which action, I may mention,
much nonsense appeared in the Press from time to time
relating to the closeness of the Emden to the fleet.

Little did the people in Australia, when the news of
the victory was announced, know of the danger which
their transports had run. The bald announcement made
some days later by the Minister of Defence (when the
news leaked out) that the Convoy had been within 100
miles of the sea fight, was the only information
vouchsafed. Sea romances have been written by the
score, but I doubt if there is any more thrilling than
the tale from mid- Indian Ocean of a fight to the finish
which took place quite unexpectedly in a calm tropical
sea on a bright morning in November. It seemed,
indeed, nothing short of a fairy-tale (Captain Silver's
own words were : " It seems like a fairy-tale just to
think that when we are trying our utmost to avoid the
Emden we should run across her tracks ") that the ship
for which the fleet — and no mean fleet — was seeking high
and low, which had eluded capture so long, should be
caught red-handed in the very presence of a Convoy of
forty ships that were creeping across the ocean, anxious
above all else to avoid such an awkward meeting.

In the light of what actually occurred, events previous
to the fight (which I described in the last chapter) had
a curious significance. I suppose that none of us at the
time fully appreciated the reasons which actuated the very
drastic precautions against detection which were taken
three days before we reached Cocos Islands. We had boat
drills and day and night alarms. " On the evening of
the 8th," I find I wrote, " we were called to our evening
meal earlier than usual, and by dusk the fleet was plunged
in darkness for the whole night. Of all conjectures
for this action, the one which gained most support was
that before dawn we would reach the danger-point of
our voyage — the Cocos Islands — the only possible rendez-
vous for a hostile ship in mid-Indian Ocean. We knew

42 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

that our course would carry us 50 miles to the eastward
of the islands and was far away from the ordinary trade
route, but still danger might lurk at this spot. Even
mast-head lights were extinguished, and not a gleam
could be seen from any ship. So they travelled
through the night, while barely three hours ahead
of them the Emden was crossing their path, silently,
very secretly, bent on a very different mission from
what she might have undertaken had she known of the
proximity of the fleet. One, however, can only con-
jecture what might have happened had the lights not
been doused."

On Monday morning, 9th November, the troops were
already astir when they saw, at seven o'clock, the Sydney
preparing for action. Half an hour previously they had
watched the Melbourne, then in charge of the Convoy
and at the head of the line, dart away towards the
south-west. Captain Silver had not gone far on this
course when he remembered he was in charge, and there
remained for him but to stay at his post and send
forward the sister ship, the Sydney, into action. It
was a sad blow for him and for the keen crew on
board, who saw thus the opportunity for which they
had been longing snatched from under their eyes . Never-
theless, he honourably stuck to his post, and I saw him
gradually edge his cruiser towards the Convoy until it
almost came alongside the Orvieto, the Flagship. Mean-
while the searchlight on her forward control was blink-
ing speedily, in the pale, chill morning air, messages in
code that sent the Sydney dashing away to the south
from the position she had held on the port beam of
the Convoy. In less than ten minutes she disappeared
behind a cloud of smoke. When the troops saw, as
I could with good glasses, a warship travelling at
26 knots an hour with a White Ensign run up to her
fore-peak, an Australian ensign at her truck, and the
Union Jack floating from her after-mast, with the decks
being cleared for action, they realized that some trouble
was brewing, though the Convoy as a whole knew nothing
very definitely for hours. On the Flagship we knew that
a strange warship had been seen at the entrance to the
harbour of Keeling Island, then 40 miles away. As
the officers came on deck at 7.30, the Melbourne was
still signalling and the Ibuki was preparing for action.

H.M.A.S. "SYDNEY" IX COLOMBO HARBOUR AFTER THE COCOS ISLAND
ENGAGEMENT.

To lace p. 42.

THE FIRST PAGE OF NAVAL HISTORY 43

The wireless calls for help had ceased abruptly, and
we could see nothing but the two threatening warships.
For all on board it was a period of supreme suspense
and suppressed excitement. Captain Gordon Smith, Mr.
Parker (Naval Secretary), and General Bridges were on
the bridge waiting for the messages coming through
from the Sydney as she raced south. Scraps of news
were reaching me as they were taken by the operators
in the Marconi-room amidships. " It was Cocos Island
that had called, about 50 miles away — it might not be
the Emden, but some other ship — probably there was
more than one, perhaps five I " Who was the enemy?
Would the Sydney reach her in time? Would the
other ships go ? Those were the thoughts drumming in
our ears. The Melbourne, quite near us again, was
semaphoring rapidly, and then she darted away between
the lines of ships to a position 10 miles on our port-
beam, lying almost at right angles to the course we
were taking. Obviously she was waiting to catch any
messages and act as a shield against the approaching
enemy should she escape the Sydney and try and push
in on the Convoy.

Meanwhile the Japanese cruiser Ibuki presented a
magnificent sight. Long shall I remember how her
fighting flags were run up to the mast-heads, as they
had been on the Sydney, where they hung limp until the
breeze sprung up and they floated out great patches of
colour. The danger was imminent enough for her to
move, slowly at first, and then rapidly gaining speed as
she swept across our bows towards the west. So close
did she pass that I could see plainly enough the white
figures swarming over her decks. They worked in squads
of twenty or thirty and very rapidly, standing on the
gun-turrets and on the fire-control stations fastening the
sandbags and hammocks round the vulnerable points to
stop the flying splinters of the shells. The sun caught
the dull colour of the guns and they shone. Masses of
thick smoke coiled from her funnels, growing denser
every minute. Each thrust of the propeller she was
gaining speed. As the cruiser passed, there flew to the
truck of her after-mast the national ensign, with another
at her peak, half-way down the mast. Lit by the sun's
rays, these flags looked blood-red streaks on a back-
ground of white. In battle array the cruiser won the

44 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

admiration of all. Barely ten minutes after being
signalled was she ready. The breeze was so light that
the smoke rose in a column 40, 60 feet in the air ; but
as she gathered way the wind caught it, and drew it back
behind, just as it caught and stretched the limp flags.
And all the while were the great 12-in. guns being
turned this way and that, as if anxious to nose out the
enemy. We watched them swing in their heavy turrets.
Both Melbourne and Ibuki during the hours of the
battle were constantly changing their course, the latter
turning and twisting, now presenting her broadside, now
her bows only, to the direction in which the Sydney had
disappeared. Both were edging farther away, but always
lay between the enemy and the Convoy. Warning had
come from the Sydney that the enemy was escaping
northward, and a thrill ran through the watchers on
board as it was spread around. It seemed as if any
moment the Japanese guns might boom with their long
range of fire. At five minutes to ten we heard from
the Australian cruiser, " I am engaging the enemy," and
again that " The enemy is escaping north." In suspense
for another hour we waited, until the message arrived
at 11.20, " Enemy ran ashore to save sinking." Though
sent to the Melbourne, these signals were received on
the OrvletOy being the Flagship of the Convoy, and know-
ing the code, as we had the chief naval transport officer
on board, they were quickly interpreted. At 11.28
we heard, " Enemy beached herself to save sinking ; am
pursuing merchant collier." Meanwhile the Minotaur
had been asking for information, and accordingly the
Sydney sent the message, " Emden beached and done
for "at II .44 to that cruiser, which, I believe, had
turned back ready to give assistance if needed. A cheer
rose from the troop decks and spread through the fleet
as the message, definitely stating it was the Emden that
was destroyed, was semaphored from ship to ship down
the lines. By noon flashed the message across the calm,
vivid blue waters that our casualties had only been two
(later three) killed and thirteen wounded. I well recall
what relief that news brought, no one daring to hint
how much the Sydney had suffered. I thought, as I
watched the troops talking excitedly on deck, of
Wordsworth's line : —

Smiles broke from us, and we had ease.

THE FIRST PAGE OF NAVAL HISTORY 45

That tense two hours had bathed us all in perspiration.
The troops had broken from their drill to look longingly
in the direction of the battle which was raging 50
miles away. Not even the distant rumble of a gun
reached us on the transports. A little calculation showed
that the Sydney must have steamed nearly 70 miles
in the three and a half hours before she dispatched her
quarry. The victory seemed to draw us all closer
together. A kind of general thaw set in. That night at
mess, besides the toast of " The King," General Bridges
proposed " The Navy, coupled with the name of the
Sydney.'' Need it be related how it was honoured by
soldiers ?

Now that it was known that the other enemy ship
was but a collier, there was no need for the other cruisers
to remain in fighting trim. But before I saw the fight-
ing flags stowed away on the Japanese cruiser there was
yet another instance of the fine spirit which animated
our Ally. From the captain of the Melbourne she sought
permission a second time to enter the fight and join the
Sydney, with the request, " I wish go." Indeed, at one
time she started like a bloodhound straining at the leash
towards the south, believing that her services were needed,
when Captain Silver reluctantly signalled, " Sorry, per-
mission cannot be given ; we have to rest content in
the knowledge that by remaining we are doing our duty."
So in accordance with that duty she doubled slowly,
and it seemed reluctantly, back, and went, unbinding her
hammocks and sandbags, to her former post. Now,
early in the morning there had come the same message
sent from Cocos Island from the Osaki, a sister ship of
the Ibuki, which ship, too, had picked up the call for
help. This led us to the knowledge that a Japanese
squadron was cruising off the coast of Java, a few
hundred miles on our right, as part of that net which
was gradually being drawn round the Emden.

It will be realized that amongst the crews of the
two warships excluded from a share in the fight there
should be a certain disappointment. Captain Silver's
action showed that high sense of, and devotion to, duty
of which the Navy is justly proud. And feeHng for
brother officers. Captain Gordon Smith, as officer in
charge of the Convoy, sent across to the two cruisers
the typically facetious naval message : —

" Sorry there was not enough meat to go round."

CHAPTER V

THE FIRST PAGE OF AUSTRALIAN NAVAL HISTORY

(confinucd)

II. The Destruction of the " Emden "

It may indeed be considered a happy omen that the
first chapter of Australia's naval history should be written
in such glowing colours as those that surrounded the de-
struction of the German raider Emden, for whose capture
no price was deemed too high to pay. Hearing the recital
of that chapter by Captain Glossop in the cabin of the
Sydney two days after the engagement, I consider myself
amongst the most fortunate. In the late afternoon I
had come on board the Sydney, then lying in the harbour
of Colombo cleaning up (having just twenty-four hours
before handed over the last of her prisoners), from one
of the native caiques, and except for the paint that had
peeled from her guns and the wrecked after fire-control,
I saw, at first glance, very little to suggest an action of
the terrific nature she had fought. But as I walked
round the lacerated decks I began to realize more and
more the game fight the Emden had put up and the
accuracy of her shooting (she is alleged to have been
the best gunnery ship in the German Fleet). On the
bow side amidships was the yellow stain caused by the
explosion of some lyddite, while just near it was a dent
in the armour-plated side where a shell had struck
[without bursting. The after control was a twisted wreck
of darkened iron and steel and burnt canvas. There
were holes in the funnels and the engine-room, and
a clean-cut hole in an officer's cabin where a shell
had passed through the legs of a desk and out the
cruiser's side without bursting. The hollows scooped
out of the decks were fiUed with cement as a rougli
makeshift, while the gun near by (a shell had burst on

it) was chipped and splattered with bullets and pieces

THE FIRST PAGE OF NAVAL HISTORY 47

of shell. Up in. the bow was a great cavern in the
deck, where a shell had struck the cruiser squarely,
and had ripped up the decks hke matchwood and dived
below, where it burst amidst the canvas hammocks and
mess tables, splintering the wood and riddling a notice
board with shot. A fire had been quickly extinguished.
Mounting then to the top of the forward fire-control,
I saw where the range-finder had stood (it had been
blown away), and where the petty officer had been sitting
when the shell carried him and the instrument away — a
shot, by the way, which nearly deprived the Sydney of
her captain, her range -finding officer, and three others.
Returning to the after deck we found Captain Glossop
himself. He was walking the decks enjoying the balmy
evening, and he went with Captain Bean, the Australian
Official War Correspondent, and myself below to his state-
room, where he told us in a beautifully clear and simple
manner the story of the action. I siaW, too, the chart of the
battle reproduced here. After what we then heard, what
we had already seen and learned from the officers at mess
later that evening (they sent us off to the Orvieto in the
picket boat), we hastened back to set down the story
of the fight. Perusal of reports, plans, and data obtained
from one source and another leads me now to alter very,
little the first impressions I recorded of that famous-
encounter, which, I may add, was taken in a spirit of
modesty mingled with a genuine and hearty appreciation
of the foe by all the officers and crew of the Sydney.

It is quite beyond the region of doubt to suppose
that the Emden knew anything of the approach of the
Convoy, or of the presence of Australian cruisers in
Indian waters. What she did believe was that the war-
ship she saw approaching her so rapidly was either the
Newcastle or Yarmouth, and right up to the concluding
phases of the action she beheved this. On the other
hand, the Emden herself had been mistaken for the
Newcastle by the operators at the wireless station on
Cocos Islands when she had put in an appearance on
the evening before the action, 8th November, just at
dusk. The coming of the cruiser to the island at sunset
had not excited the suspicions of the people on shore,
for her colour was not distinguishable, and she had
apparently four funnels similar to the Newcastle.
Having reconnoitred the harbour and seen all was safe,

48 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

the Emden had Iain off all night, and next morningi
before dawn had steamed into the harbour and dropped
anchor close inshore. Still the people at the station
were unsuspicious until by some mischance (I have heard
also, by orders) the astonished islanders saw one of the
funnels wobble and shake, and then fall to the deck in
a heap. It was the painted dummy canvas funnel.
Meanwhile the Emden had sent off a landing party, and
there was just time for the operators to rush to their posts
and send through the message by wireless which the
Convoy had received, and which the Melbourne and
Sydney had heard : " Strange cruiser at entrance to
harbour " and the S.O.S. caU. At the same time the
cable operator was busy sending over the cable message
after message, which was being registered in London,
of the approach of the landing party, ending with the
dramatic : '* They are entering the door " — and silence.
This revelation of the identity of the vessel at oncq
explained to the operators where the German wireless
signals, that had been choking the air overnight, had
been emanating from. The endeavour of the cruiser to
drown the calls for assistance by her high-pitched
Telefunken waves was frustrated, and, as I have said^ the
arrival of the landing party put a stop to further messages.
Still, the call had gone forth and was picked up at
6.30 a.m. by the Convoy, with the result that the Sydney
went into action steaming considerably over 20 knots
an hour, and at each revolution of the propeller gaining
speed imtil she was tearing through the water, cutting it
with her sharp prow Uke a knife. It was not long
before the lookout on the cruiser saw lights ahead from
the island and the tops of palm-trees, and almost at the
same moment the top of the masts of the " strange
warship." Quickly the funnels rose over the horizon,
and by the time the whole ship came into view there
was very little doubt that it was the Emden. Yet the
enemy showed no signs of attempting to escape and'
make a long chase of it (which she might have done,
being a ship with a speed of 25 knots) and a dash for
liberty, although the Sydney's smoke she must have
seen come up over the rim of the seas, probably long;
before she saw the ship itself. Even with the knowledge
that her guns were of smaller calibre than her antago-
nist, she dashed straight at the Sydney and tried to close.

THE FIRST PAGE OF NAVAL HISTORY 49

The Emden opened fire at 9.40 at the extreme range
of her guns, slightly under 10,000 yards. She let loose
a whole broadside, but while this was in the air our
gims had been trained on her and had fired too — the port-
side batteries coming into action. With a shriek the
German shells went over the heads of the men and the
masts of the Sydney, while it was seen that the Sydney's
shots had also carried over the chase by about 400
yards. The next broadsides from both ships fell short,
and the water was sent Into the air like columns of;
crystal before the eyes of the gunners. Within the next
few salvos both ships found the range, halving the first
ranges, and hit the target. The air was filled with the
sickening swish of the shells and the loud, dull explosions.
As the German opened fire an exclamation of surprise
broke from the lips of the officer in charge of the
Sydney's range-finder. That a cruiser with such light
guns was able to open and engage a cruiser carrying
6-in. guns at such extreme range was disquieting. With
the next shell his cap was almost raised from his head
as it whistled past between him and his assistant and
carried away the range-finder that was immediately behind
him in the centre of the control. The man seated there
was instantly killed, while the captain and another oflicer,
a few feet away, were flung back against the sides
of the control station. Lucky it was that this shell, the
blast of which had scorched the men, passed through
the starboard side of the lofty station and, without ex-
ploding, over the side of the ship. It was ohells from
this salvo, or ones following hard on it — for the Germans
were firing at a furious rate, and three of their shells
would be in the air at one time — that made the moist
telling hits on the Sydney. A shell had searched the
after control and gouged a cavity the size of a man's
body along the wall nearest the after funnel, and passed
on without exploding there, but it struck the deck, scoop-
ing out a huge mass of iron before it ricoghetted into
the water. The five men had been thrown to the floor
of the control, wounded in the legs, and while still
stunned by the impact another shell tore its way through,
completely wrecking the control and bursting inside as
it struck the opposite wall. As the enemy's guns were
firing at extreme range the angle of descent was steep,
and therefore the impact not so, great, fQr the Sy/iney,

50 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

with a superior range of fire, kept edging off from the
Emden, still trying to close. Again the enemy scored,
and the next minute a shell blew two holes in the steam-
pipe beside the funnel and exploded behind the second
starboard gun, killing two of the gun crew and wounding
others, while it ignited a quantity of guncotton and
cliarges lying on deck. That, due to the remarkable
coolness of a gunner, was at once thrown overboard
and the fire extinguished. Great gashes were made in
the deck where the bits of the shell (it was high
explosive) had struck, and the gear of the gun itself
was chipped all over, while one of the breech pins was
blown away. At the time the gun was not in action,
and when the Sydney doubled, as she soon did, con-
forming with the move by the Emden, the gun was ready
again for firing, worked by the port-side crew. Mean-
while shells had hulled the cruiser, and there had been
a shudder through the vessel as a shell burst through
the deck just below the forward control and wrecked
the mess deck. But so intent on the enemy were the
gunners that none I have talked to, seemed to have
noticed the shells very tnuch.

But what of the Emden ? The greater power of our
guns and the appaUing accuracy of our fire had, in that
first half-hour — when the air was thick with shot and
shell and the stench of lyddite fumes filled the nostrils,
when faces were blackened by the smoke from the gtins
and funnels — wroug'ht fearful havoc in the enemy's ship.
The Sydney was not firing so rapidly as her opponent,
but her fire was surer, and the shells went swifter, because
more directly, to their mark. It was, I believe, the
third or fourth salvo when the fore funnel of the Emden
went with a terrific crash over the side, dragging with
it stays and rigging. Each of our salvos meant five
guns aimed, and each of these appeared to be finding
the mark. The water round the cruiser was alive with
shell that sent the spray over her decks. In another
few minutes a whole broadside hit the stern by the after
port-holes. The shells — there must have been fully three
of them — exploded in the interior of the ship, blowing
and bulging up the deck, and twisting the iron plates
as if they had been so much cardboard instead of
toughened steel. Fires broke out from all points astern,
and it has been learned since that this salvo wrecked

THE FIRST PAGE OF. NAVAL HISTORY. 51,

the steering gear and communication system. After
this the Emderi's speed appreciably diminished and she
was compelled to steer by her propellers. In this manner
were the whole of the after guns put out of action, and,
indeed, one of the gun's crew was blown into the water
by the shock of the impact and the blast of the arriving
shells. The ship trembled in her course, and shuddered
over her whole length. In between decks the fires were
gaining, licking up the woodwork and the clothing of

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the crew. Smoke enveloped at this time the whole of
the stem. It gushed from the hatches and the rents
in the side, smothering the wounded that lay about the
decks. The iron plates became white hot, and the crew
were forced further and further forward as other fires
broke out. Then, too, the after funnel came crashing
down, cut off near the deck, and the inner funnel fell out
and dragged in the water. Already the after control had
gone by the board, and another salvo shot the foremast
completely away, wrecking the whole of the forward

52 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

control and bringing* the rigging, iron plates, sandbags,
and hammocks tumbling down to the decks on the crew
below, mangling them in an indistinguishable, horrible
heap.

By this time the Emden^s fire had slackened consider-
ably, as the guns were blown out of action. In the first
quarter of an hour the Germans had been firing broad-
side after broadside as rapidly as the shells could be
crammed into the breeches of the guns. The ship had
doubled like a hare, bringing alternate broadsides into
action, but the Sydney, unscathed as to her speed, and
her engines working magnificently (thanks to the work
of the chief engineer), at one time topped 27 knots,
and was easily able to keep off at over 6,000 yards
and, taking the greater or outside circle, steam round
her victim. On the second time of doubling, when
the fire from the Emden had died down to an intermittent
gun fire, the Sydney ran in to close range (4,000 yards)
and fired a torpedo. The direction was good, but it
never reached its mark. It was seen that the enemy was
beaten and must soon sink. A fresh burst of fire had
greeted the Australian cruiser, which continued to pour
salvo after salvo into her foe, sweeping the decks and
riddling her sides until she crawled with a list. Early
in the action a lucky shot had flooded the Emden's
torpedo chamber, and in this regard she was powerless.
Fires now burst from her decks at all points, and smoke
indeed covered her from stem to stern. For one period
she was obscured from view by a very light yellow
smoke that seemed to the Sydney^s gunners as if the ship
had disappeared, as she had stopped firing. The gunners
ceased fire.

" She's gone, sir — she's gone 1 " shouted the men,
their pent-up feelings for the first time bursting forth.
" Man the lifeboats I " Cheers filled the air, but the
next minute the Emden emerged from the cloud, fired,
and the men returned to serve their guns. It was then
that the third and last remaining funnel went by the
board. It was the centre one of the three, and it came
toppling down, and lay across the third and after funnel,
which had fallen over to port. The fires had driven
the crew into the bows, which 'were practically undamaged,
but the ship was in flames. The decks were unbearably
hot. The German shells were falling very, short, the

THE FIRST PAGE OF NAVAL HISTORY 53

guns no longer accurate. The Sydney had ceased to
fire salvos, and for the last half-hour individual gun
fire had been ordered. The end came when the EmdeUy
already headed for the shores of the north Keeling Island,
struck on the reef and remained with her bows firmly
embedded in the coral. It was just 11.20, and while the
Emden's flag was still flying Captain Glossop decided
to give the foe two more salvos, and these found a
target below the waterline. Still the German ensign
flew at the after mast-head.

In the meantime the enemy's collier, ignorant of the
fray, had come up (it was arranged that the Emden
should coal at Cocos at i o'clock), and soon showed
herself bent in some way or other on assisting the
cruiser. The Sydney kept guns trained on her, and
now, when there was breathing space after an action
lasting an hour and forty minutes, she gave chase, and
at ten minutes past twelve caught up with the collier and
fired a shell across her bows. At the mast-head was flown
the international code signal to stop. This the Germans
proceeded to do, first having taken measures to scuttle
the ship by removing the sea-cock, and to make doubly
sure they destroyed it. An armed crew put off from
the Sydney to the collier, which was now found to be
the captured British merchantman s.s. Buresk. They
finding it now impossible to save the ship, her crew
■were brought off, offering no resistance. There were
eighteen Chinamen aboard, an English steward, a Nor-
wegian cook, and a prize crew from the Emden consisting
of three officers, one warrant officer, and twelve men.
When these had been taken in tow by the Sydney's boats,
the cruiser fired four shells into the collier, and she
quickly subsided beneath the waves.

Turning south again, the Sydney proceeded back to
the Emden and picked up some survivors of the battle
who were struggling in the water. They were men
from the after guns who had been blown into the water
when the salvo had struck the Emden, doing such fearful
execution to her stern. These men had been in the
water from ten o'clock, and were almost exhausted. As
the waters hereabouts are shark infested, their rescue
seemed all the more remarkable. Arriving now back
before her quarry at 4.30, the Sydney found the Emden
had still her colours flying. For some time she steamed

54 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

back and forth, signalling in the international code for
surrender, but without obtaining any answer. As the
German flag still fluttered at the mast, there was nothing
to do but to fire further broadsides, and these, with deadly
accuracy, again found the target. It was only when the
German captain hauled down his ensign with the Iron
Cross in the middle and the German Jack in the corner
and hoisted a white flag that the firing ceased. As it
was after five o'clock, the Sydney immediately steamed
back to pick up the boats of the Buresk before it grew
dusk, and returning again, rescued two more German
sailors on the way. A boat was sent off, manned by
the German prize crew from the collier with an officer.
Captain Miiller was on board, and he was informed
that the Sydney would return next morning to render
what assistance was possible. To attempt rescue work
that night was impossible for one reason above all others
— that the Konigsberg might still have been at large and
coming to the scene. The German cruiser was an
alasolute wreck on the southern shores of the island, and
the surf beat so furiously that it would have been
dangerous for boats to have approached in the dusk.
The island itself was quite deserted.

Leaving these unfortunate men of war, let me turn to a
section of the chapter which is really a story within
a story. For, as the Sydney approached the cable station
on Direction Island, the largest of the Cocos Group, she
learned for the first time that much had been happening
on shore. The Germans had at daybreak that eventful
morning landed a crew, consisting of three officers
(Lieutenants Schmidt, Kieslinger, and Capt. -Lieutenant
Von Mocke) and fifty men, including ten stokers, with
four maxims, in charge of the first officer of the Emden^
for the purpose of taking possession of the cable station
and wireless plant. The majority of the men were the
best gunners from the cruiser. Not having met with
any resistance, as the population of the island is in all
not more than thirty -eight whites (it belongs to the
Marconi Company), the Germans proceeded leisurely with
their work until they found the Emden signalling
furiously to them. They had no time to get away to
their ship in the heavy boat before she up-anchored
and steamed out to meet the smoke that was soon to
resolve itself into the Sydney.

THE FIRST PAGE OF NAVAL HISTORY 55

With the other people on the station the Germans
then proceeded to the roof of the largest of the cable
buildings, where they watched the fight from beginning
to end. With absolute confidence they seemed to
have anticipated a victory for the Emden, and it
was not till the broadsides from the Sydney carried
away the funnel that the inhabitants were hurried
below and placed under a guard. With what feelings
the gunners must have seen their cruiser literally
blown to pieces under their eyes can but be imagined.
They hardly waited until the Sydney went o'ff after the
collier before they seized a schooner lying in the harbour.
She proved to be the Ayesia, of 70 tons burden only.
She had no auxiUary engine, so that if the raiders were
to escape, which they had now determined to attempt,
their time was very limited. The party, on landing,
at first had proceeded to put out of action the cable
and wireless instruments, which they smashed, while they
managed to cut one of the cables. Fortunately, a spare
set of instruments had been buried after the experience
of a station in the Pacific, raided some weeks before
by the German Pacific Squadron. Beds were next re-
quisitioned, and supplies taken for a three months' cruise.
Water was taken on board, and the schooner was loaded,
so that just before dusk she slipped out and round the
southern end of the island at what time the Sydney
was again approaching from the north after her last
shots at the Emden. In fact, had not the Sydney stopped
to pick up another German sailor strugghng in the water,
she in all probabihty would have sighted the escaping
schooner, which was later to land this party of Germans
on. the coast of Arabia. Having learned of the situation,
the Sydney was unable to land any men on the island,
as it was imperative that she should lie off and be
ready for any emergency, sucli as I have already hinted.
This prohibited her going to the aid of the Germans on
the vanquished Emden. All night she cruised slowly and
her crew cleared away the wreckage, while the doctor
tended to the wounded and made what arrangements were
possible for the reception of the prisoners and wounded
next day. The space on. a cruiser is always cut to a mini-
mum, so not much could be done. Fortunately, her own
casualties had been slight for such an action. There were
three killed, five seriously wounded (one of whom

56 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

subsequently died), four wounded, and four slightly
wounded.

Early next morning the Sydney once again steamed
back to the Emden. The task before her was as diffi-
cult as it was awful. The ship was a shambles and
the decks too appalling to bear description. The
Germans lent what assistance they could, but the whole
ship was in the most shocking condition. The men
who remained alive on board were either half-mad with
thirst or so stunned and stupefied with the detonation of
the guns that they did not comprehend anything at all,
or were unable to appreciate their position. They had
all been without water for almost two days, as the
Sydney^ s salvos had wrecked the water-tanks. The fires
had to burn themselves out, and though the decks were
now cooled, the charred bodies that lay around showed
only too plainly what an inferno the vessel must have
been when she ran ashore. "At ii.io a.m.," writes
an officer, " we arrived oflf the Emden again in one of
the cutters. Luckily, her stern was sticking out beyond
where the surf broke, so that with a rope from the stern
of the ship one could ride close under one quarter with
the boat's bow to seaward. The rollers were very big
and surging to and fro, and made getting aboard fairly
difficult. However; the Germans standing aft gave me
a hand up, and I was received by the captain of the
Emden.'' Nevertheless, it was a work of the utmost
difficulty getting the wounded (there were fifteen bad
cases), and even those who were only slightly injured,
into the boats. Water was what the men wanted most,
and a cask was hauled on board and eagerly drunk.
The boarding party found the stern of the cruiser a
twisted mass of steel, and her decks up to the bows were
rent and torn in all directions, while plates had buckled,
bolts had sprung, and the vessel was falling to pieces
in some parts. Nearly every gun had been put out of
action, and whole gun's crews had been incinerated inside
the armoured shield. Our lyddite had done appalling,
even revolting, execution. The aim of the gimners was
deadly in the extreme. As one prisoner quite frankly
admitted to an officer, " Your artillery was magnificent."

The last man was rescued from the ship at 5 p.m.
The captain and a nephew of the Kaiser, Prince Joseph
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THE FIRST PAGE OF NAVAL HISTORY 57

years of age, were amongst those who had not sustained
any injuries. During the absence of the Sydney a party
of twenty Germans had managed in some way to get
ashore to the island. Either they had scrambled from
the bows of the wrecked cruiser on to the reef and
taken their chance in the surf or they had been washed
ashore. It was, at any rate, too late that evening to
rescue these men, and it was not till the next morning
that a cutter and some stretchers were put off and ran
up on the westward side of the island on a sandy beach,
just at 5 a.m. The Germans on shore were in a terrible
state. They had been too dazed to attempt even to
get the coco-nuts for food and drink. The ship's doctor,
through the strain, had insisted on drinking sea-water,
and had gone mad and had died the previous night.
In the meantime the Sydney had returned overnight to
Direction Island and brought another doctor to tend the
wounded. She was back again off Keeling Island by
ten o'clock, and the remaining wounded and prisoners
embarked at 10.35 ^^^ the Sydney started to steam
for Colombo.

On the Sydney's decks the men were laid out side
by side and their wounds attended to as far as possible.
The worst cases were given accommodation below, the
doctor of the Sydney with the German surgeon working
day and night to relieve the men of their pain. The
heat from the ship and from the tropical sun made the
conditions dreadful. The prisoners had in most cases
nothing but the clothes they stood up in. One man,
who had received a gash in his chest, had tied a kimono
in a knot and plugged the wound with it by tying
round a piece of cord. Otherwise he was naked. The
death-roll on the cruiser had been appalling. There
were 12 officers killed and 119 men. The wounded
taken on board numbered 56, while there were 115
prisoners, including i i officers. Many of the wounded
subsequently died of their wounds. The prisoners were
placed in the bows, with a small guard over them. The
cruiser, at no time meant to carry extra men, was horribly
congested. The less seriously wounded were removed
to the Empress of Russia, which had passed the Convoy,
hastily summoned from Colomlbo, about 60 hours' steam
from that port, and this gave some relief.

It was only after close inspection that I realized the

58 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

full extent of the Sydney's scars, which her crew point
to now with such pride. A casual glance would hardly
have detected a hole, about as big as a saucer, on the
port side. This was the result of one of the high
trajectory shots that had made a curious passage for
itself, as I described earlier. This tracing of the course
of the shells was most interesting. I saw where the
paint had been scorched off the fire-control station, and
where the hammocks that were used to protect the men
from flying splinters had been burned brown, or black,
or dyed crimson with blood. I saw, too, the shape of
a man's leg on a canvas screen where it had fallen.
Looking in at the door of one of the petty officers' mess-
rooms below, I was told I was just in the same position
as one of the crew who had been standing there when
a shell struck the side of the ship opposite him and
tried to pierce the armoured plate, though he himself
had not waited long enough to see the great blister it
raised, almost as large as a football, before it fell back
spent into the sea. The men were below, writing home,
when I went through to the bows to see the damage
done by the shells that had torn up the decks . They
laughed as they pointed to places now filled up with
cement, and laughed at the notice board! and draught-
flue, riddled with holes. So far as the interior of the
ship was concerned, there was nothing else to suggest
the stress she had been through. The only knowledge
the engineers had of the action was a distant rumbling
of the guns and a small fragment of shell that tumbled
down a companion-way into the engine-room. And I
wonder if too great praise can be bestowed on the
engineers for their work in this crisis. From 9.20 a.m.,
which was when the cruiser sighted the Emden, until
noon, when she left the Emden a wreck, the Sydney
steamed 68 miles at speeds varying between 13 and
27 knots.

As I grew accustomed to look for the chips off the
portions of the ship, I marked places where shells must
have just grazed the decks and fittings. All the holes
had been 'filled with cement till the cruiser could get
to Malta to refit. Stays had been repaired and the
damaged steam-pipe was working again. The only break
had been a temporary stoppage of the refrigerating

THE FIRST PAGE OF NAVAL HISTORY 59

machinery, owing to a shell cutting the pipe. So I
went round while the officers accounted for fourteen
bad hits. I wondered how many times the Eniden had
been holed and belted. Our gunners had fired about
650 rounds of ordinary shell, the starboard guns firing
more than the port guns. The German cruiser had
expended 1,500 rounds, and had practically exhausted
all the ammunition she carried.

I am unwilling to leave the story of the battle without
reference to the action of a petty officer who was in
the after fire-control when it was wrecked, at the
beginning of the fight. It will be recalled that there
were two shells that got home on this control, and the
five men stationed there were injured, in some extra-
ordinary way, not seriously. The wounds were nearly
all about the legs, and the men were unable to walk.
Yet' they knew their only chance for their lives was to
leave this place as soon as possible. Shells were stream-
ing past, the ship was trembling under the discharge
of the guns. Less badly damaged than his mates, a
petty officer managed to stand, and though in intense
pain, half-fell, half-lowered himself from the control
station to the deck, about 5 feet below. The remainder
of the group had simply to throw themselves to the
deck, breaking their fall by clinging to the twisted stays
as best they might. All five of them pulled themselves
across the deck, wriggling on their stomachs imtil they
reached the companion-way. They were all making up
their minds to fall down this as well, as being the only
means of getting below, when the gallant petty officer
struggled to his feet and carried his mates down the
companion-way one by one. As a feat alone this was
no mean task, but executed under the conditions it was,
it became a magnificent action of devotion and sacrifice.

Before concluding this account, let me say that Major-
General Bridges was anxious that the Sydney should be
suitably welcomed as she steamed past the Convoy on
her way to Colombo, and sent a request to Captain
Glossop asking that she might steam near the fleet. The
answer was : " Thank you for your invitation. In view
of wounded would request no cheering. Will steam
between ist and 2nd Divisions." The same request to
have no cheering was signalled to Colombo, and it

6o AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

touched the captain of the Emden deeply, as he after-
wards told us. But the Convoy were denied the inspiring
sight, for it was just 4.30 in the morning and barely
dawn when the Sydney and the Empress of Russia, huge
and overpowering by comparison with the slim, dark-
lined warship, whose funnels looked like spars sticking
from the water, sped past in the distance. Once in port,
however, when any boats from the fleet approached the
Sydney, hearty, ringing cheers came unchecked to the
lips of all Australasians.

CHAPTER VI

UP THE RED SEA

At Colombo the Australian troops found the sight of
quaint junks, and mosquito craft, and naked natives,
ready to dive to the bottom for a sou, very fascinating
after coming from more prosaic Southern climes.
Colombo Harbour itself was choked with shipping and
warships of the Allied Powers. There was the cruiser
Sydney, little the worse for wear, and also several British
cruisers. There was the five-funnelled Askold, which
curiously enough turned up here just after the Emden
had gone — the two vessels, according to report, had
fought one another to the death at the very beginning
of the war in the China seas. There was a Chinese
gunboat lying not far from the immense Empress liners,
towering out of the water. The Japanese ensign fluttered
from the Ibukl (now having a washing day), her masts
hungi with fluttering white duck. There were transports
from Bombay and Calcutta and Singapore, with ships
bringing Territorials from England, to which now were
added the transports from Australasia. Most of these
latter were lying outside the breakwater and harbour,, which
could contain only a portion of that mass of shipping.

So after two days' delay the great Convoy, having
taken in coal and water, steamed on, and a section
waited by the scorched shores of Aden for a time before
linking up again with the whole.

On the evening of the 2 7- 2 8th November the destina-
tion of the Convoy, which was then in the Red Sea, was
changed. A marconigram arrived at midnight for Major-
General Bridges, and soon the whole of the Staff was
roused out and a conference held. It had been then
definitely announced from the War Office that the troops
were to disembark in Egypt, both the Australians and
New Zealanders, the purpose being, according to official

62 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

statements, " to complete their training and for war
purposes." The message said it was unforeseen circum-
stances, but at Aden I have no doubt a very good idea
was obtained that Egypt was to be our destination, owing
to the declaration of war on Turkey, while it seeims
quite probable that the G.O.C. knew at Albany tliat
this land of the Nile was most likely to be the training-
ground for the troops. The message further announced
that Lieut. -General Sir William Biirdwood would com-
mand. He was in India at the time.

That the voyage was going to end far sooner than had
been expected brought some excitement to the troops,
though most had been looking forward to visiting Eng-
land. None at this time believed that the stay in Egypt
would be long. It was recognized that the climatic
conditions would be enormously in the army's favour,
which afterwards was given out as one of the chief
reasons for the dropping dowm like a bolt from thq
blue of this army pf 30,000 men, near enough to the Canal
to be of service if required. There, too, they might
repel any invasion of Egypt, such as was now declared
by the Turks to be their main objective, and which
Germany, even as early as October, had decided to be
their means of striking a blow at England — her only
real vulnerable point.

But I hasten too fast and far. Arrangements, of
course, had at once to be made for the distribution
of the ships and the order of their procedure through
the Canal (Alexandria was to be the port of disembarka-
tion owing to lack of wharf accommodation at Suez).
At the last church parade on Sunday the troops began
to appear in boots and rather crumpled jackets that
had been stowed away in lockers, and the tramp of
booted feet on deck, with the bands playing, made a
huge din. But the troops were looking marvellously
fit — such magnificent types of men. The Flagship hurried
on, and wais at Suez a day before the remainder of
the Convoy, so as to disembark some of the Staff, who
were to go on to Cairo to make arrangements for the
detraining and the camp, which of course was already
set out by the G.O.C. in Egypt, General Sir John
Maxwell. On 30th November, in the early morning,
the Orvieto anchored at Suez, and during the afternoon
the rest of the ships began to com^ in, mostly New;

^jdr^y^^'

THE FIRST TENTS IX THE MEXA DESERT CAMP l)\ 4TH DECEMBER, I9I5.

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VIEW OF MENA CAMP (COMPLETED) LUUKING ACKuSS THE ENGIXEER TO
THE ARTILLERY LIXES.

To face p. 62.

UP THE RED SEA 63

Zealanders first, and by three o'clock our ship started
through the Canal. By reason of the nearness of the
enemy an armed party was posted on deck with forty
rounds each in their belts, for it was just possible that
there might be raiding parties approaching at some point
as we went slowly through, our great searchlight in the
bows lighting up the bank. Before it was dusk, how-
ever, we had a chance of seeing some of the preparations
for the protection of the Canal and Egypt, including the
fortified posts and trenches, which are best described
in detail when I come to deal with them separately
when discussing the Canal attack.

A general impression I shall give, though, indicative of
the feelings of many Australians travelling for the first,
time this great waterway. Not lialf a mile from the
entrance to the Canal, with the town of Suez lying squat
and white on the left, is the quarantine station of Shat.
It was surrounded by deep trenches, out of which now
rose up Indian troops, Sikhs and Gurkhas, and they
came rimning across the sand to the banks of the Canal,
where they greeted us with cheers and cries, answered
by the troops, who had crowded into the rigging and
were sitting on the ships' rails and deckhouses. Close
beside the station was a regular, strong redoubt, with
high parapets and loopholes and trenches running along
the banks of the Canal, connected up with outer posts.
About 20 miles farther on we came across a big*
redoubt, with some thousands of men camped on either
side of the Canal. They belonged to the 128th Regi-
ment, so an ofhcer told us, as he shouted from a punt
moored alongside the bank. It was just growing dusk
as the transport reached this spot. The Mils that formed
a barrier about 1 5 miles from the Canal were fading
into a deep vermilion in the rays of the departing sun
that sank down behind a purple ridge, clear cut, on
the southern side of the Canal outside of the town of Suez.
Between it and the Canal was a luxurious pasturage and
long lines of waving palm-trees. It was deathly still
and calm, and the voices broke sharply on the air.,
"Where are you bound for?" asked an officer, shout-
ing through his hands to our lads.

" We're Australians, going to Cairo," chorused the
men eagerly, proud of their nationality.

" Good God ! ■" commented the; piificer ; and he seemed

64 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

to be appalled or amazed, I could not tell which, at the
prospect.

Then there came riding along the banks a man
apparently from a Canal station. A dog followed his
ambling ass. "Get any rabbits?" shouted the
Australian bushmen, and the man with the gun laughed
and shouted " Good luck ! "

The desert sands were turning from gold into bronze,
and soon nothing but the fierce glare of the searchlights
lit up the banks. The bagpipes were playing, and this
seemed to rouse the instincts of some of the Indian
tribesmen, whom we saw dancing, capering, and shout-
ing on the parapet of trenches as we swept slowly and
majestically on. The troops on shore cheered, and our
troops cheered back, always telling they were Australians,
and, in particular, Victorians. We came across a sentinel
post manned by Yorkshiremen, who spoke with a very
broad accent. One such post,, I remember, had rigged up
a dummy sentry, and a very good imitation it was too.
Out in the desert were hummocks of sand which had
been set up as range marks for the warships and armed
cruisers which we began now to pass anchored in the
lakes. We asked one of the men on the Canal banks,
who came down to cheer us, were they expecting the
Turks soon to attack across the desert, and the answer
was in the affirmative, and that they had been waiting]
for them for nights now and they had never come.
Various passenger steamers we passed, and the Convoy,
which closely was following the Flagship (almost a con-
tinuous line it was, for the next twenty hours), and they
cheered us as we went on to Port Said, reached just
after dawn.

In those days Port Said was tremendously busy ; for
there were a number of warships there, including the French
ships the Montcalm, Desaix, and Duplex. The strip
of desert lying immediately to the north of the entrance
to the Canal, where there had been gtreat saltworks,
had been flooded to the extent of some loo squarei
miles as a safeguard from any enemy advancing from
the north by the shore caravan route. Beside which
protection there were patrol and picket boats, which
we now saw constantly going up and down the coast and
dashing in and out of the Canal entrance. On the ist
December I watched the transports as they tied up on

UP THE RED SEA 65

either side, leaving^ a clear passage-way for the late
arriving ships that anchored further down towards the
entrance to the Canal, near the g'reat statue of De
Lesseps that stands by the breakwater overlooking the
Mediterranean. Amongst the transports were the war-
ships, and a few ordinary passenger steamers outward
bound to India. I remember that they were landing
hydroplanes from a French " parent " ship, and we could
see three or four being lifted on to a lighter, while
others were tugged, resting on their floats, up to the
hangar established at the eastern end of the wharves.
Coaling was an operation that took a day, and gave the
troops plenty to occupy their time, watching the antics
of the Arabs and causing endless confusion by throwing
coins amongst them, much to the distress of the chief
gangers, who beat the unruly lumpers until they re-
linquished their searching^.

The Desaix and Requiem were lying' just opposite
to the Orvieto, and also an aeroplane ship, so M. Guillaux,
a famous French aviator, who was on board, told me.
It carried only lig'ht guns, but had stalls for camels on
the forward deck and a workshop amidships. It was
altogether a most curious-looking vessel. The Swiff sure
was a little further down, and one of the " P " class of
naval patrol boats, with Captain Hardy, of the Naval
Depot, Wilhamstown, curiously enough, in charge. As I
went on shore to post some letters, for the first
time I saw at the Indian Post Office written " The
Army of Occupation in Egypt," and proclamations about
martial law and other military orders, rather stern to men
coming from the outskirts of Empire, where such things
were unnecessary as part and parcel of dread war. I
heard here rumours of the approach of the Turkish
Army to the Canal, and it was in this spirit, and amidst
thoughts of a possible immediate fight, that the troops
looked forward to disembarking.

It is impossible, almost, to describe the excitement
amongst the troops on board (steadily growing and being
fomented during the 1st and 2nd December) as the
transports came past one another close enough for friends
to exchange greetings. Each ship saluted with a blare
of trumpets, and then the bands broke into a clatter.
Never shall I, for one, forget the departure for Alexandria,
twelve hours' steam away.

66 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

The men, to add to their spirits, had received a few
letters, one or two scattered throughout the platoons,
and, as soldiers will in barrack life in India, these
few were passed round and news read out for the general
company. On the afternoon of the 2nd December the
Flagship drew out and passed down between lines of
troopships. Bugles challenged bugles in " salutes " ; the
bands played " Rule Britannia," the National Anthem,
and the Russian Hymn, while the characteristic short,
sharp cheers came from the French and British tars on
the warships, in appreciation. We must have passed
eight or ten ships before the entrance was cleared. The
men, so soon as the salute had been duly given, rushed
cheering to the sides to greet their comrades and friends,
from whom now they had been separated some seven
weeks.

Early next morning the Flagship reached Alexandria
Harbour, and by the tortuous channel passed the shattered
forts (that British guns had smashed nearly forty years
before), and at length, at eight o'clock, the long voyage
came to an end. The men, their kitbags already packed
and their equipment on, rapidly began to entrain in
the waiting troop trains. It was the 5th — I call them'
the Pioneer 5th Battalion, under Lieut. -Colonel Wanliss,
who landed first, while at adjacent wharves the Euripides
disgorged New South Wales Battalions and the New
Zealand transports landed their regiments. Thus I saw
three troop trains away into the desert before, with the
officers of the 5tb, I boarded one for the camp at Cairo.

CHAPTER VII

THE CAMPS AROUND CAIRO

Mena Camp, when I saw it at daybreak on the morning
of 4th December, consisted of a score of tents scattered
about in a square mile of desert, and perhaps a thousand
men lying in their great -coats, asleep in the sand, their
heads resting on their packs. The men of the
5th Battalion — those that are left of them — are not likely
to forget that march out from Cairo on the night of
the 3rd -4th, and the subsequent days of settling down
to camp, and the greetings they gave to regiment after
regiment as they came crowding into the camp. On
the night the first troop trains came into Abbu Ella
station, near Cairo, which was the siding on the southern
side of the city, it was cold and sharp, but a bright
moon came up towards midnight. Outside the sprinkling
of Staff officers present to meet the train was a line of
dusky faces and a jabbering crowd of natives. Electric
trams buzzed along outside the station yard, and after
the men had been formed up and detrained, they had a
few minutes to get, from a temporary coffee -stall, some
hot coffee and a roll, which, after the journey, was
very much appreciated. It was nine o'clock. Guides
were ready waiting. Territorials they were, who had
been in Cairo for some time, and they led the men out
on a long lo-mile march to Mena Camp.^ Bagg^g^e
was to go by special tram, and it went out, under guard,
later.

Less a company of the 5th which had been sent
forward as an advance party from Port Said, the battalion
set out, pipes and bands playing, through the dimly
seen minaretted city. These Australians will remember
the long, hearty cheers they got as they tramped past
the Kasr El Nil Barracks, situated on the banks of the

Rivej Nile, where the Manchester Territorials turned out

68 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

to do honour to the new army in Egypt. Across the
lon^ Nile bridge and through Gezirah, down a long
avenue of lebbock -trees, out on the main road to
the Pyramids, the troops marched, singing, chipping,
smoking, their packs getting a wee bit heavier at each
step. Life on board ship had not made them as hard
as they believed, and by the time they left the gem-
studded city behind and turned on to the road that ran
between irrigated fields they began to grow mbre silent.
Overhead, the trees met in a vast arabesque design,
showing only now and then the stars and the moon.
The shadows on the path were deep, dispersed for a
few seconds only by the passing electric trams, which
the men cheered. Then they began, as the early hours
of the morning drew on, to see something of the desert
in front of them and the blurred outline of the Pyramids
standing there, solemn sentinels, exactly as they had
stood for over six thousand years. They grew in huge-
ness until the troops came right to the foot of the
slope which led up to their base. Their thoughts were
distracted from the sight by the advance party of their
own battalion coming to meet them and conduct them
through a eucalyptus grove (what memories of a
fragrant bush !) along a great new-made white road,
and through the sand for the last quarter of a mile to
their camp lines. Was it any wonder, therefore, in the
face of this, that when at dawn next morning I came
amongst the troops they were still lying sleeping, and
not even the struggling rays of the sun roused them
from their slumber ?

How cheery all the officers were ! Gathered in one
tent, sitting on their baggage, they ate the " twenty -
niners," as they called the biscuits (" forty -threes " they
had been called in South Africa), with a bit of cheese
and jam and bully beef. There was the Padre, Captain
Dexter, and the Doctor, Captain Lind, Captain Flockart,
Major Saker, Captain Stewart, Lieutenant Derham, and
Lieutenant " Billy " Mangar, and scores of others, alas !
now separated by the horror of war. That morning' their
spirits were high, and as soon as possible most of the
regiments set out on what might be called an explora-
tion expedition to the ridges of hills that ran along
the eastern side of the camp, and above which peeped
the Pyramids in small triangles. That day, I must say.

THE CAMPS AROUND CAIRO 69

little effort was made to settle down to camp, and the
5th, pioneers that they, wiere, was the first Australian
regiment to scramble over the ancient holy ground of
Mena, the City of the Dead and burial-place of the
forgotten monarchs of ancient Egypt. But what could
be done ? Tents had not yet arrived, and it was, indeed,
weeks before all the troops were under canvas, tliough
in the meantime they made humpies and dugouts 'for
themselves in the sand with the help of native matting.
I turned back from the hill, dotted with whooping
Australians, to watch another battalion march into camp,
one of the New South Wales regiments of Colonel
AI'Laurin, and saw the wheeled transport drawn by mules
(the horses, of course, being yet unfit for use after
so long a sea voyage) almost stick in the sand, until
shoulders were put to the wheel and they got the heavy
vehicles to the lines. The whole camp had been laid
out by the engineers on the Staff of the General Officer
Commanding (General Sir John Maxwell) the week
before. It must be remembered that barely a week's
notice was given of the landing of the great overseas
force, and it was one of the happy features of the troops'
arrival in Egypt that they found arrangements so far
advanced as they were. I remember walking along the
white road, which a couple of steam-rollers were flattening,
into the desert. The stone was being brought on a
string of camels from quarries in the hills. Lines of
small white stones marked where the road was going
to lead right througiji the centre of the camp. It was
a rectangle at that time, branching off from the Mena
road through an orchard belonging to the Mena House
Hotel, where the main road ended abruptly at tlie foot
of the Pyramids ; hard it was, too, as any cement,
and each day lengthening, with cross sections sprouting
out further into the desert. A loop of the electric tram-
way was being run along by one side of it, a water-pipe
by the other, to reservoirs being constructed in the hills.
Nevertheless, I cannot help commenting that the site
of the camp lay in a hollow between, as I have said,
two rows of hills running south into the desert and
starting from a marsh in the swampy irrigation fields.
Later on, the folHes of such a site were borne out by the
diseases that struck down far too high' a percentage
of the troops during their four months' residence there.

70 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

Day after day, enthralled, I watched this encampment
growing and spreading out on either side of the road,
creeping up the sides of the hills, stretching out across
the desert, until the furthermost tents looked like tiny
white -peaked triangles set in the yellow sand. The
battalions filed into their places coming from the sea-
board, where twelve ships at a time were discharging
their human cargoes ; while each day ten trains brought
the troops up 130 miles to the desert ,amps. After the
men came the gear, the wagons, the guns, the horses.
For this was the divisional camp, the first divisional camp
Australia had ever assembled. It was, also, the first
time that Major -General Bridges had seen his command
mustered together. With his Staff he took up his head-
quarters in a section of Mena House for use as offices, with
their living tents pitched close by. This was the chance
to organize and dovetail one unit into another, work
brigade in with brigade, artillery with the infantry, the
Light Horse regiments as protecting screens and scouts.
The Army Service Corps, Signallers, Post Office, all
came into being as part of a larger unit for the first
time. The troops became part of a "big military machine,
units, cogs in the wheel. They began to apply what
had been learnt in sections, and thus duties once thought
unnecessary began to be adjusted and to have a new
significance.

Of course, it could not all be expected to work
smoothly at first. For some six weeks the horses were
not available for transport work, and so the electric
tramway carried the stores the 10 miles from the city.,
and brought the army's rations and corn and chaff for
the animals. Donkeys, mules, and camels were all to
be seen crowding along the Pyramid road day and night,
drawing and carrying their queer, ungainly loads.

Besides Mena Camp, two other sites had been selected
as training areas for the army corps, which, as 1 have
said, was commanded now by Lieut. -General (after-
wards Sir William) Birdwood, D.S.O. One of these
was at Zeitoun, or Heliopolis, some 6 miles from Cairo,
on directly the opposite side of the town — that is, the
south — to the Mena Camp; while the other was situated
close to an oasis settlement, or model irrigation town,
at Maadi, and lying just parallel with Mena Camp,
but on the other (eastern) side of the river, and

THE CAMPS AROUND CAIRO 71

some 1 2 miles distant from it. Zeitoun was the
site of the old Roman battlefields, and later of an
English victory over an Arab host. In mythology
it is recorded as the site of the Sun City. The troops
found it just desert, of rather coarser sand than at Mena,,
and on it the remains of an aerodrome, where two years
before a great flying meeting had been held. For the
first month, only New Zealanders occupied this site,,
both their infantry and mounted rifles, and then, as
the 2nd Australian and New Zealand Division was
formed, Colonel Monash's 4th Brigade (the Second Con-
tingent) came and camped on an adjacent site, at the
same time as Colonel Chauvel's Light Horse Brigade
linked up, riding across from Maadi. Then into the
latter camp Colonel Ryrie led the 3rd Light Horse
Brigade.

As sightseers I am satisfied that the Australians beat
the Yankee in three ways. They get further, they see
more, and they pay nothing for it. Perhaps it was
because they were soldiers, and Egypt, with its mixed
population, had laid itself out to entertain the troops right
royally. It must not be thought I want to give the
impression that the Australian soldier, the highest paid
of any troops fighting in the war, saved his money
and was stingy. On the contrary, he was liberal,
generous, and spoiled the native by the openness of
his purse. Some believe that it was an evil that the
troops had so much funds at their disposal. It was,
I believe, under the circumstances — pecuUar circumstances
— that reflects no credit on the higher commands, and
to be explained anon. It would be out of place just
at the moment to bring any dark shadow across the
bright, fiery path of reckless revelry that the troops
embarked on during the week preceding and the week
following Christmas. It was an orgy of pleasure, which
only a free and, at that time, unrestrained city such as
Cairo could provide. Those men with £10 to £20
in their pockets, after being kept on board ship for
two months, suddenly to be turned loose on an Eastern
town — healthy, keen, spirited, and adventurous men — it
would have been a strong hand that could have checked
them in their pleasures, innocent as they were for the
most part.

In all the camps 20 per cent, leave was granted.

72 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

That meant that some 6,000 soldiers were free to go
whither they wished from afternoon till 9.30 p.m., when
leave was supposed to end in the city. Now, owing
to lax discipline, the leave was more like 40 per cent.,
and ended with the dawn. Each night — soft, silky
Egyptian nights — when the subtle cloak of an unsus-
pected winter hung a mantle of fog round the city and
the camps — 10,000 men must have invaded the city
nightly, to wliich number must be added the 2,000
Territorial troops garrisoning Cairo at the time that
were free, and the Indian troops, numbering about 1,000.
The majority of the men came from Mena and from
the New Zealand camp at Zeitoun. The Pyramids Camp
was linked to the city by a fine highway (built at the
time of the opening of the Canal as one of the freaks
of the Empress Eugenie), along the side of which now
runs an electric tramway. Imagine officials with only
a single hne available being faced with the problem
of the transport of 10,000 troops nightly to and from
the camps ! No wonder it was inadequate. No wonder
each tram was not only packed inside, but covered out-
side with khaki figures. Scores sat on the roofs or
clung to the rails. Generally at three o'clock the exodus
began from the camps. What an exodus ! What spirits 1
What choruses and shouting and linking up of parties !
Here was Australia at the Pyramids. Men from every
State, every district, every village and hamlet, through-
out the length and breadth of the Commonwealth, were
encamped, to the number of 20,000, in a square mile.
An army gains in weight and fighting prowess as it
gains in every day efficiency by the unitedness of the
whole. Now, the true meaning of camaraderie is under-
stood by Australians, and is with them, I believe, an
instinct, due to the isolated nature of their home lives
and the freedom of their native land. When the troops
overflowed from the trams, they linked up into parties
and hired motor-cars, the owners of which were not
slow to appreciate the situation. They tumbled ten or
twelve into these cars, and went, irrespective of speed
limits, hooting and whirring towards the twinkling city.
And when the motors gave out, there was a long line
of gharries (arabehs), which are open victorias, very
comfortable, and with a spanking pair of Arab steeds,
travelhng the 10 miles to the city.

o ^

THE CAMPS AROUND CAIRO 73

Imagine, therefore, this Pyramid road arched with
lebbock -trees that made a tunnel of dark living branches
and green leaves. By five o'clock night had fallen,
coming so suddenly that its mantle was on Taefore one
realized the sun had sunk behind the irrigated fields,
the canals, and the waving sugar-canes. Imagine these
men of the South, the warm blood tinghng in their
veins (and sovereigns jingling in their pockets), in-
vading the city like an avalanche !

So much was novel, so much strange and entrancing
in this city of Arabian fables. Cairo presents the
paradox of the Eastern mind, and the reverse nature of
events and incidents amused and excited the imaginations
of the Australians.

By midnight had commenced in earnest the return of
the troops along that great highway, an exodus starting
each night at nine o'clock. Again was the tram service
inadequate, nor could the motors and gharries cope with
the rush of the men back to the lines before leave expired.
Donkey-men filled the breach with their obstinate asses,
and the main streets were crowded with wild, shouting
troops as a drove of twenty or thirty donkeys went
clattering past, whooping Australians on their backs,
urging on their speed to a delicate canter. But it was
hard work riding these donkeys, and a lo-mile ride
brought resolutions not to again overstay leave or, at
least, to make adequate arrangements for return by more
sober and comfortable means. The main highway such
nights became a stream of flickering fire. The motors
picked their way at frantic speed through the traffic,
past the burdened camels and loaded carts of rations
and fodder for the camp. No speed was too high ;
the limit of the engines was the only brake. By great
good fortune no disaster occurred : minor accidents were
regarded as part and parcel of the revels.

Whatever may have been the attitude of the military
authorities when the troops landed and up till Christmas
week, the very first day of the New Year saw a vast
change in the discipline of the camp. It was really a
comparatively easy matter, had a proper grip been taken
of the men, to have restrained the overstaying and break-
ing of leave that occurred up till New Year's Day.
Mena Camp, situated i o miles from the city in the
desert, with only one avenue of practicable approach, re-

74 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

quired but few guards ; but those guards needed to
be vigilant and strong. True, I have watched men
making great detours through the cotton-fields and desert
in order to come into the camp from some remote angle,
but they agreed that the trouble was not worth while.
Once, however, the guards were placed at the bridge
across the Canal that lay at right angles to the road
and formed a sort of moat round the south of the camp,
and examined carefully passes and checked any men
without authority, leave was difficult to break. From
20 it was reduced to 10 per cent, of the force. General
Birdwood's arrival resulted in the tightening up of duties
considerably, while the visit of Sir George Reid (High
Commissioner for the Commonwealth in London) and
his inspiring addresses urging the troops to cast out
the " wrong uns " from their midst, at the same time
bringing to their mind the duty to their Country and
their King that lay before them still undone, settled
the army to its hard training. He, so well known a
figure in Australia, of all men could give to the troops
a feeling that across the seas their interests were being
closely and critically watched. After a few weeks of
the hard work involved in the completion of their military
training, even the toughening sinews of the Australians
and their love of pleasure and the fun of Cairo were
not strong enough to make them wish to go far, joy-
riding.

CHAPTER VIII

RUMOURS OF THE TURKS' ATTACK

News in Egypt travels like wildfire. Consequently,
during the end of January, just prior to the first attack
on the Canal and attempted invasion of Egypt by the
Turks, Cairo was " thick," or, as the troops said, " stiff,"
with rumours, and the bazaars, I found from conversa-
tion with Egyptian journalists, were filled with murmurs
of sedition. It was said hundreds of thousands of Turks
were about to cross the Canal and enter Egypt. The
Young Turk party, no doubt, were responsible for
originating these stories, aided by the fertile imagination
of the Arab and fellaheen. So were passed on from hp
to lip the scanty phrases of news that came direct from
the banks of the Canal, where at one time rather a
panic set in amongst the Arab population.

Naturally these rumours percolated to the camps, and,
with certain orders to brigades of the ist Division and
the New Zealanders to get equipped and stores to be
got in as quickly as possible, it was no wonder that the
troops were eagerly anticipating their marching orders.
They would at this time, too, have given a lot to have
escaped from the relentless training that was getting
them fit : the monotony of the desert had begun to pall.
At any rate, on 3rd January the 3rd Company of
Engineers, under Major Clogstoun, had gone down to
the Canal to assist the Royal Engineers, already at work
on trenches, entanglements, and pontoon bridges. To
their work I shall refer in detail later on, when I come
to deal with the invasion. In the first week of February
the 7th Battalion, under Lieut .-Colonel Elliott, and
8th Battalion, under Lieut .-Colonel Bolton, V.D., and
the whole of the New Zealand Brigade of Infantry were
hastily dispatched to the Canal, and were camped side
by side at the Ismailia station. Meanwhile the New

76 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

Zealand Artillery had already been sent to take up
positions on the Canal banks.

During January the Buccaneer Camel Corps, under
Lieutenant Chope, met, during reconnoitring and patrol
duty, a strong party of Arabs, Turks, and Bedouins, to
the number of 300, and he gallantly engaged them and
carried on a running fight in the desert for miles, suc-
cessfully putting to flight the enemy and capturing some
of their number, while they left dead and woimded on
the sand. For this Lieutenant Chope was decorated
with the D.S.O.

Fresh rumours began now to float into Cairo as to the
estimate of the Turkish force and the number of
Germans likely to be in it. Djemal Pasha was known
to be in command, but it was said that he was under
the German General Von der Goltz, who had stiffened
the force with about 300 of his barbarians, mostly
non-commissioned officers and officers. The Turkish
force, which was certainly a very mixed host, was declared
to number about 80,000, which was more than four
times the number that actually made the raid on the
Canal, though I have no reason to doubt that there
were that number on the borders of Egypt, ready to
follow up tlie attack were it successful. Some dissent
existed amongst the Turkish force, and was faithfully
reported to the War Office in Cairo, and many Arabs
and some Indians captured on the Canal told how they
had been forced into the service and compelled to bear
arms. Serious trouble had occurred with a party of
Bedouins in Arabia, who brought camels to the order
of the Turkish Government, and who found their animals
commandeered and no money given in payment. On
this occasion a fight occurred, and the Bedouins promptly
returned to their desert homes.

Summing up the opinion in Egypt at that time, it
appeared tolerably certain, in the middle of January, that
the Turkish attack was to be made. In what strength
it was not quite known, but it seemed unlikely to be
in the nature of a great invasion, as the transport
troubles and the difficulties of the water supply were too
great. One day the Turks would be said to have crossed
the Canal, another that the Canal was blocked by the
sinking of ships (from the very outset of the war one
of the main objects of the invaders, using mines as

RUMOURS OF THE TURKS' ATTACK -j-j

their device) . I suppose that British, Indian, and
Egyptian troops (for the Egyptian mounted gun battery
was encamped on the Canal) must have numbered over
80,000, not including the force of 40,000 Australians
held as a reserve in Cairo, together with a Division of
Territorials.

If ever troops longed for a chance to meet the enemy,
it was these Australians. The Engineers had been down
on the Canal, as I have said, since January, and it was
rumoured every day towards the end of January that
there was to be at least a brigade of Australians (sent
down to the Canal. Imagine the thrill that went through
the camp, the rumours and contradictions as to which
brigade it should be. Finally, on the 3rd February the
7th and 8th Battalions, under Colonel M'Cay, Brigadier
of the 2nd Infantry Brigade, were dispatched, and
encamped outside of Ismailia. I sawi these troops go
from the camp. They were enormously pleased that
they had been told off for the job, not that other battalions
did not believe they would soon follow. As they marched
out of the Mena lines (and from the desert, for they
had to go at a moment's notice right from drill, with
barely time to pack their kits) they were cheered lustily
by their comrades, who deemed them " lucky dogs "
to get out of the " blasted sand." However, they were
going to far worse, and no tents ; but then there was
before them the Canal and a possible fight, and, any-
way, the blue sea and a change of aspect from the
" everlasting Pyramids." They entrained in ordinary
trucks and got into bivouac somewhere about midnight.
They found the New Zealanders there, two battalions of
them. On the way down they passed a large Indian
encampment, which I subsequently saw, where thousands
of camels had been collected, ready to go out to meet
the invaders or follow them up in the event of their
hasty retreat. The camp lay sprawled out over miles
of desert, and, just on the horizon, about 4 miles from
the Canal, was an aeroplane hangar. I used to watch
the aeroplanes going and coming on their reconnaissances
out over the desert to tlie Turkish outposts and concen-
tration camps. The Territorial guns, 15 -pounders, were
already in position round, or rather to the east of, Ismailia.

On the 2nd February the attack began to develop.
It was important enough, rather for its significance than
its strength or result, to be treated at length.

CHAPTER IX
FIRST SUEZ CANAL BATTLE

The Turkish Army, g'athered under the direction of
General Liman von Sanders, the German Military
Governor of Turkey, was composed of Turks, Bedouins,
Arabs, refugees from Asia Minor, and a few Germans.
About 20,000 men in aU, under the command of Djemal
Pasha, they crossed the peninsula, dashed themselves
vainly against the defences of the Canal, and fell back!
broken into Turkey again. Very briefly, or as concisely
as is consistent with accuracy, let me review the Canal
and the approaches to the waterway, and the troops
that the Turks had available. Small as was the opera-
tion in actual degree of numbers^ its purpose, likely
to be repeated again, was to dislocate the machinery of
the British Empire. The link that narrow waterway,
76 feet wide, means to Australia, is something more
than a sea route. It was, therefore, not inappropriate
that Australians should have taken part in its defence
then, as well as later.

One day, talking to a British officer who knew well
the character of the Sinai Peninsula, he remarked, " This
is a race to water for water." He was not sang*uine
of any success attending an attack, though he remem-
bered the crossing of the desert by 10,000 men under
the Egyptian General Ibraham, and without a railway
line near the frontier at the end of his journey. But
I do not want to convey the idea that the desert tract
of 150 miles which lies between the Suez Canal and the
borderland of Turkey is waterless, or that it is level.
On the contrary. During January and February, when
the chief rainfall occurs, there are " wadis," or gorges,
where the water runs away in raging torrents until at
length it disappears into the sand. So it comes about

there are any number of weUs, some good, some rather

FIRST SUEZ CANAL BATTLE 79

bad; but if carefully guarded, protected, and additional
bores put down, the wells would make a sufficient water
supply for any invading host^ even up to as many as
40,000 men. Now this figure was, I believe, about the
actual number of the army that took part in the attempt
to pierce the line of the Canal, It was a quarter of the
army stationed in Syria, and contained some of the finest,
as it did some of the poorest, of the Turkish troops at
that time under arms. It was impossible for the Turkish
military authorities to draw away from the coast-line of
the Mediterranean all of the army that had to be kept
there in anticipation of a British landing at such spots
as Gaza and Adana, where the railway to Constantinople
runs close to the coast. Nor was the army well trained
or well equipped. On the contrary, scouting parties
that were captured, were in tattered garments and often
without boots. Throughout the army the commissariat
was bad in comparison with what it was when the
Gallipoli campaign started.

Now, the Canal is approached by caravan routes from
three points, a northern, southern, and central zone. Gaza
might be said to be the starting-point of the northern
route, and it runs just out of artillery range along the
coast until El Arisch is reached. It was along this sea
route that Napoleon took his 10,000 men in retreat from
Egypt. From this last town the route branches south
towards El Kantara. The intervening space between
that important crossing and Port Said is marshy, and is
occupied with saltworks. In order to make Port Saidi
impregnable these were flooded, giving a lake of some
300 miles in area and about 4 feet or 5 feet deep.
Kantara therefore remained the most vital northerly spot
at which the Canal could be pierced, and next to that,
Ismailia. The northern route lies along almost level
desert. But the further one gets south, the loftier become
the curious sandstone and limestone ridges that, opposite
Lake Timsah, can be seen, 12 or 14 miles from the
Canal, rising up to 800 feet in height. Southwards from
this point there lies a chain of hills running parallel to
the Canal, with spurs running towards the central portion
of the peninsula, where the ranges boast mountain peaks
of 6,000 and 7,000 feet in height. There are gullies
and ravines of an almost impassable nature, and the
route winds round the sides of mountains, which features

So AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

made the armies on the march hard to detect, as I
learned our aviators reported.

Maan may be described as the jumping-off point for
the starting of any expedition against the central and
southern portions of the Canal. To Maan leads a railway,
and it runs beyond down past the Gulf of Akaba, parallel
with the Red Sea. From Maan the caravan would go
to Moufrak, and from thence to Nckhl, high up in the
hills and ranges of the desert. Nekhl is not a large
settlement, but, like most Arab and Bedouin villages, just
a few. mud huts and some wells, with a few palms and
sycamore -trees round them. But when the end of January
came there were 300 Khurdish cavalry there and a great
many infantry troops. Nekhl is exactly half way on
the direct route to Suez, but the force that was to attack
the Canal branched northward from this point until it
came over the hills by devious routes to Moiya Harah,
and over the last range that in the evening is to be
seen from the Canal — a purply range, with the pink
and golden desert stretching miles between. Just out
of gun range, therefore, was the camp which the Turkish
force made. I am led from various official reports I ihave
read to estimate that Turkish force here at nearly 18,000.
A certain number of troops, 3,000 perhaps, came by the
northern route, and linked up on a given date with the
forces that were destined for the attack on Ismailia,
Serapeum, and Suez. That is to say, half the army was
making feint attacks and maintaining lines of communi-
cation, while the remainder, 20,000 men, were available
to be launched against the chosen point as it turned
out, Toussoum and Serapeum. But one must remember
that, small as that force was, the Turkish leader un-
doubtedly reckoned on the revolt of the Moslems in
Egypt, as every endeavour had been tried (and failed)
to stir up a holy war; and that at Jerusalem there must
have been an army of ioq,ooo men ready to maintain
the territory won, should it be won, even if they were
not at a closer camp.

Therefore, the Turks overcame the water difficulty
by elaborating the wells and carrying supplies with them
on the march, and they got the support of artillery by
attaching caterpillar wheels to get 6-in. and other guns
through the sand towards the Canal (1 am not inclined
to believe the statements that the guns were buried in

FIRST SUEZ CANAL BATTLE 8i

the desert years before by the Germans, and had been
unearthed for the occasion), and for the actual crossing
they brought up thirty or forty pontoons, which had
been carried on wagons up to tlie hills, and then across
the last level plain on the shoulders of the men. It was
in very truth the burning of their boats in the attack
if it failed. They had 'no railway, such as they had
built in the later part of 191 5, but relied on the camels
for their provision trains. The rainfall in January, the
wet season, was the best that had been experienced for
many years, and so far as the climatic conditions were
concerned, everything favoured the attack.

This brings us down to the end of January 1 9 1 5 .
For the whole of the month there had been parties of
Turkish snipers approaching the Canal, and in conse-
quence, the mail boats and cargo steamers, as well as
transports, had had to protect their bridges with sand-
bags, while the passengers kept out of sight as far as
possible. On all troopships an armed guard with fifty
rounds per man was mounted on the deck facing the
desert. It was anticipated that the Turkish plan of
attack would include the dropping of mines into
the Canal (which plan they actually succeeded in),
and/ thus block the Canal by sinking a ship in the
fairway ,

Skirmishes and conflicts with outposts occurred first
at the northern end of the Canal defences, opposite td
Kantara. The Intelligence Branch of the General Staff
was kept well supplied with information from the refugees,
Frenchmen, Armenians, and Arabs, who escaped from
Asia Minor. They told of the manner in which all
equipment and supplies were commandeered, together
with camels. This did not point to very enthusiastic
interest or belief in the invasion. By the third week
in January the Turkish patrols could be seen along the
slopes of the hills, and aeroplanes reported large bodies
of troops moving up from Nekhl.

On 26th January the first brush occurred. It was a
prelude to the real attack. A small force opened fire
on Kantara post, which was regarded as a very vital
point in the Canal line. The Turks brought up mountain
guns and fired on the patrols. At four o'clock on the
28th, a Thursday morning, the attacks developed.

The British- Indian outpost line waited purely on the

82 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

defensive, and with small losses to either side, the enemy
withdrew. Minor engagements occurred from this time
on till the attack which synchronized with the main
attack — 40 miles away — on 3rd February. Reinforce-
ments were observed entrenched behind the sand dunes.
Now, that night the Indian outposts successfully laid
a trap for the Turks by changing the direction of the
telegraph line and the road that led into Kantara. They
led the Turks, when they eventually did come on, into
an ambush. At this post was stationed the ist Australian
Clearing Hospital, and very fine work was performed
by it. Sergeant Syme, though contrary to orders, drove
a motor ambulance out under fire and brought in a
number of wounded.

Never have new troops won quicker appreciation from
their officers than did the companies of Australian Engi-
neers, under Major H. O. Clogstoun, who began in
January to build up the defences of the Canal. They
were a happy, hard-working unit, and showed rare skill
and adaptability in making a series of bridges at Ismailia.
You would see a large load of them going up the Canal
perhaps to improve trenches, and they began a friend-
ship (that Anzac cemented) with the Indian troops, which
I doubt if time will do anything but strengthen. There
were seventeen to twenty pontoons, or rowing boats,
which they appUed to the purpose, constructed, while
the materials for other floating bridges were obtained
from iron casks. In, I believe, eleven minutes these
bridges could be thrown across the width of the Canal.
Tugs were available to tow the sections to whatever
point they might be required. As the traffic of
shipping was heavy, the bridges were constantly being
joined and detached again. Bathing in the Canal was
a great luxury, and the men at the time, and the
infantry later on, took full advantage of it. Before pass-
ing on, let me give the comment of Colonel Wright,
the Engineer officer on General Maxwell's Staff, on a,
suggestion of removing these Engineers back to Cairo
after having completed the bridges : —

I sincerely hope that you are not going to take this company from me
until the present strife is over. They are simply invaluable, both officers
and men, and have thoroughly earned the excellent reputation they have
already acquired everywhere they have been. They have worked up till
2.30 by moonlight. Their work has been excellent. The men have been

AUSTRALIANS MANNING A COMMUNICATION TRENCH LEADING TO ISMAILIA

FERRY POST.

TURKISH PRISONERS IN CAIRO.

To face p. 82

FIRST SUEZ CANAL BATTLE 83

delighted with the work, and they have been exemplary in their conduct.
Even if you can produce other companies as good, I should be rather in a
hole if No. 3 were to be taken away.

Thus we arrive at the day before the main att^ack
was delivered. It was intended by the Turkish and
German leaders that there should be feints all along the
70 miles of fightable front, and that between Toussoum
and Serapeum the main body would be thrown in and
across the Canal. Plans were formulated to deceive
the defenders as to the exaict point of the attack, troops
marching diagonally across the front (an operation which
had brought disaster to the German Army at the Marne),
and changing position during the days preceding the
main venture ; but, nevertheless, this manoeuvre was
limited to a 20-miIe section, with Ismailia as the
central point.

The Turks commenced on the afternoon of Tuesday,
2nd February, to engage our artillery at a point some
miles north of Ismailia, called El Ferdan, but there
was little force in the attack. Really it seemed only
designed to cover the movement of bodies of troops
which had been massed at Kateb el Kheil, and which
were now with camel trains proceeding south and taking
up position for the attack. A party of British and
Indian troops moved out to locate, and silence if possible,
the artillery, but a sandstorm of great violence compelled
both the Indian and Turkish forces to retire within their
camps .

On the morning of the 3rd the main attack was
delivered. I was enabled to visit thd defences at Ismailia,
and was taken through the Ismailia ferry post round
through the long length of communication trenches that
led to the forward positions and back to the banks of
the Canal, many hundred yards farther north. I saw
the extraordinary pits that had been dug by the Gurkhas,
in the centre of which had been placed spiked iron rails,
on which many of the enemy subsequently became
impaled. There were flares and trip wires round the
lines, making, even on the darkest night, a surprise
attack an impossibility. Ismailia post, like, for that
matter, all the posts I saw along the Canal, was exceed-
ingly strong. The trenches were 10 feet deep, and
many of them protected with overhead cover, with iron

84 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

and wood and sandbags. Extreme care had been taken
to conceal the exact contour of the trenches, and from
two or three hundred yards away out in the desert 1 would
never have suspected that there was a post bristling
with machine guns on the edge of the yellow desert
dunes behind which lay the blue waters of the Canal.
For at this place, like so many spots along the Canal,
the banks are as much as 80 feet high, which, while
they serve as a protection, do not always enable the
warships to fire over the banks. Gaps, however, were
to be found, and the Bitter Lakes presented suitable
stations for the battleships that took part in the battle,
as I shall indicate.

Before dawn on the 3rd, therefore, between Toussoum
and Serapeum, at each of which places there were posts
held by Indian troops, the main attempt was delivered
and failed, though it was pressed home against a weak
spot with some force. In choosing this point to drive
in their wedge the Turks had borne in mind that the
Suez-Cairo Railway was within a few miles of the Canal,
and that one of the branches of the great Freshwater
Canal, that supplies the whole of the length of the
Canal settlements, lay not a mile away. Weather con-
ditions favoured the Turks. It was cloudy and overcast.
One would not say that the defenders were unprepared, for
there had been too much quite apparent preparation by the
enemy on the previous days. What was not known was
the exact point of launching the attack. No doubt Djemal
Pasha, who was present in person, gained much infor-
mation from his spies, but he seems to have been rather
wrongly informed. An early move of this adroit leader
was an attempted bluff some days before the attack, when
a letter was received by General Sir John Maxwell
suggesting that, as the Canal was a neutral zone, and
that shipping should not be interrupted, the fight
should take place on ground to be selected on the
Egyptian or western side of the Canal. ' One can
picture the Turkish General, tongue in his cheek, writing
the note.

As regards the defence works : at the point of attack
there was a post at Toussoum, which lies not 3 miles from
the southern extremity of Lake Timsah and about 6 or
8 miles from Ismailia. A series of trenches had been
dug on the east bank of the Canal. They were com-

FIRST SUEZ CANAL BATTLE 85

plete and strong, practically intended as a guard for
the Canal Company's station of Toussoum, on the west
bank. A ferry was in the vicinity, close to the station
on the side next to the lake. A mile south was Serapeum,
another post on the east bank, with trenches on the
western bank and a camp. At Serapeum proper was
a fine hospital.

The alarm was sounded at 3.25, when sentries noticed
blurred figures moving along the Canal bank not 100
yards distant from the Toussoum post. It was soon
reported that the enemy were coming up in considerable
strength on the south side (see point marked 47, on
map) of the post. Therefore it may be taken that the
enemy approach was carried out very quietly and silently,
for two pontoons were already in the water when they
were fired on from the groups of Indian troops en-
trenched on the western bank, and were sunk. This
was the signal for launching the great effort, and
immediately firing broke out in tremendous volume
from Toussoum post. Artillery firing soon opened from
both 'sides; the air was noisy with shell. Curiously,
though the Turkish gunners had at first the range,
they soon lengthened it, evidently in the belief that they
would cut off reinforcements ; their shells went high and
little damage was done. The Toussoum guard -house
escaped with a few hits only, and bullets riddled posts
and rafters. Vainly about 1,000 Turks endeavoured to
seize Toussoum post, while three times that number
launched the pontoons, which had been carried on the
shoulders of thirty men across the soft sand to the bank.
There were places here suitable for the launching, for
V-shaped dips or gullies enabled the enemy to approach,
protected on either flank, though exposed to a murderous
frontal fire from the opposite Canal bank, which appar-
ently they had not expected. At the distance-post at

Y the first launching was attempted, but almost simul-
taneously came the launching for an attack at ^ . Shouts

of "Allah!" were now started by the enemy south of
the Toussoum post. At once mac"hine guns came 'into
action and the shouting of "Allah!" died away. By
this time the Turks got their machine guns into action,
and were ripping belts of lead into the British post,
making any attempt at a flanking movement impossible.

86 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

This was, however, unnecessary to foil the main plan ;
for the pontoons that had been carried with such terrible
difficulty across the desert were being sunk almost as
they were launched. A few reached midstream — the
rowers were riddled with bullets, the sides of the
pontoons ripped, and they sank almost immediately with
their freight. Two only reached the opposite bank. One
was sunk there immediately and the Turks killed. From
the other the men scrambled and entrenched themselves,
digging up the soft mud in their desperation with their
hands. Next morning they capitulated. Four men
alone reached the upper portion of the shore and
escaped, only to be captured a few days later in the
villages.

An hour after the first shot was fired, the 5th Battery
Egyptian Mounted Artillery came into action from the
opposite bank, and the Turkish position and head of
the wedge being definitely determined, companies from
the 62nd Punjabis from the reserve at Serapeum opened
fire from midway between the two stations on the west
Egyptian bank. The noise of rifles and the intense
popping of machine guns resoimded up and down the
banks of the Canal between the two posts. The groimd
across which the Turks had made their final dash was
tussocky, and behind these tussocks they gained some
shelter and entrenched themselves, once the crossing
had so dismally failed.

It is estimated that some eighteen pontoons were
launched. Some were dropped in the water over a low
rubble wall that had been left close to the water's edge,
others were brought down part of the bank less steep,
and which offered easy access. Four boatloads of the
enemy were sunk in midstream, the boats riddled with
bullets, either from the shore batteries or from a
torpedo-boat destroyer that came down from Serapeum
at a quarter to eight. As daylight came, the Turks
who still were in the water or struggling up the banks
were shot down, while some few, as related, managed
to dig themselves in on the west bank. The remainder
of the attackers (killed, wounded, and prisoners numbered
nearly 3,000), about 3,000, retired some hundred yards.
As far as those in command at Toussoum and Sera-
peum can estimate it, after reading Turkish captured
orders, a whole brigade of Syrians, Armenians, and

•-^Km^^

RAN

^ Is is A

I
o

j\li'llf"""Mll""-ii

88 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

Turkish troops, some the flower of the Army, took
part in tlie attack ; but for some reason not ex-
plainable the main body, about 1 2,000 men, never
came into action. The initial attack failed to push back
the resistance offered, and the Turks, one supposes,
became disheartened, though actually the troops guarding
those posts were barely 2,000. Boat after boat the
enemy had hurried up till daylight broke, but often the
bearers were shot down as they reached the Canal bank
and pinned under their own pontoons. Dawn, no doubt,
brought realization to the enemy that the attack had
signally failed. All their boats were gone. They had
lost eggs and baskets as well. New Zealand infantry
companies were in the trenches on the west bank, and
they kept up a withering fire directly opposite on the
entrenched foe. In the meantime the Hardinge and
the d'Entrecasteaux opened fire with 5- and 8 -inch guns,
and soon silenced the 6-inch battery which the Turks
had dug in, some 5 miles from the Canal, between
Toussoum and Ismailia. But, entrenching, the Turks
continued to fight all through the morning and afternoon
of the 3rd. The British received reinforcements shortly
after noon and the position was safe. But the last
phase of the attack was not ended quickly.

At twenty minutes to nine that morning five lines of
the enemy were seen advancing on Serapeum post, with
a field battery of four 15 -pounder guns in support.
Their objective was evidently a frontal attack on
Serapeum. Our Indian reinforcements crossed the Canal
at that post, and the 92nd Punjabis moved out from
the post and were ordered to clear up the small parties
of Turks believed to be still amongst the dunes on the
banks. About the same time a number of the Turkish
troops amongst the hummocks commenced to retire. It
was evidently done with a view to massing their forces ;
at the same time the enemy deployed two brigades in
two lines some 3 miles from Serapeum, west and
facing that post. The Punjabis met this attack. As
supports there had been sent thei Gurkha Rifles. The
Punjabis occupied a ridge about 500 yards from the
Serapeum post in a south-easterly line. An. hour later
three battalions of the enemy seemed to be advancing
on the post in close order, with wide intervals between
each battalion. That attack was never pressed horrie.

FIRST SUEZ CANAL BATTLE 89

A mile north, on the Toussoum flank, the battle still
raged. Lieut. -Colonel Thomas Glover, just before noon,
led a force of 92nd Punjabis in an attempt to dislodge
the enemy from our day trenches, which they had occu-
pied to the east of Toussoum post. At noon seven
battalions of the enemy, with numerous field guns, could
be seen about 3,500 yards away. Curiously enough,
these units were halted. So the Indian troops' work
of clearing the day trenches, contiiiued, the Turks send-
ing no reinforcements to their doomed comrades. It
was here that occurred an incident which was thought
to be treachery, but which perhaps may have been a
misunderstanding on the part of the men in the trench.
As it was related officially it is stated : " The enemy
in the trenches made signs of surrender several times,
but would not lay down their arms. Finally, some men
of the left counter-attack got within 20 yards of the
enemy's trench, and one machine gun took up a position
enfilading it at point-blank range. The enemy's com-
mander came across and made signs that they would
surrender. He then returned to his own trench, seized
a rifle, fixed a bayonet, and fired a shot at our
men. Several of the enemy aimed at our troops.
The machine gun opened fire at once, killing the com-
mander, and the remainder of the enemy laid down
their arms and were taken prisoners. Many prisoners
were woimded, and fifty dead were counted by this post,
where some pontoons were also found."

Thus late in the afternoon the trenches near Toussoum
were free ; all pontoons in • the vicinity had been
destroyed ; there remained but the enemy opposite the
Serapeum position to deal with. Fresh British rein-
forcements began to arrive at dusk, including the
27th Punjabis. It was cold and raining, and during
the night the enemy showed no disposition to renew
the attack, though an intermittent fire was kept up.
The enemy still held a small point on the east bank at

Y, which seemed to indicate a fresh attempt to cross.

None was made, and evidently the party was sacrificed
while preparations were made for flight of the main
army and orders could be circulated over the 90-mile
front .

At daylight on the morning of the 4th the enemy
could be seen still digging themselves in opposite the

90 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

ridge near Serapeum, occupied by the 92nd Punjabis.
Successful steps were immediately taken to capture the
few enemy remaining in the trenches on the east bank,
and Captain Cohran in charge, wdth two companies,
moved up in extended formation. Progress was slow.
The enemy was very scattered, and the sand dunes un-
certain. Again there were signs of treachery on the
part of the enemy intimating surrender. Considerable
British reinforcements had been sent up, and Major Mac-
Lachlan, who had taken over command, at once ordered
a charge at a moment when the enemy commenced to
stand up, apparently about to charge themselves. Fire
was directed immediately against them, and they quickly
got down again into the trenches. Shortly after this six
officers and 120 men surrendered.

Little more remains to be told. At the height of the
engagement a Prussian officer, Major von den Hagen,
was shot, and a cross marks the place of his burial,
and can be seen to-day from passing steamers on the
top of the Canal bank. On him was found a white
flag folded in a khaki bag. It was some 2 feet
square, and, while it might have been merely a night
signalling flag, it is more probable that it was carried
for the purpose of trickery.

The enemy lost some 600 killed and about 3,000
wounded or taken prisoner. The British losses were
comparatively light, about 50 killed and 200 wounded.

Once the main Turkish Army started to retire they
fled hurriedly, retreating precipitately to the south-east,
while the main body withdrew into the hills. Many
people have wondered since that the opportunity of
trapping the Turkish Army by a rapid pursuit, when
all the cavalry was available, and when camel trains were
ready to move off in support, was not seized. As a
matter of fact, orders were issued for a pursuing force to
leave on the evening of the 4th, but early in the morning
of the 5th coimtermanding orders came through. As the
Australian troops and 'New Zealanders I referred to as
being in reserve near Ismailia station were to form
a part of the pursuing force, it was to them a keen
blow. I rather suspect that the countermanding came
from the War Office and Lord Kitchener, who under-
stood the Moslem mind so clearly. For I have it
from the lips of the officer, Lieut. -Colonel Howard, who

FIRST SUEZ CANAL BATTLE 91

was out on many reconnaissances to the eastern hills,
that it was probably a good thing that the counter-
attack had not been persisted in, for the Turks, on the
evening of the 4th, when the whole of the main body
so unexpectedly withdrew to the ridges, took up a
thoroughly well entrenched position, which he thought
it was reasonable to regard as an ambush. Patrols
subsequently went into the hills and destroyed some
of the wells that had been sunk, cleared up many
points of doubt about the attack, and captured camel
trains and provisions. By the end of the week not a
Turk was within 60 miles of the Canal,

PART II

THE ANZAC CAMPAIGN

CHAPTER X

THE PLAN OF ATTACK

The first bombardment of the Turkish forts at the
entrance to the Dardanelles by British and French
squadrons started at 8 a.m. on 19th February 191 5,
and at dusk the warships had to be withdrawn, with the
Turkish Kum Kale batteries still firing. On the 25th
operations were resumed with the Queen Elizabeth^
Agamemnon, and Irresistible in the fight. By 4th March
the outer forts had been silenced, and the way lay clear
to the inner ring of forts in the vicinity of Dardanus.
Meanwhile, the Turks had brought down howitzer batteries,
which they carefully entrenched amongst the hills round
the shores of Erenkeui Bay, and peppered the war-
ships. For the next week there was a systematic bom-
bardment from the ships inside the Straits, with
indirect fire from the Qiieett Elizabeth^ s 15 -in. guns,
and the Agamemnon and Ocean, from the Gulf of
Saros near Gaba Tepe, across the peninsula. Though
the Turkish forts (9-in. and lo-in. guns) at Seddul
Bahr, Morto Bay, and Kum Kale had been destroyed, the
Turks had entrenched themselves round the ruins of
the forts, and no landing was possible.

Now, about this time there arose what will probably
be recorded in after years as the great conflict of opinion
between Admiral Garden and Admiral De Robeck as
to the advisability of forcing the Dardanelles with the
ships now assembled. To this conference of Admirals
came General Sir Ian Hamilton, having travelled by
the swift destroyer Phaeton to the Dardanelles, arriving
on 17th March at Tenedos, the headquarters of the fleet

at that time. There he was met by General D'Amade,

THE 29TH DIVISIUN UN THE RAMLEH ROAD REVIEWED BY GENERAL
HAMILTON AND GENERAL D'AMADE ON 6tH APRIL, I915.

PRESENTATION OF COLOURS TO FRENCH COLONIAL TROOPS PRIOR TO
THEIR EMBARKATION FOR THE DARDANELLES.

To face p. 92.

THE PLAN OF ATTACK 93

who had also arrived with 20,000 French troops to join
the Army Expedition. One may picture that council of
three Admirals and two army leaders. Admiral Garden
the same day resigned for " health reasons." He did
not favour the direct attack, and Admiral De Robeck,
who did, took command. General D'Amade had sided
with the retiring Admiral, while General Hamilton and
the French Admiral, Guepratte, were in favour of the
immediate strong attack.

Consequently, the following day this operation was
launched. General Hamilton saw it from the decks of
a destroyer, on which he went into the thick of the fray.
Later I heard his description of that fight, and the
manner in which the Bouvet had steamed to Tier doom
in two minutes as she left the firing line, while the
British ships Irresistible and Ocean, sank more slowly
and their crews were rescued.

Close as had the ships crept to the towering forts
of Point Kephez, there was no silencing' the forts, and
the attempt was given up — a failure. The Gaulois and
Inflexible had both been badly damaged, and sought
refuge near Rabbit Islands.

It was not till after the campaign that the Turks were
prepared to admit that a little more force and the forts
would have fallen — a little greater sacrifice of ships ;
yet I learned from General Hamilton's Staff that the
Allies expected, and were prepared, to lose twelve ships.

So under such inauspicious circumstances the military
operation began : yet not imlmediately. With all speed
General Hamilton returned to Alexandria, having found
in the meantime — I have, no doubt, to his chagrin and
disgust — that the ships ready to embark troops con-
tained certainly the equipment and gear, but all wrongly
packed. A rearrangement was essential. This delay
caused a revision of the whole of the plans of the Allies.
Instead of there being a force immediately available
to support the action of the ships which had battered
the forts and crushed down the Turks, an intermittent
bombardment, as the weather permitted, had to be kept
up for a month, to prevent the Turks repairing effectively
their destroyed forts, while the whole of the army was
properly arranged and the transports collected. General
Hamilton's army, therefore, became an invading host
instead of a supporting force, landed to hold what the

94 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

fleet had won. It was very patent to the War Council
that now to force the Dardanelles by sending ships
forward alone (even with the mine fields cleared) was
impossible, and, committed to a campaign, resort had
to be made to a landing.

The Turks during the month's respite, in March- April,
commenced thoroughly to entrench the Gallipoli Penin-
sula against the execution of the Allies' plans. These
plans, speaking broadly, may be thus briefly described,
leaving the story of the landing to explain the details :
The peninsula, regarded from its topographical aspect,
was naturally fortified by stern hills, which reduced the
number of places of possible landings. So in the very
nature of things it was necessary for the leader of such
an expedition to attack at as many landings as possible
and to push home only those which were most vital.
This would prevent the enemy from being able to antici-
pate the point where the attack was to be delivered and
concentrate troops there. During April the army was
assembled at Lemnos — British, Australian, French, and
Indian troops, drawn from Egypt. To the British was
assigned the task of taking the toe of the peninsula ;
to the French the feint on the Kum Kale forts and the
landing along the Asia Minor coast. The Australians
were to thrust a " thorn " into the side of the Turks
at Gaba Tepe, which was opposite Maidos, the narrowest
portion of the peninsula. Certain other troops, mostly
Australians, were to make a feint at the Bulair lines,
while feints were also planned by warships at Enos and
Smyrna. Two attacks only were to be pushed home —
the Australians at Gaba Tepe and the British (after-
wards to be supported by the French) at Cape Helles,
at the toe of the peninsula.

Officers of all the forces inspected the coast -lines
in the various sections allotted them, from the decks of
the warships bombarding the entrenchments and fortifica-
tions, which it was only too apparent that the Turks had
effected in the months of warning and interval that had
been given them. It looked, as it was, a desperate
venture. Everything certainly hung on the successful
linking up of the two landed armies round the foot of
the great Kelid Bahr position, that lay like another rock
of Gibraltar, protecting the Turkish Asiatic batteries at
Chanak and Nagara from direct fire from the warships

THE PLAN OF ATTACK 95

hammering at the entrance to the Straits and from the
Gulf of Saros. But once the communications to this
fortified hill were broken, it was regarded as certain
that the Narrows would be won, and once field guns
began to play directly on the rear of the forts at Kelid
Bahr, unable to reply behind them up the peninsula, that
the position would be gained.

Anxious not to miss the scene of the landing, I had
made plans with my friend Mr. W. T. Massey, the
correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, to reach an island
nearest to the entrance to the Dardanelles — Imbros. It
was while trying to make these plans that one day we
saw General Hamilton, from whom we had already
received courteous replies to letters asking for permis-
sion to witness the landing. The Commander-in-Chief
told us it was outside his power to grant this request.
What he told us later is worthy of record. The same
wiry leader, energetic, yet calm, his voice highly pitched,
as I had remembered it during many trips with him
as the Inspector- General of the Oversea Forces, round
the camps of Victoria, he now greeted me cordially and
spoke of his regret at being tmable to offer us his help.
As he spoke he paced up and down the bare room,
with just a writing-desk in it, in a building situated in
the centre of the town of Alexandria, which was the first
base of the great Mediterranean Expedition.

" I believe that the Press should have representatives
with the forces," he began, " to tell the people what
is being done. If the war is to succeed, you must interest
the democracy first, for it is the democracy's war. By
all means have censorship, but let your articles be written
by a journalist, and not literary men who think they are
journalists. The trained man who knows how to interest
people in things that cannot matter to the army is the
fellow needed. However, it has been decreed other-
wise, and I can do nothing. You are free British
subjects, nevertheless, and can always take a ticket to
the nearest railway-station. If it is possible, I shall do
all I can to help you."

We wished the General success and left him, receiving
then, as always, the greatest courtesy in all our dealings
with the General Staff. It was an encouraging attitude,
we felt, and for this reason we decided to land on
Imbros and wait an opportunity to reach the main-

96 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

land after the troops had advanced. I may say here
that General Hamilton, true to his promise, did make
a great exception for me later, and I was enabled to
spend July and August on the peninsula itself. For
the present, on a Greek steamer of uncertain tonnage,
carrying a mixed cargo that included onions, garlic,
and much oil and fish, I left for the islands lying
round the entrance to the Dardanelles. I quitted the
vessel at Castro, the capital of Lemnos Island (if a
wretched little township with a decayed fort dominating
it might be called a capital) ; and curiously enough, just
afterwards that vessel was boarded by a British destroyer
and sent to Malta for carrying flour to Dedeagatch, a
Bulgarian port. Flour had been declared contraband
since we had left Alexandria, for Turkey had obtained
enormous supplies, 500,000 tons I was told it was esti-
mated at, through the agency of King Ferdinand.

My experiences of being in " The War Zone " were
only beginning. At Castro I was arrested on landing,
and asked if I did not know that the island was under
the command of the Admiral. This was the British
Admiral, Admiral de Robeck, though I did not know,
but might easily have guessed, for the whole of the
assembled fleet of transports, as well as the Allied battle-
ships, were sheltered at Mudros at this time, waiting for
the day to be determined on for the landing — this event
subject now to the weather. Once already plans had
been postponed.' It was not until the 25th it was
agreed that it would be possible to have a sufficiently
long and fine spell of calm seas and a favourable
phase of the moon to make the attempt. I had
already experienced something of the storms of the
Mediterranean on my journey north. For two days the
sea had been running high and we were tossed about like
a cockleshell. What, then, of small destroyers and
landing -barges ! By the time, however, we had passed
the Dardanelles on our way to Lemnos the sea had grown
perfectly calm again, and in the distance I could hear
the boom of the guns — a solemn, stately knell it seemed
at that time, as of a Nation knocking at the door of
another Nation, a kind of threat, behind which I knew
lay the power of the army.

I managed at Castro to assuage the worst fears of
the British officer, that I was a spy, and to assure him that

MARCHING ORUEKS FOR THE FRONT.

Men of tlie 3rd Brigade leaving Mena Camp in March for Mudros Harbour.

■^^^^^

fe.

LEADERS AT THE LANDING.

Brigadier-General M'Cay (commanding and Brigade) having a final chat with Brigadier-
General Sinclair-Maclagan (commanding 3rd Brigade), on the right.

To f.ice p. ()6.

THE PLAN OF, ATTACK 97

I had a friend in General Hamilton, and that I had! merely
come for a " look round." Yes, I was told, I might
go to Mudros Harbour, since I seemed to know the
fleets were there, but I should be detained there pend-
ing the pleasure of the authorities, who were to deter-
mine when it would be safe to release me with the news
I might obtain. The Greek gendarmes heartily co-
operated in detaining me under observation until the
next morning, and then I was permitted, on giving an
undertaking not to visit Mudros, to set out for the
hot springs at Thermia with the object of taking a bath.

At this spot was a mountain. Mount Elias, and from
it I, marvelling at the sea power of Great Britain, looked
down on to the wonderful crowded harbour of Mudros.
I saw the vast fleet lying placidly at anchor. With
powerful glasses I could detect the small boats and
the men landing on the slopes and dashing up the
shore for practice. How far the real from this make-
believe ! Reluctantly, after hours of watching, I left
this grandstand, having seen trawlers, warships, trans-
ports, coming and going along the tortuous channel to
the harbour, which was protected by skilfully placed
nets and guarded by active little patrol-boats.

I found trace of the 3rd Australian Brigade round
this charming valley at the foot of the mountain, for
they had visited the springs for the same purpose that
I had done — the luxury of a warm bath — and left a
recommendation with the proprietor, which he treasures
to this day, as to the value of the mineral waters. In
the distance I could always hear the slow booming of
the guns at the Dardanelles. I returned to Castro,
satisfied that the time was nearly ripe, and forthwith
determined to leave the island, where, obviously, I was
cramped and would find no means of seeing the landing.

It rained, to make matters more miserable ; but my
stay was not without interest. One day the Greek
Admiral came ashore in his yacht and was received by
the Governor of the island. From the inhabitants, many
of whom were Turks, who knew all about the peninsula,
having tended their flocks for many years at the
Dardanelles shores, I gained my first knowledge of the
fields of battle I wias later to visit. These Turks were
mostly taken up with living in the cafes and singing and
dancing to curious rhythmic music, not unpleasantly

98 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

tuned, but played by some execrable violinists. Most
of the dances showed a distinct Russian trait.

Let me remark here in passing that the Greek caiques,
or sailing-boats, were all this time leaving this harbour
for Bulgarian and Turkish ports along the coast (one
offered to land me on the Gulf of Saros). The British
officer at Castro told me he was there to stop the
leakage of news. I asked if he thought it possible for
information to be smuggled from the island. He replied
in the negative ; but I told him that I thought he was
mistaken ; for I had obtained much information of a
general character about the fleet and about other corre-
spondents interned at Mudros at the time, from various
Greeks who had come across as traders to the capital,
and it seemed to me to have been an easy matter for
news to have been taken by the caiques to the Bulgarian
coast. In fact, one man I now suspect of having been
a spy (he was selling wine and came back with me
when I left the island) . I said so to the British officer,
but he only smiled and advised me to leave for Salonika,
as being the most suitable spot for me in the ->Egean.
As a matter of fact, I half-suspect that he had orders
to " remove the correspondent," and that satisfied me
that, as the Tommies would say, " there was something
doing." I left for Mitylene, an island close to the
Asia Minor coast, where I had learned that more news
was to be obtained and could be got away. Moreover,
it enabled me to write what I had learned on the un-
delectable island of Mudros. Long will I remember
those four days.

I knew now, however, that the plans were ripe, that the
day was close at hand for the landing. The whole island
knew it, and I have no doubt (having watched the
officers travelling on the warship up and down the coast
of Gallipoli while the bombardment continued, by which
means the leaders learned the nature of their task) that
the Turks gained the same information as well, if, indeed,
the actual plans had not been already betrayed by the
Queen of Greece into the hands of her august and
Germanic brother, William.

CHAPTER XI

THE DAWN OF ANZAC— THE LANDING

Anzac ! In April — a name unformed, undetermined ;
June — and the worth of a Nation and Dominion proved
by the five letters — bound together, by the young army's
leader, Lieut. -General Sir W. Birdvi^ood, in the inspired
" Anzac " — Australian, New! Zealand Army Corps.

In reality, the first battle of Anzac began when the
transports commenced to steam out of the great harbour
of Mudros on Saturday afternoon, 24th April. All that
was needed for the swift commencement of the deep-laid
plan was a perfectly calm sea. This condition General
Sir Ian Hamilton had, as he sent forth, under the care of
the Navy and Rear -Admiral Thursby, his fine army of
Australians and New Zealanders. Already on the evening
of the 23rd, the covering force for the British landing
at Cape Helles, which had been entrusted to the 29th
Division, had steamed to Tenedos, where the fleet lay
enchained as in the story of ancient Troy, waiting for
the remainder of the ships, which on the morning of
the 24th began to stand off Tenedos. It was as if
the shipping of the Levant had been suddenly diverted
to lock the gates of the waterway leading to the heart
of the Turkish Empire, for the sea was covered with
ships — ships one -funnelled, two or four -funnelled ; ships
that went creeping along, skulking inshore ; ships that
were guarded by giant battleships and destroyers and
escorted up to the land ; and tiny little ships — scouts,
picket boats, pinnaces, and trawlers.

The majestic battleships led the lines from the great
harbour amidst the beating of drums and ringing cheers
from the crowded French and British transports that
formed a channel down which each Division steamed
from the port. With their minds set to the last task,
the very test of themselves as soldiers, the Australians

loo AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

lay most of the night on the decks of the transports.'
On the battleship Queen, 1,500 of the finest men of the
3rd Brigade attended a short service held by the Padre,
and heard the stirring message from the Admiral and
the Army. Then for six hours of case and smoke and
chat with the Navy. Here was the beginning of the
mutual admiration that grew in the hearts of the two
services — in the one for England's mariners of old, in the
other for the spirit of the young, vigorous, and physically
great Nation.

By dusk on that April evening, as calm as any spring
night, and as cool as the troops would know it in
Melbourne, a long string of transports, battleships, torpedo
boats, pinnaces, and row boats, were slipping through
the waters round the western headland of Imbros Island,
where a lighthouse bUnked its warning, towards the
mountainous shores o'f "GalHpoh.

In a bight in the land the ships lay awhile, their
numbers increasing as the hours drifted on. Down on
the troopships' decks the men were quietly singing the
sentimental ditties of " Home and Mother," or chatting
in a final talk, yarning of the past — the future, so imminent
now, left to take care of itself — until they were borne
within a distance when silence was essential to success.
Then they clenched their teeth. Leaders, instructed in
the plan, knew exactly what their objectives were to
be, though nothing but dark, hazy hills could they see
in the dropping rays of the moon. Again and again
they had rehearsed it, had placed their fingers on the
knolls that the enemy held — just then in what numbers
they did not know, but could only guess — went carefully
through each operation of getting the troops from the
ships to the shore and on those hills. Once finally now
they went over it all, calmly, ever so calmly, calculating
every step that they were to advance.

Midnight. The moon still hung obstinately above
the horizon, tipping with silver the island mountain peaks
towering over the fleet. The smoke trickled from the
funnels of the huge battleships that surrounded, and
mingled between, the transports ; it rolled in thick, snaky
coils from the funnels of the low destroyers panting
alongside the ships, ready for their mission. Over the
whole of that army, 30,000 men, t'here hung a lifetime
of suspense. .Would the moon never go down ! On

MvSSt

PORTION OF THE FLEET AND TRANSPORTS IN MUDROS HARBOUR
JUST BEFORE THE LANDING.

BALLOONSHIP "ARK ROYAL" AND TRANSPORTS OFF THE DARDANELLES

IN MAY.

THE DAWN OF ANZAC— THE LANDING loi

the battleships, where companies of the 3rd Australian
Brigade — the covering party — were waiting quietly,
parting instructions were given. The voices of the high
officers sounded crisp and deathly calm in the night.
Against the grim, grey decks of the warships the waiting
men were as patches of deeper shadow, circled by a ring
of luminous paint. That line separated them into boat
loads. Down the steel sides silently were dropped the
rope ladders. So soon as the moon would descend, so
soon would the men go down these into the destroyers —
as elsewhere off that Gallipoli Peninsula, thousands would
go over the sides of other transports on to other
destroyers waiting to dash to the shore.

Three o'clock, and still the moon was above the
horizon, but just above it. It dipped. The opaque
light faded from the sky. That intense darkness which
precedes dawn settled on the sea. It blotted out even
the faint line of the hills. The transports steamed
forward to their appointed stations off the coast. The
mystery of it ! The silent, terrible power of an
organized fighting machine ! The wheels set in motion !
Alongside of each ship came the destroyers, and along-
side them in turn drifted the strings of boats into which
the troops had to go on the last stage of their journey.
Already the men, fully equipped with their heavy packs,
greatcoats, and weapons of war, were drawn up on the
decks. No unnecessary word was spoken now. I believe
that the troops had so much to think of, that the thought
of bullets did not enter their mind at that time. Those
that did not carry a pick, had a spade ; and every
man carried a special entrenching tool. xAll had
bags for filling with sand, wire-cutters, to say nothing
of three days' rations in their haversacks, and their
packs besides. They had 200 rounds of ammunition
per man. Their rifles they tucked away under their
arms, gripping them with their elbows. This left their
hands free. So down, four ladders they dropped over
the sides of the battleships and transports on to the
decks of the destroyers. They were crowded there ;
no room to move at all. To the unknown hostile
strand they went. The last 2 miles was a race against
time, for soon now the Turks would know of the
landing. At least, they knew not at which point it
would come, so they prepared the whole of the beaches.

I02 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

Later I shall tell you exactly how. It was four o'clock
in the morning, and bitterly cold. The men said tliey
remembered that much, and the last warm breakfast
of coffee and rolls that they had on deck ; they re-
membered little else than that. They had a rifle arid
no target that they could see.

Now the Army Corps had, as I have told elsewhere,
a covering force chosen specially and assiduously
practised in landing on Mudros beaches — the 3rd
Brigade, under Colonel Maclagan. This daring force
was to blaze the way, or brush aside, in a military
sense, any obstruction of the enemy ; barely 3,500 men,
on whom the reputation of an army and a Nation was
staked.

To be more exact. At 2.30 a.m. the transports,
together with the tows and the destroyers, steamed in
to within 4 miles of the coast. The moon was sinking
slowly, and the silver haze it cast in the heavens, back
of the island of Imbros, may have silhouetted the ships
dimly and seryed as a warning for the Turks. Probably
the ships came undetected, but no sight of land could
be seen, not even a signal light. From the battleship
Queen, lying but a mile off the promontory of Gaba
Tepe, all directions were given and the attack com-
manded.

Six bells and " All's well " still with the adventure.
No smoking is allowed. Fierce oaths rap out at thought-
less soldiers who, by a simple act, might imperil the
lives of all. Has a signal light on shore any significance ?
Nothing happens ; so all believe it has not. The
murmurs of the men had been lowered to whispers
as they had last talks and confidences and chats over
the "game afoot." It was only 12 miles across from
Imbros to the intended point of disembarkation, but at
a slow 4 -knot speed, what length those three hours !
Suddenly in the midst of all the whisperings and lapping
of the waves on the black fleet, a ray of light stretches
like a gaunt white arm far into the sky, andi begins
to sweep round stiffly behind the rugged hill. It rests
down south at the entrance to the Straits, and then, as
if satisfied in its search, roves idly along, until suddenly
as it appeared, it vanishes. Yes, the fleets had escaped
detection surely, for the light came from Chanak Fort,
where the restless Turk spent another night in trembling

THE DAWN OF, ANZAC— THE LANDING 103

anticipation. Often after did we see that wandering
restless ray, with others, go streaming down the Straits
in search of victims on which to train the fortress guns.
That night, so well planned was the attack, it found
naught of the ships lying concealed behind Tenedos,
and which, so few hours later, were to set forth, British
manned, at the time the Australians were hurling them-
selves ashore on the narrow cove that goes down to
history named after them — Anzac.

Only a general idea of the shore on which the army
corps was to set foot had been gained by the leaders
from the decks of warships. It revealed to them, just
north of Gaba Tepe, a short strip of beach, little more
than a hundred yards in length, with a low plain behind
it, out of which rose up the ridges and foothills, ending
in the great ridge of Sari Bair and culminating^ in
Koja Chemin Tepe (Hill 971), the objective of the Army
Corps. There was to be a descent on this beach, so
it was planned, and a turn north-east up along a plateau
or ridge that rose rapidly to the crowning hill. Gaba
Tepe itself was a headland in which the' Turks had con-
cealed batteries of machine guns to enfilade this landing
and other beaches, but which same point had perved
for weeks as a good target for the warships. This
point was to be stormed and held.

The 2|-knot current that sweeps along the coast from
the mouth of the Straits, bore the bows of heavily laden
but shallow draft lifeboats and barges down the Gulf
farther than was intended, and so the landing beach was
mistaken in the dark. The attack once launched, there
was no withdrawal or reme<ly, so the troops began to pour
ashore a mile farther along the coast to the north than
was intended ; not, on landing, to reach a plain, but to
be faced with terrible hills and deep ravines. But was
it so awful an error ? Chance had carried in her womb
a deeply significant advantage, for at the original point
the beach had been carefully prepare'd with barbed -wire,
that ran down into the very water. Trenches lined
the shore — making similar obstacles to those the British
troops faced 9 miles away at Helles. So Chance
guided the boats into a natural cove, certainly not very
large — just a segment of a circle some 400 yards long.
Never anticipating an attack at the foot of such a
ridge, the Turks had dug but few trenches to protect

I04 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

this spot, more so as the whole of the beach might be
commanded by machine guns, concealed in certain knolls.
Around the northern point of the cove, however, the
breach broadened out again into what, in winter, was a
marsh about 200 yards wide, which eventually, towards
Suvla Bay, opened out into the marshes and plains of
Suvla Bay and the valley that leads up to the Anafarta
villages.

Unwittingly, into the cove and around its northern
point, Ari Burnu, the first boats were towed by destroyers
and pinnaces until, the water shallowing, the ropes were
cast ofif and a naval crew of four, with vigorous strokes,
pushed on until a splutter of rifles proclaimed that the
Turks had realized the purpose. The battle opened at
4.17 a.m. The racket of the rifles reached the ears
of the other brigades, locked still in the transports,
while the 3rd Brigade, men of the 9th, loth, i ith, and
1 2th Battalions, went ashore to form the screen for the
landing army — the 9th (Queensland) Battalion led by
Lieut. -Colonel Lee, the loth (South Australian) led by
Lieut. -Colonel Weir, the i ith (West Australian) led
by Lieut. -Colonel J, L. Johnston, and the 12th (from
S.A., W.A., and Tasmania) led by Lieut. -Colonel Clarke,
D.S.O. It was a terrible duty, but a proud position,
and Colonel Sinclair Maclagan had command. The men
had orders not to fire. They had to judge for them-
selves, and leap into the water when they were nearing
the shore. So the men jumped from the boats into the
icy ^gean, up to their armpits sometimes, their rifles
held above their heads, and slowly facing the stream
of lead, waded to the shore. Eager to be free of action,
they at once dropped their packs and charged. Some
Turks were running along the beach to oppose them.
These were killed or wounded. At other places round the
northern extremity of the cove the boats were drifting
in, and along the broader shore were g'rounding on the
beach, only to be shattered and the whole parties in them
decimated by the machine guns in Fisherman's Hut and
the low hills above this enemy post.

I So the Turks found the attack on them before they
/realized its proximity and strength. A few companies of
(the enemy were manning shallow trenches on the foothills,
' others were on the ridges overlooking the beach. Firing
spread from end to end of the beaches, the machine guns

GABA TEPE AND THE PLANNED LANDING BEACH.
Picture taken from Tasmania Post looking south on to Achi Baba in the far distance.

A SHELL BURSTING IN THE VERY HEART OF ANZAC COVE, NEAR LIEUT.-
GENERAL BIRDWOOD's DUGOUT AND THE END OF WATSON'S PIER.

To face p. 104.

THE DAWN OF ANZAC— THE LANDING 105

spluttering a deadly line. Against this opposition, with
a yell and cheers, the Australians dashed into their first
action. " Impshee,i Impshee, Yallah — you black devils ! ■"
was the cry that broke fromf a thousand throats. Louder
and still louder grew' the crack of the rifles, and when the
Turks turned, not waiting for the army that now tumbled
on to the beach, and ceased firing, the guns from behind
the ridge and from Gaba Tepe point, took up the tale.
Shrapnel soon began to burst over the beach, flicking
to foam the waters between the now dimly visible
transports and the water's edge. It was fortunate the
Turkish gun fire went high in that first hour's fighting,
and only fell harmlessly into the water, the men ashore
escaping hurt as they swiftly advanced through the
bushes, routing the Turks on the beach. Then, faced
by almost perpendicular cliffs, these fearless fighters
turned half -right (they had bayoneted the few Turks
that remained) and went up the side of a high ridge —
Maclagan's Ridge, 200 feet high — and paused only for
want of breath. On they went a moment later, the
officers leading what squads of men they could gather up,
on to a plateau, known afterwards as " Plugge's Plateau,"
and down into a great ravine or dere — Shrapnel Gully.
Only men in perfect health and of the physique of
these troops could have accomplished the scaling of those
hills and still charge on, their vigour unabated. That
climb had been amongst firs and holly bushes, over
carpets of poppies, anemones, and wild flowers. The
troops fired now from the ridges into the running Turks,
whom they could not well see, but could hear crashing
away ahead of them. It was the first step in a great
charge. The Turks had not been numerous, but their
position might well have been called impregnable. I
do not suppose more than 500 to 800 Turks com-
posed the force that manned the heights, but they had
trenches, machine guns in positions, and had but to turn
their fire on the water's edge that gently lapped the
shore. They knew they had many thousands in reserve
at Maidos, Bogali, and Kojadere, the nearest camp, but
fearful of the landing host, they had turned and gone
back to the gully, where, joined by reserves, they
waited the next onslaught. These enemy lines too, now
the gallant 3rd Brigade, spreading out in a thin line,

' Egyptian : " Get out ! "

io6 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

drove before them. Raked by machine guns from' other
ridges, the bullets came whistling through the leaves of
the bushes round them. It was no use to pause in the
valley — bullets came from behind, as snipers waited while
the onward rush went over them, and then fired into the
rear of the advancing parties — only to push on and on.
Terrible work this was, crashing through the undergrowth,
down, down into a valley, the bottom of which could not
be seen, over broken ground, to reach at last creeks,
and then to climb the hill outlined faintly in irregular
silhouette before the advancing dawn.

As it grew lighter the enemy in great numbers could
be seen running along these ridges, or establishing them-
selves in hasty entrenchments. Had they attacked, 4,000
strong as they were, they must have dispersed our isolated
parties, driving them back at least. But the fierceness
of the landing had shaken the nerve of the Turkish
army ; for the moment, I believe, the attack was para-
lysed. For an hour the Turks had ceased firing— between
5.30 and 6.30. Oh, thrice blessed hour, that gave the
landing army time to gather its strength;! The main gully
was intersected by many smaller gullies, and down each
of these parties of shouting Australians went, wherever
they could find a leader — a sergeant, a South African
veteran, or ofhcer — to lead them. Some waited for
word to go on, others went on till they were lost to
their comrades for ever in the distant ridges.

In the early hours Major Brand, Brigade-Major of the
3rd Brigade, directing the right of the line that was work-
ing east, led a party across a crest, and, on the hillside
below, saw a redoubt and earthworks, on which, after
opening rapid fire, without delay he charged. The Turks
fled, leaving as a prize to fall into our hands a three-gun
battery of Krupp guns. One cannot overestimate the
gallantry of this small party, who lost no time in spiking
the guns and destroying them as best they could. For
already the Turkish first counter-attack was developing,
and it became necessary for Colonel Maclagan, while
waiting for the new regiments, to contract his front.
Major Brand had to retire to the hill crest, and for this
deed and other heroism that morning he obtained the
D.S.O.

Hours ere this had fled by, and meanwhile other
regiments were pouring from the transports. Still the

THE DAWN OF ANZAC— THE LANDING 107

darkness hung over the shore. Only with the faint
streaks of dawn could it be definitely learned that the
brigade that had landed had won and held the heights.
As one section of transports, having discharged its human
freight, moved out, others filed in to take their places.
The flashes of rifles could be seen on the cliffs, the
error of the landing — that fortunate error — realized with
a gasp of horror, surprise, and fear. All need for
silence now ended, the orders rang out sharp and clear.
Torpedo-boats bumped alongside, swiftly brought to rest,
while the troops dropped down on to their decks, only
to find there wounded men who had returned, never
having set foot ashore.

"Hullo, mates, stung!" called some men from the
transports to the wounded men.

" Blasted bad luck ! — months of training, and never
got a shot at the blighters, and only twenty minutes of
fighting."

Wounded were being lifted gently on board by the
slings ; others lay on the torpedo-boats, the time too
precious to render anything but first aid while the task
of disembarking still remained unfinished.

How magnificent the attitude of the Navy now that
the strain was lifted, and a silent, stern air had given
place to a jaunty assurance. Boys ran pinnaces up
to grim transports and took command of hundreds of
men, fearing death as little as any tried veterans. Reck-
less of danger, they never flinched. Let me only tell of
one such midshipman hailing a transport (the skipper
told me the story himself later), saying : —

" Admiral's orders, but you will move in to

position, closer in shore."

" Is there any danger? " bellowed back the skipper,
thinking of the safety of his ship and the shells that
threw towers of water up over his decks.

"Danger, sir! What is danger?" came back the
piping reply.

And those men a little more senior, commanding the
destroyers, the adventure of it all appealed to their deep-
rooted instincts — the instincts of the Navy.

"Well, where do you want to go to?" asked a
destroyer commander of a young infantry officer with his
hundreds of men as he came aboard from the liner
towering above the squat little warship.

lo8 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

"Good God!" exclaimed the officer, and, turning,
shouted up to his commanding officer, still on board
the transport, "He does not know where to take me!"

" That is all right," laughed the naval man. " I went
a bit north last time. I'll try a little higher up." And
his engine-room bell tinkled and they were off.

Amongst the boats and barges and small craft, as the
dawn grew bright, the shells from the Turks fell, and
the bullets from the hills raked them and killed the
rowers at the oars.

Major Jackson, in command of a company of the
7th Victorians, related to me his experience, that, in
the words of a soldier, most vividly tells the adventures
of all those regiments landed about six o'clock in the
pale morning light : —

" We had few oars — not enough to get quickly out of
the hell fire once the pinnaces had cast us off, nearly
100 yards from shore. All the men who could crouched
low in the boat, while the others rowed or sat by me
on the gunwale. Then one lad caught a crab, and I
commenced to curse him till, taking one more stroke,
he fell dead across his oar, shot through the head.
The bullets were ripping against our sides and the boat
was filling with water. Many of us had to jump out
while still the water was up to our armpits and push
the boat inshore ; many could never leave the boat.
I formed up all the men I could from my own and
other boats, and was directed up to the hills. But
I can tell you that in many boats few men came out,
and others lay at the bottom jammed beneath their dead
comrades, who crushed them down."

Surely no words can describe the gallantry of troops
who, without a murmur, bore their wounds. They joked
while in the boats, talked of the nearness of the shot
and shell, laughed as bullets flicked caps and jackets.
Their attitude to death roused the enthusiasm of the
sailors. "They believe they are still on a picnic!"
exclaimed a naval officer, and as the outline of the
cliffs grew more distinct, " Hell! " he exclaimed. " They
are up there! Good on you, Australians!" It was
the beginning of the knowledge to the Navy what
fighters the young Nation had, and they welcomed them,
and henceforth anything in their power was too little to
help men who could face death with a cheer and a smile.

k-.i

a 5

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G a

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Hi«-.^»naEemul^ ''flHSfcX^

THE DAWN OF ANZAC— THE LANDING 109

Portions of the 5 th, under Colonel Wanliss, and
6th Battalion, under Colonel M'Nicol, came inshore on
large lighters that remained almost stationary off shore,
with the shrapnel bursting over them, till lines were
passed to the beach and their comrades hauled them in.
Major Whitham, 12th Battalion, told me when he had
called on his men from his boat, but three had (re-
sponded— the rest had been shot.

It is impossible to say which battalion landed first of
the brigades. Generally it is conceded that the Queens-
landers got ashore first, but only a few seconds later
came the remainder of the troops from every State of
the Commonwealth. The 1st and 2nd Brigades landed
at six o'clock and were on shore by nine. The beach
from a distance looked a surging mass of khaki figures,
while the hillsides were covered with groups of men,
who were working like fury, digging holes and tearing'
down the bushes. Pinnaces, stranded and sunk, lay along
the shore, barges, too, and boats.

Major Cass (now Colonel Cass, D.S.O.), Brigade-
Major of the 2nd Brigade, commanded by Colonel M'Cay,
described to me the landing of the Victorians, who now
followed hard after the clearing party, together with
the 1st Brigade, under Colonel M'Laurin. I will repeat
it here as the testimony of a gallant soldier : —

" The transports moved into position, but they could
not get forward, as warships and T.B.D.'s, with the
3rd Brigade, still occupied the allotted places. In con-
sequence, the 7th Battalion and portion of the 6th were
embarking in boats before the 5th and 8th could get
to their places. The enemy now had light enough to
use his field guns from Gaba Tepe, and shelled the boats
heavily. Gaba Tepe was at once engaged by the
Triumph and Bacchante, but the guns were so well placed
that they continued in action at intervals during the
whole landing. This shell fire enfiladed the beach and
caused many casualties in the boats. Those casualties
caused further delay in the disembarkation, as wounded
men were left in the boats, and even put in the boats
from the beach. When the boats returned to the
transports it was necessary to take the wounded on board,
and, as provision had not been made for this, increasing
delays took place with each tow or string of boats.
It was interesting at this stage to watch the demeanour

no AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

of the troops. At least 90 per cent, of them had never
been under fire before, and certainly 95 per cent, had
not been under shell fire. Yet they looked at the
wounded, questioned them, and then went on with their
disembarkation in a matter-of-fact way, as if they were
used to this sort of thing all their lives. There seemed
to be one desire — to get to grips with the enemy. Quickly
and methodically the boats were loaded, tools handed
down and stowed away, and all made ready, as had
been practised at Mudros, and the tows started for the
shore. On reaching the beach there was a certain amount
of confusion. Men from all four battalions of the
2nd Brigade began landing at the one time, to find on
the beach many men from the 3rd Brigade who had
gone forward. Because of the landing being made a
little farther north than was anticipated or intended, the
3rd Brigade had gone to the left flank, and the 2nd
Brigade, after a hurried consultation between the two
brigades, moved to the right flank. The first ridge
emphasized the necessity for discarding the packs, and
thus free of their loads, the men moved on. But
practically all semblance of company and battalion
formation was lost."

And here let me write of the praise that all ranks
have for the 26th Indian Mountain Battery that landed
with the Victorians and pushed immediately into the heart
of the position. The busy bang, bang of those terrible
relentless little guns did much to stifi'en and strengthen
the next twenty-four hours' resistance of the army. *' Yes,
there are the guns, men, just behind you," and the
ofiicer saw on the face of the soldier a contented smile.

" We're all well right now, let the come I " and

on the soldier went digging. I shall have more to say
of these Indians later.

By midday the whole of the Victorians and the New
South Wales Brigades were landed. Unavoidably, in the
stress of battle they had mingled their battalions with
the 3rd Brigade's, now forming a curved line on the edge
of the plateau that lay on the far side of Shrapnel
Gully, from a point about a mile from Gaba Tepe round
on to the shoulder of the main ridge, thus forming an
arc of which the beach made the cord. For, while the
Australians had been holding the main ridge with a line
running almost due north and south, the New Zealanders

THE DAWN OF ANZAC— THE LANDING in;

had landed, and had stormed and captured the ridge
that lay almost at right angles (a last spur of Sari Bair)
to the beach, advancing from the first ridge that had
been stormed by the 3rd Brigade and making good the
plateau called— after their leader. Colonel Plugge (Auck-
land Battalion) — Plugge 's Plateau. Some of the landing
parties, I have related, had got ashore at the point of Ari
Burnu, or even farther north, and were enfiladed from
machine guns placed in some fishermen's huts about
200 yards along the beach. With magnificent gallantry
Captain Cribb, a New Zealand officer, led a party of men
to the huts, which he captured at the point of the
bayonet, killing or dispersing the Turks, who fled into
the hills, leaving a quantity of ammunition and some
stores to fall into our hands. Rid of this menace, the
beach here suffered only from a frontal fire from the
ridges, as it always did even in subsequent months.

Later in the afternoon and evening the 4th Infantry
Brigade, under Colonel Monash, that came swiftly up,
filled the gap at the head of Shrapnel Gully and united
the Australians and New Zealanders at a point where the
Turks might have easily come and severed our lines,
at the head of what was subsequently called " Monash
Gully," near Pope's Hill and Quinn's Post.

Now the fight for that main ridge was fierce in the
extreme. While the beach and the landing waters were
raked with shrapnel that caused hundreds of casualties,
the gullies were also swept by fearful machine-gun fire.
Overhead whizzed and burst the continuous pitiless shells.
"Don't come up here!" yelled an officer to Lieutenant
Mangar as he attempted to lead a platoon of men over
a small under feature that formed a way to the main
ridge. "This is riddled with machine-gun fire!" It
was an exclamation often heard as parties of men strove
to link up the firing-line. Early in the afternoon the
Turkish first attack developed. At three o'clock they
attempted to pierce our line in the centre along the
main ridge. Already many of the most advanced parties,
that had gone well forward, unsupported on either flank,
for more than a mile farther (nearly three miles from
the landing shore), led by corporals, sergeants, and what
officers were available — alas, whose names must go un-
recorded ! — had been driven back and back fighting, even
putting their way out. They saw that to remain would

112 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

mean to be slaughtered. The Turks were hurrying up
reinforcements. How many men fell in that retirement
I would not like to estimate. Of the 5th BattaUon alone.
Major Fethers, Major Saker, Major Clements — all leading
groups of men towards the heart of the Turkish position
— each fell, mortally wounded — finest types of soldiers of
the army. Hundreds of men sold their lives in reckless
valour, fighting forward, led by their officers, who
believed that while they thus pressed on, the hills behind
them were being made secure. This, indeed, was exactly
what did happen, which always leaves in my mind the
thought that it was the very bravery and zeal of those
first lines of men — men from all battalions of various
brigades, who pushed forward — that enabled the position
in rear to be held and made good, though the pity was
that sufficient reserves were not ready at hand to make
good the line, farther inland, on the last ridge that
overlooked Boghali and the main Turkish camp — a ridge
some men reached that day, but which the Army Corps
never afterwards gained.

On Lieut .-Colonel M'Nicol, commanding the magnifi-
cent 6th Battalion and a portipn of the 7th as well (Lieut. -
Colonel Elliott, their leader, having been wounded), the
main fighting fell in that first attack made on the right
of the main ridge. Between him and the next battalion
on his flank, the 8th, under Lieut. -Colonel Bolton, was a
gap of some 400 yards. It was a desperate time holding
these until the arrival of Lieut .-Colonel Thompson with
the 4th Infantry, that efifectively filled the gap, driving
back the Turks, though losing their gallant leader in
the charge. No time yet to dig in ; the Turks' attack
was pressed with fury. Hand-to-hand fighting resulted
in the Turk going down as the Australian yelled defiance
at him in his excitement and frantic despair at the
terrible hail of shrapnel raining from above. There
seemed to be constant streams of men making their way
to the dressing-station. Major Cass told me " four
well-defined and partly sheltered tracks were followed,
but even along these tracks men were being killed or
wounded again by shrapnel coming over the firing-line
on the ridge. This continual thinning of the already
weakened line for a time seemed to imply disaster. The
shrapnel of the Turks was doing its work with a deadly
thoroughness. The enemy's guns could not be located

THE DAWN OF ANZAC— THE LANDING 113

by the ships' guns. We had only one mountain battery
ashore, and it was seen and met by a storm of shrapnel,
losing half its strength in casualties. Reinforcements
were urgently needed, and so slowly did they come that
they appeared to be drops in the bucket. But with
dogged persistence our troops held the main ridge. In
advance of this line were still to be seen a few small
parties of men — the remains of platoons which had pushed
forward and hung on."

As night fell, the line, though not continuous, iwas
linked in two sides of a triangle round the position,
with the beach as a base. The 4th Brigade had, under
Colonel Monash, been dashed up to the central portion
of the line, where the Turks were massing in the
greatest numbers. General Bridges had come ashore
and so had Lieut. -General Birdwood, and sought to gain
the true strength of the situation from the leaders. For
a memorable conference had been held between the three
Brigadiers earlier in the day, when roughly the line
was divided up, the 2nd being to the south, then the
3rd, the 1st, and finally the 4th near the Sari Bair main
ridge. It was not as the original plans had been con-
ceived, but it served well. The line was now desperately
in need, everywhere, of reinforcements.

On the beach the scenes were indescribable. The
wounded were pouring into the temporary dressing
station that Colonel Howse, V.C., had rapidly erected
ashore ; the boats that brought to the beach the living,
went back to the ships with the wounded and dead.
General Bridges would not permit the guns to be landed —
thereby adding to the chaos on the beach, where stores,
equipments, and ammunition came tumbling from the
boats on to the narrow shore, not 10 yards wide — until
after dusk, when the first gun was brought into action,
a Victorian gun, under Colonel Johnston. Some guns
of Colonel Rosenthal's Artillery Brigade had come ashore
at noon, but Colonel Hobbs, under orders from the Army
Corps, sent them back. It was, as yet, no place for
guns, with the Turks massing for attack and the situation
critical, but it was guns that were urgently needed.

The cry for reinforcements became more insistent as
the night wore on. Lieut. -General Birdwood was re-
called to the Queen. Orders were given to prepare for
evacuation, and at midnight the boats were simply

114 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

carrying off the wounded in tightly packed boatloads.
Delay was inevitable with such casualties — three or four
thousand — yet it was this delay that made the situation
desperate. Would the wounded have to be abandoned
when the position was relinquished and another 3,000
men lost ? Before night had deepened the Turks com-
menced to counter-attack again. Charge after charge
they made, their shrapnel bursting in front of them over
our lines ; but they would never face the lines of
bayonets that waited for them, and well directed volleys
sent them back to their trenches and silenced their shrill
cries of " Allah, Allah Din ! " Towards early morning
the position became calmer, as the Turks were flung
back. What troops could be spared dug and dug for
their lives, exhorted by their officers. Orders, counter-
orders, false commands, came through from front to
rear, from rear to front, from flank to flank. Snipers
fell to blows from the butt of a rifle, prisoners prayed!
for safety, never dreaming it would be granted them.

So the crisis came and passed. A determination, long
fostered in the hearts of all, to " stick for Australia," to
hang on or die in their trenches, won the day. Moral, if
not very sanguinary support was given by two 18 -pounder
guns that opened fire from our own trenches on the
Turkish positions at dawn of the Monday morning. I
doubt if more surprised men ever faced shells than the
Turkish leaders when they reahzed that in the very
firing-line, by the side of the landed infantry, were
field guns, generally in rear of the battle line, and now
firing at point-blank range at the enemy entrenched lines.
It was a feat of no mean importance to "drag by lines of
men, as 'the Italian gunners later did at Gorizia, those great
guns to the front of the battle ; it required great grit to
keep them there. How the " feet '' cheered the gunners
on that morning as they plumped shell after shell into
the disordered Turkish ranks. "There they go! Give
it them, the blighters I " yelled the excited infantry-
men ; and they poured their rifle fire into the bodies
of Turks that could be seen moving or crawHng in
the green bushes which in those days covered the plateau.

So ended the most horrible night ever spent on Anzac,
and thus began the dawn of that famous position.

CHAPTER XII

A TERRIBLE THREE DAYS

Dawn on the 26th came stealing over t"he hills beyond
the Straits and snow-capped Mount Ida, showing her
pink peak above the dark grim fortifications of Kelid
Bahr, and along the Dardanelles Straits. Dawn awoke
to hear the thundering boom of the guns from the
fleet in amongst the valleys and gulhes of Anzac, the
rattle of muskets and the rip -rip -rip of machine guns.
It spread with an echoing roar to the beach ; it was
taken up by the ships that lay one or two miles off the
coast ; it was intensified and flung back to shore again
by the monster guns on the deck of the Queen Elizabeth.
Down to the entrance ol the Straits rolled the sound ;
and back from the Straits came the thundering roar
as of a milKon kettledrums, while the fierce attacks
and counter-attacks of the British pushed in on to the
fortifications, and turned the Turks in terror to the foot-
hills of Achi Baba. The enemy had abandoned their
smashed guns ; they had evacuated the fortifications
and the village of Seddul Bahr, as the magnificent, im-
perishable 29th Division had managed to gain a foot-
hold round the toe of the peninsula. Word had early
been flashed up to Anzac that the landing had been a
success, but had been resisted more fiercely, more terribly
than even the most sanguinary expectations predicted.
It was the naval guns that took the place of the
field guns, bursting shrapnel in the front of the Turkish
lines, that held back the enemy charges, that decimated
their men, that enabled the British and the Australian
troops to effect the landing: and hang on to the ridges
until their trenches were deep enough, their guns landed,
and the lines organized to withstand any attacks, how-
ever violent. It was artillery fire that the infantry
(30,000 infantry) needed most at Anzac, and it was
heavy artillery fire with a vengeance they got. As I

ii6 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

watched the warships pumping in shells on to the hills,
saw the Turks answering with the bluish white, curling
clouds of shrapnel that burst over the sea and the gullies,
it gave me an indication of the fury of the battle of which
these were the only visible signs at long range. There
was a balloon observing for the ships. The Queen
Elizabeth^ the Triumph, and the Bacchante, and five
other warships lay off Anzac. There were three times
as many ofif Cape Helles, with the French fleet steaming
off Kum Kale. I watched the leaping tongues of fire
from the warships' sides, and heard the muffled report
as the smoke blew back over the decks in a yellow cloud ;
and before it had vanished (but many seconds later, as it
had whirled miles in the air), the explosion of the shell
bursting on the side of the hills and among the trenches.
The wounded felt that shelling most, as tliey lay on the
clififs, on the shore, on the decks of the transports, iwith
the ships firing point-blank at them. It shook them — it
chilled their blood. But the men in the trenches knew
that on the naval gunners depended their lives, depended
their success ; it was these protecting screens of fire,
of huge shells, that gave them time to dig, and to
settle down into what was fast becoming trench war-
fare. The Turks gathered battalions to battalions and
flung them against the parts of our lines where the
configuration of the country made them naturally weakest.
The shells from the warships decimated them.

If Sunday had been the critical night for the Army
Corps at Anzac, Monday and Tuesday were the critical
days. Each party of men fought as a separate, desperate
unit. The Turk might throw his complete reserve
battalions against the right, the centre, or the left of
our thinned ranks, but it was only the grit, the deter -
rmha'tion of the fighting spirit of the Australians and
New Zealanders that enabled them to hold back the
enemy or continue the attacks in small units led by a
corporal or a junior subaltern. Reinforcements were
hastily gathered, such parties as might be found in the
valleys going to join the scattered regiments, or trying
to find their comrades of a battalion. No counter-attack
on a large scale could be ordered while such disorganiza-
tion prevailed ; but each section of the line sought to
advance, as it was found necessary to take and straighten
and strengthen the position on the second ridge, so as
to eventually link up the whole line.

maclagan's ridge and anzac beach ox 26th august, showixc; the

HILLSIDE as yet UNINHABITED.

EARLY HOSPITALS ON ANZAC BEACH.

To tace p. ii6.

A TERRIBLE THREE DAYS 117

In this way, then, the firing'-line was roughly divided
• — on the first morning after landing — into four sections.
On the extreme right was mostly the 2nd Brigade, under
Colonel M'Cay, next to him the 3rd Brigade, under
Colonel Maclagan, with battalions of the ist Brigade,
under Colonel M'Laurin, on his left. The 4th Brigade,
under Colonel Monash, filled the apex of the position,
and turning back the flank to the beach were the New
Zealanders, under General Russell. A rough-and-ready
division of the line it was, but it held, and, with' little
alteration, was kept as the sections of the position. Units
were terribly mixed, and battalions, irrespective of
brigades, were ordered to defend weakened positions or
reinforce where the Turkish attacks grew most violent.
Daylight found the troops still digging for their lives.
Rain fell shghtly. The men had some cover now, and
found to their satisfaction and comfort that shrapnel
no longer worried them so long as they kept in their
trenches. How true in those days that the safest part of
the position was the firing-line ; for the tracks across
the gulhes were naked and open to tlie fire of the snipers'
bullets that came even behind the line where the Turk
had crept (for the gullies had not yet 'been searched and
cleared). One party of Turks, indeed, endeavoured
to get a machine gun through the lines on a stretcher,
roughly covered by a greatcoat, as if they were carrying
out a wounded man. They had not gone far before
the trick was discovered, and these daring men were shot
down. They were German non-commissioned officers
in charge of machine guns. Lieutenant Mangar told me
how he lay wounded behind a bush watching these German
gunners, not 10 yards from him, pouring lead into our
retreating parties of men. Finally, they, in turn, were
forced to retire, and he crept in, under cover of darkness,
to his own trenches.

The opening round of our guns was the signal for
rejoicing, and five guns were firing throughout the day.
A New Zealand battery first came into action with a
roar, and some of Colonel Rosenthal's 3rd iBrigade were
landed later in the day. Artillery lanes had been cut
round steeper slopes, over which the gunners and infantry-
men dragged them, once they had been brought along
the beach by the gun teams. Desperate efTorts were
made by artillery officers to silence the battery of guns

ii8 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

that the Turks had skilfully concealed on Gaba Tape,
and though our field guns, warships, and destroyers
plastered the point, the enemy's guns still continued
to do terrible execution on the landing beach and amongst
the troops entrenching on the right of the position.
A landing party had been repulsed with heavy losses,
finding the beach a mass of barbed-wire entanglements,
and machine guns concealed in the clififs. Hang on
and dig, hang on to the edge of the second plateau,
back on to which they had been lorced after the charge
across the three ridges to the last lines of hills that
looked down on the green, cultivated plains stretching
almost to the Dardanelles, was all the Australians could
do now. As far as possible the officers were endeavouring
to reorganize their companies and battalions. Brigadiers
have explained to me how for days, as they could, they
gathered 50 or 60 men from this unit and that, and would
communicate with the brigadier next along the line,
and a transfer would be effected. It was not possible
to let many men from the firing-line at one time, as
the Turks were furiously making preparations for attack.
Practically nothing could be accomplished on this Monday
or Tuesday. In the still all too shallow trenches the
" spotters " for the warships (young lieutenants "from
Duntroon College, Australia, had been chosen) telephoned
to the beach, from whence, by means of a wireless signal
station, they directed the ships' fire with telling effect.
Officers had but to find targets to be able to get any
number of shells from the Triumph or Bacchante, or
the destroyers that nosed close inshore, hurtling in the
required direction.

Throughout the morning of Monday the Turks ag'ain
began their counter-attacks, which with brief intervals,
it seemed almost without ceasing, for two days they
dashed first at one and then at another section of the
line. A Turkish order may be quoted to showl the
manner in which the German leader, Liman von Sanders,
endeavoured to inspire his troops, which now numbered
probably 40,000 men, to further sacrifices. It ran : —

Attack the enemy with the bayonet and utterly destroy him. We shall
not retrace one step, for if we do our religion, our country, and our nation
will perish.

Soldiers, the world is looking to you. Your only hope of salvation is to bring
the battle to a successful issue, or gloriously to give up your life in the attempt.

A TERRIBLE THREE DAYS 1 19

It may be added here, too, that after two days' constant
attack the Turkish leaders refused to ask their troops to
face the ships' fire again during the day. For it was the
ships' fire (with the Queen Elizabeth's enormous 15-inch
shrapnel pellets — a thousand in a case) as well as our
machine guns and the rifles and the Indian Mountain
Artillery (magnificently served were these guns) that the
Turks faced as they charged.

First on the right of the line the attacks began. The
Turks were hurled back by the 8th Battalion, under Lieut. -
Colonel Bolton. The Australians stood steady, sweeping
the enemy's lines, heaping up the dead. The Turks
advanced in the favourite massed German formation.
Grimly, with bayonets fixed, the Australians waited in
their unfinished trenches. At the apex of the line, the
head on Monash Gully, the great Turkish attack of the
day developed. Two ridges met here, and formed what
was named at once the " Nek." The Sari Bair ridge ran
at right angles to the beach, beginning with what had
been named Walker's Ridge and Russell Top, and con-
tinuing on past Chunak Bair to Hill 971, or Koja Chemin
Tepe. Just above Russell Top the broad plateau (on the
edge of which most of the Australian army now clung
desperately) joined the Sari Bair ridge at the Nek.
This main Australian ridge ran in a bow round to Gaba
Tepe. So steep was the head of the guUy and so cut up
with hills (for a spur ran out from the very centre of it —
Pope's Hill) that it was not possible to get a continuous
line of trenches across to the Nek. There was no alter-
native but to dig in here from Russell Top, down across
the gully, and up again on to the knob which struck out
into the gully, dividing its head in two (called sub-
sequently Pope's Hill), and from this point across to
Quinn's Post, so linking up with the rest of the right of
the line. The summit of the arc, as I have described our
position — now for the first time more definitely defined —
was the gully. On the left the New Zealanders held
Walker's Ridge, Plugge's Plateau, and the section of
Russell Top, and the trenches leading down on their left
into the valley ; with the result that the Turks chose
this point as the best for breaking through our position
and coming in behind our lines.. Had they succeeded
in their endeavours, which lasted till Wednesday, it
would have meant the cutting of Anzac in two.

I20 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

The '2nd Battalion, under Colonel Braund, had held the
trenches nearest the Nek until relieved by the New
Zealanders on Sunday night. Meanwhile the 4th Brigade,
less many companies, had been flung into the central
position. All the hills were still at this time covered with
thick scrub, and favoured the tactics of the Turks, who
crept through it until they were near enough to make a
rush at the trenches. But the men of the 2nd Battalion
and the New Zealanders stood firm. From the Nek, and
what afterwards became the Chessboard trenches, the
Turkish snipers shot down into the gully, which was a
veritable death-trap with this menace above it. No
wonder to it clung the name of the " Valley of the
Shadow of Death." It took many days for our sharp-
shooters from the high positions we had won to compel
the enemy to keep under cover, and eventually to with-
draw their snipers — those who were not shot at their posts.

Farther along the line M'Cay's Hill and Braund's Hill,
in the centre of the right of the position, were subjected
to a furious bombardment by the Turkish artillery, and
their machine guns were playing on these points until
nearly three o'clock, when the attacks of the Turks began
to increase in fury. They sent wave after wave of men
against our lines, and the 8th Battalion were forced to
retire to the edge of the ridge. The ene'my now came
across from up Happy Valley and other gullies on the
right, and were threatening to break through and get
behind our lines round M'Cay's Hill. It was then
that two battalions, the 9th, now under Major Robert-
son, and loth, under Lieut. -Colonel Weir, which
had already suffered under racking fire, and had
had to retire from distant ridges to which they had
penetrated in a counter-attack, were brought up from
a gully where they had been held in reserve. They
straightway commenced to retake the lost hill. Three
times they charged before the Turks finally broke, unable
to face the reckless bravery of the Australians, and the
hill was finally in our possession. But our losses were
again heavy. This finally settled the possession of the
hill, which enabled the line to be drawn straighter along
the right.

Meanwhile General Bridges had completed an inspec-
tion of the ground of the position, and determined that
certain portions would have to be straightened out so that

A TERRIBLE THREE DAYS 121

the best advantage might be taken of the country before
them. For this duty the 4th Battalion, or rather remain-
ing section of it, which had been kept in reserve, were
ordered to advance some hundred yards and occupy the
new line. Since the landing the enemy had crept into our
lines as spies, dressed in the uniforms of fallen men, and
had been successful by various ruses in trapping more
than one officer. They had passed false messages down
the line, and had caused men to cease fire for a time,
before the fallacy of the orders had been discovered. On
this occasion the 4th, led by Lieut. -Colonel Thompson,
believing that the whole of the line was to charge, went
forward, charging on and on through two valleys to a
distant ridge — Pine Ridge. They passed a small Turkish
camp, and were only stopped at length by a terrible
machine-gun fire when still 1,000 yards from the mouth
of the enemy's heavy artillery. They had then to retire,
realizing the hopelessness of their position. They fell
back. As they reached what was intended for their
objective they entrenched. But their gallant leader was
killed in the charge.

Again and again during Monday night and Tuesday
the Turks charged and counter-attacked along the
whole front, but the Australians, confident of their
prowess after twenty -four hours' continuous fighting,
grimly held their ground. They had learned that
trenches gave some protection from shrapnel, and
those that were not fighting were burrowing like
rabbits, digging in, while their comrades held the line.
The Turks continued to direct their hardest blows against
the centre, but as fast as they hurried up their reserves
so did the Australians come hurrying up from the beach.
The unloading of the shells and supplies had proceeded
rapidly now that it had been determined to hold on. The
Anzacs had come for good, they left no doubt about that,
and, with the guns firing from the very trenches, it was
with a cheer that the lads waited for the Turks. Never
would the foe face the last 20 yards and the glistening
line of bayonets. Sometimes a section of our men would
leave the trenches, sufficient indication of what would
follow, so sending the Turks fehambling back. They feared
the Australian in those days and the use he made of his
bayonet. It even happened that the fixing of bayonets,
the men stopping their digging, halted a Turkish charge.

122 AUSTRAjLIA IN ARMS

Not that I wish to suggest that the Turk was not brave, but
he had been badly rattled and shattered with the ships'
appalling fire. But our troops were getting sleepy and
tired, for they had been fighting for three days con-
tinuously. They had plenty of munitions and rations, and
with judicious use (a thing that the Australians taught
the English Tommies later on) their water supply held
out. But everything had to be laboriously carried up
those hills from the beach.

The casualty lists show the high percentage of officers
killed and wounded, due, I believe, not only to their
heroism and example of leadership, but to the nature of
the country. Brigadiers and battalion commanders ex-
posed themselves, standing among the bushes and under-
growth, so as to find out where the attack might be
coming from, while a tornado of lead swept past them.
There was no cover other than very rough and very
inadequate look outs. The snipers of the Turks were still
playing havoc in our lines ; many, indeed, were still
behind the troops, dug into pits, with days' supplies of
food and ammunition, concealed by bushes, and that was
why the men as far as possible kept down in their
trenches ; it was that which made Shrapnel Valley the
Valley of the Shadow of Death. It was while recon-
noitring thus the Brigadier of the ist Brigade — a soldier
who could ill be spared at such a time or at any time,
Colonel M'Laurin — fell, shot through the heart, and his
Brigade-Major, Major Irvine, was killed standing along-
side of him. This sad loss happened on Tuesday during
the afternoon, when the Brigadier had come out from
his dugout close to the firing-line (all quarters were in
those early days, and were little better afterwards, so far
as situation went). Some idea of the fierceness of the
fighting may be gleaned from the casualties the ist
Division suffered. The 3rd Brigade in the first two days,
Sunday and Monday, had 1,900, the 2nd Brigade 1,700,
the 1st Brigade 900 killed and wounded. In the 2nd
Brigade alone i i officers were killed at the landing, 34
wounded, and 2 missing, afterwards discovered to be
killed.

There but remains now to complete the story of this
great landing battle by reference to the part that the
4th Brigade took during the days till Wednesday, some
mention of which has already been made.

SHKAPXEL BURSTING OVER THE PIERS AT AXZAC FROM SHELLS IIRED
BY " BEACH Y BILL."

View taken looking towards Hell Spit.

BULLY BEEF GULLY, WITH PLUGGE'S PLATEAU ABOVE.

■On the right, along the hillside, was ist Australian Divisional Headquarters. Coral for
Turkish prisoners on the left, with water tanks for reticulation scheme of Anzac, above.

To face p. 122.

A TERRIBLE THREE DAYS 123

Two separate manoeuvres were tried by the Turks to
break our line. They tried them both at once. One
was an attempt to drive in our right flank and get round
by the beach to the heart of the position. This they
failed to do, as the knolls were so strongly held (the
2nd Battalion had been specially thrown on to the extreme
right flank to guard against this) ; "w^hile the fire from
the warships, especially the Queen Elizabeth, was far
too accurate and bloody, so that the enemy dared not
show themselves on those exposed slopes and in the
gullies, easily raked either by direct or indirect fire
from the warships, officers spotting, as I have said, from
the trenches. The other attempt, a separate and even
sterner battle, was the stabs that the Turks made at the
highest point of the arc of our semicircular position — or
at the apex, as it has been termed — near the head of
Monash Gully. Our trenches were down in the gully.
They were overlooked by the Turks. Shrapnel fell over
them constantly and for long periods at a time. On
the edges of the main ridge the position grew more
and more perilous. Only for the gallant defence of
Quinn's and Pope's Hills nothing could have stopped
the wedge that the Turks sought to make being driven
in. An officer of the 14th Battalion seized the point
known as Quinn's Post, a knoll on the side of the ridge,
and held on like grim death with his gallant men. I
venture to say that had the Turks, rallying their numbers,
succeeded in dislodging this little band of heroes from
their position on this knoll, who must then have been
dashed to their doom in the Shrapnel Gully, they would
have gained their purpose and that great and important
artery would have been commanded by Turkish fire.
On Wednesday Major Quinn took it over and held it, and
the post from that time on bore his name.

Pope's Hill filled the gap between the heads of Monash
Gully. It will easily be realized from a glance at a
map (it was a thousand times more evident to see) that
only for this post and this feature, the Turks would have
wrought havoc in our position. An officer of the
1st Battalion took Pope's Hill with a body of about
100 men, composed of various units. In fact, he
had under his command men from practically the whole
of the 1st Division, whom he had gathered up as they
wandered up the gullies looking for their units. He held

124 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

on until the evening of Sunday^ wlhen he was reUeved by a
composite force, under Lieut. -Colonel Pope, with whose
name this dangerous and vital hill has been ever since
associated. Under his command Lieut. -Colonel Pope had
about a battalion and a half, consisting of a company of
the 1 5th, a company of the Auckland Battalion, and
the 1 6th Battalion, about 400 men in all. In this
first conflict the 4th Brigade won its renown, and Colonel
Pope his name. This gallant officer had been guided
up from the beach by a Staff officer, but the force, small
as it was, in the darkness got divided. Part debouched
to the south flank and were absorbed in the trenches
there ; the remainder pushed on firmly and reached the
spur, Pope's Hill, and relieved Captain Jacobs, who had
all the day been clinging with his little band of 100
men to this desperate position.

It was shortly after these relieving troops arrived that
a most curious incident occurred, which showed the
cunning tactics of the Turks. Information, originating
no one knew where, was passed along the short firing-
line from the left that Indian troops were in possession
of the ground immediately to the left of the hill
at the very head of the gully. It was clearly
advisable that the gap which existed between the
Australian line and these Indian troops should be closed,
as it gave the Turks a free passage-way down the gully,
steep as it was, thereby cutting our position in two.
Immediately on receipt of the verbal message Lieutenant
Easton, 1 6th Battalion, and Private Lussin^ton, who
understood Hindustani, were dispatched, and they soon
got in touch with a party of Indians that were entrenched
on the side of the hill. The Indians stated that a senior
officer was required to discuss matters with their officer,
and accordingly Captain R. T. A. M'Donald, the adjutant,
was sent forward. He had not gone far — the whole of our
line to tlie Turkish trenches at the very head of the gully
where the parley took place was not more than i 50 yards
— when he called back out of the darkness that the O.C.
alone would do to discuss the position with. Colonel
Pope went at once, and reaching the northern edge of
the gully, found his adjutant and the two men who had
been first sent forward talking with a party of six Indians,
who had stood with their bayonets fixed. One glance
was sufficient to convince the O.C. that these men were

A TERRIBLE THREE DAYS 125

not Indians at all. He had suspected that something
was wrong when called, and no sooner had he joined
the party than he called out a word of warning. The
Turks — for such these Indians proved themselves to be
in disguise — at once formed round the Australians.
Colonel Pope, who was nearest the edge of the gully,
with rare courage, broke through the ring and leaped
down some i 2 feet into the gully below. Shots were fired
after him, but he escaped, and, with a severe shaking,
reached his lines. The other three men were taken
prisoners at once and sent to Constantinople. In the
possession of the Adjutant were important documents,
plans, and maps, which in this way early fell into the
hands of the Turks.

Colonel Pope lost little time in extending his
position across the hill that he held. His front
covered about 300 yards. He had barely 400 men
under his command. From this onward, through the
night and succeeding days, every spare moment was
spent in improving the trenches on the hill which sloped
down into the gully. It was almost a sheer drop at the
head of it of 80 feet, and the hillside was covered
with loose earth and dense bush. There were snipers on
the hill still, in concealed pits, and snipers, too, firing
from the opposite side of the gully, where there had
been a small Turkish camp. At periods through
Monday, on until Tuesday morning, fierce attacks were
made against Pope's Hill, but the Turks were repulsed
by the steady fire of the defenders of the post. Rein-
forcements had brought the garrison up to 450 men.
But both machine guns of the 1 6th Battalion were put
out of action during Monday, and it was not till Tuesday
that these were replaced by guns from the Royal Marine
Light Infantry, who were now hurried up as a reserve,
as vidll be explained in a subsequent chapter. On
the 30th the i6th Battalion was relieved by the 15th.
So began in bloody battle the history of this famous
post, some of the still bloodier onslaughts against it
remaining to be described, as they occurred, later. The
topography and defences of this post and this section
of the line must form always a separate chapter in
the history of Anzac.

The failure of the Turks to smash the resistance in
the first days determined the success of the Australians,

126 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

Fit as no troops have been, fit for fierce fights, from
thence onward the invaders had a contempt for the
Turks, and only were anxious that he should attack.
In those few early days it is said that the Turks suffered
nearly 50,000 casualties at Anzac and Cape Helles. Ours
were over 8,000, and the British twice as many again.
The enemy left thousands of dead on the battlefield
before the trenches . But while they were reorganizing
their great attack on Wednesday there was a lull, a
curious solemn quiet that spread all along the line, which
had ceased to spit and splutter except in a spasmodic
way. On Tuesday the commencement of the reorganiza-
tion of the Australian army was begun. It was com-
pleted by Friday. Anzac, after four days' fighting, was
established. Australians had won their first battle, had
gained, in that first desperate encounter, deathless fame
by deeds that have no parallel in history (not even
remembering the scaling of the heights of Abraham),
and which rank in glory with the imperishable records
of the gallant 29th Division and their attack and capture
of the Turkish positions at Cape Helles.

CHAPTER Xlir

A BATTLE PANORAMA OF GALLIPOLI

This narrative is devoted to the deeds of the Austrahans,
but on that account it must not be judged that the
scanty reference to the part played by the British troops
indicates that part was but of secondary importance to the
Dardanelles operations and the Gallipoli campaign. On
the contrary, the position may be best summed up by the
words of General Sir Ian Hamilton, who said to me
on Imbros one day : " We [the British] have occupied
the end of the peninsula, while the Australians are a
thorn in the side of the Turks. When the time comes
we will press that thorn a little deeper."

Yes, the British had occupied about 4 miles of the
toe of the peninsula in those early days, and were slowly
pushing the Turkish line back into the Krithia village
and on to the great Achi Baba Hill ; but to do so
the aid of the French had to be called up and the Asia
Minor campaign had to be abandoned.

Now, I was fortunate to have been near enough to

watch the French and British warships bombarding the

Turkish position on Sunday morning, 25th April, on

either side of the Straits, and to have seen the hosts of

transports creeping from round the shores of the islands.

It was only a little Greek trading steamer that I was on,

and it impudently pushed its nose into the heart of these

stupendous operations. I was on her by design ; she

was there by accident. The whole of the fleet had lain

for days at their anchorage behind Tenedos. I had

seen them there, their anchors down, on the very ocean

bed where the Greek anchors had rested when they

planned their descent on Troy to rescue the beautiful

Helen. It was one of those radiant mornings that are

so typical of the spring months of the Levant. The

sea was almost without a ripple on it. A haze hid

127

128 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

the distant headlands as in a shroud and cast a soft,
flimsy mantle round the ships. The smoke of battle
hung on the shores and round the battle-cruisers. Along
the Asiatic coast, opposite the island of Tenedos, was
steaming slowly a huge six-fimnelled battleship of the
French, its guns darting tongues of flame, three or four
or six every minute. On shore the French troops were
fighting their way inland and pushing back the Turkish
field batteries that were answering the warships and
shelling the invaders. Then we went on up towards
the entrance to the Straits amongst the great liners, on
which was more than one high General directing the
landing of the finest British troops that the Homeland
had ever produced, the 29th Division. They had been
the last regular Division available, and General Hamilton
had in them the mainstay of his army, the tested stufi",
for that difficult landing on four beaches at the Darda-
nelles entrance. I watched the cruisers come steaming
by, and then, signalling, steer for the shore and com-
mence the hurling of shells on the edge of the cliffs
and farther inland, where the Turks were still clinging
to the battlements round the shores of t^ieir peninsula.
By dawn the British, as well as the Australian, landing
had been effected — at fearful cost certainly, but never-
theless accomplished — and Fusilier regiments had pushed
inshore and died on the beach in lines. Their comrades
had scaled the cliffs, while the Turks inch by inch, one
can write, were driven from their forts, their guns broken
by the weeks of bombardment.

Round the toe of the peninsula the troops landed.
All day the desperate fighters of the 29th Division clung
to their terrible task, completing it under cover of dark-
ness on the Sunday evening. From V beach to Morto
Bay, 2 miles away, near which inlet, under the fortress
of Seddul Bahr, the River Clyde, crammed with 2,500
men, had steamed in and been run ashore (or as near
shore as reefs had permitted), the fighting continued.
From the bows of this transport (an Iron Horse indeed !)
a dozen machine guns were spitting darting' tongues of red
as still against her iron sides rattled the hail of Turkish
bullets or burst the shells from the guns of the forts.
It is not in my story to describe the landing from that
ship — alas! now blown into fragments. It was not till
some months after she had run aground that I was

ARMY SERVICE WAGONS AT CAPE HELLES ON THE WAY TO THE
LANCASHIRE LANDING FOR RATIONS, THE ONLY HORSED VEHICLES
THE AUSTRALIANS LANDED AT GALLIPOLI.

THE "RIVER CLYDE" IN SEDDUL BAHR BAY.
French lines in foreground. Kum Kale Fort across the Straits in the distance.

A BATTLE PANORAMA OF GALLIPOLI 129

aboard her. In the last days of April she was the object
to which all turned their eyes in recognition 'of a gallant
undertaking, magnificently carried out by Captain Unwin,
who was in charge of her. For his work this brave
officer was awarded the V.C.

Now the Australians faced sheer cHffs; they rushed
down into gullies and up on to farther ridges. The
British troops scaled cliffs or found stretches of sandy
beach, defended with almost impenetrable barbed wire
entanglements ; but beyond was a garden of loveliness
—almost level fields still bearing ripening crops, and
trees laden with fruits ; poppies, anemones, and- the
hundred smaller wild flowers of the Levant carpeted the
soil. Those were the shores strewn with the bodies of
the most gallant men that ever fought, who had never
flinched as they faced murderous fire from far fiercer
guns than any that opposed the first rush of the
Australians up that narrow section of the Anzac hills.
Yet the Turks fell back. The warships, with their pro-
tective armour, moved in and wrought havoc on the
enemy as they were driven back and back. Behind
steamed the transports. Amongst all this mixed fleet
thickly dropped the shells, splashing the water in great
fountains over the decks, casting it 50, 100 feet into
the air.

Fifteen miles away Anzac was stormed and won. The
Australians held with the same bulldog grit that gave the
British their footing ashore. How did the French come
to Helles ? It was a few days afterwards, when the
reinforcements for the British force were so urgently
needed that it became necessary to evacuate the Kum
Kale position, on the southern entrance to the Straits,
and transfer the entire French army to the right flank
of the Cape Helles position. That was the way the
French troops came with their wonderful 75's, that later
in the week were so accurately finding out the Turkish
trenches, throwing a curtain of fire before the Allied lines.

I do not believe in the history of any war (and one
remembers particularly the storming of the heights of
Quebec in this regard) has there been any battle pano-
rama so truly magnificent, so amazingly impressive, as
that 20 miles of beaches and the entrance to the Dar-
danelles as seen from the hilltops of the islands scattered
round the entrance to the Straits. Rabbit Islands may

I30 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

not be marked on maps — they are only little dotted rocks
on charts — but they have a light on them to guide the
mariner to the entrance to the Dardanelles, which is about
a mile and a half away. From them and the shelter of a
single farmhouse you might look right up almost to the
Chanak forts, certainly up to Kephez Bay, where the war-
ships, screened by destroyers and mine-sweepers, were
pressing their attack on the Narrows. They commanded
a view of the beaches, round which transports had
gathered with lighters, tugs, trawlers, pinnaces, and
barges, disgorging materials and men for the great fight
progressing now over the flowered fields above from the
tops of the cliffs. The white hospital ships loomed like
aluminium-painted craft in the fierce sun, and their yellow
funnels seemed fairer still by the side of the darkened
smoke-stacks of the panting destroyers, the smoke belch-
ing from their short stacks as they raced back and
forth amidst them, dragging barges here, nosing in
between warships there — warships from whose grim grey
sides sprang red-tipped tongues and sheets of flame and
rolled clouds of smoke. High into the air tore the
screaming shells, which in their parabola passed over the
defenceless shipping and the troops bayoneting the Turks
on shore, to destroy the main Turkish position. Battle-
ships, standing farther off still, sent shells 5, 6, 8 miles up
on to the enemy forts that barked and snapped still in
the Narrows.

That was one picture. Take, then, the broader view
from the hills of Imbros, 9 miles away. The whole
peninsula was sprawled out in all its irregularity, with its
still green slopes ending abruptly at the dark cliffs. In
the centre were the masses of gathered hills (Kelid Bahr
position), crowned with forts, invisible even at the closest
observation except from aeroplane above ; and beyond,
across the slender rim of blue of the Narrows, the tower-
ing white of Mount Ida. I remember looking right down
into the Narrows from a certain hill on this salubrious
island. How intensely blue its waters were, on which I
saw quickly pass a transport and a cruiser. I wondered
that the yellow balloon looking down on to the Straits,
signalling to the Allied warships, did not sink them with
those shells which long-range guns dropped right across
the 7,000 yar'd.s of the narrow neck on to the town of
Maidos and Turkish transports lying at the wharves there.

A BATTLE PANORAMA OF GALLIPOLI 131

At Nagara there was a lighthouse that was an easy land-
mark to pick out, and not far distant white barracks and
hospitals. Then, passing down towards the entrance, the
huge citadel of the Straits, KeUd Bahr, blocked the view
of the opposite shore and of the fortress Chanak, and yet
lower down still, where the peninsula fell away, I could
see across the narrow channel the white scarps of Dar-
danus and the town called Whitecliffs. These towns in
the afternoon looked like miniature cities on the side of
a vivid, wonderful landscape ; they were a mass of white
domes and towers. The sun glinted on the windows of
the houses, and a thousand scintillating lights darted
like the fire of rifles from the dwellings. Blue, beyond,
the hills round Troy stood back from the raging battle
being fought on the point of the peninsula. An aeroplane
swung out of the distance and flew up and down the
Straits, its observer prying into the secrets of the forts.

Achi Baba was the dominating feature of the lower
end of the peninsula, yet it seemed very flat beside the
greater feature of Kelid Bahr and the hills of Anzac.
From the angle at which I was observing the village of
Krithia was just visible, snuggling between two shoulders
of low hills, tucked away, it seemed, from the guns.
Yet I was destined to see that village reduced to crumb-
ling ruins by the battering guns, and watch the burning
fires covering the peninsula with grey smoke. At night
how they glowed and smouldered dully !

Far more terrible was the fire that broke out at Maidos
on the afternoon of the 29th April, when the shells from
the warships destroyed the barracks, the wharves, the
granaries, the arsenal, and set fire to the town. The
smoke rose in a huge black column, and then, reaching
a higher current of air, was carried down to the very
entrance of the Straits, until in the oblique rays of the
setting sun it became a dirty brown smudge above the
peninsula. Next day the fires were burning still ; at
night the reflection lit the sky and silhouetted the hills
beyond. For days afterwards the smoke was shielding
from view the waters of the Narrows.

I take the following extract from my diary, written
at the time from the Imbros hills : —

2 p.m. Discovered four tents Cape Tekel. Balloon observing over Straits.
2.15 Turkish guns observed in wood on the left of Tree Hill (Achi Baba).
2.30 Smoke rising over i Straits north of Kelid Bahr.

132 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

2.35 Aeroplane flying up the Dardanelles over Turkish forts.

2.40 Ships dropping shells on village of Everden (Turkish headquarters).

3.0 Smoke rising south of Maidos.
3.15 Considerable activity amongst warships.

3.20 Dense smoke 100 yards long, 400 feet high, believe to be Cham Kalesi.
4.0 Certain smoke from village Maidos, rising now 2,000 feet high — still
burning. Bombardment ceased for last ten minutes.
4.30 Firing at Gaba Tepe, warships plastering cliffs.
4.45 Intense fire from the fleet.
4.50 Maidos still burning. Balloon observing north Tree Hill (Achi

Baba).
6.30 Queen Elisabeth and balloon observing ship Ark Royal going
towards entrance to the Straits, All quiet. Maidos burning
fiercely. Turkish guns silent.

And so it was day after day.

What of Anzac ! It was 9 miles away, but with

powerful field-glasses the boats near to the beach could

be seen. The glinting rays of heHo graphs shone from

the cliffs. An aeroplane came rapidly from over the

crests of the hills and dropped down beside the parent

ship and was hauled on board. Four, five, or six times

a day would the " Baby " observation balloon ascend and

remain with its line of flags below, motionless in the

air for hours. The destroyers, those rats of the seas as

they have been called, scampered over the blue water.

Their guns thumped the flanks of the Australian position

close to Gaba Tepe, near which point always there lay

some battleship, generally the Queen Elizabeth, while

at Suvla Bay, close inshore, the warships closed in to

throw shells on to the Sari Bair ridge and Battleship

Hill, a flat peak that just showed a bald top above

the ridge. Anzac itself was wrapped in impenetrable

mists for those first three days. From the gulhes darted

flashes of the guns — ^our own guns, almost in the infantry

trenches — while the Turkish woolly balls of shrapnel came

tumbling above the beaches, above the tops of the hills

where the troops were digging — digging for their lives.

Our own shrapnel I could see bursting far inland and

on the point of Gaba Tepe, where hidden enemy guns

were silenced. It was awe inspiring to watch the mass

of earth thrown skyward by the striking of the Queen

Elizabeth's shells on Mai Teper, a feature which dominated

the alluring plain, crowned with olive groves and guarded

solely by the batteries at Gaba Tepe. Howi entrancingly

green those plains looked with their few scattered vine-

A BATTLE PANORAMA OF GALLIPOLI 133

yards and olives ! I remember wondering what would
have been the result if the troops had iDeen advancing*
across them just in the same way as I was watching
the British advancing from the shores up the peninsula.

There came the morning — 29th April — when on the
end of the peninsula, near Cape Tekel, white -topped
tents appeared, and horses could be seen in lines. They
were hidden from the Turkish view by the cliffs, but
none the less shells fell among them occasionally. It
denoted the British were firmly estabhshed. The press
of shipping had increased. At a hundred I lost count
of the ships. At Anzac there was not less than half
that number, all transports, waiting — waiting as if to
remove the landed army. I could find no other reason
for their being there, idly changing position, while from
their sides constant strings of boats came and went ;
but in them, I learned later, were the wounded. The
transports became floating hospital wards. Up and down
the shore from Anzac to Helles patrolled the cruisers,
bombarding the red road open to view, where the Turkish
columns were moving. From the very midst of the
merchant fleet the warships' guns thundered with their
" b-brum-brum-m-m," two guns together, and the faint,
dull shell explosions sounded on land along the road
to Krithia, where wide sheets of riven flame rolled along
the ground, and a sickly yellow cloud enveloped horses,
men, and guns in its toils as the Turks retreated.

Then there dawned the day when the Royal Naval
Air Service armoured motor-cars dashed into action,
grappling wire entanglements, and sped back, with the
Turkish shells bursting after them from the guns on
Achi Baba as they retired.

Unforgettable will remain the memory of the
panorama : the calm of the sea, the havoc on shore,
the placidness of the shipping, the activity of the fleet.
Down below me in the mountain glens, where trickled
sparkling brooks, patient Greek shepherds called on Pan
pipes for their flocks, and took no more notice of the
distant roar of battle — the crackle of rifles and machine
guns could be heard — than of the murmuring of the
sea on the seashore ; and like it, unceasingly, day and
night for weeks, was a horrible deadly accompaniment
of one's dreams.

CHAPTER XIV

AN UNFULFILLED ARMY ORDER

It is impossible to contemplate the position at Anzac
on Wednesday, 2"8th April, when the fighting for a
foothold on the peninsula had finished and the Turks
had been crushed back, without feeling that the battle-
fields of France and Flanders had not taught the lessons
that were only too startlingly obvious — that success was
only won by adequate reserves being ready to hurl
against the enemy in extremis. Granted that two or
three days — Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday — were
necessary for the reorganization of the Australian lines,
bent but not broken, and full of fighting vigour, and
eager to fulfil the task that was set them of breaking
across the peninsula at this, almost its narrowest neck,
there seems to be no explanation why there was such a
miscalculation by experienced Generals of Turkish
strength, and lack of reserves, which left the Turks
the same three days to lick their wounds and bandage
them, and return, greatly reinforced, to the fray. It
becomes more inexplicable still when it is found that
certain Army Corps orders were issued for a general
advance, and that a chance word alone 'was the means
of that advance being altered to a mere straightening
of a portion of the strongly entrenched line. I do not
think it was because we feared the Turks : that would
be to pay him more credit than his actions warranted.
It was, to put it quite plainly, faulty Staff work. Events
are too near to attempt to place the blame ; for assuredly
there was some one blameable for the great wasted
opportunity to crush the Turkish army of Liman von
Sanders,

Behind the apparent chaos of Anzac Cove and the
fighting force on the hills during the first three days
there was, nevertheless, the great purpose that mattered.

134

AN UNFULFILLED ARMY ORDER 135

Every one was doing his utmost to reduce the Unes of
communication, the stores on the beach, and the army
itself to their proper and normal state. Those days
from Tuesday onward may be regarded as showing some
of the finest Staff organizing work that has been done
in the campaign. By Friday the position was com-
pletely reorganized. Units had been rested and linked
up ; trenches had been straightened, strengthened, and
defended against attack. Water, ammunition, food, were
trickling in regular streams up the gullies ; guns were
in position, and fresh troops had been landed to relieve
the strain and hurry matters forward. Unfortunately^
it seems, they were not in sufficient numbers apparently
to justify a general offensive immediately. The ist Light
Horse Brigade, under Brigadier -General Chauvel, and
the Royal Marine Light Infantry, those young troops
that had seen their first service in the defence of Antwerp,
were put into the trenches to relieve the men who had
won their first fight and fame in a three days' battle. For
seventy -two hours these heroes had been without sleep ;
they were dropping in their tracks from fatigue. They
had had water and biscuits and bully beef, but until
Wednesday nothing warm to eat or drink. All day and
night small parties of perhaps as many as 50, perhaps only
10 men, were to be seen going from one section of the
line to another ; men who had been collected a mile
away from their original unit, who had got separated
in the wild rushes over the hills, who had gone into the
firing-line at the nearest point at which they found them-
selves to it. It was essential that commanders should
have their own men before any move forward could
be attempted on a large scale. In digging alone, the
men suft'ered terrible hardships after their advances,
strategical retreats, and the endless fatigues for water,
food, and munitions.

In order, therefore, that the battalions could be re-
formed and rearrangements made in the commands of
the companies, units were withdrawn at various points
from the firing-line, as they could be spared, and placed
in reserve gullies, where the men obtained good sleep
and rest, a hot meal, and, generally, a swim down on
the beach.

Now, in this ist Division reorganization work no
officer took a greater or finer part than Colonel C. B. B.

136 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

White, the Chief of General Staff to General Bridges,
ably supported by Major Glasfurd. He seemed inde-
fatigable, never pertur'bed, always ready to remedy a
defect. Major Blamey, who was Intelligence Officer,
carried out daring reconnaissance work towards Maidos.,
leaving our lines under cover of darkness and pene-
trating to a distant ridge and determining much of
the enemy's position on the right. Meanwhile, com-
plete field telephone communication had been established
under most awful conditions, directed by Major Mack-
worth, D.S.O., whose gravest difficulty was the constant
breaking of the lines, through men stumbling over them
in the saps and shrapnel fire, that led to the beach and
the Army Corps headquarters, not usually a matter for
much worry, as being distant many miles from the firing-
line, in an ordinary battlefield.

On 28th and 29th April a comparative calm stole
over Anzac. Gradually the Turks had ceased their
intense bombardments of the gullies. Their waste of
ammunition had been enormous, 600 shells falling often
in the course of a few hours in one small gully ; yet
the damage on the beach was almost negligible. Their
shelling of the cove was now regulated to odd times,
and never lasted for more than half an hour or an hour.
The Australians had orders not to waste their rifle fire
in blazing away into the darkness to no purpose, and
scarcely fired a shot except at periods throughout the
night when fierce bursts foreshadowed an enemy counter-
attack. Anzac of the first days and Anzac of this second
period was a contrast as of a raging ocean to a
placid sea.

By 30th April all initial difficulties had been overcome.
It was on that day occurred the incident, already briefly
mentioned, that had such far-reaching effects on the
destinies of the Australians, and, I venture to say, on the
whole of the Gallipoli operations. I refer to the formu-
lation of an order for a general advance that was never
executed. Many officers will recall that the leaders of
the armies were, on the evening of the 30th April,
summoned to conferences, the ist Division under Major
General Bridges, and the 2nd Division under Major-
General Godley. Now, Major-General Godley had
already been informed of the serious and vital nature
of the centre of the line, the apex of the position, which

AN UNFULFILLED ARMY ORDER 137

was blunted, for the Turks still held trenches at the
head of Monash Gully which commanded portions of
it. He had not visited General Monash's positions
and had hinted that there would be a forward move-
ment when all units would be " out of it," and
meanwhile " Cling on " was the order the 4th Brigade
received.

It is with this latter conference we are mostly con-
cerned. General Godley was very seriously talking with
Generals Russell and Johnston (New Zealand officers)
when Brigadier-General Monash, commanding the 4th
Infantry Brigade, arrived from the firing-line. Outside
the dugouts there were many Staff officers. The
" pow-wow " was held to disclose the plans for a general
attack, ordered from Army Corps headquarters, to take
place on the following evening. It was to commence
at 7 o'clock.

The plan disclosed that the ist Australian Division
(now roughly holding the main ridge that ran in a
south-easterly direction) was to advance due east — that
was, across Mule Gully on to Pine Ridge and towards
the villages of Kojadere and Bogali, lying beyond ; while
the 2nd Australian and New Zealand Division was to
advance due north beyond Chunak Bair up the back
of the great Sari Bair ridge, of which we already held
the spur, known as " Russell's Top." This position lay
just south of the point where the ridge occupied by
the Australasian Division at Pope's Hill and Quinn's Post
joined the Sari Bair crest.

General Monash, on hearing General Birdwood's orders,
immediately pointed out that if such an advance were
made the gap that already existed in the line at the head
of Monash Gully, between the left flank of the 4lh Brigade
and the right of the New Zealand troops, would be widened.
Now a very unfortunate circumstance prevented this dis-
cussion being continued to its conclusion, for a telephone
message had come from that section of the line held
by General Monash's troops that the R. M.L.I, (who had
been holding the trenches) had been driven out by the
Turks, who were pouring in at the head of the gully.
There was no alternative under the circumstances but
for the General to return to his headquarters, situated in
Shrapnel Valley, more than a mile away, to supervise
the regaining of the lost trenches. But before he hurried

138 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

away General Monash was told by General Godley that
the gap would be remembered when making out the
divisional order that night. At any rate, it was the
business of General Monash to see that touch was main-
tained with the New Zealanders in the coming fight.
The divisional orders duly arrived next morning, in
which the 4th Brigade was ordered to keep touch with
the New Zealanders on the left. It was very apparent
to General Monash that if the advance was persisted
in, the centre, which he was responsible for, would be
the weakest section of the whole line, and would, as the
advance continued, grow weaker and weaker as the
armies advanced to their separate objective, the gap
widening all the time. It would fall to the already
much reduced 4th Brigade alone to extend its flanks
and to keep in touch. Two new battalions would be
needed to make good the gap.

Consequently, on Monday morning General Monash met
Brigadier -General Walker, who was commanding the ist
Infantry Brigade (Colonel M'Laurin having been killed in
the circumstances related), and very forcibly pointed out,
not on the map, but on the actual ground itself from
an overlooking point, what exactly would be the result
of the execution of the new plan. General Walker
agreed. " It cannot be done," he said. Soon after-
wards General Bridges arrived, and, after a conference,
strode over to the telephone without comment — in his
usual silent way. It could be seen he was convinced,
and in the next few minutes the statements he made
while waiting at the telephone left no doubt about the
matter. He called up General Birdwood, who was re-
ported to be on the battleship Queen, then lying off the
position. General Bridges turned and said : " I take
it on myself ; the Australian Division will not attack.
You [addressing General Monash] may tell General
Godley so from me."

General Godley, on being informed of this message
by telephone a little later by General Monash himself,
announced his determination of carrying out the attack.
" Very well," he said, " the New Zealand Division will
carry out orders and attack." General Monash then
asked that a Staff officer should be sent up to recon-
noitre the position. This was done, and he, after
visiting Quinn's Post and the position in the vicinity,

AN UNFULFILLED ARMY ORDER 139

reported that the manoeuvre was highly impracticable,
with the troops detailed, with the result that General
Godley too cancelled his section of the orders.

Yet the Army Corps order remained uncancelled, as it
remained unfulfilled. One can only conclude that it was
drawn up without a proper reconnaissance of the country
having been made. That there should have been a
general advance is recognized on all hands, and there
is no doubt in the minds of many Generals with whom
I have spoken that it would have been possible that
day, had proper provision been made in the original
orders for the filling of the very vital gap in the centre
of our line. The whole lamentable incident must be
put down as indicative of bad Staff work — for thus it
was that the whole future of Anzac was changed by
a chance meeting of three senior officers on the main
ridge and General Bridges' firm decision.

Two days later an attempt, that may only be termed
half-successful, was made to effectively seal the head
of Monash Gully against Turkish advance. The attack
was begun with great gallantry, some of the Naval
Brigade penetrating through many Turkish lines, but
the increasing battle-front as the plateau of the ridge
broadened out, and the strength of the Turks (left un-
challenged from the right of the line opposite the
Australian position) enabled them to concentrate their
attention on the centre. The troops were compelled
bit by bit to withdraw to the edge of the plateau, where
they clung on and remained clinging on for the rest of
the period that Anzac was held.

On 2nd May, exactly a week after the landing, the
Australians and New Zealanders were charged with the
task of capturing the head of Shrapnel Gully and the
plateau beyond that led up to the Baby 700, a rounded
feature, the first step in the ridge, of vif'hich Chunak Bair
was the second, and highest, point. The Australian line
stretched across the gully, with Pope's Hill held in the
centre. On the right were Quinn's and Courtney's Posts,
with the Bloody Angle, one head of the gully between,
held by the enemy. On the left from Pope's Hill the line
went down into the main head of the guUy, up the eastern
slope of the hill on to the summit, where the New
Zealanders were holding on Russell Top. Practically
the whole of the 2nd New Zealand and Australian Brigade

I40 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

were to take part in the operations, supported by Royal
Marine Light Infantry troops.

Lieut .-Colonel Pope was to advance up the head of
Monash Gully and then storm the heights on the right
of the gully, while the Otago Battalion, under Lieut. -
Colonel McDonald, was to advance up the gully and
take the left slopes, which was the sector afterwards
called the Turkish Chessboard trenches. The 13th
Battalion was to support the i6th, and was, on reaching
the high ground, to link up the two battalions by turning
to the left. This manoeuvre meant that a line was to
be drawn in front of Pope's Hill and that the 1 5th
Battalion, which held that post, was to make a sortie.
The attack was timed for seven o'clock.

An intense bombardment opened the battle. War-
ships and the guns available on shore commenced to
prepare the position by blowing up the Turks. The
battalions were moving up the gullies and were waiting
for the ceasing of the firing to attack. At 7.15 the
bombardment ceased as suddenly as it began, and the
men, cheering and singing snatches of " Tipperary " and
their new Australian song, " Australia will be there,"
commenced to charge. Against them came a torrent
of lead from rifles and machine guns, for the Turks
had occupied the week in fortifying the plateau, of which
we only yet held just small pieces of the outer edge.

A reconnaissance had been made during the day and
the leaders knew just where their objectives lay. By
8 a.m. a ridge — a sort of false crest immediately in
front of Pope's Hill and to the left of Quinn's Post and
covering the south-easterly front of the general posi-
tion— had been captured at the point of the bayonet.
Fierce hand-to-hand fighting had occurred in places
before the troops got a footing and routed the Turks
from the line of trenches. The enemy counter-attacked
almost as soon as we had gained their position, but
they failed to dislodge the Australians.

Meanwhile, on the left flank the Otago Battalion, who
had had to make a detour round the mountain ridge
from their position, had arrived late for the battle,
having found the communication -ways blocked with
wounded. They did not reach their point of concen-
tration till a quarter to eight, and it was only an hour
later that they charged the position, which had been

AN UNFULFILLED ARMY ORDER 141

partially held for them by an extension of the 1 3th'
Battalion's line. This Australian battalion, led by Lieut. -
Colonel Burnage, had stormed the ridge on which the
Turkish entrenchments had been dug, just immediately
in front of Pope's Hill, and the Turks, though they
counter-attacked, were unable here also to regain
possession of those trenches.

The Nelson Battalion of the Naval Brig'ade now sent
up a company under Major Primrose, and, with a com-
pany of the 14th Battalion, the position of the i6th was
rendered a little more secure. In the darkness touch had
not been kept on the left, their flank was in the air, and
the 13th Battalion had not linked up as it should. The
Turkish fire was smashing down the resistance of the men
on the left, and the position was fast becoming untenable
as the dawn broke. At 4 a.m. the Portsmouth Battalion
was ordered up to support the 1 6th and to strengthen
its left flank. Through some misunderstanding of orders
valuable time was lost by the leader of the Marine
Battalion, who was unwilling to enter the firing-line when
orders had only been given him to form! a support. The
Commanding Officer would take no responsibility for
going into the firing-line. While the position was still
in doubt, the situation became utterly untenable owing
to shells that commenced to burst in the 1 6th Battalion
trenches, which subsequently it was found came from the
destroyers, who mistook the target — so close were the
trenches — and before this ghastly error could be rectified,
the battalion was forced to retire on this left flank.

To make matters worse a stampede ensued in the
rank and file of the Portsmouth Battalion, who were
congregated in the gully below. It was only by the
presence of mind and great personal effort of Major
Tilney, second in command of the i6th Battalion, and
Major Festian, Brigade-Major of the R.M.L.I., that the
stampede was checked. Efi'orts were made to direct
gun fire on what at first were believed to be the Turkish'
artillery. Horrible confusion prevailed. Daylight was
breaking. Some of the Portsmouth Battalion occupied a
ridge on the left of the gully, on to which the Turks were
firing a deadly enfilade and almost rear fire from their
centre position. Until ten o'clock in the morning the
■13th and 1 6th clung to the trenches (some of their
trenches were blown away into the gully by gun fire),

142 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

but, exposed to a withering fire, had at length to with-
draw. At one o'clock the gully and captured trenches
were abandoned.

The Otago Battalion meanwhile, on the extreme left,
joining with the 13th Battalion, had faced a terrible fire,
but reached almost to the point of its objective in line
with the remainder of the line there, well in advance of
Pope's Hill. There they stuck desperately, waiting for
reinforcements, which were to come under cover of
darkness from the Canterbury Battalion. This succour
was found impracticable, as it had been found on the
right that an advance was not possible. Shells began
to destroy the trenches dug overnight, with the result
that the left flank of the New Zealanders was driven back.
There remained but the 13th Battalion and a party from
the Otago Battalion clinging on to the sharp ridge in
front of Pope's Hill. They were digging hard through-
out the day, while the Turks, too, were digging so close
to them that it was almost impossible to say which
trenches belonged to which. But the Turks, also, were
working round behind the position, and at dusk there was
nothing for it but that the gallant 13th should retire
from their position, now being enfiladed from both flanks.
The Otago Battalion, which was more or less isolated,
clung on desperately to the position it had won until
two days later, when it had to cut its way out.

The one object accomplished by the attack was the
checking of any enemy ofi"ensive against the posts which
were undoubtedly the weakest portion of the whole line.
But the main objective, to straighten out the line, or rather
to bring the line to a cu,lminating point at the head of the
gully, and gain a footing on the plateau where the main
ridge linked up with the ridge running away to
the south-east, was not accomplished. It was the
greatest of the many attacks about this time planned
for this purpose. All along this section of the
ridge fierce fighting went on during the hext weeks,
sorties being made from various posts to prevent
the Turk pushing our line from the edge of the ridge
which they had so desperately won, until in the great May
attack the Australians gained the upper hand and the
mastery of the Turkish fire. Always a dangerous and
nervy part of the line, it was only declared " safe " after
the Turkish offensive on 19th May.

CHAPTER XV

VICTORIANS' CHARGE AT KRITHIA

While the Australians' position at Anzac was being
made secure, preparations were pushed forward at Cape
Helles for the storming of the loaf-shaped hill of Achi
Baba, on which the Turks had, after the fortnight's
fighting, been forced to take up a defensive position.
There they had strongly entrenched themselves behind
line after line of trenches. Their actual first resisting line,
however, was by this about 3 miles from the toe of the
peninsula on the right, at a point near De Tots battery,
the taking of which the French eventually accomplished
with great gallantry. Later the Gurkhas on the opposite
(the left) flank performed a magnificent feat in reaching
a point south-west of Krithia village by storming and
obtaining a footing on the slopes of the Great Dere,
while the British line swung round before the southern
angle of the Krithia village. The fresh " shove " was
meant to take the village at the point of the bayonet and
capture the slopes of Achi Baba. Whatever that for-
tress position may have become later (and the German
officers captured boasted that it was a position tliat would
never be taken by frontal assault), at that time there
seemed every prospect of it falling into the hands of
bold, determined troops. It was for this reason, to give
impetus to the attack, to strengthen the British troops
that held the central portion of the line, that the 2nd
Australian Brigade, under Colonel (later Brigadier-
General) M'Cay, were, on the night of 5th May, silently
removed from the beach at Anzac, and, 3,000 strong,
were landed at Cape Helles at six o'clock in the morning.
Though this brigade had been through the thick of the
landing and attack on Anzac, it had, perhaps, suffered
least of all the brigades, and was now chosen suddenly
for this fresh assault. The New Zealand Infantry

143

144 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

Brigade, under Colonel F. E. Johnston, was also landed,
and took up a position on the left flank of the
Australians ; their left flank in turn in touch with troops
on the coast.

So much for the general situation. The embarkation
orders for the brigade came suddenly, while the troops were
resting after a week's fight. At 9 p.m. the brigade was
assembled on the beach. Here the men suffered a bitter
experience, exposed to considerable fire, for insufficient
transports had been provided. Eventually they embarked
from six wharves and slipped silently away. Twenty
casualties had been suffered from what were called spent
bullets, the Anzac firing-line being over 1,000 yards
away. The men left the shore in rowing-boats and went
out to the trawlers, and then to the destroyers and on to
transports. They knew naught of their destination. A
very few hours' steaming and they arrived off the British
position. All disembarked at 6 a.m. at Seddul Bahr
(near the River Clyde) under a heavy shell fire from the
Asiatic batteries, where the wandering, disappearing gun,
" Asiatic Algy," began to pour shells on the brigade.
The jetties at this time were only of the roughest wood,
joining barges moored alongside one another.

One is never likely to forget one's sensations upon
landing on the end of the peninsula in the track of the
victorious British armies. Thick masses of tangled
Turkish barbed wire (wire so thick that ordinary shears
would not sever it) were rolled round deserted trenches,
guns lay dismounted from their concrete bases, houses
had been torn down and lay shattered, with hardly a
wall standing. There were 30,000 French troops now
on the British right flank. AH manner of stores, in-
cluding great casks of their ration wine, had been landed,
and lay piled in the sandy cove that stretched between
two headlands, Seddul Bahr on the right, Helles fort on
the left. The menacing walls of Seddul Bahr rose above
it round the cliff, but no longer a fortress of the Turks.
The village, in ruins, was buried behind.

After a steep pull up a ridge (on which stood two
haystacks) from this beach, the brigade advanced across
country to the Krithia road. What country it was to look
down on, after the bushy hills and gullies of Anzac I
Here was a flowering heath and meadows of corn and
poppies and wild flowers. There were orchards and aged

MAJOR STEVENSON COMMANUING BATTERY 18-POUNDER GUNS AT
CAPE HELLES.

Dugouts of the 29th Division on tlie sides of thie Great Dare.

THE GREAT DERE, UP WHICH THE GURKHAS MADE SO BOLD AN ADVANCE.

To face p, 1+4."

VICTORIANS' CHARGE AT KRITHIA 145

olive-trees and some farmers' huts and houses in the
distance ; while cattle grazed in sheltered hollows. It was
undulating country, resembling a hollow plain, of miles in
extent, and especially flat-looking to the Australians,
fresh from Anzac's rugged hills. Grim, but not very for-
bidding, stood the smoothly rounded hill of Achi Baba —
Tree Hill — barring the advance up the peninsula, a long
arm stretching down to each shore. Shells from the
warships were plastering the face of it as the brigade
advanced. Dense clouds of white shrapnel were bursting
over the Turkish trenches which lay round the long,
rolling slopes that ended at the village of Krithia on
the left (the west), and which ran out to the Dardanelles
on the east, falling away ioto steep gullies on the
seashore.

The bivouac chosen for the brigade was about a mile
from the landing and on the west of the road that led
direct into the distant village. Here, as in every line,
the troops might rest in some comfort, though not safety ;
for besides the shells from Achi Baba batteries there
were guns firing from the Asiatic shore. Nothing re-
mained but to again dig and dig in for one's life.
However, here a new difficulty was encountered, for
water was struck when the trenches were sunk about
1 8 inches, and that is why in so many trenches there
were such high parapets. It was the only means of
getting sufficient protection. If one thing at this time
and under the particularly trying conditions heartened the
troops more than another, it was to hear, and watch, the
French " 75 " batteries sending fourteen shells to the
minute to the Turkish trenches. Moreover, Australian
batteries — a whole brigade, in fact, under Colonel
Christian — were discovered entrenched beside the French
guns in the very centre of the peninsula, and the troops
knew that, in any attack, they would have their own
guns to support them. No sooner had they halted than
they started to prepare their meal, and were laughing,
singing, and joking. They felt a certain security even
in the face of the foe.

That afternoon, the 6th May, the Brigadier (Colonel
M'Cay) and his Brigade Staff (Major Cass and Captain
Walstab) moved forward to a stony rise, occupied by
the gunners as an observation station, and from there
they looked down over the whole of the ground undu-

146 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

lating away to Achi Baba, 4 miles distant. The country
was, I have said, flat. It was not a plain, strictly
speaking, for there were small depressions and dry creek
beds that would be sufficient to protect a great number
of troops when the time came for advance. The
southern slopes of the big hill were intersected by many
ravines, which in wet weather formed the head-waters
of the three dcres or gullies that flowed south down
the peninsula — the Kereves Dere (the great gully) and
Maltepe Dere and Kanli Dere. This divided the peninsula
into three ridges, which ran parallel with one another in
a northerly and southerly direction. On the eastern
slopes, facing the Straits, these deres were particularly
rugged and often precipitous. There still remained
portions of a telegraph line across a ridge on the right
going north-east from Seddul Bahr ; it had been the
scene of heavy fighting, in which the French made many
gallant charges to take what has been called the
" Haricot," a formidable redoubt placed on the crest
of a hill, and which had held up the French advance
for many previous days and cost many lives to finally
capture .

To realize how any advance across such open country
could be accomplished, it is necessary to explain that
the guns on the peninsula were placed in a great semi-
circle, starting from the northern slopes of Morto Bay,
where the French guns, hidden behind the grape-vines
and clustered corn and hedges, lay. In the valley,
between the low hills through which the Krithia road
runs, were some British 60-pounders, and on the southern
slopes of a hill in the centre of the peninsula British
and Australian i 8-pounders were firing. Hidden amongst
some trees was a heavy British battery, and in the Kanli
Valley were other guns.

The French firing-line extended along in front of
their batteries for about 1,000 yards, and adjoining them
on the left was the Naval Division. Next to their left
flank was the 29th Division. It was the New Zealand
and Australian Brigade and General Cox's Indian Brigade
that formed a composite Division held in reserve to
the 29th.

It must be here explained of this composite Division
that in the first day's fighting the Australians took no
part. The New Zealanders were called into action to

VICTORIANS' CHARGE AT KRITHIA 147

support the 29th Division, and suffered heavy casualties.
But to give the true significance to the share of the
Austrahans in the grand oft'ensive during the early days
in May, the early stages of the battle that began on the
morning of the 6th at eleven o'clock and continued for
three days, need describing. The artillery duels of those
days were terrific in the extreme, and the whole of the
battle lines were violently swept with shell. The con-
figuration of the country was such that the hills on the
extreme end of the peninsula gave a grand-stand view,
and the Staffs of the Army Corps operating could be
seen on these points watching the armies moving forward
into action. It has been described as " a Melton Prior
battlefield," where you saw each unit going into action.
Such an offensive was only possible on account of the
comparative weakness of the Turkish trenches, a defect
which they lost no time in rectifying later on, when a
period of sullenness set in. For the Turk has, in this
campaign at least, proved himself to be a most indus-
trious, even colossal, digger of trenches and a fine trench
fighter, however poor he shows himself to be in open
combat .

A general advance was tlie order on the 6th. The
French "75 " batteries, with their sharp bark, began
fiercely to smash the enemy trenches, concentrating' fire
on the " Haricot " and the Kereves Dere, and the valleys
beyond that contained Turkish supports. The Krithia
village was shelled by the heavy British guns, aeroplanes
spotting. French and British battleships had m.oved up
on the flanks and were pouring a terrible enfilade fire
on the Turks and covering the slopes of Achi Baba with
sheets of flame as the shells burst along the position. It
was in vain that the Turkish batteries, prodigal with
their ammunition, tried to silence our guns, carefully
concealed, and in the absence of aeroplanes, which the
Turks did not seem to possess at that time or were
afraid to send into the air, the British and French gunners
went on without interruption, except for chance dis-
abling shots which put a gun or two out of action.

As the French and British lines advanced there came
the roar of musketry and the rattle of machine guns to
add to the already terrific din. The British maintained
their advance, though the machine guns in the thick
scrub could not be located, while the French swept on,

148 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

gaining the " Haricot," then losing it. All this battle
panorama was rapidly passing before the eyes of the
leaders of the Australian troops, who were waiting their
turn to charge and take their part in the battle. Soon
the French were forced to retire to the trenches they
had lately left, much to the chagrin of all, though the
British troops held their gain of about i,ooo yards,
while the Naval Division had gone forward about 700
yards in the centre. The 29th also advanced nearly
1,000 yards on the left, near the yEgean shore. This
line they entrenched during the night. It was a very
bent line, with the French farthest in the rear. The
Turks were too exhausted to attempt any counter-attack,
and so the line stood till the morning of the 7th. Then
a further advance was made at 10.30, the guns blazing
the way and plastering the slopes of Achi Baba for the
infantry to advance. As on the previous day, the
Australian officers watched the fighting from a position
which overlooked the battle-front of 4 miles, subjected
only to an occasional whizzing bullet and a stray shell.

This was a curious battlefield for modern warfare,
where most of the fighting is underground. Imagine
an area of about 5 square miles. The valley road was
the main transport route, despite the fact that the enemy
overlooked and commanded it. On the west side were
the red and pink farms, hidden by a copse of fir-
trees. The French at this time had placed their
headquarters in one of these houses. With a start of
surprise one saw their Staff moving along, with orderlies,
mounted messengers, and signallers, all beautifully
mounted, riding right up to within half a mile of the
firing-line down this valley, through the shot and
shell. Along the road rumbled the French ammunition-
wagons, the caissons, turning east to Morto Bay, bearing
supplies to the batteries there. The French gunners
got their supplies by day and the British, who were
more exposed, by night ; and so the traffic on the roads
was regulated, otherwise the congestion would have been
terrible. A motor-cyclist, with the latest word from the
battlefield, would ride at breakneck speed through the
traffic, and, once past the mules, plodding stolidly along,
would travel at 50 or 60 miles an hour for the short
stretch until he dipped out of sight behind the last
ridge on the peninsula. Dust rose constantly in dense

ARTILLERY WATFK-CARKIERS FROM THE SPRINGS AT CAPE HELLES.

HEADQUARTERS 1ST AUSTRALIAN ARTILLERY BRKIADE.

Dining-room cellar on the left, ten feet deep, and protected by iron and sandbags.
Firing-line 600 yards distant.

To tace p. 148.

VICTORIANS' CHARGE AT KRITHIA 149

clouds. I remember looking at these clouds as the
armoured cars on another occasion swept forward, and
wondered that the Turks did not shell them, which
eventually they did ; but during these days they directed
all their energies to searching for the guns and plastering
the slopes of the Seddul Bahr ridges and the clumps of
trees scattered over the peninsula, where it seemed obvious
our artillery might be concealed.

It was not till the third day that the Australians went
into the fight. This Saturday, 8th, had opened much
as the other two days had done with intense bombard-
ments, and then an advance by the infantry in short
rushes, always driving the Turks before them, pressing
them back to the village of Krithia and the foot slopes
of Achi Baba. But by this time on the flanks the
Turks had concealed a great many machine guns in the
fir woods, and built redoubts, and such advances became
terribly expensive. On the 7th the New Zealanders had
moved away to the support of the 29th Division, and
they lost heavily from these guns. At 10.30 on this
morning they were ordered to go through the British
lines and try to take the trenches on the left front of
Krithia — now a village wrecked and shattered by the
shells that burst in it and smouldering with fires that
the artillery had started. Once I had seen it, a pretty
little hamlet with white- and red-roofed dwellings
snuggling down in the hollow of a hill, with the stern,
flat-topped Achi Baba mound lying just to the east.
On a ridge stood sentinel windmills, their long arms
stark and bare, waving from the side of a curious round
stone store, like a silo. They were the Turkish granaries,
and made fine observation posts. The Wellington
Battalion, under Lieut. -Colonel W. G. Malone, was on
the left, the Auckland, under Lieut. -Colonel A. Plugge,
in the centre, and Canterbury, under Lieut. -Colonel
D. M. Stewart, on the right. The Otago, under Lieut. -
Colonel T. W. McDonald, was in reserve. On the flanks
the battalions, facing an awful fire, slowly moved up
about 300 yards, but the centre battalion, a dense copse
in front concealing a strong force of the enemy,
were imable to go ahead. By 2.30 there was notliing
left for the gallant New Zealand battalions to do but
to dig in. The Otagos had been called to support
and repair the fearful losses, but the advance was checked!.

ISO AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

However, it was determined that the New Zealanders
should again attack just at dusk. Later on this order was
changed to a general attack by the whole line. With
but a few minutes' notice the Australians, till then in
reserve, were ordered to prepare to form the front,
or rather centre front, of the advancing line.

It had been bright and crisp all the morning, and
the troops were in high fettle. At midday. General
Paris, commanding the composite Division, had ordered
the Australians to move up in support of the British
centre, which they did, advancing due north about a
mile. Their new position was in a broad dere (gully),
and as fairly a protected and comfortable spot as
such places go so near the firing-line. Colonel M'Cay,
to reach it, had deployed his troops on lines best cal-
culated to avoid searching shrapnel fire, moving them
up in platoon columns, that is, in small bodies placed
some 200 yards' distance from one another, which had the
effect of almost neutralizing the shelling of the Turks.
The 6th Battalion was in the lead, followed by the 7th,
5th, and 8th. The Turks, for some reason, did not
open fire as the troops moved across the valley, though
it was fully expected they would, and so they arrived
at a position where there were trenches — some British,
some Turkish — already dug, while the dere itself offered
further cover. The men began to deepen and widen
these trenches for their comfort. The 6th, under Lieut. -
Colonel M'Nicol, was bivouacked on the steep sides of the
stream ; and opposite them on the left was the 8th, under
Lieut. -Colonel Bolton. About 30 yards in rear of the
6th was brigade headquarters, just in line with Colonel
Cox's Indian Brigade. Lieut. -Colonel Garside, com-
manding the 7th, was behind the 8th, and headquarters
and the 5th, under Lieut. -Colonel Wanliss, behind the
8th. In the midst of taking in reinforcements and
entrenching, the plan for the general attack was com-
municated to the Australian leaders.

Just a few minutes after five o'clock Colonel M'Cay
received by telephone from General Paris orders to
advance without delay. It was now definitely known
that the French had been held up at the " Haricot " for
two days, and that they had now been ordered to make
a general advance (which they did with colours flying
and bands playing, an extraordinary and inspiriting sight.

VICTORIANS' CHARGE AT KRITHIA 151

white and black troops fighting side by side). At all
costs the Turks had to go. So sudden had been the
decision for the general advance that there was no time
to issue written orders, a dilemma in which the Brigadier
(Colonel M'Cay) found himself. However, by 5.15 the
troops were on the move, the Brigade Staff giving the
directions and the orders verbally. So, one may write,
there began an offensive which in detail and execution
was like the battles of half a century ago, when generals,
calling on their men, dashed into the thick of the fray.

No man will ever be able to do justice to the
events of the next half hour or fifty minutes. As
might have the finest regulars in the world, those
Victorians moved from their bivouac, into which they
had yet scarcely settled. The 7th were to occupy
about 500 yards of front on the right, and the
6th Battalion on the left with a similar frontag'e. The
general direction of the attack was the north-east, and
striking point just on the east of the village of Krithia.
The flanks rested, therefore, on two valleys : on the right
Mai Tepe Dere, and Kanli Dere on the left. The 5th
Battalion was supporting the right flank, and the 8th
the left. Seeing the preparations for the new attack, the
Turkish guns turned from the first line of British troops,
already in position some 500 yards away ahead, and
directed a veritable hell -fire of shrapnel and bullets
against the supports, which they rightly judged must
be moving up about this time.

The whole Allied front was barely 4 miles, swept by a
terrible inferno of shells. The air was filled with the
white, woolly clouds that the Anzac men— old soldiers now
— knew meant a hail of lead. The ground was torn and
ripped up as the shells fell ; little parties of men were
swept away, killed outright. Overhead whined and
whistled the sheUs ; ours on their way to the Turkish
trenches, theirs coming on to our advancing line. Over-
head might have been a whirling shield of armour.

Rapidly the Australians scrambled over the Indian
trenches which were in their path, the 7th doublingi
forward so as to continue the line of the 6th, and together
with the other two regiments (in support), the whole
mass of 3,000 men started to move forward rapidly
towards the front trenches occupied by the Naval Division.
Pictures of the ground will show its openness ; they

152 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

do not show the first slight slope up which the Australians
charged in a i,ooo yards advance, of which that was
the first sector. At the top of the slope — it was hardly-
appreciable to the casual glance — were the Naval
Division trenches. Beyond these the ground sloped away
down into a broad depression, that only began to rise
again a little to the south of the Krithia village and
Achi Baba. Once it had been cultivated ground. Over
this the Australians charged. The right flank was resting
now on the Krithia road. The troops were heavily
laden ; for besides their packs, many carried shovels,
entrenching tools, and picks ; they had to dig in when
they had advanced. They stumbled or fell into the
British trenches, where they lay for a while panting.
Many lads were unable to reach the security of the
trenches (for they were strongly held and crowded), and
so they lay in whatever depressions were available behind
the parados, while the lead streamed over them — whizz
—swing— whizz — swing — little singing messages of death.
You heard them close to your ear even above the din
of the booming shells.

With bayonets fixed the Australians left the trenches.
Colonel M'Cay — surely his life was charmed that day —
walked along the parapet swinging his stick, as was
his custom, and looking down into the trenches, called :
*' Come on, Australians ! " The Brigade -Major, Major
Cass, was in another sector doing the same. No second
call was needed to rouse the troops. They would follow
those brave officers to the very jaws of death. They
scrambled to the parapets, and crouching low, began
to advance, 50, 60, 70 yards at a rush, and then,
as exhaustion overcame them, a short respite lying
flattened to the ground. But the line never wavered,
though thinned at every step, going on and on with the
officers rallying the men as they panted forward.

God ! the marvel of it ! The ground was quite bare,
except for isolated bushes of green shrub, through which
the bullets sang and tore. Intense masses of rifles and
machine guns poured down lead on to the advancing
Australian lines. The British had cheered these heroes
as they left the trenches — now they stood watching and
wondering. Rushing downhill, the troops were in a
regular shallow basin, like a huge plate. The Turkish
trenches lay scarcely 800 yards ahead. That was the

VICTORIANS' CHARGE AT KRITHIA 153

only information that the Australians got as to tlieir
objective : that was all they wanted ; anyway, no enemy
could be seen now in the battle smoke and dust. No
reconnaissance had been possible, except in a general
sort of way, and it was for this reason that Colonel .
M'Cay led his men and allotted sections of the Hne
to the rest of his Brigade Staff. For the rest he trusted
to the spirit of his men.

The Turks, well entrenched and concealed, waited for
the Australian charge. No use for the attackers to
fling themselves down and fire ; they had no target.
On again they went, panting, lying down, advancing
in short rushes of 50 yards, or less, as the men grew
more and more tired. The line thinned. The slopes
were covered with dead and wounded. Darkness was
falling. A constant stream of disabled men were toiling
slowly back to the shelter of the gullies. Stretcher-
bearers, regardless of the stream of lead, were going
forward and dragging back to the naval trenches those
men whom they found badly wounded. Sometimes a
British soldier leaped out to help in a comrade.

Then, after a charge of 400 yards, across the Krithia
road was seen the low parapet of a Turkish trench,
and the 7th' Battalion opened fire as the Turks com-
menced to fly before the unbroken Australian line ; but
it was only a short halt, for the 6th Battalion was still
advancing, so as to get to close quarters with the bayonet.
" Bayonet them " had been the orders, and the steel
the Turks were to get if they waited. On went the
7th, the reserve battalions now coming up into the firing-
line. Losses got more and more terrible. They reached
the parapet of a now deserted enemy trench, yet still
the Turkish fire came in a steady stream from the front
and the left, where machine guns were rattling from a
copse that had before broken the New Zealand ranks. On
the right it had become silent. Major Cass, leading
there, found it strangely so, and for the moment, could
not account for the pause, as according to the plan
the French were to have charged and advanced. What
had happened he learned very shortly. Again the French
had been checked. But 400 yards' advance had been
made by the Australians and New Zealanders. The
extreme left of the line was brought to a standstill, the
British -Indian force unable to press farther on.

154 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

Australians, and alongside them New Zealanders, were
entrenching for their lives. The Turkish trenches had
been stormed, and the first objective taken, though
Krithia was still unstormed, 800 yards away. But, in
this moment of success, a horrible fresh danger made
itself manifest.

The French had not taken the " Haricot." While the
Australians' right still pushed on the Frenchmen were not
advancing. A gap of many (hundred yards yawned
between the right of the Austrahan line and the left of
the French. Into this breach the Turks were not slow
to hurl their men. They began working down a gully.
The manner in which the discovery of this attempt to
pierce the line was made is dramatic in the extreme.
Major Cass, who had been leading the right of the
Australian line, had fallen wounded, shot through the
shoulder (it broke his collar-bone), and as he lay behind
a slight mound that had been dug for him by some of his
devoted men, there came from the left, almost at right
angles to him, a bullet that smashed his other shoulder.
Although suflering from shock, his arms helplessly hang-
ing by his side, he managed, nevertheless, to get his
pocket-book out, and began to write. As a soldier the
truth had quickly flashed in his mind : the Turks were
between the Allied lines, and very soon they would
be in the rear as well. The peril of the situation
demanded instant action. Hastily he scribbled a note
in triplicate, explaining the position to the Commander
of the Naval Brigade, holding the trenches in the rear,
through which the Australians in their charge had
advanced. Major Cass sent these notes back by Private
H. Wilson, Headquarters Staff, who returned with an
answer after what, to the wounded man, seemed an inter-
minable time. The shrapnel still screamed overhead and
the bushes were cut by the descending bullets, that made a
spluttering sound as they swept the valley. Another
verbal message was sent by Lieutenant Stewart to the
Brigadier. At last the reassuring reply came back from
the Naval Brigade that the breach would be filled. The
Drake Battalion advanced with the 5th Australian
Battalion, under Colonel Wanliss, until the distance
between — some 300 yards — was filled. So was the
Turkish flanking movement hindered and pressed back.
Five hours later Major Cass, in the early hours of the

VICTORIANS' CHARGE AT KRITHIA 155

morning, reached the beach and a hospital ship. The
devotion of the messenger who carried the message and
then wished to take his officer from the firing-line was
duly rewarded, while Major Cass received the D.S.O.

Meanwhile it happened that the reserve battalions had
come up into the firing-line almost at the same moment
as that line came to a halt, exhausted. Entrenching
tools and sand,bags were carried, and at once the
whole line commenced to dig in. It was dusk. During
the whole of that night the Turks kept up a continuous
fire, with the idea, no doubt, of preventing reinforcements
being brought up by us under cover of darkness. Never-
theless, further drafts of reinforcements were hurried into
the firing-line, and the new trenches were secured. Not
a single yard of trench was retaken by the Turks. From
that day on till the final evacuation of the peninsula was
accomplished, visiting officers would be shown the
" Australian " trenches, which marked the point of their
magnificent charge of 1,000 yards — a sheer gain of some
400 yards, made in a few minutes. The brigade held the
trenches until the following Tuesday morning, when they
were relieved by the 29th Division.

The Australian losses had been appallingly heavy, partly
on account of the open ground over which the advance
was made, and partly from the fact that the Turks had a
concealed and well fortified position. The whole of the
Brigade Staff was wounded, and the casualties amongst
the officers were very severe indeed. The Brigadier,
Colonel M'Cay, was wounded about nine o'clock as he
was returning from the trenches, having lived a charmed
life for many hours as he superintended the men digging
the new trenches. Lieut. -Colonel Garside, who was com-
manding the 7th BattaUon, was killed almost at the side
of Major Wells, both fine soldiers, who had showed mag-
nificent courage. It was in this charge, too, that Lieut. -
Colonel M'Nicol, of the 6th, received machine-gun wounds
which nearly cost him his life. For his magnificent work
he received the D.S.O. Probably half the brigade was
either killed or wounded, and the Brigadier estimated his
loss at 1,800, thereby reducing his command by half.

Till Monday night the removal of the wounded pro-
ceeded. Progress to the beach, 2 miles away, was pain-
fully slow. Never, so a wounded officer told me, shall he
forget the calls of the men for " water," for " help " as

156 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

the stretcher-bearers and doctors, working with unsur-
passed heroism, passed to and from the first dressing-
station, 2 miles in the rear. Here the wounded could be
placed on rough general service wagons and taken over
the fearful rutted roads to the beach. Two further tran&r
fers had to take place before the men reached the hospital
ship. The bitter cold of the night added to the intensity
of the suffering of the men. Yet so long as they knew
that they would be found the men bore their wounds and
pain patiently and stoically, content in the news from
the front that they had won and the Turks had fled.

On the 1 2th, the brigade — all that Avas left of it — was
withdrawn from the firing-line, and on the i 5th reached
Anzac again, to the tired troops almost like a home-
coming. They came back to a new fight, but one in
which the Turks attacked, were broken, and repulsed.

CHAPTER XVI

TURKISH MAY ATTACK AND ARMISTICE

The Turks' strongest attack of the campaign was made
in the middle of May, when they attempted an assault all
along the Anzac line. Both sides had had time to
reorganize, and both had received reinforcements.
The Turks probably had 35,000 men in their trenches at
this time, while the Australians had 30,000. During
the first fortnight of the month the enemy had brought
up guns of bigger calibre, and had placed in the Olive
Grove, from which they could enfilade the beach from the
east, a six-gun battery which even the warships and the
Australian gunners were unable to completely silence.
The Allies had aeroplanes and captive balloons spotting
for them, and yet the Turkish batteries, skilfully con-
cealed, managed to continue shelling the beach and the
incoming barges. Very little notice was taken by the
Navy of this shelling, and very soon, too, the troops
regarded it as the natural thing. What they would have
felt like, these Australians, had they been fighting in
France, where, for certain periods, they would be relieved
and taken from under constant shell fire, it is not easy
to say. The strain wore them down certainly, but it never
affected the army nerves or its heart or its determination.
Nevertheless, May was a sad month for the troops,
though it also brought later a chance of the Turks being-
taught a lesson. On Saturday, 15th May, Major-General
Bridges, the leader of the ist Division, fell mortally
wounded. It had often been remarked by the troops at
Anzac that their General was absolutely careless of his
own safety. He was daily round the trenches, a rather
glum, silent man, but keenly observant, and quickly able
to draw from his ofiicers all the points of information
he required. Often he recklessly exposed himself to gain
a view of the Turkish positions, despite the remonstrances

157

158 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

of his Staff. As time wore on he took heed, and on the
morning when he fell had been more than usually careful.
General Bridges had left Anzac Headquarters, near the
beach, at about 9.30, and was going up Shrapnel Gully,
and at this time that terrible gully had no secret sap
through which one might pass with comparative safety
from snipers' bullets coming from the head of the gully.
It was a matter of running, from sandbag traverse to
sandbag traverse, a gauntlet of lead, up the bed of the
dry gully.

General Bridges had just passed a dressing-station
dug into the side of the hill, and had received a warning
from the stretcher-bearers standing round the entrance.
" You had better run across here, sir," they told him,
" as the Turks are pretty lively to-day." He did, and
reached a further traverse, where he stood near another
dressing-station smoking a cigarette. " Well," he said
to his Stafif officer, after a few minutes, " we must make
another run for it." He ran round the comer of the
traverse and through the thick scrub. Before he could
reach the next cover, not many yards away, he was
struck by a bullet and lay prone. It is believed that
the sniper at the head of the gully was waiting and
watching that morning, and had already inflicted a
number of casualties. Medical attention was immediately
available. A doctor at the adjacent dressing-station
found that the femoral artery in the thigh had been
severed. The bullet, instead of merely piercing the leg,
had entered sideways and torn a way through. Only
for the fact that skilled attention was so prompt. General
Bridges must have died within a few minutes. The
wound was plugged. Taken to the dtessing-station, the
General's first words were, " Don't carry me down ; I
don't want any of your fellows to run into danger."
Seeing the stretcher case, the Turks did not fire on the
party that now made its way to the beach, all traffic
being stopped along the track. The dying leader was
immediately taken off to a hospital ship, but his con-
dition was critical. Before the ship left his beloved
Anzac, his last words to an officer, who had been with
him from the first, were, " Anyhow, I have commanded
an Australian Division for nine months."

General Bridges died four days later on his way to
Alexandria. It was very typical, that last sentence of

TURKISH MAY ATTACK AND ARMISTICE 159

the man. His whole heart and soul and energies had
been devoted to planning the efficiency of the ist
Division. A born organizer, a fine tactician, he was
a lone, stern figure that inspired a great confidence in
his men. His judgment in the field had proved almost
unfailing. Unsparing to himself, he demanded, and
obtained, the best in those he commanded. He was
one of the finest leaders on Gallipoli, and in him General
Hamilton and Lieut. -General Birdwood reposed the
highest confidence.

General Birdwood, cabling from Army Corps head-
quarters to the Governor- General of Australia, said : —

It is with the deepest regret that I have to announce the death on 19th May
of General Bridges, who has proved himself the most gallant of soldiers and
best of commanders. I am quite unable to express what his loss means to
the Australian Division, which can never pay the debt it owes him for his
untiring and unselfish labours, which are responsible for the high state of
organization to which the Division has been brought in every detail. The
high ideals placed before the boys trained at Duntroon, and which he
succeeded in attaining as far as my knowledge of those now serving with
the Australian forces in the field is concerned, will, I hope, go down to the
honour of his name as long as the military history of Australia lasts.

The Commander-in-Chief, General Sir Ian Hamilton,
cabled on 20th May : —

General Bridges died on the passage to Alexandria. The whole force
mourns his irreparable loss, which was avenged yesterday in a briUiant
action by his own troops, who inflicted a loss of 7,000 on the enemy at a
cost of less than 500 to themselves.

It is this Turkish attack that I now shall describe,
and the nature of the revenge. Brigadier-General
Walker, who had been commanding the ist Infantry
Brigade since the death of Colonel McLaurin, succeeded
to the immediate command of the Division.

The new Turkish batteries employed at this time con-
tained some 6-inch guns, and it is believed that the
Goeben or one of the cruisers belonging to the Turks had
come down from Constantinople and was stationed, just
parallel to Bogali, in the Straits. Enemy warships, it is
believed, were able to throw shells accurately into the
heart of our position, searching for the guns. By the
1 8th May the Turks had an 11 -in. gun, some 8 -in., and
a number of 4' 7 -in. guns trained on Anzac. With the
support of these, and with the small mountain and field

i6o AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

pieces that they had been using before, it has been
since learned, they felt that they could safely attack.
Their offensive was fixed for the 19th May. Pre-
liminary bombardments began on the evening before,
1 8th, and were the fiercest that had yet been experi-
enced. The hills echoed with the chaotic explosions
of the bursting of heavy shells. One of the Australian
I 8-pounders was knocked out completely, and other shells
reached the gun-pits ; but the gunners stuck to their
posts and replied effectively to this Turkish bombard-
ment. It was reported that evening from aeroplane
reconnaissances that the Turks had been seen landing
a new Division at the Straits, and that they were march-
ing to the support of the Anzac troops. Headquarters
were located at Bogali. At once the warships com-
menced a bombardment of the main road leading along
the side of the hills to Krithia village, where troops
could be seen moving. They followed them up and
shelled the general Turkish Staff out of a village midway
between Kelid Bahr and Krithia.

Attacks at Anzac were always determined by the time at
wliich the moon sank. I can remember on one occasion
waiting night after night in the trenches, when the Turks
were supposed to be about to attack, until the moon
would sink. We would rouse- up and watch its depart-
ing sickly yellow circle dip behind the hills of Troy,
and then turn towards the Turkish trenches, which we
could see occasionally spitting fire, and wait for the
general fusillade to open. Now, on the 1 8th the moon
dipped down at a little before midnight, and just as the
midnight hours passed, from the centre of the line round
'Quinn's Post arose the clatter of Turkish bombs. In
the closely wedged trenches the Australians answered
this attack with similar missiles, and for a while a little
" bomb party," as it was called by the troops, began.
From an intermittent rifle fire the sound of the sharp
crackle of rifles intensified and extended from end to
end of the Turkish lines. It was as if thousands of
typewriters, the noise of their working increased a
thousandfold, had begun to work. Every second the
racket grew ; in less than two minutes the gullies were
torrents of singing lead, while the bullets could be heard
everywhere whizzing through the bushes. The rapid
beat of the machine guns began, their pellets thudding.

■..:":''*: fS

THE TURKISH EMISSAKY BEING LED FROM ANZAC COVE AFTEK ARKANGING
THE DETAILS OF THE ARMISTICE, AT THE CONFERENCE ON 23RD MAY,
I915. HE IS PRECEDED BY A STAFF OFFICER.

To tace p. 160.

TURKISH MAY ATTACK AND ARMISTICE i6i

against the sandbag parapets. Bombs, bursting like the
roar of water that had broken the banks of dams, drowned
the general clatter. Immense " football bombs " (as the
troops termed them) they were, that wrought awful havoc
and formed huge craters. For half an hour the fury-
lasted. Then it died down, much as violent storms do,
arising suddenly, and departing by fading away in a
curiously short, sharp burst of firing. Again the sudden
rapid fire arose and then again the splutter of ceasing
shots. Bombing had stopped.

It is hard to know what the reason of the Turk was
for this " bluff," for it was such, for no attack followed.
It was not exactly an unusual incident in itself, but,
nevertheless, always had the effect of rousing up the
line and the troops manning the trenches. Probably
the Turks calculated that we would be led to believe
that the whole show was over for that night, and con-
sequently without further bombardment they began a
few hours later their extended attack.

Just in the hour preceding dawn — about 3.30 the time
is given — the Turks began silently and stealthily to
approach the trenches. Without a sound they came,
in large and small bodies, up the gullies, working by the
help of a marching tape that would keep them together.
They approached to within, in some cases, 30 or 40
yards of our trenches. At that time coloured rocket
shells were not so much used as they were later ; no
coloured green and red lights that would burn for some
minutes, lit up any section of the line. But the sentries
on the parapets suddenly began to detect, even in the
blackness of the night preceding dawn, crawling figures.
The Turk was always a good scout, and would get right
under the parapets of our trenches almost undetected!.
But when he came to facing the Australian bayonet
and jumping down into the trenches it was a different
matter altogether. Now, it was just at the centre of the
right of the position, at the point where the ist Brigade
and the 1st Battalion of that brigade held the line, that
the alarm first was given. The sentries shot down the
advancing figures. Immediately others rose up quickly
and rushed silently at the trenches. A few managed to
jump across the parapets and down into the trenches.
It is a brave man indeed who will do such an act.

The attack was launched. Right down the Australian

1 62 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

line now spread the order for rapid fire, for the Turks
could be seen and heard calling " Allah ! Allah ! " They
came in great numbers, dashing forward in the already
coming dawn, for in the sky behind them the sun would
rise, and now already its faintest streaks were appearing,
casting an opaque tinge in the heavens. Gallantly as the
Turks charged, the Australians stood magnificently steady,
and fired steadily into the masses of moving silhouetted
figures. It was " terrible, cold-blooded murder," as one
of the defenders described it to me later. " They were
plucky enough, but they never had a dogl's chance."

Now in a few places the Turks did reach our trenches,
but they found themselves trapped, and the few who
escaped with their lives, surrendered. Across the Poppy-
field the Turks had pressed hardest, but they were thrust
back and back. Next morning, when the dawn came,
their bodies could be seen lying in heaps on the slopes.
It was as if the men had been mown down in lines.

While the attacks were developing against the centre
of the right of the Une — company after company and
battalion after battalion were sent on by the Turks in
their endeavours to push the Australians off the peninsula
— there began fierce fighting on the extreme right, on
the left, and at the apex of the position at the head of
Monash Gully. It was a desperate enough position, for
the Turks were not more than lo or 20 yards away in
places. Our machine guns ripped along their parapets;
iwhen one gun ceased, to fix in its jaws a new belt, another
took on the fire; so the noise was insistent, and the
Turks, yelling " Allah ! Allah I " stumbled forward a few
paces and were mown down, but never were able to advance
to the trenches. Far into the morning the attacks con-
tinued. Mostly they were short rushes, opposed by terrific
bursts of fire, bombs hurled into the advancing mass; a
check and then a pause. As the enemy wefe still ad-
vancing, only at isolated points could their machine guns
reply or rifles be fired. That there were some enemy
bullets did not afi"ect the troops, who regarded it as too
good an opportunity to miss. The Australians' sporting
instincts were roused, and at many points the men could
be seen sitting on the parapets of the trenches, calmly
picking off the Turks as they came up, working their
bolts, loading, furiously. This was the way in which the
few casualties that did occur (100 killed and 500

TURKISH MAY ATTACK AND ARMISTICE 163

wounded) were sustained. It was a bloodless victory,
if ever there has been one.

Once a German Albatross aeroplane had come sailing
over the position at a very high altitude, the Turks must
have known that their chances of success were gone.
They commenced to shell the shipping off the beaches,
in the hope that any reinforcements that might be arriving
might be sunk, but they were not even successful in this.
Our artillery had the range to a few yards, and as the
Turks left their trenches (though only so short a distance
away) the shrapnel swept along their parapets, and they
were shot down in rows. It is calculated that 3,000 Turks
perished in that attack. Some make the estimate higher,
and there is reason to believe that they may be right.
The wounded numbered nearly i 5,000. It was their one
and only general attack. It failed hopelessly. It was
never repeated.

So horrible had the battlefield become, strewn with
Turkish dead, that the enemy sued for an armistice. On
the day succeeding the engagement and the repulse of
the Turks, towards dusk white flags and the red crescents
began to be hoisted all along the line. Now of the Turks
and their flags of truce something had already been
learned down on the banks of the Canal. On the other
hand, in the evacuation of wounded from Gaba Tepe,
when the attacking parties had failed to get a foothold
on the narrow beach, and had been forced to retire leaving
their wounded still on the shore, those soldiers werei
tended by the Turkish doctors. Their subsequent evacua-
tion by the Navy under the Red Cross flag* was accurately
observed by the enemy. But that did not prevent this
" new move " being regarded with some caution. It was
between five and six o'clock that in the centre of the right
of the line a Turkish Staff officer, two medical officers,
and a company commander came out of their trenches —
all firing having ceased, and by arrangement through an
interpreter who had called across from' our own to the
enemy trenches during the day— and met Major-General
H. B. Walker, who was commanding the ist Division, on
the neutral ground between the trenches. It was stated
by the Staff officer that he had been instructed to arrange
a suspension of arms in order that the dead between
the lines might be buried and the wounded tended and
removed. The position was, to say the least, a delicate

1 64 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

one. The officer carried no written credentials. General
Hamilton's dispatches convey the subsequent proceedings
as they were viewed at the time by most of the leaders
at Anzac : —

He [the Turkish Staff officer] was informed (writes the Commander-in-
Chief) that neither he nor the Genei^al Officer Commanding Australian
Division had the power to arrange such a suspension of arms, but that
at 8 p.m. an opportunity would be given of exchanging letters on the subject,
and that meanwhile hostilities would recommence after ten minutes' grace.
At this lime some stretcher parties on both sides were collecting wounded,
and the Turkish trenches opposite ours were packed with men standing
shoulder to shoulder two deep. Matters were less regular in front of other
sections, where men with white flags came out to collect wounded (some
attempted to dig trenches that were not meant for graves). Meanwhile it
was observed that columns were on the march in the valley up which the
Turks were accustomed to bring their reinforcements (Legge and Mule
Valleys).

On hearing of these movements, General Sir W. R. Birdwood, commanding
Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, ordered his trenches to be manned
against a possible attack. As the evening drew in the enemy's con-
centration continued, and everything pointed to their intention of making
use of the last of the daylight to get their troops into position without being
shelled by our artillery. A message was therefore sent across to say that
no clearing of dead or wounded could be allowed during the night, and
that any negotiations for such purpose should be opened up through the
proper channel and initiated before noon on the following day.

Stretcher parties and others fell back, and immediately fire broke out. In
front of our right section masses of men advanced behind lines of unarmed
men holding up their hands. Firing became general all along the line,
accompanied by a heavy bombardment of the whole position, so that
evidently this attack must have been pre-arranged. Musketry and machine-
gun fire continued without interruption till after dark, and from then up till
about 4 a.m. the next day.

Except for a half-hearted attack in front of Courtney's Post, no assault was
made until 1.20 a.m., when the enemy left their trenches and advanced on
Ouinn's Post. Our guns drove the Turks back to their trenches and beat
back all other attempts at assault. By 4.30 a.m. on 21st May musketry fire
had died down to normal dimensions.

Negotiations were again opened up by the Turks during
the morning of the 22nd. It must be recollected that by
now the battlefields had been three weeks fought over,
and many Australians as well as Turks who had perished
in those first awful days, still lay unburied where they
had fallen. The stench of decaying flesh threatened
terrible calamity to both armies. For two days the
Turkish dead in thousands lay rotting in the sun, their
swollen corpses in some places on our very parapets.

p <

w ^

2 a

a
5 5

TURKISH MAY ATTACK AND ARMISTICE 165

General Hamilton accordingly dispatched his Chief of
Staff, Major-General W. P. Braithwaite, during the morn-
ing of the 22nd, to assist General Birdwood in coming to
terms with an envoy that was to be sent by Essad Pasha,
commanding at that time a section of the Turkish forces.
Accordingly, on the afternoon of the 22nd an officer rode
in from the extreme right of their line, across the plain
that dipped down to the sea between the headland of Gaba
Tepe and the last knoll of our position. He carried a
white flag of truce. It was an impressive moment. He
was beautifully mounted, and his uniform was a mass of
gold lace. He was met by Staff officers from the
Australian Army Corps. Now, coming to the wire en-
tanglements that had been made across the beach — the
visiting officer had already been blindfolded — it was a
matter of doubt for a moment how he was to be taken
across within the Anzac lines. A solution was gained
when four Australians stripped off their uniforms and,
placing the officer on a stretcher, bore the Turk round
through the water to the other side. There he remounted
his horse, and was escorted along the beach to the pre-
pared dugout, where he met in consultation General
Braithwaite and representatives of the Australian and
New Zealand Corps, with interpreters. It took two days
to arrange the details of the armistice, and eventually
the terms were satisfactorily agreed on, written, and
signed in duplicate by both army leaders.

On the 24th May — Empire Day, as Australians know.,
it — the armistice was begtm at eight o'clock, and lasted
till five o'clock in the evening. Some of its features
are interesting, gruesome as the object was. Burial
parties were selected from each side. Groups of selected
officers left the trenches and started to define with white
flags the lines of demarcation. It had been decided
there should be a central zone where the men from the two
sides might work together — a narrow strip it was, too.
The Turks were not to venture into what might be
termed " our territory," that varied in width according
to the distances the trenches were apart, and the
Australians were not to venture into the enemy's. Orders
were issued that there was to be no firing anywhere
along the line. Arms were to be collected and handed
over to the respective armies to which they belonged,
minus the rifle bolts. No field-glasses were to be used,

1 66 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

and the men were to keep down in the trenches and
not look over the parapets.

Now one of the disadvantages of the armistice, from
the Australians' point of view, was that the topographical
features of the position enabled any of the Turks who
might approach within a certain distance to look down
into the heart of the Anzac position (that was, into their
own gullies), but also into gullies that now contained
the Australians' reserve trenches and bivouacs, and where
the troops were sheltered and stores placed. It seems
very probable that the enemy realized this advantage,
however slight. I do not think they were able to
gain much. Nevertheless, in the interests of the health
of all at Anzac, it was essential that the armistice should
be arranged. So the party of the armistice went care-
fully round the 2-mile front of the position, moving
the flags a little nearer the Turkish lines here, there,
nearer the Australian. Following these slowly worked
the burial parties, all wearing white armlets — doctors and
padres.

Under guise of a sergeant of the Red Crescent walked
General Liman von Sanders, the German leader against
Anzac, and he mixed with the burial parties. It was a
misty and wet morning, and every one wore greatcoats
and helmets that were sufficient cloak to' any identity.
All day the parties worked, collecting the identity discs of
many gallant lads whose fate had been uncertain, men
whose mouldering bodies had been seen lying between
the trenches. They were buried in huge open trenches,
often alongside their fallen foe, as often it was im-
possible, owing to the condition of the bodies, to remove
them to the Turkish burial-grounds. Once some firing
began on the right, where it was alleged some parties
were digging firing trenches^ but it was hushed, and
I have never been able to find an exact and official
statement of this.

Some of the Turks who were directing operations
mingled with our men ; they spoke perfect English.
By judicious handing out of cigarettes they sought to
discover as much as they dared or as much as they
• might be told. Brigadier -General G. J. Johnston
(Artillery officer) told me an amusing interview he
had with a Turkish officer who asked him about
the number of men Australia was sending to the

TURKISH MAY ATTACK AND ARMISTICE 167

war. The Gim'ner replied, " Five times as many
thousands as had been already landed, while hundreds
of thousands more were ready." Another conversation
shows very clearly the absence of bitterness on one
side or the other. It concerned the meeting of two
men who exchanged cards, while the Turk told (one
suspects with a cynical smile) of many haunts of pleasure
and amusement in Constantinople where the Australian
could amuse himself when he came. I do not wish
to convey that the Turks beHeved that they would be
beaten, but they were not hated enemies of the
Australians, and on this, as on other occasions, they
played the game. Over 3,000 of their dead were buried
that day. They lay in heaps; they sprawled, swelled
and stark, in rows, linked together by the guiding ropes
which they had clung to. Many were lying just above
the Turkish parapets, where our machine guns had mowed
them down as they left their trenches. And these the
Turks themselves just barely covered, as was their custom
in burying their dead.

Chaplains Merrington and Dexter both held short
services over the graves of the fallen in the few hollows
near Quinn's Post and other points farther south. A
cairn of stones was left to mark the spot on which
some day a greater memorial may be raised ; down
in the gulUes rough wooden crosses mark other graves.

Gradually, after 3 p.m., the parties withdrew from
their solemn task, and as the last white flag was strucTc
and the parties retreated into their oWn trenches, the
snip, ' snip, zip, zip, and crack of the bullets and boom
of the bombs began again, and never ceased till the
last shot was fired on the peninsula.

CHAPTER XVII

ANZAC COVE

The evolution of Anzac was as the growth of a mining
settlement. Little had been done by the Turks in their
defensive preparations to disturb the natural growth that
spread from the crest of Maclagan's Ridge almost down
to the water's edge — a growth of holly bush, a kind
of furze, and an abundant carpet of grasses, wild flowers,
poppies, and anemones. Round Ari Burnu their line
of shallow trenches had run along to the Fishermen's
Huts, but there were no tracks, other than the sheep or
goat track round the base of the cliffs that the farmers
might have used coming from Anafarta on to the plains
below Kelid Bair and across to the olive -groves, on the
way to Maidos and the villages along the peninsula
road to Cape Helles. Anzac Beach — " Z " Beach in
the scheme of operations — was covered with coarse
pebbles, occasionally a patch of sand. Barely 20 yards
wide, and 600 yards long, the hills and cliffs began
to rise steeply from it. The shore was cleft in the
centre by a gully — Bully Beef Gully — which opened
into the Cove. It was no more than a sharp ravine,
very narrow, and in the days of April and in November
very moist, and wet, and sticky. It took very little
time after the dawn of day on that April Sunday morning
for the point of concentration to be fixed on in this
Cove. The whole of the stores, equipment, as well as
the troops, were landed from end to end of the beach..
Somehow there was a feeling of greater security in this
Cove,, but in fact it was so shallow, so accurately plotted
in the enemy's maps, that the Turks had little difficulty
in bursting the shells from one end of it to the other at
their will. Luckily, the water was fairly deep alm^ost
up to the shore. Twenty yards out one found 1 5 feet
of water and a stony bottom, which enabled the picket

ANZAC COVE 169

boats and pinnaces to come close in, as it allowed barges
to be drawn well up to the beach, so that the stores
could be tumbled out. Photographs, better than word
pictures, describe that beach in those first da^s and
weeks. Ordnance officers of both Divisions, as well as
of the Army Corps, wrestled with the problem of making
order out of chaos. Once the army was to stick, it had
to stick " By God ! " and not be allowed to starve,
or want for ammunition or entrenching tools.

A small stone jetty was the first work of the Engineers,
and this was rapidly followed by a jetty that the
signallers, under Captain Watson (for the Engineers had
vastly more important duties that called them away up
to the gullies and the firing-line), constructed. But
that was done after the second week. The Army Medical
Corps worked in a dressing-station, just a tent with a
Red Cross fiying overhead. Yet it could not be said
that the Turks wilfully shelled this station, though neces-
sarily they must have dropped their shells round its
canvas doors, while inside it came the bullets, because
of the stores that lay about, blocking, choking the beach.
Many were the experiments that were made to distribute
the supplies. Colonel Austin, Ordnance officer, ist
Division, with his stafif-sergeant, Tuckett, had attempted
to erect the piles of boxes of biscuits, as well as picks
and shovels and ammunition around Hell Spit. Promptly
the Turks dropped shells right into the middle of them,
scattering the whole and killing several men. There was
nothing for it but to move back along the Cove, dig
into the sides of the cliffs, and pile the reserve stores
up the main gully. On the beach cases were stacked
in the form of traverses, round which the men might take
such shelter as was afforded when the guns — Beachy
Bill, from Olive Grove, and Anafarta, from the village
near Suvla — commenced their " hates."

This beach and the cliffs overlooking it might be best
described as "The Heart of Anzac." At the foot of
the gully was camped General Sir William Birdwood —
the " Soul of Anzac " — and his whole Staff in dug-
outs no different from the holes the men built in the
hills. A hundred feet up the slopes on the south side
was General Bridges and his Staff, and on the other hand
General Godley with the 2nd A. and N.Z. Division.
Those first quarters were only slightly varied in after-

I70 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

months. General Birdwood remained always on the
beach, almost at the foot of the jetty. Here it was
that one found the living pulse of the position — ^the
throb of life that meant the successful holding of the
acres so gallantly won, the strength that held back
the Turks, while road arteries cut into the hillsides and
formed the channels down which the best blood of the
Australians and New Zealanders flowed. One cannot
help recording that constantly shells burst round the
leader's dugout. Thus it happened that his Staff officer.
Captain Onslow, met his death under tragic circum-
stances in July. It was a particularly hot night, and
this popular officer said he would sleep on the top of
his dugout as being cooler. The Turks commenced to
shell the beach (probably in the belief that we were
that night landing men and stores, which we were not).
Captain Onslow retired within the poor and partial
shelter, emerging again after about a quarter of an
hour, when he fancied the guns had stopped. Unfor-
tunately, it was only a lull, and the next shell burst
right on the dugout, killing him instantly.

" It is only a question of time," was a phrase current
on the beach amongst the working parties. It meant
one had only to be there long enough and the inevitable
shell-burst v/ould find its victims. Yet considering the
traffic — that the whole army of 30,000, increasing to
50,000 in July and August, as the zealous Australian
Light Horsemen (dismounted) came into action, were fed
from that 600 yards strip of beach — it was astonishing
that the casualties were as low as they were. Twenty
men were killed at a shell -burst once — that was the
most horrible incident. Thousands of the heaviest
shells fell harmlessly into the water. Six hundred
shells a day, at one period, fell along the shore
and around the pinnaces and lighters or amongst
the slowly moving transports. No large ships were
sunk. " The beach " — and those two words were
used to include the thousands that inhabited it and the
adjacent hillsides — watched the vessels chased from
anchorage to anchorage. The army blessed their lives
they were ashore ; while those afloat wondered how any
were left alive after the " hottings " the beach got.
But the casualties from both Turkish enfilading batteries
were never reckoned in all at 2,000— big enough,

ANZAC COVE .171;

but very little result for the molestation that the Turks
hoped to throw down on the heroes who toiled there
day and night. For most of the work was done at
night, in the small hours of the morning, when the
transports under a darkened sky — the moon had to be
studied studiously on Gallipoli — could come close inshore
with loo-gallon tanks, thousands of Egyptian water-
tins, millions of rounds of ammunition, and thousands
of rounds of shells, scores of tons of beef and biscuits.
Bread and the little fresh meat that came ashore were
landed from the regular trawler service that arrived from
Imbros by day, via Helles.

Once a great steam pumping engine was landed. One
heard it afterwards puffing iaway on the beach, sending the
water from the barges (filled with water from the Nile
and anchored by the pier) up to the tank reservoirs on
the side of the ridge, where began a reticulation scheme
all over Anzac to the foot of the hills, thereby certainly
saving the energy of the army expended on fatigues.
How the troops blessed it! None of that " luxury^"
however, in the early days ; only the monotonous grind
up and down the slopes with water-cans.

You come on the Telephone Exchange of Anzac (tO;
which led what appeared an impossible tangle of wires)
and the Post Office, on either side of the entrance to
Bully Beef Gully, opposite Watson's Landing. It is
possible to talk all over the position from here. Three or
four men are working constantly at the switches. Farther
along the beach on the right and you find the clearing
stations, under Colonel Howse, V.C., wedged in between
the hillside and the screen of boxes on the beach. You
come to Hell Spit, round which you might be chased
by a machine gun from Gaba Tepe ; and beyond, the
graveyard, open to shell fire. Burials mostly have to
be carried out at night, when the shelling is not so
dangerous. There was a chaplain who, with his little
band of devoted stretcher-bearers and the comrades of
the fallen, was performing the last rites at this spot,
when, to his dismay, the Turks commenced the
shelling again. " Dust unto dust," repeated the chap-
lain, and the bursting shell flung the newly exposed
earth over the party. "Oh, hell I " said the padre.
"This is too ho-at for me! Fm aff I " And he went.
So was the spirit of war bred in the souls of the men.

172 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

It was sheer madness, the risks the troops would take
on the beach when the Turks had fired old Beachy Bill
from the Olive Grove — bathing under shell fire. But
if needs must they always faced those shellings, anxious
to get back to their job — to get supplies ashore before
they were sunk, to get comrades away to comfort on the
hospital ships. No amount of shelling interrupted the
daily swim for long.

So you walk north back along the beach, pondering,
looking up at the heights above Ari Burnu Point. You
wonder at the men of the 3rd Brigade who stormed it
and the ridge on your right. The idealness of the Point
for machine guns to repel any landing, seems only too
evident. You pass the Army Corps headquarters — a line
of dugouts, well shielded from the sun with canvas and
blankets. Above is the wireless station, with its wide-
spread aerials on a bare hill — deserted except for a few
casual men who had burrowed deep and took their chance
— and immense searchlights for signalling in a cavern
in the hill. Near at hand, too, is the Army Post Office,
in a low wooden building, one of the few at Anzac.
Tinkerings and hammerings arise from the bomb factory,
next door almost, where the finishing touches are put
to the jam-tin bombs, originally constructed in Egypt,
and to the Turkish shell cases, converted into " suiprise
packets " by diligent sappers, who work day and night
to keep pace with the demand for twice any number
that the Turks might throw. Up farther on this bared
hill is the corral built for the reception of Turkish
prisoners. You meet them, tired-looking, sullen men,
being marched down through the gully to the pier.
Hereabouts is an incinerator, always smoking and
exploding cartridges that have fallen into it.

You come to two more gullies before you reach the
northern point of the Cove. Up one is the New
Zealand Headquarters, bunched — huddled, in fact — on the
side of the ravine, with the terrace in front, on which
the leaders sit a,nd yarn in the spare moments, watching
the shells burst on the beach, the warships racing about
from harbour to harbour, destroyers nosing slowly into
the flanks of the position, aeroplanes skimming away
to the Turkish lines. In the next and last gully there
are many scores of placid mules, munching away, wait-
ing for their work at sunset. You reach the Point (Ari

BRIGADIER-GEXERAL MOXASH'S HEADQUARTERS, REST GULLY.

bl'UIXX KUUK AND THE ENTRAN'CE TO REST GLLLV.

To face p. 172,

ANZAC COVE 173

Burnu"), a flat, rounded, rather sharp bend, and you find
yourself amongst a great many mule-wagons, standing
in the sand, and before you a 2-mile sweep of yellow
beach (Ocean Beach) that bends round to Suvla Bay.
There rises up from the shore a mass of knolls and
hills, the under features of the Sari Bair ridge, with the
Salt Lake (the salt sparkles in the sun) drying at their
base. Immediately in the foreground, and to the left,
are the abrupt terminations of the Sari Bair ridge :
Sphinx Rock and the brown, clayey, bare slopes of
Plugge's Plateau, the whole hillside so mouldered away
with the lashing of the Mediterranean storms, that the
shells which burst on it bring tumbling to the gullies
below vast falls of earth, until it appears that the whole
hill could easily be blown away. Away up higher,
beyond, is the battle-line ; its spent bullets come
flopping about you, splashing up the water, flicking up
the sand. They are never so spent that they won't
penetrate your flesh or bones and stick.

Hastily you turn into a sap, and all that wonderful
broad expanse of beach and hills is lost. For by day the
Ocean Beach is impracticable, a-nd at night, only by taking
a risk, which the Indian muleteers do, can the nearest
portion of it be used, thus relieving the pressure of traffic
in the great communication- way. What a task to dig
this sap miles out into the enemy's territory, the only
link with the strong, but isolated, posts (beyond Fisher-
men's Huts) held in turn by parties of New Zealanders,
Maoris, and Light Horsemen, under Lieut. -Colonel
Bauchop! It is deep, broad — 7 feet broad — hot, dusty,
but safe. You may leave it just as you reach the Ari
Burnu Point, and, passing through a gap in the hills
and down a gully, regain the Cove. Just round the
Point you may look in at the Ordnance Stores, indicated
by a dirty blue-and-white flag, ragged and torn with
shot and shell. That flag was brought ashore by Colonel
Austin, and was the only army flag ever flown at Anzac,
Surely there is a smithy ? A clanging sound of blows
on an anvil makes cheerful noise after the frenzied burst
of shells. The workshops are protected with huge thick-
nesses of stores ; guns of all descriptions are being
made and remade here. Farther along are the medical
stores, and you find a spacious dugout, lined with lints
and ointments, bandages, splints, stretchers, and disin-

174 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

fectants. Hospital supplies were never short at Anzac.
Gurkha, Maori, Englishman, Australian, New Zealander
passes you on the beach. You may meet them all together,
talking. You may see them only in their respective
groups with their own kin. It all reminds you of. an
anthill. There are men — not hurrying, but going in all
directions — stopping to talk every dozen paces, and then
going on or turning back, apparently without motive,
without reason. There are some that march alone and
never halt. But the whole trend of trafific is from the' hills
and to the hills. Outward they go loaded, and return
empty-handed for more.

There came a time, not infrequent, when placid
twihghts fell on Anzac, when even the intermittent crack
of rifles or the occasional burst of a bomb passed
almost unnoticed. The wicked " psing " of bullets pass-
ing overhead on their way to the water went unheeded.
A solemn stillness filled the air. Yes, quiet as a mining
camp on the seashore, far away from war's turmoil, the
beach nearly always rested with the sinking of the sun be-
hind the massed hills of Samothrace — the island refuge of
ancient oracles ; its departing rays lit the sky in golden
shadows, that mingled with blue the orange and green
tints in the sky. Deeper shades darkened the island of
Imbros and cast into silhouette the warships, waiting
and watching till the aeroplanes sailing overhead should
transmit their observations, which meant targets, for the
bombardment of new enemy positions. The warships lay,
like inert monsters, on a shimmering sea. Sunsets on
Gallipoli took away the sting of battle. The shore parties,
their most arduous labours still to come, watched the
twilight in a state of suspended animation. Five o'clock
was the hour for the commencement of bathing. It
usually was, too, the signal for a Turkish " hate " of ten
minutes or more, to banish the bathers. Any who could
be spared stripped off their remaining few clothes,
clambered aboard barges, or dived from the end of the
pier, and washed off the sweat of a sweltering day in
the clear waters ; for Anzac was for five months as
warm a corner as any in the ^Egean. Generals, orderhes,
intelligence officers, men who had been toiling round
the firing-line from dewy dawn, plunged in, spluttering
an interchange of scraps of gossip of this position and
that, and news from the outside world that seemed almost

ANZAC COVE 175

lost to those on this battlefield. You carefully placed
your clothes, ready to dodge along the pier back to
comparative safety, behind high stacks of stores, as the
first shrieking shell came hurtling over from Olive Grove.
" Old Beachy Bill snarling again," u'as the only com-
ment, and once the little " hate " had ceased, back
again for the last dive.

Then sometimes out of the stillness would sound a, glong
— a beaten shell -case — bidding the officers to an evening
meal; or the high-pitched voice of Captain Chaytor, the
naval officer in command on the beach — as brave a fellow
as ever stepped. The Navy took no more notice of shells
than they did of Army orders — they were under " the
Admiral." Still the co-operation between the two services
was never marred by serious obstructions.

" Last boat for Imbros," announced the naval officer.
He might have said " Last boat for the shore." Gripping
handbags or kitbags, there was usually a party waiting,
and they dodged out now from behind shelters or from
dugouts. They were off to one or other of the bases on
duty, and the trawler or destroyer was waiting offshore
for the pinnace to come alongside.

" Picket boat ahoy ! Where are you from? " Again
the naval officer is speaking.

The voice of a midshipman, suitably pitched and full-
throated, replies, " London, sir."

" I did not ask where you were born. Where are you
from?"

" London, sir."

Then the naval officer remembers his evening aboard
the battleship London, and orders the panting craft along-
side. The shells begin to fall. He gives sharp orders
through his megaphone, and pinnaces begin backing out
from the shore, scattering in all directions till they are
half a mile from the beach, and have become almost
impossible targets for any gunners. The Turks desist.
On the beach bathing is promptly resumed.

General Birdwood rarely ever missed his evening dip.
He bathed amongst his men, shedding off rank with his
uniform, which led more than once to amusing incidents.
One day the canvas pipe of the water-barge fell from the
pier into the sea, and an irate man on the barge, seeing
some one near it, cursed him, and asked him if he would
" well lend a fellow a hand to get the

176 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

thing up." General Birdwood — for it was he —

delights to relate the story himself, and how he hastily-
commenced to pull the pipe into place, when a sergeant
dashed up ajid offered to relieve him, in the midst of
abusive directions from the bargee, who, unconscious of
the signals from the sergeant and of the vacant staring
of all around, urged on his General to more strenuous and
more successful efforts. Did it endear the General less
to the men? Rather not. A quiet, very firm, but very
friendly man was this leader of the Australians, who
understood their character admirably.

On another occasion, when returning to his dugout over
the top of the hill where rested the bomb factory, he
accidentally stood on the roof of a dugout, and stones
and earth began to fall on the occupant beneath.
" Quick, quick ! " said General Birdwood, knowing his
men; " let me get away from this ! 1 would rather face
half a dozen Turks than that Australian when he comes
out 1 "

There is a " beach " story, too — all stories origi-
nated on the beach— far too characteristic to go unre-
corded, of an Australian " pinching " extra water from
the water barge one very still evening, when he was
caught by the naval officer on duty, who, in the pure
English of the Navy, demanded, " What are you doing
thar, sir? " and up to the dugouts on the hillside floated
the prompt reply, " Getting some wart-ar, sir."

But night has fallen and the beach wakens to its
greatest degree of activity. Long since have efforts to
load and land stores, to take ammunition to the firing-
line, been abandoned by day. The Turkish observation
at Gaba Tepe stopped that. All the hillside glows with
twinkling lights ; the sound of laughter or stern com-
mands floats down from the higher steppes of the hills on
to the beach. There is a fine dust rising from the strand
as the traffic increases and becomes an endless stream of
men, of mules, of wagons. Somewhere ofi"shore — you
know that it must be about 400 yards — there come voices
across the waters as the barges are loaded and the steam
pinnaces tug them to the shore. They are lashed to the
narrow piers, where the waves lap their sides. Parties
quickly board them to unload the food that is the life of
the army, and the munitions which are its strength. There
are heavier goods, too, to bring ashore, sometimes need-

ANZAC COVE ' I7Z

ing large parties to handle. There are rifles and machine
guns, there are picks and shovels, iron plates for loop-
holes. Wood, too, forms not the least strain placed on
the transport.

So it goes on night after night, this constant stream
of material to keep the army efficient, ready for any
attack, ready, too, for any offensive. The trawlers have
sneaked close into the Cove. The Turkish gunners,
as if seeing this, begin to shell the beach. The work in
the Cove stops abruptly. Men come scrambling from the
pier and the boats to seek the shelter of dugouts and the
great piles of stores. The shells fall harmlessly in the
water (unless they destroy a barge of flour). When
the bombardment ceases the routine is resumed. From
Gaba Tepe the Turks could not see into the heart of
Anzac, but their guns easily reached the distance,
measured exactly. Opposite the pier-heads the men con-
gregate. You find it difficult to push your way amongst
the Indian mule- carts, to reach the canvas water -sheet
and the tanks from which the men are getting supplies.
The traffic divides. One section goes north to the No. 2
and No. 3 outposts, 2 miles away, out through the long
sap : the dust from the shore is almost choking as you
reach the sap, for the strings of mules pass and repass
almost endlessly. The other branch of the traffic goes
south (along the beach too) in front of the hospitals round
Hell Spit, and then, striking one of many paths, is
diverted along the right flank of the firing-line. No
long line of sap to protect you here, and always a chance
of a dropping bullet.

Only when the moon rises above the horizon and the
pine ridges and then above the battle front is it time for
the beach to rest. Higher and higher it mounts, until at
midnight it is slanting towards the entrance to the Dar-
danelles. One by one the lights have gone out and cooks'
fires have ceased to flicker. On either flank two long
arms of light, that broaden as they reach the hill, start
from the sides of the destroyers. They were staring into
the Turkish hills and gullies. Behind them the gunners
watch all night for movements in the enemy's ranks, and
the guns boom at the slightest stir. After the alarms
of the night and the bursts of rapid fire, the dawn brings
another lull over Anzac, when the constant rattle of
muskets in the firing-line a mile away over the ridges

178 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

and the swish and t-tzing of the little messengers of death
as they pass out to sea, are like to be forgbtten or
accepted as part of the curious Ufe of x^nzac. But the
work never quite ceases, and morning finds tired officers
giving the last directions before they turn into their dug-
outs and escape the morning " hate " that the Turks with
the first flush of dawn begin to throw over the beach and
amongst the lingering, dawdling trawlers and transports
that have drifted inshore. The shells follow the ships till
they regain the circle of safety, some 2 miles from land.
" Keep your distance, and we won't worry you," say the
Turks.

It is exciting to watch the steamers dodging the shells
just as the sun first casts a glitter on the blue ^gean.
But they have accomplished all they need, and till the
arrival of the daily trawlers from Imbros, Mudros, and
Cape Helles, there is no need for worry. So the workers
take a morning dip and turn in, while the men on the
pinnaces are rocked to sleep as they lie wallowing off-
shore, and the pump begins its monotonous clanking.

On rugged clift's and amongst bristling bush the heart
of Anzac began to palpitate with power and life. With
roads and terraces was the hillside cut in May and stripped
of its bush. The throb of the heart was the pulse of the
army, its storehouse and its life ; but the shore of the Cove
was dyed to the murmuring waters' edge with the blood
of the men that made it.

CHAPTER XVIII

THROUGH THE FIRING-LINES

Anzac was divided into two parts by Shrapnel Gully,
which ran from Hell Spit right up to the very apex
of the position, at the junction of the ridge that the army
held and the main ridge of Sari Bair. Thousands of
men lost their lives in this great broad valley during
the early days of the fighting, when the Turkish artillery
burst shrapnel over it. That was how it got its name.
It was there that General Bridg^es met his death, in this
Valley of the Shadow of Death. In its upper course
it merged into Monash Gully, called after the Brigadier
of the 4th Brigade, that had held its steep sides at
Pope's Hill — which was a knuckle — at Quinn's Post,
and between the two the sharp depression on the edge
of the ridge — "The Bloody Angle." A daring sniper
might always reach the very head of the gully and
shoot down the long Valley. Only, in time, the superiority
and alertness of our sharpshooters overcame that menace.
Few Turkish snipers that played that game returned alive.
I went without a guide round Anzac, because the
paths were well worn when I trod them, though there
were many twisted roads, but all leading upwards to the
trenches winding round the edge of the ridge. One
could not miss one's way very well by keeping on the
path that led southward from the heart of Anzac round
to the first point — Hell Spit (beyond, a machine gun
played and chased any who approached, unless the Turks
happened to be off duty, as they sometimes were), and
there you found the broad, open mouth of the gully.
Usually a party of men were coming up from bathing.
They were sun-burned right down to their waists (for
they never wore shirts if they could possibly avoid it,
and looked more like Turks than the Turks themselves),
and you found them squatting in a sap, the mouth of

i8o AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

which gaped on to the beach, secure behind the angle
of a hill. By their side were large Egyptian water-tins.
The " coves " up above in the trenches were drinking
this ration of water for their evening meal, but there
was always time to have a chat with a comrade or
mate from the northern side of Anzac, or with men who
lived in the heart of the position. For the troops knew
only their own section of the line, and had seen nothing
of famed posts and positions captured and held. In
fact, it was a sort of mutual understanding that these
fatigue parties always stopped for the purpose of swapping
stories about adventures with Turks.

"Had much fighting, Fred, down your way?" one
would drawl.

'" Bit of an attack, but the blighters would not face
the — — bayonet."

" Was out doing a bit of scouting the other night
from Russell Top," spoke another fine-featured man,
" aiid only for a thunderstorm would have captured a
bit of a ridge, but a blooming interpreter chap got
the shivers, and we just got back without being nabbed."

It would make a book in itself to record all the con-
versations one dropped amongst, of scraps of fighting,
of one section of the line and another. The men
flattened themselves against the side of the sap to let
a stretcher case pass, always asking, if the wounded
man showed any signs of life, about the wound and
his regiment. About July, in the saps one met men
carrying large quantities of sheet-iron and beams of
wood to form the terraces up along the sides of the hills.
One sheet of iron could make a dugout magnificent,
even luxurious ; two was a home fit for a general.
This sap wound backwards and forwards up the gully, just
giving glimpses of the tops of the ridge, over which
bullets came whizzing and embedding themselves against
the hillside. That was the reason of the sap. The httle
graveyard you passed was full of these spent bullets :
shells whined away over it to the beach.

You came out into the open again where the gully
broadened out. Looking round, there were three or four
wells visible, where the engineers were busily erecting
pumps. Iron tanks, too, were TDeing brought into use,
pan of the great reticulation scheme of Anzac, and
round them were grouped the men who had come down

SHKAl'Nhl, GLI.LY, LUDKING NORTH INTO MONASH CUI.I.Y FR(i,\l NKAK'
THE JUN'CTION OF WANLISS GULLY.

The white cross in the centre of the hills represents the small section of Turkish trenches
on the Xek that overlooked the Gully. On the left is Russell Top.

A MAP COMPILED FROM AERIAL RECONNAISSANCE OF THE TURKISH AND
OUR TRENCHES ON THE NEK, POPE'S HILL, QUINN'S POST, COURTNEY'S
POST, AND GERMAN OFFICER'S TRENCH.

On either flank of Pope's Hill are the heads of Monash Gully, the Bloody Angle
between Pope's and Quinn's.

To face p. i8o.

THROUGH THE FIRING-LINES i8i

from the hilltops. That water, blessed though it was,
was thrice blessed by the men who once carried it on their
shoulders, grown sore under the weight. Some men
with 1 8 -pounder shells tucked under their arms passed.
"Heavy, lads?" "Too blooming heavy altogether;
one's about enough up them hills I " Thus, by a stream
of munition -carriers, was the artillery kept supplied with
its ammunition. Shells were not too plentiful in those
days, but the gunners were busy laying in supplies for
the great artillery duel that all knew one day would
be fought. Ammunition, it may be recorded, went by
the beach at night, and so up to the very highest
point of the gulhes possible, on mules.

Just at this broadening of Shrapnel Gully on the right
(south) was the Indian encampment. A mass of rags
and tatters it looked, for it was exposed to the fierce
sun, and when gay coloured blankets were not shielding
the inmates of the dugouts, the newly washed turbans
of the Sikhs and Mohamedans were always floating in
the idle breeze. Their camp was always busy. They
never ceased to cook. Though the wiry Indians could
speak little English, they got on well with the Australians,
who loved poking about amongst their camps hunting
for curios, while the Indians collected what trophies
they could from the Australians.

If you looked intently hereabouts, you might make
out, smothered away in the shadow of a hill, the dark
muzzle of a gun in a pit, with the gunners' camp beside
it. He would have been a keen observer in an aeroplane
who could have detected those guns and marked them
on his maps. Sufficient proof of this might be found
in the fact that nearly all these guns were brought
away at the evacuation. One or two that I saw in
the firing-line, or just behind it, had been battered.

Three ways lay open to you, now that you had crossed
the broad bottom of the gully. You might turn to the
right and continue on up the main gully till it joined
with Monash Gully, and so go on a visit to the apex
of the position. You might turn off slightly to the
left and reach, by a rather tortuous track, the centre
of the left flank (or by this route travel behind the
firing-line along the western slopes of the hills to Lone
Pine, and then reach the extreme left). A far shorter,
and the third way, was to go round the Indian en-

1 82 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

campment, and either up White Gully or through a
gap in another spur of the main ridge, and come out
on to Shell Green. This patch of once cultivated land
was a small plateau— the only cleared space on Anzac.
The Turkish shells passed over it on their way to the
beach from the olive-grove guns concealed 2 miles away.
Sometimes, also, they dropped on it. You crossed at
the northern end of it, and reached the artillery head-
quarters of Colonel Rosenthal's 3rd Brigade dug into
the side of the hill. It was across the gully facing the
southern edge of this green tliat the big 6 -in. field
gun, fired for the first time in August, was placed.
I remember watching the huge pit that was dug for it,,
and the widening of the artillery roads that enabled it
to be dragged into position. Directly above Shell Green
— a very dirty patch of earth after very few weeks — was
Artillery Lane, which was a track that had been cut
in the side of the hill, and whicli also served as a terrace.
Dugouts were easily accessible along this road, though
it was subject to some shell fire, so lower down the
hillside was preferable, even if the climb was steeper and
the promenade more restricted. Brigadier -General Ryrie,
commanding 2nd Light Horse Brigade, had his head-
quarters at this spot, and also the 3rd Infantry Brigade,
under Brigadier-General Maclagan. Lieut. -Colonel Long
too, with the Divisional Light Horsemen, also made his
camp there. All of which troops were holding, in July,
the section of the line that reached down to the sea
on the extreme left.

It was a complicated position, for a series of small
crests had had to be won before Chatham's Post was
established and an uninterrupted view obtained of the
Turkish huts along Pine Ridge and the plain where
the olive-groves were. Down on the beach that led
round from Gaba Tepe — the beach where the troops should
have landed — ^were barbed -wire entanglements and a series
of posts manned only at night. Along that beach a
little way, the commander of the post, a Light Horse-
man, pointed out to me a broken boat. It was a snipers'
nest, he explained, where the Turks sometimes lurked
and waited. We now stood out in a cutting looking
down on Gaba Tepe at the Turkisli trenches that ran
in parallel lines along the hills, till a bracket of bullets
suggested the wisdom of drawing back to cover. Along

THROUGH THE FIRING-LINES 183

a very deep sap (so narrow that in some places one
had to squeeze one's way through) and down a hill
brought one up to Chatham's Post, called so after a
Queenslander, who captured it, of that name. Right
on the crown o'f this knoll and along its western slope
were a series of machine gun positions, striking at the
heart of the left of the Turkish lines.

I was asked, " Like to see an old Turk we have been
laying for, for some time ? — a sergeant he is. The beggar
doesn't care a jot for our shooting." Several rifles
cracked as the observer made way for me to put my
eye to a telescope. Very clearly I saw a fine big Turk
moving along one of the enemy's communication -ways ;
it was apparent he was supervising and directing. He
bore a sort of charmed life, that man. Eventually '(some
days later) he was shot. His name? Why, Abdul,
of course — they all were. Our telescope was withdrawn
just in time, and. the iron flap dropped over the loop-
hole as bullets splashed against it and the sandbag
parapets above.

"Damn them and their snipers!" said a young bush-
man, and began again his observation from another point.
Up and down and through a long tunnel and we came
back again to the rear of the main hill. When I sa{W
where I had walked, set out on a map, it seemed very
short after the miles of winding trenches that disappeared
in all directions over and through the hill. Yet the
troopers were still digging. Their troubles!

Brigadier-General Maclagan had a birthday — or he said
it was about time he had — one day when I came in, and
he celebrated it by cutting a new cake which his Brigade-
Major, Major Ross, had obtained through the post.

" Luxury," began the Brigadier, with his mouth full
of currants, " is only a matter of comparison. Look
at my couch and my pigeon-holes, my secret earthen
safes, and — bring another pannikin of tea."

Yes, it was comparison. " Ross, you will show the
trenches — fine fellow, Ross," and the Brigadier cut another
piece of cake.

Other officers dropped in and the cake slowly vanished.
I wondered what Ross thought. " No use," he said to
me later. " Better eat it now. Might not be here to
eat it to-night. What about these trenches, now? You
have a periscope? Right." As we started I felt his

1 84 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

position was like that of the officer who, having received
a hamper with some fine old whisky, found himself
suddenly grown popular and received a great many
visitors in one night. News spread quickly at Anzac !

It was the middle section of the right of the line
that I was visiting, adjacent to the Light Horse position,
just described. The Turks started shelling before we
had fairly started, and I watched the shells bursting
on Shell Green — harmlessly enough, but very thick. The
Brigade-Major left word at the telephone switchboard
where he was going, and, choosing one of three ways,
dived into a sap on the hillside that was reached by a
flight of steps. One had not gone far to be struck by
the scrupulous cleanliness of this underground line. No
tins, papers, or broken earthworks : everything spick and
span. I was being told how the wheatfield had been
taken at the time just as we were passing across it —
through a sap and working up under cover on to the
outer ridge. That day I seemed to do nothing else but
grip hard brown hands and meet new faces. That
splendid Staff officer had a word for all his men.

" Wish the beggars would only attack. We have
everything nicely prepared for them," he began to
explain as we walked through a tunnel and halted on
the side of a hill. We stood behind some bushes in a
machine-gun pit. " Never been fired," said the officer,
and then smiled in a curious way. " Got four more all
along the top of the gully in two tiers. We expect —
that is our hope — the Turks will come up here to try
and cut off that hill which we have taken. Let 'em."

It was the first time I had seen a real trap. God
help any foe that entered that valley !

Did I want to see all the position? I did. It took
two hours — two of the shortest, most amazing hours I
spent at Anzac.

" We are going now to see the gallery trenches.
Always believe in making things roomy below ground,"
the Major explained, " so that the men do not get any
suggestion of being cramped." So we entered a fine,
high, and broad gallery, lit by the holes that were opened
at intervals along it and used as firing-steps. My guide
chuckled as he came to a point where it was rather
dark. He stopped before more manholes filled with
barbed wire. On the firing-step a soldier was carefully

THROUGH THE FIRING-LINES 185

handling his tin of stew. This was a mantrap — a small
hole and a thin crust of earth and wide pit — prepared
against the rushing of the position, one of dozens that
were all round the front as a protecting screen.

It was rather a difficult matter getting round the
galleries as the afternoon wore on, for the men had
commenced their meals. They gathered in small groups,
some one always on guard for his comrades. Rifles were
ready, standing by the wall. It was not exactly a solemn
meal, for plenty of curses accompanied the passing of
some " clumsy devil " that knocked down earth into a
tin of tea. The trenches were remarkably sweet. The
Major drew one's attention to the fact with justifiable pride.

Of the Turks that were entrenched on the other side
of the ridge one saw nothing. Through a periscope
you could make out their earthworks. One stumbles
on adventure in the firing-line, I was without my guide,
proceeding along a trench, when I was advised it was
not worth while. Quite recently it cut a Turkish trench,
and now only a sandbag parapet divided the two lines.
It really was not worth occupying, except when there
was a fight on. It was too deadly a position for
either side to remain long in !

How the line twisted I Turning back along an angle,
I found we had got back again into the gully — the Valley
of Despair I have heard it called — only much higher up.
There was an interesting little group of men round a shaft.
Major Ross explained : " Trying to get their own water
supply. Down about 80 feet. Yes, all old miners. The
Tasmanians have done most of this tunnelling work :
must have dug out thousands of tons of earth. Perfectly
wonderful chaps they are. Dug themselves to a shadow,
and still fought like hell. Me thin? Oh, it does me
good walking about these hills ; I can't sit in a dug-
out." A messenger came up from the signal office.
"You must excuse me. I have to go back to B. 11
(a junction of a trench and sap), and he dived into the
trenches again.

Imagine, now, you have begun walking back along
the firing-line, going from the extreme right to the
left. Already two sections have been passed. Had you
continued along from the last gallery trenches, you would
have come out into the section opposite the Lone Pine
trenches of the Turks. The enemy here was a more

1 86 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

discreet distance of 80 to 200 yards away across a
broad plateau. The ridge was higher at this point, and
one might look back through a periscope (with great
care) from certain sharp-angled look-out posts, raised
slightly, according to the conformation of the ground,
above the level of the ordinary trenches, down the
back of the ridge, and on to the positions one
had just left. They call this spot " The Pimple."
Some of the posts were the observation posts for artillery,
others for special sentry posts. As Lone Pine will form
the subject of a separate chapter, the trenches will not
be elaborated here. Sufficient to say that here, too, were
gallery trenches, but lower and darker and less roomy ;
but, nevertheless, absolutely effective either for defensive
or offensive purposes. You reached them by climbing to
the end of Artillery Lane up through Browne's Dip.
It was on the second day that along this roadway the
guns were dragged into the firing-line, when Major
Bessell -Browne had a battery right on the crest of the
ridge almost in the firing-line (the guns were actually
in the infantry trenches for a time), until the Turks made
it too warm for them. Now, this hilltop, which lay just
behind the position held by the ist Infantry ;Brigade
and to the south-east of White Gully, was bare of any
infantry trenches. It was, moreover, covered with furze
and holly bushes. The trenches had been advajiced to
the edge of the plateau, on the other side of which the
Turkish lines ran. With Colonel Johnston, Brigadier
of the Victorian Artillery Brigade, 1 had climbed up
here one morning to see the gun positions. One passed
from Artillery Lane into an extremely narrow trench
right amongst some bushes, and found oneself in a snug
little position, completely concealed from observation.
Out of the midst of these earthworks a gun pointed
to the Turkish positions on Pine Ridge, Battleship Hill,
and Scrubby Knoll. There was a telescope carefully
laid through a loophole, the iron flap of which was
discreetly dropped. It swept the Turkish ridges closely.
A sergeant was in a " possy " (the soldier's term
for his position in the firing-line and dugout) watch-
ing a party of Turks digging. He could just see
their spades come up in the air. It was believed
that they were making emplacements for new guns.
Colonel Johnston let the enemy nearly finish and then

THROUGH THE FIRING-LINES 187

blew them and their earthworks to pieces. It was what
he called " stirring up a stunt," for not long after, sure
enough, as he anticipated, the Turks commenced to reply,
and shells began dropping in front of and over this post
as the Turks searched for our guns. These little artillery-
duels lasted about half an hour, and when ammunition was
plentiful (the daily limit was fixed for many weeks at two
shells a day unless anything special occurred) two or three
" stunts " might occur during a day. Sometimes word
would come down from the infantry trenches that Turks
were passing in certain gullies or could be seen working
up on to Battleship Hill or up the side of Baby 700,
and the guns would be laid accordingly. It would be
difficult to estimate the number of targets that had been
registered by the active artillerymen. They had them
all tabulated, and could train their guns on to any spot
during a night alarm in a moment. For from some
point or other good views could be obtained of the
Turkish positions : not in detail, of course, but suffi-
cient, with the knowledge that aeroplane sketches and
reconnaissance provided (Major Myles was one of the
most successful of the artillery officers who went observing
from the hangars at Tenedos), to cause great havoc
amongst the Turkish supports and reserves.

But such shelling, whatever damage was done, never
prevented the Turks from digging new firing-lines and
communication and reserve trenches. Their industry in
this respect was even greater than the Australians', who
moved whole hills or honeycombed them with galleries
until you might expect that a real heavy burst of shells
or a downpour of rain would cause them to collapse. The.
Turks had mobilized digging battalions, units in which
men who had conscientious objections to bear arms (many
of them farmers) used to work. This was how Pine
Ridge became such a huge mass of enemy trenches.
Why, there were secret saps and ways all along from
Kojadere right to Gaba Tepe Point. But sometimes the
Turks were caught napping, as when the Australians cap-
tured an advanced spur or knoll on the plateau that gave a
glimpse down a gully (for the other side of the plateau
that sloped away down to Kojadere was just as cut by
ravines as was the Anzac side), and after a few days' quiet
preparations — the Turks being ignorant of our new ad-
vantage— our machine guns swept backwards and for-

1 88 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

wards along it, while the artillery drove the Turks into
this hail of lead with shrapnel and high explosives.

With Colonel Johnston I went farther back towards
the seashore along the back of one of the spurs, and round
Majors Phillips', Caddy's, Burgess's guns, well dug into
deep pits protected by sohd banks of earth, covered with
natural growth of bushes. It seemed to me unless a direct
hit was obtained there was little chance of their being
destroyed. Space was conserved in every way so as to
leave as little opening as possible ; magazines were dug
into the cliff and dugouts as well. Yet several guns were
knocked out. There was one gun crew amongst whom a
shell had burst. Two men had been killed outright, and
others badly wounded. When the stretcher-bearers
rushed into the gun-pit they found a dying man trying
to open the breech of the gun to load. His strength
failed, and he fell back dead in a comrade's arms. Those
men thought only of the gun and their mates after that
explosion.

Little gaps occurred in the Anzac front where two
gullies met on the razor-back crest of the hill. One was
at the head of Wanliss Gully, between the 4th Battalion'
of the I St Brigade and the 5th BattaUon, holding the sec-
tion opposite the German Officers' Trench. Here the crest
of the hill had been so worn away, and the head of the
gully was so steep, that no trenches could be connected.
As a result, all the protection that could be given was to
bend back the trenches on either side down the hill, and
establish strong posts and make entanglements from side
to side of the gully. It was a source of intense anxiety
to Colonel Wanliss (commanding 5th Battalion), who was
early responsible for its protection.

The 2nd Infantry Brigade held the section of trenches
going to Quinn's Post during the greater part of four
months : held them sometimes lightly, sometimes in great
strength. Opposite were the Turks' most elaborate works,
designated " German Officers' Trench " and " John-
ston's Jolly." These series of Turkish trenches varied
from 20 to 80 yards from the Australian lines. The
origin of their names is interesting. German officers
had been seen in the trench that bears their name, which
offered sufficient reason, as there were not a great
number of Hun officers on the peninsula. The other
series of trenches had presented to Colonel Johnston's

CHAPLAIN DEXTER (5TH INFANTRY BATTALION) LEARNING

THE WORKING OF A TRENCH MORTAR.

Turkish firing-line thirty yards beyond the parapet.

SHELL GREEN, THE ONLY LEVEL AND CULTIVATED SPOT ON ANZAC : GUN

EMPLACEMENT AND LIMBERS IN THE FOREGROUND.

This position was subsequently used as an aeroplane signalling station.

THROUGH THE FIRING-LINES 189

mind a good target, on which he always said he
would have a " jolly good time " if his guns had only
been howitzers and able to reach them, which, with his
i8-pounders, he could not. The Turks had used huge
beams many feet in thickness to fortify these trenches
along this sector of the line. Probably it was because it
led directly to the heart of the enemy's position (Mule
Gully was beyond and Kojadere) that such measures were
taken. No artillery bombardment had had much effect
on these trenches. One day — it illustrates the spirit of
the Turkish army — a Turkish officer was seen directing
the erection of some overhead cover down a communica-
tion trench behind this position. A burst of shell had
warned him that he was observed, and bullets from
machine guns played round him. He paid little attention,
and went on with the directing of his job. When com-
plete it was blown down, and continued to be blown down
as fast as it was constructed, until the Turks had to give
it up in despair. That brave officer directing the
operations, was killed.

Opposite the left front of " German Officers' Trench "
came Steel's Post, and next to Steel's, Courtney's Post,
both called after officers of the 4th Infantry Brigade,
whose regiments had held the positions in the first awful
fortnight's fighting. Really they might be more aptly
termed by the number of the regiment — 14th Battalion —
and the fine men who composed it. The Turks' line drew
very close at this point. A gully cut into the plateau
from the Anzac side and formed the "Bloody Angle."
On the north of it was Pope's Hill, and on the south was
Quinn's — the famous post cleft in the hillside — a concave
position, at the heart of which the Turkish rifles pointed
from the north and south, for it was from the night of
the landing a savage thorn pressed in their side. But
the history of these posts needs a special chapter. By
them Anzac held or fell.

Early I said Anzac was divided into two halves by
Shrapnel Gully — the southern has just been travelled over.
There remains to describe only those trenches that lay
north of Shrapnel and Monash Gully, on the Nek, and
back along Russell Top, the northern section of the
famous position. It was mostly a New Zealand position;
for New Zealanders and Maoris were largely responsible
for its defence till the 3rd Light Horse Brig'ade, under

I90 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

General Hughes, took it over. Approached from tha
beach, the cliffs of Russell Top rise almost precipitously.
The New Zealanders, mounted and dismounted troops,
had had to set to work to cut a road up the face oif
this cliff to the top of the ridge. It was the isolated!
nature of the position — until a way was cut down the
slopes into Monash Gully to the very foot of the hill — that
caused so much difficulty in moving troops, and was
responsible for more than one delay in getting men to
required posts at given times. Russell's Top might be
best described as the end of the main Sari Bair ridge.
Southward from the ridge, and almost at right angles to
it, ran the spur commencing with Plugge's Plateau, that
formed the first ridge (Maclagan's ridge) stormed by the
Australians. It overhung Anzac Cove. Incidentally
it was the second line of our defence, the triangle within
the triangle, and on it were the hastily formed trenches
that the Australians had dug during the 25th, 26th, and
27th April, lest the Turkish attempts to " drive them into
the sea " proved successful. Guns were hauled up these
ridges by hundreds of men, just as the Italians were doing
on the Gorizia front. Had this last position been carried
the guns could never have been got away. They might
certainly have been tumbled down into the gullies below
and spiked.

Russell Top itself was a short section or series of
trenches grouped on either side of the ridge, and ending
at the Nek. They faced roughly north and south. They
commanded Anzac position to the south, and all the series
of our works described in the early part of the chapter.
On the north they dominated (the impossibility of getting'
very heavy artillery right along the ridge, owing to its
precipitous and exposed nature, limited severely that com-
mand) all the series of foothills that led up to Chunak
Bair and Koja Chemin Tepe. In this direction short,
sharp spurs, covered with dense bushes and undergrowth,
branched out from the Sari Bair ridge. To name them,
starting from the beach : The first in our possession was
Walker's Ridge, and then Happy Valley, then Turks'
Point, then Snipers' Nest, where the Turks had command
of the beach to good effect, and from which it was found
impossible, though many stealthy attacks were made and
the destroyers plastered the spur with shell, to dislodge
them. Beyond, stem above all these crooked steep hill-

THROUGH THE FIRING-LINES 191

tops, was Rhododendron Ridge. Now, just after Turks'
Point the ridge narrowed and formed the Nek. I do not
think it was more than 160 yards wide at the utmost,
just a thin strip of land, with sheer gullies protecting it
on either flank. From here, too, the Sari Bair ridge
began to slope up, rising rapidly to Baby 700, Battleship
Hill, Chunak Bair. Immediately m front of the Nek,
adjacent to the head of Monash Gully, were the terrible
Chessboard Trenches, so named because the newly dug
exposed earth where the trenches ran, lay in almost
exact squares across the ridge from one side to the
other, like a chessboard.

The New Zealand trenches (afterwards manned by
Australian Light Horse) were about 80 yards from the
enemy's lines, though the Turks occupied somewhat
higher ground, and consequently looked down on to
our trenches. But such was the superiority of fire that
our troops had obtained, that the enemy were never
able to take full advantage of this position. To hold
these few acres of ground against fearful attacks cost
hundreds of lives. The trenches were mostly sand-
bagged, the earth being too crumbling to hold against
the searching fire of "75's" which the Turks (they
had captured them in the Balkan War from the
Serbians) had, together with Krupp artillery. Our
machine guns commanded Snipers' Nest and the angle
of Rhododendron Ridge where it joined the main ridge.
Traverses, therefore, became nothing but huge pillars of
sand. The work entailed in keeping them clear and
intact was very heavy, indeed. A number of trench
mortars concealed round the crown of Russell Top
strengthened our position ; while on the north flank
many trenches existed amongst the undergrowth which
the Turks were ignorant of. Still, through the possession
of this ridge we had been able to fling out outpost
stations along the beach towards Suvla Bay, and dig
the sap which eventually was the connecting link with
Anzac in the great operations at Suvla Bay on 7th
August. But the Nek itself the Turks had mined and
we had countermined, till beneath the narrow space
between the trenches, was a series of mine tunnels with
gaping craters above.

Only once had the Turks attempted an attack across
this Nek, as I have described, but they so strengthened

iJ^2 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

their position (and it was comparatively easy, owing
to the configuration of the ground) tliat they were here
probably more, what the Austrahans called " uppish and
cheeky " than in any other part of the line. One day,
while I was standing talking with General Hughes, a
message weighted with a stone was flung at our feet
from the enemy's line. It looked like a pamphlet. It
was written in Turkish, and when taken to the inter-
preter's quarters and transcribed, proved to be Turkish
boasts published in Constantinople.

Round the flank of our trenches was a favourite way
for deserters to come in, which they did on many
occasions. Once on a dark night the sentries were
startled to hear a voice speaking even more perfect
English, and certainly more correct, than one was
accustomed to hear in the trenches, saying: "Will you
please tell your men to cease firing, as 1 want to
surrender? " Of course, the situation was rather difficult,
as the Turks were fond of ruses, but eventually an
Armenian officer jumped over the parapet and gave
himself up. And very useful he proved, with the infor-
mation he brought and gave during subsequent opera-
tions. But most difficult problem of all on this high
plateau-top was the maintenance of supplies ; not only
of food and water, but of munitions. It was forty
minutes' terrible climb to the top from the beach — a
climb that needed every muscle strong to accomplish,
even lightly laden. To fortify the position as it had
been, was a magnificent achievement, and could only
have been done by troops with the hearts of lions and
the spirit of the Norsemen of old.

It might have been thought in the face of such
difficulties, with the fevers of the Mediterranean eating
into their bodies, that the spirit of the army would
have failed. On the contrary, the Australasians accepted
the position just as it was, bad as it was : the sweltering
heat and the short rations of water ; the terrible fatigues,
absent from campaigns in other theatres of the war
zone; and, above all, the constant exposure to shell fire
and rifle fire week after week and month after month.
But the spirit of the trenches was buoyant and reflective
without becoming pessimistic. The men were heartily
sick of inaction. They rejoiced in the prospects of a
battle. It was the inertia that killed.

CHAPTER XIX

LIFE AT QUINN'S AND POPE'S

It is doubtful if the true history of Quinn's and Pope's
positions will ever be collated. But any soldier will
tell you that these two posts made Anzac, for it was
on the holding of these precarious and well-ni^h
impossible positions in the early days of occupation that
the whole Australian line depended. The names will
be for ever bound up with the gallant officers who
defended them, though it will be only meet that their
subsequent commanders should have their names inscribed
on the roll of the bravest of brave imen that clung
to the edges of the hillsides at the head of Monash
Gully. There was, till the last days, always some fighting
going on round Quinn's and Pope's, where the Turkish
trenches approached to within a few yards of ours.
Sorties by one side or the other were frequently made
there ; always bombing, alarms, mines, and counter-
mines. I would never have been surprised if at any
time the whole of Pope's and Quinn's had collapsed,
blown to atoms by some vast network of mines, or
wrecked by shell fire. The two places were a mass
of trenches, burrows, secret tunnels, and deep shafts.
They bristled with machine guns. My greatest difficulty
is to adequately convey some detailed idea of the
positions as I saw them — a few of the desperate conflicts
have been already recorded, and I hope that what will
follow will enable the nature of the fighting to be better
realized.

Quinn's ! The famous post was soon after the landing
known throughout the Eastern Mediterranean, and its
history, or a portion of it, reached England and xA-ustralia
early in the accounts of Anzac. That it " held," the
Turk found to his cost. He tried to overwhelm it ; he

13 193

194 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

was driven back into his trenches, not once, but scores
and scores of times.

In the first weeks of the fighting, the Turk came
on against Quinn's with cries of " Allah ! Allah! " and
retired amidst weepings and moanings, leaving men dead
and dying before the Post. From that day, it became
a desperate position, but when I examined it the men
(they were Canterbury men from New Zealand and
some of our own lads) under Lieut. -Colonel Malone,
a magnificent stamp of leader, were quite cheery, and
the whole tone of the Post was one of confidence, not-
withstanding any attack the enemy might make. " We
are waiting for him, and wish he would come," were
the words of the commanding officer. " Brother Turk
has learnt his lesson ; so he sits still and flings bombs
— he gets two back for every one he throws." That
was the spirit which enabled Quinn's to be successfully
held.

Once, in the early days, the way to Quinn's was
through a hail of bullets up Shrapnel Gully, dodging
from traverse to traverse, till you came to the foot of
a ridge that ran almost perpendicularly up 200 feet.
On the top and sides clung Quinn's. The ridge was
bent here, where one of the heads of the great gully
had eaten into the plateau. That was what made the
hillside so steep. Quinn's helped to form one side
of the ravine called the "Bloody Angle." Yes, in the
early history of Quinn's and Pope's, just across the gully,
not 100 yards away, had flowed down those hillsides
the best blood of the Australian army. For the enemy
peered down into the hollow — then not afraid, as he
was later, to expose his head and shoulders to take
deliberate aim. The moral ascendancy of our sharp-
shooters was the first step in the victory of Quimi's.

After June it was no longer a matter of the same
extreme peril coming up the broad valley, for there
was a secret sap most of the way along Shrapnel Gully.
Once you turned north, half way up the gully, you lost
the view of the sea behind the hills, and you found
yourself among a variety of Army Service Corps units —
among water -tanks and water-carriers. You heard the
clatter of pumps and the rattle of mess -tins as the men
stood out in long lines from the cooks' fires that gleamed
at half a dozen points. There was only a space of

LIFE AT QUINN'S AND POPE'S 195

a few feet on either side of the path that contained
the dugouts ; the rest of the hillside was still covered
with prickly undergrowth and shooting grasses. The
sound of a mouth-organ resounded up the valley ;
bullets sped past very high overhead, and shells dropped
very occasionally at this point among the inner hills
behind the ridge. From the gully I turned on my
left into a sap that wound about and shut off all views
except that of Quinn's and Pope's. I came out of the
sap again into the gully to a place where sandbags
were piled thick and high Ito stop the bullets, for here
it was not so comfortable, as far as the enemy's rifles
were concerned. You went into a perfect fortress of
low -lying squat huts, to which you found an entrance
after some difficulty. I had to squeeze through a' narrow,
deep trench to reach it.

That was the headquarters of Brigadier -General
Chauvel, who commanded the central section of the line
that I could see all along the edge of the ridge about
150 yards away — ^almost on top of us — Pope's on the
left, the isolated hilltop' ; then Quinn's, Courtney's,
and Steel's. They were a group of danger points —
a constant source of anxiety and despair to the General
who commanded them. It was delightfully cool inside
those caves in the gully after the heat of the sap. I
was told by Major Farr and Major Williams, who were
talking to the commanders of the posts by telephone, that
I could not lose my way. " Keep on following Ithe
narrow path, and if you are lucky you will be in time
for a battle." Each hung up the receiver and gave
a curt order for some further boxes of bombs to be
dispatched.

Battles on Quinn's were no mild engagements, for
usually the hillside was covered with bursting shells and
bombs that the Turks hurled over in amazing numbers.
Fortunately, these " stab " attacks were brief. As I
pushed on towards the narrow sap that ran into the side
of the hill, I could see by the excavated earth how it
zigzagged up the side of the ridge.

I passed great quantities of stores, and, under the
lee of a small knoll, cooks' lines for the men holding
the Post above, which was still obscured from view.
All one could see was a section of the Turkish trench
just where it ended 20 yards from our lines, and the

196 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

barbed -wire entanglements that had been thrown out
as a screen. The air was filled with the appetizing"
odour of sizzling bacon, onions, and potatoes, while shells
whizzed across the valley. I was glad to be safely
walking between high sandbag parapets.

Soon the path became so steep that steps had been
made in the hill — steps made by branches interlaced and
pegged to the ground. It was a climb, one ascending
several feet in every stride. Sandbags were propped
up here and there in pillars to protect us from the
sight of the enemy on our left. One's view was confined
to the wire entanglements on the skyline and the
steep, exposed slope of the hill on the right. Behind
lay the valley, full of shadows and points of light from
dugouts and fires. They were quite safe down there,
but you were almost on the edge of a volcano that
might break out above you at any moment. You passed
various sandbagged huts, until quite near the crest of
the hill trenches began to run in various directions,
and you saw the rounded top of the hill chipped away
and bared under the constant rifle and bomb attacks.
What had appeared ledges in the distance resolved
themselves into a series of terraces, where the men found
protection and, as busy as bees, were preparing for tea.

Lieut. -Colonel Malone was my guide. He was an
Irishman, and keen about the Post and just the man to
hold it. His great motto was " that war in the first
place meant the cultivation of domestic virtues," and he
practised it. He brought me up a gently inclined track
towards a point at which barbed wire could be seen
across a gully which ended in a sharp fork. That was
the " Bloody Angle." Then we turned around and
looked back down the gully. In the distance, loo yards
away on the right, along the top of the ridge, were two
distinct lines of trenches, with ground between which
you at once knew was " dead " ground. The hill
doubled back, which almost left Quinn's open to fire from
the rear. " That is our position — Courtney's Post and
Steel's to the east," said my guide, " and those opposite
are the Turkish trenches. We call them the ' German
Officers' Trenches,' because we suspect that German
officers were there at one time. Now we have given
them a sporting chance to snipe us ; let us retire. I
always give a visitor that thrill." It was only the first

LIFE AT QUINN'S AND POPE'S 197

of several such episodes which vividly brought home to
one's mind the desperate encounters that had been waged
around this famous station. The men who held on
here had a disregard of death. They were faced with
it constantly, continuously.

There were four rows of terraces up the side of the
hill. Once the men had just lived in holes, dug as
best they could, with a maze of irregular paths. That
was in the period when the fighting was so fierce that
no time could be spared to elaborate the trenches not
actually in the firing-line. Afterwards, when the garrison
was increased to 800 and material came ashore — wooden
beams and sheet-iron — conditions underwent a change.
Four or five terraces were built and long sheds con-
structed along the ledges and into the side of the hill.
These had sandbag cover which bullets and bombs could
not penetrate. Just over the edge of the hill, not 30 yards
away, were our own lines, and the Turkish trenches 4
to 25 yards beyond again. When the shells came tearing
overhead from our guns down in the gully the whole
hillside shook with the concussion of the burst. No
wonder the terraces collapsed one day I I was stand-
ing talking to Lieut. -Colonel Malone and saw about
100 of the men who were in reserve leaning against the
back of the shed that belonged to a terrace lower down.
They were all looking up at an aeroplane, a German
Taube, skimming overhead. A huge bomb burst in the
trenches on the top of the hill, and the men, involun-
tarily, swayed back. That extra weight broke away
the terrace, and it collapsed with a roar. Fortunately,
the damage done was small, though about eight men
were injured.

To go through Quinn's was like visiting a miniature
fortress. The whole extent of the front was not more
than 200 yards. One dived down innumerable tunnels
that ran 10 or 20 feet in the clay under the enemy
trenches, and contained mines, ready set, to be blown
up at the first sign of an enemy attack in mass. A
certain amount of protection had been gained at Quinn's
from the deluge of bombs that the enemy accurately
threw, by a screen of wire -netting that caught the bombs
so they burst on the parapets. But such protection
was no use against the heavy football bomb. Loop-
holes were all of iron plating, and in most cases of

198 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

double thickness, and even thus they were almost pierced
by the hail of bullets from the Turkish . machine guns.
The Turks did not occupy their forward trenches by
day. Only at night they crept up into them in large
numbers. Several craters formed a sort of danger-point
between the lines where mines had been exploded, and
into these it was the endeavour of some Turks to steal
at night on their way to an attack.

Now, one of the stories about Quinn's — alas I how
many tales of gallantry must go unrecorded — is that
the enemy's troops became so demoralized by the near-
ness of the trenches and the constant vigilance of our
men that, in order to properly man their trenches in
this sector, the Turks had to give non-commissioned
rank to all the men there posted. Our own garrison in
June and July were changed every eight days. Lieut. -
Colonel Malone, however, remained in charge, having
under him mixed forces of New Zealanders and
Australians. One day I went with him into one series of
tunnel trenches that wound back and forth and that opened
up unexpectedly into a strongly fortified emplacement
either for a machine gun or an observation post. Lying
all along the tunnels, either on the ground, pressed close
to the walls, or in a niche, or ledge, were the garrison.
It was difficult not to tread on them. We came
to a point where, pegged to the earthen walls, were any
number of pictures — of Sydney beach, of St. Kilda fore-
shore, of bush homes and haunts, of the latest beauty
actresses, and — most treasured possession — some of
Kirchner's drawings and coloured work from French
papers.

They were a happy family at Quinn's. Once orders
had been given that conversations could be carried on
only in whispers, so close was the enemy. For the most
part, however, that was not necessary, but there were
certain places where we had machine-gun emplacements
— traps they were really, and the guns had never been
fired. They were to be surprises for " Johnny Turk
when he should attack again in force. Here certainly
it would not have been wise to discuss the position, for
the enemy, some few yards distant, might have heard
and understood. One had only to show a periscope
above the trenches at Quinn's to bring down a hail of
bullets, and three periscopes was the signal for the turn-

o •=

H 2

LIFE AT QUINN'S AND POPE'S 199

ing of a machine gun on the sandbag parapets, with a
broken glass in the periscope the only result.

The shells from our guns in the valley just skimmed
the tops of the trenches, clearing them about 1 2 feet
and bursting in the enemy's lines. It was a very sensa-
tional experience until one got used to the sound and
could detect which way the shells were travelling. It is
told of this Post that two men were sitting in the trench
talking in whispers when a shell came whining and
roaring towards them. It burst. They did not rise to
see where, but it was near. Said the new arrival to
his mate, " Is that ours? "

"No," came the hissed reply, "theirs!"

" The ! " was the only vouchsafed and typically

Anzac comment.

Yes, the Post was undoubtedly strong, for it could
enfilade any attack from German Officers' Trench on
the right, and the Turks knew that and attempted none.
What was most amazing about the position were the
series of gun-pits, dug out of the centre of a shoulder
of the hill which ran down the right side of the position
on the flank of the gully nearest to Courtney's. I went
up through a winding passage-way, where blue-bottle
flies kept up a drowsy humming. Every half-dozen
yards there were small concealed openings in the side
of the tunnel, through which I looked out on to the
terraces and towards Pope's. When I reached the sum-
mit and found a series of three chambers each with'
ledges ready for machine guns, Lieut. -Colonel Malone
explained. " This," he said, " is the place to which
we might retire if the Turks did break through the Post
and come down the gully side. We would catch them
here. They cannot detect the guns, for they are hidden
by this thick scrub. We are now on the side of that
hill you saw on to which the Turks, from in front of
Pope's and the Bloody Angle, can fire. We could reach'
them, but the Staff will not give me the machine guns.
The reason is we have not enough, as it is, on the Post —
not as many as I would like. I would like a dozen —
we have seven. The enemy would never get us out of
here till we starved." I no longer ceased to wonder
why Quinn's was declared "perfectly safe."

To get across to Pope's you had to go down into the
gully again by the steep way you had come, and travel

2 00 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

another 200 yards up towards its head until you came
to an almost bare and precipitous hillside, which you
climbed the best way you could, picking a path in and
out amongst the dugouts. If you had a load of stores,
you could go to a part where a rope hung down from
the crown of the hill, about 100 feet up, and by it you
might haul yourself to the top. Pope's was even more
exposed than Quinn's when you entered it. The Com-
mander's dugouts were perched on the back of the hill,
facing the gully, and bullets and shells burst round his
cave entrances. Lieut. -Colonel Rowell, of the 3rd Regi-
ment of Light Horse, was in charge the day I went
over every section of it. The Light Horsemen were
desperately proud of their holding this dangerous and
all-important knoll that blocked the entrance to the gully.

Here, again, there were tunnels connecting up the
front and support trenches. They twisted about and
wound in and out, conforming to the shape of the top
of the hill. But they were not connected on either
flank. It was just an isolated post. There were posi-
tions for machine guns that by a device were made
disappearing guns. They were hauled up rapidly by a
pulley and rope and then lowered out of sight again.
It was a rough-and-ready makeshift, but the only means
of keeping secret positions (on a hill that did not offer
much scope for selection) for the guns. Iron loopholes
were absolutely essential ; an iron flap fell across them
as soon as the rifle had been withdrawn. I remember
standing opposite one of these till I was warned to
move, and, sure enough, just afterwards some bullets
went clean through and thumped against the back of
the trench. Many men had been shot through the
loopholes, so close were the enemy's snipers.

Down on the right flank of the post, just facing
the head of Monash Gully and the Nek and Chessboard
Trenches, was a remarkable series of sharpshooters' posts.
They were reached through a tunnel which had been
bored into the side of the hill. The bushes that grew
on the edge had not been disturbed, and the Turks
could know nothing of them. It was through these our
crack rifle-shots fired on the Turks when they attempted,
on various occasions, to come down through the head of
Monash Gully from their trenches on the Chessboard and
round the flank of Pope's Hill. Maps show the near-

LIFE AT QUINN'S AND POPE'S 201

ness of the Turks' line to ours, scarcely more than
1 5 yards away in places : what they do not show is
the mining and countermining beneath the surface. Con-
stantly sections of trenches were being blown up by
the diligent sappers, and in July, Pope's Hill had become
almost an artificial hill, held together, one might say, by
the sandbags that kept the saps and trenches intact.
Words fail to convey the heartbreaking work of keeping
the communications free and the trenches complete, for
every Turkish shell that burst did damage of some sort,
and nearly every morning early some portion of the post
had to be rebuilt. Looking here across the intervening
space — it was very narrow — to the right and left I could
see the Turkish strong overhead cover on their trenches,
made of wooden beams and pine logs. Between was
no man's land.

What tragedy lay in this fearful neutral zone ! The
immediate foreground was littered with old jam-tins,
some of which were unexploded " bombs." There was
a rifle, covered with dust, and a heap of rags. My
attention was called to the red collar of the upper
portion of what had been a Turkish jacket, and gradu-
ally I made out the frame of the soldier, who had
mouldered away, inside it. It was a pitiful sight. There
were four other unburied men from the enemy's ranks.
Nearer still was a boot and the skeleton leg of a Turk,
lying as he had fallen in a crumpled heap. I gathered
all this from the peeps I had through the periscope.

Such is an outline of what the posts that Lieut. -Colonel
Pope and Major Quinn won and established, had de-
veloped into after months of fighting. Something has
already been told of the early battles round them. It is
impossible to chronicle all the attacks and counter-attacks.
It must here suffice to continue the history already begun
in other chapters by referring briefly to the sortie on
9th May, the third Sunday after landing.

Quinn's was still a precarious position. On both sides
the engineers had been sapping forward, and the trenches
were so close that the men shouted across to one another.
Near midnight on the 9th, the 15th Battalion, under
Lieut. -Colonel Cannan, with two companies of the 1 6th
in support, about 900 men in all, attacked the Turkish
trenches in front of Quinn's. They issued forth in three
separate bodies, and after a fierce strug'gle routed the

2 02 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

Turks. Rapidly communication trenches were dug con-
necting up the forward with the rear trenches, which
meant tliat two island patches of ground were formed.
Then it was found that all three parties had not linked
up, and the Turks held an intervening section of the Hne.
An attempt, by companies of the i 5th and i 6th BattaUons
failed to gain the Turkish parapets in the face of a
terrible fire. When dawn broke the whole of the cap-
tured trenches became the centre of concentrated Turkish
fire from two Hanks, and our gallant men were compelled
to make their way back along their new communication
trenches to their own lines again. This, therefore, left
the Turkish trenches and our own connected by three
saps. It was an amazing position. Sandbag parapets
had been hastily erected, and on either side of these the
troops stood and bombed one another. The infantry
called in Arabic they had learnt in Egypt, believing that
the Turks would understand, " Saida " (which is " Good
day ") and other phrases. They threw across bully-beef
tins or bombs, indiscriminately. It was what the troops
called " good sport."

So the positions remained for five days until Friday,
14th May, when a Light Horse squadron of the '2nd Light
Horse — C Squadron, under Major D. P. Graham — was
chosen to attack the Turks and rout them from this un-
pleasantly close proximity to our line. The communica-
tion sap had first to be cleared. Two parties of men,
30 in each, with bayonets fixed, dashed from the
trenches at 1.45 a.m. In the face of a tremendous
machine-gun and musketry fire from the enemy they
charged for the parapets, so short a distance away. The
troops dropped rapidly. Major Graham, seeing his men
melt away, endeavoured to rally those that remained.
But the Turkish fire was too fierce, and the few that sur-
vived were compelled to jump into the communication
sap, and thus make their way back to their lines. Major
Graham himself, with the utmost coolness, brought in
some of the wounded after the attack had failed, but at
length he fell, mortally wounded. So ended the first May,
attack.

Desperate endeavours were made by the Turks, in their
grand attack on 19th May, to enter our trenches, but the
line was held safely under Major Quinn's command until
Saturday, 29th I\Iay, when, after exploding a mine under

LIFE AT QUINN'S AND POPE'S 203

part of our forward position, a strong body of Turks
managed to penetrate, during the early morning, to our
second line. The Post was at that moment in a desperate
position. Major Quinn himself, at the head of the gallant
I 5th Battalion, commenced to lead a counter-attack. The
din of battle was terrific. Few fiercer conflicts had raged
round the famous posts than on this cool, clear morning.
The Turks were routed and driven back to their lines, but
the brave leader. Major Quinn, fell, riddled with bullets,
across the very trenches which his men had dug. So
fierce had been the charge tha,t a certain section of trench
held by the enemy had been run over by our troops «
In that the Turks clung. They were caught in between
cross-fires, but held desperately the communication
trenches. After various attempts to dislodge them it
was suddenly thought that they might surrender, which
solution, on being signalled to them, they willingly agreed
to. The post was immediately strengthened, and the
dangerous communication ti;enches were effectively
blocked and held by machine guns.

Lieut. -Colonel Pope, after desperate fighting on the
hill that bore his name, still survived to lead his battalion
in the great August attacks. The brigade, and, indeed,
the whole Division, mourned the loss of so gallant an
officer and so fearless a leader as Major Quinn. They
honour his name no less than that of the dauntless Pope.

CHAPTER XX

JUNE AND JULY PREPARATIONS

There is no doubt that operations in May convinced
General Sir Ian Hamilton that neither at the southern
nor in the northern positions on the peninsula was his
force strong enough to push back the Turks, though he
held what he had won strongly enough. Consequently
he cabled to the War Office, urging that reinforcements
should be sent. But in the middle of May the withdrawal
of the Russians from the Galhpoli campaign was declared
from Petro^rad, and the Commander-in-Chief found it
necessary to increase his estimate of the force he would
require to force his way across to the Narrows. His new
demand was two additional army corps. Already the
Lowland Division (52nd) had been dispatched, but this
was but 20,000 men; four times as many were required to
press home the offensive. The abatement of the Russian
attacks had released about 100,000 of the finest Turkish
troops, and these reinforcements began to arrive on the
peninsula in June. General Hamilton writes in his last
dispatch : " During June your Lordship became per-
suaded of the bearing of these facts, and I was promised
three regular Divisions, plus the infantry of two Terri-
torial Divisions. The advance guard of these troops
was due to reach Mudros by loth July; by loth August
their concentration was to be complete."

So thus before the end of May the Commander-in-Chief
had in mind the larger plan, beginning a new phase
of the campaign, to be carried out in July, or
at the latest August. Therefore, it may be truly said,
the June-July Anzac battles were fought as preparatory
actions (in the absence of sufficiently strong forces) to
clear and pave the way for the great August offensive.
The grip on the Turks was tightened.

Fighting round Quinn's Post, as already related, had

204

JUNE AND JULY PREPARATIONS 205

been taking place during the greater part of May. Some-
times the Australians attacked, and, more seldom, the
Turks counter-attacked. It was at any time a desperately
held position. It continued so till the end of the chapter.

Now, while the Anzac troops could not yet advance,
they could help any direct assault on Achi Baba, such as
had been once tried in May with but partial success. So
it happened on the 28th June the Anzac troops were
ordered to make demonstrations to allow the pushing
home by the English and French of attacks that had com-
menced on 8th May, when the Australians had taken so
prominent a part in the advance on Krithia village. In
this 28th June action the Gurkhas were ordered, and did
advance, up the Great Dere, and flung the British flank
round the west of that village. It was a fine gain of some
800 yards. However, the Turks had plenty of troops
available, and they lost no time in organizing terrific
counter-attacks. Owing to the offensive taken at Anzac
the Australians were able to draw off a portion from this
attack, which tactics at the same time both puzzled and
harassed the Turks. The details I will briefly relate.

In June the 2nd Light Horse Brigade, under Brigadier-
General Ryrie, held the southerly portion of the line at
Tasman's Post, that overlooked Blamey's Meadow. Next
them, holding the line, were the 3rd Infantry Brigade,
under Brigadier-General Maclagan, reinforced now with
new troops, though with still a proportion of the men that
had taken part in the landing. Except for patrol work
and various small excursions and alarms against the Turks,
there had been no big attack made yet. They were keen
for battle.

All the night of the 2 7th- 2 8th and during the morning
masses of shells could be seen bursting on the hills round
Krithia, and sheets of flame rolled along the slopes of the
hills as the warships and the guns ashore bombarded the
Turkish trenches. Early on the 28th news had been
received that all efforts of the Turks to drive back the
British had failed. The troops at Anzac revelled in that
great artillery struggle. At midday their turn came.

For the first time, a day attack was planned. The
Light Horse were to leave their trenches at one o'clock.
Destroyers moved close in to Gaba Tepe and to the north
of the Australian position, and began an intense shelling
of the exposed Turkish trenches, that in some places were

2o6 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

open to enfilade fire. Soon the artillery ashore began,
and added further havoc. In front of the southern part
of our line, near Harris Ridge, about 600 yards away,
was a strong Turkish position on a rise — one of the many
spurs of the main ridge. This was the objective of
the attacking troops. All Queenslanders, Light Plorse,
and infantry, had been selected — a. squadron and two
companies, about 500 men, who were to lead the
charge. They were to be led by Lieut. -Colonel H.
Harris. The Western Australian Infantry, about 300
in all, were chosen to support the Queensland (9th)
Infantry, led by Major Walsh ; and New South Wales
(7th) Light Horse Regiment, to support the Queensland
(■5th) dismounted squadron.

Just after one o'clock the guns ceased, and the storm-
ing parties of Queenslanders dashed forward from their
trenches, and, with comparatively few casualties, gained
a footing on the nearest slope of the ridge, that was
covered with thick brush. They found certain protec-
tion, and there they commenced to entrench. Just over
the ridge was a plateau of cultivated ground, called " The
Wheatfield," and across this the Turks had dug trenches
at right angles to the ridge. From the trenches that the
Light Horsemen had left, rifle fire could be kept up on
these trenches. Beyond, the strong Turkish positions on
Wineglass Ridge and Pine Ridge were being shelled by
the destroyers and the New Zealand artillery. However,
it did not take the Turks long to bring gun fire on these
advanced troops, and high-explosive shell burst in the
shallow trenches. The brown and red earth was flung
up in dense clouds, but the troops held to their position.
They went on digging. It was as fine an example
of courage as one might wish to see — these splendid
men calmly entrenching amidst the craters the shells
left round them. Soon, however, the very object of
the offensive was disclosed to the AustraUajis themselves,
for they could see Turkish reinforcements being hurried
up in the distant gullies (they had come from
the village of Eski Keui, half-way down the penin-
isula to Krithia). Turkish leaders could be seen in the
fierce sunlight signalling to their troops to keep low, as
they could be observed by our forces ; and no doubt the
Turks with their white fezzes and skull-caps made excel-
lent targets, as they soon found, to their consternation and

JUNE AND JULY PREPARATIONS 207

cost, by the accuracy of our gun fire. These enemy
reinforcements were scattered, and, in disorder, sought
what shelter they could in the gulUes.

Having held the ridge and accompHshed the diversion,
the Light Horse gradually retired and regained their
own trenches. By 4.30 in the afternoon the infantry
too had been withdrawn from the advanced position.
So not only had the attack been successful in drawing
up Turks who would otherwise have gone to the
assistance of their comrades hard pressed around Krithia,
but they were, through bad leadership, brought up into
positions in gullies which our guns had registered, and
terrible casualties resulted. Both the Queensland units —
Light Horse as well as infantry — had shown fine gallantry,
and they were dashingly led by Lieut. -Colonel Harris.

Once having stirred the Turk, it behoved the Australians
to be ready for a counter-attack. But Tuesday, 29th,
remained still and quiet ; only the occasional bursting of a
bomb round Quinn's and Pope's Posts and the inter-
mittent crack of rifles, broke the calm of a perfect
summer day. To the enemy there had been every in-
dication that a serious advance was contemplated from
Anzac. During the afternoon, growing nervous of the
close approach of some of our mine tunnels under their
trenches, the Turks exploded their coimter mines, which
would effectively seal any advance from underground
and through craters. Just afterwards a summer storm
arose, which enveloped the Turkish lines in clouds of
dust. What better opportunity could have presented
itself for our attack ? No sooner had the wind driven
the dust over the trencTies than the enemy commenced
a fierce fire, which they maintained without ceasing for
two hours. The stream of lead that passed over our
trenches was terrific. Only when the storm abated did
the Turkish rifle and machine gtin fire die away. All
of this the enemy did to check an anticipated advance
which we had no intention of making. Millions of
rounds of Turkish ammunition had been wasted.

But the Turks now determined to turn the situation
to their own purpose, which apparently was to draw
attention to their lines in this southern section, while
they prepared to launch, unexpectedly, an attack from
another quarter. The Australian leaders were already
aware of this method of surprise, ajid had come to

2o8 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

look on it as part of the Turkish " bluff " ; for the
enemy had tried it before, when they had blown bugles
and shouted orders and given loud commands in their
trenches, and nothing had happened — not at that spot.
Now the firing ceased just before midnight.

An hour and a half later the enemy began a violent
attack on the Nek, with new troops belonging to the
1 8th Regiment of the enemy's 6th Division. They had
come recently from Asia Minor, and were some of the
best troops of the Turkish Regular Army. Enver Pasha
himself, the Commander-in-Chief of the Turkish forces,
had ordered the attack so that the Australians might,
once and for all, be " pushed into the sea." In this way
began an attempt to rush our trenches at the head of
Monash Gully. The line was here held by New
Zealanders and Light Horse. On this left flank con-
siderable rearrangement from the earlier days had taken
place. The Maories held the extreme left down to
the shore. On Russell Top were the New Zealand
Mounted Rifles, under Brigadier-General Russell, and
the 3rd Light Horse, under Brigadier -General Hughes.
These fine men held the trenches opposite the mass of
Turkish lines, the Chessboard Trenches. Brigadier
General Chauvel's Light Horse Brigade was in the
trenches at Quinn's and Pope's, together with some New
Zealand infantry regiments. Thus was the gap at the
head of Monash Gully up as far as Steel's Post, held.

From midnight till 1.30 an intense fire of musketry
and guns was poured on to our trenches on Russell's
Top. It was still bright moonlight when, in a series
of lines, the Turks commenced to attack at 1.30. They
came shambling on, shouting " Allah I Allah I " towards
the parapets of our trenches, less than 100 yards across
the Nek. At this spot the Light Horsemen had been
digging out two saps towards the enemy, and it was
into these some of the enemy charged, our troops dividing
to allow them to enter. Then the Australians fell on
them from either side with bombs, and none escaped.
For it was the habit of the Turk when he attacked,
not to jump into the trench and come to hand-to-
hand encounters if he could help it, but to lie on top
of the parapet and fire down into the trench. Very few
of the enemy, in these three charges that came and
faded away, reached our lines. When the first charge

JUNE AND JULY PREPARATIONS 209

had been so blankly stopped not many yards after it
began, the Turks tried to work along the northern edge
of the ridge, where the ground fell away steeply into
the gullies below, and on the southern side of the Nek^
where t"he ground was no less difficult, but not as deep,
sloping down to the head of Monaah Gully. Our machine
g'uns wrought fearful havoc, and 400 Turks at least
perished in the charges. Then the destroyers sent the
rays of their searchlights farther up the hill towards
the rounded top of Baby 700, and revealed the enemy,
reserves advancing. Gun fire destroyed these.

Meanwhile, a further attack was developing down the
heads of the gullies on either side of Pope's Hill, the
hill that guarded the entrance to the gully, and the centre
of the position. I have already told how from the
sides of this hill machine guns were trained down
into the gully ; and howi the line of concealed sharp-
shooters' posts we had established, gave absolute com-
mand, and at the same time protection, to the holders
of the gully. The bright rays of the moon aided the
defenders, and they could easily detect the stealthily
moving figures. Towards one o'clock the Turks com-
menced to work down this gully. It is related of that
fight — an incident typical, no doubt, of many — that a
Light Horseman, seeing a Turk silhouetted on the edge
of the ridge, rushed at him with his bayonet, and the
two men slipped over the edge of the cliff, down through
the bush and loose earth, till they both were brought
up almost face to face on a ledge. They crossed bayonets
— one pictures the two figures in the indefinite light
of the moon standing there motionless for a fraction
of a minute — till the Australian, realizing that he had
in his magazine a cartridge, pulled the trigger. When
his comrades came to his assistance, dashing through the
undergrowth, they found him with the dead Turk, smiling.

Now, it was evident the Turks had meant to stay in
that attack. The few m,en that did reach the trenches
on Russell's Top, and were killed there, must have
been men of the second or third lines. They carried
large numbers of bombs and digging implements. They
had quantities of provisions — figs, dates, and olives — ^and
water-bottles filled. They were evidently intended to
be the holding party. As daylight came, some of the
enemy still lurked in the head of the gnlly on either

2IO AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

flank of Pope's Hill. Just before dawn a further line
of 300 men attempted to rush the head of the gully.
They reached the edge of the cliff, and then broke
into small parties running this way and that, under the
fire of our machine guns, which played on them from
the Light Horse lines on Russell's Top (the main charge
by this having faded away) and from the side of Pope's
Hill. At the same time a few of the enemy left their
trenches at Quinn's to rush our post on the side of the hill.
None got more than a few yards. All the men of that
last desperate attack were killed or wounded. A few
were taken prisoners.

The scene next morning was ghastly. In the saps
on the Nek twienty and thirty dead Turks lay piled
in a row. Before Pope's Hill, never very strongly
threatened that night, there were scores of dead. The
total loss must have been nearly 600 killed and 2,000
casualties. It is historically important as the last Turkish
attack against Anzac proper. The Tu,rks showed a
desperate courage ; for this attack on the Nek was but
sending troops to certain destruction ; yet the men never
flinched, and they were soon to show the same valour
again, in attacks on the higher slopes of the Sari Bair ridge.

Throughout July it was always expected that the
enemy's superstition would lead him to make a bold
effort in the season of Ramazan — the end of July.
Warnings had reached Anzac to this effect. Prisoners
had anticipated it, probably due to the orders of Enver
Pasha Jo dislodge at all costs the Australian forces.
The enemy had been bringing up new regiments. All
through July the Turks showed a nervous disposition
to burst out into heavy fusillades all along the line.
At night they sent coloured lights over the gullies and
our position. Our gunners did the same, at the time
when the moon dropped behind the hills of Troy, between
midnight and 3 a.m. The troops stood to arms at
moonset. Our trenches were then always fully manned.
The reserves slept in the saps.

Ramazan passed ; and still the Turks clung to the
protection of their trenches. The June battles had
completely disheartened them. Their ammunition was
running short. Certainly ours had been none too
plentiful, and orders had been given since May to
conserve it as far as possible. Two rounds per gun

THE GREAT SAP LEADING FROM NO. 2 OUTPOST INTO ANZAC ROUND
ARI BURNU POINT.

Fishermen's huts were situated half-way along the beach (Ocean Beach). Russell Top
and Plugge's Plateau in the distance.

TURKISH PRISONERS DIGGING NEW DUGOUTS FOR GENERAL GODLEY NEAR
NO. 2 POST, AFTER THE FIRST AUGUST OFFENSIVE.

To face p. 218.

JUNE AND JULY PREPARATIONS 211

a day was the limit, except under special circumstances.
As General Hamilton himself admitted, " Working out
my ammunition allowance, I found I would accumulate
just enough high-explosive shell to enable me to deliver
one serious attack each period of three weeks." It
was exceedingly exasperating to the gunners, this
shortage. There came [times when, owing to the
necessity of getting permission from headquarters, the
gunners grew impatient, as they saw targets escaping
into the folds of the hills. A General told me on one
occasion h,ow a column could be seen moving about
4 miles away, but owing to the delay of hours in
getting the necessary permission to loose off some twenty
rounds of shell, the column escaped. He had fired his
allowance per gim, as was his invariable custom, just
to remind " Abdul '' he was awake, early in the morning.

It was not, however. Sir Ian Hamilton's plan to draw
much attention to Anzac just at present. He wanted
the Turkish mind focused on Cape Helles, which was
one reason for the period of quiet that occurred in
July at Anzac, though care was taken that the moral
ascendancy that had been gained over the Turks by
the Australians was never lost, and not one whit less
was given to the Turks now than had been given
before in vigilant sniping and bombing. But the effect
on the spirits of the Turks was noticeable, and at the
end of July, long before the official information leaked
out to the troops, there appeared in the trenches opposite
Quinn's Post a notice-board, on which was printed in
irregular letters, " Warsaw is fallin." The result of
which little enemy joke was that thousands of rifle
bullets shattered the notice. Notes began to be thrown
over stating" that the Australians would be well treated
if they surrendered. In spite of which, Turkish deserters
still continued to come into our lines, all of whom told
of the growing fear of the Turks at the length of
the campaign, and the disheartening of their troops.
Incidentally, I 'may say, prisoners all believed they were
going to be killed. I remember Major Martyn telling
me how one party, on coming through a comlmuni ca-
tion trench to our lines, had triqd to kiss his hands
in gratitude at being spared.

So, chafing under the delayed advance, the Australians
waited for their chancQ tQ teach " Abdul " a lasting lesson.

PART III
THE GREAT ADVENTURE

CHAPTER XXI

THE AUGUST PHASE AND NEW LANDING

It will have been gathered from the fighting that
followed the terrible May attack of the Turks, when
they lost so heavily in trying to dislodge the Australians
from Anzac and British from Helles, that nothing would
have satisfied our commanders better than for a Turkish
attack to develoj) during the end of July. This, I feel
certain in saying, would have been repulsed, as others
had been repulsed, and would have left the Turkish
army weak, just at the moment when General Sir Ian
Hamilton had completed all his plans for the continuing
of the Great Adventure begun in April. The rumours
of a projected Turkish attack at Anzac proved groundless.
The Australians were left unmolested, while the Turks,
conceiving that the British still intended to attempt
the assault of Achi Baba, had gathered on the
end of the peninsula great reserve forces. General
Hamilton's strategy had had much to do with this (the
great sacrifices of the attacks on Krithia would not
then have seemed so vain liad the full plan succeeded),
for in his mind was just the reverse idea — that Anzac
should be the turning-point, the pivot of all operations,
as it had been intended from the first. It was to
become the centre of an unlinked battle front, of which
Cape Helles was the right flank and Suvla Bay was
to be the left. An attack launched from this left-^
a new and an entirely unexpected left — would leave ^
way for the centre, to push forward. Then automatically
would the right have advanced.

This strategy was really an elaboration of the early
plan of the Commander-in-Chief, aimed at the cutting
of the Turkish communications to the great dominating

THE AUGUST PHASE AND NEW LANDING 213

fortress of Kelid Bahr, which afterwards could be
reduced at leisure with the co-operation of the Navy.
It has been often asked what advantage would have
accrued from the Australians and the new British
troops reaching Maidos and holding the heights of
Koja Chemen Tepe. None less than the forcing
of the Turkish communication from Europe into Asia,
and that they should be compelled to undertake
the very hazardous and doubtful operation of keeping
intact the Gibraltar of the peninsula — the Kelid Bahr
fortress — by supplying* it across the Narrows from
Chanak and the badly railwayed coast of Asia Minor.
But there were alternative plans open to General
Hamilton, and such will always give opportunity to
military strategists to debate the one adopted. What
General Hamilton knew in May was that he would have
200,000 new British troops by August at his command,
with 20,000 Australian reinforcements on their way and
due to arrive about the middle of the same month. His
army, as he commanded it then, was about 150,000
strong (including the French Expedition), and its strength
might easily be diminished to 100,000 by August owing
to normal wastage, Turkish offensives, and sickness that
began to make itself evident. Two hundred thousand
men to attack an Empire I In the days of its Byzan-
tine glory, in the times of the early struggles for Balkan
supremacy, such an army would have been considered
noble. Now, though British, it was not enough. Appar-
ently the situation on the Western front did not warrant
another 100,000 men that General Hamilton had asked
for more than once, to give him a safe margin, being
granted him. The Turks, released from their toils against
Russia on the east in the Caucasus — the Mesopotamian
front not seriously threatened and the attack on the
Canal being impossible — found ample men at their dis-
posal. On the other hand, they had a long and vulner-
able coast-line to guard, but the 900,000 men of that
German organized and commanded army, made a power-
ful fighting force. Nearly 400,000 troops were appor-
tioned for service on the peninsula. I am not asserting
that that number of men were facing the landed armies,
but they were available, some perhaps as far away as
Adrianople or the Gulf of Enos. If General Hamilton's
problem was a difficult one, Enver Pasha's way was not

214 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

exactly smooth. He was harassed by lack of heavy
ammunition, the populace were wavering, while above
all hung the terrible threat of another landing on the
European or Asiatic shores.

But one factor the British leader liad to ponder deeply
was the submarine menace that had been threatening
the very existence of the already landed armies. Two
fine warships, the Triumph and Majestic, had been sunk
in May while shelling and guarding the positions ashore,
and the fleet had been compelled to seek shelter in the
harbour of Mudros. Even though monitors, with
14-in. guns, were soon available to maintain the
invaluable support that the battleships had previously
given to the army, there was not the weight of artillery
of a highly mobile nature, ready for any emergency,
without the Admiralty were prepared to hazard a great
loss. Transportation of troops and stores was danger-
ous and subject to irritating, and even dangerous, delays.
General Hamilton sums up the situation in a masterly
fashion in his final dispatch : —

Eliminating the impracticable, I had already narrowed down the methods
of employing these fresh forces to one of the following four : —

(a) Every man to be thrown on to the southern sector of the peninsula,

to force a way forward to the Narrows.
{h) Disembarkation on the Asiatic side of the Straits, followed by a

march on Chanak.
(c) A landing at Enos or Ibrije for the purpose of seizing the neck of

the Isthmus at Bulair.
d) Reinforcement of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps,
combined with a landing in Suvla Bay. Then with one strong
push to capture Hill 305 [971], and, working from that dominating
point, to grip the waist of the peninsula.
As to (a) I rejected that course —

1. Because there were limits to the numbers which could be landed

and deployed in one confined area.

2. Because the capture of Krithia' could no longer be counted upon

to give us Achi Baba, an entirely new system of works having
lately appeared upon the slopes of that mountain — works so
planned that even if the enemy's western flank was turned and
driven back from the coast, the central and eastern portions of the
mountain could still be maintained as a bastion to Kelid Bahr.

3. Because if I tried to disengage myself both from Krithia and Achi

Baba by landing due west of Kelid Bahr my troops would be
exposed to artillery fire from Achi Baba, the Olive Grove, and
Kelid Bahr itself ; the enemy's large reserves were too handy ;
there were not fair chances of success.
As to (ft), although much of the Asiatic coast had now been wired and
entrenched, the project was still attractive. Thereby the Turkish forces on

THE AUGUST PHASE AND NEW LANDING 215

the peninsula would be weakened ; our beaches at Cape Holies would be
freed from Asiatic shells ; the threat to the enemy's sea communications
was obvious. But when I descended into detail I found that the expected
reinforcements would not run to a double operation. I mean that, unless
I could make a thorough, whole-hearted attack on the enemy in the
peninsula I should reap no advantage in that theatre from the transference
of the Turkish peninsular troops to reinforce Asia, whereas, if the British
forces landed in Asia were not strong enough in themselves seriously to
threaten Chanak, the Turks for their part would not seriously relax their
grip upon the peninsula.

To cut the land coiimiunications of the whole of the Turkish peninsular
army, as in (c), was a better scheme on paper than on the spot. The naval
objections appeared to my coadjutor, Vice-Admiral Robeck, well-nigh
insurmountable. Already, owing to submarine dangers, all reinforcements,
ammunition, and supplies had to be brought up from Mudros to Helles or
Anzac by night in fleet sweepers and h-awlers. A new landing near Bulair
would have added another 50 miles to the course such small craft must
cover, thus placing too severe a strain upon the capacities of the flotilla.

The landing promised special hazards, owing to the difficulty of securing
the transports and covering ships from submarine attack. Ibrije has a
bad beach, and the distance to Enos, the only point suitable to a dis-
embarkation on a large scale, was so great that the enemy would have had
time to organize a formidable opposition from his garrisons in Thrace.
Four divisions at least would be required to overcome such opposition
These might now be found ; but, even so, and presupposing every other
obstacle overcome, it was by no manner of means certain that the Turkish
army on the peninsula would thereby be brought to sue for terms, or
that the Narrows would thereby be opened to the fleet. The enemy woul
still be able to work supplies across the Straits from Chanak. The swiftness
of the current, the shallow draft of the Turkish lighters, the guns f
the forts, made it too difficult even for our dauntless submarine commanders
to paralyse movement across these land-locked waters. To achieve that
purpose I must bring my artillery fire to bear both on the land and water
communications of the enemy.

This brings me to {d), the storming of that dominating height. Hill 305
[971], with the capture of Maidos and Gaba Tepe as its sequel.

From the very first I had hoped that by landing a force under the
heights of Sari Bair we should be able to strangle the Turkish communica-
tions to the southwards, whether by land or sea, and so clear the Narrows
for the fleet. Owing to the enemy's superiority, both in numbers and in
position ; owing to underestimates of the strength of the original entrench-
ments prepared and sited under German direction ; owing to the constant
dwindling of the units of my force through wastage ; owing also to the
intricacy and difficulty of the terrain, these hopes had not hitherto borne
fruit. But they were well founded. So much at least had clearly enough
been demonstrated by the desperate and costly nature of the Turkish attacks.
The Australians and New Zealanders had rooted themselves in very near to
the' vitals of the enemy. By their tenacity and courage they still held
open the doorway from which one strong thrust forward might give us
command of the Narrows.

From the naval point of view the auspices were also favourable. Suvla
Bay was but one mile further from Mudros than Anzac, and its possession

2i6 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

would ensure us a submarine-proof base, and a harbour good against gales,
excepting those from the south-west. There were, as might be expected,
some special difficulties to be overcome. The broken, intricate country — the
lack of water — the consequent lanxious supply questions. Of these it can
only be said that a bad country is better than an entrenched country, and
that supply and water problems may be countered by careful preparation.

It has been pointed out before what need there was for
studying the moon at Anzac. In the fixing of the date
for the new landing the Commander-in-Chief had to
find a means of " eliminating " the moon. That is, he
had to find the night which would give him the longest
hours of darkness, after the arrival of his forces. He
found that on 7th August the moon would rise at 2 p.m.
The weather might be depended on to be perfect, so
that before the light would be fully cast over the move-
ments of the troops ashore it would be almost dawn.
General Hamilton would have liked the operations to
have commenced a month earlier, he says, but the troops
were not available. He had to fill in the time by
keeping the enemy occupied and wearing them down
with feints. To have waited for another month till the
whole of his command had actually, arrived on the
adjacent islands of Mudros and Imbros, where their con-
centration had been planned, would have been to come
too close to the approaching bad season and increase
the element of risk of the Turks discovering the plans.
So the die was cast.

Early in July, I was in Alexandria — the main base
of the army. Even there the general opinion seemed
to be that surely soon there must be an attack, for
such vast quantities of stores were being sent to the
peninsula. Never could one forget the sight of the
wharves at that seaport, burdened to their utmost capacity
with cases that contained not only the staple food of
the army — beef and biscuits — but butter, cheese, jams, and
vast quantities of entrenching weapons. The whole of
Egypt was scoured for the last man that could be spared.
Whole companies of Australians were organized from
the men who had been left on guard duty — men who
were keen to get away, but had been compelled to stay.
Reinforcements were hurried forward to complete their
training, even in the rear of the firing-line of Anzac.
Hospital ships were prepared, hospitals were cleared in
anticipation of the thousands of returning wounded.

THE AUGUST PHASE AND NEW LANDING 217

At Mudros Harbour camps and bivouacs were scattered
all round the harbour front. I saw a whole brigade of
British troops disembarked from the massive Mauretania
and bivouacked under the open sky. Immensely cheery
bodies of men they were, waiting for the weeks to sli2> by
till the appointed day. This island of Lemnos lay 40
miles from the firing-line. Closer by 30 miles to the
firing-line was Imbros, where thousands of other troops
were gathered as far as the capacities of the island (the
water supply was the problem ; a ship was moored close
inshore and pumped water all day into long lines of tanks)
permitted. In order to refresh the men already in the
fighting-line they were rested at Imbros in battalions, the
only relief they had had, since they landed, from the roar
of the shells. But there came a day when this had to
cease, for the resources of the naval and trawling services
were strained to the utmost collecting stores and
bringing forward fresh troops.

Kephalos Bay, at Imbros, was not much of an
anchorage, but a boom and protecting nets kept out
the submarines, and good weather favoured the operations.
Gurkhas, Maoris, New Zealanders, AustraUans, and
British troops were on the island, camped amongst the
vineyards, that were just ripening. General Hamilton's
headquarters were on the most southern promontory of
the island, and near by were the aeroplane hangars, from
which, morning and evening, patrols rose, sweeping up
the Straits. Never out of sight of the land, never out
of the sound of the guns, one viewed from this point the
vast panorama of the peninsula. General Hamilton
guided the operations from that spot, as being the most
central and giving rapid access to any one of his three
fighting fronts. Wharves had been built by parties of
Egyptian engineers, who had been brought up specially
from Cairo. The presence of Turkish prisoners in camp
in a hollow and the native Greeks in their loose, slovenly
garments, completed the extraordinary concourse of
nations that were represented on this picturesque and
salubrious island.

In the harbour were anchored some of the weirdest
craft that the Navy possessed — the new heavy monitors
that had been of such service already along the Belgian
coast and the baby monitors that had been down the
African coast and up the Tigris River. Four large and

2i8 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

two small of these shallow -draught craft there were,
whose main attribute was their unsinkableness. In the
same category must be ranged the converted cruisers of
old and antiquated patterns — for naval ships — from whose
sides bulged a false armour-shield which was calculated
to destroy the torpedo before it reached or could injure
the inner shell of the vessel. And, lastly, to this extra-
ordinary fleet must be added the armoured landing-
punts, that sometimes drifted, sometimes steamed about
the harbour, crammed with a thousand troops each. The
motive-power was an oil-engine that gave them a speed
of just 5 miles an hour. From the front there hung a
huge platform that could be let down as required : across
it the troops, emerging from the hold, where they were
packed behind bullet-proof screens, might dash ashore.
As all the weight of the craft was at the stern, its
blunted prow would rest on the shore. From these
strange vessels the troops destined for service at Suvla
Bay practised landing assiduously.

Finally, there were the preparations on the peninsula
itself. Terraces and trenches had to be prepared for
the new army that was to be secretly conveyed at night
to the Anzac and from which they would issue forth
to the support of the Australians and form the link
with the British armies to operate on the left flank at
Suvla Bay. I suppose the observers in the German
aeroplanes that were chased from above our lines might
well have wondered why the ledges were being dug in
the sides of the small valleys — that is, if they could
detect them at all. What they certainly would not see
would be the huge quantities of ammunition, millions
and millions of rounds, that for days was being taken
out through the long sap to our No. 2 out-
post on the north, already strengthened with rein-
forcements from the Light Horse and New Zealand
Rifle regiments. Both at Imbros and at Anzac there
were vast numbers of Egyptian water-cans and ordinary
tins (which probably once had contained honey or
biscuits), ready filled with water for the landing troops.
Down at the wells in the valleys pumps had increased
the capacity of the daily supply, and the tanks in the
gullies were kept full — except when the wretched steam-
engine employed at Anzac, broke down. Why so poor
a thing should have been obtained it is difficult to con-

THE AUGUST PHASE AND NEW LANDING 219

ceive, when more up-to-date plant might easily have
been found.

But the greatest feat of all was the landing of guns,
both at Helles and at Anzac. At the end of July there
were at Cape Helles one hundred and twenty-four guns,
composed of the following units : —

Vlllth Army Corps, comprising the artillery of 29th
Division, 42nd Division, 52nd Division, and Royal Naval
Division. Attached were 1st Australian Brigade
(Colonel Christian) : 6th Australian Battery (Major
Stevenson), 3rd New Zealand Battery.

At Anzac there were over seventy guns, under
Brigadier-General Cunliffe Owen, when the great offen-
sive began, from lo-pounder mountain batteries to a
6 -in. battery of field guns, howitzers, and a 9 -in gun.
There were guns on every available ridge and in every
hollow ; they were along the great northern sap, firing
over it on to the northern slopes of the Sari Bair ridge,
until they gradually were dragged out along the beach to
the new ground won by the Australian and New Zealand
Division. Owing to the closeness of the enemy positions,
the small space available at Anzac, and the height of the
hills, the guns were firing across one another's fronts.

In all this magnificently conceived plan of General
Hamilton's, one thing that stands out above all others
is the manner in which the Turks were deceived. This
in some measure may be attributed to the way in which
the Turkish and German observing aeroplanes were
chased from the skies, for the French and British aviators
had the upper hand. On a few occasions the enemy
did venture forth, but only at great altitudes ; invariably
very swiftly they were compelled to return to their lines
by the Allied aviators. The enemy's hangars behind the
forts at Chanak were destroyed during one air raid,
organized by Flight-Commander Sampson, from Tenedbs.
Now, General Hamilton determined on certain main ruses,
and left the formulation of any plans to help the Anzac
position to Lieut. -General Birdwood, which I shall
mention in their place. As for the general scheme,
the Commander-in-Chief writes : —

Once the date was decided, a certain amount of ingenuity had to be
called into play so as to divert the attention of the enemy from my main
strategical conception. This — I repeat for the sake of clearness — was : —
I. To break out with a rush from Anzac and cut off the bulk of the
Turkish army from land communication with Constantinople.

2 20 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

2. To gain such a command for my artillery as to cut off the bulk of

the Turkish army from sea traffic, whether with Constantinople or
with Asia.

3. Incidentally to secure Suvla Bay as a winter base for Anzac and all

the troops operating in the northern theatre.
My schemes for hoodwinking the Turks fell under two heads : —
First, strategical diversions meant to draw away enemy reserves not yet

committed to the peninsula.
Second, tactical diversions meant to hold up enemy reserves already on
the peninsula.
Under the first heading came a surprise landing by a force of 300 men
on the northern shore of the Gulf of Saros ; demonstrations by French
ships opposite Mitylene along the Syrian coast ; concentration at Mitylene ;
inspections at Mitylene by the Admiral and myself ; making to order of
a whole set of maps of Asia, in Egypt, as well as secret service work, most
of which bore fruit.

Amongst the tactical diversions were a big containing attack at Helles.
Soundings, registration of guns, etc., by monitors between Gaba Tope and
Kum Tepe. An attack to be carried out by Anzac on Lone Pine trenches,
which lay in front of their right wing, and as far distant as the local terrain
would admit from the scene of the real battle. Thanks entirely to the
reality and vigour which the Navy and the troops threw into them, each
one of these ruses was, it so turned out, entirely successful, with the result
that the Turks, despite their excellent spy system, were caught completely
off their guard at dawn on the 7th August.

Therefore, if I may be pardoned the term, the
1st Australian Division was to be, in this huge offensive,
the " bait " that was to be flung to the Turks, to keep
them in their trenches massed before Anzac, while their
attention was distracted at Cape Helles by the offensive
planned there. Thus there would be left a clear road
round the left flank from Suvla Bay across the Salt
Lake, through Bijak Anafarta, and so on to the northern
slopes of the great crowning position of this, the central
portion of the peninsula, Koja Chemen Tepe, or
Hill 971, to give it its more familiar name. But once
the Turks were trapped, as they surely would have been,
the way was clear for the long-desired advance of the
Australian and New Zealand Divisions on to Pine Ridge,
to Battleship Hill, advancing and attacking from both
its slopes up to the Sari Bair ridge, and so to
possession of the plains that stretched to Maidos.

And in this carefully prepared scheme the ist
Australian Infantry Brigade, under Brigadier-General
Smyth, were to make the first move — how vital a trust
for a young army ! — by an attack on Lone Pine trenches
on 6th August.

CHAPTER XXII

LONE PINE

Lone Pine was the first big attack that the ist Brigade
had taken part in since the landing. Indeed, it was
the first battle these New South Welshmen had as a
separate and complete operation. It was, perhaps, the
freshest and strongest infantry brigade of the four at
Anzac, though barely 2,000 strong. The men had been
in the trenches (except for a few battalions that had been
rested at Imbros) since April. They were ripe for a
fight ; they were tired of the monotony of sniping at
a few Turks and digging and tunnelling.

It is necessary first to go T3ack a fiewi days prior
to this attack, to the night of the 31st July, when there
had been rather a brilliant minor operation carried out
by the Western Australian troops of the i ith Battalion,
under Lieut-Colonel J. L. Johnston, who had issued
forth from Tasmania Post. The Turks had largely
brought this attack on themselves by having tunnelled
forward to a crest that lay not very many yards distant
from our position. We had been unable to see what
their preparations consisted of, though it was known
they were " up to mischief," as Major Ross told me.
Exactly what this amounted to was revealed one day,
when they broke down the top of their tunnels and
there appeared on the crest of the small ridge a fine
of trenches about 100 yards in extent. The enemy
had come within easy bombing distance, but it was
difficult for them to locate our sharpshooters and machine
guns, that were so well concealed behind the growing
bush.

To overcome this th;e Turks would creep up near to
our lines — they wiere very skilled scouts indeed — and would
throw some article of clothing or equipment near where
the rifles were spitting. Next morning these garments

2 22 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

served as an indication (that is, if we had not removed
them) for the directing of fire.

On the night of 31st July at 10.15 the attack began.
The Turkish trenches were heavily bombarded, and mines
which had rapidly been tunnelled under their trenches
were exploded, with excellent results. Four assaulting
columns, each of 50 men, led by the gallant Major
Leane, then dashed forward from the trenches, crossing
our barbed-wire entanglements on planks that had been
laid by the engineers. The men had left the trenches
before the debris from our two flanking mines had
descended, and it took them very few seconds to reach'
the enemy's line, which was fully manned with excited
and perturbed Turks, who, immediately the mines had
exploded, set up a fearful chattering. The Australians
fired down into the enemy'*s ranks, and then, liaving
made a way, jumped into the trenches and began to
drive the Turks back on either side.

On the extreme right a curious and dangerous
situation arose. The Turks had retired some distance
down a communication trench, but before our lads could
build up a protecting screen arid block the trench, the
enemy attacked with great numbers of bombs. While
the men were tearing down the Turkish parapets to
form this barricade a veritable inferno raged round them
as the bombs exploded. Our supplies were limited, and
were, indeed, soon exhausted. The parapet still re-
mained incomplete. Urgent messages had been sent
back for reinforcements, and the position looked
desperate. By a mere chance it was saved. An
ammunition box was spied on the ground between the
lines. This was dragged in under terrible fire, and
found to contain bombs. Very soon the Australians
then gained the upper hand. The parapet was com-
pleted, and this entrance of the Turks, as well as their
exit, blocked.

But in the charge a short length of the Turkish
trenches (they wound about in an extraordinary fashion)
had remained uncaptured, and this line, in which there
were still some 80 Turks fighting, was 'jammed in between
the Australian lines. The enemy were obviously un-
conscious that some of their trenches that ran back
on either flank of this trench, had been captured. Scouts
were sent out by Major Leane, and these men, after

LONE PINE 223

creeping up behind the enemy's line, that still continued
to fire furiously, cleared up any remaining doubt that it
was still a party of the enemy. A charge was organized,
but was driven back. Then a further charge from the
original lines was made direct at the trench. The Turks
turned and fled down their own communication trench',
but, as we held either flank, were caught by bombs
and rifle fire, and killed. The Turkish dead in this
attack were estimated at 100. The enemy soon turned
their guns on the position, and under high -explosive
shell fire all night, our troops worked with the sapper
parties, under Major Clogstoun (3rd Field Company),
deepening the captured trenches and transferring the
parapets, which faced our lines, to the westerly side,
facing the Turks. Their own trenches had been
wretchedly shallow, barely 3 feet deep. By dawn our
troops had ample protection. But unfortunately their
brave leader. Major Leane, fell mortally wounded. Ever
after the trenches were known as Leane's Trenches—
— one of the many men to leave an honoured name on
Anzac. Machine guns shattered a Turkish attack that
was being formed in a gully on the right. The Turks
never attempted to retake the trench during the next days
immediately preceding Lone Pine. General Hamilton
regarded the action as most opportune.

Now, while the higher commands reahzed the scope
of the pending operations, the troops knew very little.
" The 1st Brigade is for it to-morrow " was the only
word that spread along the line, very rapidly, on tlie
evening of the 5th. That it was to be the commencement
of a great coup was only guessed at from various local
indications. So far as was definitely known, it was
to be a purely local attack. By our leaders it
was rather hoped, however, the Turks would be
led to beheve it was but preliminary to a flanking'
movement from this point out towards Maidos and
the plains of the Olive Grove. That was the situa-
tion on the morning of the 6th August — a bright,
rather crisp morning, when the waters of the gulf
were a little disturbed by the wind, and barges
rocked about violently in Anzac Cove. Perhaps the
arrival of the old comrade to the Austrahans, the
Bacchante, that had been so good a friend to the
troops during the early stages, might have been taken

2 24 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

as a signal of hard fighting. She replaced the monitor
Hiimber, that had been at work shelhng* the ^uns on
the Olive Grove Plains and on Pine Ridge, 800 yards or
more in front of our right flank, for some weeTcs.

On the morning of the 6th the heart of Anzac was
wearing rather a deserted appearance, for the Divisional
Headquarters of the ist Division had been moved up
to just behind the firing-line at the head of White
Gully, so as to Tdc nearer the scene of action and shorten
the line of communications. Major -General H. B.
Walker was commanding the Division, and was responsible
for the details for this attack. The New Zealanders also
had left Anzac, and Major -General Godley had estab-
lished his headquarters on the extreme left, at No. 2
post, where he would be in the centre of the attacks on
the left. On the beach, 1 remember, there were parties
of Gurkhas still carrying ammunition and water -tins on
their heads out through the saps. Ammunition seemed
to be the dominant note of the beach. Other traffic
was normal, even quiet.

Now the Lone Pine entrenchment was an enormously
strong Turkish work that the enemy, while they always
felt a little nervous about it, rather boasted of. It was
a strong point (Tappui on the south-western end of
Plateau 400, about the centre oT the right flank of the
position. At the nearest point the Turkish trenclies
approached to within 70 yards of ours, and receded at
various places to about 130 yards. This section of our
trenches, from the fact that there was a bulge in our
line, had been called "The Pimple." Their entrench-
ments connected across a dip, " Owen's Gully," on the
north with Johnston's Jolly and German Officers' Trench,
all equally strongly fortified positions, with overhead
cover of massive pine beams, railway sleepers, and often
cemented parapets. The Turks had seen to it when
constructing these trenches that the various positions
could be commanded on either side by their own machine-
gun fire.

Why was it called Lone Pine ? Because behind it, on
the Turkish ridge, seamed with brown trenches and mia
mias I of pine-needles, there remained standing a solitary
pine-tree amongst the green holly-bushes. Once there had
been a forest of green pines on the ridge. The others

' Aboriginal word for a shelter made of gum leaves, branches, and bark.

•

LONE PINE 225

had gradually been cut down for wood and defensive
purposes. Singular to relate, on the morning of the attack
the Turks felled this last pine-tree.

Immediately in the rear of our trenches was " Browne's
Dip," and it was here that the reserves were concealed in
deep dugouts. Brigadier-General Smyth had his head-
quarters there, not 80 yards from the firing-hne, and
barely 150 from the Turkish trenches. It was at the head
of the gully that dipped sharply down to the coast. The
position was quite exposed to the Turkish artillery fire,
but by digging deep and the use of enormous sandbag
ramparts some little protection was obtained, though
nothing stood against the rain of shells that fell on this
area — not 400 yards square — in the course of the attacks
and counter-attacks.

To properly understand and realize the nature of the
Lone Pine achievement it must be explained that our
trenches consisted of two lines. There was the actual
firing -Hne, which the Turks could see, and the false firing-
line, which was a series of gallery trenches that ran
parallel to our first line beneath the ground, and of which
the enemy had little cognizance. These two lines were
separated by from 10 to 40 yards. The false line was
reached through five tunnels. It was one of the most
elaborately prepared positions on an intricate front.
Three main tunnels from these gallery trenches ran out
towards the Turkish line. In each of these, on the morn-
ing of the 6th, a large charge of ammonel was set by the
engineers, ready to explode at the beginning of thei
attack. Now, the idea of the gallery trenches had been,
in the first place, defensive. The ground had been broken
through, but no parapets had been erected on the surface,
as the enemy did not know exactly the direction of this
forward firing-line. At night these holes in the ground
gave the men a chance to place machine guns in position,
in anticipation of a Turkish offensive. Later, however,
they were blocked with barbed-wire entanglements, while
cheveaiix de frise were placed outside them, much, it may
be stated, to the disgust of the engineers, who had pre-
pared this little trap for the enemy with keen satisfaction.

Before the attack all this barbed wire was removed, and
it was decided that while one line of men should dash
from the parapets, another line should rise up out of the
ground before the astonished eyes of the Turks, aad

226 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

charge for the second line of the Turkish works, leaving
the men from the actual firing-line to capture the Turkish
first works. All that was needed for the success of this
plan was the careful synchronizing of watches, and an
officer stationed at every cross-section of trenches and
tunnels to give the signal.

Lifeless the beach and the old headquarters may have
been, but there was no mistaking the spirits of the men
as I went along those firing-line trenches at three o'clock
on this beautiful, placid afternoon. Lying so long with-
out fighting, there now rose up the old spirit of the
landing and fight within them. " It's Impshee Turks
now ! " said the men of the 4th, as they moved along the
communication trench from the centre of the position to
the point of attack. Silence was enjoined on the men;
isolated whispered conversations only were carried on.
The seasoned troops knew the cost of attack on a strongly
entrenched position. Most of the others (reinforcements)
had heard vivid enough descriptions from their mates,
and had seen little engagements along the line.

I was moving slowly along the trenches. The men
carried their entrenching tools and shovels. At various
points their comrades from other battalions, who watched
the line of heroes who were " for it," dashed out
to shake some comrade by the hand. , There was
a warmth about these handgrips that no words can
describe. It was the silence that made the scene
of the long files of men such an impressive one.
It was a significant silence that was necessary, so that
the Turks in their trenches, not more perhaps at that
point than 100 yards away, might gain no inkling of the
exact point from which the attack was to be made. As
the men went on through trench after trench, they came
at length into the firing-line — the Pimple — where already
other battalions had been gathered. There were men
coming in the opposite direction, struggling past some-
how, with the packs and waterproof sheets and impedi-
menta that made it a 'tight squeeze to get past. Messages
kept passing back and forth for officers certain minor
details of the attack.

Our trenches before the Lone Pine position were
only thinly manned by the 5th Battalion, who were
to remain behind and hold them in case of failure.
These men had crept into their " possies," or crevices

LONE PINE 227

in the wall, and tucked their toes out of the way. Some
were eating their evening meal. Other parties were just
leaving for the usual supply of water to be drawn down in
the gullies and brought up by " fatigues " to the trenches.
So into the midst of all this routine, marched the new men
of the 1st Brigade, who were going out from this old
firing-line to form a new line, to blaze the path, to capture
the enemy's strongest post. They went in good spirits,
resigned, as only soldiers can be, to the inevitable^, their
jaws set, a look in their faces which made one realize
that they knew their moment of destiny had come ; for
the sake of the regiment, for the men who were around
them, they must bear their share. It was strange to still
hear muttered arguments about everyday affairs, to hear
the lightly spoken words, " Off to Constantinople."

As I got closer to the vital section of trenches (some
200 yards in length), they were becoming more con-
gested. It was not only now the battalions that were to
make the charge, but other men had to be ready for any
emergency. They were filing in to take their place and
make sure of holding what we already had. Sections got
mixed with sections in the sharp traverses. It wanted, too,
but a few minutes to the hour, but not the inevitable
moment. There was a solemn silence over the hills, in
the middle of that dazzling bright afternoon, before our
guns burst forth, precisely at half-past four. Reserves
were drawn up behind the trenches in convenient spots,
their officers chatting in groups. Rapidly the shells began
to increase in number, and the anger of their explosions
grew more intense as the volume of fire increased.
Amidst the sharp report of our howitzers amongst the
hills, and the field guns, cajme the prolonged, rumbling
boom of the ships' fire.

There was no mistaking the earnestness of the
Bacchante'' s fire. Yet, distributed over the whole of
the lines, it did not seem that the bombardment was
as intense as one expected. In fact, there came
a time when I believed that it was finished before its
time. One was glad for the break, for it stopped the
fearful ear-splitting vibrations that were shaking one's
whole body. Yet as the black smoke came over the top
of the trenches and drifted down into the valleys behind,
it gladdened the waiting men, knowing that each explo-
sion meant, probably, so much less resistance of the

2 28 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

enemy's trenches to break down. But to those waiting
lines of troops the bombardment seemed interminably
long, and yet not long enough. What if the Turks had
known how our trenches were filled with men I But,
then, what if they really knew the exact point and
moment where and when the attack was to be made !
So that while in one sense the shelling gave the Turks
some idea of the attack, it actually told them very little.
Such bombardments were not uncommon. Their gun
fire had died down to a mere spitting of rifles here and
there along a line, and an occasional rapid burst of
machine-gun fire. A few, comparatively very few, shells
as yet came over to our trenches and burst about the
crests of the hills where our line extended.

It was ordered that the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Battalions
should form the first line, and the ist Battalion the
brigade reserve. The ist Battalion was under Lieut. -
Colonel Dobbin, the second under Lieut. -Colonel Scobie,
the third under Lieut. -Colonel Brown, and the fourth
under Lieut. -Colonel Macnaghton.

We were committed. At 5.30 came the avalanche.
The artillery ceased. A whistle sharply blown was the
gignal prearranged. A score or more of other whistles
sounded almost simultaneously. The officers, crouching
each with his command under the parapets, were up then,
and with some words like " Come, lads, now for the
trenches ! " were over our parapets, and in a long, more
or less regular line the heavily-laden men commenced
the dash across the dead ground between. They ran
under the protection of the intense fire from our rifles and
from our machine guns that swept their outer flanks ; but
it was impossible to fire or attempt any shooting over our
advancing lines. The sun was still high enough to be
in the eyes of the Turks, but they were ready to open
rifle fire on the advancing line of khaki. With their
machine guns, fortunately, they were less ready. They
had the range for the parapet trenches, but not the inter-
mediate line between, from which the first line of troops,
150 men about — 50 from each of the three battalions —
sped across the intervening space without very serious
loss, the Turkish machine guns on this, as on most occa-
sions, firing low.

The 2nd Battalion were on the extreme right, the
3rd in the centre, and the 4th Battalion occupied

^M..'/.'5(

jy:

c/3

Jll

c
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—

LONE PINE 229

the left flank, adjacent to Owen's Gully. The men ran
at full speed, so far as their equipment permitted, some
stumbling, tripping over wires and unevennesses in the
ground; others stumbling, hit v/ith the bullets. A thou-
sand dashes of brown earth, where the bullets struck,
were flicked up right across that narrow patch. There
was no cheer, just the steady advancing', unchecked line,
till the men threw themselves on the first and second
trenches. Barely a minute and they were across.

It must have been with a feeling akin to dismay
that the gallant line found the Turks' overhead cover
on their trenches was undamaged and extremely difficult
to pierce. The first line, according to the arranged
plan, ran rig,ht over the top of the first enemy
trenches, and, reaching the second line, began to fire ^

down on the bewildered Turks, regardless of the fact
that enemy machine guns were playing on them all
the time. This was how so many fell in the early
charge. A very few managed at once to drop down
into the trench. I know with what relief those watching
saw them gain, after that stunning check, a footing. But
the greater number could be seen lying on the face
of the trench, or immediately beneath the sandbags under
the loopholes. Like this they remained for a few
minutes, searching for the openings that our guns must
have made. Gradually, sliding down feet foremost into
the trench, they melted away. Each man, besides the
white arm -bands on his jacket, had a white square on his
back. This badge was worn throughout the attacks during
the first two days, as a distinguishing mark from the
enemy in the dark ; a very necessary precaution where
so many difi"erent types of troops were engaged. This
made the advancing line more conspicuous on a bare
landscape. Men could be seen feverishly seeking a way
into the trenches. One man rendered the most valuable
service by working along the front of the Turkish
trenches beneath the parapet, tearing down the loop-
holes that were made of clay and straw with his bayonet.

It was still only barely five minutes since the attack
had commenced, yet the Turkish artillery had found
our trenches, both the firing-line and the crest of the
hill behind, and down into the gully. The whole hill
shook under the terrific blows of the shells. Our
replying artillery, six, eight, or more guns, firing in

230 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

rapid succession over the heads of the men, and passing"
where the enemy's shells were bursting in the air, made
in a brief five minutes an inferno that it seemed a
matter of madness to suppose any one would escape.

Following hard on the heels of the first men from
our trenches went a second line, those on the left suffering
worse than on the right. Again some did not wait
at the first trench, but rushed on to the second Turkish
trench. Soon there appeared a little signal arm sending
back some urgent call. It turned out to be for
reinforcements. It was not evident at the time they
were needed, but they went. Our firing -trenches
were emptying rapidly now, and only an ordinary
holding-line remained.

The Turkish guns lowered their range, and shrapnel
burst over the intervening ground, across which troops,
in spite, and in the face of it, must pass. Signallers
ran lines of wires back and forth, only to have them
cut and broken, and all their work to be done again.
Five times they drew the reel across from the trench
where the troops were fighting. You could gain little
idea of what actually was happening in Lone Pine.
Occasionally butts of rifles were uplifted. On the left
flank, round the edge of the trenches on Johnston's Jolly,
for a few minutes the Turkish bayonets glistened in
the sun as men went along their trench, but whether
they were hurrying to support their harried comrades
or were the men our troops had turned in panic we
could not see.

Then the wounded commenced to come back. They
came back across the plateau, dripping with blood, minus
all their equipment and their arms. Some fell as they
came, only to be rescued hours afterwards. News was
filtering back slowly. In a quarter of an hour we had
won three trenches ; at 6.30 we held them strongly after
an hour of bloody fighting. Further reinforcements were
dashing forward, taking advantage of what might seem
a lull, but suffering far worse than their comrades.
Shouted orders even could not be heard ' in the din ;
whistles would not penetrate.

In the midst of the whole attack one prayed that
something would stop the vibrations that seemed to shake
every one and everything in the vicinity. Our trenches
were rent, torn, and flattened, and sandbags and debris

LONE PINE 231

piled up, blocking entrances and exits. Men worked
heroically, clearing a way, where they could. Doctors
were in the trenches doing mighty work. Captain
J. iW. Bean went calmly hither and thither until
wounded. Major Fullerton had gone with the first
rush, had tripped, and fell. He was thought to be
wounded, but went on and reached safely the Turkish
trenches, where, for six hours, he was the only doctor
on the spot.

Wounded men came pouring back to the dressing -
station behind the hill in " Browne's Dip," where
friends directed them down the hill. It seemed horrible
to ask the men to go farther. The stretcher-bearers
were carrying cases down. I saw them hit, and
compelled to hand over stretchers to willing volunteers,
who sprang up out of the earth. They were men
waiting their turn to go forward. The ground was
covered each minute with a dozen bursting shells within
the small area I could see. The dirt, powdered, fell
on our shoulders. The shrapnel, luckily bursting badly,
searched harmlessly the slopes of a hill 40 yards
away .

The great 6 -inch howitzers of the enemy tore up
the gully and hillside, sending stones and dirt up
in lumps, any one of which would inflict a blow, if
not a wound. They ripped an old graveyard to pieces.
They tore round the dressing-station. We watched them
on the hill amongst the trenches. Would our turn be
next? No one knew. You could not hear except in
a distant kind of way, for our guns fired at point-blank
range, and their noise was even worse than the bursting
shells. Yet when the call came, there rose from their
dugouts another company of men of the ist Battalion,
and formed up and dashed for the comparative cover
of a high bank of earth prior to moving off. The men
went with their heads down, as they might in a shower
of rain. A foul stench filled the air from explosives.

" Orderly, find Captain Coltman [machine-gun
officer] ! " called Major King, Brigade-Major. Away
into the firing-line or towards it would go the
messenger. "Orderly, Orderly!" and again a message
would be sent to some section of the line. The officer
giving these directions was a young man (he had already
been wounded in the campaign). His face was deadly

232 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

white and his orders crisp and clear. He dived into his
office, only to come out again with a fresh message in
his hand (ammunition was wanted) and dash off him-
self into the firing-line. He was back again in a few
minutes to meet his Brigadier. They stood there in the
lee, if one may so call it, of some sandbags (the office
had been blown down) asking in terse sentences of the
progress of the battle. " I think it is all right. They say
they can hold on all right. They want reinforcements."
I saw the signallers creeping over the hill, feeling for the
ends of broken wires, trying to link up some of the
broken threads, so that information could be quickly
sought and obtained. Doctors I saw treating men as
they passed, halting with a case of bandages ; men
past all help lay in a heap across the path leading into
the sap. It was, after all, just a question of luck. You
kept close into a bank, and with the shells tearing up
the earth round you, hoped that you might escape. After
a time there was so much else to think of, especially
for the men fighting, that it was no time to think of
the shells. They arrived with a swish and sickening
explosion and a thud. Where the next was coming,
except it was sure to be in the vicinity, was a matter
for the Turks and Kismet. Men ran like rabbits and
half fell, half tumbled into the dugouts. Somehow the
whole thing reminded me of people coming in out of
a particularly violent storm. Once in the firing-line,
the shells were going overhead, and curiously enough
one felt safe, even in the midst of the dead and dying.

To look with a periscope for a minute over the top
of the parapet. The machine guns were traversing back-
wards and forwards, not one, but five or six of them.
I was with Captain Coltman. He went from end to
end of the line, inspecting our machine guns. Some
were firing, others were cooling, waiting a target, or
refitting, rectifying some temporary trouble caused by
a bullet or a shell. Men were watching with periscopes
at the trenches. It was exactly an hour since the battle
had begun, and the Turkish trenches, now ours, were
almost obscured by the battle smoke and the coming
night. Yet I could just see the men rushing on. The
1st Battalion reinforcement launched out at 6.20 to
consolidate the position and strengthen the shattered
garrison. They disappeared into, the trenches. In

COOKS LINES IX BROWN S DIP JUST BEHIND LONE PINE TRENCHES.

AUSTRALIAN AND TURKISH DEAD LYING ON THE PARAPETS OF THE
CAPTURED LONE PINE TRENCHES.

All the Australian troops in the August offensive wore a white armlet and white square
cloth on their backs as a distinguishing mark.

LONE PINE 233

some cases the best entrance had been gained by
tearing away the sandbags and getting in under
the overhead cover. I was down a tunnel that led to
our advanced firing-line when I faintly heard the
men calling, "There goes another batch of men!" I
could hear a more wicked burst of fire from the enemy's
machine guns, and then the firing died down, only to
be renewed again in a few minutes. In the captured
trenches a terrible bomb battle was being fought.
Gradually the Turks were forced back down their own
communication trenches, which we blocked with sand-
bags. By 6.30 the message came back, " Everything
O.K.," and a little later, " Have 70 prisoners." These
men were caught in a tunnel before they could even
enter the battle.

Cheerful seems hardly the right word to use at such
a grim time, yet the men who were behind the machine
guns, ready to pop them above the trenches for a moment
and then drop them again before the enemy could
blow them to pieces, never were depressed, except when
their gun was out of action. Soon they got others to
replace them. They were watching — so were the men
round them, with bayonets fixed, in case the Turks drove
us back from Lone Pine. As we made our way along
the old firing-line, it meant bobbing there while the
bullets welted against the sandbags and the earth behind
you. You were covered every few yards with debris
from bursting shells. The light was fading rapidly.
The sun had not quite set. The last departing rays
lit up the smoke of the shells hke a furnace, adding to
the grim horribleness of the situation.

Of the inner fighting of those first two hours in the
Turkish trenches little can be written till all the stories
are gathered up and tangled threads untied, if ever
that is possible. But certain facts have been revealed.
Major Stevens, who was second in command of the
2nd Battalion, was charging down a Turkish trench when
he saw a Turk about 2 yards from him in a dugout.
He called over his shoulder to the men following him
to pass up a bomb, and this was thrown and the Turk
killed. Then Major Stevens came face to face with
a German officer at the mouth of the tunnel. In this
tunnel were some 70 Turks. The Australian was fired
at point-blank by the German, but the shot missed its

234 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

mark and the officer was shot dead by a man following
Stevens. The Turks in the tunnel surrendered. They
had gone there on the commencement of the bombard-
ment, as was their custom, and had not had time to
man the trenches before the Australians were on them.
The first warning that had been given, it was learned
from a captured officer, was when the sentries on duty
called, "Here come the English!"

Farther down the trench a party of Australians were
advancing against the Turks, who were shielded by a
traverse. The first Australian that had run down, with
his bayonet pointed, had come face to face with five of
the enemy. Instinctively he had taken protection behind
the traverse . He had called on his mates, and! then ensued
one of the scores of incidents of that terrible trench
fight when the men slew one another in mortal combat.
Their dead bodies were found in piles.

Captain Pain, 2nd Battalion, with a party of three
men, each holding the leg of a machine gun, propped
himself up in the middle of one trench and fired down
on to the Turks, massed for a charge, till suddenly a
bullet killed one of the party, wounded Pain, and the
whole gun collapsed.

The Turks had in one case a machine gun firing
down the trench, so that it was impossible for us to
occupy it. By using one of the many commimication
trenches that the Turks had dug a party managed to
work up close enough to bomb the Turks from the
flank, compelling them to retire. Every man and every
officer can repeat stories like these of deeds that won
the Australians the day ; but, alas ! many of those brave
men died in the trenches which they had captured at
the bayonet's point.

At seven o'clock, when the first clash of arms had
passed, the enemy made their first violent and concerted
effort to regain their lost trenches. It was a furious
onslaught, carried on up the communication trenches by
a veritable hail of bombs. In some places we gave
way, in others we drove back the enemy farther along
his trenches. From the north and the south the enemy
dashed forward with fixed bayonets. They melted away
before our machine guns and our steady salvos of bombs.
The Australians stuck to their posts in the face of over-
whelming numbers— four to one : they fought right

LONE PINE 235

through the night, and as they fought, strove to build
up cover of whatever material came nearest to hand.
Thousands of sandbags were used in making good that
position. Companies of the 12th Battalion were hurried
up towards midnight to strengthen the lines, rapidly
diminishing under the fury of the Turkish attack. But
these men found a communication-way open to them
to reach the maze of the enemy's position.

Our mines, that had been exploded at the head of
the three tunnels mentioned earlier, had formed craters,
from which the sappers, under Colonel Elliott and Major
Martyn, began to dig their way through to the captured
positions. Only two of these tunnels were opened up
that night, just six hours after the trenches had been
won. The parties dug from each end : they toiled
incessantly, working in shifts, with almost incredible
speed. It was the only way to get relief for the
wounded ; to go across the open, as many of the gallant
stretcher-bearers, signallers, and sappers did, was to face
death a thousand times from the Turkish shrapnel. So
part tunnel, part trench, the 80 yards was sapped and
the wounded commenced to be brought in in a steady
stream.

It took days to clear the captured trenches. Australians
and Turks lay dead, one on top of the other, three or
four deep. All it was possible to do was to fill these
trenches in. That night down the tunnel on the right
kept passing ammunition, bombs — some 3,000 were used
in the course of the first few hours — water, food, rum for
the fighters, picks, shovels, and machine guns. Every
half -hour the Turks came on again, shouting "Allah!"
and were beaten back. The resistance was stubborn.
It broke eventually the heart of the Turks.

Officers and men in that first horrible night performed
stirring deeds meriting the highest honour. The names
of many will go unrecorded except as part of that
glorious garrison. It was a night of supreme sacrifice,
and the brigade made it, to their everlasting honour and
renown.

CHAPTER XXIir

THE HEROIC LIGHT HORSE CHARGE

So far as the ist Australian Division was concerned,
their offensive in the great battle of August began with
the capture of Lone Pine, late on the afternoon of the
6th August, and ended with the desperate, heroic charge
of the 8th and loth Light Horse Regiments on the
early morning of the 7th. Lone Pine had started the
whole of the operations, and the Australian Division
throughout the night was to carry them on by a series
of offensives from their trenches right along the line.
All this fighting, as has been explained, was to cover
the main object of the plan, the landing of the new
British force at Suvla Bay and the seizing of a base
for winter operations ; and, further, the capture of the
crest of the main ridge, Chunak Bair and Koja Chemen
Tepe, or Hill 971. So naturally the operations fall into
sections. From what has been subsequently learned, the
Turks, immediately after their crushing defeat at Lone
Pine, hurried up reinforcements from Bogali and diverted
others that were on their way to Cape Helles. It did
not stay their attack at Cape Helles, however, which had
been planned, by some curious chance, to take place
almost at the identical hour that the British, on the 7th,
were to attack the Turkish lines, which was the reason
for the British being hurled back after desperate fighting.
But if there was a success for the Turk at Cape
Helles, it was nothing to the blow they suffered by the
loss of their declared impregnable Lone Pine trenches
and the successfully accomplished landing at Suvla Bay.
But in between these two operations were the long hours
of the night, when the captured trenches at Lone Pine
were subjected to fearful bombing attacks, and successive
Turkish regiments were hurled against the closed breach,

operations which lasted over all for four days. Two

336

THE HEROIC LIGHT HORSE CHARGE 237

Divisions at least were massed by the Turks against the
Anzac forces by midnight of the 6th. The enemy's
trenches positively bristled with bayonets. Our green
and red rocket shells showed them up ; we could see
them moving along the gullies and over the hills in
the early dawn . The Light Horsemen on the Nek knew
that the enemy were waiting to meet the charge they
were in duty bound to make at grey dawn.

To retrace in detail the events of that night. On
the Lone Pine section of the line the Turkish bombard-
ment began to ease at eight o'clock, and the Turks,
for a time, gave up searching the valleys of Anzac for
our reserves and for the guns. Every available piece
of artillery must have been trained on the position.
Then the warships and our Australian and New Zealand
howitzers kept up a regular, almost incessant fire. A
gun banged each minute on various sections of the line.
It had been determined by Major-General Walker that
there should be an offensive by the men of the 2rid
Infantry Brigade, occupying the trenches opposite German
Officers' Trench. Our lines were but thinly held, as
there had been a gradual easing off to the right towards
the Lone Pine trenches, that had swallowed up the whole
of the 1st Brigade, so that now the 2nd Brigade only
was left to hold the position.

Lieut. -Colonel Bennett with the 6th Battalion was
charged with the task of taking the almost impregnable
German Officers' Trenches. Crowned with massive
beams, bristling with machine guns, it had been
demonstrated on more than one occasion what the Turks
intended should be the fate of any men who dared
attack these trenches. At eleven o'clock on the night of
the 6th, the sappers exploded the first mine underneath
the Turkish trenches immediately in front of them.
Another charge was fired at 11.30, and two at 11.40.
The battalion then began to occupy the forward gallery
positions that had been prepared. Unfortunately, the
guns did not do the damage that was anticipated. On
the contrary, they did nothing but warn the already
thoroughly roused enemy of an impending assault.

The first attack was planned for twelve o'clock. At
that time the bombardment of the section of the Turkish
trenches ceased. From the tunnel trenches the men
scrambled up, a few only from each hole, as there was

238 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

little space. The enemy's machine guns raged and raked
our ranks from end to end. Few of the men got more
than a yard or two. The tunnels became choked with
dead and dying. The attack withered at its birth.
What else could be expected under such conditions ?
Yet a second attempt was made at 3.55 a.m., but with
no better result. A score or more of machine guns
firing at various angles, with the range set to a nicety,
swept down the attackers almost before they had time
to leave their trenches. The position was desperate.
Had the whole of the attack to be sacrificed because
this line of men failed to do their duty? But did they
fail ? They charged twice, and were preparing to go
a third time, on the determination of General Walker
(but against the judgment of Brigadier -General Forsyth,
who saw the hopelessness of it all), when, realizing
that the object had already been served, as news came
through of the successful landing at Suvla Bay, the
third charge was cancelled at the last moment.

Dawn was beginning to steal into the sky behind the
Turkish position. A thin, waning moon shed but little
light over the terrible battlefields. From a forward
observation station I noted the batde line spitting red
tongues of flame all along to the Nek, while at Quinn's
Post occurred every few minutes, terrible explosions of
shell and bombs from either side. A gun a minute
was booming constantly — booming from the heart of
Anzac. The destroyers, the rays of their searchlights
cast up on to the hill, swept the top of the Sari Bair
ridge with the high-explosive shell from their 6-inch
guns. Fearful as had been the night, the dawn was
more horrible still, as an intense bombardment commenced
on the Chessboard Trenches on the Nek. Howitzers and
high-explosive shells fell thickly round those masses of
Turkish trenches, so often and accurately registered in
the weeks of waiting. The surmise that the Turks had
brought up reinforcements had indeed proved correct,
for they were waiting now in the trenches on the Nek —
confidently, we learn, waiting any " English " attack,
which now seemed inevitable. It was inevitable.

At this time the 3rd Light Horse Brigade, under
Brigadier -General Hughes, held the Nek. I have already
described this position. It was barely 120 yards wide.
The Turkish trenches were scarcely 80 yards away from

Reference
machine gu/^s +
australian trenches

TURKISH .. . - «

ApfiroXtfTjiJf Sca/e /inch *50 yA-
QPPOS/NQ TRENCH £3 ON THE N£K

240 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

our line. They sloped backward slightly up the ridge
to the sides of Baby 700 and Chunak Bair. On the
right of this narrow causeway was the head of Monash
Gully, a steep drop into a ravine, and across it, Pope's
Hill and Quinn's Post. On the left the sheer precipices
fell away down into the foothills of the Sari Bair ridge.
Row after row one could see of the enemy trenches —
Chessboard Trenches ; the name significant of their
formation.

It fell to the 8th and loth Light Horse Regiments
to storm these enemy redoubts. They were to charge
at 4.30 in the morning — the morning after the bloody
battle of Lone Pine, after, as I heard Colonel Antill,
Brigade-Major of that Light Horse Brigade, say, we
had gone along the whole of our battle front " ringing
a bell." Then, when that had tolled and sounded, were
the Light Horse to face their certain death. The story
is simply told. It is very brief. The attack was to be
made in four Unes. The 8th Light Horse (Victorians)
were to supply the first two lines, 150 men in each. Be-
sides scaling ladders that had been specially made to
enable men to get into the trenches, these Light Horse-
men each carried two empty sandbags. They had food
supplies, and plenty of ammunition. But they were not
to fire a shot. They had to do their work with the
cold steel of the bayonet. Following them was a third
line of 150 men of the loth Regiment, and yet another
line — the last — ready with picks and shovels and bombs
— any quantity of bombs — ^and reserves of water and
ammunition. They were to help to make good the
trenches when they were won.

Against the sandbags of our lines thumped the
bullets as the Turkish machine guns traversed from end
to end of the short line. A hard purring and the whistle
of bullets, then a few minutes' pause. Still the bombard-
ment continued furiously, smashing, it was thought, the
Turkish trenches to atoms. But while the communica-
cation-ways were blocked and heavy casualties were
inflicted, the front Turkish trenches remained practically
unharmed. In three lines of trenches, their bayonets
fixed, standing one above the other to get better
shooting, resting on steps or sitting on the parados of
the trenches, the Turks waited the coming of the Light
Horsemen. The trenches were smothered in a yellow

THE HEROIC LIGHT HORSE CHARGE 241

smoke and dust from the bursting lyddite from the ships,
that almost obscured from our view the enemy's position.
It was a bombardment the intensity of which had never
been seen yet on Gallipoli ; the hill was plastered with
awful death -dealing shells. Just at 4.25 the bombard-
ment slackened significantly. Immediately there began
to pour a sheet of lead from the Turkish trenches.
Musketry and machine guns fired incessantly. Could
anything live for a minute in it ? At the end of three
minutes our guns ceased.

Lieut. -Colonel A. White elected to lead the men he
loved. He made a brief farewell to hi,s brother officers.
He shook them by the hand and went into the firing-line.,
He stood waitinlg with his watch in hand. " Men," he
said, " you have ten minutes to live." And those Light
Horsemen of his regiment, recruited from the heart of
Victoria, knew what he said was true. They waited,
listening to the terrible deluge that rained against the
parapets of their trenches. " Three minutes, men," and
the word came down from the far end of the line, did
the order still hold good ? It was a sergeant who sent
it, and by the time he had received the reply passed back
along the waiting line, the whistle for the charge sounded.

With an oath, " him ! " he leaped to the parapet of

the trench ; he fell back on his comrade waiting below
him — dead.

The whole line w;ent. Each man knew that to leave
those trenches was to face certain, almost immediate
death. They knew it no less than the glorious Light
Brigade at Balaclava. There is surely a comparison
between the two deeds, and shall not the last make
the young Nation more honoured ! Those troops, with all
the knowledge, after months of waiting, of what trench
warfare meant, of what they might now expect, never
flinched, never presented a braver front.

Theirs not to reason why ; theirs but to do — and die.

They charged.

Lieut. -Colonel White had not gone ten paces when
he fell dead, riddled with bullets. The first line
of 150 men melted away ere they had gone half
the distance to the trenches, and yet the second
line, waiting and watching, followed them. One

242 . AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

small knoll alone gave a little protection for a few
dozen paces to the advancing line from the Turkish
machine guns, that rattled from a dozen different points
along that narrow front, and swept from the right flank
across from the enemy trenches opposite Quinn's Post.
Adding to the terror of it all came the swish of the shells
from the French " 75 " guns that the Turks had captured
from the Servians, and which were now firing ten shells a
minute on to the Nek. The parapets were covered with
dead and dying. Stretcher-bearers rescued men where
they could from just above the parapets, and dragged
them down into the trenches, while over the same parapets
went other men, doomed like their magnificent comrades.

Just a handful of men — how many will hardly ever be
known, probably it was not ten — managed to reach the
section of the Turkish line facing the extreme right of
our position. At other places some few others had pitched
forward and fallen dead into the Turkish trenches. But
those few men that won through raised a little yellow and
red flag, the prearranged signal, the signal for the second
part of the attack to develop. It were better that those
gallant men had never reached that position. The third
line were ordered to advance, and went over the parapets.
There was nothing else to do. Comrades could not be
left to die unsupported. At the same time from Bully
Beef Sap (that was the trench that ran down into Monash
Gully from the Nek) the Royal Welsh Fusiliers attacked
up the head of the gully. Their first two lines, so soon as
they came under fire, fell, crumpled; at which moment
the third line — Western Australian Light Horse — had gone
forward from the Nek. But before the whole of the 150
men could rush to their certain destruction. Brigadier
General Hughes stopped the attack. So it happened that
a small party of 40 on the left managed to crawl back'
into the trenches. The remainder fell alongside their
brave Victorian brothers who had charged and died.

For the flag in the enemy's trench soon disappeared,
and the fate of the brave men who erected it was never
told. Late the next night a private named McGarry
crawled back from beneath the parapet of the Turkish
trenches, where he had feigned dead all day. He told
of the forest of Turkish steel that stood in the series o^
three trenches, ranged one behind the other. Another
man, Lieutenant Stuart, 8th Light Horse, who, after going

THE HEROIC LIGHT HORSE CHARGE 243

1 5 yards, fell wounded, and managed to crawl into the
crater of a shell-burst, where he lay until the signal was
given to retire, returned from amongst the dead and
d)dng lying under the pale morning light on no man's
ground between the trenches.

Thus in a brief fifteen minutes did regiments perish.
Only an incident it was of the greatest battle ever fought
in the Levant, but an imperishable record to Australia's
glory. Nine officers were killed, 11 missing, 13
wounded; 50 men killed, 170 wounded, and 182 miss-
ing : and those missing never will return to answer the
roll call — 435 casualties in all.

What did the brigade do but its duty ? — duty in the
face of overwhelming odds, in the face of certain death;
and the men went because their leaders led them, and
they were men. What more can be said ? No one may
ask if the price was not too great. The main object had
been achieved. The Turks were held there. It was
learned that many of the enemy in the trenches had their
full kits on, either just arrived or bidden remain (as they
might be about to depart). And so right along the line
were the enemy tied to their trenches, crowded together
as they could be, packed, waiting to be bayoneted where
they stood or disperse the foe. Above all, the Australians
had kept the way clear for the great British flanking
movement already begun. For all this, will the spot
remain sacred in the memory of every Australian of this
generation and the generations to come.

Now, while the 3rd Light Horse Brigade was charging
from the Nek there was also a charge from round Quinn's
Post by the ist Brigade, under Brigadier-General Chauvel,
who held this sector of the line. The 2nd Regiment
attacked the Turkish position opposite Quinn's Post in
four lines. Fifty men went in each. Major T.J. Logan
led one section of the first line. Led I It was only
fifteen or twenty paces to the enemy, yet few of the men
managed to crawl up over the parapet. They were shot
down as soon as they began to show themselves, and fell
back into their own trenches. Major Bourne led the other
party. Both gallant leaders fell dead before they or
any of their troops could reach the Turkish lines.,
One man only, who returned unwounded, declares
that he escaped by sim'ply watching the stream of
bullets from the enemy's machine guns striking the

244 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

parapets of our triCnches and leaping over it ; for
as usual, the Turkish guns were searching low. And
as this assault was launched the ist Regiment, led
by Major T. W. Glasgow, charged from Pope's Hill,
on the left of Quinn's. There was in front the small
ridge — Deadman's Ridge — which had been attacked on
the 2nd May, and won in parts by the 4th Infantry
Brigade. It was covered with trenches, dug one above
the other. From all three the Light Horsemen drove the
Turks. In the forward line the men for a few minutes
had the awful experience of being bombed by the Turks
in front and their own men behind, until the mistake was
suddenly recognized by Major Glasgow, who immediately
charged with his men over the parapets to the third
trench, and joined up the whole of the regiment. But
the Turks held the higher ground above, and from their
trenches it was an easy mark to throw bombs down on to
the Light Horsemen in the trenches lower on the ridge.
Our bomb supplies had all to, be brought forward from
Pope's position under machine-gun fire. The valiant men
who still clung to, the trenches they had gained, suffered
cruel loss from bombs that the Turks hurled overhead
and along the communication tr,enches. After two hours'
desperate fighting, at 7.30 a.m. the order was reluctantly
given to retire. Then only the right section of our line
ever got back, and with them the gallant commander,
without a scratch. Major Reed and Lieutenant Nettleton
both died in those trenches. Twenty-one men were
killed and 5 i were missing after the attack.

So in the course of a terrible hour the Light Horse
Brigades, National Guardsmen of Australia, won deathless
glory by noble sacrifice and (devotion to duty, and formed
the traditions on which the splendour of the young army
is still being built.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE BATTLE OF SARI BAIR— FIRST PHASE

It must be recognized that except for the 4th Infantry-
Brigade the offensive of the Australians was completed
on the mormng oT the 7th. Part liad succeeded — part
had failed. Their further advance rested entirely on
the success of the second phase of the g^reat scheme, the
assault of the Sari Bair ridge. This terrible task fell
mostly on the New Zealanders, but partly, too, on the
new British army and the Indian brigades. The Aus-
tralians were the connecting link between this greater
Anzac and Suvla Bay landing. When the time came,
they joined in the general offensive on the crest of the
Sari Bair ridge and the attempt to take Hill 971 — Koja
Chemen Tepe. ' As my story mainly rests with the
Australians, if more details necessarily are given of their
part in this action, it must not be considered as a slur
on the brilliant achievements of the New Zealanders
and Britishers. What fighting I did not see at close
fighting quarters I learned from the officers of those
splendid battalions, later.

The vital movement to extend the Anzac position,
connecting it with Suvla Bay, enveloping and taking
of the summit of the mass of hills that dominated the
central part of the peninsula and the Narrows, was en-
trusted to the care of General Sir William Birdwood,
He had prefaced it with the offensive from Anzac proper.
Now, under Major-General Sir Alexander Godley, the
attempt to sweep up the northern slopes was- to be
carried out by a mixed force of Australians, New
Zealanders, British, and Indians, numbering in all some
12,000 men.

The complete capture of the Sari Bair ridge would
have brought into action again the ist Australian

Division, whose left wing at Anzac might have been

245

246 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

relied on to advance over Baby 700 and up to Battleship
Hill. What is too often overlooked, or forgotten, is
that the capture of the great Hill 971 was a separate
operation, though a natural corollary to the holding of
the ridge, as a deep ravine separated this peak from
the Sari Bair ridge. From Hill 971 the northern slopes
(called the Abdel Rahman Bair), ran back within a
mile to the Bijuk Anafarta village. It was separated
from the foothills that fell away to the sea by the Asma
Dere. Therefore a column, it was hoped '(of the British
troops and the 4th Australian Brigade), would make
good this ridge and advance alongside it to the main
peak. The operations, owing to the nature of the ground,
fell into two stages. The first was the advance over
fthe foothills to the Sari Bair ridge, the landing at Suvla
Bay and first advance. The second stage was the united
effort to take the hill and main ridge. To foretell the
conclusion — now alas, passed into history as a splendid
failure — 'the second stage was only partly possible, because
on the right, from the direction of Suvla Bay, the British
attack never developed ; that is to say, it never reached
even the foot of the Abdel Rahman Bair.

I have been in the heart of all that mass and tangle
of hills and ravines. The country resembled, on a less
grand scale, that of the Buffalo Ranges of Victoria, or
the Blue Mountains, near Sydney. It might be ideal
bushranging country, but the worst possible for an army
fighting its way forward to the heights; gullies and
precipices barred the way. Even with expert guides,
and maps compiled by the Turks themselves, which we
captured and had copied, there were many battalions
that lost their way, and only by dogged perseverance
and extraordinary pluck did they extricate themselves
and reach points of vantage from which they could
link up their positions. I say this of all forces engaged,
because I know that many miscalculations occurred even
after three days of fighting as to the exact gullies in
which the troops were that had linked up with the
units holding " The Farm " and Rhododendron Ridge.
Gullies were cut by creeks, hills divided by spurs. Into
this tangle was first hurled an army of 12,000 men —
mostly fine bushmen, it is true, used either to tlie gum
forest of Australia and its wide expanses, or to the
jungles of the tropics.

THE BATTLE OF SARI BAIR 247

General Hamilton had accepted General Birdwood's
plans, that there should be two covering columns to
reach the two ridges that met at the Hill 971, almost
at right angles (Sari Bair, running from west to east,
and Abdel Rahman Bair, running n^early due north and
south), and two assaulting columns to capture the
positions.

General Hamilton sets forth the plan thus :—

The right covering force was to seize Table Top, as well as all other enemy
positions commanding the foothills between the Chailak Dere and the Sazli
Beit Dere ravines. If this enterprise succeeded, it would open up, at the same
time interposing between, the right flank of the left covering force and the
enemy holding the Sari Bair main ridge. This column was under Brigadier-
General A. H. Russell, who had the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade,
the Otago Mounted Rifles Regiment, Colonel A. Bauchop ; the Maori
Contingent and New Zealand Field Troop.

The left covering force was to march northwards along the beach to seize
a hill called Damakjelik Bair, some 1,400 yards north of Table Top. If
successful, it would be able to hold out a hand to the 9th Corps as it landed
south of Nibrunesi Point, whilst at the same time protecting the left flank of
the left assaulting column against enemy troops from the Anafarta Valley
during its climb up the Aghyl Dere ravine. Brigadier-General J. H. Travers
commanded the column which consisted of headquarters 40th Brigade, half
the 72nd Field Company, 4th Battalion South Wales Borderers, and
5th Battalion Wiltshire Regiment.

The right assaulting column was to move up the Chailak Dere and Sazli
Beit Dere ravines to the storm of the ridge of Chunuk Bair.

The column was under Brigadier-General F. E. Johnston, commanding
New Zealand Infantry Brigade, Indian Mountain Battery (less one section),
one company New Zealand Engineers.

The left assaulting column was to work up the Aghyl Dere and prolong
the line of the right assaulting column by storming Hill 305 (Koja Chemen
Tepe), the summit of the whole range of hills. Brigadier-General (now
Major-General) H. V. Cox was in command of the 29th Indian Infantry
Brigade, 4th Australian Infantry Brigade ; Brigadier-General Monash, Indian
Mounted Battery (less one section), one company New Zealand Engineers.

It may be roughly estimated that there were 3,000
troops with each column. A divisional reserve was
formed from the 6th Battalion South Lancashire Regi-
ment and 8th Battalion Welsh Regiment (Pioneers),
mustered at Chailak Dere, and the 39th Infantry Brigade
and half 72nd Field Company at Aghyl Dere.

The two assaulting columns (writes Sir Ian Hamilton) which were to work
up three ravines to the storm of the high ridge were to be preceded by two
covering columns. One of these was to capture the enemy's positions com-
manding the foothills, first to open the mouths of the ravines, secondly

248 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

to cover the right flank of another covering force whilst it marched along
the beach. The other covering column was to strike far out to the north^
until, from a hill called Damakjelik Bair, it could at the same time facilitate
the landing of the 9th Corps at Nibrunesi Point (Suvla Bay) and guard the
left flank of the column assaulting Sari Bair from any forces of the enemy
which might be assembled in the Anafarta Valley.

Old No. 3 Post was the first objective of that right
covering force which General Birdwood had prepared,
and No. 2 Post was its jumping-off place. You reached
this outpost, either day or night, by travelling along
the great sap that for two miles wound out from the
heart of Anzac. All the troops that were to take part in
this new attack had come from Anzac. That night
they had marched out under the cloak of darkness across
the broad open flats that reached from the foothills to
the water's edge. At the post they found its garrison
ready to move. Major -General Godley had his head-
quarters there already. Here, too, had been marshalled
all available water-cans and ammunition supplies.

So the first dash into what was practically the un-
known was to commence at 9.30 p.m. Just in front
of No. 2 Post was Old No. 3 Post, a steep -sided
position which the Turks had captured from us on 30th
May. They had since strengthened it by massive wood-
works, protecting the avenues of advance by great
stretches of thick barbed -wire. Behind the post again
was Table Top, very flat on the summit, and about
400 feet high. On either flank of these hills ran a
gully. On the left Sazli Beit Dere, and on the right the
Chailak Dere. Both entrances through the valleys so
formed to the inner hills were dominated by Old No. 3
Post, a veritable fortress with its revetted earthworks
and its naturally steep sides.

General Birdwood had planned a ruse to take this
hill. Every night, just at the same time, the destroyer
Colne bombarded the post. Earlier in the evening her
rays had gone wandering round the hills, but always
at 9 p.m. there was a steady streak of light fixed
on Old No. 3 Post, and the 6 -in. guns belted the
position for ten minutes. There was then a pause, and
the beams disappeared, only to reappear again with the
shells at 9.20. The bombardment continued till
9.30 p.m. For weeks this operation had continued.
The Turks, it was learned from deserters, had got into

THE BATTLE OF SARI BAIR 249

the habit of retiring to their tunnels and never worrying
much about the bombardment. After it was all over
the New Zealanders used to hear an old Turk (they saw
him once and christened him " Achmet "), a wire-
mender, who came along the front of the line to repair
the damage. They would not shoot him, though an
attempt was made to trap him one night.

On the evening of the 6th August the bombardment
continued, as it had every night for weeks, but under the
noise of it, the Auckland Mounted Rifles Regiment, under
Lieut. -Colonel Mackesy, stole from the trenches down into
the gully and up to the lip of the Turkish trenches on the
outpost. As the bombardment ceased, they rushed into
the trenches without firing a shot, and bayoneted or
bombed the astonished enemy. Many of the Turks were
found to have removed their boots and coats and were
resting. Seventy were captured. It took several hours
in the darkness to clear the hill and the trenches that
ran down into the gullies ; the Turks gathered in small
parties, resisting.

Meanwhile the attack on the left had been launched
under the gallant leadership of Lieut. -Colonel Bauchop
against the hill that bore his name. It had fallen to
the Otagos to clear this hill and the Chailak Dere.
By one o'clock Bauchop 's Hill had been stormed
and won. The enemy, surprised, made a stout resist-
ance, and it was some time before the machine guns,
cunningly concealed in this hill, were located. Colonel
Bauchop fell mortally wounded in this assault. The
New Zealanders worked with the bayonet round and
over the hill, never firing a shot until they found their
further progress barred by a terrible wire entanglement
and trench that the Turks had placed across the mouth
of the gully, which effectively sealed it. It was a party
of New Zealand Engineers, under Captain Shera, with
Maories in support, who broke a way through and left
the path clear for the assaulting columns, by this time
following.

Simultaneously, to the east, on the right of this attacking
party, a violent, almost silent struggle for the possession
of Table Top was also in progress. The destroyers
had been bombarding the hill, which had now to be
carried at the point of the bayonet by the dismounted
mounted brigades of General Russell. The Canterbury

2 50 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

men led the attack with bayonet and bomb. Their
magazines were empty, under orders. Tor the first hours
of this hill -fight all was silence. In the gullies and
amongst the wooded spurs of the hills, parties of Turkish
patrols were bayoneted and gave no alarm. Then from
the north echoed the cheers of the Maories as they took
Bauchop's Hill. It was caught up by the Canterbury
men, now on Table Top. It was flung up to the lower
slopes of the Rhododendron ridge, where the Turks still
were. It was the battle-cry for the assaulting columns,
which were advancing now through these protecting
screens to the attack on the main ridge and on 971.

The 4th Australian Brigade, under General Monash,
formed the head of the assaulting column that went
out from the left, followed by General Cox's Indian
Brigade — the whole command under General Cox.
Already the way here had been blazed by the left
covering force, under Brigadier-General Travers, con-
sisting of South Wales Borderers and Wiltshires, who
had marched out swiftly to the Damakjelik Bair — a hill
that guarded the entrance to the Aghyl Dere, up which
the left assaulting column of General Cox had to turn.
The Turks at eleven o'clock still kept up a flanking
fire from the northern slopes of Bauchop's Hill, but
gradually they were driven off, and when the new columns
arrived at this point — late, it is true — it was only to
find isolated and terrified parties of Turks sniping from
different points as they were driven back and back.
The full story of this advance may be briefly told.

It was while the attention of the Turks was riveted
on the fall of their trenches along ( the plateau at
Anzac, that the Australian 4th Infantry Brigade had
left Rest Gully, below the Sphinx Rock, just on
the left of Anzac (where it had been for the
past ten weeks), and in silence made for the sea-
shore, actually traversing under a torrent of shell fire
part of the same ground and foreshore where the
troops had landed first on the peninsula. It was a start
warranted to depress more seasoned troops than these
browned Australians, for shrapnel fell over them, while
shells skimmed above their heads on their way to the
beach. But they pushed steadily on. Fortunately
the casualties were light. In the far distance, from the
hills on their right, came the sound of the clatter x)i

TURKISH MIA MIAS OCCUPIED BY THE 4TH INFANTRY BRIGADE IN THE
AGYHIL DERE ON STH AUGUST.

SOLVING THE WATER PROBLEM.
Tanks in the gullies into which water was pumped from Anzac.

To face p. 250.

THE BATTLE OF SARI BAIR 251

rifles. That was the attack on No. 3 Post, for, as
the troops watched the three beams of the destroyers'
searchlights playing on the ridges, they saw one sud-
denly turned up into the sky and the noise of the ship's
guns died away. The beam was the signal for attack.

Immediately the taking of the foothills by the New
Zealanders was assured, the way was clear for the 4th
Infantry Brigade, under Brigadier -General Monash', to
advance from the outskirts of our furthermost outpost
line. It was hardly a week since I had been
to the edge of our flank and looked across the
flats and ploughed lands, over which then it would
have been instant death to have advanced. Now
that the Turks had been to som,e extent cleared
from the hills on the right, the column, with one flank
exposed to the hills and the other on the seashore, set
out, in close formation, from under cover of our out-
posts. The column worked in towards some raised land
that made a sort of road running round the foot of the
hills, and met with no resistance. But there was a con-
siderable amount of shrapnel being thrown over the
column, and the ranks w:ere thinned. A mile from our
outposts the brigade swung round into a gully called
the Aghyl Dere, and was at once met by a hot
rifle fire from the Turks, who had taken up positions
behind hastily thrown-up ramparts in the gully. The
nature of the country made it easy to defend the valley.
General Monash found it necessary to spread out a screen.
It was composed of the 15th Battalion, under Lieut. -
Colonel Cannan. The advance was constantly checked
by the narrowness of the defiles through which the troops
had to pass. At the head of the column was a Greek,
and also a Turkish interpreter.

There wer,e evidences of considerable occupation gt
some time by the Turks, for a series of mia mias were
found in the gully. But the enemy were hastily fleeing
before the advancing Australian Brigade. At the junction
of the gully with a branch that ran east towards
the slopes of the main ridge, there came a serious
halt. Already the leading battalion, the 13th, had
deployed and was scouring a grassy plain out to
the left — that is, the north. It was by this time
eleven o'clock, and absence of any idea of the numbers
of the enemy, now at bay, rendered the position critical.

252 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

General Cox, with the Indian troops, had deployed to
the right and was making as rapidly as possible for
the slopes of the main ridge on the sector allotted to
them. At this confluence of the 1:wo streams it was
decided by General Monash that the 13th and 14th
Battalions of the 4th Brigade, under Lieut. -Colonel
Burnage and Major Rankine respectively, should be
turned to the north to join up with the British
force, who were holding the hills overlooking the
Chocolate Hills and Anafarta Valley, the line being
extended as the battalions advanced and covered a wider
front. With the 15th Battalion, under Lieut. -Colonel
Cannan, and the i6th, under Lieut. -Colonel Pope, General
Monash pushed on. It was soon evident that the oppo-
sition here met was the screen the Turks had placed
to enable them to get away two field guns (they were
the " 75's " which had given so much trouble), for
the emplacements were soon discovered. The advance
had been a series of rushes rather than a steady march
forward .

I have seen no country that more resembled the
Australian bush. The bushes grew very tall in the creek-
bed. The whole battle was a running fight right up
to the head of the dere, where, rather than lose touch
with the British on his left, General Monash halted his
troops. Dawn was just appearing in the sky, and as
the men reached the fringe of the foothills there lay
between them and the main ridge only a broad valley
and a series of smaller knolls. On this ridge, above
the Asma Dere, they therefore entrenched. Knowing
that their lives depended on their speed, the men dug
rapidly, and when I met the brigade, just after ten
o'clock on the 7th, the reports came back that the
fire-trenches were completed and, except for shrapnel
and sniping, the enemy had shown no signs of a counter-
attack.

It is now necessary to trace the events on the right,
where the New Zealand Infantry, at midnight, had started
on the second great phase of this night's venture — the
storming of the Chunak Bair ridge. From the Table
Top to the Rhododendron spur ran a thin razor-back
ridge and a communication trench. The Turks had
fled along this. The cheers of the army forging its
way into the hills, had roused the Turks. Our infantry.

THE BATTLE OF SARI BAIR 253

in four columns, were advancing to the assault. General
Monash's progress I have already described. The Indian
troops of the 29th Brigade (Sikhs and Gurkhas) were on
his right, having turned east where the Aghyl Dere
forked, and now were approaching the foot of the main
ridge, making for the hills called " Q." This point,
in the Sari Bair ridge, was immediately to the south
of the dominating peak — Koja Chemen Tepe. They held
a ridge at dawn just west of " the Farm " that nestled
in a shoulder of the main ridge immediately below
Chunak Bair summit.

On the right the Otago and Canterbury Infantry
Battalions were forcing their way up to the Rhodo-
dendron ridge. They had fought up the thickly wooded
valley of the Sazli Beit, deploying men to the right
and left to clear Turks from knolls, where they gathered
to impede the progress of the army. Shrapnel now
began to burst over the advancing companies as the
enemy gained knowledge of the assault. The din of
battle grew more awful as the morning came. From
Anzac there resounded the fearful crashing of the bom-
bardment of the Turkish trenches on Battleship Hill and
the eastern slopes of the main ridge and the bomb battle
at Lone Pine. The Light Horse at 4.30 had charged
across the Nek and perished. Two battalions of New
Zealanders met on the northern slopes of the Rhodo-
dendron ridge, and gathered in a depression quite well
distinguishable from the No. 2 Post, and which was
promptly termed the " Mustard Plaster." It was the
one cramped position that the Turkish guns could not
reach, where the troops were now digging in along the
edge of the offshoot of th,e main ridge. Shrapnel, in
white woolly balls, began to burst over the halted column.
The loth Gurkhas had advanced to within 300 yards of
the crest of the ridge, about the vicinity of the Farm, while
the 5th and 6th Gurkhas had fought their way on to
the ridge farther to the north. There they had linked
up with the 14th Sikhs on the right, wlijo were in
touch with the Australia,ns, now brought to a standstill
on the ridge above the Asma Dere.

Amongst the hills, the New Zealanders cleared the
Turks from their bivouacs. Either they were bayoneted,
or fled, or else surrendered. The Otagos had taken
250 prisoners before dawn. It was a curious incident,

254 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

for the Turks piled their arms, cheered, and willingly
left the fight. They were captured on Destroyer Hill,
which was one of the knolls that had been passed in
the first onward rush and left uncleared. The Canter-
bury Battalion, advancing up a southern gully, and the
Otago Battalion, in the northern direction, swept the
few remaining Turks before them, and met on the Rhodo-
dendron spur at seven o'clock. Above them lay the
rugged line of Chunak Bair, 850 feet high, and just
200 feet higher than the position they held, and still some
400 yards away. This Rhododendron spur cut into
the main ridge along a narrow neck. Turkish machine
guns and enemy trenches, dug along the top of the
crest of Sari Bair, commanded that spot. The New
Zealanders were compelled to dig their trenches just
below the edge of the Rhododendron spur. In support
they had some light mountain batteries and machine
guns, under Major Wallingford.

Having reached so near to victory early on this first
morning (the 7th), they were ordered to advance again,
first at 9.30 a.m. and then again at eleven o'clock, when
a general assault by all the forces along the ridge took
place. It was in vain that efforts were made to advance
up the slopes of those terrible hills. But the Auckland
Battalion gallantly charged across the bridge of land that
linked the spur with the main ridge below, and to the
south of Chunak Bair. It was only a narrow neck of some
30 yards wide. It was raked by Turkish fire. Up the
bushy slope scrambled the gallant New Zealanders. They
were checked at noon 200 yards from the crest of the
ridge by a fearful musketry fire. They dug in.

At dawn, from the hills, I watched the Suvla Bay
Landing spread out in a magnificent panorama before
me. I saw the sea, usually just specked with a few
small trawlers and a monitor or destroyer, covered
with warships and transports and craft of all de-
scriptions. I discerned through the pale morning
light the barges and boats, close inshore, discharging
troops round the Suvla Bay and Nebrunesi Point. As
the sun mounted over the crest of Hill 971, the rays
caught the rigging and masts and brasswork of the ships,
and they shone and reflected lights towards the fleeing
Turks. I saw, too, the British troops pouring over the
hills immediately surrounding the Salt Lake. The war-

THE BATTLE OF SARI BAIR 255

ships were firing steadily, and, when there was light
enough, the observation balloon rose steadily, and stayed
in the sky, until attacked by a hostile aeroplane. But,
as if anticipating this event, our aeroplanes darted up,
and the Taube fled precipitously, and descended in a
terrific volplane down behind the high hills. The sea
was alive with small pinnaces and boats from the ships.
Hospital ships lay in a long line from Gaba Tepe to Suvla
Bay. I counted six of them, and they were coming and
going all day.

So during the rest of the day the two assaulting
columns clung to what they had won — a. great gain of
2 miles on the left of Anzac — and the new base at Suvla
Bay was secured. But, while the first part of the British
9th Army Corps plans had been successful, and the Navy
had achieved another magnificent feat in landing the
troops, stores, water, and munitions round the shores of
Suvla Bay, the newly landed army under Lieut. -
General Stopford were held back all that long day
on the very fringe of Salt Lake. I remember
how anxiously from the various commanding positions
we had gained we watched for the signs of the
advance of that British column. Our line bent back
sharply to the Damakjelik Hills, that had been captured
early the previous night. I am not in a position
to explain the delays that occurred on the beach
round Nebrunesi Point. Turkish officers have stated how
the first reports from their outposts at Suvla Bay, beheved
the landing to be only a feint. Also how two regiments
of gendarmes had held back, with some few machine
guns, the British Divisions advancing towards the Choco-
late Hills (the first of the series of hills that ran right
into Buyak Anafarta), the capture of which was so
urgently needed by us to control the attack on the Abdel
Rahman Bair ridge, and to protect and support the attack
on the main peak, HUl 971.

The great offensive had been auspiciously launched;
it had gone well till dawn, in spite of the terrible
difficulties of the maze of hills that clustered beneath the
Sari Bair ridge. The new expedition had been landed,
and had been left an open door to pass through (if it
had but had the " punch ") into the heart of the Turkish
main positions. It is not too much to say that the Turks
were thoroughly alarmed, surprised, and bewildered;

256 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

they knew not now at which spot the great attack Was
to come. They had massed all their main forces at
Cape Helles for an offensive there. Their supports had
been 'hurried up to Anzac. Their reserves were still
only on their way up the peninsula, coming from GallipoU
to Suvla Bay. Ignorant of the impending landing, the
enemy dashed battahon after battalion against the
captured Lone Pine ; they recoiled before the stubborn
and gallant resistance of its garrison. But by the next
dawn they had recovered from the shock, and their re-
sistance had grown powerful. Even then it was not too
late. General Hamilton anxiously hastened the final
assault.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE BATTLE OF SARI BAIR— THE CAPTURE OF THE
RIDGE AND ITS LOSS

As night fell on the 7th Augus,t, death and destruction
was spread around the hills by the guns of the warships.
It began on the farther deep-tinted purple mountain
ridges overlooking Suvla Bay; it continued in a series
of white shell-bursts on to the Sari Bair ridge. Grass
fires lit the sky and smudged the landscape in the valley
of the Salt Lake. After midnight the assault of the
highest peaks was to commence. New columns had
been organized. The New Zealanders, supported by
British troops, were to press home their advantage on
Chunak Bair. The Gurkhas were to take " Q " Hill; the
Australians and Sikhs were to attack the Abdel Rahman
ridge, and advance due east along its crest and capture
the crowning hill, Koja Chemen Tepe. Monitors, battle-
ships, and destroyers covered the hills of these positions
with high-explosive shell, the searchlights blazing white
patches on the ridges from 3.30 a.m. till 4.15. Under
this cover of screaming steel the attacks were commenced.
At a conference between the Brigadier of the 4th
Brigade and General Russell it was decided to storm
the slopes of Abdel Rahman Bair. Sufficient time had
elapsed to enable an inspection to be made of the country
immediately in front of the ridge, but not time to recon-
noitre the best route through difficult, unknown country.
At 3 a.m. the brigade moved from the trenches. It was
perfectly dark, and the first country crossed was the
narrow crest of the bush-covered hills they held. It
was barely 30 yards. Then the men slid down into the
gully below, for the reverse slope was an almost pre-
cipitous sandstone ridge. Once down into the dip the
brigade moved in column quietly, and swung on toward

17 257

258 AUSTRALIA 'IN ARMS

Anafarta over the crest of a low hill and down into a corn-
field. The troops, lest the rustling through the corn,
not yet harvested, might warn the enemy, were kept to
the gully until a hedge of furze and holly, that ran east
in the direction required, was reached. Following this
closely, so as to pass unseen, the Australians reached a
stubble field. The 15th Battalion, under Lieut. -Colonel
Cannan, had spread out as a screen in front, but before
this again a platoon was deployed to pick off the scouts
of the enemy. The distance covered must have been
nearly half a mile, and, except for a stray shot or two
on the right, where the outposts of the enemy were
encountered, no opposition had been offered.

The ridge of Abdel Rahman Bair was now just at right
angles to the course of the advancing' column as set by
the guides, some 150 yards away. It rose, a black
obstacle in their path. Along the back of this they were
to push their way up towards the main heights, or as far
as was possible with the troops at the disposal of the
commander. In this general assault it was the 4th
Brigade that was this time to be the decoy, or covering
brigade, for the advance which the Indians simultaneously
were making direct on the main ridge of Sari Bair.

To screen the troops from observation in the advance
across the cropped field (it was not yet four o'clock),
the column kept close to the edge of the scrubby land.
No sooner had the right of the protecting screen touched
the slopes of the densely scrubby hills than, at short
range, there came from every nook of the hill, rising in
tier after tier, a murderous fire from machine guns and
rifles. At once the troops were hurried to the right.
They swept back the Turks there, who retreated, under
the fire of their own guns, still higher up the ridge.

But it was essential that our left flank, that ifaced
Anafarta, should be protected. Again the platoons had
to advance amidst a terrible fire from machine guns.
Meanwhile the i6th and 14th Battalions, under Lieut. -
Colonel Pope and Major Rankine respectively, advanced
in extended platoons, trying to force a passage up the
ridge. The men attacked bravely, but it was one con-
tinuous roar of musketry and machine guns they faced.
Our own machine gunners in the now coming dawn,
managed to locate the Turkish guns. Two were soon
put out of action, but still the hills seemed alive with

THE BATTLE OF SARI BAIR 259

these terrible weapons, and the bullets tore gaps in our
ranks.

At five o'clock it was apparent, unless reinforcements
were brought up, the ridge could not be taken. Soon the
order for withdrawal was given. It was skilfully carried
out under a covering fire from our machine guns,
splendidly handled by Captain Rose, which undoubtedly
saved many lives by momentarily silencing' the enemy's
fire, and enabling our troops to get back to the protection
of our trenches. By 9 a.m. on the 8th, the withdrawal
had been completed, and every man, including* ihp
wounded, was within the protection of the well-prepared'
trenches, left but a few hours before. It will be apparent
that, great as this sacrifice was, it had necessitated a
large force of the enemy being drawn away from the
main objective, and gave the chance, which the New
Zealanders so gallantly seized, of taking the crest of the
hill; and it also enabled the Indian troops to work their
way on to the uppermost slopes of the great ridge. The
I 5th Battalion suffered most severely, and came to closest
grips with the enemy. Many hand-to-hand encounters
took place, and ghastly bayonet wounds were received, but
the Turks suffered quite as heavily as our lines. Looking
across the valley I could see, days later, the hill covered
with their dead. The brigade lost in the two days'
fighting nearly 1,000 men.

In the half light of the early morning the attack
began on the Sari Bair ridge. For the storming of
Chunak Bair the Wellington Battalion and Auckland
Mounted Rifles had been chosen, together with the Maoris
— all that remained of that band — and Gloucester
Battalion. The force was led by Lieut. -Col on el Malone,
the gallant defender of Quinn's Post in the past months.
At the head of the Wellingtons Lieut. -C'olonel Malone
led his men up through the long Turkish communication
trench, which was perfectly visible from our outposts,
to the summit of the hill. The Turks had retired
during the night from this section of the ridge,
leaving only a machine gun and a few; men, who had
come from Achi Baba, to defend the crest. The
Gloucesters at the same time, in the face of heavy fire,
gained a footing on an adjacent section of the ridge,
and held on. It was a magnificent achievement, and
only the grim determination of the troops engaged could

26o AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

have scaled that shell -swept slope — covered but thinly,
with bushes — and held it in poor shallow trenches, with
short supplies, on the third day of a great battle.

Meanwhile the Gurkhas, supported by battalions of
the 13th Division, pushed up the slopes of "P" Hill,
and reached a point within 150 yards of the top.
But no sooner had these positions been won than the
Turks directed a terrific fire on the ridge. The
Wellingtons' ranks thinned rapidly, but the Auckland
Mounted Rifles managed to reach the firing-line in time
to reinforce it, before the enemy commenced to attack
in force. The Turks poured up the reverse side of
the ridge, where our Anzac guns decimated them.
Colonel Malone, seeing that the Turkish plan had been
carefully laid and the trenches marked for destruction,
ordered the troops to dig a new trench 1 5 yards in
the rear — a perilous operation .under the shrapnel fire
that was pouring on to the attackers. Yet that shallow
trench was dug and held against the Turks. Bombs
and water were running low. It was two and a half
miles back down through the gullies to the beach. The
heat of the sun was terrific, and under it the men had
been fighting for nearly three days. They were blood-
stained and parched. I never have seen such appalling
sights as the men who came in wounded during those
days. Nevertheless there, on the top of the ridge,
fluttered the small yellow and red flags, marking a section,
barely 300 yards long, which had been won and held, the
first foot set on the desired ridge.

A shell-burst killed Colonel Malone during that
afternoon in the trenches, which he and his men had
so gallantly won. Colonel Moore, who succeeded him,
was wounded before midnight. Shell fire destroyed the
whole of a section of the front line of the trenches.
The men rebuilt them and still fought on. The next
morning the remaining section of the hill -' Q " was
to be charged by the Gurkhas and the South Lancashires.

So dawned the third morning of this fearful fight to
dislodge the Turks from the ridge. The support that
was expected from the British armies landed at Suvla
Bay had failed, as now the Turks had brought up
reinforcements, and all idea of a swift advance from
this quarter was impossible. But General Hamilton
realized that even yet there was time to snatch a victory.

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THE BATTLE OF SARI BAIR 261

The chance lay in smashing a way through at the
highest and most distant points gained on the crest
of the ridge. So for this undertaking he flung forward
a complete new column under Brigadier -General Baldwin,
two battalions each from the 38th Infantry and 29th
Brigades, and one from the 40th Brigade.

There began at 4.30 p.m. on the 9th, as a prelude
to this supreme effort, the shelling of the whole of the
Sari Bair ridge — north of the position held by the New
Zealanders. The destroyers* fire was terribly accurate.
From Anzac the howitzers and field guns tore up the
ridge from the east where the Turkish reserves had
been massing. It was as if the hill was in eruption ;
smoke and flame rolled from its sides. At the " Mustard
Plaster " it was intended that the assaulting column
of General Baldwin should wait, and from there
debouch up the hillside, prolonging to the north the
crest -line held by the New Zealanders. But in the
darkness the valleys and gullies of those chaotic hills,
baffled even the guides. The column, advancing up
the Chailak Dere to the support of the men on the hill,
lost its way. The tragic result will be apparent when
it is stated that already the 6th Gurkhas, led by Major
C. G. L. Allanson, crept as rapidly as the steepness
of the hill and the density of the undergrowth would
permit to the very summit of the great ridge — and gained
it — at a point midway between " Q " Hill and the Chunak
Bair summit. It was, after all, only a handful of sturdy
men who had to face whole battalions of the Turkish
army. Still, the advantage gained was enough to stiffen
the sinews of any leader and his army. There before
them, at their feet one might write, lay the whole of
the enemy's main position, and the road leading down
the peninsula into Bogali. Beyond, glittering in
tantalizing fashion, were the placid waters of the
Dardanelles, on which the first light of the rising
sun b^gan to pour, outlining the score of ships bringing
supplies to the armies.

Into the ranks of the astonished and panic-stricken
lines of Turks, the Gurkhas and the South Lancashire
Regiment began to pour a torrent of lead, sweeping
down the reverse slopes of the ridge. But in the very
hour of their wonderful success came the first horrible
check. Mistaking the target, the destroyers dropped

2 62 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

6-in. high -explosive shells amongst the Indian troops.
The havoc was appalling. No course was open
but to retire to a point of safety down the side of
the ridge. The Turks were not slow to grasp the
situation, and by the time that the mistake had been
rectified, the Turks charged again and reoccupied the
trenches they had so hastily evacuated. In spite of
which disaster, even yet victory was imminent, had but
General Baldwin's troops been at the moment (according
to prearranged plans) swarming over the very crowning
summit of the Chunak Bair position. Instead, they were
still only on the sides of the ridge just above the Farm,
advancing steadily, pressing up in line. But the Turks
had launched their blow. They came pouring over the
crest of the hill, and fired down from the commanding
position into the ranks of the storming columns. A
small battery placed on the very top of the summit
of Chunak Bair compelled General Baldwin to withdraw
his troops to below the Farm, while the enemy turned
the full force of their blow on to the New Zealanders
and British troops, who still stood their ground. Till
night fell the Turks attacked. Our regiments clung
on exhausted, desperate. They were then relieved by
the 6th Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, and the 5th
Wiltshire Regiment. Worn with the three days' fight,
almost famished, but in good heart, buoyed by the feat
of arms they had achieved, never have men deserved
more the honours that have been paid them, than those
New Zealanders.

Through no fault of theirs, they left to the new garrison
trenches that were not deep — they were not even well
placed. The Turkish fire had left little chance of that.
The crest remained dead ground. Even while the line
was being reformed by Lieut. -Colonel Levinge, the fiercest
of the Turkish counter-attacks began. To the enemy
the possession of the ridge by the foe was like a pistol
pointed at the very heart of their army. Unfortunately,
only half our new troops were dug in when that counter-
attack came (the Wiltshires finding constant checks in
the gullies and hills through and up which they had
marched to reach the firing-line).

It is estimated that the attacking force which the Turks
launched against that garrison of 1,000 men, was a
division and a regiment and three battalions. Probably

THE BATTLE OF SARI BAIR 263

30,000 men swarmed over the crest of the hill on the
loth. In one huge effort the Turks were staking all.
The German leaders found no obstacle in the loss of
life. As these masses of enemy, line after line of closely-
formed men, came up on to the crests, the warships
opened fire from Ocean Beach, while on the reverse
slope the Anzac guns caught the Turks as they advanced
along the communication trenches and on to the hill.
From the beach our newly placed guns, near No. 2
Post, drenched the hillside with shells. The British
were overwhelmed certainly. At a fearful cost did the
enemy accomplish it.

Watching the commencement of the bombardment
from a distance of 2,000 yards, I was more than ever
convinced the Turk was a brave soldier. For thirty
hours now he had been working under an intermittent
fire to gain a footing on Rhododendron spur. From
a range of 1,700 yards he was attacked by a group of
machine guns from our position on Snipers' Nest west
of the Nek, and driven from his hasty trenches by the
lyddite shells that sent tons of earth and stones into the
air at each explosion and cast for a moment a haz;e
over the hill. The Turk, as he crawled away or went
at a shuffie back over the ridge, was caught by the
machine-gun fire. His plight was desperate. The shells
fell at the rate of about ten a minute for an hour and a
half, and recommenced for two hours more in the after-
noon. Those shells dropped from one end of the ridge
to the other, only a matter of 300 yards, and then,
lowering the range, the gu,nners hurled shells into the
hollow, drove out the Turks, and followed them as they
fled back up the side of the hill. Turk after Turk came
from those broken trenches, some wounded and without
equipment, some still with rifles and packs. Some were
moving slowly and painfully, while others were running
low and quickly across the sky-lines. I watched them
struggling from newly made trenches down the slope of
the hill, which the gunners on the ships could see equally
well with the artillery observing officers directing the
field guns on the beach. I have never seen such accurate
or persistent fire.

As the 8 -in. or lo-in. shells from the warships struck
the hillside, above the dust and dirt, one could see, almost
with every shot, men blown into the air. Once three

264 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

Turks went skywards, and four men, whom a minute
before I had seen crawling amongst the scattered bushes,
disappeared. The striking of the shells on the hill was
seen before the double thunder of the guns was heard.
Sometimes shrapnel, bursting just over the crest, laid
low men who had escaped the larger shells. The guns
of the 1st Australian Division were playing on that
side as well. The Turk was caught between two fires.
For hours I watched the enemy crawling out of that
gully over the hill. It was appalling. The slopes were
thick with their dead. Never had a hill been so dearly
lost, so dearly won, and now lost again, to become, as
it was for days, no man's ground ; for with the con-
tinued bombardment that night and the machine gun
battery playing along the ridges next morning (iith),
the Turks were content to hold the trenches behind
the crest on the eastern side.

But for the rat-a-tat-tat of our machine guns on this
morning — the sixth day of the battle — all was perfectly
still along the now extended battle front.

And all through those appalling five days of the
fiercest fighting that had ever been fought on the
peninsula, never for a moment did the Turks relinquish
their idea of recapturing the cherished Lone Pine
trenches. In the first day's fighting the Australian
casualties had been nearly 1,000. By the end of the
fourth day they had doubled. It 'was one huge bomb
battle, with short respites. As the fight continued,
overhead cover was erected by the sappers to prevent
the Turks firing down the length of trenches. I saw
men tired — so tired that they coujd not even stand. Yet
they clung on. Colonel Macnaghten handed over his
gallant 4th to Colonel Cass, only because he could not
stay awake to once again refuse to relinquish his post.
Relief was given to his battalion for a few hours by Light
Horse regiments and infantry battalions drawn from other
sections of the line. Thus the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 12th'
Battalions and squadrons of the 2nd Light Horse Brigade
all played their share in repelling the Turks in that
unforgettable four-day bomb battle. But so terrible was
the position that men were only kept for short periods
in the trenches. Through these rapid changes was the
sting gradually drawn from the Turkish attacks. But
it took five days to extract^ and in that time many

THE BATTLE OF SARI BAIR 265

deeds of priceless heroism, devotion, and sacrifice were
performed by men whose names will ever be associated
with that fighting. I can name but a few of them.

There was Captain Shout, ist Battalion, who could
throw two bombs, and even three, in quick succession.
Having charged down one of the innumerable Turkish
trenches, he endeavoured to dislodge the enemy from
the other end of a sap. Reckless of his life, he hurled
the missiles as if they had been so many cricket balls.
He killed eight Turks before he was himself killed by
a bomb.

Lieutenant Symions led a charge and retook a
portion of an isolated sap that the Turks had occupied.
It happened at 5 a.m. on the morning of the 9th. Six
officers of ours had been killed or wounded in that
trench. With an extraordinary courage. Lieutenant
Symons led a small party down the sap and dislodged
the Turks, himself killing many. He then built a sand-
bag barricade under the very nose of the enemy. A
somewhat similar charge was made by Lieutenant Tubb,
of the 7th, backed by Corporal Burton and Corporal
Dunstan, two of his men. All of these men received
the Victoria Cross for their bravery.

Never before in any hundred square yards of ground
have so many honours been won and such wonderful
gallantry shown. Men and officers fighting in that
inferno seemed to be inspired with unparalleled courage.
Private Keysor (ist Battalion) threw back enemy bombs
into their own trenches, and, though twice wounded, con-
tinued till the end of the engagement to act as bomb-
thrower wherever there was need. Private Hamilton
(ist Battalion) on the 9th sat calmly on the parados,
thereby getting fire to bear on the enemy. He rallied
his comrades, and they drove back the enemy.

Major Sasse (ist Battalion) won distinction by charging
at the head of a small body of men down a Tu,rkish!
sap, and then directing a bomb attack from the parados
of the captured trenches. One has only to turn to the
stories of the Military Crosses gained, to find how attack
was met by counter-attack ; how trenches were taken
at the bayonet's point dufing the four days that battle
lasted.

The men who sold their lives in these herculean efforts
to shake off the Turks, number.ed nearly 800. Officers

266 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

made noble examples for their troops. Colonel Scobie,
2nd Battalion, was leading back a small section of his
command from an ugly sap from which they were being
bombed, when he was killed by a bomb. Colonel
Brown, passing the head of one of the many dangerous
saps that led to the Turkish position on the other side
of the plateau, was shot through the breast and fell
dead at the feet of his men.

Lone Pine on that second day, when I was through
it, presented a spectacle of horror. The dead Australians
and Turks lay deep in the trenches. Parapets had
partly buried them.

It was at the entrance to a tunnel that I saw our
lads sitting with fixed bayonets and chatting calmly
to one another. There was a horrible odour in the
trenches that compelled one to use the smoke helmet
for some little relief. At the end of this tunnel, 40
yards away, so one of the men told me, were 30 dead
Turks. In through a shell hole that had broken open
a Turkish tunnel, and over these dead bodies, a wounded
sapper had crawled on the day after the battle from
the battlefield above, thereby saving himself from ex-
posure and probable death. How these men had died
none exactly knew. A shell may have broken through
the tunnel— probably had — and those who had not been
killed outright had died of suffocation from the shell
fumes. It became necessary now to fill in the end
of the tunnel, to prevent any entry by the enemy as
much as to safeguard the health of our men. The
thousands of rifles, broken belts, scattered cartridges,
clothing of all descriptions that were to be seen belong-
ing to either side were being collected in order to make
the way clear. One realized that there mu,st be days
before the trenches could become normal again. For all
the time, simultaneously with the relief of the wounded,
existed the need for the protection of the fighting troops,
the changing over of the parapets, the filling of sand-
bags to pile up the traverses, the erection of the over-
head cover. AH that involved a horrible waste of men
— the ruin of scores of lives — in the accomplishment.
Yet never must it be forgotten that the enemy was
driven from what might well have been considered an
impregnable position, had been shaken, had lost five to
every one of our troops.

THE BATTLE OF SARI BAIR 267

As I walked down the trenches it was impossible to
avoid the fallen men lying all around. They lay on the
parapets and their blackened hands hung down over
our path. While this bombing continued it was no
use trying to clear the way. Amidst the horribleness
of the dead, the men fought and lived. They fought,,
too, knowing that behind the ramparts that protected
them, mu,st lie their comrades.

It was the most touching sight in the world to see
units that had won the fight being withdrawn on tlie
second day. Perhaps only a few hundred came back.
They were covered with blood ; they were unrecog-
nizable in the dirt that had been scattered over them;
they were lean and haggard from want of sleep. But
they bore themselves without the least touth of fatigue
as they passed by British troops working behind the
lines. They had in their demeanour that which showed
a confidence in something accomplished and a pride
in a victory won. They aclcnowledged modestly the
tribute of those who had known the fury of battle — who
had seen the charge. As they came out of the tunnel
which led from the firing-line there were comrades who
waited to grip their hands. For news travels in a curious
manner from trench to trench of a comrade hit, wounded,
or one whose life has gone. You hear it soOn even down
on the beach.

And amidst these brave men and those waiting to take
their turn at defending, the dead bodies of the enemy
were drawn, to be buried in a great pile on a hill slope.
The tracks of the canvas shroud showed in the loose
earth, the air polluted by the stench of the passing
corpse. Not far away was a heap of Turkish equip-
ment, 30 feet high, piled up, waiting sorting, which had
been taken from the trenches. Of Turkish rifles we had
enough for a battalion. Already I had seen a party of
our men in the trenches handling with a certain satis-
faction, and no little rapidity, the captured machine guns,
which, with the ammunition also captured, gave us a
splendid opportunity of turning the enemy's weapons on
himself. The spoils of victory were very sweet to these
men.

I have referred more than once to the bravery of the
Turkish soldier. The fight he put up on these Lone
Pine trenches would be enough to establish that repu-

2 68 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

tation for him were there not other deeds to his credit.
Not that that diminishes one degree the glory of the
achievement of our arms. The fury of the fire of shot
and shell was enough to have dismayed any troops. The
Australians went through that with heads bent, like men
going through a fierce pelting rain.

Taken all round, the Turks are by no means an army
of poor physique. They may not be as well clad as our
troops, but they looked healthy and well fed. A sergeant,
a fine-built man, standing nearly 6 feet, who had served
in the Balkan War and also the gendarmerie, when cap-
tured, accepted his fate, but showed no signs of relief
that he was to be led away captive. If anything, his tone
suggested that he would have liked to have gone on fight-
ing. In this attitude he was dififerent from the large
majority of the prisoners. He never expected an attack,
and the first thing that was known in the enemy trenches
was a shout from the look-out. He had at once rushed
to get his men out of the tunnel to line the fire-trenches,
but before he could reach a position the " English," as
the sergeant persisted in calling our troops, had arrived,
and were jumping^ down on top of them. He believed
that all his officers had been killed. It was Kismet, the
will of Allah, that he should be taken.

After the constant boom of the guns, the tearing whistle
of the shells overhead day and night, distant and near,
the cracking of rifles for five days and nights, the morn-
ing of the sixth day broke so calm that the bursting of a
shell on the beach broke a kind of peaceful meditation.
The troops began to ask one another what had happened
or was happening . If you listened very carefully the soft
patter of a machine gun came from the distant hills across
at Suvla Bay. The battle was evidently not ended there.

That evening (12th August) the quiet of the lines was
broken by the appearance, in close proximity to our
observation balloon over the shipping in Suvla Bay, of
a German aeroplane. As it sailed overhead I could just
hear the throbbing of the engine. It was heading south,
when from the direction of the Narrows came one of our
airmen. He was flying a little lower than the enemy.
At first he apparently did not see the hostile machine.
There was no mistaking the two types — the enemy, dark
in colour, grey, with black crosses painted on the wings.
and ours yellow, with red eyes on the wings. Suddenly

THE BATTLE OF SARI BAIR 269

the British turned directly towards the enemy, which"
promptly veered and fled towards the Turkish lines at
Bogali, dropping behind the ridges. The Turkish
aviator thus robbed us of the chance of witnessing a
battle in the air.

What days of quiet followed the digging of new
trenches on the Chunak Bair slopes, after the crest had
been won and lost !

To complete this battle scene, there remains but to be
told the position gained by the 4th Australian Brigade.
Its line was spread along the crest of the range of hills
practically where I first described them. Along the Asma
Dere by hard digging* they had secured a position, and
from it I had an excellent view of Buyik Anafarta in
flames. The warship shells had set it alight. From the
extreme right on the plains round Suvla Bay grass fires
were burning harmlessly. I watched, too, ambulances
drawn by six -horse teams bringing in the British wounded
across the dried Salt Lake. The headquarters of the
Australian Brigade was on the side of a long, broad gully,
which recently had been under cultivation. On my way
there I had to pass up the bed of a creek filled with dead
mules, which the Turkish shrapnel had slaughtered. I
passed New Zealand engineers successfully sinking wells,
and line after line of water-carriers. Ahead was a string
of ten mules bringing ammunition and supplies. On my
left, at the edge of a few acres' of cropped land, was a
German officers' camp. A well-built hut of branches and
mud was concealed from the view of aircraft under the
shady branches of a grove of olive-trees. There were
several huts like this, with a slit for a window that faced
out to the sea. Immediately behind was a hill, on the
slope of which were tents and a number of well-made
dugouts and tracks, the remains of a considerable Turkish
encampment.

I followed the telephone line, hungi from bush to bush,
and then came to some tall scrub, in which the brigade
was camped, like a party of railway surveyors in the bush,
protected from the sun by bush huts and from bullets by
timber taken from the enemy's shelters. As I talked to,
General Monash bullets pattered against the earth walls,
and he opened his case and showed me the collection he
was making of the " visitors " that dropped round him
as he wrote and directed the. working of his command.

2 70 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

He was justly proud of the way his men had fought; of
the running fight they had won ; of their march of miles
through unknown country, and the way they had estab-
lished themselves in the heart of the enemy's stronghold.

In the trenches the men showed no sign of fatigue now,
having rested for a few days. A much reduced brigade it
was, but the men were watching the Turks digging on the
hills and waiting their opportunity. Every few minutes
would come the clatter of the machine gun from some-
where along the front. The firing-line was only a few
hundred yards away, so the Staff was in the midst of the
attacks. The firing of our artillery from the hills behind
and the presence of our aeroplanes overhead made the
men keen and zealous. They were then still ripe for any
advance.

In the face of such achievements, was it to be wondered
that General Hamilton, Lieut. -General Birdwood, Major-
General Godley, all wrote of the men who fought these
battles in terms of the highest admiration? "Whatever
happens," were General Hamilton's words to General
Birdwood, " you and your brave army corps have covered
yourselves with glory. Make good the crest, and the
achievement will rank with Quebec." Yes, it ranked
alongside any of the fighting in history. It had been in
turn trench fighting, bayonet charges, and fighting in the
open, and everywhere the overseas troops had won. But
at what cost I At Lone Pin,e the casualties were 2,300
killed and wounded men. From the captured trenches
there were dragged 1,000 killed, Austrahans and Turks.
They were buried in the cemetery on the side' of the hill
in Brown's Dip. The Army Corps in four days had lost
12,000 men killed and woiuided. The British casualties
on the Anzac section were 6,000 out of 10,000 troops
engaged. In all 18,000 casualties for a gain of 2 miles
and a position on, but not the crest of, the ridge. I
have omitted the casualties of the fighting at Suvla Bay.

And the Turks ! Their losses ? It must be one of the
satisfactions of the splendid failure that they lost nearly
three to our one. Over 1,000 of the enemy perished at
Lone Pine. On the loth I saw them lying in heaps of
hundreds on the bloody slopes of Chunak Bair. We had
captured in all about 700 prisoners, and much material and
equipment. Thousands of Turkish rifles were removed
frorn Lone Pine, and hundreds of thousands rounds of

THE BATTLE OF SARI BAIR 271

ammunition. We took seven of their machine gtins and
belts of ammunition, and turned them against their own
army. One hundred and thirty prisoners were taken
in that section. General Monash captured over a hundred
prisoners, including officers, great quantities of big gun
ammunition (including fifty cases of "75 " ammunition,
near where the Turks had their French gun), thousands of
rounds of rifle ammunition, quantities of stores. The
New Zealanders took in the first attack on Old No. 3
Post 125 prisoners and some machine guns, and also a
nordenfeldt. As the fighting extended to the left, further
plants of ammunition were discovered in the valley.

Anzac was enlarged from barely 300 acres to about
8 square miles. A base for twenty operations was gained
at Suvla Bay, and though the passage along the beach
to Anzac was still a hazardous one, to the joy of many
Australian dispatch riders, it provided a race through
a hail of bullets along that zone. If devotion and
heroism could make success, then the Army Corps had
indeed covered itself with glory. But it had very sub-
stantial deeds to its credit as well. It had fought, adding
fresh laurels to those won in its first fight at the landing.
Weakened, worn, but by no means disheartened, it was
strengthened after 20th August by the arrival of the
2nd Australian Division from Egypt, under Major-
General Legge, which enabled respite from trench war-
fare to be enjoyed by the veteran brigades. Except for
the fighting on the extreme left of our Army Corps line,
where the Australians linked with the Suvla Bay forces
across the Chocolate Hills, the weeks after the great
battles at Anzac were calm. It was only a calm that
precedes a storm.

CHAPTER XXVI

HILL 60, GALLIPOLI

In the days immediately following' the halting of the
4th Infantry Brigade in the Asma Dere, it would have
been possible to have walked on to the top of the
steep knoll marked " Hill 60 " on the maps. From
the ridge that the Australians then occupied there was
only a small ridge in between, and a cornfield joining
a valley not many yards across. Then came the hill —
not, perhaps, as famous as Hill 60 in France, nor even
as bloodstained, but one that cost over 1,000 men to
take — that commanded the broad plain spread inland
to the town of Bujik Anafarta. A mile and a half to the
north across the plain were the " W. " hills, the end spur
of which, nearest the sea, Chocolate Hills, the British by
this time held. Hill 60 was necessary to our plans in
order to link up securely the position and give us
command of the plain, on which were a number of fine
wells. On the 21st August, when the first attack was
made, the hill and the ridge which joined it, were strongly
held by the enemy, A day attack had been determined
on, following a fierce bombardment. Owing to a sudden
change of plans to a general attack, the bombardment
failed ; it was not as intense as was intended, and
in consequence the preparation for the attacking lines
was inadequate. At two o'clock the guns commenced,
not only to shell Hill 60, but all along the Turkish
front on the plain. For an hour scores of guns shook
the earth with the concussion of the shells. Then the
British advance began — yeomanry and the imperishable
29th Division.

Now, in this larger plan. Hill 60 was only an in-
cident, but an important one for the Australians. General
Birdwood had placed Major -General Cox in command of

a force consisting of two battalions of New Zealand

372

HILL 60, GALLIPOLI

273

Mounted Rifles, two battalions of the 29th Irish Brigade,
the 4th South Wales Borderers, the 29th Indian Infantry
Brigade, and the 4th Australian Infantry Brigade. The
Indians seized the well, Kabak Kuyu, after some stiff
fighting on the plain. This left the way for the Maoris
and Connaught Rangers and the battalions of the New
Zealand Mounted Rifles to storm the hill from the west
and the south-west, while the 4th Australian Brigade
(reduced now to scarcely 1,500 men) was to advance

bqiOlj2Z

REFERENCE

Conjirfu/jicaiioriTrencfj dug 6y ^^BrtgaJe ofNi^hi'ofElku^asi

M/LL SO CALUPOU

FtNALLY CaPTURBH ON S&^Au^Us/'/ff/S

from the southern section of the ridge, which it held.
Between the trenches from which the New Zealanders
and Connaught Rangers had to advance was a small
spur, an offshoot of the main ridge. Over this the
force had to charge before they dipped down again
into a gully that led round the foot of the redoubt. As
the men swept over this hill (or round the flank of it)
they came under the fire of the Turkish machine guns.
Very few men reached the foot of the redoubt, where
they found protection, by reason of the very steepness

274 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

of the ground, from the stream of lead from the enemy
trenches circling this Hill 60. Some of the New
Zealanders worked round the end of the spur, charged
across the 100 yards of open ground to the foot of
the knoll also, and so into the communication trenches
of the Turks. Trench fighting of desperate character
continued till nightfall. The second lines that were
sent to support tlie attacking force, faced the rapid
volleys from the Turkish guns on the ridge, firing down
into the valley.

The 13th Battalion, under Major Herring, and the
14th, under Major Dare, not 500 men in all, had been
reduced to not more than 300 men by the time they had
advanced a short distance up the slope and taken the
first line of Turkish trenches. To them there was only
one consolation : they could not be fired on where they
were, tucked under the side of the Turks' own hill.
But they could not get word back or find a means of
communication, other than over the fearful bullet -swept
slope that lay behind them. Messengers indeed were
sent. One managed to dodge up the many folds in
the hillside, chased by the machine guns. As he reached

the skyline and our trench, he cried " I have a mess "

but he got no further : a Turkish bullet struck him,
and he fell, dead, into the trench amongst his comrades.
Snipers rendered the situation worse. A bush fire broke
out amongst the holly -bushes on the hillside, covered
with the dead and wounded. No reinforcements came
through till ten o'clock rext morning, when a com-
munication trench had been dug down from the ridge,
which the 4th Brigade held, prolonging the line to the
north.

That night was one of horror for the Australians
and New Zealanders clinging to the base of the knoll.
The dying men on the exposed slope of the hill
were heard calhng to their comrades. Many were
the brave deeds performed in bringing men to safety.
Captain Loughran, the medical officer of the 14th
Battalion, brought in with his stretcher-bearers eight
men. Yet the following morning, wounded still lay
amongst the bushes, and as the fire swept up the
hill, they crept out, only to be killed by Turkish
bullets. One man was seen working his way on
his back up a depression, the bullets flicking the earth

HILL 60, GALLIPOLI 275

round him, and — delirious probably — as they missed,
so he slowly waved his hand back and forth. Finally
the Turks turned a machine gun on him, and he lay
still. The padre of the 14th Battahon, Chaplain A.
Gillison, sacrificed" his life in bringing the wounded from
off that horrible hill. He was waiting to read the
burial service over some men that had been brought
in to be buried. Suddenly came a cry from over the
hill, and with two stretcher-bearers — noble heroes always
— he went out, creeping towards the British soldier, who
was being worried by ants. Just as he had started to drag
the wounded man back to safety he was shot through
the spine. He died at the beach clearing station.
Chaplain Grant, with the New Zealand forces, also went
in search of a wounded man along a trench on the hill-
side. In the maze of trenches at the foot of the redoubt
he took the wrong turning. As the brave chaplain
turned an angle (voices had been heard ahead) a
Turkish bullet struck him and he fell forward.

Thus, on the 22nd, the main Australian position was
still 150 yards away down the back of the ridge to the
north, while the New Zealanders held a small section of
the trenches on the western side of the knoll. The Indians
had been linked up with the British Suvla Bay army by
the 1 8th Battalion, under Lieut. -Colonel A. E. Chapman,
the first of the new Australian battalions of the 2nd
Division to go into the fight. That battalion was set
the task, on the morning of the 22nd, of charging a
section of the trenches on the upper slopes of the knoU,
so as to relieve the desperate position of the New
Zealanders clinging to the trenches on the side of the
hill. But when they had swept clear a Turkish com-
munication trench, they found themselves enfiladed by
the enemy's rifles. A strong bomb attack at 10 a.m.
shattered their ranks and drove them to the New Zealand
line, where they stuck. So the position was only slightly
improved to what it had been the previras evening,
for there was now a linked fine round the base of
Kaijak Aghala, Hill 60. The AustraV.sians had won
about 150 yards of trench, while the 4th Brigade, still
occupying the upper slopes, had already inflicted severe
losses on the enemy, who were feverishly entrenching
the top of the hill, turning it into a strong redoubt, and
opening up new communication trenches. In all the

276 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

operations at and round this hill the Australians had been
able to terribly harass the Turks, and machine guns
had caught the enemy in the open when they were
attempting to dig out into the plain. The gunners
let the Turks go forward with their picks and shovels
and entrenching tools, and then commenced to " stir
them up," and, as they returned, played a machine gun
on them.

But the enemy made good progress in strengthening
the redoubt on this knoll in the four days that elapsed
before the hill was finally carried. There was no
question that the first bombardment had failed to smash
the trenches. General Cox, in spite of the first failure
to attain the intended objective, still favoured a day
attack, following on an intens,e bombardment. And in
the closing days of August he had his way, and then
began the second battle for possession of the important
Hill 60. Major-General Cox was given by General
Birdwood detachments of the 4th and 5th Australian
Brigades, the New Zealand Mounted Rifle Brigade, and
the 5th Connaught Rangers. The advance was to take
place at 5 p.m. on the 27th. While the 4th Brigade
was reduced to about 1,200 men, the 5th Brigade, just
landed, was still some 3,500 strong, but only 1,000
men could be spa,red for the attack. The remainder
of the command must have numbered over 2,000 men ;
in all, perhaps, 3,000 men.

Never, it has |been declared, was there such a
bombardment witnessed at Anzac as that concentrated
on the Turkish position from four o'clock on the
afternoon of the 27th till an hour later, when the
attack began. It could be seen that the trenches were
smashed and levelled, and many of the Turks slunk
away, but were caught by our snipers and machine
gunners from the right of the position, where the crest
of the ridges commanded the communication to the hill.
The main attack developed on the trench that led up
the ridge to the crest on the south-east. The Auckland
and Canterbury Mounted Rifles formed the first line of
attack, Otago and Wellington the second, and the i6th
Battalion, under Lieut. -Colonel Chapman, the third. The
right was still left to the 4th Brigade. On the left,
adjoining the plain, were the Connaught Rangers. The
attack was the most gallant affair. It was all ov.er in very

HILL 60, GALLIPOLI 277,

few minutes. The Turks were stunned and paralysed
by the terribleness of the bombardment, and the New
Zealanders, though they met with severe fire, rapidly
reached the trenches with a cheer and bayoneted the
enemy that remained. They found sufficient evidence
here of the effect of the high -explosive shells, for the
trenches were choked with dead.

On the extreme left the Connaughts had, with
remarkable dash, gained a footing in the trenches
from which the i8th Battalion had been driven
with such heavy loss on the 22nd. But in the bomb
battle that ensued till midnight they were pushed back,
and the Turks retained their wedge. The 9th Light
Horse at eleven o'clock, led by Colonel Reynell, charged
gallantly on to the top of the hill into the heart of
the Turkish position, in an endeavour to reach their
communication trench, but failed to gain their objec-
tive. The Colonel was killed, and his men were bombed
back until they were forced on to the New Zealand
lines. Nevertheless, the hill was for the most part in
our hands ; there remained but the Turkish wedge driven
in, with Australian and British troops on either side
of the hill.

(The 4th Brigade meanwhile had launched 300 men,
with some of the 17th Battalion, against the trench
running back along the spur, as these other violent attacks
succeeded. Captain Connolly led the first of that line.
He, with all other officers in the charge, was wounded,
and his men were once more forced back to a line of
trenches which continued the New Zealand flank round the
north-east of the hill, just on the crest. All next day the
Turks made desperate efforts to dislodge the New Zealand
line, but without effect. At i o'clock on the morning of
the 29th, the loth Light Horse — part of the regiment
that had stormed the Nek at dawn on the 7th August —
took the remaining sector of the trenches in one gallant
dash and cut the Turkish wedge. They entered the
redoubt in the crown of the hill. It was filled with the
Turkish dead, who had bravely sold their lives in its
last defence.

In this way was the famous Gallipoli Hill 60 captured
by Britons and Australasians. It was the last of the great
offensives planned at Anzac. Over 1,000 men were
killed or wounded in the engagement. But th^ Turks

278 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

lost five times tliat number. Our gain was an important
strategic point, whereby we could command the plain
and the enemy lines of communications. Three machine
guns and some prisoners were taken, together with 300
rifles and ammunition and bombs. The line with the
Suvla Bay army was straightened, and more ground added
to the land that the gallant Anzac troops had won early
in the month. But by now the old army was weakening
with disease. Dysentery liad reduced the numbers in
the last weeks even more than the fighting. So the
whole of the ist Australian Division was withdrawn,
and the 2nd Division filled their places. It was not
a swift movement, but one carried out gradually,
battalion by battalion (200 or 300 men only in each)
leaving the firing-line to their new and zealous comrades.
At length the New Zealand and Australian Division was
relieved, and the whole of these brave men — but how
small a proportion of the original Army Corps I — who
had never left the fighting zone since the day they
landed, found themselves at Mudros, free from the
nervous strain of watching for bombs, bullets, and shells.
They were tended and properly fed. They were praised
for their glorious deeds and feats of arms.

Hi
t X

J .-, o

•G-C

•a 3

CHAPTER XXVII

THE EVACUATION OF THE PENINSULA

While the days dragged slowly by on the Anzac front,
and the armies had been brought to a standstill at
Suvla Bay, events at the seat of the Allies' War Council
were moving rapidly. After the last fight and the failure
of the great adventure, General Hamilton estimated his
force at" 9J,poo men. He was 45,000 men below his
normal strength for the units he held. Sickness was
■'wasting his army at an alarming rate. He cabled to the
War Office for more reinforcements, pointing out that the
enemy against him was 110,000. They were all fine
fighters, brought up from the best regiments that had
been employed against the Russians, General Hamilton
writes : —

1 urged that if the campaign was to be brought to a quick victorious
decision larger reinforcements must at once be sent out. Autumn, I pointed
out, was already upon us, and there was not a moment to be lost. At that
time ii6th August), my British Divisions alone were 45,000 under establish-
ment, and some of my fine battalions had dwindled down so far that I had to
witb^aw them from the fighting-line. Our most vital need was the replen-
ishnrent of these sadly depleted ranks. When that was done I wanted
50,000 fresh rifles. From what I knew of the Turkish situation, both in
its local and general aspect, it seemed, humanly speaking, a certainty that if
this help could be sent me at once, we could clear a passage for our fleet
to Constantinople. It may be judged, then, how deep was my disappoint-
ment when I learnt that the essential drafts, reinforcements, and munitions
could not be sent me, the reason given being one which prevented me
from any further insistence.

What could the Commander-in-Chief do under such
circumstances? He might have resigned/; that was not
his temperament. He would fight to a finish. What
troops remained in Egypt were reorganized, and the
attack, as soon as possible, began again on the Suvla
Bay,, front.

279

2 So AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

All was in vain. By September the whole Gallipoli front
had settled down to trench warfare^ and a winter cam-
paign seemed inevitable. Meanwhile events on the
Balkan frontier were hastening the Turkish plans.
Additional troops were available for service on the
peninsula with the Bulgarian frontier free, and that
nation joined to the Central Powers. The failure
of the Allies to save Serbia was of enormous signifi-
cance to Turkey. It meant the prolongation of her
sickness, for it left the way free from Germany to Con-
stantinople. Big-gun ammunition, which the Turks had
undoubtedly always conserved, began to flow in freely
from Austrian and German works^ across the Danube
through Bulgaria. Then the Turks, finding, too, that
the attacks on Achi Baba were never likely to be renewed
in any great force, and that the Allied forces left there
were comparatively weak, removed numbers of their heavy
artillery batteries to the Anzac position and began again
with renewed fury to enfilade the beach. The Olive
Grove guns and the batteries from Mai Tepe thundered
their shells on the Anzac slopes ; at Suvla Bay the
plain was swept with Turkish shrapnel. Though
the weather remained fine and the AlUes continued
to land stores and munitions with ease, the Navy
let it be understood that after the 28th October
they would guarantee no further regular communica-
tions. All September was wasted by the British
Cabinet deliberating on the wisdom of continuing
the GallipoU campaign, a far longer time than it
had taken to embark on the enterprise at the very
beginning of the year. During that month sickness
further wasted the army. By the i ith October the
Cabinet came to a decision. They asked General
Hamilton the cost of lives that would be involved in
withdrawing from Gallipoli. Fine soldier that he is,
the Commander-in-Chief refused to entertain the idea ;
whereupon he was recalled to London for the official
reason '' that a fresh and unbiased opinion from a
responsible commander might be given upon an early
evacuation."

General Hamilton's departure was a matter of the
keenest regret to the Australian troops. They had often
met him in the saps at Anzac, and his tall, commanding
figure was well known by all on the beach. It had

THE EVACUATION OF THE PENINSULA 281

been the custom for various battalions and regiments to
supply guards for his headquarters^ situated at Imbros
on the south of Kephalos Bay, and on many occasions
he had inspected and complimented them on their
bearing. His farewell order to the troops, and, later,
the concluding words of his last report, show the affec-
tion he held for his men whom he has described as
"magnificent." He left the Dardanelles on the 17th
October on a warship bound for Marseilles.

General Sir Charles Monro, one of the ablest of the
new British leaders, and a man who had come to the
front since the beginning of the war, was chosen to
succeed General Hamilton. It must be presumed that
even his unbiased report evidently left the matter in
doubt. The casualties of evacuation were put down at
probably 20 per cent, of the force, or even higher —
20,000 men. Thereupon Lord Kitchener himself deter-
mined to visit the Levant and thoroughly investigate
the situation. There were more reasons than the approach
of winter and the drain on the reserves of the army,
the munitions, and maintenance of lines of communica-
tion, that necessitated some very vital alteration in the
action and attitude of the Allies in the Levant and
Mesopotamia. Greece was wavering. There was dis-
tinctly a pro -German feeling amongst the Greek popida-
tion and a widespread German propaganda on lines that
ended so successfully with Bulgaria a few months before.
The Serbian Army was shattered before the landing
of the Allies at Salonika could prevent the free passage
to Turkey of everything that the sorely harassed and
depleted Ottoman Army needed.

In Egypt, British prestige was at a low ebb. There
were already signs of revolt on the western frontier,
where the Senussi had been organized by Enver Pasha's
brother. A further attack on the Canal was threaten-
ing, while the campaign in Mesopotamia looked far from
reassuring. Egypt was a vast arsenal and rapidly
becoming an armed camp. The strain on the transport
service and lines of communication was rapidly growing
acute — in fact, the position that faced the Allies was
that by some means or other their energies would have
to be narrowed. Anzac, Helles, Salonika, Egypt, and
Mesopotamia all needed regular supplies throughout the
severe winter months, and these had to be transported

282 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

by sea. Yet the submarine peril had grown more
menacing, three or four ships being sunk daily, despite
the greatest vigilance of the fleet. Even the Greeks
were engaged in helping these under -water craft in their
endeavours to starve out the armies of the Allies. It
seemed obvious one or several of the fronts had to
be abandoned, or else the Gallipoli offensive com-
pleted rapidly. For Egypt had to be kept safe at all
costs: so had the army in Mesopotamia, guarding the
Persian oilfields. To release a grip on the Eastern
theatre of Europe at Salonika would mean perhaps that
the Greeks would go over to the Central Powers. There
was no alternative, once the necessary forces were denied
to General Plamilton to end the task which I have en-
deavoured to show was so near successful completion,
but that the work of evacuating Galhpoli should be
attempted. It was a hazardous undertaking.

Lord Kitchener's visit to the Anzac battlefields was
regarded as a great compliment by the troops. So
bad had become the Turkish shelling of the Anzac Cove
that it was not without the greatest anxiety that
the leaders watched the landing of the Minister for War.
Accompanying him were General Maxwell from Egypt
and General Birdwood. Though the time of arrival
had been kept as secret as possible, the news spread
like lightning over Anzac. Lord Kitchener went
straight to Russell's Top, a climb of twenty minutes
up a roughly hewn artillery road, from which he could
overlook the whole of the Anzac position, across the
mass of huddled foothills at Suvla Bay. He chatted to
the many men and officers. *' The King has asked
me," he said to various parties he met, " to tell you
how splendidly he thinks you have done. You have
indeed done excellently well ; better even than I thought
you would." He was astonished at the positions won.
Lord Kitchener went right through the trenches on the
Nek ; he saw every important position and over thirty
leaders. As he returned to the beach the troops cheered
lustily. The hillside had suddenly, on this wild after-
noon of November, grown animated. On the beach
— it was only three hours later — he turned to Colonel
Howse, as he had turned to others, and asked if he
wanted anything done. Colonel Howse promptly brought
a number of matters regarding the medical arrange-

THE EVACUATION OF THE PENINSULA 283

ments forward. " I think I can promise you your first
and your second request," the great War Lord assured
him, " and we will see about the third." It is curious
to note that not a shell was fired at the departing launch
or the destroyer as it steamed swiftly away.

Lord Kitchener left no one long in doubt of his
impressions of the Australasians and the position they
had made. A man not prone to superlatives, he spoke
then, and since, in the highest terms of the valour of
the deeds that won those Anzac heights. In a special
Army Corps order General Birdwood wrote : —

Lord Kitchener has desired me to convey to the Australian and New Zealand
Army Corps a message which he was specially entrusted by the King to
bring to our army corps. His Majesty commanded Lord Kitchener to express
his high appreciation of the gallant and unflinching conduct of our men
throughout the fighting, which has been as hard as any yet seen during
the war, and wishes to express his complete confidence in the determination
and fighting qualities of our men to assist in carrying this war to an
entirely successful termination.

The order proceeds : —

Lord Kitchener has ordered me to express to all the very great pleasure it
gave him to have the opportunity, which he considered a privilege, of visiting
"Anzac," to see for himself some of the wonderfully good work which has
been done by the officers and men of our army corps, as it was not until
he had himself seen the positions we captured and held that he was able to
fully realize the magnitude of the work which has been accomplished. Lord
Kitchener much regretted that time did not permit of his seeing the whole
corps, but he was very pleased to see a considerable proportion of officers
and men, and to find all in such good heart and so confidently imbued
with that grand spirit which has carried them through all their trials
and many dangerous feats of arms — a spirit which he is quite confident
they will maintain until they have taken their full share in completely
overthrowing their enemies.

** Boys," General Birdwood adds in his characteristic
way, " we may all well be proud to receive such a
message, and it is up to all of us to live up to it
and prove its truth."

The story of the last three months at Anzac may
be swiftly told. It was a struggle during September
and October to prepare for the coming winter months.
Quantities of wooden beams, and sheet-iron, and winter
equipment began to pour into Anzac. Preparations were
made for the removal of the hospitals and clearing
stations from the beach and from the beds of the creeks.

284 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

to higher ground. For the weather could no longer be
depended on, and the narrowness of the beach rendered
it imperative that all the stores should be moved, as the
waves would lash against the foot of the cliffs in the
sudden storms that arise in the ^gean — storms that are
the mariner's constant anxiety. Then at the end of
October the activity suddenly was modified. The
question of evacuation had brought a new commander
and Lord Kitchener to this front. A winter campaign
was in abeyance.

Engineers used to tell me that they did not see
where the wood was coming from to shore up the
trenches against the rains, and that they would all be
washed down into the gullies at the first storm. The
Australians had only a few day5'' experience of wet
weather, and not very heavy showers at that, in April,
when they had landed ; but Turkish farmers captured
told what might be expected. Ever ingenious, the troops
commenced collecting tins, and anything that would keep
their " possies " and dugouts dry. In some places great
caverns were dug into the side of hills by the battalions
of the 2nd Division, where they might be protected
from the storms and from the severest shelling. General
Monash had planned for the 4th Brigade a huge barracks
on the side of Cheshire Ridge — a wonderful piece of
engineering. The weather, though still fine, had become
decidedly colder. At night the wind was biting, and
rain early in November, gave a taste of what the condi-
tions were to be like at Christmas -time. Saps were
running with water ; the soft, clayey mud clung in clods
to the men's boots. The ist Division and the
Australian and New Zealand Divisions came back
gradually from the rest camp at Mudros — the men fit
again now, but the battalions still below strength in
point of numbers.

Hostilities had been confined almost entirely to mining
operations along the whole of the front. Mines and
countermines were exploded. In some places — particu-
larly at Quinn's Post — the tunnels had met, and an
underground battle had ensued. Once we had recon-
noitred a whole Turkish gallery, and found the sentries
nodding at their posts with the guard in a tunnel, arguing
and chattering away in a rapid, Ufiintelligible tongue.
These operations were not always accomplished with-

THE EVACUATION OF THE PENINSULA 285

out loss and severe casualties. Fumes overcame a
large party near Lone Pine^ and many lives were
lost, some in the efforts to rescue those who had
been suffocated in the mine tunnel. In one instance
the Turks exploded a mine that trapped some sappers
in a tunnel. After three days the men dug themselves
out, and appeared before their astonished and delighted
friends over the parapets of our trenches.

From one end of the position to the other, right in the
heart of the Turkish hills below the famous Sari Bair
ridge, infantry and engineers dug down under the
Turkish trenches. I remembeir talking to Lieut. -Colonel
Martyn, of the Divisional Engineers, about his plans. He
was considering the possibility of going down 40 feet,
tunnelling right through the hill at German Officers'
Trench, and in one great effort breaking through in
the rear of the Turkish position. If they went deep
enough there seemed little likelihood of the Turks
hearing the picking and tapping. Whatever may have
been the eventual plan, the end of November and the
first week of December saw most pf the energies
of the men engaged in making storm shelters for them-
selves. Thau period was one fra,ught with misfortune
for the troops.

Whether the Turkish reconnaissance on the 27th
November was intended as a mere bluff, or whether the
Turks were anxious to discover if an offensive was in
preparation by us, they attacked in thin lines all along
the Anzac position. They were driven back with severe
loss, and hardly a man reached our parapets.

On the 29th November the Turks commenced a
terrible bombardment with heavy howitzers — 8, 9, and
lo-in. pieces — of the Lone Pine trenches, which were
pounded and flattened. A series of mines were exploded
under them, and we had to evacuate portions of this
dearly held post. But the Turks dared make no fresh
attack. Our casualties were heavy.

The day previously a snowstorm had swept down
on the north wind that wrought havoc with the shipping
in the Cove. Pinnaces broke from their moorings and
barges went ashore and were smashed. How wonderful
the hills on the morning of the 29th, covered with a
snow mantle, which astonished the Australians, the great
majority of whom were experiencing their first snow-

286 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

storm ! Icicles hung from the trenches — the sentries
stamped up and down. The wind howled down the
gullies, that were soon turned into morasses ; the trenches
were ankle -deep in mud. For three days the frost
continued, but the troops were in good spirits and fairly
comfortable. Many of the men suffered frost-bite, but
on the third day of December the sun shone and the
conditions had materially improved.

And now, in this strange eventful story comes the
last stage of all. Though the decision for the evacuation
was taken in November, the troops guessed nothing of
it even up to a week before it took place. They had
no realization that the series of very quiet evenings, when
scarcely a shot was fired along the whole of the
5 -mile front that Anzac now comprised, had in them any
definite end. It was all part of the plan conceived by
General Birdwood (now commanding the whole Gallipoli
forces in place of General Monro) for beginning the
education of the Turks to our leaving. But the
main proposition to be faced was how to remove
200 guns and hundreds of tons of stores, equipment, and
munitions and men, and keep up a semblance of normal
activity of throwing supplies into Anzac. Cloudy skies
and a first -phase moon helped at night, when the guns
were stealthily drawn from their covered pits. There
was no unusual gathering of transports by day, though
the waters at night might resemble the days of the
early landing, when the pinnaces and trawlers had
crowded inshore with tows. The tows they removed
now contained arms and munitions. More often they
contained men declared not absolutely fit.

It was often remarked in the trenches, as December
began, that it was an easy matter now to get a spell.
The very slightest sickness was sufficient excuse to send
men to the beach, from whence all the serious cases had
long ago been removed, and so to the transports or
hospital ships, as the case might be. Yet during the
day, when Turkish aeroplanes hung menacingly over
the position, observers might have seen bodies of men
marching up the tortuous sap to the trenches. There
was more indication of permanency, even of attack, than
of evacuation.

So on the i oth December there was left at Anzac
barely 20,000 men — very fit, very sound, and very

THE EVACUATION OF THE PENINSULA 287

determined men. It banted nine days to the day, of
evacuation. Still there was no hint that any unusual
step was anticipated. Some regiments were removed
for special duty — they anticipated another fight, even
a new landing. They left by night. They arrived
at dawn at Mudros, safe from the firing-line and Anzac
for ever. The greater part of the army service, engineer,
and hospital units had left with their equipment. They
came down the deep saps from the south and from the
north, right from under those hills from the crest of
which the Turks could look down almost to the heart
of our position. No longer could we hope to make a
firm resistance to the Turkish attack, which it had been
hoped would develop in November. Rearguard actions
were contemplated and evolved, to resist any onslaught.
On the beach the heavy ammunition was being loaded
on to lighters. All except nine worn guns had gone.
Two were left still, almost in the firing-line, where they
had been from the first. Quantities of stores and equip-
ment were destroyed on the i6th and 17th rather than
they should fall into the hands of the Turks. The
" archives " of the brigades and divisions had been
removed too, for some time. The administrative dug-
outs were bare of books, typewriters, and correspondence.
Final orders had been issued. It was now only a
question of supervision and Staff work to get the men
away. And what Staff work it was on the part of
General Birdwood to remove that whole army of 40,000
men (I include those troops brought out of the trenches
early in December) from such a perilous position ! One
may write in terms of the highest praise of the demeanour
and discipline of the men in those last days, but it is
to the leaders that must fall inevitably the greatest
praise — ^the leaders of the army and the leaders of the
men: men such as Brigadier-General White, the Chief
of Staff to General Birdwood, Brigadier -Generals Antill,
Monash, Johnston, Forsyth, and Holmes, who worked
on the beach till the very last.

Thousands of men were removed from Anzac during*
the night of the i8th. They came down rapidly through
the gullies, silently, and with empty magazines. They
embarked swiftly, according to a carefully adjusted time-
table. By morning the sea was calm and passive. A
sudden storm was the one thing now which might yet

288 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

cause havoc to the plans. It was during this last day
that the situation was so tense, Turkish observers might,
one thought, have easily detected the thinly held lines
and the diminished stores on shore. The enemy remained
in utter ignorance. They would have seen — as the
gunners surely saw from their observation positions
on Gaba Tepe and Kelid Bahr — parties of Australians
(" smoking parties/* as they were called) idling about
in saps and on exposed hills, meant to attract the fire
of the Turkish guns ; for " Beachy Bill " could never
resist what the troops called " a smile " at parties on
the beach. The destruction of stores continued. To
the enemy, Anzac firing-line was normal that day.

At dusk on the 19th began the final phase of this
delicate and extraordinary operation. A force of 6,000
men were holding back 50,000 Turkish troops. The
communications at Anzac were like a fan : they
all led out from the little Cove in the very centre
of the position. They went as far as 3 rhiles
on the left (the north), and half that distance
to Chatham's Post on the right (the south), almost
to Gaba Tepe. In the centre they were short and very
steep. They led up to the Nek and to Russell's Top and
to Quinn's Post. From these points the Turks could have
looked down into the heart of our position. If that
heart were to pulse on steadily until suddenly it stopped
altogether, it must be protected till the last. Therefore
the flanks of the position were evacuated first.

From the Nek to the beach it was a descent of some
500 yards — a descent that might be accomplished in ten
minutes. It was the head of our second line of defence
that had been so hastily drawn up in the early days.
There was now the last stand to be made.

Three cc' amns. A, B, and C, held the Anzac line ;
2,000 picked men in each, and the whole unit chosen
men from infantry battalions and regiments of Light
Horse. The last were the "die hards." Darkness
spread rapidly after five o'clock over the front hills,
wrapping them in gloom. The sea was still calm.
Clouds drifted across the face of the moon, half -hidden
in mist. Already men were leaving the outskirts of our
line. They would take hours to reach the beach, there
joining' up with other units come from the centre, and
closer positions to the shore. They marched with

THE EVACUATION OF THE PENINSULA 289

magazines empty : they had not even bayonets fixed.
They might not smoke or speak. They filed away,
Indian fashion, through the hills into the big sap, on
to the northern piers on Ocean Beach. Their moving
forms were clearly distinguishable in the glimmer from
the crescent moon. The hills looked sullen and black.
No beacon lights from dugouts burned. That first column
began to leave Anzac shore at eight o'clock on the
transports that were swiftly gliding from the shore.
Another two hours and some thousands of men had
gone. Parties of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade had left
Destroyer Hill ; most of the ist Light Horse had evacu-
ated No. I Post, the 4th Australian Brigade the line
on Cheshire Ridge, the New Zealand Mounted Rifles,
Yeomanry, and Maoris the famous Hill 60, position.

But still small detachments, 150 to 170 in each, be-
longing to these seasoned regiments and brigades
remained at their post, holding quietly the Anzac line.
Midnight. The head of the second column reached
the Cove and the piers so often shelled. Those on the
beach knew that only 2,000 lone men were holding back
the enemy along the front. They were in isolated
groups : the New Zealand Infantry on the Sari Bair ridge,
the 20th Infantry at the Nek, the 17th Infantry at
iQuinh's, the 23rd and 24th Infantry at Lone Pine, the
6th Light Horse Regiment at Chatham's Post, on the
extreme right, down by the shore. On the beach there
was no confusion. Units concentrated at fixed points
in the gullies. They left at a certain time. They arrived
just to the moment, marching hard. They found the
Navy ready to clear them to the transports. There must
be no hitch : there was none. On either flank could be
heard a feeble rifle fire. Overhead came the answering
" psing-psing " of the Turkish bullets.

At 1.30 began the withdrawal of the " die hards " from
the points they were holding with such a terrible peril
hanging over them. A bomb burst at " the Apex/' on the
slopes of Chunak Bair, with a resonant thud, with the rapid
answer following from the Turkish rifles. But nothing
else happened. What could happen ? The New Zealand
garrison had gone from this dearly-won ridge, with a
parting message left under a stone for the Turks. By
two o'clock the small parties of the 19th Infantry at
Pope's, the i8th Infantry at Courtney's Post, and the

290 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

17th Infantry at Quinn's Post, were still further reduced.
A few hundred desperate fighters were hurrying in from
the outposts of the Hne on the left and the right,
each firing a shot as they left. The right stole away
at 2.30 from Chatham's Post, men of the 6th Light
Horse. Still there were " die hards " of the ist Brigade.,
and the 7th Battalion next them, in Leane's Trench
up to Lone Pine^ held by the 23rd and 24th
Infantry of the 2nd Division. Here the Turks in
their trenches were within 1 5 feet of them. There
were a few score of determined men left at Quinn's Post,
a strong party on the Nek, but yet not 800 men in all
holding the whole front. Yet our line from end to end
was spluttering. Ah I that was through a device where-
by the ^""ring sand from an emptying bucket, fired
an Australian rifle.

Swiftly the fate of Anzac was being decided now. All
the trenches at Lone Pine were deserted by 3.15 a.m.
The garrisons at Quinn's and Pope's Hill — the ever-
impregnable post of our centre^were silently, swiftly
moving down Monash Gully into Shrapnel Gully, through
the sap, and towards the longed-for beach. The
Anzac line was contracting rapidly. The moon slid
behind some clouds as the party passed the deserted
walls and tanks. Empty dugouts gaped Uke bottomless
pits on either side of their path. Suddenly behind on the
heights, like a thunderclap, there was a roar, as a vivid
flash lit the sky, and tongues of flame rolled along the
hills. The whole of the Nek was thus blown up by
an immense series of mines. Three and a half tons of
Amenol, placed there by the 5th Company of Australian
Engineers, were used to throw a barrier across this
entrance. The sight, awful in its meaning to the army
now embarked, lent speed to the steps of those brave
rearguards. From off that same Nek the Australians
were rushing down the track to the boats waiting by
the piers. The Turkish fire broke forth, growing, swell-
ing in volume, as if a door were suddenly opened on a
raging battle. Guns from the warships began to pound
the hills. It was not yet four o'clock, but the dawn was
creeping in, and with it the Turks to our trenches.
Fearful of a trap, they began their exploration of Anzac
as 'the guns of the Navy completed the destruction of
our few guns on the beach (that had fired till the end)

THE EVACUATION OF. THE PENINSULA 291

and on the piers, and swept the ranks of the advancing*
enemy.

Suvia Bay was also evacuated on the same evening,
and with the same success, for, as the news broke on
an astonished world, it was reported— and will be re-
corded— as one of the most extraordinary feats of naval
and military history, that only three men at Anzac and
two at Suvla Bay had been wounded in this astonishing
masterpiece of strategy.

Before the closing days of the year, the English and
French positions at Cape Helles had been abandoned
also, and the Gallipoli campaign was brought to a sudden
but very deliberate close. I have suggested that there
were strong enough reasons for its commencement, and
others for its conclusion. As to the failure, it can
but be attributed to the lack of men, the lack of re-
inforcements, the lack of munitions. When and where
these armies and reinforcements should have been landed,
the campaign shows significantly enough. But in the
contemplation of this failure there comes a not un-
pleasant feeling of achievement, the full significance of
which has not yet been recognized, and will not be
fully understood till the Turks lay down their arms
and sue for peace. The exhaustion of the Turkish nation
and its army during that Gallipoli campaign was great,
and how near to collapse historians will discover.
The new Russian offensive in the Caucasus found it ill
prepared to resist. Over 250,000 casualties were suffered
by the Turks in the Dardanelles ; a great mass of
the Turkish mercantile fleet was lost. And still their
coast lies as open as ever to^ invasion, so that large
armies are compelled to be kept along it.

No one can regard the evacuation (whatever relief
it gave to the army) without a tinge of sadness and
bitterness at relinquishing positions that had been so
dearly won, to the troops engaged most of all. But
it stands to the credit of the Australians that they took
the situation calmly as it developed. The army made a
masterly retreat, after suffering 40,000 casualties, of
whom 8,000 had been killed. But the Commonwealth
and the Dominion of New Zealand offered fresh battaUons
to the Motherland as the only sign on the changing
of the tide of battle.

In one day — 25th April— Australia attained N.a,tionhood

292 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

by the heroism of her noble sons. " Anzac " will ever
form the front page in her history, and a unique and
vivid chapter in the annals of the Empire. The very
vigour of their manhood, the impetuosity of their
courage, carried slopes that afterwards in cold blood,
seemed impregnable. And they held what they won,
and proved themselves an army fit to rank alongside
any that a World Empire has produced. But yet in all
their fighting there was no bitterness — not against the
Turks — but a terrible, earnest fearlessness that boded
ill for lurking enemies. They found a staunch and
worthy foe, who, whatever their treatment of the people
within their own borders was, abstained from the
brutalities of the Germans.

Above all, the young army won its way into the
hearts and confidence of the British Navy and the Indians
from so near their own shores. They gained a respect
for themselves and for discipHne. They formed for
the generations of new armies yet unborn on Australian
soil, traditions worthy of the hardy, freeborn race living
under the cloudless skies of the Southern Cross. Open-
hearted, ever generous, true as gold, and hard as steel,
Australia's first great volunteer army, and its valorous
deeds, will live in history while the world lasts.

APPENDIX I

DISTINCTIONS FOR GALLANTRY AND SERVICES IN
THE FIELD

The following awards for services rendered in connection with
military operations in the field were made by His Majesty the
King to members of the Austrahan Imperial Force.

THE VICTORIA CROSS

Captain Alfred John Shout, ist Battalion, Australian Imperial Force (New
South Wales).

For most conspicuous bravery at Lone Pine trenches, in the Gallipoli
Peninsula. On the morning of 9th August 191 5, with a very smal
party, Captain Shout charged down trenches strongly occupied by the
enemy, and personally threw four bombs among them, killing eight and
routing the remainder. In the afternoon of the same day, from the position
gained in the morning, he captured a further length of trench under similar
conditions, and continued personally to bomb the enemy at close range
under very heavy fire, until he was severely wounded, losing his right hand
and left eye. This most gallant officer has since succumbed to his
injuries.

Lieutenant William John Symons, 7th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force
(Victoria).

For most conspicuous bravery on the night of Sth-gth August 1915,
at Lone Pine trenches, in the Gallipoli Peninsula. He was in com-
mand of the right section of the newly captured trenches held by his
battalion, and repelled several counter-attacks with great coolness. At
about 5 a.m. on 9th August a series of determined attacks were made
by the enemy on an isolated sap, and six officers were in succession killed
or severely wounded, a portion of the sap being lost. Lieutenant Symons
then led a charge and retook the lost sap, shooting two Turks with his
revolver. The sap was under hostile fire from three sides, and Lieutenant
Symons withdrew some 15 yards to a spot where some overhead cover could
be obtained, and in the face of heavy fire built up a sand barricade. The
enemy succeeded in setting fire to the fascines and woodwork of the
head-cover, but Lieutenant Symons extinguished the fire and rebuilt
the barricade. His coolness and determination finally compelled the
enemy to discontinue their attacks.

Lieutenant Frederick Harold Tube, 7th Battalion, Australian Imperial
Force (Victoria).

For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty at Lone Pine
trenches, in the Gallipoli Peninsula, on 9th August 1915. In the early

293

2 94 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

morning the enemy made a determined counter-attack on the centre of
the newly captured trench held by Lieutenant Tubb, They advanced
up a sap and blew in a sandbag barricade, leaving only one foot of it
standing ; but Lieutenant Tubb led his men back, repulsed the enemy,
and rebuilt the barricade. Supported by strong bombing parties, the
enemy succeeded in twice again blowing in the barricade, but on each
occasion Lieutenant Tubb, although wounded in the head and arm, held
his ground with the greatest coolness and rebuilt it, and finally succeeded
in maintaining his position under very heavy bomb fire.

Second Lieutenant Hugo Vivian Hope Throssell, loth Light Horse
Regiment, Australian Imperial Force (Western Australia).

For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty during operations
on the Kaiakij Aghala (Hill 60), in the Gallipoli Peninsula, on 29th and
30th August 1915. Although severely wounded in several places during
a counter-attack, he refused to leave his post or to obtain medical assist-
ance till all danger was past, when he had his wounds dressed and returned
to the firing-line until ordered out of action by the medical officer. By his
personal courage and example he kept up the spirits of his party and was
largely instrumental in saving the situation at a critical period.

No. 384 Corporal Alexander Stewart Burton, 7th Battalion, Australian

Imperial Force, and
No. 2130 Corporal William Dunstan, 7th Battalion, Australian Imperial

Force (Victoria).

For most conspicuous bravery at Lone Pine trenches, in the Gallipoli
Peninsula, on 9th August 1915. In the early morning the enemy made a
determined counter-attack on the centre of the newly captured trench held
by Lieutenant Tubb, Corporals Burton and Dunstan, and a few men.
They advanced up a sap and blew in a sandbag barricade, leaving only
one foot of it standing ; but Lieutenant Tubb, with the two corporals,
repulsed the enemy and rebuilt the barricade. Supported by strong
bombing parties, the enemy twice again succeeded in blowing in the
barricade, but on each occasion they were repulsed and the barricade
rebuilt, although Lieutenant Tubb was wounded in the head and arm,
and Corporal Burton was killed by a bomb while most gallantly building
up the parapet under a hail of bombs.

No. 943 Private John Hamilton, ist Battalion, Australian Imperial Force
(New South Wales).

For most conspicuous bravery on 9th August 1915, in the Gallipoli
Peninsula. During a heavy bomb attack by the enemy on the newly
captured position at Lone Pine, Private Hamilton, with utter disregard to
personal safety, exposed himself under heavy fire on the parados, in order
to secure a better fire position against the enemy's bomb-throwers. His
coolness and daring example had an immediate effect. The defence was
encouraged and the enemy driven off with heavy loss.

No. 465 Lance-Corporal Albert Jacka, 14th Battalion Australian Imperial
Force (Victoria).

For most conspicuous bravery on the night of the I9th-20th May 19151
at "Courtney's Post," Gallipoli Peninsula. Lance-Corporal Jacka, while
holding a portion of our trench with four other men, was heavily attacked.
When all except himself were killed or wounded, the trench was rushed

APPENDIX I 295

and occupied by seven Turks. Lance-Corporal Jacka at once most
gallantly attacked them single-handed, and killed the whole party, five by
rifle fire and two with the bayonet.

No. 958 Private Leonard Keysor, ist Battalion, Australian Imperial Force
(New South Wales).

For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty at Lone Pine
trenches, in the Gallipoli Peninsula. On 7th August 1915 he was in
a trench which was being heavily bombed by the enemy. He picked up
two live bombs and threw them back at the enemy at great risk to his
own life, and continued throwing bombs, although himself wounded,
thereby saving a portion of the trench which it was most important to
hold. On 8th August, at the same place. Private Keysor successfully
bombed the enemy out of a position from which a temporary mastery over
his own trench had been obtained, and was again wounded. Although
marked for hospital, he declined to leave, and volunteered to throw bombs
for another company which had lost its bomb-throwers. He continued to
bomb the enemy till the situation was relieved.

THE MOST HONOURABLE ORDER OF THE BATH

To be a Knight Commander.

Major-General William Throsby Bridges, C.M.G., General Officer
Commanding 1st Australian Division (since died of wounds).

To be Additional Members of the Military Division of the Third Class,
or Companions.

Colonel (temporary Major-General) H. G. Chauvel, CM.G., Commanding
Australian Mounted Division.

Colonel (temporary Surgeon-General) Neville Reginald Howse, V.C,
Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Staff.

Colonel (temporary Brigadier-General) the Honourable James Whiteside
McCay, 2nd Infantry Brigade.

Colonel (temporary Brigadier-General) F. C. Hughes, commanding 3rd Light
Horse Brigade.

Colonel (temporary Brigadier-General) John Monash, 4th Infantry Brigade.

Colonel (temporary Brigadier-General) Joseph John Talbot Hobbs,
Commanding Divisional Artillery.

Colonel (temporary Brigadier-General) C. B. B. White, D.S.O., Chief of
Staff, 1st Australian Army Corps.

Lieut. -Colonel Harold Pope, i6th Battalion (South and Western
Australia).

Lieut. -Colonel Richard Edmond Courtney, 14th Battalion (Victoria).
Lieut. -Colonel George Jamieson Johnston, 2nd Field Artillery Brigade.

Lieut. -Colonel James Harold Cannan, 15th Battalion (Queensland and
Tasmania).

2 96 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

Lieut. -Colonel CHARLES Rosenthal, 3rd Field Artillery Brigade.

Lieut. -Colonel Gramville John Burkage, 13th Battalion (New South
Wales).

Lieut. -Colonel Ernest IIillier Smith, 12th Battalion (South Australia,
Western Australia, Tasmania).

THE MOST DISTINGUISHED ORDER OF SAINT MICHAEL
AND SAINT GEORGE

To be Additional Members of the Third Class, or Companions.

Colonel the Honourable Joseph Livesley Beeston, Army Medical Corps.

Colonel (temporary Brigadier-General) G. DE L. Ryrie, Commanding 2nd
Light Horse Brigade (New South Wales).

Lieut. -Colonel Alfred Joshua Bennett, D.S.O., ist Battalion (New
South Wales).

Lieut. -Colonel Henry Gordon Bennett, 6th Battalion (Victoria).

Lieut. -Colonel W. E. H. Cass, Commanding 2nd Infantry Battalion.

Lieut. -Colonel Sydney Ernest Christian, ist Field Artillery Brigade.

Lieut. -Colonel C. M. Macnaghten, Commanding 4th Infantry Battalion
(New South Wales).

Lieut.-Colonel Jeremy Taylor Marsh, Divisional Train, Army Service
Corps.

Lieut.-Colonel T. M. Martin, Commanding 2nd Australian General Hospital.

Lieut.-Colonel Robert Keylock Owen, 3rd Infantry Battalion (New
South Wales).

Lieut.-Colonel David Sydney Wanliss, 5th Infantry Battalion (Victoria).

Major (temporary Lieut.-Colonel) D. M. McConaghy, Commanding
3rd Battalion (New South Wales).

Major (temporary Lieut.-Colonel) James Campbell Robertson, 9th
Battalion (Queensland).

Major Alfred Joseph Bessell-Browne, D.S.O., 3rd Field Artillery
Brigade.

Major Edmund Alfred Drake Brockmak, nth Battalion (Western
Australia).

Major Giffard Hamilton Macarthur King, ist Field Artillery Brigade.

Major Reginald Lee Rex Rabett, ist Field Artillery Brigade.

Major George Ingram Stevenson, 2nd Field Artillery Brigade.

Major J. L. Whitham, Second in Command, of 12th Battalion (South and
Western Australia and Tasmania).

THE DISTINGUISHED SERVICE ORDER

To be Companions .

Rev. W. E. Dexter (Chaplain 4lh Class), 2nd Infantry Brigade (Victoria).

Rev. J. Fahev (Chaplain 4th Class), 3rd Infantry Brigade (Queensland, South
Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania).

APPENDIX I 297

Lieut. -Colonel Walter Ramsay McNicoli., 6th Australian Infantry
Battalion (Victoria).

On the night of 25th-26th April 191 5, during operations near Gaba
Tepe, for repeatedly exhibiting great gallantry and skill in the command of
his battalion.

Lieut. -Colonel Cyril Brudenell Bingham White, Royal Australian
Garrison Artillery, Staff.

During the operations near Gaba Tepe on 25th April, 1915, and
subsequently for his distinguished service co-ordinating Staff work, and in
reorganization after the inevitable dislocation and confusion arising from
the first landing operations. He displayed exceptional ability.

Major Charles Henry Brand, 3rd Infantry Brigade (Australian Forces).

On 25th April 1915, during operations in the neighbourhood of Gaba
Tepe, for conspicuous gallantry and ability in organizing stragglers under
heavy fire, and for organizing and leading an attack resulting in the
disablement of three of the enemy's guns. Major Brand himself conveyed
messages on many occasions under fire during emergencies.

Major W. L. 11. Burgess, 3rd Field Artillery Brigade.

Major James Samuel Denton, nth Australian Infantry Battalion (Western
Australia).

During the operations in the neighbourhood of Gaba Tepe on the
25th April 1915, for valuable services in obtaining and transmitting
information to ships' guns and mountain batteries, and subsequently for
holding a trench, with about 20 men, for over six days, repulsing
several determined attacks.

Major Gus Eberling, 8th Battalion (Victoria).

Major James Heane, 4th Australian Infantry Battalion (New South Wales).
On 1st May 1915, during the operations near Gaba Tepe, for displaying
conspicuous gallantry in leading his company to the support of a small
force which, in an isolated trench, was without means of reinforcement,
replenishment, or retreat. He attained his object at a heavy sacrifice.

Major Herbert William Lloyd, ist Field Artillery Brigade.

Major Francis Maxwell de Frayer Lorenzo, loth Battalion (South
Australia).

Major William Owen Mansbridge, i6th Australian Infantry Battalion
(Western Australia).

On 25th April 1915, during operations near Gaba Tepe, for exceptional
gallantry and resource during the first assault, and again on the 2nd and
3rd May during an assault on a difficult position.

Major (temporary Lieut.-Colonel) A. M. Martyn, Commanding Officer
Engineers, First Australian Division.

Major Robert Rankine, 14th Australian Infantry Battalion (Victoria).

On the night of 26th-27th April 191 5, during operations in the neigh-
bourhood of Gaba Tepe, for gallantly leading an assault resulting in the
capture of a most important post, and subsequently for holding that
position against repeated attacks for five days without relief.

Major Arthur Borlase Stevens, 2nd Battalion (New South Wales).

298 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

Major (temporary Lieut. -Colonel) Leslie Edward Tilney, i6th Battalion
(South Australia, Western Australia).

Captain Arthur Graham Butler, Australian Army Medical Corps
(attached gth Australian Infantry Battalion).

During operations in the neighbourhood of Gaba Tepe on 25th April

1915 and subsequent dates, for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty

in attending wounded under heavy fire, continuously displaying courage of

high order.

Captain Cecil Arthur Callaghan, 2nd Battery, Australian Field Artillery,

Australian Imperial Force (New South Wales).

For conspicuous gallantry and ability on 12th July 191 5, during an
action on the Gallipoli Peninsula. As forward observing officer, he
advanced with the first line of infantry and established telephone com-
munication with his battery from the captured hostile trenches. During
the day he continued to advance under heavy fire, sending back accurate
reports, valuable not only to the guns, but also to the corps staff.

Captain Cecil Duncan Sasse, ist Battalion, Australian Imperial Force (New
South Wales).

For conspicuous gallantry and determination during the attack on Lone
Pine, Gallipoli Peninsula, on 6th-7th August 1915, when he led several
bayonet charges on trenches occupied by the enemy, resulting in substantial
gains. Captain Sasse was wounded three times, but remained on duty.

Captain (temporary Major) Alan Humphrey Scott, 4th Battalion,
Australian Imperial Force (New South Wales).

For conspicuous gallantry in the attack on Lone Pine, Gallipoli Penin-
sula, on 6th-7th August 1915. He held on to a very exposed position
till all the wounded had been removed. Later, after a heavy bombarding
attack in superior force had compelled him to retire, he led a bayonet
charge which re-took and held a position, in face of the enemy's enfilading
machine-gun fire. This position was of great importance, as linking up
the positions captured on either flank.

THE MILITARY CROSS
Major J. T. M'COLL.

Captain J. S. S. Anderson, Staff, ist Infantry Brigade.

Captain M. H. Cleeve, 4th Infantry Brigade.

Captain G. Cooper, 14th Infantry Battalion (Victoria).

Captain J. E. DoDS, Medical Officer, 5th Light Horse (Queensland).

Captain J. Hill, 15th Infantry Battalion (Queensland and Tasmania).

Captain Owen Glendower Howell-Price, 3rd Battalion, Australian
Imperial Force (New South Wales).

For conspicuous gallantry on 7th August 191 5, in the attack on Lone
Pine, Gallipoli Peninsula. He showed the greatest bravery in leading an
attack against the Turkish trenches, frequently rallying his men under
heavy fire, and restoring order at critical moments. He killed three
Turks with his own hands.
Captain (temporary Major) R. L. Leane, llth Infantry Battalion (Western
Australia).

APPENDIX I 299

Captain G. McLaughlim, ist Field Artillery Brigade (New South Wales).

Captain Jasper Kenneth Gordon Magee, 4th Australian Infantry Battalion
(New South Wales).

On 25th April 1915 and subsequent dates, during operations in the
neighbourhood of Gaba Tepe, for gallantry in leading his men, and
exhibiting sound judgment and ability on several occasions, under a
constant and harassing fire.
Captain J. H. F. Pain, 2nd Infantry Battalion (New South Wales).

Captain Clifford Russell Richardson, 2nd Australian Infantry Battalion
(New South Wales).

On 25th April 1915, during operations near Gaba Tepe, for displaying
great coolness and courage, and leading a charge against superior numbers
under a heavy cross fire, resulting in the flight of the enemy in disorder.

Captain James William Albert Simpson, 13th Australian Infantry Battalion
(New South Wales).

On 2nd May 191 5, during an attack in the neighbourhood of Gaba
Tepe, for showing conspicuous bravery and skill in directing the battalion
through unreconnoitred scrub. He was conspicuously active in con-
solidating the position gained under heavy fire.

Captain W. C. N. Waite, 3rd Field Artillery Brigade (Composite).

Lieutenant (temporary Captain) Heinrich Bachtold, ist Field Company,
Australian Engineers.

Lieutenant G. N. Croker, Divisional Eng- leers.

Lieutenant Alfred Plumley Derham, 5th Australian Infantry Battalion
(Victoria).

On 25th April 1915, and subsequently during operations in the
neighbourhood of Gaba Tepe, for acting with great bravery and ability,
and continuing to do duty until 30th April, although shot through the
thigh on 25th April.
Lieutenant Charles Fortkscue, 9th Australian Infantry Battalion (Queens-
land).

From 25th to 29th April 191 5, during operations near Gaba Tepe, for
conspicuous gallantry. He twice led charges against the enemy, and
rendered good service in collecting reinforcements and organizing
stragglers.
Lieutenant R. G. Hamilton, Signal Company.

Lieutenant (temporary Captain) G. H. L. Harris, ist Light Horse Regiment
(New South Wales).

Lieutenant (temporary Captain) H.James, nth Infantry Battalion (Western
Australia).

Lieutenant (temporary Captain) J. E. Lee, 13th Infantry Battalion (New
South Wales).

Lieutenant Reginald George Legge, 13th Australian Infantry Battalion
(New South Wales).

On 1st and 2nd May 1915, during operations in the neighbourhood
of Gaba Tepe, for conspicuous ability and courage in the successful
handling of his machine gun section. On several occasions he inflicted
severe losses on the enemy, and was himself severely wounded in the neck.

300 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

Lieutenant Eric Edwin Longfield Li.oyd, ist Battalion, Australian
Imperial Force (New South Wales).

For exceptionally gallant conduct on 5th June 1915, during the opera-
tions in the Gallipoli Peninsula, in personally leading a party of 100 men
to take a trench from which an enemy machine gun was severely harassing
his position. Although unable to remove the machine gun owing to the
heavy head cover, he destroyed it with rifle fire. He personally shot two
Turks with his own pistol, and, with his party, inflicted severe losses on the
enemy.

Lieutenant Terence Patrick McSharry, 2nd Australian Light Horse
Regiment (Queensland).

For exceptional bravery and resource on many occasions since 25th
April 1915, especially on night of 28th-29th May, during operations in
the neighbourhood of Gaba Tepe, Dardanelles, in organizing several
assaults, and at great personal risk making several valuable reconnaissances.
He was again brought to notice for gallant conduct on the night, 4th-5th
June.

Lieutenant N. Marshall, 5th Infantry Battalion (Victoria).

Lieutenant J. H. Mirams, 2nd Field Company, Engineers.

Lieutenant (temporary Captain) Uvedale Edward Parry-Okeden, ist
Australian Divisional Ammunition Park.

Lieutenant Percy John Ross, 7th Battery, Australian Imperial Force
(Queensland).

For conspicuous gallantry in the attack on Lone Pine on 6th and 7th
August, 1915, when he kept his gun in action for forty-eight hours, although
continuously attacked at close quarters by superior gun fire. His gun
emplacement was several times almost completely demolished, and he
himself was finally wounded. Lieutenant Ross rendered very valuable
assistance to the infantry in the attack through his determination to keep
his gun in action at all costs.

Lieutenant Alfred John Shout, ist Australian Infantry Battalion (New
South Wales).

On 27th April 191 5, during operations near Gaba Tepe, for showing
conspicuous courage and ability in organizing and leading his men in a
thick, bushy country, under very heavy fire. He frequently had to expose
himself to locate the enemy, and led a bayonet charge at a critical moment

Lieutenant S. E. Sinclair, ist Field Artillery Brigade (New South Wales).

Second Lieutenant E. T. Bazeley, 22nd Battalion (Victoria).

Second Lieutenant W. A. Moncur, 7th Infantry Battalion (Victoria).

Second Lieutenant R. I. Moore, 3rd Infantry Battalion (New South Wales).

Second Lieutenant R. T. Ramsay, 9th Field Ambulance.

No. 96 Sergeant-Major D. Smith, 5th Battalion, 2nd Australian Brigade
(Victoria).

On 8th May 19 15, during operations south of Krithia, for conspicuous
gallantry and good services in rallying and leading men forward to the
attack. Although wounded in both arms, he continued to direct his men,
setting a valuable example of devotion to duty.

APPENDIX I 301

THE DISTINGUISHED CONDUCT MEDAL
Second Lieutenant R. R. Chapman.
Second Lieutenant W. C. McCutcheon.
■ Lieutenant (temporary Captain) W. W. Meligan.

No. 6 Sergeant A. Anderson, 2nd Australian Infantry Battalion (New South
Wales).

For conspicuous gallantry on 25th April 191 5 and subsequent dates, during
the operations near Gaba Tepe, in assisting to reorganize small parties of
various battalions under heavy fire, and placing them in the firing line.
No. 74 Private T. Arnott, 1st Australian Infantry Battalion (New South
Wales).

For conspicuous gallantry on 30th May 191 5, in the neighbourhood of
Gaba Tepe, whilst serving in a machine gun section. Although engaged
by two hostile machine guns which demolished the emplacement, Private
Arnott served his gun whilst exposed to the enemy's fire until badly
wounded. One hostile machine gun was destroyed.
No. 189 Sergeant W. Ayling, nth Australian Infantry Battalion (Western
Australia).

On 25th April 1915, during operations near Gaba Tepe, for gallantry
in commanding his platoon after his officer had been wounded. When
compelled to retire he carried the wounded officer with him, and on
obtaining reinforcements again led his platoon to the attack.
Corporal G. Ball.

No. 43 Lance-Corporal H. A. Barker, 7th Battalion, Australian Imperial
Force (Victoria).

For conspicuous gallantry, ability, and resource on the 25th and 26th
April, 1915, near Gaba Tepe (Dardanelles). During the operations on
these two days, the officer, sergeant, and corporal of his machine gun
section, having been wounded, Corporal Barker assumed the command,
and continued working the guns under a heavy shell fire. At one time the
enemy actually succeeded in getting into the machine gun trench, but
were all killed. One after another the machine guns were rendered
useless by shell fire, but he collected portions of useless guns, and built
them up anew. Finally he was working with two guns only, composed of
parts of at least seven other guns.

Bombardier C. W. Baxter.

Private A. Bell.

No. 874 Sergeant C. E. Benson, 9th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force
(Queensland).

For gallant conduct and ability on the 25th April 191 5, at Gaba Tepe
(Dardanelles). With great courage and presence of mind he, on two
occasions, rallied and led forward again into the firing-line men whose
officers had all been killed or wounded, and who had suffered very heavy
losses. His fine example and devotion to duty were conspicuous.

No. 695 Private W. J. Birrell, C Company, 7th Battalion, 2nd Australian
Brigade (Victoria).

On 8th May 1915, during operations near Krithia, for distinguished
conduct, in collecting and organizing men who had become detached, and
leading them to a weak flank of the firing-line.

302 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

No. 170 Lance-Corporal P. Black, i6th Australian Infantry Battalion (South
Australia, Western Australia).

On the night of 2nd-3rd May 1915, during operations near Gaba Tepe,
for exceptional gallantry. After all his comrades in his machine gun
section had been killed or wounded, and although surrounded by the enemy,
he fired all available ammunition and finally brought his gun out of action.

Corporal H. Brennan.

No. 997 Private L. W. Burnett, Australian Army Medical Corps.

P'rom 25th April to 5th May 1915, during operations near Gaba Tepe,
for exceptionally gallant work and devotion to duty under heavy fire.

No. 1250 Private D. II. Campigli, 8th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force
(Victoria).

For gallant conduct on the 25th and 26th April 1915, near Gaba Tepe
(Dardanelles), when, with a small detachment, which was retiring on the
main body, he, on two occasions, carried in a wounded man under
heavy fire.

No. 119 Lance-Corporal F. R. Cawley, isth Battalion, Australian Imperial
Force (Queensland, Tasmania).

For conspicuous gallantry on the night of the 9th-ioth May 191 5, near
Gaba Tepe (Dardanelles). During a sortie from Quinn's Post, Lance-
Corporal Cawley, accompanied by another non-commissioned officer,
advanced with great coolness and courage past the first line of the enemy's
trenches to a tent some distance in the rear. They killed all the occupants,
and cut the telephone wires which connected it with the fire-trenches, thus
preventing communication from the rear.

No. 66 Lance-Corporal V. Cawley, No. 2 Field Ambulance, ist Australian
Division.

For conspiaious gallantry on 25th April 191 5, and subsequently during
landing operations in the neighbourhood of Gaba Tepe. He advanced
under heavy rifle and shrapnel fire and spent the day attending to wounded
men. He repeatedly, during the following days, brought wounded men in
over ground swept by the enemy's fire.

No. 182 Sergeant W. A. Connell, 12th Australian Infantry Battalion
(Western Australia).

On 25th April 1915, during operations near Gaba Tepe, for gallantly
attacking an entrenched position and an enemy's machine gun.

No. 94 Staff Sergeant-Major M. E. E. Corbett, isth Australian Infantry
Battalion (Queensland).

On 3rd May 191 5, during operations near Gaba Tepe, for exceptional
gallantry in serving his machine gun after he had been wounded, until it
was put out of action, and again for rallying men and leading them to a
second attack, retrieving a difficult situation.

No. 1403 Private M. D. Cowtan, ist Australian Casualty Clearing Hospital.
For conspicuous good work on 25th April 1915, and subsequently
during the landing operations in the neighbourhood of Gaba Tepe. He
was indefatigable during the first four days in giving aid and carrying
water to the wounded, and his unswerving courage under fire was
invaluable in its effect.

APPENDIX I 303

No. 733 Lance-Corporal J. Craven, 15th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force
(Queensland, Tasmania).

For conspicuous gallantry on the 27th April 1915, near Gaba Tepe
(Dardanelles), when, under a heavy shell and machine-gun fire, he carried
water and food to the men in the front trenches. He also assisted four
wounded men into shelter, and, later on, he exhibited the greatest coolness
and courage in voluntarily carrying messages under heavy fire and at great
personal risk.

Sergeant R. C. Crawford.

No. 712 Sergeant N. A. Cross, 13th Australian Infantry Battalion (New South
Wales).

For conspicuous gallantry on 9th May 1915, during operations near
Gaba Tepe, in taking an enemy's trench. Out of a party of 40 men to
which he belonged, only 12 reached their objective. On the officer in
command being wounded, he endeavoured to assist him back, but the
officer was again shot and killed. Sergeant Cross then immediately
returned to the forward position.

Lance-Corporal F. P. Curran.

No. 457 Lance-Corporal C. Davis, 1st Battalion, Australian Imperial Force
(New South Wales).

For great gallantry on the 5th June 1915, during the operations near
Gaba Tepe (Dardanelles). He was one of a small party who, led by an
officer, and under a heavy fire, made a direct attack on a machine gun,
which was destroyed.

— Driver G. Dean, Australian Divisional Signal Company.

On 8th May X915, during operations near Krithia, for distinguished
gallantry. Was detailed to accompany four officers to the firing-line to
lay telephone wire. Owing to the heavy fire only one officer reached the
position. Driver Dean kept up constant communication with brigade
headquarters until 3 a.m. on 9th May, when the remaining officer was
wounded. Alone, he assisted this officer back and attended other
wounded men, but never neglected his duties on the telephone.

No. 926 Private S. DIAMOND, 6th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force
(Victoria).

For conspicuous gallantry and ability on the 25th and 26th April 191 5,
near Gaba Tepe (Dardanelles). When, on one occasion during the
operations, most of the officers having been killed or wounded, and part
of the line having commenced to retire, Private Diamond showed the
greatest courage and decision of character in assisting to stop the retire-
ment, and in leading the men forward again under a heavy fire. He also
frequently carried messages over open ground swept by a heavy fire, and
exhibited a splendid example of devotion to duty.

No. 744 Private H. Edelsten, isth Battalion, Australian Imperial Force
(Queensland, Tasmania).

For conspicuous gallantry on the 25th AprU 1915, near Gaba Tepe
(Dardanelles). After the landing, he passed frequently from the supports
to the firing-line under a very heavy fire to keep the communications open.
Later on, he showed great bravery on three occasions in carrying wounded
men to a place of safety.

304 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

Sergeant A. G. Edwards.
Driver L. Farlow.

No. 325 Private A. Farmer, 3rd Australian Infantry Battalion (New South
Wales).

On 25th April 191 5, during operations near Gaba Tepe, for gallantry
in repeatedly carrying messages and twice going hack for ammunition
under severe rifle and machine-gun fire ; and again on 27th April, when
his officer was wounded, for organizing a party of three men who carried
the wounded officer to the rear. Private Farmer exposed himself fearlessly,
and it was owing to his coolness and initiative that the party succeeded.
He was himself wounded.
No. 151 Lance-Corporal G. C. Farnham, 3rd Field Ambulance, Australian
Imperial Force (Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania).

For great gallantry on the 25th April 1915, and throughout the landing

operations near Gaba Tepe (Dardanelles). In attending to the wounded

under a heavy fire he showed the greatest zeal and disregard of danger,

and at all times gave a fine exhibition of coolness and devotion to duty.

No. 261 Gunner G. G. Finlay, 2nd Battery, ist Australian Field Artillery

Brigade (New South Wales).

For conspicuous gallantry on 8th June 1915, south-west of Krithia,
Gallipoli Peninsula. When a company of infantry had been forced by
enfilade fire to \j.cate a trench, it was reported that one of their wounded
had been left in the trench, which was now absolutely commanded by the
enemy's fire. Gunner Finlay, with another man, volunteered to bring
him in, and succeeded in doing so. It was a most gallant adventure and
showed a fine spirit of self-sacrifice.
No. 851 Lance-Corporal W. Francis, 13th Australian Infantry Battalion
(New South Wales).

On 3rd May 1915, during operations near Gaba Tepe, for great bravery
in removing wounded from the trenches to a dressing station over ground
swept by machine-gun fire.
No. 764 Lance-Corporal H. W. Freame, ist Australian Infantry Battalion
(New South Wales).

On 25th April 1915, and subsequently during the operations near
Gaba Tepe, for displaying the utmost gallantry in taking water to the
firing-line although twice hit by snipers.
No. 499 Lance-Corporal R. V. Gay, 6th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force
(Victoria).

For conspicuous gallantry and ability on the 25th and 26th April 1915,
near Gaba Tepe (Dardanelles). When, on one occasion during the
operations, most of the officers having been killed or wounded, and part
of the line having commenced to retire. Corporal Gay showed great
courage and decision of character in assisting to stop the retirement, and
in leading the men forward again under a heavy fire. He also frequently
carried messages over open ground swept by a heavy fire, and exhibited a
splendid example of devotion to duty.
No. 918 Private F. Godfrey, 12th Australian Infantry Battalion (Western
Australia).

On 25th April 1915, during operations near Gaba Tepe, for exception-
ally gallant conduct in personally capturing an enemy officer, and going
out single-handed and shooting five enemy snipers.

APPENDIX I 305

Corporal R. L. Graham.

No. 122 Private C. P. Green, loth Battalion, Australian Imperial Force
(South Australia).

For conspicuous gallantry on the 25th April 1915, during the landing
at Gaba Tepe (Dardanelles). He had reached shelter on the beach, when
he saw a wounded man struggling in the surf, which was under heavy
fire. Without hesitation, he turned back, reached the man in the water,
and brought him successfully to shore, and subsequently to a place of
shelter.

No. 611 Private J. V. F. Gregg-Macgregor, ist Field Ambulance,
Australian Imperial Force (New South Wales).

For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty on the 25th April 1915,
and subsequent days, after the landing at Gaba Tepe (Dardanelles). In
company with another man, Private Gregg-Macgregor showed the greatest
bravery and resource in attending to the wounded. Totally regardless of
danger, he was for three consecutive days under a continuous and heavy
shell and rifle fire, dressing and collecting the wounded from the most
exposed positions. He allowed no personal risk or fatigue to interfere
with the performance of his duties, and his gallant conduct and devotion
offered a splendid example to all ranks.

No. 582 Lance-Corporal C. Grimson, ist Australian Light Horse Regiment
(New South Wales).

For conspicuous gallantry on the night of the 28th-29th May 1915,
near Gaba Tepe (Dardanelles). Owing to the explosion of a mine, which
destroyed a portion of our parapet, the enemy was enabled to occupy a
portion of our trenches, thus dividing the defending force into two. Lance-
Corporal Grimson crawled over the broken ground towards the enemy,
capturing successively three Turks. He then, with the greatest courage,
entered the remaining portion of the trench held by the enemy, about 12
in number, and compelled them all to surrender, thus enabling the
defending force to re-unite.

No. 2 Staff-Sergeant C. V. Heath, Australian Flying Corps.

For conspicuous pluck and determination in Mesopotamia on the
Ist August 1915. He assisted to pole a " beilum " (long flat-bottomed
boat) 28 miles in twelve hours in intense heat, in order to rescue aviators
who had been forced to descend in the enemy's country.

No. 493 Private C R. Heaton, 9th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force
(Queensland).

For great bravery on the 25th April 1915, near Gaba Tepe (Dardanelles),
when he rescued and brought into shelter, under a very heavy shell and
rifle fire, a wounded man.

Sergeant W. J. Henderson.

No. 371 Private E. P. Hitchcock, Australian Army Medical Corps (attached
6th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force) (Victoria).

3o6 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

and dressing the severe cases in the fire-trenches, even before they were
completed. Not only was he instrumental in saving many lives, but, by
his coolness and courage, he set a splendid example of devotion to duty,
and gave the greatest encouragement to all ranks.

No. 556 Sergeant V. Horswill, nth Battalion, Australian Imperial Force
(Western Australia).

For great gallantry and devotion to duty near Gaba Tepe (Dardanelles).
After two ammunition-carriers had been wounded, he rendered invaluable
service in assisting to carry up and distribute ammunition under a heavy
shell and rifle fire.

No. 1293 Private R. HuMBERSTON, 3rd Australian Infantry Battalion (New
South Wales).

On 25th April 191 5, and subsequently during operations near Gaba
Tepe, for conspicuous coolness and bravery in volunteering on many
occasions for dangerous missions and for judgment in carrying them out.

No. 1065 Staff- Sergeant H. Jackson, Australian Army Medical Corps.

From 25th April until 5th May 191 5, during operations near Gaba
Tepe, for exceptionally gallant work and devotion to duty under heavy fire.

No. 518 Private W. S. James, isth Battalion, Australian Imperial Force
(Queensland, Tasmania).

For conspicuous bravery on the night of the 3rd-4th May 191 5, during
the operations near Gaba Tepe (Dardanelles). During an attack by the
enemy he frequently picked up and threw back their own hand-grenades,
exhibiting the greatest coolness and courage at a critical time. Later on
he assisted in carrying food and water to the firing-line under a very heavy
and continuous shell and machine-gun fire.

Private W. P. Kedley.

Private W. Kelly.

Private W. J. Kelly.

No. 75 Lance-Corporal T. Kennedy, ist Australian Infantry Battalion (New
South Wales).

On 25th April 191 5, and subsequent dates, during operations near

Gaba Tepe, for displaying the greatest coolness and pluck in running

round under heavy fire and collecting stragglers, whom he formed and led

into the firing-line. This he did time after time, with excellent results.

No. 741 Lance-Corporal J. Kenyon, 9th Australian Infantry Battalion

(Queensland).

On 25th April 1915, during operations near Gaba Tepe, for conspicuous
courage and initiative in returning from the firing-line under heavy fire,
collecting reinforcements, and assisting in leading a successful bayonet
charge to the top of a hill, which was eventually held against great odds.

No. 323 Private A. M. Kirkwood, 6th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force
(Victoria).

For conspicuous gallantry and ability on the 8th May 1915, during the
operations north of Cape Helles (Dardanelles). During an advance, when
the officers and non-commissioned officers had been killed or wounded.
Private Kirkwood assumed the command, taking charge of the men in his
immediate neighbourhood, directing their fire and, by his coolness and

APPENDIX I 307

courage, rendering valuable assistance in steadying all ranks at a critical
moment. He led each advance in his section of the line, and, finally,
performed most valuable service in consolidating the position gained.

Private J. H. Kruger.

Gunner A. G. McAllister.

No. 697 Sergeant J. M. McCleery, nth Battalion, Australian Imperial Force
(Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania).

For conspicuous gallantry and ability on the 25th April 1915. After
the landing at Gaba Tepe (Dardanelles), he led an attack on a strongly
held position, and by his bravery and the ability with which he handled his
force, he succeeded in gaining the position.

Private W, M'Crae.

No. 1 156 Corporal R. McGregor, 3rd Battalion, Australian Imperial Force
(New South Wales).

For great bravery on the 27th April 1915, subsequent to the landing at
Gaba Tepe (Dardanelles). Ammunition in the firing-trench having run
short, and efforts to obtain supplies having failed, owing to the ammunition-
carriers having been killed, he volunteered to return to the support trench
in the rear and obtain further supplies. This he succeeded in doing,
although both in going and returning he was exposed to a very heavy
shell fire.

No. 99 Sapper G. F. McKenzie, 3rd Field Company, Australian Engineers.

On 4th May 191 5, during a landing and an attack on the enemy's
redoubt near Gaba Tepe, for conspicuous gallantry in rescuing a wounded
sapper and carrying him back to the boat under heavy fire. Having
pushed the boat off, he himself returned to the beach and was
subsequently wounded.

No. 577 Gunner A. McKiNLAY, 3rd Battery, ist Australian Field Artillery
Brigade (New South Wales).

For conspicuous gallantry on the 8th June 191 5, south-west of Krithia,
Gallipoli Peninsula. When a company of infantry had been forced by
enfilade fire to vacate a trench, it was reported that one of their wounded
had been left in the trench, which was now absolutely commanded by the
enemy's fire. Gunner McKinlay, with another man, volunteered to bring
him in, and succeeded in doing so. It was a most gallant adventure, and
showed a fine spirit of self-sacrifice.

Corporal H. M. MacNee.

Private F. O. McRae.

No. 1357 Lance-Corporal J. T. Maher, 15th Battalion, Australian Imperial
Force (Queensland, Tasmania).

For gallant conduct and resource on several occasions during the
operations at Quinn's Post (Dardanelles). Corporal Maher particularly
distinguished himself as a brave and expert bomb-thrower, and always
exhibited the highest courage and devotion to duty.

No. 852 Prirate H. C Martyr, 8th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force
(Victoria).

For conspicuous bravery on the 26th April 19 15, near Gaba Tepe
(Dardanelles), when he went out and carried a wounded man over 50

3o8 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

yards of open ground, swept by a heavy shell and rifle fire, to shelter.
He exhibited great courage and coolness, and gave a fine example of
devotion to duty.

No. 927 Sergeant G. F. Mason, ilth BatLalion, Australian Imperial Force
(Western Australia).

For conspicuous gallantry and ability on the 25th April 1915, and the
three following days at Gaba Tepe (Dardanelles). During these days of
continuous fighting, Sergeant Mason showed great courage and resource
in holding his men together under constant fire, and when isolated parties
which had advanced too far had to be withdrawn, he covered their retire-
ment with conspicuous skill and bravery.

No. 322 Corporal R. A. Mason, 3rd Australian Light Horse Regiment (South
Australia, Tasmania).

For conspicuous gallantry and resource between the 26th May and the
28th June 1915, near Gaba Tepe (Dardanelles), during the mining
operations. He invariably performed exceptionally good work, and
exhibited a complete disregard of danger. He took a leading part in
loading and tamping numerous mines, and was always ready to undertake
any work, however hazardous. He gave a splendid example of courage
and devotion to duty.

No. 280 Private A. C. B. Merrin, 5th Australian Infantry Battalion, 2nd
Australian Brigade (Victoria).

On 25th April 1915, and subsequently during operations on the
Gallipoli Peninsula, for exhibiting on many occasions the greatest courage
and coolness in carrying messages, helping wounded, and bringing up food
and water under heavy fire.

No. 1 151 Corporal R. I. MooRE, 3rd Australian Infantry Battalion (New
South Wales).

From 25th until 29th April 1915, during operations near Gaba Tepe.
Commanded his section under heavy and continuous fire from snipers who
were within 30 yards of his trench. He displayed exceptional courage
in twice advancing alone about 20 yards, and on the second occasion
he accounted for five of the enemy.

No. 370 Private A. A. MoRATH, Australian Army Medical Corps (attached
6th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force) (Victoria).

For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty on the 8th May 1915,
and following days, north of Cape Helles (Dardanelles). In assisting the
wounded under constant heavy fire. Private Morath exhibited a heroism
beyond praise. Absolutely regardless of danger, he, in company with
another man, attended to the wounded, leading up the stretcher-bearers,
and dressing the severe cases in the fire-trenches, even before they were
completed. Not only was he instrumental in saving many lives, but by his
coolness and courage he set a splendid example of devotion to duty, and
gave the greatest encouragement to all ranks.

Lance -Corporal C. R. MURFITT.

No. 315 Lance-Corporal H. MURRAY, i6th Australian Infantry Battalion
(South Australia).

For distinguished service on several occasions from 9th to 31st May
1915, during operations near Gaba Tepe, when attached to the machine

APPENDIX I 309

gun section. During this period he exhibited exceptional courage, energy,
and skill, and inflicted severe losses on the enemy, he himself being twice
wounded.

No. 305 Private G. Pappas, 13th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force (New
South Wales).

For great gallantry on the 4th May 1915, near Gaba Tepe (Dar-
danelles). He volunteered to go out and bring in a wounded man, under
heavy machine-gun fire, and succeeded in carrying him to a place of safety.

Private G. L. Peel.
Sapper C. R. Rankin.

No. 543 Private S. RiCKETSON, 5th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force
(Victoria).

For gallant conduct and great bravery on the 25th May 19 1 5, at Gaba
Tepe (Dardanelles). When all his officers and non-commissioned officers
had been killed or wounded, he showed great coolness and courage in
rallying men under a very heavy fire, and his example and devotion to
duty exercised the greatest influence over the men, and kept them steady
under trying conditions. He also exhibited conspicuous bravery in digging
in the open, and under a heavy fire, a shelter for a wounded officer.

No. 530 Private G. Robey, 9th Australian Infantry Battalion (Queensland).

On 25th April 1915, during operations near Gaba Tepe, for conspicuous
gallantry in swimming to a boat and bringing back into safety a wounded
comrade who was the only occupant. This was done under heavy fire.

No. 1088 Corporal E. ROBSON, 4th Australian Infantry Battalion (New South
Wales).

On 1st May 1915, during operations near Gaba Tepe, for distinguished
conduct in the command of a platoon, guiding and controlling the men
after the officer commanding the platoon had been wounded. Although
in an exposed position he personally carried up ammunition and freely
exposed himself.

No. 178 Private C. H. G. Rosser, 3rd Field Ambulance, Australian Imperial
Force (Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania).

For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty on the 25th April 191 5
and subsequent days, after the landing at Gaba Tepe (Dardanelles). In
company with another man, Private Rosser showed the greatest bravery
and resource in attending to the wounded. Totally regardless of danger,
he was for three consecutive days under a continuous and heavy shell and
rifle fire, dressing and collecting the wounded from the most exposed
positions. He allowed no personal risk or fatigue to interfere with the
performance of his duties, and his gallant conduct and devotion offered
a splendid example to all ranks.

Sergeant P. F. Ryan.
Corporal A. Sheppard.
Private W. E. SiNG.
Corporal P. Smith.
Private T. B. Stanley.

310 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

No. 41 Staff Sergeant-Major A. Steele, 9th Australian Infantry Battalion
(Queensland).

From 25th to 29th April 1915, during operations near Gaba Tepe, for
distinguished conduct in manning and maintaining his machine gun, which
he continued to work after the remainder of his section had been killed or
wounded.

Sergeant R. G. Stone.

Lance-Corporal J. Tallon.

No. 204 Corporal R. TiCKNER, 15th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force
(Queensland, Tasmania).

For conspicuous gallantry on the night of the gth-ioth May 191 5, near
Gaba Tepe (Dardanelles). During a sortie from Quinn's Post, Corporal
Tickner, accompanied by another non-commissioned officer, advanced with
great coolness and courage past the first line of the enemy's trenches to a
tent some distance in the rear. They killed all the occupants, and cut the
telephone wires which connected it with the first trenches, thus preventing
communication from the rear.

No. 791 Private W. Upton, 13th Australian Infantry Battalion (New South
Wales).

On 25th April 1915, during operations near Gaba Tepe, for great
bravery in bringing wounded into shelter, and again on 2nd May, after
being shot through the foot, in continuing to defend his trench until again
wounded.

Private J. C. VauGHAN.

Private A. J. Vines.

Sergeant A. J. Wallish.

No. 456 Private J. C Weatherill, loth Australian Infantry Battalion (South
Australia).

On 25th April 1 91 5, during operations near Gaba Tepe, for exception-
ally good work in scouting and in an attack resulting in the capture of two
of the enemy's guns.

Corporal H. Webb.

No. 974 Sergeant M. Wilder, 9th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force
(Queensland).

For conspicuous gallantry on the 26th April 191 5, near Gaba Tepe
(Dardanelles). Assisted by another non-commissioned officer, who was
subsequently killed, he carried a wounded man into a place of safety under
a very heavy fire. Later on, he was instrumental in collecting stragglers,
whom he led back into the firing-line.

Corporal J. Williams.
Corporal E. D. Wood.

No. 213 Private A. Wright, 15th Australian Infantry Battalion (Queensland).
On the night of 2nd-3rd May 1915, during operations near Gaba Tepe,

for repeated instances of gallantry when acting as a scout and guide to his

unit.

Private E. Yazley.

APPENDIX II
MENTIONED IN DISPATCHES

DIVISIONAL ARTILLERY

Brigadier-General J. J. T. Hobbs, Western Australia.

Brigadier- General G. de L. Ryrie, M.P., 2nd Light Horse Brigade

(New South Wales).
Brigadier- General A. H. Russell, New Zealand.

INFANTRY BRIGADE

Lieut. -Colonel EssoN, New Zealand.

Major C. H. Foot, D.A.Q.M.G., Australian Engineers.

Major E. J. H. Nicholson, G.S.O. (3).

Major Griffiths, Military Secretary.

Captain W. Smith, Provost-Marshal.

Sergeant R. Pennea, Military Police.

Corporal G. Little, Military Police.

Corporal W. Elliott, Military Police.

Corporal M. Hoy, Military Police.

Private G. Roach, Australian Field Artillery.

AUSTRALIAN ARTILLERY
Colonel G. J. Johnston, Brigadier 2nd Artillery Brigade (Victoria).
Colonel C. Rosenthal, ist Artillery Brigade (Queensland).
Colonel S. Christian, 3rd Artillery Brigade (New South Wales).
Major A. Bessell-Browne, 8th Battery.
Major W. Burgess, 9th Battery.
Major O. Phillips, 4th Battery (Victoria).
Major G. H. M. King, 3rd Battery (New South Wales).
Major G. I. Stevenson, 6th Battery (Victoria).
Captain H. Lloyd, ist Artillery Brigade.
Captain U. E. Parry-Okeden, Divisional Train.
Captain W. Hodgson, 5th Battery.
Lieutenant C. Clowes, 2nd Battery.
Lieutenant T. Playfair, 1st Battery.
Sergeant J. Braidwood.
Sergeant W. Wallis.
Corporal E. Coleman.
Corporal R. Gammon.
Bombardier N. M'Farlanb.
Bombardier J. Benson.
Gunner E. Batnes.
Gunner H. Wilson.
Gunner E. Day.

311

12 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

AUSTRALIAN ENGINEERS

Major H. O. Clogstoun, R.E.
Captain H. Bachtold.

Lieutenant R. G. Hamilton (New South Wales).
Driver W. J. Davis.

Sappers G. Chisholm, H. Eggleton, S. Garrett, and
N. Hartbridge.

AUSTRALIAN LIGHT HORSE

First Regiment (N.S.W.).

Major H. V. Vernon.
Lieutenant G. H. L. Harris.
Trooper W. Varley.

Tbird Regiment (S.A. and Tasmania).

Lieut. -Colonel Rowell.

Sixth Regiment (N.S.W.).

Lieutenant G. Ferguson.
Sergeant S. Tooth.
Trooper R. Foster.
Trooper C. Fenner.

Eighth Regiment (Victoria).

Lieut. -Colonel A. H. Whitb.
Sergeant Grenfell.
Trooper Sanderson.

Ninth Reg^ent (Victoria and S.A.).

Lieut. -Colonel Miell.
Lieut. -Colonel Reynell.
Sergeant H. Sullivan.
Sergeant Ashburner.

Tenth Regiment (W.A.).

Lieutenant KiDD.

Lieutenant Hugo Throssell, V.C.
Sergeant W. Henderson.
Lance-Corporal M'Gbe.
Trooper T. Stanley.

INFANTRY.

First Battalion (N.S.W.).

Lieut. -Colonel A. J. Bennett.

Major W. Davidson.

Captain H. Jacobs.

Captain G. F. Woottkn.

Lieutenant Buchanan.

Lieutenant Howell-Price.

Sergeant Barber.

Corporal Bint.

Lance-Corporal Davis.

Privates R. Cumming and C. Sharpe.

Second Battalion (N.3.W.).

Major Stevens.
Major Tebbuth.
Captain CoNCANON.
Privates S. Carpenter and E.
Roberts.

Third Battalion (N.8.W.).

Lieut. -Colonel R. H. Owen.
Captain Leer.
Captain Wilson.
Sergeant C. White.
Corporal J. ScOTT.
Privates Blackburn, Mulcahy,
Owens, and Hutton.

Fourth Battalion (N.8.W.).

Captain S. Milson.
Lieutenant Anderson.
Lieutenant Stacey.
Lieutenant Fanning.
Sergeant Steber.

Privates KiRBY, Deacon, R. Mac-
kenzie, and Benson.

APPENDIX II

'313.

Fifth Battalion (Victoria).

Colonel D. S. Wanliss.

Lieutenant G. H. Capes.

Captain R. M. F. Hooper.

Sergeant- Major Marshall.

Sergeant Nesbit.

Privates RiCKETSON and M'DONNELL.

Sixth Battalion (Victoria).
Lieut. -Colonel H. G. Bennett.
Major F. V. Hogan.
Privates Morath and Hitchcock.

Seventh Battalion (Victoria).
Captain S. M. de Ravin.
Captain S. Grills.

Eighth Battalion (Victoria).

Major G. Eberling.
Captain Sergeant.

Ninth Battalion (Queensland).
Lieut. -Colonel J. C. Robertson.
Sergeant Scrivener.
Privates Henry, Bailey, A. Camp-
bell, and Bruns.

Tenth Battalion (S.A.).
Major F. W. Hurcombe.
Major F. M. Lorenzo.
Captain C. Rumball.
Sergeant-Major Sawyer.
Sergeant-Major Henderson.
Sergeant Leane.

Eleventh Battalion (W.A.).

Major Drake Brockman.
Major J. H. Peck.
Captain A. E. J. Crolv.
Captain Rockliff.
Captain S. H. Jackson.
Sergeant Pugsley.
Lance-Sergeant Wright.
Corporals Pride and Skuse.
Privates J. F. Wilson and M'Jannett.

Twelfth Battalion (S.A., W.A., and
Tasmania).
Lieut. -Colonel E. H. Smith.
Lieutenant Patterson.
Sergeant Pearson.
Corporal Marshall.
Lance-Corporal Hart.
Privates C. Thomson and Turner.

Thirteenth Battalion (N.S.W.).
Private Currie.

Fourteenth Battalion (Victoria).
Lieut. -Colonel R. E. Courtney.

Fifteenth Battalion (Queensland
and Tasmania).

Lieut. -Colonel J. H. Cannon.
Private Slack.

Sixteenth Battalion (S.A. and W.A.).

Lieut. -Colonel L. E. Tilney.

Sergeant Carr.

Lance -Corporal Davies.

AUSTRALIAN DIVISIONAL TRAIN
Lieut. -Colonel J. T. Marsh.
Lieutenant D. G. M'Hattie (New South Wales).

AUSTRALIAN ARMY MEDICAL CORPS

Colonel J. L. Beeston, 4th Field Ambulance.

Lieut. -Colonel H. W. Bryant, ist Australian Stationary Hospital (Victoria).

Captain R. W. Chambers (Victoria).

Captain H. K. Fry.

Sergeants Bryce, W. Gunn, and Hookway.

Corporal Faulkner.

Lance-Corporals Goode and G. Hill.

Privates CoLLis, M'Rae, Peel, Sawyer, Simpson, Vines, and Watts.

CHAPLAINS
Rev. F. W. Wray (Anglican), 4th Infiantry Brigade.

Rev. LuxFORD.

314 AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

MENTIONED IN GENERAL HAMILTON'S FINAL
DISPATCH

STAFF

Lieut-General Sir William Birdwood, Commanding Army Corps.
Major-General Sir J. H. Godley, Australian and New Zealand

Division.
Brigadier-General H. G. Chauvel, C.M.G., 1st Light Horse Brigade.
Colonel Walker, ist Australian Division.
Colonel Smyth, ist Australian Infantry Brigade.
Brigadier-General F. Hughes, 2nd Australian Light Horse Brigade.
Brigadier-General J. Monash, 4th Australian Infantry Brigade.
Colonel Cunliffe-Owkn, Army Corps Artillery.
Colonel J. J. T. HoBBS, V.D., ist Australian Divisional Artillery.
Colonel J. M. Antill, C.B., Brigade-Major (after Commanding), 2nd

Australian Light Horse Brigade.
Captain PowLES.
Captain J. S. Anderson.
Captain G. A. Farr.
Captain C. Tho.mas.
Captain C. Cook.
Captain W. E. Henderson.
Captain Rose.
Lieutenant A. Rhodes.
Lieutenant Hindley.
Sergeant-Major Wann.

BRIDGING TRAIN

Lieut. -Commander Bracegirdle. Petty Officer Pender.

Lieut. -Commander Bond. Seaman Harvey.

Warrant Officer Shepherd. Seaman M'Carron.
Petty Officer Beton.

1ST DIVISIONAL ARTILLERY

Major O. F. Phillips. Corporal East.

Major U. L. H. Burgess. Bombardier MacKinnon.

Captain C. A. Callaghan. Bombardier Baynes.

Captain W. C. N. Waite. Bombardier Dingwall.

Captain G. M'Laughlin. Gunner Medihurst.

Captain A. H. K. Jopp. Gunner Hillbeck.

Lieutenant P. J. Ross, D.S.O. Gunner Carr.

Lieutenant S. E. Sinclair. Gunner J. Reid.

Sergeant-Major Stamens. Gunner Brew.

Corporal Cook. Driver YouNGKR.
Corporal Miller.

APPENDIX II

315

ENGINEER COMPANIES

Major J. M. C. Corlette.
Major A. M. Martyn.
Captain R. J. Dyer.
Lieutenant J. H. Mirams.
Lieutenant G. G. S. Gordon.
Lieutenant R. G. Hamilton.
Second-Lieutenant H. Greenway.
Second- Lieutenant G. N. Croker.
Sergeant Graham.
Corporal Sheppard.
Corporal Ewart.

Corporal Wilson.
Corporal Elliott.
Corporal LoBB.
Corporal Jordon.
Corporal Climpson.
Sapper TowNSHEND.
Sapper Vincent.
Sapper Batchelor.
Sapper Allison.
Sapper Kelly.
Private Jonas.

AUSTRALIAN LIGHT HORSE

First Regiment (N.S.W.).
Lieutenant G. Harris,
Corporal COLLETT.
Corporal Keys.

Privates Tancred, Barrow, Little,
A. Thompson, and Barnes.

Second Regiment (Queensland).
Major T. W. Glasgow, D.S.O.

Fourth Regiment (Victoria).
Corporal Forsyth.
Trooper Kerr.

Fifth Regiment (Queensland).
Major S. Midgley, D.S.O.
Private Sing.

Sixth Regiment (K.S.W.).
Captain G. C. Somerville.
Sergeant Ryan.
Trooper Paul.

Seventh Regiment (N.S.W.).
Corporal Curran.

Eighth Regiment (Victoria).

Lieutenant Wilson.
Corporal J. Anderson.
Trumpeter Lawry.
Trooper A'Beckett.

Ninth Regiment (Victoria and S.A.).

Lieutenant M 'Donald.

Privates Morrison and Howell.

Tenth Regiment (W.A.).

Major Scott.
Captain FRY.
Sergeant GoLLAN.
Sergeant Foss.
Corporal M'Cleary.
Corporal Hamphire.
Trooper Roberts.
Trooper FiRNS.
Trooper M'Mahon.
Sergeant Howard;
Corporal Ketterer.
Corporal Benporath.
Privates Howland, G. Brown,
Foster and An ear.

INFANTRY

First BattaUon (N.S.W.).

Captain C. D. Sasse, D.S.O.
Lieutenant P. S. Woodforde.
Lieutenant G. Steen.
Lieutenant H. Wells.

Lieutenant R. T. Ramsay.

Sergeant-Major NoRRis.

Sergeant Sparkes.

Sergeant Wicks.

Privates Kelly, Allen, Ramsay, and

JUDD.

3i6

AUSTRALIA IN ARMS

Second Battalion (N.S.W.).

Lieut. -Colonel R. Scobie.
Major W. E. H. Cass.
Major L. J. Morshead.
Captain J. H. F. Pain.
Captain G. S. Cook.
Lieutenant C A. Whyte.
Sergeant-Major Lowans.
Sergeant Host.
Corporal M'Elloy.
Privates A. Robertson, Townscnd,
NiCHOL, Montgomery, and Gan-

NEMY.

Third Battalion (N.S.W.).

Lieut. -Colonel Brown.

Major D. M. M'Conaughy.

Major Austin.

Captain O. G. Howell-Price, D.S.O.

Captain B. T. Moore.

Lieutenant M'Leod.

Lieutenant V. E. Smythe.

Lieutenant R. W. Woods.

Lieutenant R. Moore.

Sergeant-Major Coldenstedt.

Sergeant Clark.

Sergeant Edwards.

Corporal M'Grath.

Corporal Graham.

Corporal Thomas.

Corporal Powell.

PrivatesGREEN, Morgan, and Horan.

Fourth Battalion (N.S.W.).

Lieut. -Colonel C. M. Macnaghten.
Major L G. Mackay.
Captain E. A. Lloyd.
Captain C. S. Coltman.
Lieutenant L J. A. Massie.
Lieutenant M' Donald.
Lieutenant C. W. Foster.
Lieutenant J. D. Osborne.
Sergeant-Major M'Alpine.
Sergeant-Major Johnstone.
Sergeant M'Mapon.
Sergeant Crawford.
Sergeant Claydon.
Corporal Stone.

Privates M'Neill, Hurley, Lynn,
and Hewitt.

Fifth Battalion (Victoria).

Lieutenant N. Marshall.
Sergeant Ross.
Corporal Williams.
Corporal Wood.

Sixth BattaUon (Victoria).

Lieutenant P. D. MoNCUR.
Privates Callaghan, Thorning, and
George.

Seventh Battalion (Victoria).

Lieut. -Colonel H. Elliott.

Lieutenant D. B. Ross.

Corporal DuNSTAN.

Corporal Burton.

Corporal Wright.

Corporal KEATING.

Privates Ellis, Ball, and Wadeson.

Eighth Battalion (Victoria).

Lieutenant J. C. M. Traill.

Sergeant Goodwin.

Corporal M'Kinnon.

Privates YouNG, Green, and HiCKS.

Ninth Battalion (Queensland).
Corporal Page.

Tenth Battalion (S.A.).

Lieutenant F. H. Hancock.
Lieutenant F. H. G. N. Heritage.
Corporal Hill.
Private M' Donald.

Eleventh Battalion (W.A,).

Major S. R. Roberts.

Captain R. L. Leane.

Lieutenant H. James.

Lieutenant G. Potter.

Lieutenant Procktbr.

Lieutenant Frankly.

Sergeant Wallish.

Sergeant Hallahan.

Corporal Taylor.

Corporal F. Smith.

Privates Johns, Morrison, Roper,

W. Smith, Whitbread, and

Retchford.

APPENDIX II

317

Twelfth Battalion (S.A., W.A., and
Tasmania).
Major J. L. Whitham.
Sergeant Will.
Sergeant Keen.
Privates Yaxley, C. Smith, Ward,

M'Kendrick, Jarvis, Johnston,

Thomas, and Reade.

Thirteenth Battalion (N.S.W.).
Major S. C E. Herring.
Captain C B. Hopkins.
Captain J. E. Lee.
Captain W. J. M. Locke.
Lieutenant H. C. Ford.
Lieutenant Annoni.
Privates Duncan, Doig, Round, and
Kenbury.

Fourteenth Battalion (Victoria).
Major C. M. M. Dare.
Captain Cooper.

Fifteenth Battalion (Queensland and

Tasmania).
Captain Mo ran.
Captain J. Hill.
Private Barrett.

Sixteenth Battalion (S.A. and W.A.).

Captain Heming.

Eighteenth Battalion (N.S.W.).

Captain S. P. Goodsell.
Sergeant Fidge.
Corporal Dryden.
Corporal Hooper.

Privates Mahoney, Workman, Mar-
tin, and Collins.

Twentieth Battalion (N.S.W.).

Corporal Brennan.

Twenty-third Battalion (Victoria).

Private Bell.

DIVISIONAL TRAIN.
Captain M. H. Cleeve. Sergeant F. Smith.

ARMY MEDICAL CORPS.

Lieut. -Colonel Garner.
Lieut. -Colonel H. W. Bryant.
Lieut. -Colonel A. H. Sturdee.
Major H. A. Powell.
Captain L. W. Dunlop.
Captain E. T. Brennan.
Captain J. Bentley.
Captain J. E. DODS.
Captain C. Thompson.
Captain A. L. Dawson.
Captain H. V. P. CONRICK.
Captain L. St. V. Welch.
Captain Fullerton.

Captain Stack.

Quartermaster Boddam.

Sergeant- Major Wheeler.

Sergeant Barber.

Sergeant Hood.

Sergeant Sargent.

Sergeant Henderson.

Sergeant NixON.

Corporal Bosgard.

Corporal G. Smith.

Privates Priestman, Lilingen,
Cruickshanck, Brighton,
SrooNER, and Foster.

CHAPLAINS.

Rev. W. E. Dexter, 2nd Infantry Brigade.
Rev. Father J. Fahey, 3rd Infantry Brigade.
Rev. T. S. Power, 4th Infantry Brigade.
Rev. GiLLisoN, 4th Infantry Brigade.

INDEX

Abbu Ella, Troop train* at, 67
Abdel Rahman Bair, 246

Attack on, 255, 257, 259
Achl Baba, 127

Advances on, 149
Attack on, 215
Description of, 131
Futility of assaulting, 265
Guns on, 214
May attack on, 145
Adana. 79

Admiralty, Delay of message from, 16
Adrianople, Turkish forces at, 213
Aeroplanes —
Enemy, 268

German over Quinn's, 197
Taube driven down, 255
Agamemnon, H M.S., 82
Ai^e, Melbourne, Correspondent of, 10
Aghyl Dere. 247

4th Brigade capture. 251
Akaba, Gulf of, 80
Albany —

Convoy rendezvous at, 74
Description of harbour, 30
Final scenes, 34
King's visit to, 30
Traditions of, 28
Trantport fleet at, 31
Albatross, German aeroplane, 163
Alexandria, 62, 96

Aspect in July, 216
Convoy reaches, 66
"Allah," Turks call. 162
Allanson, Major C. G., 261
Allies' War Council, 279
Amenol, Use of, 290
Ammunition —

For " Great Adventure," 224
Hamilton's admissions about, 211
Mule transport of, 181
Turks receive, 280
Want of, 291
Anafarta, Bujik, 169, 220, 246, 269

Advance in Valley of, 252
Antill, Brigadier-General, 240, 287
Anzac —

Administration leave, 287
Army Corps, return of, 284
Artillery position at, i8i
Bomb factory at, 172
Calm days at, 136
Casualties, total, 291
Closing scenes at, 283 seq.
Compared to Helles, 144
Complete capture of, 114
Contemplating plans, 96
Covering party, 104
Dawn of, 99
Dispatch riders at, 271

318

Anzac — continued

Dysentery at, 278

Evacuation contemplated, 180

Evacuation commences, 286

Extending, 245

First Division return to, 284

General attack abandoned, 139

Guns in August, 219

" Heart of," 169

Hospital ships off, 255

Hospital supplies, 174

Hospital, winter. 283

June-July at, 204

Kitchener, Earl, visits, 282

Last picture of, 290

Life at, 180 seq.

Maxwell, General, visits, 282

Moon and operations at, 216

New attack from, 137

N.Z.'s on flank of, 117

N.Z.'s leave, 144

Nights, 176
Origm of, 99

Partition of, 119
Post Office, 171

Reinforcements at, 157

Reorganiiation. 135
Reticulation scheme, 171
R.M.L.L land at, 135
Second Brigade leave. 143
Shrapnel Gully divides, 179
Sikhs at, 181
Snowstorms, 285

"Soul of " (General Birdwood), 169
Telephone Exchange, 171
Transports leave for, loo
Trawlers, 177

Turkish charge on Nek, 210
Turkish counter-attacks, 121
Turkish May attack, 160
Turkish regulars at, 208
Turks enter, 290
Winter camps prepared, 283
Winter storms, 385
Anzac Beach —

Gurkhas on, 224
Nature of, 168
Ordnance store, i6g
Red Cross at, 169
Turkish fire on, 280
Anzac Cove, 103

Stores landed, 168
Work at, 135
Arabia —

Germans land in, 55
Arabs. 75

Information from, 81
Aragon, H.M.S., 9
Ari Burnu, 104, 172
Ark Royal balloon ship, ijj

INDEX

319

Armenians —

In Turkish army, 88
Refugee, 81
Surrender, 92
Armistice-
Empire Day, 165
General Bird wood on, 164
General Hamilton on, 164
Turks seek, 163
Armoured motor-cars, 133
Army —

Anzac Corps, 214
Corp» orders unfulfilled, 134
General Hamilton's, 213
Army Corps —

First withdrawal of, 278
Return, 284
Army Service Corps, 194
Artillery —

Ammunition shortage, 211
Anzac, 219

Capture of Krupp, 106
Duels at Helles, 147
Egyptian Mounted, 86
First landing, 113
French 75 cm., 129, 145
" Hates," 169
Helles, 219

Indian Mountain Battery, no
Landing 3rd Brigade, 117
Lane, 182, 186
Need at Anzac, 115
N.Z., at Helles, 219
Positions on Anzac, 181
Sixth Australian Battery, 219
Turkish {see also under Turkish), 280
Turkish Anzac, 159
Turkish Olive Grove, 157
Asia Minor, Refugees from, 78
"Asiatic Algy," 144
Askold, Russian cruiser, 61
Asma Dere. 252

Ridge, attack on, 253
Auckland-
Battalion at Helles, 149
Landing of Battalion, in
Mounted Rifles, 259
Austin, Colonel, 169

Flag of, 173
AustraUa —

Citizen Army, 17
Excitement over war, 16
First Contingent leaves, 31
First Expeditionary Force, 20
German hopes for revolt in, 18
Mobilization of Army ia, 17
Australia, H.M.A.S., 16-18

Germans fear, 26
Australian Army —

Army Service Corps, 194
Assembly at Lemnos, 94
Casualties, total of, 291
Citizen forces with, 19
Commencement of landing, 100
Departure of First, 23
Engineers on Canal, 82
Landmg casualties of, 126
Light Horse at Anzac, 170
Line held by, 139
Number of First, 8
Offer of, 18

Reorganizing units, 134
Units of —

1st Division, 8, 20, 23, 28, 31, 61, 136,
220, 245, 264
At Mena, 70, 72
Composition, 19
Egypt, training of, 70
Final departure, 290

Australian Army — continued

New Commander of, 159
Return of, 284
Withdrawal of, 278
2nd A. and N.Z. Division, 71, 136,
27s, 278, 284
Arrival of, 271
Last stand, 290
1st Infantry Brigade, 117, 138, 219,220
Landing, 109
Lone Pine, 221-7
and Infantry Brigade, 77, 109, 117,
i88. 237
At Helles, 143, 150
*3rd Infantry Brigade, 100, 105, 117,
182
At Thermia, 97
Landing, 104, 109
Landmg casualties. 122
4th Infantry Brigade, 71, in, 117, I2J,
137, 138, 244, 257, 269, 272,
273, 276
Advance, 245, 250 scq.
Evacuation, 289
Subterranean barracks, 284
5th Infantry Brigade, 276
1st Light Horse Brigade, 71, 135
2nd Light Horse Brigade, 182, 205.

264
3rd|Light Horse Brigade, 71, 238, 289
Artillery, 3rd Brigade, 182, 145
Engineers, 3rd Field Company, 223 ;
5th Field Company, 290
Victorians charge at Krithia, 150
Australians —

Amusements of, 73

Attitude of wounded, 107

Birdwood's, General, appreciation of, 270,

283
Character of, 8
Descriptions of, 74
UispatQh riders, 271
General Hamilton's praise of, 9, 270
Hatred of trench warfare, 221
King's message to, 282, 283
On Canal, 76, 77
Rest at Mudros, 217
Sight-seeing, 71
Suffer frost-bite, 286
The '• Die Hard," 289
Turkish opinion of, 183
Use of bayonet, 161
Autumn Campaign, question of, 379
Aviators, Ascendancy of British, 219
Ayesia, 55

"Baby 700," 139, 187, 240

Searchlights on, 209
Bacchante. H.M.S., 109, 116, 118, 223, 227
Baldwin, Brigadier-General, a6i, 262
Balloon, Observation, 130
Barbed wire entanglements, 182
Base, Suvla as winter, 220
Bathing under fire, 179
Battenberg, H.R.H. Prmce Louis of, 16
Battle, noise of, 228
BatOeship Hill, 186

Advance against, 246

Bombardment, 253
Bauchop, Colonel A., 173, 247

Death of, 249
Bauchop's Hill, 249
Bayonet, Australians' use of, 161
Beach, Turkish fire on, 170
" Beachy Bill,' 169, 175, 288
Bean, Captain C. E. W., 10-47
Bean, Captain J. W., 231
Bedouin, Troubles amongst, 76
Bennett, Lieut.-Colonel, 237

3 2d

INDEX

Bessell-Brownc, Major, i86
Birdwood, Lieut. -General Sir W., 62, 99, 245,
24S, 286
Admiration for Australians, 270, 283
Advance, order by, 137
Appreciation by General Bridges, 158
Anecdote of, 7
August plans, 219
Bathing story, 157
Command of, 70
Help from, 9
Landing of, 1 13
On Armistice, 164
On H.M.S. Queen, 138
Plans against Sari Bair, 247
Recall to H.M.S Queen, 113
" Soul of Anzac,'' 169
Staff work of, 287
Stories of, 176
Bitter Lakes, Battleships on, 84
Blamey, Major, 136
Blarney's Meadow, Fight near, 205
" Bloody Angle," The, 139-79
Bogali, los, 137

Bolton, Lieut.- Colonel, 75, 112, 150
Bombardment of Nek, 241
Bombing at Lone Pine, 221, 235
Bombs —

Anzac factory, 172
At Apex, 289
Beef tins as, 202
Bourne, Major, Death of, 243
Bouvet, Sinking of warship, 93
Braithwaite, Major-General, 165
Brand, Major, 106
Braund, Colonel, 120
Braund's Hill, 120
Breslau, Turkish interest in, 28
Bridges, Major-General Sir W. T., 61, 136,
169
Appointment, 19
At Ismailia, 82
Death of, 158
Divisional Command, 139
Energy of, 157
Landing of, 113
Orders advance, 120
British—

At Malta Bay, 128
At Suvla Bay, 236, 255
British Army —

New divisions wanted, 204
July strength of, 213
Units of : —

9th Army Corps, 247, 255
13th Division, 260
29th Division, 10, 99, 126, 128, 146
29th Division Artillery, 115, 219
S2nd Division, 219
29th Infantry Brigade, 261, 273
38th Infantry Brigade, 261
39th Infantry Brigade, 247
40th Infantry Brigade, 247, 261
4th South Wales Borderers, 247, 273
5th Connaught Rangers, 273, 270
5th Wiltshire Regiment, 247, 262
6th South Lanes Regiment, 247, 260
6th Royal North Lanes Regiment, 262
8th Welsh Regiment, 247
72nd Field Company, 247
Artillery, De Tot's Battery, 143
Fusilier Regiments, Landing of, 128
Gloucesters attack Sari Bair, 259
Indian Mountain Battery (26th), no
Praise of, 10

Royal Naval Division, 135, 148, 219
Armoured cars of, 143
Nelson Battalion, 141
Portsmouth Battalion, 141

British casualties at Anzac, 270
British prestige in Egypt, 281
Brown, Lieut-Colonel, 228

Death of, 266
Browne's Dip, 186, 225, 270
Buccaneer Camel Corps, 76
Bujik Anafarta, 220, 246
Bulair Lines, Feint attack on, 94
Bulgarian aid to Turkey, 280
Bully Beef Sap, 168, 171, 242
Biiiesk, S.S., 53
Burgess, Major, 188
Burnage, I-ieut. -Colonel, 141, 252
Burton, Corporal, 265

Caddy, Major, 188

Caiques, Greek, in Dardanelles, 98

Cairo, 63

Australian pastimes in, 73

Paradox of, 73

Troops leave for, 66

Young Turk Party in, 75
Cannan, Lieut.-Colonel, 201, 251, 258
Cape Belles offensive, 220
Garden, Admiral, 93
Cass, Lieut. -Colonel, 109, 145, 264

Saves situation, 154

Version of landing, 42
Castro, 96
Casualties —

Landing, 126

Total Anzac, 291

Total Turkish, 291

Turkish May attack, 163
Caucasus, Turks in, 213
Censor, Attitude of Australian, 41
Chailak Dere, 261
Cham Kalesi,i32
Chanak, Forts at, 130, 213
Channel, Brigadier-General, 71. I3S. 19S. 243
Chapman, Lieut.-Colonel A. E., 275, 276
Chatham's Post, 182, 288

Evacuation of, 290
Chaytor, Captain, 175
Cheshire Ridge, barracks in, 284
Chessboard Trenches. 200

Attack on. 140, 238, 242

Casualties at, 243

Description of, 191
China Squadron, Flagship of, 16
Chocolate Hills, 252, 271

Advance, 255
Chope, Lieutenant, 76
Christian. Colonel, 145, 219
Chunak Bair 119, 137, UjO, 236

Bombs on, 289

Dead Turks on, 270

Gaining summit of, 261

Second attack, 257

Storming of, 252

Topography of, 253

Turkish attacks on, 262
Churchill, Hon. W. S., 16
Clarke, D.S.O., Lieut.-Colonel, 104
Clemens, Major, 112
Clogstoun, Major H. O., 75, 82, 223
Cocos Islands, 75

Convoy passes, 38

German landing, 54

Plan of battle, 51
Cohran, Captain, go
CoUman, Captain, 231
Colnc, H.M.S., Bombardment by, 248
Colombo-
Convoy at, 61

Route of Convoy to, 35

Sydney, H.M.A.S., at, 46
Leaves Cocos for, 57
Connolly, Captain, 277

INDEX

3^1

Constantinople, 167, 279

British Ambassador, 27

Canal route to, 79
Convoy —

Commanding officer of, 30, 33

Departure of Orviclo and, 25

Destination changed, 61

Details of, 32

Disposition of, 30

Enters Red Sea, 61

Final Departure, 31

First Division at Albany, 24

Japanese Java Squadron, 35

Names of ships, 32

New Zealand ships, 33

Omieto, flagship of, 8

Precaution against Emdcn, 37, 39, 41

Proximity of Emdcit, 41

Reaches Alexandria, 60
Colombo, 6i
Port Said, 64

Route to Colombo, 35

Southern, details of, 33, 36

Speed of, 35

Start of N.Z. force with, 26

Through Suez Canal, 03
Cook, Mr. Joseph, iG
Courtney's Post, 139, 195
Cove of Anzac (see Anzac Cove), 103
Cover, Turkish use of overhead, 189
Cox, Major-General H. V., 146, 247, 272

Attack by, 250 .

Day operations by, 276
Cribb, Captain, iii
Cunliffe-Owen, Brigadier-General, 219

Daily Telegraph correspondent, 95
D'Amade, General, 92
Damakjelik Hill, 247

British capture, 250
Dardanelles —

Current from, 103

First bombardment, 92

Panorama, 129

Phaeton. H.M.S., at, 92

Queen Elisabeth bombards, 92

Turkish casualties, 291

Warships' losses, 93
Dare, Major, 274
Darwin, Importance of Port, l8
Deadman's Ridge, 244
Dcdeagatch, 96
Deia Garcia Islands, 35
Democracy, General Hamilton on the, 95
D'Eutrecasteaitx, 88'
Desaix, battleship, 64
Despair, Valley of, 185
Destroyers —

Mistake at Chunak Bair, 262

Searchlights, 209
Destroyer Hill-
Capture of, 254

Evacuation of, 289
De Tot's Battery, 143
Dexter. Chaplain, 68, 167
" Die Hards," Last Australian, 289
Direction Island, Cable on, 54
Discipline, Australians learn, 74
Division —

29th, in May attack, 146 (see under British
Army)

1st Australian, 20 (see under Australian
Army)

New Zealand and Australian, 71 (see
under Austrahan Army)
Djemal Pasha, 76, 78

Bluff of, 84
Dobbin, Lieut. -Colonel, 22S
Doctors at Lone Pine, 232

Dugouts, Descriptions of, 170, 180
Dunstan, Captain, 265
Duntroon Military College, 19
Duplex, 64
Dysentery at Anzac, 278

Easton, Lieutenant, Capture of, 124
Egypt-
Army in, 77

British prestige in, 281

Convoy sent to, 62

G.O.C., 62

German menace in, 62

Secret service work in, 220

Turkish plots in, 80
Egypliaa —

Engineers at Imbros, 217

Mounted Artillery, 77, 86

Water-tins, 171
Kl Arisch, 79
El Ferdan, 83

Elias, Mount, View from, 97
Elliott, Lieut.-Colonel, 75, 112, 235
Emden —

Beaching, 53

Casualties on, 57

Challenges Sydney, 48

Course against Sydney, 51

Destruction of, 40

Dummy funnel, 48

Germans watch tight, 54

Hits on, so

Indian Gulf raids, 27

Nearness to Convoy, 41

Precaution against, 37

Shells fired by, 59

Wreck of, 56
Empire Day, Armistice on, 165
Empress of Russia, H.M.S., 57
Encounter, H.M.A.S., 26
Enemy messages, 192
Engineering, Anzac schemes of, 285
Engineers —

At Lone Pine, 235

Egyptian, 217

General Maxwell's appreciation of, S3

New Zealand, 247

Third Australian Company, 75, S2
Enos, Gulf of, 213

Landing at, 214
Entanglements at Gaba Tepe, 1S2
Enver Pasha —

Brother of, 27

Difficulties of, 281

Orders by, 208
Erenkeui Bay, 92
Eski Keui, 206
Eucalyptus trees, 68
Euripides, transport, 34
Evacuation, Gallipoli —

.\dministralive Staff, 387

Attitude of Dominions to, 291

Casualties at Anzac, 291

Casualties at Helles, 291

Casualties at Suvla Bay, 291

Chatham's Post, 290

Estimated casualties in, 281

Explosion on Nek, 290

General Hamilton refuses, 280

Helles, 291

Last Anzac scenes, 290

Method of, 288

Officers responsible for, 287

Part of Navy, 289

Plans for, 286

Questions raised, 280

Reasons for, 2S1 seq.

Staff work at, 2S7

Stores destroyed at, 2S7

12'2"

INDEX

Evacuation, Gallipoli— co;i/nij(«i

Three columns in, 288

Units in, 288 seq.
Everden, 132
Expeditionary Force —

Australian attitude to, 20

Delay in departure, 27

March in Melbourne, 23
Eye-witness, 8

Falkland Islands, Battle of, 18

" Farm, The," Capture of, 246, 253, 262

Farr. Major, 195

Ferdinand, King, and Turkey, g6

Ferguson, Sir Ronald Munro, 15

F'estian, Major, 141

Fathers, Major, 112

Fever, Mediterranean, 192

Fisherman's Huts, 16S

Capture of, 11 1
Flag, Colonel Austin's Anzac, 173
Flockart, Captain, 68
Flour, Bulgaria gets, 0
Forsyth, Brigadier-General J., 238, 2S7
French Army — ■

A charge by, 147

Artillery at Helles, 145

At Lemnos, 95

Fail at " Haricot," 154

Infantry at Helles, 144

Landing, 128

Leader, 73

Numbers of, 213
French 75 cm. guns, use by Turks, 191
French Navy at Dardanelles, 220
Frost-bite, Australians suffer, 28O
FuUerton, Major, 231
Fusilier Regiments landing, 12S

GabaTepe, 92, iig, 163"

Bombardment of, log, 205

Plans for landing, 94, 215

Snipers, 182

Transports off, IC2

Turkish guns on, 118
Gallery trenches, 184
Gallipoli —

(See also Anzac and Helles)

Causes of campaign failure, 291

Night of landing on, 100

Reason for evacuation of, 281 set;.

Sunsets, 171

Turkish plans at, 280

Turkish losses, 291

Wild flowers, 168
Garside, Lieut.-Colonel, 150

Death of, 155
Gaulois, damaging of, 93
Gaza, 79
German —

Aeroplane at Anzac, 268

Albatross machine, 163

Attack methods, 119

Belief about Australia, 18

Cocos landing part}', 54

N.C.O.'s with Turks, 117

Officers at Anzac, 188

Officers' camp, 169

Officers' Trench, n8, luj, 224, 237

Officers with Turks, 213

Sailors on Keeling Island, 56

Telcfunken Code, 24

Von den Hagen, Major, 90
Germany —

Menaces Egypt, 62

New Guinea base, 18

Pacific Squadron, 18
Gezirah, 68
Gharry, Australians' use of, 73

Gillison, Chaplain A., Death of, 375

Glasfurd, Major, 136

Glasgow, Major T. W., 244

Glossop. Captain, 46, 53

Glover, Lieut.-Colonel Thomas, 89

Cneiscnau, German cruiser, 18

Gcdley, Major-General Sir A., 9, i~,6, 169, 224,

245
Goeben —

Guns from, 159

Turkish interest in, 28
Golta, Von der, 76
Good Hope, H.M.S., 40
Gordon-Smith, Captain, 36

Message to Fleet, 45
Gorizia, Italian gunners at, 114
Graham, Major D. P., 202
Granaries, Turkish, 149
Grant, Chaplain, 295
Great Adventure, The, 10

Deception of Turks in, 219

General Hamilton Hums up, 214

Plans of, 212
Great Dere, 205
Great Sap, the, 173
Greece —

Attitude of, 2S1

yueen of, 98
Greek-
Interpreter, 251

Islands' food, 9

Music, 98

Natives on Imbros, 133, 217

Voyage on steamer, 96
Gunners, Heroic Anzac, 188
Guns, handling of, 190
Gurkhas (see also Indian Army), 83, 88, 143, 253,

205

Hagen, Major Von den, 90
Hamilton, General Sir Ian —

Appreciation of Major-General Bridges,
158

Asks for reinforcements, 279

Author's help from, 9

Departure from Anzac, 281

Estimate of ammunition supply, 2U

First sight of Dardanelles, 92

Headquarters, 9, 217

Interview with, 95

Landing plans, 93

Needs more troops, 104

Plan of " Great Adventure," 212 seq.

Plan of Sari Bair battle, 247 scq.

Praise of Australians, 9, 270

Questioned on evacuation, 280

Recall to London, 280

Strategy of, 220

Sums up Anzac landing, 127

Sums up his army, 279

Sums up July position, 214

Views on Armistice, 164
Hamilton, Private, 265
Hangars at Tenedos, 187
Happy Valley, 120, 190
Hardinge, H.M.S , 88
Hardy, Gaptain, 65
" Haricot " redoubt, 14O

French repulse at, 150, 154
Harris Ridge, attack on, 206
" Hates," Artillery, 169
" Heart of Anzac," 169
Heliopolis, Camp at, 70
Hell Spit, 177

Danger at, 171

Machine guns at, 179
Helles, Cape, 94

Auckland Battalion at, 149

Battleship support, 147

INDEX

^523

Helles, Cape— -continued

British landing, 09, 126

Cass saves situation at, 154

Colonel M'Caj''s dilemma at, 151

Compared witli Aniac, 144

Country at, 144

Evacuation, 291

Guns at, 219

Main Turkish force at, 256

May attacks, 143, 145

Offensive at, 220

Otago Battalion at, 149

Second attack, 147

Supplies at, 148

Turks hoodwinked at, 211

Turkish success at, 236

29th Division at, 126

Victorian charge at, 150

Wellington Battalion at, 149
Herring, Major, 274
Hill 971, 103, 119, 190, 236

Storming of, 215

Topograpliy of, 246
Hill Q, Storming of, 253
Hill 60, 272

Capture, 277

Casualties, 277

Evacuation, 289

Final attack on, 276

First failure at, 274

Ninth lighthouse at, 277

Plans of attack, 272

Stretcher-bearers, 274

Tenth lighthouse at, 277
Hindustani, Turkish ruse, 124
Hobbs, Colonel, 113
Holmes, Brigadier-General, 287
Horses landed at Helles, 133
Hospital ships off Anzac, 255
Hospital supplies at Anzac, 174
Hospitals—

Anzac winter, 284
British ambulances, Suvla Bay, 269
Colonel Howses Beach, 113, 171
Howard, Lieut. -Colonel, 91
Howitzer heavy guns, 285
Howse, V.C, Surgeon-General, 113, 171. 282
Hughes, Brigadier-General F. G., igo, 192

238
Huts, Turkish, 1S2
Hydroplane, French, 65

Ibraham, General, 78
Ibnki—

Clears for action, 43

Japanese Naval Escort, 29
Ida, Mount, 115
Imbros Island, 9

Anzac viewed from, 131

Australians at, 217

General Hamilton's headquarters, 217

Viewed from Anzac, 174
Indian Army —

Attack by Brigade, 250

Brigades at Helles, 146, 150

Gurkhas attack Hill Q, 2C0

Gurkhas at Helles, 143

Mingles with Australians, 181

Suvla Bay, 275

5th Gurkhas, 253

6th Gurkhas, 253, 261

loth Gurkhas, 253

14th Sikhs, 253

62nd Punjabis, 86

C)2nd Punjabis, 89

Mountain Batteries, 119, 247

26th Mountain Battery, no
Indian Ocean, Convoy in, 38
Indian troops, Turks disguised as, 124

Infantry, Australian—

I St Battalion, 123, 22S, 265

2nd Battalion, 120, 228, 266

3rd Battalion, 228

4th Battalion, H2, 121, 228, 264

5th Battalion, 8, 66, 109, 150, 226, 264

6th Battalion, 109, 112, 150, 237, 264, 2S9

7th Battalion, 75, 112, 150, 264, 265

8th Battalion, 75, 112, 120, 150

9th Battalion, 104, 120, 206

loth Battalion, 104, 120

nth Battalion, 104, 221

12th Battalion, 104, 109, 235, 264

13th Battalion, 141, 252, 274

14th Battalion, 141, 258, 275

icth Battalion, 124, 201, 252, 258

i6th Battalion, 124, 141, 201, 252, 276

288
17th Battalion, 277, 289
i8th Battalion, 277
20th Battalion, 289
23rd Battalion, 289
24th Battalion, 289
Inflexible, H.M.S., Damage to, 93
Interpreters, Greek, 251
hrcsistiblc. H.M.S., Sinking of, 93
Irvine, Major, Death of, 122
Ismailia, 79

Defences of, 83
Pontoon bridges at, 82

Jacobs, Captain, 124
apanese Fleet, 18

Ibuki and Emden, 43
Java Squadron, 35
Osaki near Emden, 45
Java, Japanese ships off, 45
Jerusalem, 80
Johnston, Brigadier-General G., 113, 137. 166,

186, 247, 287
Johnston, Lieut.-Colonel J. L., 104, 221, 224
Johnston's Jolly, 224

Name of, 188
Joseph of HohenzoUern, H.I.H.,56
Journalists, General Hamilton on, 93

Kabak Kuva Well, 273
Kaijak Aghala (Hill 60), 275
Kaiser, Nephew of, 56
Kanli, Valley, 146

Artillery in, 146
Kantara, 79, 81

Road to, 82
Kasr-el-Nil Barracks, 67
Kateb-el-Kheil, 83
Keeling Island —

Emden at, 42, 53

Sydney leaves, 57
Kelid Bahr, Fortifications of, 94, ii5, 13O1 214.

288
Kelid Bair, 168
Kephalos Bay, 9

Anchorage at, 217

Mine-sweepers at, 130
Keveres Dere, 146
Keysor, Private, 265
Kiddle, Captain, of Minotaur, 36
Kieslinger, Lieutenant, 54
King Ferdinand, 96
King George's Sound-
Convoy assemble at, 24

Traditions of, 28
King, His Majesty the, Message from, 281
King, Major, 231
Kitchener, Earl, 90,281

At Russell Top, 282

Delivers King's message, 283

Message to Australasians, 283

Visit to Anzac, 282

324

INDEX

Koja ChemenTepe (srt alw Hill 071), 103, 116,

190, 220
Kojadere, 137

Turkish camp at, 105

Turkish trenches to, 1S7
l^Jnigshcr^. Sinking of, 40

H.M.A.S. Sydney, and, 5.)
Krithia, 127

Country round, 144

May attack on, 143, 149

Plans to capture, 205, 214

Road into, 153
Krupp guns captured, 106
Kum Kale Fort —

Attack on, 220

Bombardment of, 92,94
Kurdish Cavalry, 80

Lakes, Bitter, 84
Landing, Australian —

Anzac covering force, 104
Country faced at, loO
Crisis, 113, 116
Details of, 102 seq.
Efiect of current on, 103
Fourth Brigade in, 112
Navy's part in, 107
Need of artillery at, 115
New Zealand part in, 117
Plans for, 96
Queensland first, 109
Reinforcements at, 112
Third Brigade, 102
Turkish opposition at, 105
Landing —

French at Kum Kale, 12S
Fusilier Regiments at Helles, 12S
Nine Army Corps, 247
Suvla Bay failure, 214, 254. 260
Leane, Major, 222
Death of, 223
Lee, Lieut.-Colonel, 104
Legge, Major-General, 9, 271
Legge Valley, 164
Lemnos, Island of, 217

Transports, 94
Levant, The—

Earl Kitchener visits, 281
Flowers of, 129
Ships in, 99
Levinge, Lieut.-Colonel, 2G2
Life at Anzac, 180
Light Horse —

Anzac attack, 205
Attacks on the Nek, 243
Gallantry, 207
Landing of, 170
Light Horse Units: —

ist Regiment, 208, 244
2nd Regiment, 202
3rd Regiment, 200
5th Regiment, 206
7th Regiment, 206
8th Regiment, 236, 240
Qth Regiment, 277
loth Regiment, 236, 277
Lind, Captain, 68
Logan, Major T. J., Death of, 243
Loudon, H.M.S., Anecdote of, 175
Lone Pme, 224

After bomb attacks, 266

Artillery at, 227

Attacks at, 221, 222

Author at, 10

Bombing at, 221, 236, 255, 285

Capture, 229, 270

Casualties, 270

Charges, 228, 229

Details of trenches, 224

Lone Pine — continued

Engineers at, 235

Evacuation, 289

Machine guns at, 232

Military Crosses won at, 265

Mining operations, 2S5

Plans for, 223

Signallers at, 230

Tunnel trenches, 225

Turkish overhead cover, 229

Turkish version of, 268

Victoria Crosses won at, 265
Loughran, Major, 274
Lussington, Private, 124

Maadi, Light Horse at, 70

Maan Railway, 80

M'Cay, Brigadier-General, 77, log, 117, 143,

150. 151

Wounded at Helles, 155
M'Cay's Hill, 120

McDonald, Lieut.-Colonel, 140, 149
McDonald, Captain, R.T.A., Capture of

124
McGarry, Private, 242
Machine guns —

Captured Turkish, 267

Hell Spit, 179

Lone Pine, 232

Noise of, 115

On the Nek, 240

Quinn's, 199
Mackesy, Lieut.-Colonel, 249
Mackworth, D.S.O., Major, 136
MacLachlan, Major, go
Maclagan, Brigadier-General Sinclair, 102, 117,

182, 183, 205
Maclagan's Ridge, 105, 168
McLaurin, Colonel, 69, 109, 117

Death of, 122
Macnaghten, Colonel. 228, 264
McNicol, Lieut.-Colonel, 109, 112, 150

Wounded at Helles, 155
Maidos, 04, 105, 213, 215

Destruction of, 131

Reconnaissance of, 136

Shells dropping on, 130
^/j/m^/c. Sinking of, 211
Mallet, Sir Louis, 27
Malone, Lieut.-Colonel W. C, 149, 259

At Quinn's, 196

Death of, 260
Malta, 96
Mai Tepe, 132,280

Dere, 146
Manchester Territorials, 67
Mangar, Lieut., 68, iii, 117
Maoris, 173, 247, 273

At Russell Top, 208

Table Top attack, 249
Marshall IsL^nds, 18
Martyn, Lieut.-Colonel, 211, 235, 285
Massey, W. T., 8, 95
Maurctania, Troops on, 217
JIaxwell, General —

Anzac visit, 282

Canal attack, 84
May attack—

At Helles, 145

Turkish, 160
Mediterranean, Submarines in, 214
Meekes, Major, 29
Melbourne, H.M.A.S., 29, 42
Mena —

Camp at, 67, 70

Roads at, 69
Menace, Submarine, 214
Merrington, Chaplain, 167
Mesopotamian Campaign, 213, 2S1

INDEX

•325

Mia mias, 251

Military Crosses, 265

Millen, E. D., Admiralty message to, 16

Miltiades, 30

Miners, Tasnianian, 185

Milling —

Anzac, 237

Lone Pine, 285

Of the Nek, 290

Operations in November, 284

Quinn's, 193

Turkish, 191
Minotaur, H.M.S., 16, 26, 40
Mitylene, Island of, 9, 98, 22a
Moclie, Captain von, 54
Moiya Harah, 80
Monash, Brigadier-General J., 71, iii, 117,

137, 247 251, 269, 271
Monash Gully, in, 119, 200, 290

Fierce fighting at, 162
Mongrak, 180
Monitors, 214, 218

Monro, General Sir Charles, 281, 286
Montcalm, H.M.S., 04
Moore, Colonel, 260
Morto Bay, 92, 128, 146
Moslems, Attempt to embroil, 80
Mudros, 7, 97

Camps at, 217

First Army Corps rest at, 27S

Fleet at, 96

Permission to visit, 97

Ships shelter at, 214

Troops reach, 287
Mule Gully, 137, 164, 189
Mules, Ammunition, 181
MiiUer, Captain, Surrender of, 54
" Mustard Plaster, The," 253

Attack on, 261
Myles, Major, 187

Naval AustraUan Unit, 16
Naval Division at Helles, 147
Navy —

Air Service, 133

At evacuation of Anrac, 289

First Australian action, 40

German Pacific Squadron, 18

Part in landing, 107

Speed of Sydney, 45

Spirit of, 107

Transportation of supplies, 280
Xagara Lighthouse, 131
Narrows, 130, 214, 268
Napoleon, Egyptian Campaign, 79
Xebrunesi Point, 247, 254
Nekhl, 80, 81

Nelson Battalion at Quinn's, 141
•Nek, The," 119, 288, 289

Bombs on, 241

Casualties, 243

Final mine on, 290

Light Horse charge, 237

Light Horse repulse, 242

Mining on, 191

Nearness of trenches on, 200

Significance of attacks, 243

Turkish machine guns on, 210, 240
Nettleton, Lieutenant, death of, 244
Newcastle, H.M.S., 47
New Guinea-
Codes captured at, 24

German, 18
New Zealand Army, Units of —

Artillery, 219

Engineers, 247, 249

Infantry, 88

Auckland Battalion, ni, 149, 254
Canterbury Battalion, 149, 194, 253

New Zealand Army, Units of — contiiiiieU
Otago Battalion, 140, 142
Wellington Battalion, 149

Mounted Rifles, 249, 273, 27O, 289
New Zealand Convoy, 26, 27, 33
New Zealanders —

Attack on Sari Bair, 245, 247

Charge at Helles, 149

Hold Chunak Bair, 25 j

Infantry in Canal, 77

Infantry leave Anzac, 144

Line held by, 139

On Russell Top, 139, 190

Storm Chunak Bair, 252
Ninth Army Corps, 255
No. 2 Outpost, 177, 218, 224, 248, 254, 263
No. 3 Outpost, 248, 271
No Man's Land, 201

Observation post, Turkish, 149
Ocean Beach, 173, 263, 289
Ocean, H.M.S., 92

Sinking of, 93
Olive Grove Battery, 157, 214, 2S0
Onslow, Captain, Death of, 170
Ordnance stores, Anzac, 169, 173
Orvieto, H.M.T., 8

Departure of, 25
Osaki, Japanese cruiser, 45
Osboldstone & Co., 10
Otago Battalion, 142, 149, 276, 253

Captures Bauchop's Hill, 249
Ottoman Empire —

Help for, 281

Exhaustion of, 291
Outposts, 173
Outpost No. I, 289
Outpost No. 2, 177, 263

Attack from, 248

Observation from, 254

Strengthening of, 218

Troops move to, 224
Outpost No. 3 —

Attack on, 248

Prisoners taken at, 271
Overhead cover, Turkish, 189
Owen, Cunliffe-, Brigadier-Genernl, 219
Owen's Gully, 224

Padre, A, under shell fire, 172

Pain, Captain, 234

Papua, German base, 1 8

Paris, General, 150

Parker, Mr., 43

Parnell, Colonel, 19

Passport, Press, 9

Pearce, 10

Pegasus, H.M.A.S., 26

Periscope, Use of, 185, 198

Persian Gulf Campaign, 27

Phaeton, H.M.S., 92

Phillips, Major, i88

Pimple, The, 186, 224

Pine Ridge, 106, 121, 137, 182, 1S6, 187

220
Pioneer, H.M.A.S., 26, 34
Plugge, Lieut-Colonel, in, 149
Plugge's Plateau, 105, 119, 173
Pontoon bridges, Canal, 82
Pope, Lieut-Colonel, 252, 258

Advance by, 14c

Escape from capture, 124

First command, 124
Pope's Hill, 119, 137, 179, 208, 240

Attacks from, 142, 244

Capture of, 123, 124

Evacuation, 290

History, 200 seq.

Life at, aoo

326

INDEX

Pope's Hill — continued

Nearness of trenches on, 20i
Occupation, iii

Poppytield, 162

Port Said-
Flooding of, 70
Warships at, 64

Portsmouth Battalion at Ouiifn's, 141

I'ost Office, Anzac, 171

" Possy," Description of a, iSO

Primrose, Major, 141

Pyramids, 68, 72

"Q" Hill, 257

Taking of, 261
Quebec, 129

Sari Bair compared to, 270
giiefH, H.M.S., 100, 138

General Birdwcod's recall to, 113
(^iieeti Elizabeth, iH.M.S., 92, 109, 115, 116,
132

Shrapnel, iig

Spotters for, 122
Queensland Infantry first ashore, log
Queensland Light Horse, Gallantry' of, 207
Quinn, Major, 123, 201

Death of, 203
Quinn's Post, 119, 137, 208, 240, 242, 2SS

Attack fails, 140

Bombing at, i6o

Early history, 194

Evacuation, 290

Life at, 195

Machine guns at, 199

Mining at, 193, 284

Occupation, iii

Periscopes, use of, 19S

Tunnel trenches, 193, 197

Turkish notices at, 2ii

Rabbit Island, 93, 130
Ramazan, Turkish attack at, 210
Kankine, Lieut.-Colonel, 252,258
Rearguard action, Anzac, 287
Red Crescent, Turkish, 166
Red Cross —

Beach Station, i6g

Use of flag, 163
Red Sea, Convoy in, 61
Redoubt. " Haricot," 146
Reed, Major, Death of, 244
Keid, Sir George, 74
Reinforcements —

Anzac, 291

Need of, 213
Renwick, George, 8
Requiem, cruiser, 65
Rest Gully, 250

Reticulation scheme, Anzac, 171
Reynell, Colonel, 277
Rhododendron Ridge, 191, 263

Capture of, 253

Topography, 246
River Clyde, 144

Grounding of, 128
Robeck, Vice-Admiral de, 92, 96, 215
Robertson, Major, 120
Rose, Captain, 259
Rosenthal, Colonel, 113, 182
Ross, Major, 183, 221
Rowell, Lieut.-Colonel, 200
Royal Marine Light Infantry, 135, 137, 141
Royal Naval Air Service, 133
Ruses, Australian, 2ig
Russell Top, 119, 137, 190

Attack on, 209

Kitchener at, 282

New Zealand work on, 139, 190

Supplies, 192

Russell, Brigadier-General A.M., 137,147,349,257
Russian, Greek music and, 98

Saker, Major, 112
Salonica, 98, 281
Salt Lake, 173, 220

Ambulances at, -69

British at, 254

Grass fires at, 257
Samothracc, Island of. 17.)
Sampson, Flight-Comni;inder, 219
Sanders, General Liman von, 7.S, 134

Army Order by, 118

Use of Red Crescent, \()(>
Sap, The Great, 17^
Sap, The Secret, 187
Sapping at Lone Pine, 235
Sari Bair Ridge, 103, 113, 119, 173

Battle of, 257, 264

Columns attacking, 245, 247

Machine guns on, 254

Plans against, 137, 215, 246, 258

Shelling of, 132
Saros Gulf, 92. 98

Warships in, 95
Sasse, Major, 265
Sazli Beit Dere, 247

Capture of, 253
Scharnhorst, 18
Schmidt, Lieutenant, 54
Scobie, Lieut.-Colonel, 228

Death of, 266
Scrubby Knoll, Guns against, iSO
Searchhghts, Destrovers', 209

Use of, 238
Scddul Bahr, 128

Forts at, 92

French at, 144

Ruins, 144

Turkish shelling of, 149

Village, 115
Serapeum, 80, S3
Serbian Army, 281
Shell Green, 182. 184
Shells, Star, Turkish, 161
Shera, Captain, 249
Shout, V.C, Captain, 265
Shrapnel, Effects of, 116
Shrapnel Gully, 105, 194

Anzac divided by, 179, 189

Indian camp in, i8i

Snipers in, 122
Signallers at Lone Pine, 230
Sikhs Infantry, 181, 253
Silver, Captain, 38, 41, 42, 45
Sinai, Water on, 78
Smith, Captain Gordon, 30
Smyth, Brigadier-General, 210
Snipers at Gaba Tepe, 182
Snipers, Turkish, 122

Surrender of, 192
Snipers' Nest, 190

Machine guns at, 191, 263
Snowfall at Anzac, 285
" Soul of Anzac " (see also General Birdwood)

169
Southern, H.M.T., 30, 35, 36
Speary, Rear-Admiral, 30
Sphinx Rock, 173, 250
Spy suspicions at Castro, 96
Stanley, Sir Arthur, 23
Star shell, Turkish use of, 161
Steel's Post, 189, 208
Stevens, G., 9
Stevens, Major, 235
Stevenson, Major, 219
Stewart, Captain J. C, 68
Stewart, Lieut.-Colonel D. M., 140
Stewart, Lieutenant, 154

INDEX

32Z

Stopford, General, 455
Stores, Anzac, 287
Storm —
— Anzac, 285

Mediterranean, 173
Strategy, General Hamilton's, 220
Stretcher-bearers, 1S8

At Lone Pine, 231

At Hill 60, 274
Submarines, 214, 215
Supplies —

Navy transport of, 280

Helles, 148

Russell Top, 192
Suvla Bay, 169, 173

Base established, 255, 271

British ambulances at, 255, 269

British position, 255

Evacuation, 291

Failure, 260

Landing, 204, 214, 236, 254

Stalemate, 279

Turkish forces, 255

Warships in, 132
Siviftsure, H.M.S., 65
Suez, 62
Suez Canal —

Australian Engineer on, 82

Australians on, 77

Convoy in, 63

Desert round, 78

Guarding, 64

Mountains near, 79
Suez Canal, Battle of —

Kitchener's hand in, 90

New Zealand Infantry at, 8S

Turkish attack, 85, 88

Turks captured in, 86

White Hag in, 90
Suez-Cairo Railway, 84
Sydney, H.M.A.S., 29, 46, 52

Attacks Etnden, 44

Attacks s.s. Buresk, 54

Casualties on, 57

Course against Emden, 51

Fire on, 52

Hits on, 46, 49, 58

Range-finder of, 49

Shells fired by, 59

Speed of, 45, 58
Syme, Geoffrey, lo
Syme, Sergeant, 82
Symons, V.C, Lieutenant, 265
Syrian coast, French ships off, 220

Table Top position, 247, 249
Tasnian Post, 205, 221
Tasmanian miners, 185
Taube —

At Anzac, 255

Over Quinn's, 197
TeKel, Tents at Cape, 131
Telefunken Code, 24
Telephone Exchange, Anzac, 171
Tenedos, Island of, 92

Fleet at, 99, 127

Hangars at, 187, 219
"The Bloody Angle," 194
"The VVheatfield," 206
Thermia, Australians at, 97
Thompson, Lieut. -Colonel, 112
Thursby, Admiral, 99
Tilney, Major, 141
Timsah, Lake, 79
Toussoum, 83, 8g

Defences at, 85
Transports —

Exercise on, 36

Hospital, 133

Routine on, 37

Transport services, strain on, 281
Travers, Brigadier-General J. H., 247, 250
Trawlers at Anzac, 177
Trenches —

Enemy, 189

Gallery, 184

German Officers', 18S

Lone Pine, 224

Quinn's, 195, 197

Tunnel, 197
Triumph, H.M.S., log, lib, 118, 214
Troy, Hills of, 99, 131
Tubb, Lieutenant, 265
Tuckett, Sergeant, l6j
Tunnels —

At lone Pine, 225

At Quinn's, 193, 197
Turkey-
Australia's interest in, 27

Governor of, 78

King Ferdinand and, 96

War with, 27, 62
Turkish Army —

Ammunition supplies, 280

Artillery, 118, 144, 149, 157, 159, 1C9

Attack Chessboard, 140

Attack Harris Ridge, 207

Attack Quinn's, 208

Attack Russell Top, 209

Bewilderment of, 256

Canal attack, 76, 80, 85

Casualties, 126, 163, 270, 291

Checking attacks by, 142

Counter-attacks, ng, 121, 125

Defence of Sari Bair, 260

Escape of column, 21 1

Failure at Canal, 88

Failure at Nek, 210

Flight from Sari Bair, 261

Fortifications on Nek, 244

" Haricot '' position, 146

Headquarters, 132

Heroism, 263

Huts, 182

Lone Pine defeat, 233 nq.

Machine guns, 254

Main forces, 356

May attacks, 160

Opposition at Anzac, 105, 28S

Opposition at Suvla, 255

Pine Ridge trenches, 1S7

Plans, 280

Prisoners, 211

Reconnaissances, 285

Reinforcements, 206

Regular troops, 208

Reserves, 105, 256

Shells on beach, 170

Spirit, 189

Strength of snipers in, 213, 279, IJ2

Use of Germans in, 117

Use of overhead cover, 229

Wiles of, 124
Turk's Point, 190
Turks —

Australians' opinion of, 183

Deceptions of, 2ig

Sedition in Egypt, 80

Surrender of, 192

" Uppishness" of, 192

Use 75 cm. guns, 191

Use overhead cover, 189, 2^9
"Voung, in Cairo, 75

Unwin, Captain, 139

Victoria-
First Army quota, 3i
Training Expeditionary Force, 23

328

INDEX

Victoria Barracks, 15
Victoria Crosses, 265
Victorian Brijjade, Landing, ill
Victorian Infantry at Helles, 143, 150
Victorian Light Horse, Heroic cliargc, 2jO

SCil.

Von den Hagen, Major, go
Von Mocke, Captain, 54

Walker, Major-General, 138, 159, 1C3, 237

Walker's Ridge, ng, 190

Wallace, Colonel, 23

Wallingford, Major, 254

Walsh, Major, 206

Walstab, Captain, 145

Wanliss, Lieut.-Colonel, 8, 66, 109, 15a, 154

Wanliss Gully, 1S8

War-
Attitude of Australia in, 15
Correspondents, General Hamilton anJ,

Council and Gallipoli, 94

General Hamilton on, 95

Office, 279

Outbreak of, 16

Zone experiences, 96
Warsaw, 2ii
Warships —

In Bitter Lakes, 1^4

Shatter Turks, 290

Shelling by, 116

Support at Helles, 147
Water—

Anzac supply, 171

Carriers, 194

Water— rci;i/»;iiiC(/

Problems at Anzac, 218

Tanks, 194

Tasmanians dig for, 185
Watson, Captam, 169
Watson, J. R., 10
Watson's Pier, i6g
Weir, Lieut. Colonel, 104, 120
Wellington Hattalion, 149, 259, 276
Wells, Tasmanians sink, 185
" Wheatlield, The," 20O
"W" Hills, 272

White, Lieut.-Colonel A., Death of, 241
White, Brigadier-General, C.B.B., 8, 136, 2S7
Wliiteclifts, Town of, 131
White flag, Turkish use of, 90, 163
White Gully, 182, iSO
Wild Howefs, Gallipoli, l63
Williams, Major, 195
Wilson, Major, 21
Wilson, Private H., 154
Wineglass Ridge, 206
Winter base, Suvia Bay as, 220
Winter campaign. Plans for, 283
Wireless —

Cocos message, 48

Emden's use of, 48

Transports and, 38
Witham, Major, 109

Yarmouth, H.M.S., 47
Yeomanry, 289

Zeitoun, Camp at, 70

Zone, Correspondents in the, 9

Piintcd in Great Britain by

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Full text of "Australia in arms : a narrative of the Australasian imperial force and their achievement at Anzac ; with 9 maps and 53 illustrations"

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