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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #53682 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/53682)
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of Gallipoli, by John Masefield
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: Gallipoli
-
-Author: John Masefield
-
-Release Date: December 7, 2016 [EBook #53682]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GALLIPOLI ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Brian Coe, Chris Pinfield and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
-file was produced from images generously made available
-by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
-
-
-
-
-
-Transcriber's Note.
-
-Apparent typographical errors have been corrected. The use of hyphens
-and of accents has been rationalised.
-
-Italics are indicated by _underscores_. Small capitals have been
-replaced by full capitals. "oe" ligatures have been removed.
-Superscripted characters have been replaced by ordinary font and
-preceded by an apostrophe.
-
-Section headings in chapter II, which are in italics, are preceded by
-two blank lines. Elsewhere two blank lines between paragraphs indicate
-that they were widely separated in the original text.
-
-
-
-
- GALLIPOLI
-
-
- [Illustration: Publisher's Mark]
-
- THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
- NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO · DALLAS
- ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO
-
- MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED
- LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA
- MELBOURNE
-
- THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
- TORONTO
-
-
- GALLIPOLI
-
- BY
- JOHN MASEFIELD
-
- Author of "The Everlasting Mercy," "The
- Story of a Round House," etc.
-
- _ILLUSTRATED_
-
- New York
- THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
- 1916
- _All rights reserved_
-
-
- COPYRIGHT, 1916,
- BY JOHN MASEFIELD
-
- Set up and electrotyped. Published October, 1916.
- Reprinted November, twice, December, 1916.
-
-
- DEDICATED
- WITH DEEP RESPECT AND ADMIRATION TO
- _General Sir Ian Hamilton, G.C.B., D.S.O._
- AND
- _The Officers and Men under his Command_,
- March to October, 1915.
-
-
-
-
-LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
-
- FACING
- PAGE
-
- Map No. 1 4
-
- Map No. 2 38
-
- A view showing Morte Bay, De Tott's Battery,
- and the Asiatic Coast 46
-
- A remarkable view of V Beach 48
-
- The S.S. _River Clyde_ 52
-
- Some of the barbed wire entanglements near Sedd-el-Bahr 56
-
- Exercising mules 92
-
- Anzac from the Sea 116
-
- View of Anzac, looking towards Suvla 134
-
- Map No. 3 136
-
- A "long focus" view taken over the top of our trenches at Anzac 144
-
- Australians at work at Anzac two days before the
- evacuation took place 146
-
- A boatload of British troops leaving the S.S. _Nile_
- for one of the landing beaches 148
-
- Inside an Australian trench 162
-
- An Australian bringing in a wounded comrade to
- hospital 224
-
-
-
-
- GALLIPOLI
-
-
-
-
-I
-
-Oliver said ... "I have seen the Saracens: the valley and the mountains
-are covered with them; and the lowlands and all the plains; great are
-the hosts of that strange people; we have here a very little company."
-
-Roland answered ... "My heart is the bigger for that. Please God and His
-holiest angels, France shall never lose her name through me."
-
- _The Song of Roland._
-
-
-A little while ago, during a short visit to America, I was often
-questioned about the Dardanelles Campaign. People asked me why that
-attempt had been made, why it had been made in that particular manner,
-why other courses had not been taken, why this had been done and that
-either neglected or forgotten, and whether a little more persistence,
-here or there, would not have given us the victory.
-
-These questions were often followed by criticism of various kinds, some
-of it plainly suggested by our enemies, some of it shrewd, and some the
-honest opinion of men and women happily ignorant of modern war. I
-answered questions and criticism as best I could, but in the next town
-they were repeated to me, and in the town beyond reiterated, until I
-felt the need of a leaflet printed for distribution, giving my views of
-the matter.
-
-Later, when there was leisure, I began to consider the Dardanelles
-Campaign, not as a tragedy, nor as a mistake, but as a great human
-effort, which came, more than once, very near to triumph, achieved the
-impossible many times, and failed, in the end, as many great deeds of
-arms have failed, from something which had nothing to do with arms nor
-with the men who bore them. That the effort failed is not against it;
-much that is most splendid in military history failed, many great things
-and noble men have failed. To myself, this failure is the second grand
-event of the war; the first was Belgium's answer to the German ultimatum.
-
- [Illustration: Map No. 1
- _Stanford's Geog'l Estab't London._]
-
-The Peninsula of Gallipoli, or Thracian Chersonese, from its beginning
-in the Gulf of Xeros to its extremity at Cape Helles, is a tongue of
-hilly land about fifty-three miles long, between the Ęgean Sea and the
-Straits of the Dardanelles. At its northeastern, Gulf of Xeros or
-European end it is four or five miles broad, then a little to the south
-of the town of Bulair, it narrows to three miles, in a contraction or
-neck which was fortified during the Crimean War by French and English
-soldiers. This fortification is known as the Lines of Bulair. Beyond
-these lines, to the southwest, the peninsula broadens in a westward
-direction, and attains its maximum breadth, of about twelve miles, some
-twenty-four miles from Bulair, between the two points of Cape Suvla, on
-the sea, and Cape Uzun, within the Straits. Beyond this broad part is a
-second contraction or neck, less than five miles across, and beyond
-this, pointing roughly west-southwesterly, is the final tongue or finger
-of the Peninsula, an isosceles triangle of land with a base of some
-seven miles, and two sides of thirteen miles each, converging in the
-blunt tip (perhaps a mile and a half across) between Cape Helles and
-Cape Tekke. There is no railway within the peninsula, but bad roads,
-possible for wheeled traffic, wind in the valleys, skirting the hills
-and linking up the principal villages. Most of the travelling and
-commerce of the peninsula is done by boat, along the Straits, between
-the little port of Maidos, near the Narrows, and the town of Gallipoli
-(the chief town) near the Sea of Marmora. From Gallipoli there is a fair
-road to Bulair and beyond. Some twenty other small towns or hamlets are
-scattered here and there in the well-watered valleys in the central
-broad portion of the Peninsula. The inhabitants are mostly small
-cultivators with olive and currant orchards, a few vineyards and patches
-of beans and grains; but not a hundredth part of the land is under
-cultivation.
-
-The sea shore, like the Straits shore, is mainly steep-to, with abrupt
-sandy cliffs rising from the sea to a height of from one hundred to
-three hundred feet. At irregular and rare intervals these cliffs are
-broken by the ravines or gullies down which the autumnal and winter
-rains escape; at the sea mouth of these gullies are sometimes narrow
-strips of stony or sandy beach.
-
-Viewed from the sea, the Peninsula is singularly beautiful. It rises and
-falls in gentle and stately hills between four hundred and eleven
-hundred feet high, the highest being at about the centre. In its colour
-(after the brief spring) in its gentle beauty, and the grace and
-austerity of its line, it resembles those parts of Cornwall to the north
-of Padstow from which one can see Brown Willie. Some Irish hills recall
-it. I know no American landscape like it.
-
-In the brief spring the open ground is covered with flowers, but there
-is not much open ground; in the Cape Helles district it is mainly poor
-land growing heather and thyme; further north there is abundant scrub,
-low shrubs and brushwood, from two to four feet high, frequently very
-thick. The trees are mostly stunted firs, and very numerous in the
-south, where the fighting was, but more frequently north of Suvla. In
-one or two of the villages there are fruit trees; on some of the hills
-there are small clumps of pine. Viewed from the sea the Peninsula looks
-waterless and sun-smitten; the few water-courses are deep ravines
-showing no water. Outwardly, from a distance, it is a stately land of
-beautiful graceful hills rolling in suave yet austere lines and covered
-with a fleece of brushwood. In reality the suave and graceful hills are
-exceedingly steep, much broken and roughly indented with gullies, clefts
-and narrow irregular valleys. The soil is something between a sand and a
-marl, loose and apt to blow about in dry weather when not bound down by
-the roots of brushwood, but sticky when wet.
-
-Those who look at the southwestern end of the Peninsula, between Cape
-Suvla and Cape Helles, will see three heights greater than the rolling
-wold or downland around them. Seven miles southeast from Cape Suvla is
-the great and beautiful peaked hill of Sari Bair, 970 feet high, very
-steep on its sea side and thickly fleeced with scrub. This hill commands
-the landing place at Suvla. Seven miles south from Sari Bair is the long
-dominating plateau of Kilid Bahr, which runs inland from the Straits, at
-heights varying between five and seven hundred feet, to within two miles
-of the sea. This plateau commands the Narrows of the Hellespont. Five
-miles further to the southwest and less than six miles from Cape Helles
-is the bare and lonely lump of Achi Baba, 590 feet high. This hill
-commands the landing place at Cape Helles. These hills and the ground
-commanded by them were the scenes of some of the noblest heroism which
-ever went far to atone for the infamy of war. Here the efforts of our
-men were made.
-
-
-Those who wish to imagine the scenes must think of twenty miles of any
-rough and steep sea coast known to them, picturing it as roadless,
-waterless, much broken with gullies, covered with scrub, sandy, loose
-and difficult to walk on, and without more than two miles of accessible
-landing throughout its length. Let them picture this familiar twenty
-miles as dominated at intervals by three hills bigger than the hills
-about them, the north hill a peak, the centre a ridge or plateau, and
-the south hill a lump. Then let them imagine the hills entrenched, the
-landing mined, the beaches tangled with barbed wire, ranged by howitzers
-and swept by machine guns, and themselves three thousand miles from
-home, going out before dawn, with rifles, packs, and water bottles, to
-pass the mines under shell fire, cut through the wire under machine gun
-fire, clamber up the hills under the fire of all arms, by the glare of
-shell-bursts in the withering and crashing tumult of modern war, and
-then to dig themselves in in a waterless and burning hill while a more
-numerous enemy charge them with the bayonet. And let them imagine
-themselves enduring this night after night, day after day, without rest
-or solace, nor respite from the peril of death, seeing their friends
-killed, and their position imperilled, getting their food, their
-munitions, even their drink, from the jaws of death, and their breath
-from the taint of death, and their brief sleep upon the dust of death.
-Let them imagine themselves driven mad by heat and toil and thirst by
-day, shaken by frost at midnight, weakened by disease and broken by
-pestilence, yet rising on the word with a shout and going forward to die
-in exultation in a cause foredoomed and almost hopeless. Only then will
-they begin, even dimly, to understand what our seizing and holding of
-the landings meant.
-
-All down the southeastern coast of this Peninsula or outlier from Europe
-is a channel of sea, known, anciently, as the Hellespont, but in modern
-times more generally as the Dardanelles, from old fortifications of that
-name near the southwestern end of the Strait. This channel, two or three
-miles across at its southwestern end, broadens rapidly to four or five,
-then narrows to two, then, for a short reach, to one mile or less, after
-which (with one more contraction) it maintains a steady breadth of two
-or three miles till it opens into the great salt lake of the Sea of
-Marmora, and thence by another narrow reach into the Black Sea, or
-Euxine.
-
-It is a deep water channel, with from 25 to 50 fathoms of water in it
-throughout its length. The Gallipoli, or European, shore is steep-to,
-with a couple of fathoms of water close inshore, save in one or two
-beaches, where it shoals. On the Asian shore, where the ground is lower
-and the coast more shelving, the water is shallower. A swift current of
-from two to three knots an hour runs always down the channel from the
-Sea of Marmora; and this with a southwesterly gale against it makes a
-nasty sea.
-
-This water of the Hellespont is the most important channel of water in
-the world. It is the one entrance and exit to the Black Sea, the mouths
-of the Danube, Dniester, Dnieper and Don and the great ports of
-Constantinople, Odessa and Sebastopol. He who controls the channel
-controls those ports, with their wealth and their power to affect great
-conflicts. The most famous war of all times was fought not for any human
-Helen but to control that channel. Our Dardanelles campaign was
-undertaken to win through it a free passage for the ships of the Allied
-Powers.
-
-While the war was still young it became necessary to attempt this
-passage for five reasons: 1. To break the link by which Turkey keeps her
-hold as a European Power. 2. To divert a large part of the Turkish army
-from operations against our Russian Allies in the Caucasus and
-elsewhere. 3. To pass into Russia, at a time when her northern ports
-were closed by ice, the rifles and munitions of war of which her armies
-were in need. 4. To bring out of Southern Russia the great stores of
-wheat lying there waiting shipment. 5. If possible, to prevent, by a
-successful deed of arms in the Near East, any new alliance against us
-among the Balkan peoples.
-
-In its simplest form the problem was to force a passage through the
-defended channel of the Dardanelles into the Sea of Marmora, to attack
-the capital of Turkey in Europe, to win through the Bosphorus into the
-Black Sea, securing each step in the advance against reconquest by the
-Turks, so that ships might pass from the Ęgean to the Russian ports in
-the Black Sea, bringing to the Russians arms for their unequipped troops
-and taking from them the corn of the harvests of Southern Russia. The
-main problem was to force a passage through the defended channel of the
-Hellespont.
-
-This passage had been forced in the past by a British naval squadron. In
-February, 1807, Sir John Duckworth sailed through with seven ships of
-the line and some smaller vessels, silenced the forts at Sestos and
-Abydos and destroyed some Turkish ships; and then, fearing that the
-Turks, helped by French engineers, would so improve the fortifications
-that he would never be able to get back, he returned. On his return, one
-of his ships, the _Endymion_ frigate, 40 guns, received in her hull two
-stone shot each 26 inches in diameter.
-
-The permanent fortifications guarding the Channel were added to and
-improved during the nineteenth century. At the outbreak of the war with
-Italy, four years ago, they were equipped (perhaps by German officers)
-with modern weapons. An attempt made by Italian torpedo boats to rush
-the Straits by night was discovered by searchlights and checked by a
-heavy fire from quick-firing and other guns. All the torpedo boats
-engaged in the operations were hit and compelled to return.
-
-When Turkey entered the war against the Allied Powers, her officers had
-every reason to expect that the British or French fleets would attempt
-to force the Channel. The military prize, Constantinople and the control
-of the Black Sea (whether for peace or for offence), was too great a
-temptation to be resisted. Helped by their German allies they prepared
-for this attack with skill, knowledge and imagination. The Turks had no
-effective battle fleet, as in the sixteenth century, when they sought
-their enemies upon their own coasts; and had they had one they could not
-have passed the British fleet blockading the Dardanelles; but they
-prepared the channel and its shores so that no enemy ship might pass to
-seek them.
-
-More than the two great wars, in South Africa and Manchuria, the present
-war has shown:
-
- (a) that in modern war, defence is easier and less costly in men and
- munitions, however much less decisive, than attack;
-
- (b) that the ancient type of permanent fortress, built of steel,
- concrete and heavy masonry is much less easy to defend against the
- fire of heavy modern howitzers and high explosives than temporary
- field works, dug into the earth and protected by earth and sandbags;
-
- (c) that the fire of modern long range guns is wasteful and ineffective
- unless the object fired at can be accurately ranged, and the fire
- controlled by officers who can watch the bursting of the shells on
- or near the target;
-
- (d) that in restricted waters the fixed or floating mine, filled with
- high explosive, is a sure defence against enemy ships.
-
-Beginning with proposition (a), the Turks argued that (unlike most
-defences) a defence of the passage of the Dardanelles against naval
-attack might well be decisive (i.e., that it might well cause the attack
-to be abandoned or even destroy the attacking ships) since ships engaged
-in the attack would be under every disadvantage, since:
-
-(b) Their guns, however heavy, would not be overwhelmingly successful
-against temporary field works and gun emplacements.
-
-(c) Their officers, unable in the first place to locate the guns hidden
-on the shore, would be unable to observe the effect of their fire, and
-therefore unable to direct it, and this disadvantage would become
-greater as the ships advanced within the channel and became shut in by
-the banks.
-
-(d) They would be unable to enter the channel until the waters had been
-dragged for mines by mine sweepers. The batteries of field guns hidden
-on the coast would perhaps be sufficient to stop the progress of the
-mine sweepers. If not, floating mines, alongshore torpedo tubes, and the
-accurately ranged and directed fire of heavy howitzers would perhaps
-sink the ships of war as they advanced.
-
-(e) A ship, if damaged, would be five hundred miles from any friendly
-dock and seven hundred miles from any friendly arsenal. Replenishments
-of ammunition, fuel, food and water would have to be brought to the
-attacking fleet across these distances of sea, past many islands and
-through one or two channels well suited to be the lurking grounds for
-enemy submarines.
-
-On the other hand, there was the possibility that the heavy naval guns
-would make the field works untenable, that observers in aeroplanes and
-seaplanes would locate, range and observe the fire upon the hidden
-batteries, that thus the mine sweepers would be able to clear a passage
-up the Straits without undue interruption, and complete the task
-demanded of them without military assistance.
-
-Before operations could be begun by the Allied fleets it was necessary
-to secure some harbour, as close as possible to the Straits, to serve as
-what is called an advanced or subsidiary base, where large stores of
-necessaries, such as fuel and munitions, could be accumulated for future
-use by the ships engaged.
-
-The port of Mudros, in Lemnos, was selected as this subsidiary base.
-This great natural harbour, measuring some two by three miles across,
-provides good holding ground in from five to seven fathoms of water for
-half the ships in the world. Two islands in the fairway divide the
-entrance into three passages, and make it more easy for the naval
-officers to defend the approaches. It is a safe harbour for ocean-going
-ships in all weathers, but with northerly or southerly gales, such as
-spring up very rapidly there in the changeable seasons of the year and
-blow with great violence for some hours at a time, the port is much
-wind-swept and the sea makes it dangerous for boats to lie alongside
-ships. Mudros itself, the town from which the port is named, is a small
-collection of wretched houses inhabited by Levantines, who live by
-fishery, petty commerce, and a few olive gardens and vineyards. It has a
-cathedral or largish church, and a small wooden pier, without
-appliances, for the use of the native boatmen. The town lies to the east
-of the harbour, on some rising ground or sand which stands up a little
-higher than the surrounding country. Behind it, rather more than a mile
-away, are barren hills of some 800 or 900 feet. The port is ringed in
-with these hills; it looks like a great extinct crater flooded by the
-sea. Over the hills in fair weather the peaks of Samothrace can be seen.
-When the spring flowers have withered the island is of the colour of a
-lion's skin. Its only beauty then is that of changing light.
-
-Mudros in itself offered nothing to the Allied fleets but a safe
-anchorage. It could not even supply the ships with fresh water, let
-alone meat, bread and vegetables. The island produces little for its few
-inhabitants; its wealth of a few goats, fish, olives and currants could
-be bought up in a week by the crew of one battleship. Everything
-necessary for the operations had therefore to be brought by sea and
-stored in Mudros till wanted. When this is grasped, the difficulties of
-the undertaking will be understood. There was no dock, wharf nor crane
-in Mudros, nor any place in the harbour where a dock or wharf could be
-built without an immense labour of dredging. Ships could not be repaired
-nor dry-docked there, nor could they discharge and receive heavy stores
-save by their own winches and derricks. Throughout the operations, ships
-had to serve as wharves, and ships' derricks as cranes, and goods were
-shipped, re-shipped and trans-shipped by that incessant manual labour
-which is the larger half of war.
-
-On the 18th February and following days, the Allied Fleets attacked the
-forts at the entrance to the Straits and soon silenced them. These were
-old-fashioned stone structures of great strength, they were knocked
-about and made untenable by the fire from the ships, but not destroyed.
-After this first easy success came delay, for the real obstacles lay
-within the Straits, between Cape Helles and the Narrows. Here, at
-intervals, very skilfully laid, commanded by many guns, ranged to the
-inch, were eight big mine fields, stretching almost across the navigable
-channel in different directions. No ships could pass this part of the
-Straits until the mines had been groped for and removed. In thick and
-violent weather, under heavy fire, and troubled by the strong current,
-the mine-sweepers began to remove them, helped by the guns of the fleet.
-But the fleet's fire could not destroy the mobile field guns and
-howitzers hidden in the gullies and nullahs (invisible from the ships)
-on the Asian shore and to the east of Achi Baba. The Boers, and later,
-the Japanese, had shown how difficult it is to locate well-concealed
-guns. Even when sea- and aero-planes had seen and signalled the
-whereabouts of the hidden guns, the ships could only fire at the flashes
-and at most hit some of the gunners; if their fire became too accurate
-the gunners would retire to their shelters, or withdraw their guns to
-new hidden emplacements. These hidden guns, firing continually upon the
-mine-sweepers, made the clearing of the mine fields towards the Narrows
-a slow and bloody task.
-
-On the 18th March, the ships developed a fierce fire upon the shore
-defences, and in the midst of the engagement the Turks floated some
-large mines upon the attacking ships and by these means sank three
-battleships, one French, two English, the French ship with all her crew.
-
-Heavy and unsettled weather which made mine-sweeping impossible broke
-off serious operations for some days. During these days it was decided,
-though with grave misgivings among the counsellors, that an army should
-be landed on the Peninsula to second the next naval attack.
-
-It was now a month since the operations had begun, and the original
-decision, to leave the issue solely to the ships, had delayed the
-concentration of the troops needed for the task. The army, under the
-supreme command of General Sir Ian Hamilton, was assembling, but not yet
-concentrated nor on the scene. Some of it was in Egypt, some in
-transports at sea. When it was decided to use the army in the venture,
-much necessary work had still to be done. The Turks had now been given
-so much time to defend the landing places that to get our troops ashore
-at all called for the most elaborate preparation and the working out of
-careful schemes with the naval officers. The Germans boasted that our
-troops would never be able to land; possibly at first thought, many
-soldiers would have agreed with them, but English soldiers and sailors
-are not Germans; they are, as Carlyle says, "far other"; our Admirals
-and General felt that with courage and a brave face our troops could
-land. It was true that the well-armed Turks were amply ready and could
-easily concentrate against any army which we could land and supply, a
-far larger force, more easily supplied and supported. But in the narrow
-Peninsula they could not move their larger forces so as to out-flank us.
-Our flanks could be protected always by the fleet. And besides, in war,
-fortune plays a large part, and skill, courage and resolution, and that
-fine blending of all three in the uncommon sense called genius, have
-often triumphed even where common sense has failed. It was necessary
-that we should divert large armies of Turks from our Russian Allies in
-the Caucasus; it was desirable to strike the imaginations of the Balkan
-States by some daring feat of arms close to them; it was vital to our
-enterprise in Mesopotamia and to the safety of Egypt that we should
-alarm the Turks for their capital and make them withdraw their armies
-from their frontiers. This operation, striking at the heart of the
-Turkish Empire, was the readiest way to do all these things.
-
-The army designated for this honourable and dangerous task consisted of
-the following:
-
-A division of French soldiers, the Corps Expeditionnaire de l'Orient,
-under M. le General d'Amade. This division was made up of French
-Territorial soldiers and Senegalese.
-
-The 29th Division of British regular troops.
-
-The Royal Naval Division.
-
-The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.
-
-The French Division and the 29th Division of British Regular soldiers
-were men who had been fully trained in time of peace, but the Australian
-and New Zealand Army Corps and the Royal Naval Division, who together
-made up more than half the army, were almost all men who had enlisted
-since the declaration of war, and had had not more than six months'
-active training. They were, however, the finest body of young men ever
-brought together in modern times. For physical beauty and nobility of
-bearing they surpassed any men I have ever seen; they walked and looked
-like the kings in old poems, and reminded me of the line in Shakespeare:
-
- "Baited like eagles having lately bathed."
-
-As their officers put it, "they were in the pink of condition and didn't
-care a damn for anybody." Most of these new and irregular formations
-were going into action for the first time, to receive their baptism of
-fire in "a feat of arms only possible to the flower of a very fine army."
-
-
-Having decided to use the army, the question how to use it was left to
-the Commanding General, whose task was to help the British fleet through
-the Narrows. Those who have criticised the operations to me, even those
-who know, or pretended to know the country and military matters (but who
-were, for the most part, the gulls or agents of German propaganda)
-raised, nearly always, one or both of the following alternatives to the
-attack used by Sir Ian Hamilton. They have asked:
-
- (1) Why did he not attack at or to the north of Bulair in the Gulf of
- Xeros, or
-
- (2) Why did he not attack along the Asiatic coast, instead of where he
- did, at Cape Helles and Anzac?
-
-Those who have asked these questions have always insisted to me that had
-he chosen either alternative his efforts must have been successful. It
-may be well to set down here the final and sufficient reasons against
-either folly.
-
-Firstly, then, the reasons against landing the army at or to the north
-of Bulair in the Gulf of Xeros.
-
-1. The task demanded of the army was, to second the naval attack in the
-Straits, i.e., by seizing and occupying, if possible, the high ground in
-the Peninsula from which the Turkish guns molested the mine-sweepers. As
-this high ground commanded the Asiatic shore, its occupation by the
-British troops would have made possible the passage of the Straits. This
-and this alone was the task demanded of the army, no adventure upon
-Constantinople was designed or possible with the numbers of men
-available. How the army could have seconded the naval attack by landing
-three or four days' march from the Narrows within easy reach of the
-large Turkish armies in European Turkey is not clear.
-
-Nevertheless, our task was to land the army and all landing places had
-to be examined. Pass now to:
-
-(a) Bulair was carefully reconnoitred and found to be a natural
-stronghold, so fortified with earthworks that there was no chance of
-taking it. Ten thousand Turks had been digging there for a month, and
-had made it impregnable. There are only two landing places near Bulair,
-one (a very bad one) in a swamp or salt-marsh to the east, the other in
-a kind of death-trap ravine to the west, both dominated by high ground
-in front, and one (the eastward) commanded also from the rear. Had the
-army, or any large part of it, landed at either beach, it would have
-been decimated in the act and then held up by the fortress.
-
-(b) Had the army landed to the north of Bulair on the coast of European
-Turkey it would have been in grave danger of destruction. Large Turkish
-armies could have marched upon its left and front from Adrianople and
-Rodosto, while, as it advanced, the large army in Gallipoli, reinforced
-from Asia across the Straits, could have marched from Bulair and fallen
-upon its right flank and rear.
-
-(c) But even had it beaten these armies, some four times its own
-strength, it would none the less have perished, through failure of
-supplies, since no European army could hope to live upon a Turkish
-province in the spring, and European supplies could have been brought to
-it only with the utmost difficulty and danger. There is no port upon
-that part of the Turkish coast; no shelter from the violent southerly
-gales, and no depth of water near the shore. In consequence, no
-transports of any size could approach within some miles of the coast to
-land either troops or stores. Even had there been depth of water for
-them, transports could not have discharged upon the coast because of the
-danger from submarines. They would have been compelled to discharge in
-the safe harbour of the subsidiary base at Mudros in Lemnos, and (as
-happened with the fighting where it was) their freight, whether men or
-stores, re-shipped into small ships of too light draught to be in danger
-from submarines, and by them conveyed to the landing places. But this
-system, which never quite failed at Anzac and Cape Helles, would have
-failed on the Xeros coast. Anzac is some forty miles from Mudros, the
-Xeros coast is eighty, or twice the distance. Had the army landed at
-Xeros, it would have been upon an unproductive enemy territory in an
-unsettled season of the year, from eighty to twenty hours' steam from
-their own safe subsidiary base. A stormy week might have cut them off at
-any time from all possibility of obtaining a man, a biscuit, a cartridge
-or even a drink of water, and this upon ground where they could with
-little trouble be outnumbered by armies four times their strength with
-sound communications.
-
-Secondly, for the reasons against attacking along the Asiatic coast:
-
-(a) The coast is commanded from the Gallipoli coast and therefore less
-important to those trying to second a naval attack upon the Narrows.
-
-(b) An army advancing from Kum Kale along the Asiatic shore would be
-forced to draw its supplies from overseas. As it advanced, its
-communications could be cut with great ease at any point by the hordes
-of armed Turks in Asia Minor.
-
-(c) The Turkish armies in Asia Minor would have attacked it in the right
-and rear, those from Bulair and Rodosto would have ferried over and
-attacked it in front, the guns in Gallipoli would have shelled its left,
-and the task made impracticable.
-
-Some of those who raised these alternatives raised a third; when the
-first two had been disposed of, they asked, "Even if the army could not
-have landed at Bulair or on the Asian coast, why did it land where it
-did land, on those suicidal beaches?" The answer to this criticism is as
-follows: It landed on those beaches because there were no others on the
-Peninsula, because the only landing places at which troops could be got
-ashore with any prospect of success however slight were just those three
-or four small beaches near Cape Helles, at the southwest end of the
-Peninsula, and the one rather longer beach to the north of Gaba or Kaba
-Tepe. All these beaches were seen to be strongly defended, with barbed
-wire entanglements on the shore and under the water, with sea and land
-mines, with strongly entrenched riflemen, many machine guns, and an
-ample artillery. In addition, the beaches close to Cape Helles were
-within range of big guns mounted near Troy on the Asian shore, and the
-beach near Gaba Tepe was ranged by the guns in the olive groves to the
-south and on the hills to the north of it. A strong Turkish army held
-the Peninsula, and very powerful reserves were at Bulair, all well
-supplied (chiefly by boat from the Asian shore) with food and munitions.
-German officers had organised the defence of the Peninsula with great
-professional skill. They had made it a fortress of great strength,
-differing from all other fortresses in this, that besides being almost
-impregnable it was almost unapproachable. But our army had its task to
-do, there was no other means of doing it, and our men had to do what
-they could. Any one trying to land, to besiege that fortress, had to do
-so by boat or lighter under every gun in the Turkish army. The Turks and
-the Germans knew, better than we, what few and narrow landing places
-were possible to our men, they had more than two months of time in which
-to make those landing places fatal to any enemy within a mile of them,
-yet our men came from three thousand miles away, passed that mile of
-massacre, landed and held on with all their guns, stores, animals and
-appliances, in spite of the Turk and his ally, who outnumbered them at
-every point.
-
-No army in history has made a more heroic attack; no army in history has
-been set such a task. No other body of men in any modern war has been
-called upon to land over mined and wired waters under the cross fire of
-machine guns. The Japanese at Chinampo and Chemulpho were not opposed,
-the Russians at Pitezwo were not prepared, the Spaniards at Daiquiri
-made no fight. Our men achieved a feat without parallel in war and no
-other troops in the world (not even Japanese or Gurkhas or Ghazis in the
-hope of heaven) would have made good those beaches on the 25th of April.
-
-
-
-
-II
-
-Then said Roland: "Oliver, companion, brother ... we shall have a strong
-and tough battle, such as man never saw fought. But I shall strike with
-my sword, and you, comrade, will strike with yours; we have borne our
-swords in so many lands, we have ended so many battles with them, that
-no evil song shall be sung of them." ... At these words the Franks went
-forward gladly.
-
- _The Song of Roland._
-
-
-Let the reader now try to imagine the nature of the landing. In order to
-puzzle the Turkish commander, to make him hesitate and divide his
-forces, it was necessary to land or pretend to land, in some force,
-simultaneously at various places. A feint of landing was to be made near
-Bulair, the French Corps Expeditionnaire was to land at Kum Kale, to
-attack and silence the Asiatic fortifications and batteries, the
-Australian and New Zealand Army Corps was to land at or near Gaba Tepe,
-while men of the 29th and Royal Naval Divisions landed at or near Cape
-Helles, some towards Krithia on the north, others nearer Sedd-el-Bahr on
-the southwest and south. The main attacks were to be those near Gaba
-Tepe and Cape Helles.
-
- [Illustration: Map No. 2
- _Stanford's Geog'l Estab't London._]
-
-At Cape Helles three principal landings were to be made at the following
-places:
-
-1. At Beach V, a small semi-circular sandy bay, 300 yards across, just
-west of the ruins of Sedd-el-Bahr castle. The ground rises steeply round
-the half circle of the bay exactly as the seats rise in an amphitheatre.
-Modern defence could not ask for a more perfect site.
-
-2. At Beach W (to the west of V), where a small sandy bay under Cape
-Tekke offered a landing upon a strip of sand about the size of Beach V.
-The slope upward from this beach is more gentle than at V, through a
-succession of sand dunes, above which the ground was strongly
-entrenched. The cliffs north and south are precipitous, and make the
-beach a kind of gully or ravine. The Turks had placed machine guns in
-holes in the cliff, had wired and mined both beach and bay, and thrown
-up strong redoubts to flank them. Beach W was a death trap.
-
-3. At Beach X (north of W, on the other or northern side of Cape Tekke),
-a narrow strip of sand, 200 yards long, at the foot of a low cliff.
-This, though too small to serve for the quick passage ashore of many men
-at a time, was a slightly easier landing place than the other two, owing
-to the lie of the ground.
-
-Besides these main landings, two minor landings were to be made as
-follows:
-
-4. At Beach S, a small beach, within the Straits, beyond Sedd-el-Bahr.
-
-5. At Beach Y (on the Ęgean, to the west of Krithia), a strip of sand
-below a precipitous cliff, gashed with steep, crumbling, and
-scrub-covered gullies.
-
-These two minor landings were to protect the flanks of the main landing
-parties, "to disseminate the forces of the enemy and to interrupt the
-arrival of his reinforcements." They were to take place at dawn (at
-about 5 A.M. or half an hour before the main attacks), without any
-preliminary bombardment from the fleet upon the landing places.
-
-Near Gaba Tepe only one landing was to be made, upon a small beach, 200
-yards across, a mile to the north of Gaba Tepe promontory. The ground
-beyond this beach is abrupt sandy cliff, covered with scrub, flanked by
-Gaba Tepe, and commanded by the land to shoreward.
-
-For some days before the landing, the Army lay at Mudros, in Lemnos,
-aboard its transports, or engaged in tactical exercises ashore and in
-the harbour. Much bitter and ignorant criticism has been passed upon
-this delay, which was, unfortunately, very necessary. The month of
-April, 1915, in the Ęgean, was a month of unusually unsettled weather;
-it was quite impossible to attempt the landing without calm water and
-the likelihood of fine weather for some days. In rough weather it would
-have been impossible to land laden soldiers with their stores through
-the surf of open beaches, under heavy fire, and those who maintain, that
-"other soldiers" (i.e. themselves) would have made the attempt, can have
-no knowledge of what wading ashore from a boat, in bad weather, in the
-Ęgean or any other sea, even without a pack and with no enemy ahead, is
-like. But in unsettled weather the Gallipoli coast is not only difficult
-but exceedingly dangerous for small vessels. The currents are fierce,
-and a short and ugly sea gets up quickly and makes towing hazardous. Had
-the attempt been made in foul weather a great many men would have been
-drowned, some few would have reached the shore, and then the ships would
-have been forced off the coast. The few men left on the shore would have
-had to fight there with neither supplies nor supports till the enemy
-overwhelmed them.
-
-Another reason for delay was the need for the most minute preparation.
-Many armies have been landed from boats from the time of Pharaoh's
-invasion of Punt until the present, but no men, not even Cęsar's army of
-invasion in Britain, have had to land in an enemy's country with such a
-prospect of difficulty before them. They were going to land on a
-foodless cliff, five hundred miles from a store, in a place and at a
-season in which the sea's rising might cut them from supply. They had to
-take with them all things, munitions, guns, entrenching tools, sandbags,
-provisions, clothing, medical stores, hospital equipment, mules, horses,
-fodder, even water to drink, for the land produced not even that. These
-military supplies had to be arranged in boats and lighters in such a way
-that they might be thrust ashore with many thousands of men in all haste
-but without confusion. All this world of preparation, which made each
-unit landed a self-supporting army, took time and labour, how much can
-only be judged by those who have done similar work.
-
-On Friday, the 23rd of April, the weather cleared so that the work could
-be begun. In fine weather in Mudros a haze of beauty comes upon the
-hills and water till their loveliness is unearthly it is so rare. Then
-the bay is like a blue jewel, and the hills lose their savagery, and
-glow, and are gentle, and the sun comes up from Troy, and the peaks of
-Samothrace change colour, and all the marvellous ships in the harbour
-are transfigured. The land of Lemnos was beautiful with flowers at that
-season, in the brief Ęgean spring, and to seawards always, in the bay,
-were the ships, more ships, perhaps, than any port of modern times has
-known; they seemed like half the ships of the world. In this crowd of
-shipping, strange beautiful Greek vessels passed, under rigs of old
-time, with sheep and goats and fish, for sale, and the tugs of the
-Thames and Mersey met again the ships they had towed of old, bearing a
-new freight, of human courage. The transports (all painted black) lay in
-tiers, well within the harbour, the men of war nearer Mudros and the
-entrance. Now in all that city of ships, so busy with passing
-picket-boats, and noisy with the labour of men, the getting of the
-anchors began. Ship after ship, crammed with soldiers, moved slowly out
-of harbour, in the lovely day, and felt again the heave of the sea. No
-such gathering of fine ships has ever been seen upon this earth, and the
-beauty and the exaltation of the youth upon them made them like sacred
-things as they moved away. All the thousands of men aboard them,
-gathered on deck to see, till each rail was thronged. These men had come
-from all parts of the British world, from Africa, Australia, Canada,
-India, the Mother Country, New Zealand and remote islands in the sea.
-They had said good-bye to home that they might offer their lives in the
-cause we stand for. In a few hours at most, as they well knew, perhaps a
-tenth of them would have looked their last on the sun, and be a part of
-foreign earth or dumb things that the tides push. Many of them would
-have disappeared forever from the knowledge of man, blotted from the
-book of life none would know how, by a fall or chance shot in the
-darkness, in the blast of a shell, or alone, like a hurt beast, in some
-scrub or gully, far from comrades and the English speech and the English
-singing. And perhaps a third of them would be mangled, blinded or
-broken, lamed, made imbecile or disfigured, with the colour and the
-taste of life taken from them, so that they would never more move with
-comrades nor exult in the sun. And those not taken thus would be under
-the ground, sweating in the trench, carrying sandbags up the sap,
-dodging death and danger, without rest or food or drink, in the blazing
-sun or the frost of the Gallipoli night, till death seemed relaxation
-and a wound a luxury. But as they moved out these things were but the
-end they asked, the reward they had come for, the unseen cross upon the
-breast. All that they felt was a gladness of exultation that their young
-courage was to be used. They went like kings in a pageant to the
-imminent death.
-
-As they passed from moorings to the man-of-war anchorage on their way to
-the sea, their feeling that they had done with life and were going out
-to something new, welled up in those battalions; they cheered and
-cheered till the harbour rang with cheering. As each ship crammed with
-soldiers drew near the battleships, the men swung their caps and cheered
-again, and the sailors answered, and the noise of cheering swelled, and
-the men in the ships not yet moving joined in, and the men ashore, till
-all the life in the harbour was giving thanks that it could go to death
-rejoicing. All was beautiful in that gladness of men about to die, but
-the most moving thing was the greatness of their generous hearts. As
-they passed the French ships, the memory of old quarrels healed, and the
-sense of what sacred France has done and endured, in this great war, and
-the pride of having such men as the French for comrades, rose up in
-their warm souls, and they cheered the French ships more, even, than
-their own.
-
-They left the harbour very, very slowly; this tumult of cheering lasted
-a long time; no one who heard it will ever forget it, or think of it
-unshaken. It broke the hearts of all there with pity and pride: it went
-beyond the guard of the English heart. Presently all were out, and the
-fleet stood across for Tenedos, and the sun went down with marvellous
-colour, lighting island after island and the Asian peaks, and those left
-behind in Mudros trimmed their lamps knowing that they had been for a
-little brought near to the heart of things.
-
-
-The next day, the 24th April, the troops of the landing parties went on
-board the warships and mine-sweepers which were to take them ashore. At
-midnight the fleet got under way from Tenedos and stood out for the
-Peninsula. Dawn was to be at five, the landings on the flanks were to
-take place then, the others at half-past five, after the fleet had
-bombarded the beaches. Very few of the soldiers of the landing parties
-slept that night; the excitement of the morrow kept them awake, as
-happened to Nelson's sailors before Trafalgar. It was a very still fine
-night, slightly hazy, with a sea so still that the ships had no trouble
-with their long tows of boats and launches. As it began to grow light
-the men went down into the boats, and the two flanking parties started
-for the outer beaches S and Y. The guns of the fleet now opened a heavy
-fire upon the Turkish positions and the big guns on the Asian shore sent
-over a few shell in answer; but the Turks near the landing places
-reserved their fire. During the intense bombardment by the fleet, when
-the ships were trembling like animals with the blasts of the explosions,
-the picket-boats towing the lighters went ahead and the tow-loads of
-crowded men started for the main landings on beaches V, W and X.
-
- [Illustration: A view showing Morto Bay, De Lott's Battery and the
- Asiatic Coast]
-
-It was now light, and the haze on Sedd-el-Bahr was clearing away so that
-those in charge of the boats could see what they were doing. Had they
-attempted an attack in the dark on those unsurveyed beaches among the
-fierce and dangerous tide rips the loss of life would have been very
-great. As it was, the exceeding fierceness of the currents added much to
-the difficulty and danger of the task. We will take the landings in
-succession.
-
-
-_The Landing at V Beach, near Sedd-el-Bahr._
-
-The men told off for this landing were: The Dublin Fusiliers, the
-Munster Fusiliers, half a battalion of the Hampshire Regiment, and the
-West Riding Field Company.
-
-Three companies of the Dublin Fusiliers were to land from towed
-lighters, the rest of the party from a tramp steamer, the collier _River
-Clyde_. This ship, a conspicuous sea mark at Cape Helles throughout the
-rest of the campaign, had been altered to carry and land troops. Great
-gangways or entry ports had been cut in her sides on the level of her
-between decks, and platforms had been built out upon her sides below
-these, so that men might run from her in a hurry. The plan was to beach
-her as near the shore as possible, and then drag or sweep the lighters,
-which she towed, into position between her and the shore, so as to make
-a kind of boat bridge from her to the beach. When the lighters were so
-moored as to make this bridge, the entry ports were to be opened, the
-waiting troops were to rush out on to the external platforms, run from
-them on to the lighters and so to the shore. The ship's upper deck and
-bridge were protected with boiler plate and sandbags, and a casement for
-machine guns was built upon her fo'c'sle, so that she might reply to the
-enemy's fire.
-
- [Illustration: A remarkable view of V Beach, taken from S.S. _River
- Clyde_]
-
-Five picket-boats, each towing five boats or launches full of men,
-steamed alongside the _River Clyde_ and went ahead when she grounded.
-She took the ground rather to the right of the little beach, some 400
-yards from the ruins of Sedd-el-Bahr castle, before the Turks had opened
-fire, but almost as she grounded, when the picket-boats with their tows
-were ahead of her, only twenty or thirty yards from the beach, every
-rifle and machine gun in the castle, the town above it, and in the
-curved low strongly trenched hill along the bay, began a murderous fire
-upon ship and boats. There was no question of their missing. They had
-their target on the front and both flanks at ranges between 100 and 300
-yards in clear daylight, thirty boats bunched together and crammed with
-men and a good big ship. The first outbreak of fire made the bay as
-white as a rapid, for the Turks fired not less than ten thousand shots a
-minute for the first few minutes of that attack. Those not killed in the
-boats at the first discharge jumped overboard to wade or swim ashore,
-many were killed in the water, many, who were wounded, were swept away
-and drowned, others, trying to swim in the fierce current, were drowned
-by the weight of their equipment; but some reached the shore, and these
-instantly doubled out to cut the wire entanglements, and were killed, or
-dashed for the cover of a bank of sand or raised beach which runs along
-the curve of the bay. Those very few who reached this cover were out of
-immediate danger, but they were only a handful. The boats were destroyed
-where they grounded.
-
-Meanwhile, the men of the _River Clyde_ tried to make their bridge of
-boats, by sweeping the lighters into position and mooring them between
-the ship and the shore. They were killed as they worked, but others took
-their places, the bridge was made, and some of the Munsters dashed along
-it from the ship and fell in heaps as they ran. As a second company
-followed, the moorings of the lighters broke or were shot, the men
-leaped into the water and were drowned or killed, or reached the beach
-and were killed, or fell wounded there, and lay under fire getting wound
-after wound till they died; very, very few reached the sandbank. More
-brave men jumped aboard the lighters to remake the bridge. They were
-swept away or shot to pieces; the average life on those boats was some
-three minutes long, but they remade the bridge, and the third company of
-the Munsters doubled down to death along it under a storm of shrapnel
-which scarcely a man survived. The big guns in Asia were now shelling
-the _River Clyde_, and the hell of rapid fire never paused. More men
-tried to land, headed by Brigadier General Napier, who was instantly
-killed, with nearly all his followers. Then for long hours the remainder
-stayed on board, down below in the grounded steamer, while the shots
-beat on her plates with a rattling clang which never stopped. Her twelve
-machine guns fired back, killing any Turk who showed, but nothing could
-be done to support the few survivors of the landing, who now lay under
-cover of the sandbank on the other side of the beach. It was almost
-certain death to try to leave the ship, but all through the day men
-leaped from her (with leave or without it) to bring water or succour to
-the wounded on the boats or beach. A hundred brave men gave their lives
-thus: every man there earned the Cross that day: a boy earned it by one
-of the bravest deeds of the war, leaping into the sea with a rope in his
-teeth to try to secure a drifting lighter.
-
- [Illustration: The S.S. _River Clyde_, which, loaded with troops, was
- run ashore on the beach, Sedd-el-Bahr. She is known familiarly as "The
- Wooden Horse," in allusion to the famous and somewhat similar expedient
- of the Greeks at Troy.]
-
-The day passed thus, but at nightfall the Turks' fire paused, and the
-men came ashore from the _River Clyde_, almost unharmed. They joined the
-survivors on the beach and at once attacked the old fort and the village
-above it. These works were strongly held by the enemy. All had been
-ruined by the fire from the fleet, but in the rubble and ruin of old
-masonry there were thousands of hidden riflemen backed by machine guns.
-Again and again they beat off our attacks, for there was a bright moon
-and they knew the ground, and our men had to attack uphill over wire and
-broken earth and heaped stones in all the wreck and confusion and
-strangeness of war at night in a new place. Some of the Dublins and
-Munsters went astray in the ruins, and were wounded far from their
-fellows and so lost. The Turks became more daring after dark; while the
-light lasted they were checked by the _River Clyde's_ machine guns, but
-at midnight they gathered unobserved and charged. They came right down
-onto the beach, and in the darkness and moonlight much terrible and
-confused fighting followed. Many were bayoneted, many shot, there was
-wild firing and crying, and then the Turk attack melted away, and their
-machine guns began again. When day dawned, the survivors of the landing
-party were crouched under the shelter of the sandbank; they had had no
-rest; most of them had been fighting all night, all had landed across
-the corpses of their friends. No retreat was possible, nor was it
-dreamed of, but to stay there was hopeless. Lieutenant Colonel
-Doughty-Wylie gathered them together for an attack: the fleet opened a
-terrific fire upon the ruins of the fort and village, and the landing
-party went forward again, fighting from bush to bush and from stone to
-stone, till the ruins were in their hands. Shells still fell among them,
-single Turks, lurking under cover, sniped them and shot them, but the
-landing had been made good, and V beach was secured to us.
-
-This was the worst and the bloodiest of all the landings.
-
-
-_The Landing at W Beach, under Cape Tekke._
-
-The men told off for this landing were the 1st Battalion Lancashire
-Fusiliers, supported (later) by the Worcester Regiment.
-
-The men were landed at six in the morning from ships' boats run ashore
-by picket-boats. On landing, they rushed the wire entanglements, broke
-through them, with heavy loss, and won to the dead ground under the
-cliffs. The ships drew nearer to the beach and opened heavy fire upon
-the Turks, and the landing party stormed the cliffs and won the trenches.
-
-The Worcester Regiment having landed, attempts were made to break a way
-to the right, so as to join hands with the men on V Beach. All the land
-between the two beaches was heavily wired and so broken that it gave
-much cover to the enemy. Many brave Worcesters went out to cut the wires
-and were killed; the fire was intense, there was no getting further. The
-trenches already won were secured and improved, the few available
-reserves were hurried up, and by dark, when the Turks attacked, again
-and again, in great force, our men were able to beat them off, and hold
-on to what they had won.
-
-
-_The Landing at X Beach (Sometimes called Implacable Landing), towards
-Krithia._
-
-The men told off for this landing were the 1st Royal Fusiliers, with a
-working party of the Anson Battalion, R.N.D.
-
-These men were towed ashore from H.M.S. _Implacable_ about an hour after
-dawn. The ship stood close in to the beach and opened rapid fire on the
-enemy trenches: under cover of this fire the men got ashore fairly
-easily. On moving inland they were attacked by a great force of Turks
-and checked; but they made good the ground won, and opened up
-communications with the Lancashires who had landed at W Beach. This
-landing was the least bloody of all.
-
- [Illustration: Some of the barbed wire entanglements near Sedd-el-Bahr]
-
-Of the two flank landings, that on the right, within the Straits, to the
-right of Sedd-el-Bahr, got ashore without great loss and held on; that
-on the left, to the left of X Beach, got ashore, fought a desperate and
-bloody battle against five times its strength, and finally had to
-re-embark. The men got ashore upon a cliff so steep that the Turks had
-not troubled to defend it, but on landing they were unable to link up
-with the men on X Beach as had been planned. They were attacked in great
-force by an ever-growing Turkish army, fought all day and all through
-the night in such trenches as they had been able to dig under fire, and
-at last in the morning of the next day went down the cliffs and
-re-embarked, most nobly covered to the end by a party from the King's
-Own Scottish Borderers and the Plymouth Battalion.
-
-During the forenoon of the 25th, a regiment of the French Corps landed
-at Kum Kale, under cover of the guns of the French warships, and engaged
-the enemy throughout the day and night. Their progress was held up by a
-strongly entrenched force during the afternoon, and after sharp fighting
-all through the night they re-embarked in the forenoon of the 26th with
-some 400 Turkish prisoners. This landing of the French diverted from us
-on the 25th the fire of the howitzers emplaced on the Asiatic shore. Had
-these been free to fire upon us, the landings near Sedd-el-Bahr would
-have been made even more hazardous than they were.
-
-At Bulair one man, Lieutenant Freyberg, swam ashore from a Destroyer,
-towing a little raft of flares. Near the shore he lit two of these
-flares, then, wading onto the land, he lit others at intervals along the
-coast, then he wandered inland, naked, on a personal reconnaissance, and
-soon found a large Turkish army strongly entrenched. Modesty forbade
-further intrusion. He went back to the beach and swam off to his
-Destroyer, could not find her in the dark, and swam for several miles,
-was exhausted and cramped, and was at last picked up, nearly dead. This
-magnificent act of courage and endurance, done by one unarmed man, kept
-a large Turkish army at Bulair during the critical hours of the landing.
-"The Constantinople papers were filled with accounts of the repulse of
-the great attack at Bulair." The flares deceived the Turks even more
-completely than had been hoped.
-
-While these operations were securing our hold upon the extreme end of
-the Peninsula, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps were making
-good their landing on the Ęgean coast, to the north of Gaba Tepe. They
-sailed from Mudros on the 24th, arrived off the coast of the Peninsula
-at about half-past one on the morning of the 25th, and there under a
-setting moon, in calm weather, they went on board the boats which were
-to take them ashore. At about half-past three the tows left the ships
-and proceeded in darkness to the coast.
-
-Gaba or Kaba Tepe is a steep cliff or promontory about 70 feet high with
-a whitish nose and something the look of a blunt-nosed torpedo or
-porpoise. It is a forbidding-looking snout of land, covered with scrub
-where it is not too steep for roots to hold, and washed by deep water.
-About a mile to the north of it there is a possible landing place, and
-north of that again a long and narrow strip of beach between two little
-headlands. This latter beach cannot be seen from Gaba Tepe. The ground
-above these beaches is exceedingly steep sandy cliff, broken by two
-great gulleys or ravines, which run inland. All the ground, except in
-one patch in the southern ravine, where there is a sort of meadow of
-grass, is densely covered with scrub, mostly between two and three feet
-high. Inland from the beach, the land of the Peninsula rises in steep,
-broken hills and spurs, with clumps of pine upon them, and dense
-undergrowths of scrub. The men selected for this landing were the 3rd
-Brigade of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, followed and
-supported by the 1st and 2nd Brigades.
-
-The place selected for the landing was the southern beach and nearer of
-the two to Gaba Tepe. This, like the other landing places near Cape
-Helles, was strongly defended, and most difficult of approach. Large
-forces of Turks were entrenched there, well prepared. But in the
-darkness of the early morning after the moon had set the tows stood a
-little further to the north than they should have done, perhaps because
-some high ground to their left made a convenient steering mark against
-the stars. They headed in towards the northern beach between the two
-little headlands, where the Turks were not expecting them. However, they
-were soon seen and very heavy independent rifle fire was concentrated on
-them. As they neared the beach "about one battalion of Turks" doubled
-along the land to intercept them. These men came from nearer Gaba Tepe,
-firing as they ran, into the mass of the boats at short range. A great
-many men were killed in the boats, but the dead men's oars were taken by
-survivors, and the boats forced into the shingle. The men jumped out,
-waded ashore, charged the enemy with the bayonet, and broke the Turk
-attack to pieces. The Turks scattered and were pursued, and now the
-steep scrub-covered cliffs became the scene of the most desperate
-fighting.
-
-The scattered Turks dropped into the scrub and disappeared. Hidden all
-over the rough cliffs, under every kind of cover, they sniped the beach
-or ambushed the little parties of the 3rd Brigade who had rushed the
-landing. All over the broken hills there were isolated fights to the
-death, men falling into gullies and being bayoneted, sudden duels, point
-blank, where men crawling through the scrub met each other and life went
-to the quicker finger, heroic deaths, where some half section which had
-lost touch were caught by ten times their strength and charged and died.
-No man of our side knew that cracked and fissured jungle. Men broke
-through it on to machine guns, or showed up on a crest and were blown to
-pieces, or leaped down from it into some sap or trench, to catch the
-bombs flung at them and hurl them at the thrower. Going as they did, up
-cliffs, through scrub, over ground which would have broken the alignment
-of the Tenth Legion, they passed many hidden Turks, who were thus left
-to shoot them in the back or to fire down at the boats, from perhaps
-only fifty yards away. It was only just light, theirs was the first
-British survey of that wild country; only now, as it showed up clear,
-could they realise its difficulty. They pressed on up the hill. They
-dropped and fired and died; they drove the Turks back, they flung their
-packs away, wormed through the bush and stalked the snipers from the
-flash. As they went, the words of their song supported them, the ribald
-and proud chorus of "Australia will be there," which the men on the
-torpedoed _Southland_ sang, as they fell in, expecting death. Presently,
-as it grew lighter, the Turks' big howitzers began shelling the beach,
-and their field guns, well-hidden, opened on the transports now busy
-disembarking the 1st and 2nd Brigades. They forced the transports to
-stand further out to sea, and shelled the tows, as they came in, with
-shrapnel and high explosive. As the boats drew near the shore every gun
-on Gaba Tepe took them in flank and the snipers concentrated on them
-from the shore. More and more Turks were coming up at the double to stop
-the attack up the hill. The fighting in the scrub grew fiercer; shells
-burst continually upon the beach, boats were sunk, men were killed in
-the water. The boatmen and beach working-parties were the unsung heroes
-of that landing. The boatmen came in with the tows, under fire, waited
-with them under intense and concentrated fire of every kind, until they
-were unloaded, and then shoved off, and put slowly back for more, and
-then came back again. The beach parties were wading to and from that
-shell-smitten beach all day, unloading, carrying ashore and sorting the
-munitions and necessaries for many thousands of men. They worked in a
-strip of beach and sea from 500 yards long by 40 broad, and the fire
-directed on that strip was such that every box brought ashore had one or
-more shells and not less than fifty bullets directed at it before it was
-flung upon the sand. More men came in and went on up the hill in
-support; but as yet there were no guns ashore, and the Turks' fire
-became intenser. By ten o'clock the Turks had had time to bring up
-enough men from their prepared positions to hold up the advance.
-Scattered parties of our men who had gone too far in the scrub, were cut
-off and killed, for there was no thought of surrender in those
-marvellous young men; they were the flower of this world's manhood, and
-died as they had lived, owning no master on this earth. More and more
-Turks came up with big and field artillery, and now our attack had to
-hold on to what it had won, against more than twice its numbers. We had
-won a rough bow of ground, in which the beach represented the bow
-string, the beach near Gaba Tepe the south end, and the hovel known as
-Fisherman's Hut the north. Against this position, held by at most 8,000
-of our men, who had had no rest and had fought hard since dawn, under
-every kind of fire in a savage rough country unknown to them, came an
-overwhelming army of Turks to drive them into the sea. For four hours
-the Turks attacked and again attacked, with a terrific fire of artillery
-and waves of men in succession. They came fresh, from superior
-positions, with many guns, to break a disorganised line of breathless
-men not yet dug in. The guns of the ships opened on them, and the
-scattered units in the scrub rolled them back again and again by rifle
-and machine gun fire, and by charge after counter charge. More of the
-Army Corps landed to meet the Turks, the fire upon the beach never
-slackened, and they came ashore across corpses and wrecked boats and a
-path like a road in hell with ruin and blasts and burning. They went up
-the cliff to their fellows under an ever-growing fire, that lit the
-scrub and burned the wounded and the dead. Darkness came, but there was
-no rest nor lull. Wave after wave of Turks came out of the night, crying
-the proclamation of their faith; others stole up in the dark through the
-scrub and shot or stabbed and crept back, or were seen and stalked and
-killed. Flares went up, to light with their blue and ghastly glare the
-wild glens peopled by the enemy. Men worked at the digging-in till they
-dropped asleep upon the soil, and more Turks charged and they woke and
-fired and again dug. It was cruelly cold after the sun had gone, but
-there was no chance of warmth or proper food; to dig-in and beat back
-the Turk or die was all that men could think of. In the darkness, among
-the blasts of the shells, men scrambled up and down the pathless cliffs
-bringing up tins of water and boxes of cartridges, hauling up guns and
-shells, and bringing down the wounded. The beach was heaped with
-wounded, placed as close under the cliff as might be, in such yard or so
-of dead ground as the cliffs gave. The doctors worked among them and
-shells fell among them and doctors and wounded were blown to pieces, and
-the survivors sang their song of "Australia will be there," and cheered
-the newcomers still landing on the beach. Sometimes our fire seemed to
-cease and then the Turk shells filled the night with their scream and
-blast and the pattering of their fragments. With all the fury and the
-crying of the shells, and the shouts and cries and cursing on the beach,
-the rattle of the small arms and the cheers and defiance up the hill,
-and the roar of the great guns far away, at sea, or in the olive groves,
-the night seemed in travail of a new age. All the blackness was shot
-with little spurts of fire, and streaks of fire, and malignant bursts of
-fire, and arcs and glows and crawling snakes of fire, and the moon rose,
-and looked down upon it all. In the fiercer hours of that night shells
-fell in that contested mile of ground and on the beach beyond it at the
-rate of one a second, and the air whimpered with passing bullets, or
-fluttered with the rush of the big shells, or struck the head of the
-passer like a moving wall with the shock of the explosion. All through
-the night, the Turks attacked, and in the early hours their fire of
-shrapnel became so hellish that the Australians soon had not men enough
-left to hold the line. Orders were given to fall back to a shorter line,
-but in the darkness, uproar and confusion, with many sections refusing
-to fall back, others falling back and losing touch, others losing their
-way in gully or precipice, and shrapnel hailing on all, as it had hailed
-for hours, the falling back was mistaken by some for an order to
-re-embark. Many men who had lost their officers and non-commissioned
-officers fell back to the beach, where the confusion of wounded men,
-boxes of stores, field dressing stations, corpses and the litter and the
-waste of battle, had already blocked the going. The shells bursting in
-this clutter made the beach, in the words of an eye-witness, "like
-bloody hell and nothing else." But at this breaking of the wave of
-victory, this panting moment in the race, when some of the runners had
-lost their first wind, encouragement reached our men: a message came to
-the beach from Sir Ian Hamilton, to say that help was coming, and that
-an Australian submarine had entered the Narrows and had sunk a Turkish
-transport off Chanak.
-
-This word of victory, coming to men who thought for the moment that
-their efforts had been made in vain, had the effect of a fresh brigade.
-The men rallied back up the hill; bearing the news to the firing-line,
-the new, constricted line was made good, and the rest of the night was
-never anything but continued victory to those weary ones in the scrub.
-But 24 hours of continual battle exhausts men, and by dawn the Turks,
-knowing the weariness of our men, resolved to beat them down into the
-sea. When the sun was well in our men's eyes they attacked again, with
-not less than twice our entire strength of fresh men, and with an
-overwhelming superiority in field artillery. Something in the Turk
-commander and the knowledge that a success there would bring our men
-across the peninsula within a day, made the Turks more desperate enemies
-there than elsewhere. They came at us with a determination which might
-have triumphed against other troops. As they came on they opened a
-terrific fire of shrapnel upon our position, pouring in such a hail that
-months afterwards one could see their round shrapnel bullets stuck in
-bare patches of ground, or in earth thrown up from the trenches, as
-thickly as plums in a pudding. Their multitudes of men pressed through
-the scrub as skirmishers, and sniped at every moving thing; for they
-were on higher ground and could see over most of our position, and every
-man we had was under direct fire for hours of each day. As the attack
-developed, the promised help arrived, our warships stood in and opened
-on the Turks with every gun that would bear. Some kept down the guns of
-Gaba Tepe, others searched the line of the Turk advance, till the hills
-over which they came were swathed with yellow smoke and dust, the white
-clouds of shrapnel, and the drifting darkness of conflagration. All the
-scrub was in a blaze before them, but they pressed on, falling in heaps
-and lines; and their guns dropped a never-ceasing rain of shells on
-trenches, beach and shipping. The landing of stores and ammunition never
-ceased during the battle. The work of the beach-parties in that scene of
-burning and massacre was beyond all praise: so was the work of the
-fatigue parties who passed up and down the hill with water, ammunition
-and food, or dug sheltered roads to the trenches; so was the work of the
-Medical Service, who got the wounded out of cuts in the earth, so narrow
-and so twisted that there was no using a stretcher and men had to be
-carried on stretcher bearers' backs or on improvised chairs made out of
-packing cases.
-
-At a little before noon the Turk attack reached its height in a blaze
-and uproar of fire, and the swaying forward of their multitudes. The
-guns of the warships swept them from flank to flank with every engine of
-death: they died by hundreds, and the attack withered as it came. Our
-men saw the enemy fade and slacken and halt; then with their cheer they
-charged him and beat him home, seized new ground from him, and dug
-themselves in in front of him. All through the day there was fighting up
-and down the line, partial attacks, and never-ceasing shell-fire, but no
-other great attack, the Turks had suffered too much. At night their
-snipers came out in the scrub and shot at anything they could see, and
-all night long their men dragged up field guns and piles of shrapnel,
-and worked at the trenches which were to contain ours. When day dawned,
-they opened with shrapnel upon the beach, with a _feu de barrage_
-designed to stop all landing of men and stores. They whipped the bay
-with shrapnel bullets. Where their fire was concentrated, the water was
-lashed as with hail all day long; but the boats passed through it, and
-men worked in it, building jetties for the boats to land at, using a big
-Turk shell as a pile driver: when they got too hot they bathed in it,
-for no fire shook those men. It was said, that when a big shell was
-coming, men of other races would go into their dugouts, but that these
-men paused only to call it a bastard and then went on with their work.
-
-By the night of the second day, the Australian and New Zealand Army
-Corps had won and fortified their position. Men writing or reporting on
-service about them referred to them as the A.N.Z.A.C., and these letters
-soon came to mean the place in which they were, un-named till then,
-probably, save by some rough Turkish place-name, but now likely to be
-printed on all English maps, with the other names, of Brighton Beach and
-Hell Spit, which mark a great passage of arms.
-
-
-
-
-III
-
-King Marsilies parted his army: ten columns he kept by him, and the
-other ten rode in to fight. The Franks said: "God, what ruin we shall
-have here. What will become of the twelve Peers?" The Archbishop Turpin
-answered first: "Good knights, you are the friends of God; to-day you
-will be crowned and flowered, resting in the holy flowers of Paradise,
-where no coward will ever come."
-
-The Franks answered: "We will not fail. If it be God's will, we will not
-murmur. We will fight against our enemies: we are few men, but
-well-hardened."
-
-They spurred forward to fight the pagans. The Franks and Saracens are
-mingled.
-
- _The Song of Roland._
-
-
-This early fighting, which lasted from dawn on the 25th April till noon
-on the following day, won us a footing, not more than that, on the
-Peninsula; it settled the German brag that we should never be able to
-land. We had landed upon, had taken, and were holding the whole of the
-southwestern extremity of the Peninsula and a strip of the Ęgean coast,
-in the face of an army never less than twice our strength, strongly
-entrenched and well supplied. We had lost very heavily in the attack,
-our men were weary from the exceedingly severe service of the landing,
-but the morrow began the second passage in the campaign, the advance
-from the sea, before the Turks should have recovered.
-
-Many have said to me, with a naļveté that would be touching if it were
-not so plainly inspired by our enemies: "Why did not the troops press on
-at once, the day they landed? The Japanese pressed on the day they
-landed, so did the Americans in Cuba. If you had pressed on at once, you
-would have won the whole Peninsula. The Turks were at their last
-cartridge, and would have surrendered."
-
-It is quite true that the Japanese moved inland immediately from their
-transports at Chemulpho and Chinampo. Those ports were seized before the
-Russians knew that war was declared: they were not defended by Russian
-soldiers, and the two small Russian cruisers caught there by the
-Japanese fleet were put out of action before the transports discharged.
-The Japanese were free to land as they chose on beaches prepared, not
-with machine guns and mines, but with cranes, gangways and good roads.
-Even so, they did not press on. The Japanese do not press on unless they
-are attacking: they are as prudent as they are brave: they waited till
-they were ready and then marched on. The Americans landed at Daiquiri
-and at Guanica unopposed and in neither case engaged the enemy till next
-day.
-
-In the preceding chapter I have tried to show why we did not press on at
-once, after landing. We did not, because we could not, because two fresh
-men strongly entrenched, with machine guns, will stop one tired man with
-a rifle in nine cases out of ten. Our men had done the unimaginable in
-getting ashore at all, they could not do the impossible on the same day.
-I used to say this, to draw the answer, "Well, other troops would have
-done it," so that I might say, what I know to be the truth, that no
-other men on this earth either would have or could have made good the
-landing; and that the men have not yet been born who could have advanced
-after such a feat of arms. The efforts of men are limited by their
-strength: the strength of men, always easily exhausted, is the only
-strength at the disposal of a general, it is the money to be spent by
-him in the purchase of victory, whether by hours of marching in the mud,
-digging in the field, or in attack. Losses in attack are great, though
-occasional, losses from other causes are great and constant. All armies
-in the field have to be supplied constantly with fresh drafts to make
-good the losses from attack and exhaustion. No armies can move without
-these replenishments, just as no individual men can go on working, after
-excessive labour, without rest and food. Our losses in the landings were
-severe, even for modern war, even for the Dardanelles. The bloodiest
-battle of modern times is said to have been Antietam or Sharpsburg, in
-the American Civil War, where the losses were perhaps nearly one-third
-of the men engaged. At V Beach the Munsters lost more than one-third,
-and the Dublins more than three-fifths of their total strength. The
-Lancashires at W Beach lost nearly as heavily as the Dublins. At Anzac,
-one Australian battalion lost 422 out of 900. At X Beach, the Royals
-lost 487 out of 979. All these battalions had lost more than half their
-officers, indeed by the 28th April the Dublins had only one officer
-left. How could these dwindled battalions press on?
-
-Then for the individual exhaustion. Those engaged in the first landing
-were clambering and fighting in great heat, without proper food, and in
-many cases without water, for the first 24 or 36 hours, varying the
-fighting with hurried but deep digging in marl or clay, getting no
-sleep, nor any moment's respite from the peril of death. Then, at the
-end of the first phase, when the fact that they had won the landing was
-plain, some of these same men, unrested, improperly fed, and wet through
-with rain, sweat and the sea, had to hold what they had won, while the
-others went down to the beach to make piers, quarry roads, dig shelters,
-and wade out to carry or drag on shore food, drink, munitions and heavy
-guns, and to do this without appliances, by the strength of their arms.
-Then when these things had been done almost to the limit of human
-endurance, they carried water, food and ammunition to the trenches, not
-in carts but on their backs, and then relieved their fellows in the
-trenches and withstood the Turk attacks and replied to the Turks' fire
-for hours on end. At Anzac the A.N.Z. Army Corps had "96 hours'
-continuous fighting in the trenches with little or no sleep" and "at no
-time during the 96 hours did the Turks' firing cease, although it varied
-in volume; at times the fusillade was simply deafening." Men worked like
-this, to the limit of physical endurance, under every possible exposure
-to wet, heat, cold, death, hunger, thirst and want of rest, become
-exhausted, and their nerves shattered, not from fear, which was a thing
-those men did not understand, but because the machine breaks. On the top
-of the misery, exhaustion and nerve-ceasing peril, is "the dreadful
-anxiety of not knowing how the battle is progressing," and the still
-worse anxiety of vigilance. To the strain of keeping awake, when
-dead-beat, is added the strain of watching men, peering for spies,
-stalking for snipers and listening for bombing-parties. Under all these
-strains the minds of strong men give way. They are the intensest strains
-ever put upon intelligences. Men subjected to them for many hours at a
-time cannot at once "press on," however brave their hearts may be. Those
-who are unjust enough to think that they can, or could, should work for
-a summer's day, without food or drink, at digging, then work for a night
-in the rain carrying heavy boxes, then dig for some hours longer, and at
-the end ask me to fire a machine gun at them while they "press on,"
-across barbed wire, in what they presume to be the proper manner.
-
-Our men could not "press on" at once. They had not enough unwounded men
-to do more than hold the hordes of fresh Turks continually brought up
-against them. They had no guns ashore to prepare an advance, nor enough
-rifle ammunition to stand a siege. They had the rations in their packs
-and the water in their bottles, and no other supplies but the seven
-days' food, water and rifle ammunition put into each boat at the
-landing. To get men, stores, water and guns ashore, under fire, on
-beaches without wharves, cranes or derricks of any kind, takes time, and
-until men and goods were landed no advance was possible. Until then, our
-task was not to press on, but to hang on, like grim death. It was for
-the enemy to press on, to beat our tired troops before their supports
-could be landed, and this the Turks very well understood, as their
-captured orders show, and as their behaviour showed only too clearly.
-During the days which followed the landing, the Turks, far from being at
-their last cartridge, and eager to surrender, prevented our pressing on,
-by pressing on themselves, in immense force and with a great artillery,
-till our men were dying of fatigue in driving back their attacks.
-
-One point more may be discussed, before resuming the story. The legend,
-"that the Turks were at their last cartridge and would have surrendered
-had we advanced," is very widely spread abroad by German emissaries. It
-appears in many forms, in print, in the lecture and in conversation.
-Sometimes place and date are given, sometimes the authority, all
-confidently, but always differently. It is well to state here the truth
-so that the lie may be known. The Turks were never at the end of their
-supplies. They were always better and more certainly supplied with
-shells and cartridges than we were. If they were ever (as perhaps they
-sometimes were) rather short of big gun ammunition, so were we. If they
-were sometimes rather short of rifles and rifle ammunition, so were we.
-If they were often short of food and all-precious water, so were we, and
-more so, and doubly more so. For all our supplies came over hundreds of
-miles of stormy water infested by submarines and were landed on open
-beaches under shell fire, and their supplies came along the Asiatic
-coast and by ferry across the Hellespont, and thence, in comparative
-safety, by road to the trenches. The Turkish army was well supplied,
-well equipped, more numerous and in better positions than our own. There
-was neither talk nor thought among them at any time of surrender, nor
-could there have been, in an army so placed and so valiant. There was
-some little disaffection among them. They hated their German officers
-and the German methods of discipline so much that many prisoners when
-taken expressed pleasure at being taken, spat at the name of German, and
-said "English good, German bad." Some of this, however, may have been
-Levantine tact.
-
-Late on the 26th April, the French corps landed men at V Beach and took
-the trenches on the right of the ground won, i.e., towards the Straits.
-At noon the next day the whole force advanced inland without much
-opposition, for rather more than a mile. At nightfall on the 27th, they
-held a line across the Peninsula from the mouth of the Sighir
-watercourse (on the Ęgean) to Eski Hissarlik (on the Straits). The men
-were very weary from the incessant digging of trenches, fighting, and
-dragging up of stores from the beach. They dug themselves in under shell
-and rifle fire, stood to their arms to repel Turk attacks for most of
-the night, and at eight next morning began the battle of the 28th of
-April. The French corps was on the right. The 29th Division (with one
-battalion of the R.N. Division), on the left. They advanced across rough
-moorland and little cultivated patches to attack the Turk town of
-Krithia. All the ground over which they advanced gave cover of the best
-kind to the defence. All through the morning, at odd times, the creeping
-companies going over that broken country came suddenly under the fire of
-machine guns, and lost men before they could fling themselves down. In
-the heather and torrent-beds of the Scotch-looking moorland the Turk had
-only to wait in cover till his targets appeared, climbing a wall or
-getting out of a gulley, then he could turn on his machine guns, at six
-hundred shots a minute each, and hold up the advance. From time to time
-the Turks attacked in great numbers. Early in the afternoon our advance
-reached its furthest point, about three quarters of a mile from Krithia.
-Our artillery, short of ammunition at the best of times, and in these
-early days short of guns, too, did what it could, though it had only
-shrapnel, which is of small service against an entrenched enemy. Those
-who were there have said that nothing depressed them more than the
-occasional shells from our guns in answer to the continual fire from the
-Turk artillery. They felt themselves out-gunned and without support.
-Rifle cartridges were running short, for, in spite of desperate efforts,
-in that roadless wild land with the beaches jammed with dead, wounded,
-stores, the wrecks of boats, and parties trying to build piers under
-shell-fire, it was not possible to land or to send up cartridges in the
-quantity needed. There were not yet enough mules ashore to take the
-cartridge-boxes and men could not be spared; there were too few men to
-hold the line. Gradually our men fell back a little from the ground they
-had won. The Turks brought up more men, charged us, and drove us back a
-little more, and were then themselves held. Our men dug themselves in as
-best they could and passed another anxious night, in bitter cold and
-driving rain, staving off a Turk attack, which was pressed with resolute
-courage against our centre and the French corps to the right of it.
-There were very heavy losses on both sides, but the Turks were killed in
-companies at every point of attack and failed to drive us further.
-
-The next two days were passed in comparative quiet, in strengthening the
-lines, landing men, guns and stores and preparing for the next advance.
-This war has shown what an immense reserve of shell is needed to prepare
-a modern advance. Our men never had that immense reserve, nor, indeed a
-large reserve, and in those early days they had no reserve at all, but a
-day to day allowance, and before a reserve was formed the Turks came
-down upon us with every man and gun they had, in the desperate night
-attack of the 1st of May. This began with shell-fire at ten P.M., and
-was followed half-an-hour later by a succession of charges in close
-order. The Turk front ranks crept up on hands and knees without firing
-(their cartridges had been taken from them) and charged our trenches
-with the bayonet. They got into our trenches in the dark, bayoneted the
-men in them, broke our line, got through to the second line and were
-there mixed up in the night in a welter of killing and firing beyond
-description. The moon had not risen when the attack came home. The
-fighting took place in the dark: men fired and stabbed in all
-directions, at flashes, at shouts, by the burning of the flares, by the
-coloured lights of the Turk officers, and by the gleams of the shells on
-our right. There were 9,000 Turks in the first line, 12,000 more behind
-them. They advanced yelling for God and Enver Pasha, amid the roar of
-every gun and rifle in range. They broke through the French, were held,
-then driven back, then came again, bore everything before them, and then
-met the British supports and went no further. Our supports charged the
-Turks and beat them back; at dawn our entire line advanced and beat them
-back in a rout, till their machine guns stopped us.
-
-Upon many of the dead Turks in front of the French and English trenches
-were copies of an address issued by a German officer, one Von
-Zowenstern, calling on the Turks to destroy the enemy, since their only
-hope of salvation was to win the battle or die in the attempt. On some
-bodies were other orders, for the Mahometan priests to encourage the men
-to advance, for officers to shoot those soldiers who hung back, and for
-prisoners to be left with the reserves, not taken to the rear. In this
-early part of the campaign there were many German officers in the
-Turkish army. In these early night attacks they endeavoured to confuse
-our men by shouting orders to them in English. One, on the day of the
-landing, walked up to one of the trenches of the 29th Division and cried
-out, "Surrender, you English, we ten to one." "He was thereupon hit on
-the head with a spade by a man who was improving his trench with it."
-
-This battle never ceased for five days. The artillery was never silent.
-Our men were shelled, sniped and shrapnelled every day and all day long,
-and at night the Turks attacked with the bayonet. By the evening of the
-5th May the 29th Division, which had won the end of the Peninsula, had
-been reduced by one-half and its officers by two-thirds. The proportion
-of officers to men in a British battalion is as one to thirty-seven, but
-in the list of killed the proportion was as one to eleven. The officers
-of that wonderful company poured out their lives like water; they
-brought their weary men forward hour after hour in all that sleepless
-ten days, and at the end led them on once more in the great attack of
-the 6th-8th of May.
-
-This attack was designed to push the Allied lines further forward into
-the Peninsula, so as to win a little more ground, and ease the growing
-congestion on the beaches near Cape Helles. The main Turkish position
-lay on and about the hump of Achi Baba, and on the high ground
-stretching down from it. It was hoped that even if Achi Baba could not
-be carried, the ground below him, including the village of Krithia,
-might be taken. The movement was to be a general advance, with the
-French on the right attacking the high ground nearer to the Straits, the
-29th Division on the left, between the French and the sea, attacking the
-slowly sloping ground which leads past Krithia up to Achi Baba. Krithia
-stands high upon the slope, among orchards and gardens, and makes a good
-artillery target, but the slope on which it stands, being much broken,
-covered with dense scrub (some of it thorny) and with clumps of trees,
-is excellent for defence. The Turks had protected that square mile of
-ground with many machine guns and trenches so skilfully concealed that
-they could not be seen either from close in front or from aeroplanes.
-The French line of attack was over ground equally difficult, but
-steeper, and therefore giving more "dead ground," or patches upon which
-no direct fire can be turned by the defence. The line of battle from the
-French right to the English left stretched right across the Peninsula
-with a front (owing to bends and salients) of about five miles. It was
-nearly everywhere commanded by the guns of Achi Baba, and in certain
-places the enemy batteries on the Turk left, near the Straits, could
-enfilade it. Our men were weary but the Turks were expecting strong
-reinforcements; the attack could not be delayed.
-
- [Illustration: Exercising mules. A photograph taken late in the
- evening. A shell is seen bursting in the background. The highest point
- on the horizon is Achi Baba.]
-
-Few people who have not seen modern war can understand what it is like.
-They look at a map, which is a small flat surface, and find it difficult
-to believe that a body of men could have had difficulty in passing from
-one point upon it to another. They think that they themselves would have
-found no difficulty, that they would not have been weary nor thirsty,
-the distance demanded of them being only a mile, possibly a mile and a
-quarter, and the reward a very great one. They think that troops who
-failed to pass across that mile must have been in some way wanting, and
-that had they been there, either in command or in the attack, the
-results would have been different.
-
-One can only answer, that in modern war it is not easy to carry a
-well-defended site by direct attack. In modern war, you may not know,
-till fire breaks out upon you, where the defence, which you have to
-attack, is hidden. You may not know (in darkness, in a strange land)
-more than vaguely which is your "front," and you may pass by your enemy,
-or over him, or under him without seeing him. You may not see your enemy
-at all. You may fight for days and never see an enemy. In modern war
-troops see no enemy till he attacks them; then, in most cases if they
-are well entrenched with many guns behind them, they can destroy him.
-
-The Allied officers, looking through their field glasses at the ground
-to be attacked, could see only rough, sloping ground, much gullied, much
-overgrown, with a few clumps of trees, a few walls, orchards and houses,
-but no guns, no trenches, no enemy. Aeroplanes scouting over the Turks
-could see men but not the trenches nor the guns, they could only report
-that they suspected them to be in such a place. Sometimes in the
-mornings men would notice that the earth was turned newly on some bare
-patch on the hill, but none could be sure that this digging was not a
-ruse to draw fire. The trenches were hidden cunningly, often with a
-head-cover of planks so strewn with earth and planted with scrub as to
-be indistinguishable from the ground about. The big guns were coloured
-cunningly, like a bird or snake upon the ground. From above in an
-aeroplane an observer could not pick them out so as to be certain, if
-they were not in action at the time. Brave men scouting forward at night
-to reconnoitre brought back some information, but not more than enough
-to show that the Turks were there in force. No man in the Allied Army
-expected less than a desperate battle; no officer in the world could
-have made it anything but that, with all the odds against us. Nothing
-could be done but cover the Turk position with the fire of every gun on
-shore or in the ships and then send the men forward, to creep or dash as
-far as they could, and then dig themselves in.
-
-Let the reader imagine himself to be facing three miles of any very
-rough broken sloping ground known to him, ground for the most part
-gorse-thyme-and-scrub-covered, being poor soil, but in some places
-beautiful with flowers (especially "a spiked yellow flower with a
-whitish leaf") and on others green from cultivation. Let him say to
-himself that he and an army of his friends are about to advance up the
-slope towards the top, and that as they will be advancing in a line,
-along the whole length of the three miles, he will only see the advance
-of those comparatively near to him, since folds or dips in the ground
-will hide the others. Let him, before he advances, look earnestly along
-the line of the hill, as it shows up clear, in blazing sunlight only a
-mile from him, to see his tactical objective, one little clump of pines,
-three hundred yards away, across what seem to be fields. Let him see in
-the whole length of the hill no single human being, nothing but scrub,
-earth, a few scattered buildings, of the Levantine type (dirty white
-with roofs of dirty red) and some patches of dark Scotch pine, growing
-as the pine loves, on bleak crests. Let him imagine himself to be more
-weary than he has ever been in his life before, and dirtier than he has
-ever believed it possible to be, and parched with thirst, nervous,
-wild-eyed and rather lousy. Let him think that he has not slept for more
-than a few minutes together for eleven days and nights, and that in all
-his waking hours he has been fighting for his life, often hand to hand
-in the dark with a fierce enemy, and that after each fight he has had to
-dig himself a hole in the ground, often with his hands, and then walk
-three or four roadless miles to bring up heavy boxes under fire. Let him
-think, too, that in all those eleven days he has never for an instant
-been out of the thunder of cannon, that waking or sleeping their
-devastating crash has been blasting the air across within a mile or two,
-and this from an artillery so terrible that each discharge beats as it
-were a wedge of shock between the skull-bone and the brain. Let him
-think too that never, for an instant, in all that time, has he been free
-or even partly free from the peril of death in its most sudden and
-savage forms, and that hourly in all that time he has seen his friends
-blown to pieces at his side, or dismembered, or drowned, or driven mad,
-or stabbed, or sniped by some unseen stalker, or bombed in the dark sap
-with a handful of dynamite in a beef-tin, till their blood is caked upon
-his clothes and thick upon his face, and that he knows, as he stares at
-the hill, that in a few moments, more of that dwindling band, already
-too few, God knows how many too few, for the task to be done, will be
-gone the same way, and that he himself may reckon that he has done with
-life, tasted and spoken and loved his last, and that in a few minutes
-more may be blasted dead, or lying bleeding in the scrub, with perhaps
-his face gone and a leg and an arm broken, unable to move but still
-alive, unable to drive away the flies or screen the ever-dropping rain,
-in a place where none will find him, or be able to help him, a place
-where he will die and rot and shrivel, till nothing is left of him but a
-few rags and a few remnants and a little identification-disc flapping on
-his bones in the wind. Then let him hear the intermittent crash and
-rattle of the fire augment suddenly and awfully in a roaring, blasting
-roll, unspeakable and unthinkable, while the air above, that has long
-been whining and whistling, becomes filled with the scream of shells
-passing like great cats of death in the air; let him see the slope of
-the hill vanish in a few moments into the white, yellow and black smokes
-of great explosions shot with fire, and watch the lines of white puffs
-marking the hill in streaks where the shrapnel searches a suspected
-trench; and then, in the height of the tumult, when his brain is shaking
-in his head, let him pull himself together with his friends, and clamber
-up out of the trench, to go forward against an invisible enemy, safe in
-some unseen trench expecting him.
-
-The Twenty-ninth Division went forward under these conditions on the 6th
-of May. They dashed on, or crawled, for a few yards at a time, then
-dropped for a few instants before squirming on again. In such an advance
-men do not see the battlefield. They see the world as the rabbit sees
-it, crouching on the ground, just their own little patch. On broken
-ground like that, full of dips and rises, men may be able to see nothing
-but perhaps the ridge of a bank ten feet ahead, with the dust flying in
-spouts all along it, as bullets hit it, some thousand a minute, and
-looking back or to their flanks they may see no one but perhaps a few
-men of their own platoon lying tense but expectant, ready for the sign
-to advance while the bullets pipe over them in a never-ending birdlike
-croon. They may be shut off by some all-important foot of ground from
-seeing how they are fronting, from all knowledge of what the next
-platoon is doing or suffering. It may be quite certain death to peep
-over that foot of ground in order to find out, and while they wait for a
-few instants shells may burst in their midst and destroy a half of them.
-Then the rest, nerving themselves, rush up the ridge, and fall in a line
-dead under machine-gun fire. The supports come up, creeping over their
-corpses, get past the ridge, into scrub which some shell has set on
-fire. Men fall wounded in the fire, and the cartridges in their
-bandoliers explode and slowly kill them. The survivors crawl through the
-scrub, half-choked, and come out on a field full of flowers tangled
-three feet high with strong barbed wire. They wait for a while, to try
-to make out where the enemy is. They may see nothing but the slope of
-the field running up to a sky line, and a flash of distant sea on a
-flank, but no sign of any enemy, only the crash of guns and the pipe and
-croon and spurt of bullets. Gathering themselves together their brave
-men dash out to cut the wire and are killed; others take their places
-and are killed; others step out with too great a pride even to stoop,
-and pull up the supports of the wires and fling them down, and fall dead
-on top of them, having perhaps cleared a couple of yards. Then a couple
-of machine guns open on the survivors and kill them all in thirty
-seconds, with the concentrated fire of a battalion.
-
-The supports come up, and hear about the wire from some wounded man who
-has crawled back through the scrub. They send back word, "Held up by
-wire," and in time the message comes to the telephone which has just
-been blown to pieces by a shell. Presently when the telephone is
-repaired, the message reaches the gunners, who fire high explosive
-shells on to the wire, and on to the slopes where the machine guns may
-be hidden. Then the supports go on over the flowers and are met midway
-by a concentrated fire of shells, shrapnel, machine guns and rifles.
-Those who are not killed lie down among the flowers and begin to scrape
-little heaps of earth with their hands to give protection to their
-heads. In the light sandy marl this does not take long, though many are
-blown to pieces or hit in the back as they scrape. As before, they
-cannot see how the rest of the attack is faring, nor even where the
-other platoons of the battalion are; they lie scraping in the roots of
-daffodils and lilies, while bullets sing and shriek a foot or two over
-their heads. A man peering from his place in the flowers may make out
-that the man next to him, some three yards away, is dead, and that the
-man beyond is praying, the man beyond him cursing, and the man beyond
-him out of his mind from nerves or thirst.
-
-Long hours pass, but the air above them never ceases to cry like a live
-thing with bullets flying. Men are killed or maimed, and the wounded cry
-for water. Men get up to give them water and are killed. Shells fall at
-regular intervals along the field. The waiting men count the seconds
-between the shells to check the precision of the battery's fire. Some of
-the bursts fling the blossoms and bulbs of flowers into the bodies of
-men, where they are found long afterwards by the X-rays. Bursts and
-roars of fire on either flank tell of some intense moment in other parts
-of the line. Every feeling of terror and mental anguish and anxiety goes
-through the mind of each man there, and is put down by resolve.
-
-The supports come up, they rise with a cheer, and get out of the
-accursed flowers, into a gulley where some men of their regiment are
-already lying dead. There is a little wood to their front; they make for
-that, and suddenly come upon a deep and narrow Turk trench full of men.
-This is their first sight of the enemy. They leap down into the trench
-and fight hand to hand, kill and are killed, in the long grave already
-dug. They take the trench, but opening from the trench are saps, which
-the Turks still hold. Men are shot dead at these saps by Turk
-sharpshooters cunningly screened within them. Bullets fall in particular
-places in the trench from snipers hidden in the trees of the wood. The
-men send back for bombs, others try to find out where the rest of the
-battalion lies, or send word that from the noise of the fire there must
-be a battery of machine guns beyond the wood, if the guns would shell it.
-
-Presently, before the bombs come, bombs begin to drop among them from
-the Turks. Creeping up, the men catch them in their hands before they
-explode and fling them back so that they burst among the Turks. Some
-have their hands blown off, other their heads, in doing this, but the
-bloody game of catch goes on till no Turks are left in the sap, only a
-few wounded groaning men who slowly bleed to death there. After long
-hours, the supports come up and a storm of high explosives searches the
-little wood, and then with a cheer the remnant goes forward out of the
-trench into the darkness of the pines. Fire opens on them from snipers
-in the trees and from machine guns everywhere; they drop and die, and
-the survivors see no enemy, only their friends falling and a place where
-no living thing can pass. Men find themselves suddenly alone, with all
-their friends dead, and no enemy in sight, but the rush of bullets
-filling the air. They go back to the trench, not afraid, but in a kind
-of maze, and as they take stock and count their strength there comes the
-roar of the Turkish war cry, the drum-like proclamation of the faith,
-and the Turks come at them with the bayonet. Then that lonely remnant of
-a platoon stands to it with rapid fire, and the machine gun rattles like
-a motor bicycle, and some ribald or silly song goes up, and the Turks
-fail to get home, but die or waver and retreat and are themselves
-charged as they turn. It is evening now; the day has passed in long
-hours of deep experience, and the men have made two hundred yards. They
-send back for supports and orders, link up, if they are lucky, with some
-other part of their battalion, whose adventures, fifty yards away, have
-been as intense, but wholly different, and prepare the Turk trench for
-the night. Presently word reaches them from some faraway H.Q. (some
-dug-out five hundred yards back, in what seems, by comparison, like
-peaceful England) that there are no supports, and that the orders are to
-hold the line at all costs and prepare for a fresh advance on the
-morrow. Darkness falls, and ammunition and water come up, and the
-stretcher-bearers hunt for the wounded by the groans, while the Turks
-search the entire field with shell to kill the supports which are not
-there. Some of the men in the trench creep out to their front, and are
-killed there as they fix a wire entanglement. The survivors make ready
-for the Turk attack, certain soon to come. There is no thought of sleep;
-it is too cold for sleep; the men shiver as they stare into the night;
-they take the coats of the dead, and try to get a little warmth. There
-is no moon and the rain begins. The marl at the bottom of the trench is
-soon a sticky mud, and the one dry patch is continually being sniped. A
-few exhausted ones fall not into sleep but into nervous dreams, full of
-twitches and cries, like dogs' nightmares, and away at sea some ship
-opens with her great guns at an unseen target up the hill. The terrific
-crashes shake the air; some one sees a movement in the grass and fires;
-others start up and fire. The whole irregular line starts up and fires,
-the machine guns rattle, the officers curse, and the guns behind,
-expecting an attack, send shells into the woods. Then slowly the fire
-drops and dies, and stray Turks, creeping up, fling bombs into the
-trench.
-
-
-This kind of fighting, between isolated bodies of men advancing in a
-great concerted tactical movement stretching right across the Peninsula,
-went on throughout the 6th, the 7th and the 8th of May, and ended on the
-evening of the 8th in a terrific onslaught of the whole line, covered by
-a great artillery. The final stage of the battle was a sight of stirring
-and awful beauty. The Allied line went forward steadily behind the
-moving barrier of the explosions of their shells. Every gun on both
-sides opened and maintained a fire dreadful to hear and see. Our men
-were fighting for a little patch of ground vital not so much to the
-success of the undertaking, the clearing of the Narrows, as to their
-existence on the Peninsula. In such a battle, each platoon, each
-section, each private soldier influences the result, and "pays as
-current coin in that red purchase" as the brigadier. The working parties
-on the beaches left their work (it is said) to watch and cheer that last
-advance. It was a day of the unmatchable clear Ęgean spring; Samothrace
-and Euboea were stretched out in the sunset like giants watching the
-chess, waiting, it seemed, almost like human things, as they had waited
-for the fall of Troy and the bale-fires of Agamemnon. Those watchers saw
-the dotted order of our advance stretching across the Peninsula, moving
-slowly forward, and halting and withering away, among fields of flowers
-of spring and the young corn that would never come to harvest. They saw
-the hump of Achi Baba flicker and burn and roll up to heaven in a swathe
-of blackness, and multitudinous brightness changing the face of the
-earth, and the dots of our line still coming, still moving forward, and
-halting and withering away, but still moving up among the flashes and
-the darkness, more men, and yet more men, from the fields of sacred
-France, from the darkness of Senegal, from sheep-runs at the ends of the
-earth, from blue-gum-forests, and sunny islands, places of horses and
-good fellows, from Irish pastures and glens, and from many a Scotch and
-English city and village and quiet farm; they went on and they went on,
-up ridges blazing with explosion into the darkness of death. Sometimes,
-as the light failed, and peak after peak that had been burning against
-the sky, grew rigid as the colour faded, the darkness of the great
-blasts hid sections of the line, but when the darkness cleared they were
-still there, line after line of dots, still more, still moving forward
-and halting and withering away, and others coming, and halting and
-withering away, and others following, as though those lines were not
-flesh and blood and breaking nerve but some tide of the sea coming in
-waves that fell yet advanced, that broke a little further, and gained
-some yard in breaking, and were then followed, and slowly grew, that
-halted and seemed to wither, and then gathered and went on, till night
-covered those moving dots, and the great slope was nothing but a
-blackness spangled with the flashes of awful fire.
-
-What can be said of that advance? The French were on the right, the
-Twenty-ninth Division on the left, some Australians and New Zealanders
-(brought down from Anzac) in support. It was their thirteenth day of
-continual battle, and who will ever write the story of even one
-half-hour of that thirteenth day? Who will ever know one hundredth part
-of the deeds of heroism done in them, by platoons and sections and
-private soldiers, who offered their lives without a thought to help some
-other part of the line, who went out to cut wire, or brought up water
-and ammunition, or cheered on some bleeding remnant of a regiment,
-halting on that hill of death, and kept their faces to the shrapnel and
-the never-ceasing pelt of bullets, as long as they had strength to go
-and light to see? They brought the line forward from a quarter of a mile
-to six hundred yards further into the Peninsula; they dug in after dark
-on the line they had won, and for the next thirty-six hours they stood
-to arms to beat back the charges of the Turks who felt themselves
-threatened at the heart.
-
-Our army had won their hold upon the Peninsula. On the body of a dead
-Turk officer was a letter written the night before to his wife, a tender
-letter, filled mostly with personal matters. In it was the phrase,
-"These British are the finest fighters in the world. We have chosen the
-wrong friends."
-
-
-
-
-IV
-
-So great is the heat that the dust rises.
-
- _The Song of Roland._
-
-
-During the next three weeks, the Allied troops made small advances in
-parts of the lines held by them at Anzac and Cape Helles. Fighting was
-continuous in both zones, there was always much (and sometimes intense)
-artillery fire. The Turks frequently attacked in force, sometimes in
-very great force, but were repulsed. Our efforts were usually
-concentrated on some redoubt, stronghold, or salient, in the nearer
-Turkish lines, the fire from which galled our trenches, or threatened
-any possible advance. These posts were either heavily bombarded and then
-rushed under the cover of a _feu de barrage_, or carried by surprise
-attack. Great skill and much dashing courage were shown in these
-assaults. The emplacements of machine guns were seized and the guns
-destroyed, dangerous trenches or parts of trenches were carried and
-filled in, and many roosts or hiding places of snipers were made
-untenable. These operations were on a small scale, and were designed to
-improve the position then held by us, rather than to carry the whole
-line further up the Peninsula. Sometimes they failed, but by far the
-greater number succeeded, so that by these methods, eked out by ruses,
-mines, clever invention and the most dare-devil bravery, parts of our
-lines were advanced by more than a hundred yards.
-
- [Illustration: Anzac from the Sea]
-
-On the 4th of June, a second great attack was made by the Allied troops
-near Cape Helles. Like the attack of the 6th-8th May, it was an advance
-of the whole line, from the Straits to the sea, against the enemy's
-front line trenches. As before, the French were on the right and the
-29th Division on the left, but between them, in this advance, were the
-R.N. Division and the newly arrived 42nd Division. Our men advanced
-after a prolonged and terrible bombardment, which so broke down the Turk
-defence that the works were carried all along the line, except in one
-place, on the left of the French sector and in one other place, on our
-own left, near the sea. Our advance, as before, varied in depth from a
-quarter of a mile to six hundred yards; all of it carried by a rush, in
-a short time, owing to the violence of the artillery preparation, though
-with heavy losses from shrapnel and machine-gun fire. In this attack,
-the 42nd or East Lancashire Division received its baptism of fire. Even
-those who had seen the men of the 29th Division in the battles for the
-landing admitted that "nothing could have been finer" than the extreme
-gallantry of these newly landed men. The Manchester Brigade and two
-companies of the 5th Lancashire Fusiliers advanced with the most
-glorious and dashing courage, routed the Turks, carried both their lines
-of trenches; and one battalion, the 6th, very nearly carried the village
-of Krithia; there was, in fact, no entrenched line between them and the
-top of Achi Baba.
-
-But in this campaign we were to taste, and be upon the brink of victory
-in every battle, yet have the prize dashed from us, by some failure
-elsewhere, each time. So, in this first rush, when, for the first time,
-our men felt that they, not the Turks, were the real attackers, the
-victory was not to remain with us. We had no high explosive shell and
-not enough shrapnel shell to deny to the Turks the use of their superior
-numbers and to hold them in a beaten state. They rallied and made strong
-counter attacks especially upon a redoubt or earthwork-fortress called
-the "Haricot," on the left of the French sector, which the French had
-stormed an hour before and garrisoned with Senegalese troops. The Turks
-heavily shelled this work and then rushed it; the Senegalese could not
-hold it; the French could not support it; and the Turks won it.
-Unfortunately, the Haricot enfiladed the lines we had won. In a little
-while the Turks developed from it a deadly enfilade fire upon the R.N.
-Division which had won the Turk trenches to the west of it. The R.N.
-Division was forced to fall back and in doing so uncovered the right of
-the Brigade of Manchesters beyond it to the westward. The Manchesters
-were forced to give ground, the French were unable to make a new attack
-upon the Haricot, so that by nightfall our position was less good than
-it had been at half-past twelve.
-
-But for the fall of the Haricot the day would have been a notable
-victory for ourselves. Still, over three miles of the Allied front, our
-lines had been pushed forward from 200 to 400 yards. This, in modern war
-is a big advance, but it brings upon the conquerors a very severe labor
-of digging. The trenches won from the defence have to be converted to the
-uses of the attack and linked up, by saps and communication-trenches,
-with the works from which the attack advanced. All this labour had to be
-done by our men in the midst of bitter fighting, for the Turks fought
-hard to win back these trenches in many bloody counter attacks, and (as
-always happened, after each advance) outlying works and trenches, from
-which fire could be brought to bear upon the newly won ground, had to be
-carried, filled in, or blown up before the new line was secure.
-
-A little after dawn on the 21st June the French stormed and won the
-Haricot redoubt, and advanced the right of the Allied position by 600
-yards; the Turkish counter attacks were bloodily defeated.
-
-In the forenoon of the 28th June, the English divisions advanced the
-left of the Allied position by a full 1,000 yards. This attack, which
-was one of the most successful of the campaign, was the first of which
-it could be said that it was a victory. Of course our presence upon the
-Peninsula was in itself a victory, but in this battle we were not trying
-to land nor to secure ourselves, but (for the first time) to force a
-decision. Three of our divisions challenged the greater part of the Turk
-army and beat it. And here, for the first time in the operations, we
-felt, what all our soldiers had expected, that want of fresh men in
-reserve to make a success decisive, which afterwards lost us the
-campaign.
-
-Our enemies have often said, that the English cannot plan nor execute an
-attack. In this battle of June 28th, the attack was a perfect piece of
-planning and execution. Everything was exactly timed, everything worked
-smoothly. Ten thousand soldiers, not one of whom had had more than six
-months' training, advanced uphill after an artillery preparation and won
-two lines of elaborately fortified trenches, by the bayonet alone. Then,
-while these men consolidated and made good the ground which they had
-won, the artillery lengthened their fuses and bombarded the ground
-beyond them. When the artillery ceased, ten thousand fresh soldiers
-climbed out of the English lines, ran forward, leaped across the two
-lines of Turk trench already taken and took three more lines of trench,
-each line a fortress in itself. Besides advancing our position a
-thousand yards, this attack forced back the right of the Turks from the
-sea, and won a strong position between the sea and Krithia, almost
-turning Achi Baba. But much more than this was achieved. The great
-triumph of the day was the certainty then acquired that the Turks were
-beaten, that they were no longer the fierce and ardent fighters who had
-rushed V beach in the dark, but a shaken company who had caught the
-habit of defeat and might break at any moment. They were beaten; we had
-beaten them at every point and they knew that they were beaten. Every
-man in the French and British lines knew that the Turks were at the
-breaking point. We had only to strike while the iron was hot to end them.
-
-As happened afterwards, after the battle of August, we could not strike
-while the iron was hot; we had not the men nor the munitions. Had the
-fifty thousand men who came there in July and August but been there in
-June, our men could have kept on striking. But they were not there in
-June, and our victory of the 28th could not be followed up. More than a
-month passed before it could be followed up. During that month the Turks
-dug themselves new fortresses, brought up new guns, made new stores of
-ammunition, and remade their army. Their beaten troops were withdrawn
-and replaced by the very pick and flower of the Turkish Empire. When we
-attacked again, we found a very different enemy; the iron was cold, we
-had to begin again from the beginning.
-
-Thirty-six hours after our June success, at midnight in the night of
-June 29-30th, the Turks made a counter attack, not at Cape Helles, where
-their men were shaken, but at Anzac, where perhaps they felt our menace
-more acutely. A large army of Turks, about 30,000 strong, ordered by
-Enver Pasha "to drive the foreigners into the sea or never to look upon
-his face again," attacked the Anzac position under cover of the fire of
-a great artillery. They were utterly defeated with the loss of about a
-quarter of their strength, some 7-8,000 killed and wounded.
-
-All this fighting proved clearly that the Turks, with all their power of
-fresh men, their closeness to their reserves, and their superior
-positions, could not beat us from what we had secured, nor keep us from
-securing more. Our advance into the Peninsula, though slow and paid for
-with much life, was sure and becoming less slow. What we had won we had
-fought hard for and never ceased to fight hard for, but we had won it
-and could hold it, and with increasing speed add to it, and the Turks
-knew this as well as we did. But early in May something happened which
-had a profound result upon the course of the operations. It is necessary
-to write of it at length, if only to show the reader that this
-Dardanelles Campaign was not a war in itself, but a part of a war
-involving most of Europe and half of Asia, and that, that being so, it
-was affected by events in other parts of the war, as deeply as it
-affected those parts in turn by its own events.
-
-No one, of the many who spoke to me about the campaign, knew or
-understood that the campaign, as planned, was not to be, solely, a
-French and English venture, but (in its later stages) a double attack
-upon the Turkish power, by ourselves, on the Peninsula and the
-Hellespont, and by the Russians, on the shores of the Black Sea. The
-double attack, threatening Turkey at the heart, was designed to force
-the Turks to divide their strength, and, by causing uneasiness among the
-citizens, to keep in and about Constantinople a large army which might
-otherwise wreck our Mesopotamian expedition, threaten India and Egypt
-and prevent the Grand Duke Nicholas from advancing from the Caucasus on
-Erzerum. But as the Polish campaign developed adversely to Russia, it
-became clear that it would be impossible for her to give the assistance
-she had hoped.
-
-Early in May, Sir Ian Hamilton learned, that his advance, instead of
-being a part of a concerted scheme, was to be the only attack upon the
-Turks in that quarter, and that he would have to withstand the greater
-part of the Turkish army. This did not mean that the Turks could mass an
-overwhelming strength against any part of his positions, since in the
-narrow Peninsula there is not room for great numbers to manoeuvre; but
-it meant that the Turks would have always within easy distance great
-reserves of fresh men to take the place of those exhausted, and that
-without a correspondingly great reserve we had little chance of decisive
-success.
-
-This change in the strategical scheme was made after we were committed
-to the venture: it made a profound difference to our position.
-Unfortunately we were so deeply engaged in other theatres that it was
-impossible to change our plans as swiftly and as profoundly as our
-chances. The great reserve could not be sent when it became necessary,
-early in May, nor for more than two months. Until it came, it happened,
-time after time, that even when we fought and beat back the Turks they
-could be reinforced before we could. All through the campaign we fought
-them and beat them back, but always, on the day after the battle, they
-had a division of fresh men to put in to the defence, while we, who had
-suffered more, being the attackers, had but a handful with which to
-follow up the success.
-
-People have said, "But you could have kept fresh divisions in reserve as
-easily as the Turks. Why did you not send more men, so as to have them
-ready to follow up a success?" I could never answer this question. It is
-the vital question. The cry for "fifty thousand more men and plenty of
-high explosive" went up daily from every trench in Gallipoli, and we
-lost the campaign through not sending them in time. On the spot of
-course our generals knew that war (like life) consists of a struggle
-with disadvantages, and their struggle with these was a memorable one.
-Only, when all was done, their situation remained that of the Frank
-rearguard in the Song of Roland. In that poem the Franks could and did
-beat the Saracens, but the Saracens brought up another army before the
-Franks were reinforced. The Franks could and did beat that army, too,
-but the Saracens brought up another army before the Franks were
-reinforced. The Franks could and did beat that army, too, but then they
-were spent and Roland had to sound his horn and Charlemagne would not
-come to the summons of the horn, and the heroes were abandoned in the
-dolorous pass.
-
-
-Summer came upon Gallipoli with a blinding heat only comparable to New
-York in July. The flowers which had been so gay with beauty in the
-Helles fields in April soon wilted to stalks. The great slope of Cape
-Helles took on a savage and African look of desolation. The air quivered
-over the cracking land. In the blueness of the heat haze the graceful
-terrible hills looked even more gentle and beautiful than before; and
-one who was there said that "there were little birds that droned, rather
-like the English yellow-hammers." With the heat, which was a new
-experience to all the young English soldiers there, came a plague of
-flies beyond all record and belief. Men ate and drank flies, the filthy
-insects were everywhere. The ground in places was so dark with them,
-that one could not be sure whether the patches were ground or flies. Our
-camps and trenches were kept clean; they were well scavenged daily; but
-only a few yards away were the Turk trenches, which were invariably
-filthy: there the flies bred undisturbed, perhaps encouraged. There is a
-fine modern poem which speaks of the Indian sun in summer as "the
-blazing death-star." Men in Gallipoli in the summer of 1915 learned to
-curse the sun as an enemy more cruel than the Turk. With the sun and the
-plague of flies came the torment of thirst, one of the greatest torments
-which life has the power to inflict.
-
-At Cape Helles, in the summer, there was a shortage but no great
-scarcity of water, for the Turk wells supplied more than half the army
-and less than half the water needed had to be brought from abroad. At
-Anzac however there was always a scarcity, for even in the spring not
-more than a third of the water needed could be drawn from wells. At
-first, water could be found by digging shallow pans in the beach, but
-this method failed when the heats began. Two-thirds (or more) of the
-water needed at Anzac had always to be brought from abroad, and to bring
-this two-thirds regularly and to land it and store it under shell fire
-was a difficult task. "When operations were on," as in the August
-battle, the difficulty of distribution was added to the other
-difficulties, and then indeed want of water brought our troops to
-death's door. At Anzac "when operations were on" even in the intensest
-heat the average ration of water for all purposes was, perhaps, at most,
-a pint and a half, sometimes only a pint. And though this extremity was
-as a rule only reached "when operations were on," when there was heavy
-fighting, it was then that the need was greatest.
-
-In peace, in comfortable homes, in cool weather, civilised people need
-or consume a little less than three pints of liquid in each day. In hot
-weather and when doing severe bodily labour they need more; perhaps half
-a gallon in the day. Thirst, which most of us know solely as a pleasant
-zest to drinking, soon becomes a hardship, then, in an hour, an
-obsession, and by high noon a madness, to those who toil in the sun with
-nothing to drink. Possibly to most of the many thousands who were in the
-Peninsula last summer, the real enemies were not the Turks, but the sun
-in Heaven, shaking "the pestilence of his light," and thirst that
-withered the heart and cracked the tongue.
-
-Some have said to me, "Yes, but the Turks must have suffered, too, just
-as much, in that waterless ground." It is not so. The Turks at Cape
-Helles held the wells at Krithia; inland from Anzac they held the wells
-near Lonesome Pine and Koja Dere. They had other wells at Maidos, and
-Gallipoli. They had always more water than we, and (what is more) the
-certainty of it. Most of them came from lands with little water and
-great heat, ten (or more) degrees further to the south than any part of
-England. Heat and thirst were old enemies to them, they were tempered to
-them. Our men had to serve an apprenticeship to them, and pay for what
-they learned in bodily hardship. Not that our men minded hardship; they
-did not; they were volunteers who had chosen their fate and were there
-of their own choice, and no army in the world has ever faced suffering
-more cheerily. But this hardship of thirst was a weight upon them,
-throughout the summer; like malaria it did not kill, but it lowered all
-vitality. It halved the possible effort of men always too few for the
-work in hand. Let it now double the honour paid to them.
-
-
-In the sandy soil of the Peninsula were many minute amoebę, which played
-their part in the summer suffering. In the winds of the great droughts
-of July and August the dust blew about our positions like smoke from
-burning hills. It fell into food and water and was eaten and drunk (like
-the flies) at each meal. Within the human body the amoebę of the sand
-set up symptoms like those of dysentery, as a rule slightly less severe
-than the true dysentery of camps. After July, nearly every man in our
-army in Gallipoli, suffered from this evil. Like the thirst, it lowered
-more vitality than it destroyed; many died, it is true, but then nearly
-all were ill: it was the universal sickness not the occasional death
-that mattered.
-
-Pass now to the position of affairs at the end of June. We were left to
-our own strength in this struggle, the Turks were shaken: it was vital
-to our chances to attack again before they recovered. We had not the men
-to attack again, but they were coming and were due in a few weeks' time.
-While they were on their way, the question, how to use them, was
-considered.
-
-As the army's task was to help the fleet through the Narrows it had to
-operate in the southwestern portion of the Peninsula. Further progress
-against Achi Baba in the Helles sector was hardly possible; for the
-Turks had added too greatly to their trenches there since the attacks of
-April and May. Operations on the Asian coast were hardly possible
-without a second army; operations against Bulair were not likely to help
-the fleet. Operations in the Anzac sector offered better chances of
-success. It was hoped that a thrust southeastward from Anzac might bring
-our men across to the Narrows or to the top of the ridges which command
-the road to Constantinople. It was reasonable to think that such a
-thrust, backed up by a new landing in force to the north, in Suvla Bay,
-might turn the Turkish right and destroy it. If the men at Helles
-attacked, to contain the Turks in the south, and the men on the right of
-Anzac attacked, to hold the Turks at Anzac, it was possible that men on
-the left of Anzac, backed up by a new force marching from Suvla, might
-give a decisive blow. The Turk position on the Peninsula roughly formed
-a letter L. The plan (as it shaped) was to attack the horizontal line at
-Cape Helles, press the centre of the vertical line at Anzac, and bend
-back, crumple and break the top of the vertical line between the Anzac
-position and Suvla. At the same time, Suvla Bay was to be seized and
-prepared as a harbour at which supplies might be landed, even in the
-stormy season.
-
- [Illustration: View of Anzac, looking towards Suvla]
-
-Some soldier has said, that "the simple thing is the difficult thing."
-The idea seems simple to us, because the difficulty has been cleared
-away for us by another person's hard thought. Such a scheme of battle,
-difficult to think out in the strain of holding on and under the
-temptation to go slowly, improving what was held, was also difficult to
-execute. Very few of the great battles of history, not even those in
-Russia, in Manchuria, and in the Virginian Wilderness have been fought
-on such difficult ground, under such difficult conditions.
-
-The chosen battlefield (the southwestern end of the Peninsula) has
-already been described; the greater part of it consists of the Cape
-Helles and Anzac positions, but the vital or decisive point, where, if
-all went well, the Turk right was to be bent back, broken and routed,
-lies to the north of Anzac on the spurs and outlying bastions of Sari
-Bair.
-
-Suvla Bay, where the new landing was to take place, lies three miles to
-the north of Anzac. It is a broad, rather shallow semicircular bay (open
-to the west and southwest) with a partly practicable beach, some of it
-(the southern part) fairly flat and sandy, the rest steepish and rocky
-though broken by creeks. Above it, one on the north, one on the south
-horn of the bay, rise two small low knolls or hillocks known as Ghazi
-Baba and Lala Baba, the latter a clearly marked tactical feature. To the
-north, beyond the horn of the bay, the coast is high, steep-to sandy
-cliff, broken with gullies and washed by deep water, but to the south,
-all the way to Anzac the coast is a flat, narrow, almost straight sweep
-of sandy shore shutting a salt marsh and a couple of miles of lowland
-from the sea; it is a lagoon beach of the common type, with the usual
-feature of shallow water in the sea that washes it. The northern half of
-this beach is known as Beach C, the southern as Beach B.
-
- [Illustration: Map No. 3
- _Stanford's Geog'l Estb't London._]
-
-Viewed from the sea, the coast chosen for the new landing seems
-comparatively flat and gentle, seemingly, though not really, easy to
-land upon, but with no good military position near it. It looks as
-though once, long ago, the sea had thrust far inland there, in a big bay
-or harbour stretching from the high ground to the north of Suvla to the
-left of the Anzac position. This bay, if it ever existed, must have been
-four miles long and four miles across, a very noble space of water,
-ringed by big, broken, precipitous hills, into which it thrust in
-innumerable creeks and combes. Then (possibly) in the course of ages,
-silt brought down by the torrents choked the bay, and pushed the sea
-further and further back, till nothing remained of the harbour but the
-existing Suvla Bay and the salt marsh (dry in summer). The hills ringing
-Suvla Bay and this flat or slightly rising expanse which may once have
-been a part of it, stand (to the fancy) like a rank that has beaten back
-an attack. They are high and proud to the north, they stand in groups in
-the centre, but to the south, where they link on to the broken cliffs of
-the Anzac position, they are heaped in tumbling precipitous disordered
-bulges of hill, cut by every kind of cleft and crumpled into every kind
-of fold, as though the dry land had there been put to it to keep out the
-sea. These hills are the scene of the bitterest fighting of the battle.
-
-Although these hills in the Suvla district stand in a rank, yet in the
-centre of the rank there are two gaps where the ancient harbour of our
-fancy thrust creeks far inland. These gaps or creeks open a little to
-the south of the north and south limits of Suvla Bay. They are watered,
-cultivated valleys with roads or tracks in them. In the northern valley
-is a village of some sixty houses called Anafarta Sagir, or Little
-Anafarta. In the southern valley is a rather larger village of some
-ninety houses called Biyuk Anafarta, or Great Anafarta. The valleys are
-called after these villages.
-
-Between these valleys is a big blunt-headed jut or promontory of higher
-ground, which thrusts out towards the bay. At the Suvla end of this jut,
-about 1,000 yards from the bight of the Salt Marsh, it shoots up in
-three peaks or top knots two of them united in the lump called Chocolate
-Hill, the other known as Scimitar Hill or Hill 70; all, roughly, 150
-feet high. About a mile directly inland from Chocolate Hill is a peak of
-about twice the height, called Ismail Oglu Tepe, an abrupt and savage
-heap of cliff, dented with chasms, harshly scarped at the top, and
-covered with dense thorn scrub. This hill is the southernmost feature in
-the northern half of the battlefield. The valley of Great Anafarta,
-which runs east and west below it, cuts the battlefield in two.
-
-The southern side of the Great Anafarta valley is just that
-disarrangement of precipitous bulged hill which rises and falls in
-crags, peaks and gulleys all the way from the valley to Anzac. Few parts
-of the earth can be more broken and disjointed than this mass of
-precipice, combes and ravines. A savage climate has dealt with it since
-the beginning of time, with great heats, frosts and torrents. It is not
-so much a ridge or chain of hills as the manifold outlying bastions and
-buttresses of Sari Bair, from which they are built out in craggy bulges
-parted by ravines. It may be said that Sari Bair begins at Gaba Tepe (to
-the south of the Anzac position) and stretches thence northeasterly
-towards Great Anafarta in a rolling and confused five miles of hill that
-has all the features of a mountain. It is not high. Its peaks range from
-about 250 to 600 feet; its chief peak (Koja Chemen Tepe) is a little
-more than 900 feet. Nearly all of it is trackless, waterless and
-confused, densely covered with scrub (sometimes with forest) littered
-with rocks, an untamed savage country. The southwestern half of it made
-the Anzac position, the northeastern and higher half was the prize to be
-fought for.
-
-It is the watershed of that part of the Peninsula. The gulleys on its
-south side drain down to the Hellespont; those upon its north side drain
-to the flat land which may once have been submerged as a part of Suvla
-Bay. These northern gulleys are great savage irregular gashes or glens
-running westerly or northwesterly from the hill bastions. Three of them,
-the three nearest to the northern end of the Anzac position, may be
-mentioned by name: Sazli Beit Dere, Chailak Dere, and Aghyl Dere. The
-word Dere means watercourse; but all three were bone dry in August when
-the battle was fought. It must be remembered that in the trackless
-Peninsula a watercourse of this kind is the nearest approach to a road,
-and (to a military force) the nearest approach to a covered way. All
-these three Deres lead up the heart of the hills to those highlands of
-Sari Bair where we wished to plant ourselves. From the top of Sari Bair
-one can look down on the whole Turkish position facing Anzac, and see
-that position not only dominated but turned and taken in reverse. One
-can see (only three miles away) the only road to Constantinople, and
-(five miles away) the little port of Maidos near the Narrows. To us the
-taking of Sari Bair meant the closing of that road to the passing of
-Turk reinforcements, and the opening of the Narrows to the fleet. It
-meant victory, and the beginning of the end of this great war, with home
-and leisure for life again, and all that peace means. Knowing this, our
-soldiers made a great struggle for Sari Bair, but Fate turned the lot
-against them. Sari was not to be an English hill, though the flowers on
-her sides will grow out of English dust forever. Those who lie there
-thought, as they fell, that over their bodies our race would pass to
-victory. It may be that their spirits linger there at this moment,
-waiting for the English bugles and the English singing, and the sound of
-the English ships passing up the Hellespont.
-
-Among her tumble of hills, from the Anzac position to Great Anafarta,
-Sari Bair thrusts out several knolls, peaks and commanding heights.
-Within the Anzac position, is the little plateau of Lone or Lonesome
-Pine to be described later. Further to the northeast are the heights
-known as Baby 700 and Battleship Hill, and beyond these, still further
-to the northeast, the steep peak of Chunuk Bair. All of these before
-this battle were held by the Turks, whose trenches defended them. Lone
-Pine is about 400 feet high, the others rather more, slowly rising, as
-they go northeast, but keeping to about the height of the English
-Chilterns. Chunuk Bair, the highest of these, is about 750 feet. Beyond
-Chunuk, half-a-mile further to the northeast, is Hill Q, and beyond Hill
-Q a very steep deep gulley, above which rises the beautiful peak, the
-summit of Sari, known as Koja Chemen Tepe. One or two Irish hills in the
-wilder parts of Antrim are like this peak, though less fleeced with
-brush. In height, as I have said, it is a little more than 900 feet, or
-about the height of our Bredon Hill. One point about it may be noted. It
-thrusts out a great spur or claw for rather more than a mile due north;
-this spur, which is much gullied, is called Abd-el-Rahman Bair.
-
-For the moment, Chunuk Bair is the most important point to remember,
-because--
-
-(a) It was the extreme right of the prepared Turk position.
-
-(b) The three Deres mentioned a couple of pages back have their sources
-at its foot and start there, like three roads starting from the walls of
-a city on their way to the sea. They lead past the hills known as Table
-Top and Rhododendron Spur. Close to their beginnings at the foot of
-Chunuk is a building known as The Farm, round which the fighting was
-very fierce.
-
-The "idea" or purpose of the battle was "to endeavour to seize a
-position across the Gallipoli Peninsular from Gaba Tep to Maidos, with a
-protected line of supply from Suvla Bay."
-
-The plan of the attack was, that a strong force in Anzac should
-endeavour to throw back the right wing of the Turks, drive them south
-towards Kilid Bahr and thus secure a position commanding the narrow part
-of the Peninsula.
-
-Meanwhile a large body of troops should secure Suvla, and another large
-body, landing at Suvla, should clear away any Turkish forces on the
-hills between the Anafarta valleys, and then help the attacking force
-from Anzac by storming Sari Bair from the north and west.
-
-The 6th of August was fixed for the first day of the attack from Anzac;
-the landing at Suvla was to take place during the dark hours of the
-night of the 6th-7th. "The 6th was both the earliest and the latest date
-possible for the battle, the earliest, because it was the first by which
-the main part of the reinforcements would be ready, the latest, because
-of the moon." Both in the preparation and the surprise of this attack
-dark nights were essential.
-
- [Illustration: A "long focus" view taken over the top of our trenches
- at Anzac]
-
-Sir Ian Hamilton's Despatch (reprinted from the London _Gazette_ of
-Tuesday, the 4th January, 1916) shows that this battle of the 6th-10th
-August was perhaps the strangest and most difficult battle ever planned
-by mortal general. It was to be a triple battle, fought by three
-separated armies, not in direct communication with each other. There was
-no place from which the battle, as a whole, could be controlled, nearer
-than the island of Imbros, (fourteen miles from any part of the
-Peninsula) to which telegraphic cables led from Anzac and Cape Helles.
-The left wing of our army, designed for the landing at Suvla, was not
-only not landed, when the battle began, but not concentrated. There was
-no adjacent subsidiary base big enough (or nearly big enough) to hold
-it. "On the day before the battle, part were at Imbros, part at Mudros,
-and part at Mitylene ... separated respectively by 14, 60, and 120 miles
-of sea from the arena into which they were simultaneously to appear."
-The vital part of the fight was to be fought by troops from Anzac. The
-Anzac position was an open book to every Turk aeroplane and every
-observer on Sari Bair. The reinforcements for this part of the battle
-had to be landed in the dark, some days before the battle, and kept
-hidden underground, during daylight, so that the Turks should not see
-them and suspect what was being planned.
-
-In all wars, but especially in modern wars, great tactical combinations
-have been betrayed by very little things. In war, as in life, the
-unusual thing, however little, betrays the unusual thing, however great.
-An odd bit of paper round some cigars betrayed the hopes of the American
-Secession, some litter in the sea told Nelson where the French fleet
-was, one man rising up in the grass by a roadside saved the wealth of
-Peru from the hands of Drake. The Turks were always expecting an attack
-from Anzac. It is not too much to say that they searched the Anzac
-position hourly for the certain signs of an attack, reinforcements and
-supplies. They had not even to search the whole position for these
-signs, since there was only one place (towards Fisherman's Hut) where
-they could be put. If they had suspected that men and stores were being
-landed, they would have guessed at once, that a thrust was to be made,
-and our attacks upon their flanks would have met with a prepared defence.
-
- [Illustration: Australians at work at Anzac two days before the
- evacuation took place]
-
-It was vital to our chance of success that nothing unusual, however
-little, should be visible in Anzac from the Turk positions during the
-days before the battle. One man staring up at an aeroplane would have
-been evidence enough to a quick observer that there was a new-comer on
-the scene. One new water tank, one new gun, one mule not yet quiet from
-the shock of landing, might have betrayed all the adventure. Very nearly
-thirty thousand men, one whole Division and one Brigade of English
-soldiers, and a Brigade of Gurkhas, with their guns and stores, had to
-be landed unobserved and hidden.
-
-There was only one place in which they could be hidden, and that was
-under the ground. The Australians had to dig hiding places for them
-before they came.
-
-In this war of digging, the daily life in the trenches gives digging
-enough to every soldier. Men dig daily even if they do not fight. At
-Anzac in July the Australians had a double share of digging, their daily
-share in the front lines, and, when that was finished, their nightly
-share, preparing cover for the new troops. During the nights of the
-latter half of July the Australians at Anzac dug, roofed and covered not
-less than twenty miles of dugouts. All of this work was done in their
-sleep time, after the normal day's work of fighting, digging and
-carrying up stores. Besides digging these hiding places they carried up,
-fixed, hid, and filled the water tanks which were to supply the
-newcomers.
-
- [Illustration: A boatload of British troops leaving the S.S. _Nile_ for
- one of the landing beaches]
-
-On the night of the 3rd of August when the landing of the new men began,
-the work was doubled. Everybody who could be spared from the front
-trenches went to the piers to help to land, carry inland and hide the
-guns, stores, carts and animals coming ashore. The nights, though
-lengthening, were still summer nights. There were seven hours of
-semi-darkness in which to cover up all traces of what came ashore. The
-newcomers landed at the rate of about 1,500 an hour, during the nights
-of the 3rd, 4th and 5th of August. During those nights, the Australians
-landed, carried inland and hid not less than one thousand tons of
-shells, cartridges and food, some hundreds of horses and mules, many
-guns, and two or three hundred water-carts and ammunition carts. All
-night-long, for those three nights, the Australians worked like
-schoolboys. Often, towards dawn, it was a race against time, but always
-at dawn, the night's tally of new troops were in their billets, the new
-stores were under ground and the new horses hidden. When the morning
-aeroplanes came over, their observers saw nothing unusual in any part of
-Anzac. The half-naked men were going up and down the gullies, the wholly
-naked men were bathing in the sea, everything else was as it had always
-been, nor were any transports on the coast. For those three nights
-nearly all the Australians at Anzac gave up most of their sleep. They
-had begun the work by digging the cover, they took a personal pride and
-pleasure in playing the game of cache-cache to the end.
-
-It is difficult to praise a feat of the kind and still more difficult to
-make people understand what the work meant. Those smiling and glorious
-young giants thought little of it. They loved their chiefs and they
-liked the fun, and when praised for it looked away with a grin. The
-labour of the task can only be felt by those who have done hard manual
-work in hot climates. Digging is one of the hardest kinds of work, even
-when done in a garden with a fork. When done in a trench with a pick and
-shovel it is as hard work as threshing with a flail. Carrying heavy
-weights over uneven ground is harder work still; and to do either of
-these things on a salt-meat diet with a scanty allowance of water, is
-very, very hard; but to do them at night after a hard day's work,
-instead of sleeping, is hardest of all; even farm-labourers would
-collapse and sailors mutiny when asked to do this last. It may be said
-that no one could have done this labour, but splendid young men
-splendidly encouraged to do their best. Many of these same young men who
-had toiled thus almost without sleep for three days and nights, fell in
-with the others and fought all through the battle.
-
-But all this preparation was a setting of precedents and the doing of
-something new to war. Never before have 25,000 men been kept buried
-under an enemy's eye until the hour for the attack. Never before have
-two Divisions of all arms been brought up punctually, by ship, over many
-miles of sea, from different ports, to land under fire, at an appointed
-time, to fulfil a great tactical scheme.
-
-But all these difficulties were as nothing to the difficulty of making
-sure that the men fighting in the blinding heat of a Gallipoli August
-should have enough water to drink. Eighty tons of water a day does not
-seem very much. It had only to be brought five hundred miles, which does
-not seem very far, to those who in happy peace can telephone for 80 tons
-of anything to be sent five hundred miles to anywhere. But in war,
-weight, distance and time become terrible and tragic things, involving
-the lives of armies. The water supply of that far battlefield,
-indifferent as it was, at the best, was a triumph of resolve and skill
-unequalled yet in war. It is said that Wellington boasted that, while
-Napoleon could handle men, he, Wellington, could feed them. Our naval
-officers can truly say that, while Sir Ian Hamilton can handle men, they
-can give them drink.
-
-As to the enemy before the battle, it was estimated that (apart from the
-great strategical reserves within 30 or 40 miles) there were 30,000
-Turks in the vital part of the battlefield, to the north of Kilid Bahr.
-Twelve thousand of these were in the trenches opposite Anzac; most of
-the rest in the villages two or three miles to the south and southeast
-of Sari Bair. Three battalions were in the Anafarta villages, one
-battalion was entrenched on Ismail Oglu Tepe; small outposts held the
-two Baba hillocks on the bay, and the land north of the bay was
-patrolled by mounted gendarmerie. These scattered troops on the Turk
-right had guns with them; it was not known how many. The beach of Suvla
-was known to be mined.
-
-August began with calm weather. The scattered regiments of the Divisions
-for Suvla, after some weeks of hard exercise ashore, were sent on board
-their transports. At a little before four o'clock on the afternoon of
-the 6th August, the 29th Division began the battle by an assault on the
-Turk positions below Krithia.
-
-
-
-
-V
-
-Roland put the horn to his mouth, gripped it hard and with great heart
-blew it. The hills were high and the sound went very far: thirty leagues
-wide they heard it echo. Charles heard it and all his comrades; so the
-King said, "Our men are fighting." Count Guenes answered: "If any other
-said that, I should call him a liar."
-
-Count Roland in pain and woe and great weakness blew his horn. The
-bright blood was running from his mouth and the temples of his brains
-were broken. But the noise of the horn was very great. Charles heard it
-as he was passing at the ports; Naimes heard it, the Franks listened to
-it. So the King said, "I hear the horn of Roland; he would never sound
-it if he were not fighting." Guenes answered, "There is no fighting. You
-are old and white and hoary. You are like a child when you say such
-things."
-
-Count Roland's mouth was bleeding; the temples of his brain were broken.
-He blew his horn in weakness and pain. Charles heard it and his Franks
-heard it. So the King said: "That horn has long breath." Duke Naimes
-answered, "Roland is in trouble. He is fighting, on my conscience. Arm
-yourself. Cry your war-cry. Help the men of your house. You hear plainly
-that Roland is in trouble."
-
-The Emperor made sound his horns.... All the barons of the army mounted
-their chargers. But what use was that? They had delayed too long. What
-use was that? It was worth nothing; they had stayed too long; they could
-not be in time.
-
-Then Roland said, "Here we shall receive martyrdom, and now I know well
-that we have but a moment to live. But may all be thieves who do not
-sell themselves dearly first. Strike, knights, with your bright swords;
-so change your deaths and lives, that sweet France be not shamed by us.
-When Charles comes into this field he shall see such discipline upon the
-Saracens that he shall not fail to bless us."
-
- _The Song of Roland._
-
-
-The Cape Helles attack, designed to keep the Turks to the south of Kilid
-Bahr from reinforcing those near Anzac, became a very desperate
-struggle. The Turk trenches there were full of men, for the Turks had
-been preparing a strong attack upon ourselves, which we forestalled by a
-few hours. The severe fighting lasted for a week along the whole Cape
-Helles front, but it was especially bloody and terrible in the centre,
-in a vineyard to the west of the Krithia road. It has often happened in
-war, that some stubbornness in attack or defence has roused the same
-quality in the opposer, till the honour of the armies seems pledged to
-the taking or holding of one patch of ground, perhaps not vital to the
-battle. It may be that in war one resolute soul can bind the excited
-minds of multitudes in a kind of bloody mesmerism; but these strange
-things are not studied as they should be. Near Krithia, the battle,
-which began as a containing attack, a minor part of a great scheme,
-became a furious week-long fight for this vineyard, a little patch of
-ground "200 yards long by 100 yards broad."
-
-From the 6th-13th of August, the fight for this vineyard never ceased.
-Our Lancashire regiments won most of it at the first assault on the 6th.
-For the rest of the week they held it against all that the Turks could
-bring against them. It was not a battle in the military textbook sense:
-it was a fight man to man, between two enemies whose blood was up. It
-was a week-long cursing and killing scrimmage, the men lying down to
-fire and rising up to fight with the bayonet, literally all day long,
-day after day, the two sides within easy bombing distance all the time.
-The Turks lost some thousands of men in their attacks upon this vineyard
-after a week of fighting, they rushed it in a night attack, were soon
-bombed out of it and then gave up the struggle for it. This bitter
-fighting not only kept the Turks at Cape Helles from reinforcing those
-at Anzac; it caused important Turk reinforcements to be sent to the
-Helles sector.
-
-Less than an hour after the 29th Division began the containing battle at
-Krithia, the Australians at Anzac began theirs. This, the attack on the
-Turk fort at Lone Pine, in the southern half of the Anzac front, was
-designed to keep large bodies of Turks from reinforcing their right, on
-Sari Bair, where the decisive blow was to be struck. It was a secondary
-operation, not the main thrust, but it was in itself important, since to
-those at Anzac, the hill of Lone Pine was the gate into the narrowest
-part of the Peninsula, and through that gate, as the Turks very well
-knew, a rush might be made from Anzac upon Maidos and the Narrows. Such
-a thrust from Lone Pine, turning all the Turkish works on the range of
-Sari Bair, was what the Turks expected and feared from us. They had
-shewn us as much, quite plainly, all through the summer. Any movement,
-feint, or demonstration against Lone Pine, brought up their reserves at
-once. It was the sensitive spot on their not too strong left wing. If we
-won through there, we had their main water supply as an immediate prize
-and no other position in front of us from which we could be held. Any
-strong attack there was therefore certain to contain fully half a
-division of the enemy.
-
-The hill of Lone or Lonesome Pine is a little plateau less than 400 feet
-high running N.W. S.E. and measuring perhaps 250 yards long by 200
-across. On its southwestern side it drops down in gullies to a col or
-ridge, known as Pine Ridge, which gradually declines away to the low
-ground near Gaba Tepe. On its northeastern side it joins the high ground
-known as Johnston's Jolly, which was, alas, neither jolly nor
-Johnston's, but a strong part of the Turk position.
-
-We already held a little of the Lone Pine Plateau; our trenches bulged
-out into it in a convexity or salient known as The Pimple, but the Turks
-held the greater part, and their trenches curved out the other way, in a
-mouth, concavity or trap opening towards The Pimple as though ready to
-swallow it. The opposing lines of trenches ran from north to south
-across the plateau, with from 50 to 100 yards between them. Both to the
-north and south of the plateau are deep gullies. Just beyond these
-gullies Turk trenches were so placed that the machine guns in them could
-sweep the whole plateau. The space between the Australian and Turk lines
-was fairly level hilltop, covered with thyme and short scrub.
-
-For some days before the 6th August the warships had been shelling the
-Turk position on Lone Pine to knock away the barbed wire in front of it.
-On the 5th, the Australian brigade, told off for the attack, sharpened
-bayonets and prepared their distinguishing marks of white bands for the
-left arms and white patches for the backs of their right shoulders. In
-the afternoon of the 6th the shelling by the ships became more intense;
-at half-past four it quickened to a very heavy fire; at exactly
-half-past five it stopped suddenly, "the three short whistle blasts
-sounded and were taken up along the line, our men cleared the parapet,"
-in two waves on a front of about 160 yards, "and attacked with vigour."
-The hill top over which they charged was in a night of smoke and dust
-from the explosions of the shells, and into that night, already singing
-with enemy bullets, the Australians disappeared. They had not gone
-twenty yards before all that dark and blazing hill top was filled with
-explosion and flying missiles from every enemy gun. One speaks of a hail
-of bullets, but no hail is like fire, no hail in a form of death crying
-aloud a note of death, no hail screams as it strikes a stone, or stops a
-strong man in his stride. Across that kind of hail the Australians
-charged on Lone Pine. "It was a grim kind of steeplechase," said one,
-"but we meant to get to Koja Dere." They reached the crumpled wire of
-the entanglement, and got through it to the parapet of the Turk trench,
-where they were held up. Those behind them at The Pimple, peering
-through the darkness, to see if any had survived the rush, saw figures
-on the parados of the enemy's trench, and wondered what was happening.
-They sent forward the third wave, with one full company carrying picks
-and shovels, to make good what was won. The men of this third wave found
-what was happening.
-
-The Turkish front line trench was not, like most trenches, an open ditch
-into which men could jump, but covered over along nearly all its length
-with blinders and beams of pinewood, heaped with sandbags, and in some
-places with a couple of feet of earth. Under this cover the Turks fired
-at our men through loopholes, often with their rifles touching their
-victims. Most of the Australians, after heaving in vain to get these
-blinders up, under a fire that grew hotter every instant, crossed them,
-got into the open communication trenches in the rear of the Turk line,
-and attacked through them; but some, working together, hove up a blinder
-or two, and down the gaps so made those brave men dropped themselves, to
-a bayonet fight like a rat fight in a sewer, with an enemy whom they
-could hardly see, in a narrow dark gash in the earth where they were, at
-first, as one to five or seven to ten.
-
-More and more men dropped down or rushed in from the rear; the Turks so
-penned in, fought hard, but could not beat back the attack. They
-surrendered and were disarmed. The survivors were at least as many as
-their captors, who had too much to do at that time to send them to the
-rear, even if there had been a safe road by which to send them. They
-were jammed up there in the trenches with the Australians, packed man to
-man, suffering from their friends' fire and getting in the way.
-
- [Illustration: Inside an Australian trench, showing a man using a
- periscope rifle and another man keeping watch by means of a periscope]
-
-The first thing to be done was to block up the communication trenches
-against the Turkish counter attack. Every man carried a couple of
-sandbags, and with these, breastworks and walls were built. Their work
-was done in a narrow dark sweltering tunnel, heaped with corpses and
-wounded and crowded with prisoners who might at any moment have risen.
-Already the Turks had begun their counter attacks. At every other moment
-a little rush of Turks came up the communication trenches, flung their
-bombs in the workers' faces, and were bayoneted as they threw. The
-trenches curved and zigzagged in the earth; the men in one section could
-neither see nor hear what the men in the nearest sections were doing.
-What went on under the ground there in the making good of those trenches
-will never be known. From half-past five till midnight every section of
-the line was searched by bombs and bullets, by stink pots, and sticks of
-dynamite, by gas-bombs and a falling tumult of shell and shrapnel, which
-only ceased to let some rush of Turks attack, with knives, grenades and
-bayonets, hand to hand and body to body in a blackness like the darkness
-of a mine. At midnight the wounded were lying all over the trenches, the
-enemy dead were so thick that our men had to walk on them, and bombs
-were falling in such numbers that every foot in those galleries was
-stuck with human flesh. No man slept that night. At half-past seven next
-morning (the 7th) a small quantity of bread and tea was rushed across
-the plateau to the fighters, who had more than earned their breakfast.
-Turk shell had by this time blown up some of the head-cover and some of
-the new communication trenches were still only a few feet deep. A
-Colonel passing along one of them told an officer that his section of
-the trench was too shallow. Half-an-hour later, in passing back, he
-found the officer and three men blown to pieces by a shell; in a few
-minutes more he was himself killed. At noon the bombing became so severe
-that some sections of the line were held only by one or two wounded men.
-At one o'clock the enemy attacked furiously with bomb and bayonet, in
-great force. They came on in a mass, in wave after wave, shoulder to
-shoulder, heads down, shouting the name of God. They rushed across the
-plateau, jumped into the trenches and were mixed up with our men in a
-hand-to-hand fight, which lasted for five hours. Not many of them could
-join in the fight at one time, and not many of them went back to the
-Turk lines; but they killed many of our men, and when their last assault
-failed our prize was very weakly held. At half-past seven the survivors
-received a cheering (and truthful) message from the Brigadier "that no
-fighters can surpass Australians," and almost with the message came
-another Turk assault begun by bomb and shell and rifle fire, and
-followed by savage rushes with the bayonet, one of which got in, and did
-much slaughter. No man slept that night; the fight hardly slackened all
-through the night; at dawn the dead were lying three deep in every part
-of the line. Bombs fell every minute in some section of the line, and
-where the wide Turk trenches had been blasted open they were very
-destructive. The men were "extremely tired but determined to hold on."
-They did hold on.
-
-They held on for the next five days and nights, till Lone Pine was ours
-past question. For those five days and nights the fight for Lone Pine
-was one long personal scrimmage in the midst of explosion. For those
-five days and nights the Australians lived and ate and slept in that
-gallery of the mine of death, in a half darkness lit by great glares, in
-filth, heat and corpses, among rotting and dying and mutilated men, with
-death blasting at the doors only a few feet away, and intense and bloody
-fighting, hand to hand, with bombs, bayonets and knives, for hours
-together by night and day. When the Turks gave up the struggle the dead
-were five to the yard in that line or works; they were heaped in a kind
-of double wall all along the sides of the trench: most of them were
-bodies of Turks, but among them were one quarter of the total force
-which ran out from The Pimple on the evening of the 6th.
-
-Like the fight for the vineyard near Krithia, this fight for Lone Pine
-kept large numbers of Turks from the vital part of the battlefield.
-
-When the sun set upon this battle at Lone Pine on that first evening of
-the 6th of August, many thousands of brave men fell in for the main
-battle, which was to strew their glorious bodies in the chasms of the
-Sari Bair, where none but the crows would ever find them. They fell in
-at the appointed places in four columns, two to guard the flanks, two to
-attack. One attacking column, guarded and helped by the column on its
-right, was to move up the Chailak and Sazli Beit Deres, to the storm of
-Chunuk Bair, the other attacking column, guarded and helped by the
-column on its left, was to move up the Aghyl Dere to the storm of Sari's
-peak of Koja Chemen Tepe. The outermost, left, guarding column (though
-it did not know it) was to link up with the force soon to land at Suvla.
-
-They were going upon a night attack in a country known to be a
-wilderness with neither water nor way in it. They had neither light nor
-guide, nor any exact knowledge of where the darkness would burst into a
-blaze from the Turk fire. Many armies have gone out into the darkness of
-a night adventure, but what army has gone out like this, from the hiding
-places on a beach to the heart of unknown hills, to wander up crags
-under fire, to storm a fortress in the dawn? Even in Manchuria, there
-were roads and the traces and the comforts of man. In this savagery,
-there was nothing, but the certainty of desolation, where the wounded
-would lie until they died and the dead be never buried.
-
-Until this campaign, the storm of Badajos was the most desperate duty
-ever given to British soldiers. The men in the forlorn hope of that
-storm marched to their position to the sound of fifes "which filled the
-heart with a melting sweetness" and tuned that rough company to a kind
-of sacred devotion. No music played away the brave men from Anzac. They
-answered to their names in the dark, and moved off to take position for
-what they had to do. Men of many races were banded together there. There
-were Australians, English, Indians, Maoris and New Zealanders, made one
-by devotion to a cause, and all willing to die that so their comrades
-might see the dawn make a steel streak of the Hellespont from the peaked
-hill now black against the stars. Soon they had turned their back on
-friendly little Anzac and the lights in the gullies and were stepping
-out with the sea upon their left and the hills of their destiny upon
-their right, and the shells, starlights and battle of Lone Pine far away
-behind them. Before 9 A.M. the Right Covering Column (of New Zealanders)
-was in position ready to open up the Sazli Beit and Chailak Deres, to
-their brothers who were to storm Chunuk. Half an hour later, cunningly
-backed by the guns of the destroyer _Colne_, they rushed the Turk
-position, routed the garrison and its supports, and took the fort known
-as Old No. 3 Post. It was an immensely strong position, protected by
-barbed wire, shielded by shell-proof head cover, and mined in front
-"with 28 mines electrically connected to a first-rate firing apparatus
-within." Sed nisi Dominus.
-
-This success opened up the Sazli Dere for nearly half of its length.
-
-Inland from Old No. 3 Post, and some 700 yards from it is a crag or
-precipice which looks like a round table, with a top projecting beyond
-its legs. This crag, known to our men as Table Top, is a hill which few
-would climb for pleasure. Nearly all the last 100 feet of the peak is
-precipice, such as no mountaineer would willingly climb without clear
-daylight and every possible precaution. It is a sort of skull of rock
-fallen down upon its body of rock, and the great rocky ribs heave out
-with gullies between them. The table-top, or plateau-summit, was
-strongly entrenched and held by the Turks, whose communication trenches
-ran down the back of the hill to Rhododendron Spur.
-
-While their comrades were rushing Old No. 3 Post, a party of New
-Zealanders marched to storm this natural fortress. The muscular part of
-the feat may be likened to the climbing of the Welsh Glyddyrs, the Irish
-Lurig, or the craggier parts of the American Palisades, in a moonless
-midnight, under a load of not less than thirty pounds. But the muscular
-effort was made much greater by the roughness of the unknown approaches,
-which led over glidders of loose stones into the densest of short,
-thick, intensely thorny scrub. The New Zealanders advanced under fire
-through this scrub, went up the rocks in a spirit which no crag could
-daunt, reached the Table-top, rushed the Turk trenches, killed some
-Turks of the garrison and captured the rest with all their stores.
-
-This success opened up the remainder of the Sazli Beit Dere.
-
-While these attacks were progressing, the remainder of the Right
-Covering Column marched north to the Chailak Dere. A large body crossed
-this Dere and marched on, but the rest turned up the Dere and soon came
-to a barbed wire entanglement which blocked the ravine. They had met the
-Turks' barbed wire before, on Anzac Day, and had won through it, but
-this wire in the Dere was new to their experience; it was meant rather
-as a permanent work than as an obstruction. It was secured to great
-balks or blinders of pine, six or eight feet high, which stood in a rank
-twenty or thirty deep right across the ravine. The wire which crossed
-and criss-crossed between these balks was as thick as a man's thumb and
-profusely barbed. Beyond it lay a flanking trench, held by a strong
-outpost of Turks, who at once opened fire. This, though not unexpected,
-was a difficult barrier to come upon in the darkness of a summer night,
-and here, as before, at the landing of the Worcester Regiment at W
-beach, men went forward quietly, without weapons, to cut the wire for
-the others. They were shot down, but others took their places, though
-the Turks, thirty steps away on the other side of the gulley, had only
-to hold their rifles steady and pull their triggers to destroy them.
-This holding up in the darkness by an unseen hidden enemy and an
-obstacle which needed high explosive shell in quantity caused heavy loss
-and great delay. For a time there was no getting through; but then with
-the most desperate courage and devotion, a party of engineers cleared
-the obstacle, the Turks were routed, and a path made for the attackers.
-
-This success opened up the mouth of the Chailak Dere.
-
-Meanwhile those who had marched across this Dere and gone on towards
-Suvla, swung round to the right to clear the Turks from Bauchop's Hill,
-which overlooks the Chailak Dere from the north. Bauchop's Hill (a rough
-country even for Gallipoli) is cleft by not less than twenty great
-gullies, most of them forked, precipitous, overgrown and heaped with
-rocks. The New Zealanders scrambled up it from the north, got into a
-maze of trenches, not strongly held, beat the Turks out of them,
-wandered south across the neck or ridge of the hill, discovering Turk
-trenches by their fire, and at last secured the whole hill.
-
-This success, besides securing the Chailak Dere from any assault from
-the north, secured the south flank of the Aghyl Dere beyond it.
-
-Meanwhile the Left Covering Column (mainly Welshmen) which for some time
-had halted at Old No. 3 Post, waiting for the sound of battle to tell
-them that the Turks on Bauchop's Hill were engaged, marched boldly on
-the Aghyl Dere, crossed it in a rush, taking every Turk trench in the
-way, then stormed the Turk outpost on Damakjelik Bair, going on from
-trench to trench in the dark guided by the flashes of the rifles, till
-the whole hill was theirs. This success opened up the Aghyl Dere to the
-attacking column.
-
-As the troops drew their breath in the still night on the little hill
-which they had won, they heard about three miles away a noise of battle
-on the seacoast to their left. This noise was not the nightly "hate" of
-the monitors and destroyers but an irregular and growing rifle fire.
-This, though they did not know it, was the beginning of the landing of
-the new Divisions, with their 30,000 men, at Suvla Bay.
-
-For the moment, Suvla was not the important point in the battle. The
-three Deres were the important points, for up the three Deres, now
-cleared of Turks, our Attacking Columns were advancing to the assault.
-
-By this time however, the Turks were roused throughout their line. All
-the Anzac position from Tasmania Post to Table Top was a blaze of battle
-to contain them before our trenches, but they knew now that their right
-was threatened and their reserves were hurrying out to meet us before we
-had gained the crests. Our Right Attacking Column (of English and New
-Zealand troops) went up the Sazli Beit and Chailak Deres, deployed
-beyond Table Top and stormed Rhododendron Spur, fighting for their lives
-every inch of the way. The Left Column (mainly Indians and Australians)
-pressed up the Aghyl, into the stony clefts of its upper forks, and so,
-by rock, jungle, heartbreaking cliff and fissure to the attack of Hill
-Q, and the lower slopes of Sari. They, too, were fighting for their
-lives. Their advance was across a scrub peopled now by little clumps of
-marksmen firing from hiding. When they deployed out of the Deres, to
-take up their line of battle, they linked up with the Right Assaulting
-Column, and formed with them a front of about a mile, stretching from
-the old Anzac position to within a mile of the crests which were the
-prize. By this time the night was over, day was breaking, the Turks were
-in force, and our attacking columns much exhausted, but there was still
-breath for a last effort. Now, with the breath, came a quick
-encouragement, for looking down from their hillsides they could see
-Suvla Bay full of ships, the moving marks of boats, dotted specks of men
-on the sandhills, and more ships on the sea marching like chariots to
-the cannon. In a flash, as happens when many minds are tense together,
-they realised the truth. A new landing was being made. All along the
-coast by the Bay the crackle and the flash of firing was moving from the
-sea, to shew them that the landing was made good, and that the Turks
-were falling back. Hardening their hearts at this sight of help coming
-from the sea the Australians and Sikhs with the last of their strength
-went at Koja Chemen Tepe, and the New Zealanders upon their right rose
-to the storm of Chunuk.
-
-It was not to be. The guns behind them backed them. They did what mortal
-men could do, but they were worn out by the night's advance, they could
-not carry the two summits. They tried a second time to carry Chunuk; but
-they were too weary and the Turks in too great strength; they could not
-get to the top. But they held to what they had won; they entrenched
-themselves on the new line, and there they stayed, making ready for the
-next attack.
-
-Two or three have said to me: "They ought not to have been exhausted;
-none of them had marched five miles." It is difficult to answer such
-critics patiently, doubly difficult to persuade them, without showing
-them the five miles. There comes into my mind, as I write, the image of
-some hills in the west of Ireland, a graceful and austere range, not
-difficult to climb, seemingly, and not unlike these Gallipoli hills, in
-their look of lying down at rest. The way to those hills is over some
-miles of scattered limestone blocks, with gaps between them full of
-scrub, gorse, heather, dwarf-ash and little hill-thorn, and the
-traveller proceeds, as the Devil went through Athlone, "in standing
-lepps." This journey to the hills is the likest journey (known to me) to
-that of the assaulting columns. Like the Devil in Athlone the assaulting
-columns had often to advance "in standing lepps," but to them the
-standing lepp came as a solace, a rare, strange and blessed respite,
-from forcing through scrub by main strength, or scaling a crag of rotten
-sandstone, in pitch darkness, in the presence of an enemy. For an armed
-force to advance a mile an hour by day over such a country is not only
-good going, but a great achievement; to advance four miles in a night
-over such a country, fighting literally all the way, often hand to hand,
-and to feel the enemy's resistance stiffening and his reserves arriving,
-as the strength fails and the ascent steepens, and yet to make an effort
-at the end, is a thing unknown in the history of war. And this first
-fourteen hours of exhausting physical labour was but the beginning. The
-troops, as they very well knew, were to have two or three days more of
-the same toil before the battle could be ended, one way or the other. So
-after struggling for fourteen hours with every muscle in their bodies,
-over crags and down gullies in the never-ceasing peril of death, they
-halted in the blaze of noon and drew their breath. In the evening, as
-they hoped, the men from Suvla would join hands and go on to victory
-with them; they had fought the first stage of the battle, the next stage
-was to be decisive.
-
-The heat of this noon of August 7th on those sandy hills was a scarcely
-bearable torment.
-
-
-Meanwhile, at Suvla, the left of the battle, the 11th Division, had
-landed in the pitch-darkness, by wading ashore, in five feet of water,
-under rifle fire, on to beaches prepared with land mines. The first
-boat-loads lost many men from the mines and from the fire of snipers,
-who came right down to the beach in the darkness and fired from the
-midst of our men. These snipers were soon bayoneted, our men formed for
-the assault in the dark and stormed the Turk outpost on Lala Baba there
-and then. While Lala Baba was being cleared other battalions moved north
-to clear the Turk from the neighbourhood of the beach on that side. The
-ground over which they had to move is a sand-dune-land, covered with
-gorse and other scrub, most difficult to advance across in a wide
-extension. About half a mile from the beach the ground rises in a roll
-of whale-back, known on the battle plans as Hill 10. This hill is about
-three hundred yards long and thirty feet high. At this whale-back (which
-was entrenched) the Turks rallied on their supports; they had, perhaps,
-a couple of thousand men and (some say) a gun or two, and the dawn broke
-before they could be rushed. Their first shells upon our men set fire to
-the gorse, so that our advance against them was through a blazing common
-in which many men who fell wounded were burnt to death or suffocated.
-The Turks, seeing the difficulties of the men in the fire, charged with
-the bayonet, but were themselves charged and driven back in great
-disorder; the fire spread to their hill and burned them out of it. Our
-men then began to drive the Turks away from the high ridges to the north
-of Suvla. The 10th Division began to land while this fight was still in
-progress.
-
-This early fighting had won for us a landing-place at Suvla and had
-cleared the ground to the north of the bay for the deployment for the
-next attack. This was to be a swinging round of two Brigades to the
-storm of the hills directly to the east of the Salt Lake. These hills
-are the island-like double-peaked Chocolate Hill (close to the lake) and
-the much higher and more important hills of Scimitar Hill (or Hill 70)
-and Ismail Oglu Tepe (Hill 100) behind it. The Brigade chosen for this
-attack were the 31st (consisting of Irish Regiments) belonging to the
-10th Division, and the 32nd (consisting of Yorkshire and North of
-England Regiments) belonging to the 11th Division. The 32nd had been
-hotly engaged since the very early morning, the 31st were only just on
-shore. The storm was to be pushed from the north, and would, if
-successful, clear the way for the final thrust, the storm of Koja-Chemen
-Tepe from the northwest.
-
-This thrust from Suvla against Koja Chemen was designed to complete and
-make decisive the thrust already begun by the Right and Left Attacking
-Columns. The attack on Chocolate Hill, Scimitar Hill and Ismail Oglu was
-to make that thrust possible by destroying forever the power of the Turk
-to parry it. The Turk could only parry it by firing from those hills on
-the men making it. It was therefore necessary to seize those hills
-before the Turk could stop us. If the Turks seized those hills before
-us, or stopped us from seizing them, our troops could not march from
-Suvla to take part in the storm of Koja Chemen. If we seized them before
-the Turks, then the Turks could not stop us from crossing the valley to
-that storm. The first problem at Suvla therefore was not so much to win
-a battle as to win a race with the Turks for the possession of those
-hills; the winning of the battle could be arranged later. Our failure to
-win that race brought with it our loss of the battle. The next chapter
-in the story of the battle is simply a description of the losing of a
-race by loss of time.
-
-Now the giving of praise or blame is always easy, but the understanding
-of anything is difficult. The understanding of anything so vast, so
-confused, so full of contradiction, so dependent on little things
-(themselves changing from minute to minute, the coward of a moment ago
-blazing out into a hero at the next turn) as a modern battle is more
-than difficult. But some attempt must be made to understand how it came
-about that time was lost at Suvla, between the landing, at midnight on
-the 6th-7th August, and the arrival of the Turks upon the hills, at
-midnight on the 8th-9th.
-
-In the first place it should be said that the beaches of Suvla are not
-the beaches of seaside resorts, all pleasant smooth sand and shingle.
-They are called beaches because they cannot well be called cliffs. They
-slope into the sea with some abruptness, in pentes of rock and tumbles
-of sand-dune difficult to land upon from boats. From them, one climbs
-onto sand-dune, into a sand-dune land, which is like nothing so much as
-a sea-marsh from which the water has receded. Walking on this soft sand
-is difficult, it is like walking in feathers; working, hauling and
-carrying upon it is very difficult. Upon this coast and country,
-roadless, wharfless, beachless and unimproved, nearly 30,000 men landed
-in the first ten hours of August 7th. At 10 A.M., on that day, when the
-sun was in his stride, the difficulty of those beaches began to tell on
-those upon them. There had been sharp fighting on and near the beaches,
-and shells were still falling here and there in all the ground which we
-had won. On and near the beaches there was a congestion of a very
-hindering kind. With men coming ashore, shells bursting among them,
-mules landing, biting, kicking, shying and stampeding, guns limbering up
-and trying to get out into position, more men coming ashore or seeking
-for the rest of their battalion in a crowd where all battalions looked
-alike, shouts, orders and counter-orders, ammunition boxes being passed
-along, water carts and transport being started for the firing line,
-wounded coming down or being helped down, or being loaded into lighters,
-doctors trying to clear the way for field dressing stations, with every
-now and then a shell from Ismail sending the sand in clouds over
-corpses, wounded men and fatigue parties, and a blinding August sun over
-all to exhaust and to madden, it was not possible to avoid congestion.
-This congestion was the first, but not the most fatal cause of the loss
-of time.
-
-Though the congestion was an evil in itself, its first evil effect was
-that it made it impossible to pass orders quickly from one part of the
-beach to another. In this first matter of the attack on the hills, the
-way had been opened for the assault by 10 A.M. at the latest but to get
-through the confusion along the beaches (among battalions landing,
-forming and defiling, and the waste of wounded momentarily increasing)
-to arrange for the assault and to pass the orders to the battalions
-named for the duty, took a great deal of time. It was nearly 1 P.M. when
-the 31st moved north from Lala Baba on their march round the head of the
-Salt Lake into position for the attack. The 32nd Brigade, having fought
-since dawn at Hill 10, was already to the north of the Salt Lake, but
-when (at about 3 P.M.) the 31st took position, facing southeast, with
-its right on the northeast corner of the Salt Lake, the 32nd was not
-upon its left ready to advance with it. Instead of that guard upon its
-left the 31st found a vigorous attack of Turks. More time was lost,
-waiting for support to reach the left, and before it arrived, word came
-that the attack upon the hills was to be postponed till after 5 P.M.
-Seeing the danger of delay and that Chocolate Hill at least should be
-seized at once, the Brigadier General (Hill) telephoned for supports and
-covering fire, held off the attack on his left with one battalion, and
-with the rest of his Brigade started at once to take Chocolate Hill,
-cost what it might. The men went forward and stormed Chocolate Hill, the
-7th Royal Dublin Fusiliers bearing the brunt of the storm.
-
-At some not specified time, perhaps after this storm, in a general
-retirement of the Turks, Hill 70, or Scimitar Hill, was abandoned to us,
-and occupied by an English battalion.
-
-During all this day of the 7th of August all our men suffered acutely
-from the great heat and from thirst. Several men went raving mad from
-thirst, others assaulted the water guards, pierced the supply hoses, or
-swam to the lighters to beg for water. Thirst in great heat is a cruel
-pain, and this (afflicting some regiments more than others) demoralised
-some and exhausted all. Efforts were made to send up and to find water;
-but the distribution system, beginning on a cluttered beach and ending
-in a rough, unknown country full of confused fighting and firing,
-without anything like a road, and much of it blazing or smouldering from
-the scrub fires, broke down, and most of the local wells, when
-discovered, were filled with corpses put there by the Turk garrison.
-Some unpolluted wells of drinkable, though brackish water, were found,
-but most of these were guarded by snipers, who shot at men going to
-them. Many men were killed thus and many more wounded, for the Turk
-snipers were good shots, cleverly hidden.
-
-All through the day in the Suvla area, thirst, due to the great heat,
-was another cause of loss of time in the fulfilment of that part of the
-tactical scheme; but it was not the final and fatal cause.
-
-Chocolate Hill was taken by our men (now utterly exhausted by thirst and
-heat) just as darkness fell. They were unable to go on against Ismail
-Oglu Tepe. They made their dispositions for the night on the line they
-had won, sent back to the beaches for ammunition, food and water, and
-tried to forget their thirst. They were in bad case, and still two miles
-from the Australians below Koja Chemen Tepe. Very late that night word
-reached them that the Turks were massed in a gulley to their front, that
-no other enemy reserves were anywhere visible, and that the Turks had
-withdrawn their guns, fearing that they would be taken next morning.
-Before dawn on the all-important day of the 8th August, our men at Suvla
-after a night of thirst and sniping, stood to arms to help out the vital
-thrust of the battle.
-
-Had time not been lost on the 7th, their task on the 8th would have been
-to cross the valley at dawn, join the Australians and go with them up
-the spurs to victory, in a strength which the Turks could not oppose. At
-dawn on the 8th their path to the valley was still barred by the
-uncaptured Turk fort on Ismail; time had been lost; there could be no
-crossing the valley till Ismail was taken. There was still time to take
-it and cross the valley to the storm, but the sands were falling. Up on
-Chunuk already the battle had begun without them; no time was lost on
-Chunuk.
-
-Up on Chunuk at that moment a very bitter battle was being fought. On
-the right, on Chunuk itself, the Gloucester and New Zealand Regiments
-were storming the hill, in the centre and on the left the Australians,
-English, and Indians were trying for Hill Q and the south of Koja
-Chemen. They had passed the night on the hillsides under a never-ceasing
-fire of shells and bullets, now, before dawn, they were making a
-terrible attempt. Those on Chunuk went up with a rush, pelted from in
-front and from both flanks by every engine of death. The Gloucesters
-were on the left and the New Zealanders on the right in this great
-assault. They deployed past The Farm and then went on to the storm of a
-hill which rises some four hundred feet in as many yards. They were on
-the top by dawn; Chunuk Bair, the last step, but one, to victory, was
-ours and remained ours all day, but at a cost which few successful
-attacks have ever known. By four o'clock that afternoon the New
-Zealanders had dwindled to three officers and fifty men, and
-the Gloucester battalion, having lost every officer and senior
-non-commissioned officer, was fighting under section-leaders and
-privates. Still, their attack had succeeded; they were conquerors. In
-the centre the attack on Hill Q was less successful. There the English
-and Indian regiments, assaulting together, were held; the Turks were too
-strong. Our men got up to the top of the lower spurs, and there had to
-lie down and scrape cover, for there was no going further. On the left
-of our attack the Australians tried to storm the Abd-el-Rahman Bair from
-the big gulley of Asma Dere. They went up in the dark with Australian
-dash to a venture pretty desperate even for Gallipoli. The Turks held
-the high ground on both sides of the Asma gulley, and were there in
-great force with many machine guns. The Australians were enfiladed, held
-in front, and taken in reverse, and (as soon as it was light enough for
-the Turks to see) they suffered heavily. As one of the Australians has
-described it: "The 14th and 15th Battalions moved out in single file and
-deployed to the storm and an advance was made under heavy rifle and
-machine gun fire. After the 15th Battalion had practically withered
-away, the 14th continued to advance, suffering heavily, and the Turks in
-great force. As we drove them back, they counter attacked, several
-times. The Battalion thus got very split up and it is impossible to say
-exactly what happened."
-
-It is now possible to say exactly that that 14th Battalion fought like
-heroes in little bands of wounded and weary men, and at last, with great
-reluctance, on repeated orders, fell back to the Asma Dere from which
-they had come, beating off enemy attacks all the way down the hill, and
-then held on, against all that the Turk could do.
-
-By noon, this assault, which would have been decisive had the men from
-Suvla been engaged with the Australians, was at an end. Its right had
-won Chunuk, and could just hold on to what it had won, its centre was
-held, and its left driven back. The fire upon all parts of the line was
-terrific; our men were lying (for the most part) in scratchings of
-cover, for they could not entrench under fire so terrible. Often in that
-rough and tumble country, the snipers and bombers of both sides, were
-within a few yards of each other, and in the roar and blast of the great
-battle were countless little battles, or duels to the death, which made
-the ground red and set the heather on fire. Half of the hills of that
-accursed battlefield, too false of soil to be called crags and too
-savage with desolation to be called hills, such as feed the sheep and
-bees of England, were blazing in sweeps of flame, which cast up smoke to
-heaven, and swept in great swathes across the gullies. Shells from our
-ships were screaming and bursting among all that devil's playground; it
-was an anxious time for the Turks. Many a time throughout that day the
-Turkish officers must have looked down anxiously upon the Suvla plain to
-see if our men there were masters of Ismail and on the way to Koja
-Chemen. For the moment, as they saw, we were held; but not more than
-held. With a push from Suvla to help us, we could not be held. Our men
-on the hills, expecting that helping push, drew breath for a new assault.
-
-It was now noon. The battle so far was in our favour. We had won ground,
-some of it an all-important ground, and for once we had the Turks with
-their backs against the wall and short of men. At Helles they were
-pressed, at Lone Pine they were threatened at the heart, under Koja
-Chemen the knife point was touching the heart, and at Suvla was the new
-strength to drive the knife point home and begin the end of the war. And
-the Turks could not stop that new strength. Their nearest important
-reserve of men was at Eski Kevi, ten miles away by a road which could
-scarcely be called a goat track, and these reserves had been called on
-for the fight at Krithia, and still more for the two days of struggle at
-Lone Pine. All through that day of the eighth of August Fate waited to
-see what would happen between Suvla and Koja Chemen. She fingered with
-her dice uncertain which side to favour; she waited to be courted by the
-one who wanted her. Eight hours of daylight had gone by, but there was
-still no moving forward from Suvla, to seize Ismail and pass from it
-across the valley to the storm. Noon passed into the afternoon, but
-there was still no movement. Four hours more went by, and now our
-aeroplanes brought word that the Turks near Suvla were moving back their
-guns by ox-teams, and that their foot were on the march, coming along
-their breakneck road, making perhaps a mile an hour, but marching and
-drawing steadily nearer to the threatened point. The living act of the
-battle was due at Ismail: from Ismail the last act, the toppling down of
-the Turk forever among the bones of his victims and the ruin of his
-ally, would have been prepared and assured. There was a desultory fire
-around Ismail, and the smoke of scrub fires which blazed and smouldered
-everywhere as far as the eye could see, but no roar and blaze and outcry
-of a meant attack. The battle hung fire on the left, the hours were
-passing, the Turks were coming. It was only five o'clock still; we had
-still seven hours or more. In the centre we had almost succeeded. We
-could hang on there and try again, there was still time. The chance
-which had been plainly ours, was still an even chance. It was for the
-left to seize it for us, the battle waited for the left, the poor, dying
-Gloucesters and Wellingtons hung on to Chunuk for it, the Gurkhas and
-English in the trampled cornfields near The Farm died where they lay on
-the chance of it, the Australians on Abd-el-Rahman held steady in the
-hope of it, under a fire that filled the air.
-
-If, as men say, the souls of a race, all the company of a nation's dead,
-rally to the living of their people in a time of storm, those fields of
-hell below Koja Chemen, won by the sweat and blood and dying agony of
-our thousands, must have answered with a ghostly muster of English souls
-in the afternoon of that eighth of August. There was the storm, there
-was the crisis, the one picked hour, to which this death and mangling
-and dying misery and exultation had led. Then was the hour for a casting
-off of self, and a setting aside of every pain and longing and sweet
-affection, a giving up of all that makes a man to be something which
-makes a race, and a going forward to death resolvedly to help out their
-brothers high up above in the shell bursts and the blazing gorse. Surely
-all through the eighth of August our unseen dead were on that field,
-blowing the horn of Roland, the unheard, unheeded horn, the horn of
-heroes in the dolorous pass, asking for the little that heroes ask, but
-asking in vain. If ever the great of England cried from beyond death to
-the living they cried then. "De ēo qui calt. Demuret i unt trop."
-
-All through the morning of that day, the Commander-in-Chief, on watch at
-his central station, had waited with growing anxiety for the advance
-from the Suvla Beaches. Till the afternoon the critical thrust on Chunuk
-and the great Turk pressure at Lone Pine made it impossible for him to
-leave his post to intervene, but, in the afternoon, seeing that neither
-wireless nor telephone messages could take the place of personal vision
-and appeal, he took the risk of cutting himself adrift from the main
-conflict, hurried to Suvla, landed, and found the great battle of the
-war, that should have brought peace to all that Eastern world, being
-lost by minutes before his eyes.
-
-Only one question mattered then: "Was there still time?" Had the Turks
-made good their march and crowned those hills, or could our men
-forestall them? It was now doubtful, but the point was vital, not only
-to the battle, but to half the world in travail. It had to be put to the
-test. A hundred years ago, perhaps even fifty years ago, all could have
-been saved. Often in those old days, a Commander-in-Chief could pull a
-battle out of the fire and bring halted or broken troops to victory.
-Then, by waving a sword, and shouting a personal appeal, the resolute
-soul could pluck the hearts of his men forward in a rush that nothing
-could stem. So Wolfe took Quebec, so Desaix won Marengo, so Bonaparte
-swept the bridge at Lodi and won at Arcola; so Cęsar overcame the Nervii
-in the terrible day, and wrecked the Republic at Pharsalia. So Sherman
-held the landing at Shiloh and Farragut pitted his iron heart against
-iron ships at Fort Jackson. So Sir Ian Hamilton himself snatched victory
-from the hesitation at Elandslaagte. Then the individual's will could
-take instant effect, but then the individual's front was not a five mile
-front of wilderness, the men were under his hand, within sight and sound
-of him and not committed by order to another tactical project. There, at
-Suvla, there was no chance for these heroic methods. Suvla was the
-modern battle field, where nothing can be done quickly except the firing
-of a machine gun. On the modern field, especially on such a field as
-Suvla, where the troops were scattered in the wilderness, it may take
-several hours for an order to pass from one wing to the other. In this
-case it was not an order that was to pass, but a counter-order; the
-order had already gone, for an attack at dawn on the morrow.
-
-All soldiers seem agreed, that even with authority to back it, a
-counter-order, on a modern battlefield, to urge forward halted troops,
-takes time to execute. Sir Ian Hamilton's determination to seize those
-hills could not spare the time; too much time had already gone. He
-ordered an advance at all costs with whatever troops were not scattered,
-but only four battalions could be found in any way ready to move. It was
-now 5 P.M.: there were perhaps three more hours of light. The four
-battalions were ordered to advance at once to make good what they could
-of the hills fronting the bay before the Turks forestalled them. At dawn
-the general attack as already planned was to support them. Unfortunately
-the four battalions were less ready than was thought; they were not able
-to advance at once, nor for ten all-precious hours. They did not begin
-to advance till 4 o'clock the next morning (the 9th of August) and even
-then the rest of the Division which was to support them was not in
-concert with them. They attacked the hills to the north of Anafarta
-Sagir, but they were now too late, the Turks were there before them, in
-great force, with their guns, and the thrust, which the day before could
-have been met by (at most) five Turk battalions without artillery was
-now parried and thwarted. Presently the Division attacked with great
-gallantry, over burning scrub, seized Ismail and was then checked and
-forced back to the Chocolate Hills. The left had failed. The main blow
-of the battle on Sari Bair was to have no support from Suvla.
-
-The main blow was given, none the less, by the troops near Chunuk. Three
-columns were formed in the pitchy blackness of the very early morning of
-the 9th, two to seize and clear Chunuk and Hill Q, the third to pass
-from Hill Q on the wave of the assault to the peak of Koja Chemen. The
-first two columns were on the lower slopes of Chunuk and in the fields
-about The Farm, with orders to attack at dawn. The third column
-consisting wholly of English troops was not yet on the ground, but
-moving during the night up the Chailak Dere. The Dere was jammed with
-pack-mules, ammunition and wounded men; it was pitch dark and the column
-made bad going, and those leading it were doubtful of the way.
-Brigadier-General Baldwin, who commanded, left his Brigade in the Dere,
-went to the Headquarters of the 1st column, and brought back guides to
-lead his Brigade into position. The guides led him on in the darkness,
-till they realised that they were lost. The Brigadier marched his men
-back to the Chailak, and then, still in pitch darkness, up a nullah into
-the Aghyl Dere, and from there, in growing light, towards The Farm. This
-wandering in the darkness had tragical results.
-
-At half-past four the guns from the ships and the army opened on Chunuk,
-and the columns moved to the assault. Soon the peaks of their objective
-were burning like the hills of hell to light them on their climb to
-death, and they went up in the half-darkness to the storm of a volcano
-spouting fire, driving the Turks before them. Some of the Warwicks and
-South Lancashires were the first upon the top of Chunuk; Major Allanson,
-leading the 6th Gurkhas, was the first on the ridge between Chunuk and
-Hill Q. Up on the crests came the crowding sections; the Turks were
-breaking and falling back. Our men passed over the crests and drove the
-Turks down on the other side. Victory was flooding up over Chunuk like
-the Severn tide: our men had scaled the scarp, and there below them lay
-the ditch, the long grey streak of the Hellespont, the victory and the
-reward of victory. The battle lay like a field ripe to the harvest, our
-men had but to put in the sickle. The Third Column was the sickle of
-that field, that Third Column which had lost its way in the blackness of
-the wilderness. Even now that Third Column was coming up the hill below;
-in a few minutes it would have been over the crest, going on to victory
-with the others. Then, at that moment of time, while our handful on the
-hilltop waited for the weight of the Third Column to make its thrust a
-death-blow, came the most tragical thing in all that tragical campaign.
-
-It was barely daylight when our men won the hilltop. The story is that
-our men moving on the crest were mistaken for Turks, or (as some think)
-that there was some difference in officers' watches, some few minutes'
-delay in beginning the fire of the guns, and therefore some few minutes'
-delay in stopping the bombardment, which had been ordered to continue
-upon the crest for three-quarters of an hour from 4.30 A.M. Whatever the
-cause, whether accident, fate, mistake, or the daily waste and confusion
-of battle, our own guns searched the hilltop for some minutes too long,
-and thinned out our brave handful with a terrible fire. They were caught
-in the open and destroyed there; the Turks charged back upon the remnant
-and beat them off the greater part of the crest. Only a few minutes
-after this the Third Column came into action in support: too late.
-
-The Turks beat them down the hill to The Farm, but could not drive the
-men of the First Column from the southwestern half of the top of the
-Chunuk. All through the hard and bloody day of the 9th of August the
-Turks tried to carry this peak, but never quite could, though the day
-was one long succession of Turk attacks, the Turks fresh and in great
-strength, our men weary from three terrible days and nights and only a
-battalion strong, since the peak would not hold more. The New Zealanders
-and some of the 13th Division held that end of Chunuk. They were in
-trenches which had been dug under fire, partly by themselves, partly by
-the Turks. In most places these trenches were only scratchings in the
-ground, since neither side on that blazing and stricken hill could stand
-to dig. Here and there, in sheltered patches, the trenches were three
-feet deep, but whether three feet deep or three inches, all were badly
-sited, and in some parts had only ten yards field of fire. In these pans
-or scratchings our men fought all day, often hand to hand, usually under
-a pelt of every kind of fire, often amid a shower of bombs since the
-Turks could creep up under cover to within so few yards. Our men lost
-very heavily during the day but at nightfall we still held the peak.
-After dark the 6th Loyal North Lancashires relieved the garrison, took
-over the trenches, did what they could to strengthen them, and advanced
-them by some yards here and there. At four o'clock on the morning of the
-10th, the 5th Wiltshires came up to support them and lay down behind the
-trenches in the ashes, sand and scattered rubble of the hilltop. Both
-battalions were exhausted from four days and nights of continual
-fighting, but in very good heart. At this time, these two battalions
-marked the extreme right of our new line; on their left, stretching down
-to The Farm, were the 10th Hampshires, and near The Farm the remains of
-the Third Column under General Baldwin. There may have been in all some
-five thousand men on Chunuk and within a quarter of a mile of it round
-The Farm.
-
-In the darkness before dawn when our men on the hill were busy digging
-themselves better cover for the day's battle, the Turks, now strongly
-reinforced from Bulair and Asia, assaulted Chunuk with not less than
-15,000 men. They came on in a monstrous mass, packed shoulder to
-shoulder, in some places eight deep, in others three or four deep.
-Practically all their first line were shot by our men, practically all
-the second line were bayoneted, but the third line got into our trenches
-and overwhelmed the garrison. Our men fell back to the second line of
-trenches and rallied and fired, but the Turks overwhelmed that line too
-and then with their packed multitude they paused and gathered like a
-wave, burst down on the Wiltshire Regiment, and destroyed it almost to a
-man. Even so, the survivors, outnumbered 40 to 1, formed and charged
-with the bayonet, and formed and charged a second time, with a courage
-which makes the charge of the Light Brigade seem like a dream. But it
-was a hopeless position, the Turks came on like the sea, beat back all
-before them, paused for a moment, set rolling down the hill upon our men
-a number of enormous round bombs, which bounded into our lines and
-burst, and then following up this artillery they fell on the men round
-The Farm in the most bloody and desperate fight of the campaign.
-
-Even as they topped Chunuk and swarmed down to engulf our right, our
-guns opened upon them in a fire truly awful, but thousands came alive
-over the crest and went down to the battle below. Stragglers running
-from the first rush put a panic in the Aghyl Dere, where bearers,
-doctors, mules and a multitude of wounded were jammed up with soldiers
-trying to get up to the fight. Some of our men held up against this
-thrust of the Turks, and in that first brave stand, General Baldwin was
-killed. Then our line broke, the Turks got fairly in among our men with
-a weight which bore all before it, and what followed was a long
-succession of British rallies to a tussle body to body, with knives and
-stones and teeth, a fight of wild beasts in the ruined cornfields of The
-Farm. Nothing can be said of that fight, no words can describe nor any
-mind imagine it, except as a roaring and blazing hour of killing. Our
-last reserves came up to it, and the Turks were beaten back; very few of
-their men reached their lines alive. The Turk dead lay in thousands all
-down the slopes of the hill; but the crest of the hill, the prize,
-remained in Turk hands, not in ours.
-
-That ended the battle of the 6th-10th of August. We had beaten off the
-Turks, but our men were too much exhausted to do more. They could not go
-up the hill again. Our thrust at Sari Bair had failed. It had just
-failed, by a few minutes, though unsupported from the left. Even then,
-at the eleventh hour, two fresh battalions and a ton of water would have
-made Chunuk ours, but we had neither the men nor the water; Sari was not
-to be our hill. Our men fought for four days and nights in a wilderness
-of gorse and precipice to make her ours. They fought in a blazing sun,
-without rest, with little food and with almost no water, on hills on
-fire and on crags rotting to the tread. They went, like all their
-brothers in that Peninsula, on a forlorn hope, and by bloody pain they
-won the image and the taste of victory, and then, when their reeling
-bodies had burst the bars, so that our race might pass through, there
-were none to pass, the door was open, but there were none to go through
-it to triumph, and then, slowly, as strength failed, the door was shut
-again, the bars were forged again, victory was hidden again, all was to
-do again, and our brave men were but the fewer and the bitterer for all
-their bloody sacrifice for the land they served. All was to do again
-after the 10th of August, the great battle of the campaign was over. We
-had made our fight, we had seen our enemy beaten and the prize
-displayed, and then (as before at Helles) we had to stop for want of
-men, till the enemy had remade his army and rebuilt his fort.
-
-
-
-
-VI
-
-The day passed, the night came, the King lay down in his vaulted room.
-St. Gabriel came from God to call him. "Charles, summon the army of your
-empire and go by forced marches into the land of Bire, to the city that
-the pagans have besieged. The Christians call and cry for you." The
-Emperor wished not to go. "God," he said, "how painful is my life." He
-wept from his eyes, he tore his white beard.
-
- _The end of the Song of Roland._
-
-
-That, in a way, was the end of the campaign, for no other attempt to win
-through was made. The Turks were shaken to the heart. Another battle
-following at once might well have broken them. But we had not the men
-nor the shells for another battle. In the five days' battle on the front
-of twelve miles we had lost very little less than a quarter of our
-entire army, and we had shot away most of our always scanty supply of
-ammunition. We could not attack again till fifty thousand more men were
-landed and the store of shells replenished. Those men and shells were
-not near Gallipoli, but in England, where the war as a whole had to be
-considered. The question to be decided, by those directing the war as a
-whole, was, "should those men and shells be sent?" It was decided by the
-High Direction, that they should not be sent: the effort therefore could
-not be made.
-
-Since the effort could not be made, the campaign declined into a
-secondary operation, to contain large reserves of Turks, with their guns
-and munitions, from use elsewhere, in Mesopotamia or in the Caucasus.
-But before it became this, a well-planned and well-fought effort was
-made from Suvla to secure our position by seizing the hills to the east
-of the Bay. This attack took place on the 21st August, in intense heat,
-across an open plain without cover of any kind, blazing throughout
-nearly all its length with scrub fires. The 29th Division (brought up
-from Cape Helles) carried Scimitar Hill with great dash, and was then
-held up. The attack on Ismail Oglu failed. Two thrusts made by the men
-of Anzac in the latter days of August, secured an important well, and
-the Turk stronghold of Hill 60. This last success made the line from
-Anzac to Suvla impregnable.
-
-After this, since no big attempt could be made by the Allied Troops and
-no big attempt was made by the enemy, the fighting settled down into
-trench warfare on both sides. There was some shelling every day and
-night, some machine gun and rifle fire, much sniping, great vigilance,
-and occasional bombing and mining. The dysentery, which had been present
-ever since the heats began, increased beyond all measure; very few men
-in all that army were not attacked and weakened by it. Many thousands
-went down with it; Mudros, Alexandria and Malta were filled with cases;
-many died.
-
-Those who remained, besides carrying on the war by daily and nightly
-fire, worked continually with pick and shovel to improve the lines. Long
-after the war, the goatherd on Gallipoli will lose his way in the miles
-of trenches which zigzag from Cape Helles to Achi Baba and from Gaba
-Tepe to Ejelmer Bay. They run to and fro in all that expanse of land,
-some of them shallow, others deep cuttings in the marl, many of them
-paved with stone or faced with concrete, most of them sided with little
-caverns, leading far down (in a few cases) to rooms twenty feet under
-the ground. Long after we are all dust the goats of Gallipoli will break
-their legs in those pits and ditches, and over their coffee round the
-fire the elders will say that they were dug by devils and the sons of
-devils, and antiquarians will come from the west to dig there, and will
-bring away shards of iron, and empty tins and bones. Fifty years ago
-some French staff officers traced out the works round Durazzo, where
-Pompey the Great fought just such another campaign, two thousand years
-ago. Two thousand years hence, when this war is forgotten, those lines
-under the ground will draw the staff officers of whatever country is
-then the most cried for brains.
-
-Those lines were the homes of thousands of our soldiers for half a year
-and more. There they lived and did their cooking and washing, made their
-jokes and sang their songs. There they sweated under their burdens, and
-slept, and fell in to die. There they marched up the burning hill, where
-the sand devils flung by the shells were blackening heaven, there they
-lay in their dirty rags awaiting death, and there by thousands up and
-down they lie buried, in little lonely graves where they fell, or in the
-pits of the great engagements.
-
-Those lines at Cape Helles, Anzac and Suvla, were once busy towns,
-thronged by thousands of citizens whose going and coming and daily
-labour were cheerful with singing, as though those places were mining
-camps during a gold rush, instead of a perilous front where the fire
-never ceased and the risk of death was constant. But for the noise of
-war, coming in an irregular rattle, with solitary big explosions, the
-screams of shells or the wild whistling crying of ricochets, they seemed
-busy but very peaceful places. At night, from the sea, the lamps of the
-dugouts on the cliffs were like the lights of seacoast towns in summer,
-and the places seemingly as peaceful, but for the pop and rattle of fire
-and the streaks of glare from the shells. There was always singing,
-sometimes very good, and always beautiful, coming in the crash of war;
-and always one heard the noises of the work of men, the beat of
-piledrivers, wheels going over stones, and the little solid pobbing
-noises, from bullets dropping in the sea.
-
-I have said that those positions were like mining camps during a gold
-rush. Ballarat, the Sacramento, and the camps of the Transvaal must have
-looked strangely like those camps at Suvla and Cape Helles. Anzac at
-night was like those crags of old building over the Arno at Florence; by
-day it was a city of cliff dwellers, stirring memories of the race's
-past. An immense expanse was visible from all these places; at Cape
-Helles there was the plain rising gradually to Achi Baba, at Anzac a
-wilderness of hills, at Suvla the same hills seen from below. Over all
-these places came a strangeness of light, unlike anything to be seen in
-the west, a light which made the hills clear and unreal at the same
-time, softening their savagery into peace, till they seemed not hills
-but swellings of the land, as though the land there had breathed-in and
-risen a little. All the places were dust-coloured as soon as the flowers
-had withered, a dark dust-coloured where the scrub grew (often almost
-wine-dark like our own hills where heather grows) a pale sand colour,
-where the scrub gave out, and elsewhere a paleness and a greyness as of
-moss and lichen and old stone. On this sandy and dusty land, where even
-the trees were grey and ghostly (olive and Eastern currant) the camps
-were scattered, a little and a little, never much in one place on
-account of shelling, till the impression given was one of multitude.
-
-The signs of the occupation began far out at sea where the hospital
-ships lay waiting for their freight. There were always some there,
-painted white and green, lying outside the range of the big guns. Nearer
-to the shore were the wrecks of ships, some of them sunk by our men, to
-make breakwaters, some sunk by the Turk shells, some knocked to pieces
-or washed ashore by foul weather. Nearly all these wrecks were of small
-size, trawlers, drifters and little coastwise vessels such as peddle and
-bring home fish on the English coasts. Closer in, right on the beaches,
-were the bones of still smaller boats, pinnaces, cutters and lighters,
-whose crews had been the men of the first landings. Men could not see
-those wrecks without a thrill. There were piers at all the beaches, all
-built under shell fire, to stand both shell fire and the sea, and at the
-piers there was always much busy life, men singing at their work, horses
-and mules disembarking, food and munitions and water discharging,
-wounded going home and drafts coming ashore. On the beaches were the
-hieroglyphs of the whole bloody and splendid story; there were the marks
-and signs, which no one could mistake nor see unmoved.
-
-Even after months of our occupation the traces were there off the main
-tracks. A man had but to step from one of the roads into the scrub, and
-there they lay, relics of barbed wire, blown aside in tangles, round
-shrapnel-bullets in the sand, empty cartridge-cases, clips of cartridge
-cases bent double by a blow yet undischarged, pieces of flattened rifle
-barrel, rags of leather, broken bayonets, jags and hacks of shell, and,
-in little hollows, little heaps of cartridge-cases, where some man had
-lain to fire for hour after hour, often until he died at his post, on
-the 25th of April. Here, too, one came upon the graves of soldiers,
-sometimes alone, sometimes three or four together, each with an
-inscribed cross and border of stones from the beach. Privates, sergeants
-and officers lay in those graves and by them, all day long, the work
-which they had made possible by that sacrifice on the 25th, went on in a
-stream, men and munitions going up to the front, and wounded and the
-dying coming down, while the explosions of the cannon trembled through
-the earth to them and the bullets piped and fell over their heads.
-
-But the cities of those camps were not cities of the dead, they were
-cities of intense life, cities of comradeship and resolve, unlike the
-cities of peace. At Mudros, all things seemed little, for there men were
-dwarfed by their setting; they were there in ships which made even a
-full battalion seem only a cluster of heads. On the Peninsula they
-seemed to have come for the first time to full stature. There they were
-bigger than their surroundings. There they were naked manhood pitted
-against death in the desert and more than holding their own.
-
-All those sun-smitten hills and gullies, growing nothing but crackling
-scrub, were peopled by crowds. On all the roads, on the plain, which lay
-white like salt in the glare, and on the sides of the gullies, strange,
-sunburned, half-naked men moved at their work with the bronze bodies of
-gods. Like Egyptians building a city they passed and repassed with boxes
-from the walls of stores built on the beach. Dust had toned their
-uniforms even with the land. Their half-nakedness made them more grand
-than clad men. Very few of them were less than beautiful; whole
-battalions were magnificent, the very flower of the world's men. They
-had a look in their eyes which those who saw them will never forget.
-
-Sometimes as one watched, one heard a noise of cheering from the ships,
-and this, the herald of good news, passed inland, till men would rise
-from sleep in their dugouts, come to the door, blinking in the sun, to
-pass on the cheer. In some strange way the news, the cause of the
-cheering, passed inland with the cheer; a submarine had sunk a transport
-off Constantinople, or an aeroplane had bombed a powder factory. One
-heard the news pass on and on, till it rang from the front trenches ten
-yards from the Turk line. Sometimes the cheering was very loud, mingled
-with singing; then it was a new battalion, coming from England, giving
-thanks that they were there, after their months of training, to help the
-fleet through. Men who heard those battalions singing will never hear
-those songs of "Tipperary," "Let's all go down the Strand," or "We'll
-all go the same way home," without a quickening at the heart.
-
-Everywhere in the three positions there were the homes of men. In gashes
-or clefts of the earth were long lines of mules or horses with Indian
-grooms. On the beaches were offices, with typewriters clicking and
-telephone bells ringing. Stacked on one side were ammunition carts so
-covered with bushes that they looked like the scrub they stood on. Here
-and there were strangely painted guns, and everywhere the work of men,
-armourer's forges, farrier's anvils, the noise and clink and bustle of a
-multitude. Everywhere, too, but especially in the gullies were the
-cave-dwellings of the dugouts, which so dotted the cliffs with their
-doors, that one seemed put back to Cro-Magnon or Tampa, into some
-swarming tribe of cave-dwellers. All the dugouts were different, though
-all were built upon the same principle, first a scooping in the earth,
-then a raised earth ledge for a bed, then (if one were lucky) a
-corrugated-iron roof propped by balks, lastly a topping of sandbags
-strewn with scrub. For doors, if one had a door or sunshade, men used
-sacking, burlap, a bit of canvas, or a blanket. Then, when the work was
-finished, the builder entered in, to bathe in his quarter of a pint of
-water, smoke his pipe, greet his comrades, and think foul scorn of the
-Turk, whose bullets piped and droned overhead, all day and night, like
-the little finches of home. Looking out from the upper dugouts one saw
-the dusty, swarming warren of men, going and coming, with a kind of
-swift slouch, carrying boxes from the beach. Mules and men passed, songs
-went up and down the gullies, and were taken up by those at rest, men
-washed and mended clothes, or wandered naked and sun reddened along the
-beach, bathing among dropping bullets. Wounded men came down on
-stretchers, sick men babbled in pain or cursed the flies, the forges
-clinked, the pile drivers beat in the balks of the piers, the bullets
-droned and piped, or rushed savagely, or popped into a sandbag. Up in
-the trenches the rifles made the irregular snaps of fire-crackers,
-sometimes almost ceasing, then popping, then running along a section in
-a rattle, then quickening down the line and drawing the enemy, then
-pausing and slowly ceasing and beginning again. From time to time, with
-a whistle and a wailing, some Asian shell came over and dropped and
-seemed to multiply, and gathered to herself the shriek of all the devils
-of hell, and burst like a devil and filled a great space with blackness
-and dust and falling fragments. Then another and another came, almost in
-the same place, till the gunners had had enough. Then the dust settled,
-the ruin was made good, and all went on as before, men carrying and
-toiling and singing, bullets piping, and the flies settling and swarming
-on whatever was obscene in what the shell had scattered.
-
-Everywhere in those positions there was gaiety and courage and devoted
-brotherhood, but there was also another thing, which brooded over all,
-and struck right home to the heart. It was a tragical feeling, a taint
-or flavour in the mind, such as men often feel in hospitals when many
-are dying, the sense that Death was at work there, that Death lived
-there, that Death wandered up and down there and fed on Life.
-
- [Illustration: An Australian bringing in a wounded comrade to hospital]
-
-Since the main object of the campaign, to help the fleet through the
-Narrows, had been abandoned (in mid-August), and no further thrust was
-to be made against the Turks, the questions "Were our 100,000 men in
-Gallipoli containing a sufficiently large army of Turks to justify their
-continuance on the Peninsula?" and "Could they be more profitably used
-elsewhere?" arose in the minds of the High Direction from week to week
-as the war changed.
-
-In the early autumn, when the Central Powers combined with Bulgaria to
-crush Serbia and open a road to Constantinople, these questions became
-acute. During October owing to the radical change in the Balkan
-situation which was produced by the treachery of Bulgaria and the
-bewildering indecision of Greece the advantage of our continuing the
-campaign became more and more doubtful and in November, after full
-consideration, it was decided to evacuate the Peninsula. Preparations
-were made and the work begun.
-
-Late in November, something happened which had perhaps some influence in
-hurrying on the date of the evacuation. This was the blizzard of the
-26th-28th, which lost us about a tenth of our whole army from cold,
-frostbite, exposure, and the sicknesses which follow them. The 26th
-began as a cold, dour Gallipoli day with a bitter northeasterly wind,
-which increased in the afternoon to a fresh gale, with sleet. Later, it
-increased still more, and blew hard, with thunder; and with the thunder
-came a rain more violent than any man of our army had ever seen. Water
-pours off very quickly from that land of abrupt slopes. In a few minutes
-every gully was a raging torrent, and every trench a river. By an
-ill-chance this storm fell with cruel violence upon the ever famous 29th
-Division then holding trenches at Suvla. The water poured down into
-their trenches, as though it were a tidal wave. It came in with a rush,
-with a head upon it like the tide advancing, so quickly that men were
-one minute dry and the next moment drowned at their posts. They were
-caught so suddenly that those who escaped had to leap from their
-trenches for dear life, leaving coats, haversacks, food and sometimes
-even their rifles, behind them.
-
-Our trenches were in nearly every case below those of the Turks, who
-therefore suffered from the water far less than our men did. The Turks
-saw our men leaping from their trenches, and either guessing the reason
-or fearing an attack, opened a very heavy rifle and shrapnel fire upon
-them. Our men had to shelter behind the parados of their trenches, where
-they scraped themselves shallow pans in the mud under a heavy fire. At
-dark the sleet increased, the mud froze, and there our men lay, most of
-them without overcoats, and many of them without food. In one trench
-when the flood rose, a pony, a mule, a pig, and two dead Turks were
-washed over a barricade together.
-
-Before the night fell, many of our men were frost-bitten and started
-limping to the ambulances, under continual shrapnel fire and in blinding
-sleet. A good many fell down by the way and were frozen to death. The
-gale increased slowly all through the night, blowing hard and steadily
-from the north, making a great sea upon the coast, and driving the spray
-far inland. At dawn it grew colder, and the sleet hardened into snow,
-with an ever-increasing wind, which struck through our men to the
-marrow. "They fell ill," said one who was there, "in heaps." The water
-from the flood had fallen in the night, but it was still four feet deep
-in many of the trenches, and our men passed the morning under fire in
-their shelter pans, fishing for food and rifles in their drowned lines.
-All through the day the wind gathered, till it was blowing a full gale,
-vicious and bitter cold; and on the 28th it reached its worst. The 28th
-was spoken of afterwards as "Frozen Foot Day;" it was a day more
-terrible than any battle; but now it was taking toll of the Turks, and
-the fire slackened. Probably either side could have had the other's
-position for the taking on the 28th, had there been enough unfrosted
-feet to advance. It was a day so blind with snow and driving storm that
-neither side could see to fire, and this brought the advantage, that our
-men hopping to the ambulances had not to go through a pelt of shrapnel
-bullets. On the 29th, the limits of human strength were reached. Some of
-those frozen three days before were able to return to duty, and "a great
-number of officers and men who had done their best to stick it out were
-forced to go to hospital." The water fell during this day, but it left
-on an average 2-1/2 feet of thick, slushy mud, into which many trenches
-collapsed. After this the weather was fine and warm.
-
-At Helles and Anzac the fall of the ground gave some protection from
-this gale, but at Suvla there was none. When the weather cleared, the
-beaches were heaped with the wreck of piers, piles, boats and lighters,
-all broken and jammed together. But great as this wreck was the wreck of
-men was even greater. The 29th Division had lost two-thirds of its
-strength. In the three sectors over 200 men were dead, over 10,000 were
-unfit for further service and not less than 30,000 others were sickened
-and made old by it.
-
-The Turk loss was much more serious even than this, for though they
-suffered less from the wet, they suffered more from the cold, through
-being on the higher ground. The snow lay upon their trenches long after
-it had gone from ours, and the Turk equipment though very good as far as
-it went, was only good for the summer. Their men wore thin clothes, and
-many of them had neither overcoat nor blanket. The blizzard which was a
-discouragement to us, took nearly all the heart out of the Turks; and
-this fact must be borne in mind in the reading of the next few pages.
-
-The gale had one good effect. Either the cold or the rain destroyed or
-removed the cause of the dysentery, which had taken nearly a thousand
-victims a day for some months. The disease stopped at once and no more
-fresh cases were reported.
-
-This storm made any attempt to land or to leave the land impossible for
-four days together. Coming, as it did, upon the decision to evacuate, it
-gave the prompting, that the evacuation should be hurried, lest such
-weather should prevent it. On the 8th of December, the evacuation of
-Anzac and Suvla was ordered to begin.
-
-It was not an easy task to remove large numbers of men, guns and animals
-from positions commanded by the Turk observers and open to every
-cruising aeroplane. But by ruse and skill, and the use of the dark,
-favoured by fine weather, the work was done, almost without loss, and,
-as far as one could judge, unsuspected.
-
-German agents, eager to discredit those whom they could not defeat, have
-said, "that we bribed the Turks to let us go;" next year perhaps they
-will say "that the Turks bribed us to go;" the year after that perhaps,
-they will invent something equally false and even sillier. But putting
-aside the foulness and the folly of this bribery lie, it is interesting
-to enquire how it happened that the Turks did not attack our men while
-they were embarking.
-
-The Turks were very good fighters, furious in attack and resolute in
-defence, but among their qualities of mind were some which greatly
-puzzled our commanders. Their minds would sometimes work in ways very
-strange to Europeans. They did, or refrained from doing, certain things
-in ways for which neither we nor our Allies could account. Some day,
-long hence, when the war is over, the Turk story of our withdrawal will
-be made known. Until then, we can only guess, why it was that the
-embarkation, which many had thought would lose us half our army, was
-made good from Anzac and Suvla with the loss of only four or five men
-(or less than the normal loss of a night in the trenches). Only two
-explanations are possible. Either (1) the Turks knew that we were going
-and wanted to be rid of us, or (2) they did not know that we were going
-and were entirely deceived by our ruses.
-
-Had they known that we were going from Anzac and Suvla, it is at least
-likely that they would have hastened our going, partly that they might
-win some booty, which they much needed, or take a large number of
-prisoners, whose appearance would have greatly cheered the citizens of
-Constantinople. But nearly all those of our army who were there, felt,
-both from observation and intelligence, that the Turks did not know that
-we were going. As far as men on one side in a war can judge of their
-enemies they felt that the Turks were deceived, completely deceived, by
-the ruses employed by us, and that they believed that we were being
-strongly reinforced for a new attack. Our soldiers took great pains to
-make them believe this. Looking down upon us from their heights, the
-Turks saw boats leaving the shore apparently empty, and returning,
-apparently, full of soldiers. Looking up at them, from our position our
-men saw how the sight affected them. For the twelve days during which
-the evacuation was in progress at Anzac and Suvla, the Turks were
-plainly to be seen, digging everywhere to secure themselves from the
-feared attack. They dug new lines, they brought up new guns, they made
-ready for us in every way. On the night of the 19th-20th December, in
-hazy weather, at full moon, our men left Suvla and Anzac, unmolested.
-
-It was said by Dr. Johnson that "no man does anything, consciously for
-the last time, without a feeling of sadness." No man of all that force
-passed down those trenches, the scenes of so much misery and pain and
-joy and valour and devoted brotherhood, without a deep feeling of
-sadness. Even those who had been loudest in their joy at going were sad.
-Many there did not want to go; but felt that it was better to stay, and
-that then, with another fifty thousand men, the task could be done, and
-their bodies and their blood buy victory for us. This was the feeling
-even at Suvla, where the men were shaken and sick still from the storm;
-but at Anzac, the friendly little kindly city, which had been won at
-such cost in the ever-glorious charge of the 28th, and held since with
-such pain, and built with such sweat and toil and anguish, in thirst,
-and weakness and bodily suffering, which had seen the thousands of the
-13th Division land in the dark and hide, and had seen them fall in with
-the others to go to Chunuk, and had known all the hope and fervour, all
-the glorious resolve, and all the bitterness and disappointment of the
-unhelped attempt, the feeling was far deeper. Officers and men went up
-and down the well-known gullies moved almost to tears by the thought
-that the next day those narrow acres so hardly won and all those graves
-of our people so long defended would be in Turk hands.
-
-For some weeks, our men had accustomed the Turks to sudden cessations of
-fire for half-an-hour or more. At first, the Turks had been made
-suspicious by these silences, but they were now used to them, and
-perhaps glad of them. They were not made suspicious by the slackening of
-the fire on the night of the withdrawal. The mules and guns had all gone
-from Suvla. A few mules and a few destroyed guns were left at Anzac; in
-both places a pile of stores was left, all soaked in oil and ready for
-firing. The ships of war drew near to the coast, and trained their guns
-on the hills. In the haze of the full moon the men filed off from the
-trenches down to the beaches and passed away from Gallipoli, from the
-unhelped attempt which they had given their bodies and their blood to
-make. They had lost no honour. They were not to blame, that they were
-creeping off in the dark, like thieves in the night. Had others (not of
-their profession) many hundreds of miles away, but seen as they, as
-generous, as wise, as forseeing, as full of sacrifice, those thinned
-companies with the looks of pain in their faces, and the mud of the
-hills thick upon their bodies, would have given thanks in Santa Sophia
-three months before. They had failed to take Gallipoli, and the mine
-fields still barred the Hellespont, but they had fought a battle such as
-has never been seen upon this earth. What they had done will become a
-glory forever, wherever the deeds of heroic unhelped men are honoured
-and pitied and understood. They went up at the call of duty, with a
-bright banner of a battle-cry, against an impregnable fort. Without
-guns, without munitions, without help and without drink they climbed the
-scarp and held it by their own glorious manhood, quickened by a word
-from their chief. Now they were giving back the scarp and going out into
-new adventures, wherever the war might turn.
-
-Those going down to the beaches wondered in a kind of awe whether the
-Turks would discover them and attack. The minutes passed, and boat after
-boat left the shore, but no attack came. The arranged rifles fired
-mechanically in the outer trenches at long intervals, and the crackle of
-the Turk reply followed. At Anzac, a rearguard of honour had been
-formed. The last two hundred men to leave Anzac were survivors of those
-who had landed in the first charge, so glorious and so full of hope on
-the 25th of April. They had fought through the whole campaign from the
-very beginning; they had seen it all. It was only just that they should
-be the last to leave. As they, too, moved down, one of their number saw
-a solitary Turk, black against the sky, hard at work upon his trench.
-That was the last enemy to be seen from Anzac.
-
-At half-past five in the winter morning of the 20th December the last
-boat pushed off; and the last of our men had gone from Suvla and Anzac.
-Those who had been there from the first were deeply touched. There was a
-longing that it might be to do again, with the same comrades, under the
-same chiefs but with better luck and better backing. Some distance from
-the shore the boats paused to watch the last act in the withdrawal. It
-was dead calm weather, with just that ruffle of wind which comes before
-the morning. The Turk fire crackled along the lines as usual, but the
-withdrawal was still not suspected. Then from the beaches within the
-stacks of abandoned stores came the noise of explosion, the charges had
-been fired, and soon immense flames were licking up those boxes and
-reddening the hills. As the flames grew, there came a stir in the Turk
-lines, and then every Turk gun that could be brought to bear opened with
-shrapnel and high explosive on the area of the bonfires. It was plain
-that the Turks misread the signs. They thought that some lucky shell had
-fired our stores and that they could stop us from putting out the
-flames. Helped by the blasts of many shells the burning rose like
-balefire, crowned by wreaths and streaks and spouts of flame. The stores
-were either ashes, or in a blaze which none could quench before the
-Turks guessed the meaning of that burning. Long before the fires had
-died and before the Turks were wandering in joy among our trenches, our
-men were aboard their ships standing over to Mudros.
-
-Some have said, "Even if the Turks were deceived at Anzac and Suvla,
-they must have known that you were leaving Cape Helles. Why did they not
-attack you while you were embarking there?" I do not know the answer to
-this question. But it is possible that they did not know that we were
-leaving. It is possible that they believed that we should hold Cape
-Helles like an Eastern Gibraltar. It is possible, on the other hand,
-that they were deceived again by our ruses. It is however, certain that
-they watched us far more narrowly at Cape Helles after the Anzac
-evacuation. Aeroplanes cruised over our position frequently, and
-shell-fire increased and became very heavy. Still, when the time came,
-the burning of our stores, after our men had embarked, seemed to be the
-first warning that the Turks had that we were going.
-
-This was a mystery to our soldiers at the time and seems strange now. It
-is possible that at Cape Helles, the Turks' shaken, frozen and
-out-of-heart soldiers may have known that we were going yet had no life
-left in them for an attack. Many things are possible in this world, and
-the darkness is strange and the heart of a fellow-man is darkness to us.
-There were things in the Turk heart very dark indeed to those who tried
-to read it. The storm had dealt with them cruelly, that is all that we
-know. Let us wait till we know their story.
-
-The Cape Helles position was held for twenty days, after we had left
-Anzac and Suvla. On the 8th-9th of January in the present year, it was
-abandoned, with slight loss, though in breaking weather. By 4 o'clock on
-the morning of the 9th of January, the last man had passed the graves of
-those who had won the beaches. They climbed on board their boats and
-pushed off. They had said good-bye to the English dead, whose blood had
-given them those acres, now being given back. Some felt, as they passed
-those graves, that the stones were living men, who cast a long look
-after them when they had passed, and sighed, and turned landward as they
-had turned of old. Then in a rising sea, whipped with spray, among the
-noise of ships weltering to the rails, the battalions left Cape Helles;
-the _River Clyde_ dimmed into the gale and became a memory, and the
-Gallipoli campaign was over.
-
-
-Many people have asked me, what the campaign achieved? It achieved much.
-It destroyed and put out of action many more of the enemy than of our
-own men. Our own losses in killed, wounded and missing were, roughly
-speaking, one hundred and fifteen thousand men, and the sick about one
-hundred thousand more, or (in all) more than two and one-half times as
-many as the army which made the landing. The Turk losses from all causes
-were far greater; they had men to waste and wasted them, like water, at
-Cape Helles, Lone Pine and Chunuk. The real Turk losses will never be
-tabled and published, but at the five battles of The Landings, the 6th
-May, the 4th June, the 28th of June, and the 6th-10th August, they lost
-in counted killed alone, very nearly as many as were killed on our side
-in the whole campaign. Then, though we did not do what we hoped to do,
-our presence in Gallipoli contained large armies of Turks in and near
-the Peninsula. They had always from 15 to 20,000 more men than we had,
-on the Peninsula itself, and at least as many more, ready to move, on
-the Asian shore and at Rodosto. In all, we disabled, or held from action
-elsewhere, not less than 400,000 Turks, that is, a very large army of
-men who might have been used elsewhere, with disastrous advantage, in
-the Caucasus, when Russia was hard pressed, or, as they were used later,
-in Mesopotamia.
-
-So much for the soldiers' side; but politically, the campaign achieved
-much. In the beginning, it had a profound effect upon Italy; it was,
-perhaps, one of the causes which brought Italy into her war with
-Austria. In the beginning, too, it had a profound effect upon the Balkan
-States. Bulgaria made no move against us until five months after our
-landings. Had we not gone to Gallipoli she would have joined our enemies
-in the late spring instead of in the middle autumn.
-
-Some of our enemies have said that "the campaign was a defeat for the
-British Navy." It is true that we lost two capital ships, from mines, in
-the early part of the campaign, and I think, in all, two others, from
-torpedoes, during the campaign. Such loss is not very serious in eleven
-months of naval war. For the campaign was a naval war, it depended
-utterly and solely upon the power of the Navy. By our Navy we went there
-and were kept there, and by our Navy we came away. During the nine
-months of our hold on the Peninsula over three hundred thousand men were
-brought by the Navy from places three, four, or even six thousand miles
-away. During the operations some half of these were removed by our Navy,
-as sick and wounded, to ports from eight hundred to three thousand miles
-away. Every day, for eleven months, ships of our Navy moved up and down
-the Gallipoli coast bombarding the Turk positions. Every day during the
-operations our Navy kept our armies in food, drink and supplies. Every
-day, in all that time, if weather permitted, ships of our Navy cruised
-in the Narrows and off Constantinople, and the seaplanes of our Navy
-raided and scouted within the Turk lines. If there had been, I will not
-say, any defeat of, but any check to the Navy, we could not have begun
-the campaign or continued it. Every moment of those eleven months of war
-was an illustration of the silent and unceasing victory of our Navy's
-power. As Sir Ian Hamilton has put it "the Navy was our father and our
-mother."
-
-"Still," our enemies say, "you did not win the Peninsula." We did not;
-and some day, when truth will walk clear-eyed, it will be known why we
-did not. Until then, let our enemies say this: "They did not win, but
-they came across three thousand miles of sea, a little army without
-reserves and short of munitions, a band of brothers, not half of them
-half-trained, and nearly all of them new to war. They came to what we
-said was an impregnable fort on which our veterans of war and massacre
-had laboured for two months, and by sheer naked manhood they beat us,
-and drove us out of it. Then rallying, but without reserves, they beat
-us again and drove us further. Then rallying once more, but still
-without reserves, they beat us again, this time to our knees. Then, had
-they had reserves, they would have conquered, but by God's pity they had
-none. Then, after a lapse of time, when we were men again, they had
-reserves, and they hit us a staggering blow, which needed but a push to
-end us, but God again had pity. After that our God was indeed pitiful,
-for England made no further thrust, and they went away."
-
- Even so was wisdom proven blind,
- So courage failed, so strength was chained,
- Even so the gods, whose seeing mind
- Is not as ours, ordained.
-
- Lollingdon,
- June 29, 1916.
-
-
-THE END
-
-
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-
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-
-
-The following pages contain advertisements of a few Macmillan books by
-the same author
-
- _BY THE SAME AUTHOR_
- BY JOHN MASEFIELD
-
-
-Salt Water Poems and Ballads
-
-With plates in color and black and white illustrations by Charles Pears
-
-It is first of all as a poet of the sea that most people think of John
-Masefield. Consequently the publication of what may be called a de luxe
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-that is, so far as their inclusion in a book is concerned. Among these
-are "The Ship and Her Makers," and "The New Bedford Whaler." Here also
-well-chosen selections from "Salt Water Ballads," from "Philip the
-King," and "The Story of a Round House." Mr. Masefield has been
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-admirably reflect the spirit of the poet's lines.
-
-
-The Locked Chest and The Sweeps of Ninety-Eight:
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-Two One Act Plays
-
-That Mr. Masefield is well grounded in the principles of dramatic art
-has been amply proved by the plays which he has published hitherto--"The
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-Multitude and Solitude
-
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- Author of "The Everlasting Mercy" and "The Widow in the Bye Street,"
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-action of which takes place in the time of Christ. The characters
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-for it is really such, is written in rhyme and is one of Mr. Masefield's
-most interesting and important contributions to literature. In addition
-to this there are in the book many sonnets and short poems.
-
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-a new Masefield ... who has never written with more dignity, nor with
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-years."--_Boston Evening Transcript._
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-"Originality, force, distinction, and deep knowledge of the human
-heart."--_Chicago Record-Herald._
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-poetry and in the playwriting craft."--JOHN GALSWORTHY.
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-BRAITHWAITE, _N.Y. Times_.
-
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-The Daffodil Fields
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-"Neither in the design nor in the telling did or could 'Enoch Arden'
-come near the artistic truth of 'The Daffodil Fields.'"--_Sir
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-
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-A Mainsail Haul
-
- _Cloth, 12mo, $1.25. Leather, $1.60_
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-As a sailor before the mast Masefield has traveled the world over. Many
-of the tales in this volume are his own experiences written with the
-same dramatic fidelity displayed in "Dauber."
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-The Tragedy of Pompey
-
- _Cloth, 12mo, $1.25. Leather, $1.60_
-
-A play such as only the author of "Nan" could have written. Tense in
-situation and impressive in its poetry it conveys Masefield's genius in
-the handling of the dramatic form.
-
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-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Gallipoli, by John Masefield
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-<pre>
-
-The Project Gutenberg EBook of Gallipoli, by John Masefield
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: Gallipoli
-
-Author: John Masefield
-
-Release Date: December 7, 2016 [EBook #53682]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GALLIPOLI ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Brian Coe, Chris Pinfield and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
-file was produced from images generously made available
-by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-</pre>
-
-
-<div id="tnote">
-
-<p>Transcriber's Note.</p>
-
-<p>Apparent typographical errors have been corrected. The use of hyphens
-and of accents has been rationalised.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="front">
-
- <p class="large">GALLIPOLI</p>
-
-<div class="image-center">
- <img src="images/publishers-mark.jpg" width="100" height="33" alt="publishers-mark"/>
-</div>
-
-
- <p>THE MACMILLAN COMPANY<br />
- <span class="small">NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO · DALLAS<br />
- ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO</span></p>
-
- <p>MACMILLAN &amp; CO., <span class="smcap">Limited</span><br />
- <span class="small">LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA<br />
- MELBOURNE</span></p>
-
- <p>THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, <span class="smcap">Ltd.</span><br />
- <span class="small">TORONTO</span></p>
-
- <div class="section"></div>
-
- <h1>GALLIPOLI</h1>
-
- <p class="small">BY</p>
-
- <p>JOHN MASEFIELD</p>
-
- <p class="small">Author of "The Everlasting Mercy," "The<br />
- Story of a Round House," etc.</p>
-
- <p class="small"><i>ILLUSTRATED</i></p>
-
- <p><span class="small bold">New York</span><br />
- THE MACMILLAN COMPANY<br />
- 1916<br />
- <span class="small"><i>All rights reserved</i></span></p>
-
- <p class="small smcap">Copyright, 1916,<br />
- By JOHN MASEFIELD</p>
-
- <p class="small">Set up and electrotyped. Published October, 1916.<br />
- Reprinted November, twice, December, 1916.</p>
-
- <div class="section"></div>
-
- <p>DEDICATED<br />
- <span class="small">WITH DEEP RESPECT AND ADMIRATION TO</span><br />
- <i>General Sir Ian Hamilton, G.C.B., D.S.O.</i><br />
- <span class="x-small">AND</span><br />
- <i>The Officers and Men under his Command</i>,<br />
- <span class="small">March to October, 1915.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
-
-<table id="toi" summary="ToI">
-
-<tr>
- <td class="illtxt"></td>
- <td class="facing">FACING<br />PAGE</td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="illtxt">Map No. 1</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Img_map1-thumb">4</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="illtxt">Map No. 2</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Img_map2-thumb">38</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="illtxt">A view showing Morto Bay, De Tott's Battery, and the Asiatic Coast</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Img_046">46</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="illtxt">A remarkable view of V Beach</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Img_048">48</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="illtxt">The S.S. <i>River Clyde</i></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Img_052">52</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="illtxt">Some of the barbed wire entanglements near Sedd-el-Bahr</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Img_056">56</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="illtxt">Exercising mules</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Img_092">92</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="illtxt">Anzac from the Sea</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Img_116">116</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="illtxt">View of Anzac, looking towards Suvla</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Img_134">134</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="illtxt">Map No. 3</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Img_map3-thumb">136</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="illtxt">A "long focus" view taken over the top of our
- trenches at Anzac</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Img_144">144</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="illtxt">Australians at work at Anzac two days before the
- evacuation took place</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Img_146">146</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="illtxt">A boatload of British troops leaving the S.S.
- <i>Nile</i> for one of the landing beaches</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Img_148">148</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="illtxt">Inside an Australian trench</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Img_162">162</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="illtxt">An Australian bringing in a wounded comrade to hospital</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Img_224">224</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-</table>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">{1}</a></div>
-
- <div class="chapter">
-
- <p class="center large">GALLIPOLI</p>
-
-<h2>I</h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Oliver said ... "I have seen the Saracens: the
-valley and the mountains are covered with them; and
-the lowlands and all the plains; great are the hosts of
-that strange people; we have here a very little company."</p>
-
-<p>Roland answered ... "My heart is the bigger for
-that. Please God and His holiest angels, France shall
-never lose her name through me."</p>
-
-<div class="foot">
-<div class="right1"><i>The Song of Roland.</i></div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">{3}</a></span>
-<span class="smcap">A little</span> while ago, during a short visit to
-America, I was often questioned about the Dardanelles
-Campaign. People asked me why
-that attempt had been made, why it had been
-made in that particular manner, why other
-courses had not been taken, why this had been
-done and that either neglected or forgotten,
-and whether a little more persistence, here or
-there, would not have given us the victory.</p>
-
-<p>These questions were often followed by criticism
-of various kinds, some of it plainly suggested
-by our enemies, some of it shrewd, and
-some the honest opinion of men and women
-happily ignorant of modern war. I answered
-questions and criticism as best I could, but in
-the next town they were repeated to me, and
-in the town beyond reiterated, until I felt the
-need of a leaflet printed for distribution, giving
-my views of the matter.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">{4}</a></span>
-Later, when there was leisure, I began to consider
-the Dardanelles Campaign, not as a tragedy,
-nor as a mistake, but as a great human effort,
-which came, more than once, very near to
-triumph, achieved the impossible many times,
-and failed, in the end, as many great deeds of
-arms have failed, from something which had
-nothing to do with arms nor with the men who
-bore them. That the effort failed is not against
-it; much that is most splendid in military history
-failed, many great things and noble men
-have failed. To myself, this failure is the second
-grand event of the war; the first was Belgium's
-answer to the German ultimatum.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 221px;">
- <a name="Img_map1-thumb" id="Img_map1-thumb" href="images/map1-large.jpg">
- <img src="images/map1-thumb.jpg" width="221" height="350" alt="map1-thumbjpg"/>
- </a>
- <div class="caption">
- <p class="right"><i>Stanford's Geog<sup>l</sup> Estb<sup>t</sup> London.</i></p>
- <p class="center">Map No. 1</p>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Peninsula of Gallipoli, or Thracian
-Chersonese, from its beginning in the Gulf of
-Xeros to its extremity at Cape Helles, is a
-tongue of hilly land about fifty-three miles long,
-between the Ęgean Sea and the Straits of the
-Dardanelles. At its northeastern, Gulf of
-Xeros or European end it is four or five miles
-broad, then a little to the south of the town of
-Bulair, it narrows to three miles, in a contraction
-or neck which was fortified during the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">{5}</a></span>
-Crimean War by French and English soldiers.
-This fortification is known as the Lines of Bulair.
-Beyond these lines, to the southwest, the
-peninsula broadens in a westward direction, and
-attains its maximum breadth, of about twelve
-miles, some twenty-four miles from Bulair, between
-the two points of Cape Suvla, on the sea,
-and Cape Uzun, within the Straits. Beyond
-this broad part is a second contraction or neck,
-less than five miles across, and beyond this,
-pointing roughly west-southwesterly, is the final
-tongue or finger of the Peninsula, an isosceles
-triangle of land with a base of some seven miles,
-and two sides of thirteen miles each, converging
-in the blunt tip (perhaps a mile and a half
-across) between Cape Helles and Cape Tekke.
-There is no railway within the peninsula, but bad
-roads, possible for wheeled traffic, wind in the
-valleys, skirting the hills and linking up the principal
-villages. Most of the travelling and commerce
-of the peninsula is done by boat, along
-the Straits, between the little port of Maidos,
-near the Narrows, and the town of Gallipoli
-(the chief town) near the Sea of Marmora.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">{6}</a></span>
-From Gallipoli there is a fair road to Bulair
-and beyond. Some twenty other small towns
-or hamlets are scattered here and there in the
-well-watered valleys in the central broad portion
-of the Peninsula. The inhabitants are
-mostly small cultivators with olive and currant
-orchards, a few vineyards and patches of beans
-and grains; but not a hundredth part of the
-land is under cultivation.</p>
-
-<p>The sea shore, like the Straits shore, is
-mainly steep-to, with abrupt sandy cliffs rising
-from the sea to a height of from one hundred
-to three hundred feet. At irregular and rare
-intervals these cliffs are broken by the ravines
-or gullies down which the autumnal and winter
-rains escape; at the sea mouth of these gullies
-are sometimes narrow strips of stony or sandy
-beach.</p>
-
-<p>Viewed from the sea, the Peninsula is singularly
-beautiful. It rises and falls in gentle and
-stately hills between four hundred and eleven
-hundred feet high, the highest being at about
-the centre. In its colour (after the brief
-spring) in its gentle beauty, and the grace and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">{7}</a></span>
-austerity of its line, it resembles those parts of
-Cornwall to the north of Padstow from which
-one can see Brown Willie. Some Irish hills
-recall it. I know no American landscape like
-it.</p>
-
-<p>In the brief spring the open ground is covered
-with flowers, but there is not much open
-ground; in the Cape Helles district it is mainly
-poor land growing heather and thyme; further
-north there is abundant scrub, low shrubs and
-brushwood, from two to four feet high, frequently
-very thick. The trees are mostly
-stunted firs, and very numerous in the south,
-where the fighting was, but more frequently
-north of Suvla. In one or two of the villages
-there are fruit trees; on some of the hills there
-are small clumps of pine. Viewed from the
-sea the Peninsula looks waterless and sun-smitten;
-the few water-courses are deep ravines
-showing no water. Outwardly, from a distance,
-it is a stately land of beautiful graceful
-hills rolling in suave yet austere lines and covered
-with a fleece of brushwood. In reality
-the suave and graceful hills are exceedingly
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">{8}</a></span>
-steep, much broken and roughly indented with
-gullies, clefts and narrow irregular valleys.
-The soil is something between a sand and a
-marl, loose and apt to blow about in dry weather
-when not bound down by the roots of brushwood,
-but sticky when wet.</p>
-
-<p>Those who look at the southwestern end of
-the Peninsula, between Cape Suvla and Cape
-Helles, will see three heights greater than the
-rolling wold or downland around them. Seven
-miles southeast from Cape Suvla is the great
-and beautiful peaked hill of Sari Bair, 970 feet
-high, very steep on its sea side and thickly
-fleeced with scrub. This hill commands the
-landing place at Suvla. Seven miles south
-from Sari Bair is the long dominating plateau
-of Kilid Bahr, which runs inland from the
-Straits, at heights varying between five and
-seven hundred feet, to within two miles of the
-sea. This plateau commands the Narrows of
-the Hellespont. Five miles further to the
-southwest and less than six miles from Cape
-Helles is the bare and lonely lump of Achi
-Baba, 590 feet high. This hill commands the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">{9}</a></span>
-landing place at Cape Helles. These hills and
-the ground commanded by them were the
-scenes of some of the noblest heroism which
-ever went far to atone for the infamy of war.
-Here the efforts of our men were made.</p>
-
-<p class="gap-above">Those who wish to imagine the scenes must
-think of twenty miles of any rough and steep sea
-coast known to them, picturing it as roadless,
-waterless, much broken with gullies, covered
-with scrub, sandy, loose and difficult to walk
-on, and without more than two miles of accessible
-landing throughout its length. Let
-them picture this familiar twenty miles as dominated
-at intervals by three hills bigger than the
-hills about them, the north hill a peak, the centre
-a ridge or plateau, and the south hill a
-lump. Then let them imagine the hills entrenched,
-the landing mined, the beaches tangled
-with barbed wire, ranged by howitzers and
-swept by machine guns, and themselves three
-thousand miles from home, going out before
-dawn, with rifles, packs, and water bottles, to
-pass the mines under shell fire, cut through
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">{10}</a></span>
-the wire under machine gun fire, clamber up
-the hills under the fire of all arms, by the glare
-of shell-bursts in the withering and crashing
-tumult of modern war, and then to dig themselves
-in in a waterless and burning hill while
-a more numerous enemy charge them with the
-bayonet. And let them imagine themselves
-enduring this night after night, day after day,
-without rest or solace, nor respite from the
-peril of death, seeing their friends killed, and
-their position imperilled, getting their food,
-their munitions, even their drink, from the jaws
-of death, and their breath from the taint of
-death, and their brief sleep upon the dust of
-death. Let them imagine themselves driven
-mad by heat and toil and thirst by day, shaken
-by frost at midnight, weakened by disease and
-broken by pestilence, yet rising on the word
-with a shout and going forward to die in exultation
-in a cause foredoomed and almost hopeless.
-Only then will they begin, even dimly, to
-understand what our seizing and holding of
-the landings meant.</p>
-
-<p>All down the southeastern coast of this Peninsula
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">{11}</a></span>
-or outlier from Europe is a channel of
-sea, known, anciently, as the Hellespont, but in
-modern times more generally as the Dardanelles,
-from old fortifications of that name near
-the southwestern end of the Strait. This channel,
-two or three miles across at its southwestern
-end, broadens rapidly to four or five, then
-narrows to two, then, for a short reach, to one
-mile or less, after which (with one more contraction)
-it maintains a steady breadth of two
-or three miles till it opens into the great salt
-lake of the Sea of Marmora, and thence by
-another narrow reach into the Black Sea, or
-Euxine.</p>
-
-<p>It is a deep water channel, with from 25 to
-50 fathoms of water in it throughout its length.
-The Gallipoli, or European, shore is steep-to,
-with a couple of fathoms of water close inshore,
-save in one or two beaches, where it shoals.
-On the Asian shore, where the ground is lower
-and the coast more shelving, the water is shallower.
-A swift current of from two to three
-knots an hour runs always down the channel
-from the Sea of Marmora; and this with a
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">{12}</a></span>
-southwesterly gale against it makes a nasty
-sea.</p>
-
-<p>This water of the Hellespont is the most important
-channel of water in the world. It is
-the one entrance and exit to the Black Sea, the
-mouths of the Danube, Dniester, Dnieper and
-Don and the great ports of Constantinople,
-Odessa and Sebastopol. He who controls the
-channel controls those ports, with their wealth
-and their power to affect great conflicts. The
-most famous war of all times was fought not for
-any human Helen but to control that channel.
-Our Dardanelles campaign was undertaken to
-win through it a free passage for the ships of
-the Allied Powers.</p>
-
-<p>While the war was still young it became necessary
-to attempt this passage for five reasons:
-1. To break the link by which Turkey keeps
-her hold as a European Power. 2. To divert
-a large part of the Turkish army from operations
-against our Russian Allies in the Caucasus
-and elsewhere. 3. To pass into Russia,
-at a time when her northern ports were closed
-by ice, the rifles and munitions of war of which
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">{13}</a></span>
-her armies were in need. 4. To bring out of
-Southern Russia the great stores of wheat lying
-there waiting shipment. 5. If possible, to prevent,
-by a successful deed of arms in the Near
-East, any new alliance against us among the
-Balkan peoples.</p>
-
-<p>In its simplest form the problem was to
-force a passage through the defended channel
-of the Dardanelles into the Sea of Marmora,
-to attack the capital of Turkey in Europe,
-to win through the Bosphorus into the
-Black Sea, securing each step in the advance
-against reconquest by the Turks, so that ships
-might pass from the Ęgean to the Russian
-ports in the Black Sea, bringing to the Russians
-arms for their unequipped troops and taking
-from them the corn of the harvests of Southern
-Russia. The main problem was to force
-a passage through the defended channel of the
-Hellespont.</p>
-
-<p>This passage had been forced in the past by
-a British naval squadron. In February, 1807,
-Sir John Duckworth sailed through with seven
-ships of the line and some smaller vessels, silenced
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">{14}</a></span>
-the forts at Sestos and Abydos and destroyed
-some Turkish ships; and then, fearing
-that the Turks, helped by French engineers,
-would so improve the fortifications that he
-would never be able to get back, he returned.
-On his return, one of his ships, the <i>Endymion</i>
-frigate, 40 guns, received in her hull two stone
-shot each 26 inches in diameter.</p>
-
-<p>The permanent fortifications guarding the
-Channel were added to and improved during
-the nineteenth century. At the outbreak of
-the war with Italy, four years ago, they were
-equipped (perhaps by German officers) with
-modern weapons. An attempt made by Italian
-torpedo boats to rush the Straits by night
-was discovered by searchlights and checked by
-a heavy fire from quick-firing and other guns.
-All the torpedo boats engaged in the operations
-were hit and compelled to return.</p>
-
-<p>When Turkey entered the war against the
-Allied Powers, her officers had every reason
-to expect that the British or French fleets
-would attempt to force the Channel. The military
-prize, Constantinople and the control of the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">{15}</a></span>
-Black Sea (whether for peace or for offence),
-was too great a temptation to be resisted.
-Helped by their German allies they prepared
-for this attack with skill, knowledge and imagination.
-The Turks had no effective battle
-fleet, as in the sixteenth century, when they
-sought their enemies upon their own coasts;
-and had they had one they could not have
-passed the British fleet blockading the Dardanelles;
-but they prepared the channel and its
-shores so that no enemy ship might pass to seek
-them.</p>
-
-<p>More than the two great wars, in South Africa
-and Manchuria, the present war has shown:</p>
-
-<div class="subpara">
-
-<p>(a) that in modern war, defence is easier and less costly in men and
- munitions, however much less decisive, than attack;</p>
-
-<p>(b) that the ancient type of permanent fortress, built of steel,
- concrete and heavy masonry is much less easy to defend against the fire
- of heavy modern howitzers and high explosives than temporary field
- works, dug into
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">{16}</a></span>
- the earth and protected by earth and sandbags;</p>
-
-<p>(c) that the fire of modern long range guns is wasteful and ineffective
- unless the object fired at can be accurately ranged, and the fire
- controlled by officers who can watch the bursting of the shells on or
- near the target;</p>
-
-<p>(d) that in restricted waters the fixed or floating mine, filled with
- high explosive, is a sure defence against enemy ships.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Beginning with proposition (a), the Turks
-argued that (unlike most defences) a defence
-of the passage of the Dardanelles against naval
-attack might well be decisive (i.e., that it
-might well cause the attack to be abandoned or
-even destroy the attacking ships) since ships
-engaged in the attack would be under every disadvantage,
-since:</p>
-
-<p>(b) Their guns, however heavy, would not
-be overwhelmingly successful against temporary
-field works and gun emplacements.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">{17}</a></span>
-(c) Their officers, unable in the first place
-to locate the guns hidden on the shore, would be
-unable to observe the effect of their fire, and
-therefore unable to direct it, and this disadvantage
-would become greater as the ships advanced
-within the channel and became shut in
-by the banks.</p>
-
-<p>(d) They would be unable to enter the
-channel until the waters had been dragged for
-mines by mine sweepers. The batteries of
-field guns hidden on the coast would perhaps
-be sufficient to stop the progress of the mine
-sweepers. If not, floating mines, alongshore
-torpedo tubes, and the accurately ranged
-and directed fire of heavy howitzers would
-perhaps sink the ships of war as they advanced.</p>
-
-<p>(e) A ship, if damaged, would be five hundred
-miles from any friendly dock and seven
-hundred miles from any friendly arsenal. Replenishments
-of ammunition, fuel, food and
-water would have to be brought to the attacking
-fleet across these distances of sea, past
-many islands and through one or two channels
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">{18}</a></span>
-well suited to be the lurking grounds for enemy
-submarines.</p>
-
-<p>On the other hand, there was the possibility
-that the heavy naval guns would make the field
-works untenable, that observers in aeroplanes
-and seaplanes would locate, range and observe
-the fire upon the hidden batteries, that thus the
-mine sweepers would be able to clear a passage
-up the Straits without undue interruption, and
-complete the task demanded of them without
-military assistance.</p>
-
-<p>Before operations could be begun by the Allied
-fleets it was necessary to secure some harbour,
-as close as possible to the Straits, to serve
-as what is called an advanced or subsidiary base,
-where large stores of necessaries, such as fuel
-and munitions, could be accumulated for future
-use by the ships engaged.</p>
-
-<p>The port of Mudros, in Lemnos, was selected
-as this subsidiary base. This great natural
-harbour, measuring some two by three
-miles across, provides good holding ground in
-from five to seven fathoms of water for half
-the ships in the world. Two islands in the fairway
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">{19}</a></span>
-divide the entrance into three passages,
-and make it more easy for the naval officers to
-defend the approaches. It is a safe harbour
-for ocean-going ships in all weathers, but with
-northerly or southerly gales, such as spring up
-very rapidly there in the changeable seasons of
-the year and blow with great violence for some
-hours at a time, the port is much wind-swept
-and the sea makes it dangerous for boats to
-lie alongside ships. Mudros itself, the town
-from which the port is named, is a small collection
-of wretched houses inhabited by Levantines,
-who live by fishery, petty commerce, and
-a few olive gardens and vineyards. It has a
-cathedral or largish church, and a small wooden
-pier, without appliances, for the use of the native
-boatmen. The town lies to the east of
-the harbour, on some rising ground or sand
-which stands up a little higher than the surrounding
-country. Behind it, rather more than
-a mile away, are barren hills of some 800 or
-900 feet. The port is ringed in with these
-hills; it looks like a great extinct crater flooded
-by the sea. Over the hills in fair weather the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">{20}</a></span>
-peaks of Samothrace can be seen. When the
-spring flowers have withered the island is of
-the colour of a lion's skin. Its only beauty
-then is that of changing light.</p>
-
-<p>Mudros in itself offered nothing to the Allied
-fleets but a safe anchorage. It could not even
-supply the ships with fresh water, let alone
-meat, bread and vegetables. The island produces
-little for its few inhabitants; its wealth of
-a few goats, fish, olives and currants could be
-bought up in a week by the crew of one battleship.
-Everything necessary for the operations
-had therefore to be brought by sea and stored
-in Mudros till wanted. When this is grasped,
-the difficulties of the undertaking will be understood.
-There was no dock, wharf nor
-crane in Mudros, nor any place in the harbour
-where a dock or wharf could be built without
-an immense labour of dredging. Ships could
-not be repaired nor dry-docked there, nor could
-they discharge and receive heavy stores save
-by their own winches and derricks. Throughout
-the operations, ships had to serve as
-wharves, and ships' derricks as cranes, and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">{21}</a></span>
-goods were shipped, re-shipped and trans-shipped
-by that incessant manual labour which is
-the larger half of war.</p>
-
-<p>On the 18th February and following days,
-the Allied Fleets attacked the forts at the entrance
-to the Straits and soon silenced them.
-These were old-fashioned stone structures of
-great strength, they were knocked about and
-made untenable by the fire from the ships, but
-not destroyed. After this first easy success
-came delay, for the real obstacles lay within the
-Straits, between Cape Helles and the Narrows.
-Here, at intervals, very skilfully laid, commanded
-by many guns, ranged to the inch, were
-eight big mine fields, stretching almost across
-the navigable channel in different directions.
-No ships could pass this part of the Straits until
-the mines had been groped for and removed.
-In thick and violent weather, under heavy fire,
-and troubled by the strong current, the mine-sweepers
-began to remove them, helped by the
-guns of the fleet. But the fleet's fire could not
-destroy the mobile field guns and howitzers
-hidden in the gullies and nullahs (invisible from
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">{22}</a></span>
-the ships) on the Asian shore and to the east of
-Achi Baba. The Boers, and later, the Japanese,
-had shown how difficult it is to locate well-concealed
-guns. Even when sea- and aero-planes
-had seen and signalled the whereabouts
-of the hidden guns, the ships could only fire
-at the flashes and at most hit some of the gunners;
-if their fire became too accurate the gunners
-would retire to their shelters, or withdraw
-their guns to new hidden emplacements. These
-hidden guns, firing continually upon the mine-sweepers,
-made the clearing of the mine fields
-towards the Narrows a slow and bloody task.</p>
-
-<p>On the 18th March, the ships developed a
-fierce fire upon the shore defences, and in the
-midst of the engagement the Turks floated
-some large mines upon the attacking ships and
-by these means sank three battleships, one
-French, two English, the French ship with all
-her crew.</p>
-
-<p>Heavy and unsettled weather which made
-mine-sweeping impossible broke off serious operations
-for some days. During these days it
-was decided, though with grave misgivings
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">{23}</a></span>
-among the counsellors, that an army should be
-landed on the Peninsula to second the next
-naval attack.</p>
-
-<p>It was now a month since the operations had
-begun, and the original decision, to leave the
-issue solely to the ships, had delayed the concentration
-of the troops needed for the task.
-The army, under the supreme command of
-General Sir Ian Hamilton, was assembling, but
-not yet concentrated nor on the scene. Some
-of it was in Egypt, some in transports at sea.
-When it was decided to use the army in the
-venture, much necessary work had still to be
-done. The Turks had now been given so much
-time to defend the landing places that to get
-our troops ashore at all called for the most
-elaborate preparation and the working out of
-careful schemes with the naval officers. The
-Germans boasted that our troops would never
-be able to land; possibly at first thought, many
-soldiers would have agreed with them, but English
-soldiers and sailors are not Germans; they
-are, as Carlyle says, "far other"; our Admirals
-and General felt that with courage and a
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">{24}</a></span>
-brave face our troops could land. It was true
-that the well-armed Turks were amply ready
-and could easily concentrate against any army
-which we could land and supply, a far larger
-force, more easily supplied and supported.
-But in the narrow Peninsula they could not
-move their larger forces so as to out-flank us.
-Our flanks could be protected always by the
-fleet. And besides, in war, fortune plays a
-large part, and skill, courage and resolution,
-and that fine blending of all three in the uncommon
-sense called genius, have often triumphed
-even where common sense has failed. It was
-necessary that we should divert large armies
-of Turks from our Russian Allies in the Caucasus;
-it was desirable to strike the imaginations
-of the Balkan States by some daring feat of
-arms close to them; it was vital to our enterprise
-in Mesopotamia and to the safety of
-Egypt that we should alarm the Turks for their
-capital and make them withdraw their armies
-from their frontiers. This operation, striking
-at the heart of the Turkish Empire, was the
-readiest way to do all these things.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">{25}</a></span>
-The army designated for this honourable
-and dangerous task consisted of the following:</p>
-
-<p>A division of French soldiers, the Corps Expeditionnaire
-de l'Orient, under M. le General
-d'Amade. This division was made up of
-French Territorial soldiers and Senegalese.</p>
-
-<p>The 29th Division of British regular
-troops.</p>
-
-<p>The Royal Naval Division.</p>
-
-<p>The Australian and New Zealand Army
-Corps.</p>
-
-<p>The French Division and the 29th Division
-of British Regular soldiers were men who had
-been fully trained in time of peace, but the
-Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and
-the Royal Naval Division, who together made
-up more than half the army, were almost all
-men who had enlisted since the declaration of
-war, and had had not more than six months' active
-training. They were, however, the finest
-body of young men ever brought together in
-modern times. For physical beauty and nobility
-of bearing they surpassed any men I have
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">{26}</a></span>
-ever seen; they walked and looked like the
-kings in old poems, and reminded me of the line
-in Shakespeare:</p>
-
-<p class="center small">"Baited like eagles having lately bathed."</p>
-
-<p class="nodent">As their officers put it, "they were in the pink
-of condition and didn't care a damn for anybody."
-Most of these new and irregular formations
-were going into action for the first
-time, to receive their baptism of fire in "a feat
-of arms only possible to the flower of a very
-fine army."</p>
-
-<p class="gap-above">Having decided to use the army, the question
-how to use it was left to the Commanding
-General, whose task was to help the British
-fleet through the Narrows. Those who have
-criticised the operations to me, even those who
-know, or pretended to know the country and
-military matters (but who were, for the most
-part, the gulls or agents of German propaganda)
-raised, nearly always, one or both of the
-following alternatives to the attack used by Sir
-Ian Hamilton. They have asked:</p>
-
-<div class="subpara">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">{27}</a></span>
-(1) Why did he not attack at or to the north of Bulair in the Gulf of
-Xeros, or</p>
-
-<p>(2) Why did he not attack along the Asiatic coast, instead of where he
-did, at Cape Helles and Anzac?</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Those who have asked these questions have
-always insisted to me that had he chosen either
-alternative his efforts must have been successful.
-It may be well to set down here the final and
-sufficient reasons against either folly.</p>
-
-<p>Firstly, then, the reasons against landing the
-army at or to the north of Bulair in the Gulf
-of Xeros.</p>
-
-<p>1. The task demanded of the army was, to
-second the naval attack in the Straits, i.e., by
-seizing and occupying, if possible, the high
-ground in the Peninsula from which the Turkish
-guns molested the mine-sweepers. As this high
-ground commanded the Asiatic shore, its occupation
-by the British troops would have made
-possible the passage of the Straits. This and
-this alone was the task demanded of the army,
-no adventure upon Constantinople was designed
-or possible with the numbers of men
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">{28}</a></span>
-available. How the army could have seconded
-the naval attack by landing three or four
-days' march from the Narrows within easy
-reach of the large Turkish armies in European
-Turkey is not clear.</p>
-
-<p>Nevertheless, our task was to land the army
-and all landing places had to be examined.
-Pass now to:</p>
-
-<p>(a) Bulair was carefully reconnoitred and
-found to be a natural stronghold, so fortified
-with earthworks that there was no chance of
-taking it. Ten thousand Turks had been digging
-there for a month, and had made it impregnable.
-There are only two landing places
-near Bulair, one (a very bad one) in a swamp
-or salt-marsh to the east, the other in a kind of
-death-trap ravine to the west, both dominated
-by high ground in front, and one (the eastward)
-commanded also from the rear. Had
-the army, or any large part of it, landed at
-either beach, it would have been decimated in
-the act and then held up by the fortress.</p>
-
-<p>(b) Had the army landed to the north of
-Bulair on the coast of European Turkey it
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">{29}</a></span>
-would have been in grave danger of destruction.
-Large Turkish armies could have
-marched upon its left and front from Adrianople
-and Rodosto, while, as it advanced, the
-large army in Gallipoli, reinforced from Asia
-across the Straits, could have marched from
-Bulair and fallen upon its right flank and rear.</p>
-
-<p>(c) But even had it beaten these armies,
-some four times its own strength, it would none
-the less have perished, through failure of supplies,
-since no European army could hope to
-live upon a Turkish province in the spring, and
-European supplies could have been brought to
-it only with the utmost difficulty and danger.
-There is no port upon that part of the Turkish
-coast; no shelter from the violent southerly
-gales, and no depth of water near the shore.
-In consequence, no transports of any size could
-approach within some miles of the coast to land
-either troops or stores. Even had there been
-depth of water for them, transports could not
-have discharged upon the coast because of the
-danger from submarines. They would have
-been compelled to discharge in the safe harbour
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">{30}</a></span>
-of the subsidiary base at Mudros in Lemnos,
-and (as happened with the fighting where
-it was) their freight, whether men or stores,
-re-shipped into small ships of too light draught
-to be in danger from submarines, and by them
-conveyed to the landing places. But this system,
-which never quite failed at Anzac and
-Cape Helles, would have failed on the Xeros
-coast. Anzac is some forty miles from Mudros,
-the Xeros coast is eighty, or twice the distance.
-Had the army landed at Xeros, it
-would have been upon an unproductive enemy
-territory in an unsettled season of the year,
-from eighty to twenty hours' steam from their
-own safe subsidiary base. A stormy week
-might have cut them off at any time from all
-possibility of obtaining a man, a biscuit, a cartridge
-or even a drink of water, and this upon
-ground where they could with little trouble be
-outnumbered by armies four times their
-strength with sound communications.</p>
-
-<p>Secondly, for the reasons against attacking
-along the Asiatic coast:</p>
-
-<p>(a) The coast is commanded from the Gallipoli
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">{31}</a></span>
-coast and therefore less important to
-those trying to second a naval attack upon the
-Narrows.</p>
-
-<p>(b) An army advancing from Kum Kale
-along the Asiatic shore would be forced to
-draw its supplies from overseas. As it advanced,
-its communications could be cut with
-great ease at any point by the hordes of armed
-Turks in Asia Minor.</p>
-
-<p>(c) The Turkish armies in Asia Minor
-would have attacked it in the right and rear,
-those from Bulair and Rodosto would have
-ferried over and attacked it in front, the guns
-in Gallipoli would have shelled its left, and the
-task made impracticable.</p>
-
-<p class="gap-above">Some of those who raised these alternatives
-raised a third; when the first two had been disposed
-of, they asked, "Even if the army
-could not have landed at Bulair or on the Asian
-coast, why did it land where it did land, on
-those suicidal beaches?" The answer to this
-criticism is as follows: It landed on those
-beaches because there were no others on the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">{32}</a></span>
-Peninsula, because the only landing places at
-which troops could be got ashore with any prospect
-of success however slight were just those
-three or four small beaches near Cape Helles, at
-the southwest end of the Peninsula, and the
-one rather longer beach to the north of Gaba
-or Kaba Tepe. All these beaches were seen to
-be strongly defended, with barbed wire entanglements
-on the shore and under the water,
-with sea and land mines, with strongly entrenched
-riflemen, many machine guns, and an
-ample artillery. In addition, the beaches close
-to Cape Helles were within range of big guns
-mounted near Troy on the Asian shore, and the
-beach near Gaba Tepe was ranged by the guns
-in the olive groves to the south and on the
-hills to the north of it. A strong Turkish army
-held the Peninsula, and very powerful reserves
-were at Bulair, all well supplied (chiefly by
-boat from the Asian shore) with food and
-munitions. German officers had organised the
-defence of the Peninsula with great professional
-skill. They had made it a fortress of great
-strength, differing from all other fortresses in
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">{33}</a></span>
-this, that besides being almost impregnable it
-was almost unapproachable. But our army had
-its task to do, there was no other means of doing
-it, and our men had to do what they could.
-Any one trying to land, to besiege that fortress,
-had to do so by boat or lighter under every gun
-in the Turkish army. The Turks and the Germans
-knew, better than we, what few and narrow
-landing places were possible to our men,
-they had more than two months of time in which
-to make those landing places fatal to any enemy
-within a mile of them, yet our men came from
-three thousand miles away, passed that mile of
-massacre, landed and held on with all their
-guns, stores, animals and appliances, in spite of
-the Turk and his ally, who outnumbered them
-at every point.</p>
-
-<p>No army in history has made a more heroic
-attack; no army in history has been set such
-a task. No other body of men in any modern
-war has been called upon to land over mined
-and wired waters under the cross fire of machine
-guns. The Japanese at Chinampo and
-Chemulpho were not opposed, the Russians at
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">{34}</a></span>
-Pitezwo were not prepared, the Spaniards at
-Daiquiri made no fight. Our men achieved a
-feat without parallel in war and no other
-troops in the world (not even Japanese or
-Gurkhas or Ghazis in the hope of heaven)
-would have made good those beaches on the
-25th of April.</p>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">{35}</a></div>
-
-<h2>II</h2>
-
-<p>Then said Roland: "Oliver, companion, brother ... we
-shall have a strong and tough battle, such as
-man never saw fought. But I shall strike with my
-sword, and you, comrade, will strike with yours; we
-have borne our swords in so many lands, we have ended
-so many battles with them, that no evil song shall be
-sung of them." ... At these words the Franks went
-forward gladly.</p>
-
-<div class="foot">
-<div class="right1"><i>The Song of Roland.</i></div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">{37}</a></span>
-<span class="smcap">Let</span> the reader now try to imagine the nature
-of the landing. In order to puzzle the
-Turkish commander, to make him hesitate and
-divide his forces, it was necessary to land or
-pretend to land, in some force, simultaneously
-at various places. A feint of landing was to
-be made near Bulair, the French Corps Expeditionnaire
-was to land at Kum Kale, to attack
-and silence the Asiatic fortifications and batteries,
-the Australian and New Zealand Army
-Corps was to land at or near Gaba Tepe, while
-men of the 29th and Royal Naval Divisions
-landed at or near Cape Helles, some towards
-Krithia on the north, others nearer Sedd-el-Bahr
-on the southwest and south. The main
-attacks were to be those near Gaba Tepe and
-Cape Helles.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 221px;">
- <a name="Img_map2-thumb" id="Img_map2-thumb" href="images/map2-large.jpg">
- <img src="images/map2-thumb.jpg" width="221" height="350" alt="map2-thumbjpg"/>
- </a>
- <div class="caption">
- <p class="right"><i>Stanford's Geog<sup>l</sup> Estb<sup>t</sup> London.</i></p>
- <p class="center">Map No. 2</p>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>At Cape Helles three principal landings were
-to be made at the following places:</p>
-
-<p>1. At Beach V, a small semi-circular sandy
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">{38}</a></span>
-bay, 300 yards across, just west of the ruins
-of Sedd-el-Bahr castle. The ground rises
-steeply round the half circle of the bay exactly
-as the seats rise in an amphitheatre. Modern
-defence could not ask for a more perfect site.</p>
-
-<p>2. At Beach W (to the west of V), where
-a small sandy bay under Cape Tekke offered
-a landing upon a strip of sand about the size
-of Beach V. The slope upward from this
-beach is more gentle than at V, through a succession
-of sand dunes, above which the ground
-was strongly entrenched. The cliffs north and
-south are precipitous, and make the beach a
-kind of gully or ravine. The Turks had placed
-machine guns in holes in the cliff, had wired and
-mined both beach and bay, and thrown up
-strong redoubts to flank them. Beach W was
-a death trap.</p>
-
-<p>3. At Beach X (north of W, on the other
-or northern side of Cape Tekke), a narrow
-strip of sand, 200 yards long, at the foot of a
-low cliff. This, though too small to serve for
-the quick passage ashore of many men at a
-time, was a slightly easier landing place than
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">{39}</a></span>
-the other two, owing to the lie of the ground.</p>
-
-<p>Besides these main landings, two minor
-landings were to be made as follows:</p>
-
-<p>4. At Beach S, a small beach, within the
-Straits, beyond Sedd-el-Bahr.</p>
-
-<p>5. At Beach Y (on the Ęgean, to the west
-of Krithia), a strip of sand below a precipitous
-cliff, gashed with steep, crumbling, and scrub-covered
-gullies.</p>
-
-<p class="gap-above">These two minor landings were to protect the
-flanks of the main landing parties, "to disseminate
-the forces of the enemy and to interrupt
-the arrival of his reinforcements." They were
-to take place at dawn (at about 5 <small>A.M.</small> or half
-an hour before the main attacks), without any
-preliminary bombardment from the fleet upon
-the landing places.</p>
-
-<p>Near Gaba Tepe only one landing was to
-be made, upon a small beach, 200 yards across,
-a mile to the north of Gaba Tepe promontory.
-The ground beyond this beach is abrupt sandy
-cliff, covered with scrub, flanked by Gaba Tepe,
-and commanded by the land to shoreward.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">{40}</a></span>
-For some days before the landing, the Army
-lay at Mudros, in Lemnos, aboard its transports,
-or engaged in tactical exercises ashore
-and in the harbour. Much bitter and ignorant
-criticism has been passed upon this delay, which
-was, unfortunately, very necessary. The
-month of April, 1915, in the Ęgean, was a
-month of unusually unsettled weather; it was
-quite impossible to attempt the landing without
-calm water and the likelihood of fine
-weather for some days. In rough weather it
-would have been impossible to land laden soldiers
-with their stores through the surf of open
-beaches, under heavy fire, and those who maintain,
-that "other soldiers" (i.e. themselves)
-would have made the attempt, can have no
-knowledge of what wading ashore from a boat,
-in bad weather, in the Ęgean or any other sea,
-even without a pack and with no enemy ahead, is
-like. But in unsettled weather the Gallipoli
-coast is not only difficult but exceedingly dangerous
-for small vessels. The currents are fierce,
-and a short and ugly sea gets up quickly and
-makes towing hazardous. Had the attempt
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">{41}</a></span>
-been made in foul weather a great many men
-would have been drowned, some few would have
-reached the shore, and then the ships would
-have been forced off the coast. The few men
-left on the shore would have had to fight there
-with neither supplies nor supports till the enemy
-overwhelmed them.</p>
-
-<p>Another reason for delay was the need for
-the most minute preparation. Many armies
-have been landed from boats from the time of
-Pharaoh's invasion of Punt until the present,
-but no men, not even Cęsar's army of invasion
-in Britain, have had to land in an enemy's country
-with such a prospect of difficulty before
-them. They were going to land on a foodless
-cliff, five hundred miles from a store, in
-a place and at a season in which the sea's rising
-might cut them from supply. They had to
-take with them all things, munitions, guns, entrenching
-tools, sandbags, provisions, clothing,
-medical stores, hospital equipment, mules,
-horses, fodder, even water to drink, for the
-land produced not even that. These military
-supplies had to be arranged in boats and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">{42}</a></span>
-lighters in such a way that they might be thrust
-ashore with many thousands of men in all haste
-but without confusion. All this world of
-preparation, which made each unit landed a
-self-supporting army, took time and labour,
-how much can only be judged by those who
-have done similar work.</p>
-
-<p>On Friday, the 23rd of April, the weather
-cleared so that the work could be begun. In
-fine weather in Mudros a haze of beauty comes
-upon the hills and water till their loveliness
-is unearthly it is so rare. Then the bay is
-like a blue jewel, and the hills lose their savagery,
-and glow, and are gentle, and the sun
-comes up from Troy, and the peaks of Samothrace
-change colour, and all the marvellous
-ships in the harbour are transfigured. The
-land of Lemnos was beautiful with flowers at
-that season, in the brief Ęgean spring, and
-to seawards always, in the bay, were the ships,
-more ships, perhaps, than any port of modern
-times has known; they seemed like half the
-ships of the world. In this crowd of shipping,
-strange beautiful Greek vessels passed,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">{43}</a></span>
-under rigs of old time, with sheep and goats
-and fish, for sale, and the tugs of the Thames
-and Mersey met again the ships they had towed
-of old, bearing a new freight, of human courage.
-The transports (all painted black) lay
-in tiers, well within the harbour, the men of
-war nearer Mudros and the entrance. Now in
-all that city of ships, so busy with passing picket-boats,
-and noisy with the labour of men, the
-getting of the anchors began. Ship after ship,
-crammed with soldiers, moved slowly out of
-harbour, in the lovely day, and felt again the
-heave of the sea. No such gathering of fine
-ships has ever been seen upon this earth, and
-the beauty and the exaltation of the youth
-upon them made them like sacred things as
-they moved away. All the thousands of men
-aboard them, gathered on deck to see, till each
-rail was thronged. These men had come from
-all parts of the British world, from Africa,
-Australia, Canada, India, the Mother Country,
-New Zealand and remote islands in the
-sea. They had said good-bye to home that
-they might offer their lives in the cause we
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">{44}</a></span>
-stand for. In a few hours at most, as they
-well knew, perhaps a tenth of them would have
-looked their last on the sun, and be a part of
-foreign earth or dumb things that the tides
-push. Many of them would have disappeared
-forever from the knowledge of man, blotted
-from the book of life none would know how,
-by a fall or chance shot in the darkness, in
-the blast of a shell, or alone, like a hurt beast,
-in some scrub or gully, far from comrades and
-the English speech and the English singing.
-And perhaps a third of them would be mangled,
-blinded or broken, lamed, made imbecile or disfigured,
-with the colour and the taste of life
-taken from them, so that they would never
-more move with comrades nor exult in the sun.
-And those not taken thus would be under the
-ground, sweating in the trench, carrying sandbags
-up the sap, dodging death and danger,
-without rest or food or drink, in the blazing
-sun or the frost of the Gallipoli night, till
-death seemed relaxation and a wound a luxury.
-But as they moved out these things were
-but the end they asked, the reward they had
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">{45}</a></span>
-come for, the unseen cross upon the breast.
-All that they felt was a gladness of exultation
-that their young courage was to be used. They
-went like kings in a pageant to the imminent
-death.</p>
-
-<p>As they passed from moorings to the man-of-war
-anchorage on their way to the sea,
-their feeling that they had done with life and
-were going out to something new, welled up
-in those battalions; they cheered and cheered
-till the harbour rang with cheering. As each
-ship crammed with soldiers drew near the battleships,
-the men swung their caps and cheered
-again, and the sailors answered, and the noise
-of cheering swelled, and the men in the ships
-not yet moving joined in, and the men ashore,
-till all the life in the harbour was giving
-thanks that it could go to death rejoicing. All
-was beautiful in that gladness of men about to
-die, but the most moving thing was the greatness
-of their generous hearts. As they passed
-the French ships, the memory of old quarrels
-healed, and the sense of what sacred France
-has done and endured, in this great war, and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">{46}</a></span>
-the pride of having such men as the French for
-comrades, rose up in their warm souls, and
-they cheered the French ships more, even, than
-their own.</p>
-
-<p>They left the harbour very, very slowly; this
-tumult of cheering lasted a long time; no one
-who heard it will ever forget it, or think of it
-unshaken. It broke the hearts of all there
-with pity and pride: it went beyond the guard
-of the English heart. Presently all were out,
-and the fleet stood across for Tenedos, and the
-sun went down with marvellous colour, lighting
-island after island and the Asian peaks,
-and those left behind in Mudros trimmed their
-lamps knowing that they had been for a little
-brought near to the heart of things.</p>
-
-<p class="gap-above">The next day, the 24th April, the troops of
-the landing parties went on board the warships
-and mine-sweepers which were to take
-them ashore. At midnight the fleet got under
-way from Tenedos and stood out for the Peninsula.
-Dawn was to be at five, the landings
-on the flanks were to take place then, the others
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">{47}</a></span>
-at half-past five, after the fleet had bombarded
-the beaches. Very few of the soldiers of the
-landing parties slept that night; the excitement
-of the morrow kept them awake, as happened
-to Nelson's sailors before Trafalgar. It was
-a very still fine night, slightly hazy, with a sea
-so still that the ships had no trouble with their
-long tows of boats and launches. As it began
-to grow light the men went down into the boats,
-and the two flanking parties started for the
-outer beaches S and Y. The guns of the fleet
-now opened a heavy fire upon the Turkish positions
-and the big guns on the Asian shore sent
-over a few shell in answer; but the Turks near
-the landing places reserved their fire. During
-the intense bombardment by the fleet, when the
-ships were trembling like animals with the
-blasts of the explosions, the picket-boats towing
-the lighters went ahead and the tow-loads
-of crowded men started for the main landings
-on beaches V, W and X.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
- <a name="Img_046" id="Img_046">
- <img src="images/046.jpg" width="500" height="315" alt="046jpg"/>
- </a>
- <div class="caption">
- <p class="center">A view showing Morto Bay, De Lott's Battery and the Asiatic Coast</p>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>It was now light, and the haze on Sedd-el-Bahr
-was clearing away so that those in charge
-of the boats could see what they were doing.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">{48}</a></span>
-Had they attempted an attack in the dark on
-those unsurveyed beaches among the fierce and
-dangerous tide rips the loss of life would have
-been very great. As it was, the exceeding
-fierceness of the currents added much to the
-difficulty and danger of the task. We will take
-the landings in succession.</p>
-
-<h3><i>The Landing at V Beach, near Sedd-el-Bahr.</i></h3>
-
-<p>The men told off for this landing were:
-The Dublin Fusiliers, the Munster Fusiliers,
-half a battalion of the Hampshire Regiment,
-and the West Riding Field Company.</p>
-
-<p>Three companies of the Dublin Fusiliers
-were to land from towed lighters, the rest of
-the party from a tramp steamer, the collier
-<i>River Clyde</i>. This ship, a conspicuous sea mark
-at Cape Helles throughout the rest of the
-campaign, had been altered to carry and land
-troops. Great gangways or entry ports had
-been cut in her sides on the level of her between
-decks, and platforms had been built out
-upon her sides below these, so that men might
-run from her in a hurry. The plan was to
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">{49}</a></span>
-beach her as near the shore as possible, and
-then drag or sweep the lighters, which she
-towed, into position between her and the shore,
-so as to make a kind of boat bridge from her to
-the beach. When the lighters were so moored
-as to make this bridge, the entry ports were
-to be opened, the waiting troops were to rush
-out on to the external platforms, run from
-them on to the lighters and so to the shore.
-The ship's upper deck and bridge were protected
-with boiler plate and sandbags, and a
-casement for machine guns was built upon her
-fo'c'sle, so that she might reply to the enemy's
-fire.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
- <a name="Img_048" id="Img_048">
- <img src="images/048.jpg" width="500" height="315" alt="048jpg"/>
- </a>
- <div class="caption">
- <p class="center">A remarkable view of V Beach, taken from S.S. <i>River Clyde</i></p>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Five picket-boats, each towing five boats or
-launches full of men, steamed alongside the
-<i>River Clyde</i> and went ahead when she
-grounded. She took the ground rather to the
-right of the little beach, some 400 yards from
-the ruins of Sedd-el-Bahr castle, before the
-Turks had opened fire, but almost as she
-grounded, when the picket-boats with their
-tows were ahead of her, only twenty or thirty
-yards from the beach, every rifle and machine
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">{50}</a></span>
-gun in the castle, the town above it, and in
-the curved low strongly trenched hill along the
-bay, began a murderous fire upon ship and
-boats. There was no question of their missing.
-They had their target on the front and
-both flanks at ranges between 100 and 300
-yards in clear daylight, thirty boats bunched
-together and crammed with men and a good
-big ship. The first outbreak of fire made the
-bay as white as a rapid, for the Turks fired not
-less than ten thousand shots a minute for the
-first few minutes of that attack. Those not
-killed in the boats at the first discharge jumped
-overboard to wade or swim ashore, many were
-killed in the water, many, who were wounded,
-were swept away and drowned, others, trying
-to swim in the fierce current, were drowned by
-the weight of their equipment; but some
-reached the shore, and these instantly doubled
-out to cut the wire entanglements, and were
-killed, or dashed for the cover of a bank of
-sand or raised beach which runs along the
-curve of the bay. Those very few who reached
-this cover were out of immediate danger, but
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">{51}</a></span>
-they were only a handful. The boats were destroyed
-where they grounded.</p>
-
-<p>Meanwhile, the men of the <i>River Clyde</i>
-tried to make their bridge of boats, by sweeping
-the lighters into position and mooring
-them between the ship and the shore. They
-were killed as they worked, but others took
-their places, the bridge was made, and some
-of the Munsters dashed along it from the ship
-and fell in heaps as they ran. As a second
-company followed, the moorings of the lighters
-broke or were shot, the men leaped into
-the water and were drowned or killed, or
-reached the beach and were killed, or fell
-wounded there, and lay under fire getting
-wound after wound till they died; very, very
-few reached the sandbank. More brave men
-jumped aboard the lighters to remake the
-bridge. They were swept away or shot to
-pieces; the average life on those boats was some
-three minutes long, but they remade the bridge,
-and the third company of the Munsters doubled
-down to death along it under a storm of shrapnel
-which scarcely a man survived. The big
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">{52}</a></span>
-guns in Asia were now shelling the <i>River
-Clyde</i>, and the hell of rapid fire never paused.
-More men tried to land, headed by Brigadier
-General Napier, who was instantly killed, with
-nearly all his followers. Then for long hours
-the remainder stayed on board, down below in
-the grounded steamer, while the shots beat on
-her plates with a rattling clang which never
-stopped. Her twelve machine guns fired back,
-killing any Turk who showed, but nothing could
-be done to support the few survivors of the
-landing, who now lay under cover of the sandbank
-on the other side of the beach. It was almost
-certain death to try to leave the ship, but
-all through the day men leaped from her (with
-leave or without it) to bring water or succour to
-the wounded on the boats or beach. A hundred
-brave men gave their lives thus: every
-man there earned the Cross that day: a boy
-earned it by one of the bravest deeds of the war,
-leaping into the sea with a rope in his teeth to
-try to secure a drifting lighter.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
- <a name="Img_052" id="Img_052">
- <img src="images/052.jpg" width="500" height="321" alt="052jpg"/>
- </a>
- <div class="caption">
- <p class="center">The S.S. <i>River Clyde</i>, which, loaded with troops,
- was run ashore on the beach, Sedd-el-Bahr. She is known familiarly as
- "The Wooden Horse," in allusion to the famous and somewhat similar
- expedient of the Greeks at Troy.</p>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The day passed thus, but at nightfall the
-Turks' fire paused, and the men came ashore
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">{53}</a></span>
-from the <i>River Clyde</i>, almost unharmed. They
-joined the survivors on the beach and at once
-attacked the old fort and the village above it.
-These works were strongly held by the enemy.
-All had been ruined by the fire from the fleet,
-but in the rubble and ruin of old masonry
-there were thousands of hidden riflemen backed
-by machine guns. Again and again they beat
-off our attacks, for there was a bright moon
-and they knew the ground, and our men had
-to attack uphill over wire and broken earth
-and heaped stones in all the wreck and confusion
-and strangeness of war at night in a
-new place. Some of the Dublins and Munsters
-went astray in the ruins, and were wounded
-far from their fellows and so lost. The Turks
-became more daring after dark; while the light
-lasted they were checked by the <i>River Clyde's</i>
-machine guns, but at midnight they gathered
-unobserved and charged. They came right
-down onto the beach, and in the darkness and
-moonlight much terrible and confused fighting
-followed. Many were bayoneted, many shot,
-there was wild firing and crying, and then the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">{54}</a></span>
-Turk attack melted away, and their machine
-guns began again. When day dawned, the survivors
-of the landing party were crouched
-under the shelter of the sandbank; they had
-had no rest; most of them had been fighting all
-night, all had landed across the corpses of their
-friends. No retreat was possible, nor was it
-dreamed of, but to stay there was hopeless.
-Lieutenant Colonel Doughty-Wylie gathered
-them together for an attack: the fleet opened a
-terrific fire upon the ruins of the fort and village,
-and the landing party went forward again,
-fighting from bush to bush and from stone to
-stone, till the ruins were in their hands. Shells
-still fell among them, single Turks, lurking under
-cover, sniped them and shot them, but the
-landing had been made good, and V beach was
-secured to us.</p>
-
-<p>This was the worst and the bloodiest of all
-the landings.</p>
-
-<h3><i>The Landing at W Beach, under Cape Tekke.</i></h3>
-
-<p>The men told off for this landing were the
-1st Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers, supported
-(later) by the Worcester Regiment.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">{55}</a></span>
-The men were landed at six in the morning
-from ships' boats run ashore by picket-boats.
-On landing, they rushed the wire entanglements,
-broke through them, with heavy loss, and won
-to the dead ground under the cliffs. The ships
-drew nearer to the beach and opened heavy
-fire upon the Turks, and the landing party
-stormed the cliffs and won the trenches.</p>
-
-<p>The Worcester Regiment having landed, attempts
-were made to break a way to the right,
-so as to join hands with the men on V Beach.
-All the land between the two beaches was
-heavily wired and so broken that it gave much
-cover to the enemy. Many brave Worcesters
-went out to cut the wires and were killed; the
-fire was intense, there was no getting further.
-The trenches already won were secured and
-improved, the few available reserves were hurried
-up, and by dark, when the Turks attacked,
-again and again, in great force, our men were
-able to beat them off, and hold on to what they
-had won.</p>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">{56}</a></div>
-
-<h3><i>The Landing at X Beach (Sometimes called Implacable
-Landing), towards Krithia.</i></h3>
-
-<p>The men told off for this landing were the
-1st Royal Fusiliers, with a working party of
-the Anson Battalion, R.N.D.</p>
-
-<p>These men were towed ashore from H.M.S.
-<i>Implacable</i> about an hour after dawn. The
-ship stood close in to the beach and opened
-rapid fire on the enemy trenches: under cover
-of this fire the men got ashore fairly easily.
-On moving inland they were attacked by a great
-force of Turks and checked; but they made
-good the ground won, and opened up communications
-with the Lancashires who had landed
-at W Beach. This landing was the least
-bloody of all.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
- <a name="Img_056" id="Img_056">
- <img src="images/056.jpg" width="500" height="315" alt="056jpg"/>
- </a>
- <div class="caption">
- <p class="center">Some of the barbed wire entanglements near Sedd-el-Bahr</p>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Of the two flank landings, that on the right,
-within the Straits, to the right of Sedd-el-Bahr,
-got ashore without great loss and held on;
-that on the left, to the left of X Beach, got
-ashore, fought a desperate and bloody battle
-against five times its strength, and finally had to
-re-embark. The men got ashore upon a cliff
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">{57}</a></span>
-so steep that the Turks had not troubled to
-defend it, but on landing they were unable to
-link up with the men on X Beach as had been
-planned. They were attacked in great force
-by an ever-growing Turkish army, fought all
-day and all through the night in such trenches
-as they had been able to dig under fire, and at
-last in the morning of the next day went down
-the cliffs and re-embarked, most nobly covered
-to the end by a party from the King's Own Scottish
-Borderers and the Plymouth Battalion.</p>
-
-<p>During the forenoon of the 25th, a regiment
-of the French Corps landed at Kum Kale, under
-cover of the guns of the French warships,
-and engaged the enemy throughout the day
-and night. Their progress was held up by a
-strongly entrenched force during the afternoon,
-and after sharp fighting all through the night
-they re-embarked in the forenoon of the 26th
-with some 400 Turkish prisoners. This landing
-of the French diverted from us on the 25th
-the fire of the howitzers emplaced on the Asiatic
-shore. Had these been free to fire upon
-us, the landings near Sedd-el-Bahr would have
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">{58}</a></span>
-been made even more hazardous than they
-were.</p>
-
-<p>At Bulair one man, Lieutenant Freyberg,
-swam ashore from a Destroyer, towing a little
-raft of flares. Near the shore he lit two of
-these flares, then, wading onto the land, he lit
-others at intervals along the coast, then he wandered
-inland, naked, on a personal reconnaissance,
-and soon found a large Turkish army
-strongly entrenched. Modesty forbade further
-intrusion. He went back to the beach and
-swam off to his Destroyer, could not find her in
-the dark, and swam for several miles, was exhausted
-and cramped, and was at last picked
-up, nearly dead. This magnificent act of courage
-and endurance, done by one unarmed man,
-kept a large Turkish army at Bulair during the
-critical hours of the landing. "The Constantinople
-papers were filled with accounts of the
-repulse of the great attack at Bulair." The
-flares deceived the Turks even more completely
-than had been hoped.</p>
-
-<p>While these operations were securing our
-hold upon the extreme end of the Peninsula,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">{59}</a></span>
-the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps
-were making good their landing on the Ęgean
-coast, to the north of Gaba Tepe. They sailed
-from Mudros on the 24th, arrived off the coast
-of the Peninsula at about half-past one on the
-morning of the 25th, and there under a setting
-moon, in calm weather, they went on board the
-boats which were to take them ashore. At
-about half-past three the tows left the ships
-and proceeded in darkness to the coast.</p>
-
-<p>Gaba or Kaba Tepe is a steep cliff or promontory
-about 70 feet high with a whitish nose
-and something the look of a blunt-nosed torpedo
-or porpoise. It is a forbidding-looking
-snout of land, covered with scrub where it is
-not too steep for roots to hold, and washed by
-deep water. About a mile to the north of it
-there is a possible landing place, and north of
-that again a long and narrow strip of beach
-between two little headlands. This latter
-beach cannot be seen from Gaba Tepe. The
-ground above these beaches is exceedingly steep
-sandy cliff, broken by two great gulleys or ravines,
-which run inland. All the ground, except
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">{60}</a></span>
-in one patch in the southern ravine, where
-there is a sort of meadow of grass, is densely
-covered with scrub, mostly between two and
-three feet high. Inland from the beach, the
-land of the Peninsula rises in steep, broken hills
-and spurs, with clumps of pine upon them, and
-dense undergrowths of scrub. The men selected
-for this landing were the 3rd Brigade
-of the Australian and New Zealand Army
-Corps, followed and supported by the 1st and
-2nd Brigades.</p>
-
-<p>The place selected for the landing was the
-southern beach and nearer of the two to Gaba
-Tepe. This, like the other landing places near
-Cape Helles, was strongly defended, and most
-difficult of approach. Large forces of Turks
-were entrenched there, well prepared. But in
-the darkness of the early morning after the
-moon had set the tows stood a little further
-to the north than they should have done, perhaps
-because some high ground to their left
-made a convenient steering mark against the
-stars. They headed in towards the northern
-beach between the two little headlands, where
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">{61}</a></span>
-the Turks were not expecting them. However,
-they were soon seen and very heavy independent
-rifle fire was concentrated on them.
-As they neared the beach "about one battalion
-of Turks" doubled along the land to intercept
-them. These men came from nearer Gaba
-Tepe, firing as they ran, into the mass of the
-boats at short range. A great many men were
-killed in the boats, but the dead men's oars
-were taken by survivors, and the boats forced
-into the shingle. The men jumped out, waded
-ashore, charged the enemy with the bayonet,
-and broke the Turk attack to pieces. The
-Turks scattered and were pursued, and now
-the steep scrub-covered cliffs became the scene
-of the most desperate fighting.</p>
-
-<p>The scattered Turks dropped into the scrub
-and disappeared. Hidden all over the rough
-cliffs, under every kind of cover, they sniped
-the beach or ambushed the little parties of
-the 3rd Brigade who had rushed the landing.
-All over the broken hills there were isolated
-fights to the death, men falling into gullies and
-being bayoneted, sudden duels, point blank,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">{62}</a></span>
-where men crawling through the scrub met
-each other and life went to the quicker finger,
-heroic deaths, where some half section which
-had lost touch were caught by ten times their
-strength and charged and died. No man of
-our side knew that cracked and fissured jungle.
-Men broke through it on to machine guns, or
-showed up on a crest and were blown to pieces,
-or leaped down from it into some sap or trench,
-to catch the bombs flung at them and hurl them
-at the thrower. Going as they did, up cliffs,
-through scrub, over ground which would have
-broken the alignment of the Tenth Legion,
-they passed many hidden Turks, who were thus
-left to shoot them in the back or to fire down
-at the boats, from perhaps only fifty yards
-away. It was only just light, theirs was the
-first British survey of that wild country; only
-now, as it showed up clear, could they realise
-its difficulty. They pressed on up the hill.
-They dropped and fired and died; they drove
-the Turks back, they flung their packs away,
-wormed through the bush and stalked the snipers
-from the flash. As they went, the words
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">{63}</a></span>
-of their song supported them, the ribald and
-proud chorus of "Australia will be there,"
-which the men on the torpedoed <i>Southland</i>
-sang, as they fell in, expecting death. Presently,
-as it grew lighter, the Turks' big howitzers
-began shelling the beach, and their field
-guns, well-hidden, opened on the transports
-now busy disembarking the 1st and 2nd Brigades.
-They forced the transports to stand
-further out to sea, and shelled the tows, as
-they came in, with shrapnel and high explosive.
-As the boats drew near the shore every gun on
-Gaba Tepe took them in flank and the snipers
-concentrated on them from the shore. More
-and more Turks were coming up at the double
-to stop the attack up the hill. The fighting in
-the scrub grew fiercer; shells burst continually
-upon the beach, boats were sunk, men were
-killed in the water. The boatmen and beach working-parties
-were the unsung heroes of that
-landing. The boatmen came in with the tows,
-under fire, waited with them under intense and
-concentrated fire of every kind, until they were
-unloaded, and then shoved off, and put slowly
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">{64}</a></span>
-back for more, and then came back again.
-The beach parties were wading to and from
-that shell-smitten beach all day, unloading,
-carrying ashore and sorting the munitions and
-necessaries for many thousands of men. They
-worked in a strip of beach and sea from 500
-yards long by 40 broad, and the fire directed
-on that strip was such that every box brought
-ashore had one or more shells and not less than
-fifty bullets directed at it before it was flung
-upon the sand. More men came in and went
-on up the hill in support; but as yet there were
-no guns ashore, and the Turks' fire became intenser.
-By ten o'clock the Turks had had time
-to bring up enough men from their prepared
-positions to hold up the advance. Scattered
-parties of our men who had gone too far in
-the scrub, were cut off and killed, for there was
-no thought of surrender in those marvellous
-young men; they were the flower of this world's
-manhood, and died as they had lived, owning
-no master on this earth. More and more
-Turks came up with big and field artillery, and
-now our attack had to hold on to what it had
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">{65}</a></span>
-won, against more than twice its numbers. We
-had won a rough bow of ground, in which the
-beach represented the bow string, the beach
-near Gaba Tepe the south end, and the hovel
-known as Fisherman's Hut the north. Against
-this position, held by at most 8,000 of our men,
-who had had no rest and had fought hard since
-dawn, under every kind of fire in a savage
-rough country unknown to them, came an overwhelming
-army of Turks to drive them into the
-sea. For four hours the Turks attacked and
-again attacked, with a terrific fire of artillery
-and waves of men in succession. They came
-fresh, from superior positions, with many guns,
-to break a disorganised line of breathless men
-not yet dug in. The guns of the ships opened
-on them, and the scattered units in the scrub
-rolled them back again and again by rifle and
-machine gun fire, and by charge after counter charge.
-More of the Army Corps landed to
-meet the Turks, the fire upon the beach never
-slackened, and they came ashore across corpses
-and wrecked boats and a path like a road in
-hell with ruin and blasts and burning. They
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">{66}</a></span>
-went up the cliff to their fellows under an ever-growing
-fire, that lit the scrub and burned the
-wounded and the dead. Darkness came, but
-there was no rest nor lull. Wave after wave
-of Turks came out of the night, crying the
-proclamation of their faith; others stole up in
-the dark through the scrub and shot or stabbed
-and crept back, or were seen and stalked and
-killed. Flares went up, to light with their blue
-and ghastly glare the wild glens peopled by
-the enemy. Men worked at the digging-in till
-they dropped asleep upon the soil, and more
-Turks charged and they woke and fired and
-again dug. It was cruelly cold after the sun
-had gone, but there was no chance of warmth
-or proper food; to dig-in and beat back the
-Turk or die was all that men could think of.
-In the darkness, among the blasts of the shells,
-men scrambled up and down the pathless cliffs
-bringing up tins of water and boxes of cartridges,
-hauling up guns and shells, and bringing
-down the wounded. The beach was heaped
-with wounded, placed as close under the cliff
-as might be, in such yard or so of dead ground
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">{67}</a></span>
-as the cliffs gave. The doctors worked among
-them and shells fell among them and doctors
-and wounded were blown to pieces, and the survivors
-sang their song of "Australia will be
-there," and cheered the newcomers still landing
-on the beach. Sometimes our fire seemed
-to cease and then the Turk shells filled the
-night with their scream and blast and the pattering
-of their fragments. With all the fury
-and the crying of the shells, and the shouts and
-cries and cursing on the beach, the rattle of the
-small arms and the cheers and defiance up the
-hill, and the roar of the great guns far away,
-at sea, or in the olive groves, the night seemed
-in travail of a new age. All the blackness was
-shot with little spurts of fire, and streaks of
-fire, and malignant bursts of fire, and arcs and
-glows and crawling snakes of fire, and the moon
-rose, and looked down upon it all. In the
-fiercer hours of that night shells fell in that contested
-mile of ground and on the beach beyond
-it at the rate of one a second, and the air whimpered
-with passing bullets, or fluttered with the
-rush of the big shells, or struck the head of
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">{68}</a></span>
-the passer like a moving wall with the shock
-of the explosion. All through the night, the
-Turks attacked, and in the early hours their
-fire of shrapnel became so hellish that the Australians
-soon had not men enough left to hold
-the line. Orders were given to fall back to a
-shorter line, but in the darkness, uproar and
-confusion, with many sections refusing to fall
-back, others falling back and losing touch,
-others losing their way in gully or precipice, and
-shrapnel hailing on all, as it had hailed for
-hours, the falling back was mistaken by some
-for an order to re-embark. Many men who
-had lost their officers and non-commissioned officers
-fell back to the beach, where the confusion
-of wounded men, boxes of stores, field
-dressing stations, corpses and the litter and the
-waste of battle, had already blocked the going.
-The shells bursting in this clutter made the
-beach, in the words of an eye-witness, "like
-bloody hell and nothing else." But at this
-breaking of the wave of victory, this panting
-moment in the race, when some of the runners
-had lost their first wind, encouragement reached
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">{69}</a></span>
-our men: a message came to the beach from Sir
-Ian Hamilton, to say that help was coming,
-and that an Australian submarine had entered
-the Narrows and had sunk a Turkish transport
-off Chanak.</p>
-
-<p>This word of victory, coming to men who
-thought for the moment that their efforts had
-been made in vain, had the effect of a fresh brigade.
-The men rallied back up the hill; bearing
-the news to the firing-line, the new, constricted
-line was made good, and the rest of
-the night was never anything but continued victory
-to those weary ones in the scrub. But
-24 hours of continual battle exhausts men, and
-by dawn the Turks, knowing the weariness of
-our men, resolved to beat them down into the
-sea. When the sun was well in our men's
-eyes they attacked again, with not less than
-twice our entire strength of fresh men, and with
-an overwhelming superiority in field artillery.
-Something in the Turk commander and the
-knowledge that a success there would bring our
-men across the peninsula within a day, made
-the Turks more desperate enemies there than
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">{70}</a></span>
-elsewhere. They came at us with a determination
-which might have triumphed against other
-troops. As they came on they opened a terrific
-fire of shrapnel upon our position, pouring
-in such a hail that months afterwards one could
-see their round shrapnel bullets stuck in bare
-patches of ground, or in earth thrown up from
-the trenches, as thickly as plums in a pudding.
-Their multitudes of men pressed through the
-scrub as skirmishers, and sniped at every moving
-thing; for they were on higher ground and
-could see over most of our position, and every
-man we had was under direct fire for hours
-of each day. As the attack developed, the
-promised help arrived, our warships stood in
-and opened on the Turks with every gun that
-would bear. Some kept down the guns of
-Gaba Tepe, others searched the line of the
-Turk advance, till the hills over which they
-came were swathed with yellow smoke and dust,
-the white clouds of shrapnel, and the drifting
-darkness of conflagration. All the scrub was
-in a blaze before them, but they pressed on,
-falling in heaps and lines; and their guns
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">{71}</a></span>
-dropped a never-ceasing rain of shells on
-trenches, beach and shipping. The landing of
-stores and ammunition never ceased during the
-battle. The work of the beach-parties in that
-scene of burning and massacre was beyond all
-praise: so was the work of the fatigue parties
-who passed up and down the hill with water,
-ammunition and food, or dug sheltered roads
-to the trenches; so was the work of the Medical
-Service, who got the wounded out of cuts in the
-earth, so narrow and so twisted that there was
-no using a stretcher and men had to be carried
-on stretcher bearers' backs or on improvised
-chairs made out of packing cases.</p>
-
-<p>At a little before noon the Turk attack
-reached its height in a blaze and uproar of
-fire, and the swaying forward of their multitudes.
-The guns of the warships swept them
-from flank to flank with every engine of death:
-they died by hundreds, and the attack withered
-as it came. Our men saw the enemy fade and
-slacken and halt; then with their cheer they
-charged him and beat him home, seized new
-ground from him, and dug themselves in in
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">{72}</a></span>
-front of him. All through the day there was
-fighting up and down the line, partial attacks,
-and never-ceasing shell-fire, but no other great
-attack, the Turks had suffered too much. At
-night their snipers came out in the scrub and
-shot at anything they could see, and all night
-long their men dragged up field guns and piles
-of shrapnel, and worked at the trenches which
-were to contain ours. When day dawned, they
-opened with shrapnel upon the beach, with a
-<i>feu de barrage</i> designed to stop all landing of
-men and stores. They whipped the bay with
-shrapnel bullets. Where their fire was concentrated,
-the water was lashed as with hail all
-day long; but the boats passed through it, and
-men worked in it, building jetties for the boats
-to land at, using a big Turk shell as a pile
-driver: when they got too hot they bathed in
-it, for no fire shook those men. It was said,
-that when a big shell was coming, men of other
-races would go into their dugouts, but that these
-men paused only to call it a bastard and then
-went on with their work.</p>
-
-<p>By the night of the second day, the Australian
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">{73}</a></span>
-and New Zealand Army Corps had won
-and fortified their position. Men writing or
-reporting on service about them referred to
-them as the A.N.Z.A.C., and these letters
-soon came to mean the place in which they were,
-un-named till then, probably, save by some
-rough Turkish place-name, but now likely to
-be printed on all English maps, with the other
-names, of Brighton Beach and Hell Spit, which
-mark a great passage of arms.</p>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">{75}</a></div>
-
-<h2>III</h2>
-
-<p>King Marsilies parted his army: ten columns he
-kept by him, and the other ten rode in to fight. The
-Franks said: "God, what ruin we shall have here.
-What will become of the twelve Peers?" The Archbishop
-Turpin answered first: "Good knights, you
-are the friends of God; to-day you will be crowned
-and flowered, resting in the holy flowers of Paradise,
-where no coward will ever come."</p>
-
-<p>The Franks answered: "We will not fail. If it
-be God's will, we will not murmur. We will fight
-against our enemies: we are few men, but well-hardened."</p>
-
-<p>They spurred forward to fight the pagans. The
-Franks and Saracens are mingled.</p>
-
-<div class="foot">
-<div class="right1"><i>The Song of Roland.</i></div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">{77}</a></span>
-<span class="smcap">This</span> early fighting, which lasted from dawn
-on the 25th April till noon on the following
-day, won us a footing, not more than that, on
-the Peninsula; it settled the German brag that
-we should never be able to land. We had
-landed upon, had taken, and were holding the
-whole of the southwestern extremity of the
-Peninsula and a strip of the Ęgean coast, in
-the face of an army never less than twice our
-strength, strongly entrenched and well supplied.
-We had lost very heavily in the attack, our
-men were weary from the exceedingly severe
-service of the landing, but the morrow began
-the second passage in the campaign, the advance
-from the sea, before the Turks should have recovered.</p>
-
-<p>Many have said to me, with a naļveté that
-would be touching if it were not so plainly inspired
-by our enemies: "Why did not the
-troops press on at once, the day they landed?
-The Japanese pressed on the day they landed,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">{78}</a></span>
-so did the Americans in Cuba. If you had
-pressed on at once, you would have won the
-whole Peninsula. The Turks were at their last
-cartridge, and would have surrendered."</p>
-
-<p>It is quite true that the Japanese moved inland
-immediately from their transports at
-Chemulpho and Chinampo. Those ports were
-seized before the Russians knew that war was
-declared: they were not defended by Russian
-soldiers, and the two small Russian cruisers
-caught there by the Japanese fleet were put out
-of action before the transports discharged.
-The Japanese were free to land as they chose
-on beaches prepared, not with machine guns
-and mines, but with cranes, gangways and good
-roads. Even so, they did not press on. The
-Japanese do not press on unless they are attacking:
-they are as prudent as they are brave:
-they waited till they were ready and then
-marched on. The Americans landed at Daiquiri
-and at Guanica unopposed and in neither
-case engaged the enemy till next day.</p>
-
-<p>In the preceding chapter I have tried to show
-why we did not press on at once, after landing.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">{79}</a></span>
-We did not, because we could not, because
-two fresh men strongly entrenched, with
-machine guns, will stop one tired man with a
-rifle in nine cases out of ten. Our men had
-done the unimaginable in getting ashore at all,
-they could not do the impossible on the same
-day. I used to say this, to draw the answer,
-"Well, other troops would have done it," so
-that I might say, what I know to be the truth,
-that no other men on this earth either would
-have or could have made good the landing;
-and that the men have not yet been born who
-could have advanced after such a feat of arms.
-The efforts of men are limited by their
-strength: the strength of men, always easily
-exhausted, is the only strength at the disposal
-of a general, it is the money to be spent by
-him in the purchase of victory, whether by
-hours of marching in the mud, digging in the
-field, or in attack. Losses in attack are great,
-though occasional, losses from other causes
-are great and constant. All armies in the field
-have to be supplied constantly with fresh drafts
-to make good the losses from attack and exhaustion.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">{80}</a></span>
-No armies can move without these
-replenishments, just as no individual men can
-go on working, after excessive labour, without
-rest and food. Our losses in the landings were
-severe, even for modern war, even for the
-Dardanelles. The bloodiest battle of modern
-times is said to have been Antietam or Sharpsburg,
-in the American Civil War, where the
-losses were perhaps nearly one-third of the
-men engaged. At V Beach the Munsters lost
-more than one-third, and the Dublins more
-than three-fifths of their total strength. The
-Lancashires at W Beach lost nearly as heavily
-as the Dublins. At Anzac, one Australian battalion
-lost 422 out of 900. At X Beach, the
-Royals lost 487 out of 979. All these battalions
-had lost more than half their officers, indeed
-by the 28th April the Dublins had only
-one officer left. How could these dwindled
-battalions press on?</p>
-
-<p>Then for the individual exhaustion. Those
-engaged in the first landing were clambering
-and fighting in great heat, without proper food,
-and in many cases without water, for the first
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">{81}</a></span>
-24 or 36 hours, varying the fighting with hurried
-but deep digging in marl or clay, getting
-no sleep, nor any moment's respite from the
-peril of death. Then, at the end of the first
-phase, when the fact that they had won the
-landing was plain, some of these same men,
-unrested, improperly fed, and wet through
-with rain, sweat and the sea, had to hold what
-they had won, while the others went down to
-the beach to make piers, quarry roads, dig shelters,
-and wade out to carry or drag on shore
-food, drink, munitions and heavy guns, and to
-do this without appliances, by the strength of
-their arms. Then when these things had been
-done almost to the limit of human endurance,
-they carried water, food and ammunition to the
-trenches, not in carts but on their backs, and
-then relieved their fellows in the trenches and
-withstood the Turk attacks and replied to the
-Turks' fire for hours on end. At Anzac the
-A.N.Z. Army Corps had "96 hours' continuous
-fighting in the trenches with little or no
-sleep" and "at no time during the 96 hours
-did the Turks' firing cease, although it varied
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">{82}</a></span>
-in volume; at times the fusillade was simply
-deafening." Men worked like this, to the
-limit of physical endurance, under every possible
-exposure to wet, heat, cold, death, hunger,
-thirst and want of rest, become exhausted, and
-their nerves shattered, not from fear, which
-was a thing those men did not understand, but
-because the machine breaks. On the top of the
-misery, exhaustion and nerve-ceasing peril, is
-"the dreadful anxiety of not knowing how the
-battle is progressing," and the still worse anxiety
-of vigilance. To the strain of keeping
-awake, when dead-beat, is added the strain of
-watching men, peering for spies, stalking for
-snipers and listening for bombing-parties. Under
-all these strains the minds of strong men
-give way. They are the intensest strains ever
-put upon intelligences. Men subjected to them
-for many hours at a time cannot at once "press
-on," however brave their hearts may be.
-Those who are unjust enough to think that they
-can, or could, should work for a summer's day,
-without food or drink, at digging, then work
-for a night in the rain carrying heavy boxes,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">{83}</a></span>
-then dig for some hours longer, and at the end
-ask me to fire a machine gun at them while they
-"press on," across barbed wire, in what they
-presume to be the proper manner.</p>
-
-<p>Our men could not "press on" at once.
-They had not enough unwounded men to do
-more than hold the hordes of fresh Turks continually
-brought up against them. They had
-no guns ashore to prepare an advance, nor
-enough rifle ammunition to stand a siege.
-They had the rations in their packs and the
-water in their bottles, and no other supplies
-but the seven days' food, water and rifle ammunition
-put into each boat at the landing. To
-get men, stores, water and guns ashore, under
-fire, on beaches without wharves, cranes or derricks
-of any kind, takes time, and until men and
-goods were landed no advance was possible.
-Until then, our task was not to press on, but to
-hang on, like grim death. It was for the
-enemy to press on, to beat our tired troops before
-their supports could be landed, and this
-the Turks very well understood, as their captured
-orders show, and as their behaviour
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">{84}</a></span>
-showed only too clearly. During the days
-which followed the landing, the Turks, far
-from being at their last cartridge, and eager to
-surrender, prevented our pressing on, by pressing
-on themselves, in immense force and with a
-great artillery, till our men were dying of fatigue
-in driving back their attacks.</p>
-
-<p>One point more may be discussed, before resuming
-the story. The legend, "that the
-Turks were at their last cartridge and would
-have surrendered had we advanced," is very
-widely spread abroad by German emissaries.
-It appears in many forms, in print, in the lecture
-and in conversation. Sometimes place and
-date are given, sometimes the authority, all confidently,
-but always differently. It is well to
-state here the truth so that the lie may be
-known. The Turks were never at the end of
-their supplies. They were always better and
-more certainly supplied with shells and cartridges
-than we were. If they were ever (as
-perhaps they sometimes were) rather short of
-big gun ammunition, so were we. If they were
-sometimes rather short of rifles and rifle ammunition,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">{85}</a></span>
-so were we. If they were often short
-of food and all-precious water, so were we, and
-more so, and doubly more so. For all our supplies
-came over hundreds of miles of stormy
-water infested by submarines and were landed
-on open beaches under shell fire, and their supplies
-came along the Asiatic coast and by ferry
-across the Hellespont, and thence, in comparative
-safety, by road to the trenches. The
-Turkish army was well supplied, well equipped,
-more numerous and in better positions than our
-own. There was neither talk nor thought
-among them at any time of surrender, nor could
-there have been, in an army so placed and so
-valiant. There was some little disaffection
-among them. They hated their German officers
-and the German methods of discipline so
-much that many prisoners when taken expressed
-pleasure at being taken, spat at the name of
-German, and said "English good, German
-bad." Some of this, however, may have been
-Levantine tact.</p>
-
-<p>Late on the 26th April, the French corps
-landed men at V Beach and took the trenches
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">{86}</a></span>
-on the right of the ground won, i.e., towards
-the Straits. At noon the next day the whole
-force advanced inland without much opposition,
-for rather more than a mile. At nightfall on
-the 27th, they held a line across the Peninsula
-from the mouth of the Sighir watercourse (on
-the Ęgean) to Eski Hissarlik (on the Straits).
-The men were very weary from the incessant
-digging of trenches, fighting, and dragging up of
-stores from the beach. They dug themselves
-in under shell and rifle fire, stood to their arms
-to repel Turk attacks for most of the night, and
-at eight next morning began the battle of the
-28th of April. The French corps was on the
-right. The 29th Division (with one battalion
-of the R.N. Division), on the left. They advanced
-across rough moorland and little cultivated
-patches to attack the Turk town of
-Krithia. All the ground over which they advanced
-gave cover of the best kind to the defence.
-All through the morning, at odd times,
-the creeping companies going over that broken
-country came suddenly under the fire of machine
-guns, and lost men before they could
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">{87}</a></span>
-fling themselves down. In the heather and
-torrent-beds of the Scotch-looking moorland
-the Turk had only to wait in cover till his
-targets appeared, climbing a wall or getting out
-of a gulley, then he could turn on his machine
-guns, at six hundred shots a minute each, and
-hold up the advance. From time to time the
-Turks attacked in great numbers. Early in
-the afternoon our advance reached its furthest
-point, about three quarters of a mile from
-Krithia. Our artillery, short of ammunition
-at the best of times, and in these early days
-short of guns, too, did what it could, though
-it had only shrapnel, which is of small service
-against an entrenched enemy. Those who
-were there have said that nothing depressed
-them more than the occasional shells from our
-guns in answer to the continual fire from the
-Turk artillery. They felt themselves out-gunned
-and without support. Rifle cartridges
-were running short, for, in spite of desperate
-efforts, in that roadless wild land with the
-beaches jammed with dead, wounded, stores,
-the wrecks of boats, and parties trying to build
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">{88}</a></span>
-piers under shell-fire, it was not possible to
-land or to send up cartridges in the quantity
-needed. There were not yet enough mules
-ashore to take the cartridge-boxes and men
-could not be spared; there were too few men to
-hold the line. Gradually our men fell back
-a little from the ground they had won. The
-Turks brought up more men, charged us, and
-drove us back a little more, and were then
-themselves held. Our men dug themselves in
-as best they could and passed another anxious
-night, in bitter cold and driving rain, staving
-off a Turk attack, which was pressed with resolute
-courage against our centre and the French
-corps to the right of it. There were very
-heavy losses on both sides, but the Turks were
-killed in companies at every point of attack and
-failed to drive us further.</p>
-
-<p>The next two days were passed in comparative
-quiet, in strengthening the lines, landing
-men, guns and stores and preparing for the
-next advance. This war has shown what an
-immense reserve of shell is needed to prepare
-a modern advance. Our men never had that
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">{89}</a></span>
-immense reserve, nor, indeed a large reserve,
-and in those early days they had no reserve at
-all, but a day to day allowance, and before a
-reserve was formed the Turks came down upon
-us with every man and gun they had, in the desperate
-night attack of the 1st of May. This
-began with shell-fire at ten <small>P.M.</small>, and was followed
-half-an-hour later by a succession of
-charges in close order. The Turk front ranks
-crept up on hands and knees without firing
-(their cartridges had been taken from them)
-and charged our trenches with the bayonet.
-They got into our trenches in the dark, bayoneted
-the men in them, broke our line, got
-through to the second line and were there
-mixed up in the night in a welter of killing and
-firing beyond description. The moon had not
-risen when the attack came home. The fighting
-took place in the dark: men fired and
-stabbed in all directions, at flashes, at shouts,
-by the burning of the flares, by the coloured
-lights of the Turk officers, and by the gleams
-of the shells on our right. There were 9,000
-Turks in the first line, 12,000 more behind
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">{90}</a></span>
-them. They advanced yelling for God and
-Enver Pasha, amid the roar of every gun and
-rifle in range. They broke through the French,
-were held, then driven back, then came again,
-bore everything before them, and then met the
-British supports and went no further. Our
-supports charged the Turks and beat them
-back; at dawn our entire line advanced and
-beat them back in a rout, till their machine guns
-stopped us.</p>
-
-<p>Upon many of the dead Turks in front of
-the French and English trenches were copies
-of an address issued by a German officer, one
-Von Zowenstern, calling on the Turks to destroy
-the enemy, since their only hope of salvation
-was to win the battle or die in the attempt.
-On some bodies were other orders,
-for the Mahometan priests to encourage the
-men to advance, for officers to shoot those soldiers
-who hung back, and for prisoners to be
-left with the reserves, not taken to the rear.
-In this early part of the campaign there were
-many German officers in the Turkish army.
-In these early night attacks they endeavoured
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">{91}</a></span>
-to confuse our men by shouting orders to them
-in English. One, on the day of the landing,
-walked up to one of the trenches of the 29th
-Division and cried out, "Surrender, you English,
-we ten to one." "He was thereupon hit
-on the head with a spade by a man who was improving
-his trench with it."</p>
-
-<p>This battle never ceased for five days.
-The artillery was never silent. Our men were
-shelled, sniped and shrapnelled every day and
-all day long, and at night the Turks attacked
-with the bayonet. By the evening of the 5th
-May the 29th Division, which had won the
-end of the Peninsula, had been reduced by one-half
-and its officers by two-thirds. The proportion
-of officers to men in a British battalion
-is as one to thirty-seven, but in the list of killed
-the proportion was as one to eleven. The officers
-of that wonderful company poured out
-their lives like water; they brought their weary
-men forward hour after hour in all that sleepless
-ten days, and at the end led them on once
-more in the great attack of the 6th-8th of May.</p>
-
-<p>This attack was designed to push the Allied
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">{92}</a></span>
-lines further forward into the Peninsula, so
-as to win a little more ground, and ease the
-growing congestion on the beaches near Cape
-Helles. The main Turkish position lay on and
-about the hump of Achi Baba, and on the high
-ground stretching down from it. It was hoped
-that even if Achi Baba could not be carried, the
-ground below him, including the village of
-Krithia, might be taken. The movement was
-to be a general advance, with the French on
-the right attacking the high ground nearer to
-the Straits, the 29th Division on the left, between
-the French and the sea, attacking the
-slowly sloping ground which leads past Krithia
-up to Achi Baba. Krithia stands high upon the
-slope, among orchards and gardens, and makes
-a good artillery target, but the slope on which
-it stands, being much broken, covered with
-dense scrub (some of it thorny) and with
-clumps of trees, is excellent for defence. The
-Turks had protected that square mile of ground
-with many machine guns and trenches so skilfully
-concealed that they could not be seen
-either from close in front or from aeroplanes.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">{93}</a></span>
-The French line of attack was over
-ground equally difficult, but steeper, and therefore
-giving more "dead ground," or patches
-upon which no direct fire can be turned by the
-defence. The line of battle from the French
-right to the English left stretched right across
-the Peninsula with a front (owing to bends
-and salients) of about five miles. It was nearly
-everywhere commanded by the guns of Achi
-Baba, and in certain places the enemy batteries
-on the Turk left, near the Straits, could enfilade
-it. Our men were weary but the Turks were
-expecting strong reinforcements; the attack
-could not be delayed.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
- <a name="Img_092" id="Img_092">
- <img src="images/092.jpg" width="500" height="315" alt="092jpg"/>
- </a>
- <div class="caption">
- <p class="center">Exercising mules. A photograph taken late in the
- evening. A shell is seen bursting in the background. The highest point
- on the horizon is Achi Baba</p>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Few people who have not seen modern war
-can understand what it is like. They look at
-a map, which is a small flat surface, and find
-it difficult to believe that a body of men could
-have had difficulty in passing from one point
-upon it to another. They think that they themselves
-would have found no difficulty, that they
-would not have been weary nor thirsty, the distance
-demanded of them being only a mile,
-possibly a mile and a quarter, and the reward
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">{94}</a></span>
-a very great one. They think that troops who
-failed to pass across that mile must have been
-in some way wanting, and that had they been
-there, either in command or in the attack, the
-results would have been different.</p>
-
-<p>One can only answer, that in modern war it is
-not easy to carry a well-defended site by direct
-attack. In modern war, you may not know, till
-fire breaks out upon you, where the defence,
-which you have to attack, is hidden. You may
-not know (in darkness, in a strange land) more
-than vaguely which is your "front," and you
-may pass by your enemy, or over him, or under
-him without seeing him. You may not see your
-enemy at all. You may fight for days and
-never see an enemy. In modern war troops see
-no enemy till he attacks them; then, in most
-cases if they are well entrenched with many
-guns behind them, they can destroy him.</p>
-
-<p>The Allied officers, looking through their
-field glasses at the ground to be attacked, could
-see only rough, sloping ground, much gullied,
-much overgrown, with a few clumps of trees, a
-few walls, orchards and houses, but no guns, no
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">{95}</a></span>
-trenches, no enemy. Aeroplanes scouting over
-the Turks could see men but not the trenches
-nor the guns, they could only report that they
-suspected them to be in such a place. Sometimes
-in the mornings men would notice that
-the earth was turned newly on some bare patch
-on the hill, but none could be sure that this digging
-was not a ruse to draw fire. The trenches
-were hidden cunningly, often with a head-cover
-of planks so strewn with earth and planted with
-scrub as to be indistinguishable from the ground
-about. The big guns were coloured cunningly,
-like a bird or snake upon the ground. From
-above in an aeroplane an observer could not pick
-them out so as to be certain, if they were not
-in action at the time. Brave men scouting forward
-at night to reconnoitre brought back some
-information, but not more than enough to show
-that the Turks were there in force. No man in
-the Allied Army expected less than a desperate
-battle; no officer in the world could have made
-it anything but that, with all the odds against
-us. Nothing could be done but cover the
-Turk position with the fire of every gun on
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">{96}</a></span>
-shore or in the ships and then send the men forward,
-to creep or dash as far as they could,
-and then dig themselves in.</p>
-
-<p>Let the reader imagine himself to be facing
-three miles of any very rough broken sloping
-ground known to him, ground for the most part
-gorse-thyme-and-scrub-covered, being poor soil,
-but in some places beautiful with flowers (especially
-"a spiked yellow flower with a whitish
-leaf") and on others green from cultivation.
-Let him say to himself that he and an army of
-his friends are about to advance up the slope
-towards the top, and that as they will be advancing
-in a line, along the whole length of the three
-miles, he will only see the advance of those
-comparatively near to him, since folds or dips
-in the ground will hide the others. Let him,
-before he advances, look earnestly along the
-line of the hill, as it shows up clear, in blazing
-sunlight only a mile from him, to see his tactical
-objective, one little clump of pines, three hundred
-yards away, across what seem to be fields.
-Let him see in the whole length of the hill no
-single human being, nothing but scrub, earth, a
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">{97}</a></span>
-few scattered buildings, of the Levantine type
-(dirty white with roofs of dirty red) and some
-patches of dark Scotch pine, growing as the
-pine loves, on bleak crests. Let him imagine
-himself to be more weary than he has ever been
-in his life before, and dirtier than he has ever
-believed it possible to be, and parched with
-thirst, nervous, wild-eyed and rather lousy.
-Let him think that he has not slept for more
-than a few minutes together for eleven days
-and nights, and that in all his waking hours he
-has been fighting for his life, often hand to
-hand in the dark with a fierce enemy, and that
-after each fight he has had to dig himself a
-hole in the ground, often with his hands, and
-then walk three or four roadless miles to bring
-up heavy boxes under fire. Let him think, too,
-that in all those eleven days he has never for
-an instant been out of the thunder of cannon,
-that waking or sleeping their devastating crash
-has been blasting the air across within a mile
-or two, and this from an artillery so terrible
-that each discharge beats as it were a wedge
-of shock between the skull-bone and the brain.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">{98}</a></span>
-Let him think too that never, for an instant, in
-all that time, has he been free or even partly
-free from the peril of death in its most sudden
-and savage forms, and that hourly in all that
-time he has seen his friends blown to pieces at
-his side, or dismembered, or drowned, or driven
-mad, or stabbed, or sniped by some unseen
-stalker, or bombed in the dark sap with a handful
-of dynamite in a beef-tin, till their blood is
-caked upon his clothes and thick upon his face,
-and that he knows, as he stares at the hill, that
-in a few moments, more of that dwindling band,
-already too few, God knows how many too few,
-for the task to be done, will be gone the same
-way, and that he himself may reckon that he
-has done with life, tasted and spoken and loved
-his last, and that in a few minutes more may
-be blasted dead, or lying bleeding in the scrub,
-with perhaps his face gone and a leg and an
-arm broken, unable to move but still alive, unable
-to drive away the flies or screen the ever-dropping
-rain, in a place where none will find
-him, or be able to help him, a place where he
-will die and rot and shrivel, till nothing is left
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">{99}</a></span>
-of him but a few rags and a few remnants and
-a little identification-disc flapping on his bones
-in the wind. Then let him hear the intermittent
-crash and rattle of the fire augment suddenly
-and awfully in a roaring, blasting roll, unspeakable
-and unthinkable, while the air above,
-that has long been whining and whistling, becomes
-filled with the scream of shells passing
-like great cats of death in the air; let him see the
-slope of the hill vanish in a few moments into
-the white, yellow and black smokes of great explosions
-shot with fire, and watch the lines of
-white puffs marking the hill in streaks where
-the shrapnel searches a suspected trench; and
-then, in the height of the tumult, when his brain
-is shaking in his head, let him pull himself together
-with his friends, and clamber up out of
-the trench, to go forward against an invisible
-enemy, safe in some unseen trench expecting
-him.</p>
-
-<p>The Twenty-ninth Division went forward
-under these conditions on the 6th of May.
-They dashed on, or crawled, for a few yards at
-a time, then dropped for a few instants before
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">{100}</a></span>
-squirming on again. In such an advance men
-do not see the battlefield. They see the world
-as the rabbit sees it, crouching on the ground,
-just their own little patch. On broken ground
-like that, full of dips and rises, men may be
-able to see nothing but perhaps the ridge of a
-bank ten feet ahead, with the dust flying in
-spouts all along it, as bullets hit it, some thousand
-a minute, and looking back or to their
-flanks they may see no one but perhaps a few
-men of their own platoon lying tense but expectant,
-ready for the sign to advance while the
-bullets pipe over them in a never-ending birdlike
-croon. They may be shut off by some all-important
-foot of ground from seeing how they
-are fronting, from all knowledge of what the
-next platoon is doing or suffering. It may be
-quite certain death to peep over that foot of
-ground in order to find out, and while they wait
-for a few instants shells may burst in their
-midst and destroy a half of them. Then the
-rest, nerving themselves, rush up the ridge, and
-fall in a line dead under machine-gun fire. The
-supports come up, creeping over their corpses,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">{101}</a></span>
-get past the ridge, into scrub which some shell
-has set on fire. Men fall wounded in the fire,
-and the cartridges in their bandoliers explode
-and slowly kill them. The survivors crawl
-through the scrub, half-choked, and come out
-on a field full of flowers tangled three feet high
-with strong barbed wire. They wait for a
-while, to try to make out where the enemy is.
-They may see nothing but the slope of the field
-running up to a sky line, and a flash of distant
-sea on a flank, but no sign of any enemy, only
-the crash of guns and the pipe and croon and
-spurt of bullets. Gathering themselves together
-their brave men dash out to cut the wire
-and are killed; others take their places and are
-killed; others step out with too great a pride
-even to stoop, and pull up the supports of the
-wires and fling them down, and fall dead on
-top of them, having perhaps cleared a couple
-of yards. Then a couple of machine guns open
-on the survivors and kill them all in thirty seconds,
-with the concentrated fire of a battalion.</p>
-
-<p>The supports come up, and hear about the
-wire from some wounded man who has crawled
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">{102}</a></span>
-back through the scrub. They send back word,
-"Held up by wire," and in time the message
-comes to the telephone which has just been
-blown to pieces by a shell. Presently when the
-telephone is repaired, the message reaches the
-gunners, who fire high explosive shells on to
-the wire, and on to the slopes where the machine
-guns may be hidden. Then the supports go on
-over the flowers and are met midway by a concentrated
-fire of shells, shrapnel, machine guns
-and rifles. Those who are not killed lie down
-among the flowers and begin to scrape little
-heaps of earth with their hands to give protection
-to their heads. In the light sandy marl
-this does not take long, though many are blown
-to pieces or hit in the back as they scrape. As
-before, they cannot see how the rest of the attack
-is faring, nor even where the other platoons
-of the battalion are; they lie scraping in
-the roots of daffodils and lilies, while bullets
-sing and shriek a foot or two over their heads.
-A man peering from his place in the flowers may
-make out that the man next to him, some three
-yards away, is dead, and that the man beyond is
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">{103}</a></span>
-praying, the man beyond him cursing, and the
-man beyond him out of his mind from nerves
-or thirst.</p>
-
-<p>Long hours pass, but the air above them
-never ceases to cry like a live thing with bullets
-flying. Men are killed or maimed, and the
-wounded cry for water. Men get up to give
-them water and are killed. Shells fall at regular
-intervals along the field. The waiting men
-count the seconds between the shells to check
-the precision of the battery's fire. Some of
-the bursts fling the blossoms and bulbs of
-flowers into the bodies of men, where they are
-found long afterwards by the X-rays. Bursts
-and roars of fire on either flank tell of some
-intense moment in other parts of the line.
-Every feeling of terror and mental anguish and
-anxiety goes through the mind of each man
-there, and is put down by resolve.</p>
-
-<p>The supports come up, they rise with a cheer,
-and get out of the accursed flowers, into a gulley
-where some men of their regiment are already
-lying dead. There is a little wood to their
-front; they make for that, and suddenly come
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">{104}</a></span>
-upon a deep and narrow Turk trench full of
-men. This is their first sight of the enemy.
-They leap down into the trench and fight hand
-to hand, kill and are killed, in the long grave
-already dug. They take the trench, but opening
-from the trench are saps, which the Turks
-still hold. Men are shot dead at these saps
-by Turk sharpshooters cunningly screened
-within them. Bullets fall in particular places
-in the trench from snipers hidden in the trees
-of the wood. The men send back for bombs,
-others try to find out where the rest of the battalion
-lies, or send word that from the noise of
-the fire there must be a battery of machine guns
-beyond the wood, if the guns would shell it.</p>
-
-<p>Presently, before the bombs come, bombs begin
-to drop among them from the Turks.
-Creeping up, the men catch them in their hands
-before they explode and fling them back so
-that they burst among the Turks. Some have
-their hands blown off, other their heads, in
-doing this, but the bloody game of catch goes
-on till no Turks are left in the sap, only a few
-wounded groaning men who slowly bleed to
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">{105}</a></span>
-death there. After long hours, the supports
-come up and a storm of high explosives searches
-the little wood, and then with a cheer the remnant
-goes forward out of the trench into the
-darkness of the pines. Fire opens on them
-from snipers in the trees and from machine
-guns everywhere; they drop and die, and the
-survivors see no enemy, only their friends falling
-and a place where no living thing can pass.
-Men find themselves suddenly alone, with all
-their friends dead, and no enemy in sight, but
-the rush of bullets filling the air. They go back
-to the trench, not afraid, but in a kind of maze,
-and as they take stock and count their strength
-there comes the roar of the Turkish war cry,
-the drum-like proclamation of the faith, and
-the Turks come at them with the bayonet.
-Then that lonely remnant of a platoon stands
-to it with rapid fire, and the machine gun rattles
-like a motor bicycle, and some ribald or silly
-song goes up, and the Turks fail to get home,
-but die or waver and retreat and are themselves
-charged as they turn. It is evening now; the
-day has passed in long hours of deep experience,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">{106}</a></span>
-and the men have made two hundred yards.
-They send back for supports and orders, link
-up, if they are lucky, with some other part of
-their battalion, whose adventures, fifty yards
-away, have been as intense, but wholly different,
-and prepare the Turk trench for the night.
-Presently word reaches them from some faraway
-H.Q. (some dug-out five hundred yards
-back, in what seems, by comparison, like peaceful
-England) that there are no supports, and
-that the orders are to hold the line at all costs
-and prepare for a fresh advance on the morrow.
-Darkness falls, and ammunition and water
-come up, and the stretcher-bearers hunt for the
-wounded by the groans, while the Turks search
-the entire field with shell to kill the supports
-which are not there. Some of the men in the
-trench creep out to their front, and are killed
-there as they fix a wire entanglement. The
-survivors make ready for the Turk attack, certain
-soon to come. There is no thought of
-sleep; it is too cold for sleep; the men shiver
-as they stare into the night; they take the coats
-of the dead, and try to get a little warmth.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">{107}</a></span>
-There is no moon and the rain begins. The
-marl at the bottom of the trench is soon a sticky
-mud, and the one dry patch is continually being
-sniped. A few exhausted ones fall not into
-sleep but into nervous dreams, full of twitches
-and cries, like dogs' nightmares, and away at
-sea some ship opens with her great guns at an
-unseen target up the hill. The terrific crashes
-shake the air; some one sees a movement in the
-grass and fires; others start up and fire. The
-whole irregular line starts up and fires, the machine
-guns rattle, the officers curse, and the guns
-behind, expecting an attack, send shells into
-the woods. Then slowly the fire drops and
-dies, and stray Turks, creeping up, fling bombs
-into the trench.</p>
-
-<p class="gap-above">This kind of fighting, between isolated bodies
-of men advancing in a great concerted tactical
-movement stretching right across the Peninsula,
-went on throughout the 6th, the 7th and the 8th
-of May, and ended on the evening of the 8th
-in a terrific onslaught of the whole line, covered
-by a great artillery. The final stage of the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">{108}</a></span>
-battle was a sight of stirring and awful beauty.
-The Allied line went forward steadily behind
-the moving barrier of the explosions of their
-shells. Every gun on both sides opened and
-maintained a fire dreadful to hear and see.
-Our men were fighting for a little patch of
-ground vital not so much to the success of the
-undertaking, the clearing of the Narrows, as
-to their existence on the Peninsula. In such a
-battle, each platoon, each section, each private
-soldier influences the result, and "pays as current
-coin in that red purchase" as the brigadier.
-The working parties on the beaches left their
-work (it is said) to watch and cheer that last
-advance. It was a day of the unmatchable
-clear Ęgean spring; Samothrace and Eub&oelig;a
-were stretched out in the sunset like giants
-watching the chess, waiting, it seemed, almost
-like human things, as they had waited for the
-fall of Troy and the bale-fires of Agamemnon.
-Those watchers saw the dotted order of our
-advance stretching across the Peninsula, moving
-slowly forward, and halting and withering
-away, among fields of flowers of spring and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">{109}</a></span>
-the young corn that would never come to harvest.
-They saw the hump of Achi Baba flicker
-and burn and roll up to heaven in a swathe of
-blackness, and multitudinous brightness changing
-the face of the earth, and the dots of our
-line still coming, still moving forward, and
-halting and withering away, but still moving up
-among the flashes and the darkness, more men,
-and yet more men, from the fields of sacred
-France, from the darkness of Senegal, from
-sheep-runs at the ends of the earth, from blue-gum-forests,
-and sunny islands, places of horses
-and good fellows, from Irish pastures and
-glens, and from many a Scotch and English city
-and village and quiet farm; they went on and
-they went on, up ridges blazing with explosion
-into the darkness of death. Sometimes, as the
-light failed, and peak after peak that had been
-burning against the sky, grew rigid as the colour
-faded, the darkness of the great blasts hid
-sections of the line, but when the darkness
-cleared they were still there, line after line of
-dots, still more, still moving forward and halting
-and withering away, and others coming,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">{110}</a></span>
-and halting and withering away, and others following,
-as though those lines were not flesh and
-blood and breaking nerve but some tide of the
-sea coming in waves that fell yet advanced,
-that broke a little further, and gained some
-yard in breaking, and were then followed, and
-slowly grew, that halted and seemed to wither,
-and then gathered and went on, till night covered
-those moving dots, and the great slope was
-nothing but a blackness spangled with the flashes
-of awful fire.</p>
-
-<p>What can be said of that advance? The
-French were on the right, the Twenty-ninth
-Division on the left, some Australians and New
-Zealanders (brought down from Anzac) in
-support. It was their thirteenth day of continual
-battle, and who will ever write the story
-of even one half-hour of that thirteenth day?
-Who will ever know one hundredth part of the
-deeds of heroism done in them, by platoons
-and sections and private soldiers, who offered
-their lives without a thought to help some other
-part of the line, who went out to cut wire, or
-brought up water and ammunition, or cheered
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">{111}</a></span>
-on some bleeding remnant of a regiment, halting
-on that hill of death, and kept their faces
-to the shrapnel and the never-ceasing pelt of
-bullets, as long as they had strength to go and
-light to see? They brought the line forward
-from a quarter of a mile to six hundred yards
-further into the Peninsula; they dug in after
-dark on the line they had won, and for the next
-thirty-six hours they stood to arms to beat back
-the charges of the Turks who felt themselves
-threatened at the heart.</p>
-
-<p>Our army had won their hold upon the Peninsula.
-On the body of a dead Turk officer
-was a letter written the night before to his wife,
-a tender letter, filled mostly with personal matters.
-In it was the phrase, "These British are
-the finest fighters in the world. We have
-chosen the wrong friends."</p>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">{113}</a></div>
-
-<h2>IV</h2>
-
-<p>So great is the heat that the dust rises.</p>
-
-<div class="foot">
-<div class="right1"><i>The Song of Roland.</i></div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">{115}</a></span>
-<span class="smcap">During</span> the next three weeks, the Allied troops
-made small advances in parts of the lines held
-by them at Anzac and Cape Helles. Fighting
-was continuous in both zones, there was always
-much (and sometimes intense) artillery
-fire. The Turks frequently attacked in force,
-sometimes in very great force, but were repulsed.
-Our efforts were usually concentrated
-on some redoubt, stronghold, or salient, in the
-nearer Turkish lines, the fire from which galled
-our trenches, or threatened any possible advance.
-These posts were either heavily bombarded
-and then rushed under the cover of a
-<i>feu de barrage</i>, or carried by surprise attack.
-Great skill and much dashing courage were
-shown in these assaults. The emplacements
-of machine guns were seized and the guns destroyed,
-dangerous trenches or parts of trenches
-were carried and filled in, and many roosts or
-hiding places of snipers were made untenable.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">{116}</a></span>
-These operations were on a small scale, and
-were designed to improve the position then held
-by us, rather than to carry the whole line further
-up the Peninsula. Sometimes they failed, but
-by far the greater number succeeded, so that
-by these methods, eked out by ruses, mines,
-clever invention and the most dare-devil bravery,
-parts of our lines were advanced by more
-than a hundred yards.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
- <a name="Img_116" id="Img_116">
- <img src="images/116.jpg" width="500" height="315" alt="116jpg"/>
- </a>
- <div class="caption">
- <p class="center">Anzac from the Sea</p>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>On the 4th of June, a second great attack
-was made by the Allied troops near Cape
-Helles. Like the attack of the 6th-8th May,
-it was an advance of the whole line, from the
-Straits to the sea, against the enemy's front
-line trenches. As before, the French were on
-the right and the 29th Division on the left, but
-between them, in this advance, were the R.N.
-Division and the newly arrived 42nd Division.
-Our men advanced after a prolonged and terrible
-bombardment, which so broke down the
-Turk defence that the works were carried all
-along the line, except in one place, on the left
-of the French sector and in one other place,
-on our own left, near the sea. Our advance,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">{117}</a></span>
-as before, varied in depth from a quarter of
-a mile to six hundred yards; all of it carried
-by a rush, in a short time, owing to the violence
-of the artillery preparation, though with heavy
-losses from shrapnel and machine-gun fire. In
-this attack, the 42nd or East Lancashire Division
-received its baptism of fire. Even those
-who had seen the men of the 29th Division
-in the battles for the landing admitted that
-"nothing could have been finer" than the extreme
-gallantry of these newly landed men.
-The Manchester Brigade and two companies
-of the 5th Lancashire Fusiliers advanced with
-the most glorious and dashing courage, routed
-the Turks, carried both their lines of trenches;
-and one battalion, the 6th, very nearly carried
-the village of Krithia; there was, in fact, no
-entrenched line between them and the top of
-Achi Baba.</p>
-
-<p>But in this campaign we were to taste, and
-be upon the brink of victory in every battle, yet
-have the prize dashed from us, by some failure
-elsewhere, each time. So, in this first rush,
-when, for the first time, our men felt that they,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">{118}</a></span>
-not the Turks, were the real attackers, the victory
-was not to remain with us. We had no
-high explosive shell and not enough shrapnel
-shell to deny to the Turks the use of their
-superior numbers and to hold them in a beaten
-state. They rallied and made strong counter attacks
-especially upon a redoubt or earthwork-fortress
-called the "Haricot," on the left of the
-French sector, which the French had stormed
-an hour before and garrisoned with Senegalese
-troops. The Turks heavily shelled this work
-and then rushed it; the Senegalese could not
-hold it; the French could not support it; and
-the Turks won it. Unfortunately, the Haricot
-enfiladed the lines we had won. In a little
-while the Turks developed from it a deadly enfilade
-fire upon the R.N. Division which had
-won the Turk trenches to the west of it. The
-R.N. Division was forced to fall back and in
-doing so uncovered the right of the Brigade of
-Manchesters beyond it to the westward. The
-Manchesters were forced to give ground, the
-French were unable to make a new attack upon
-the Haricot, so that by nightfall our position
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">{119}</a></span>
-was less good than it had been at half-past
-twelve.</p>
-
-<p>But for the fall of the Haricot the day would
-have been a notable victory for ourselves.
-Still, over three miles of the Allied front, our
-lines had been pushed forward from 200 to
-400 yards. This, in modern war is a big advance,
-but it brings upon the conquerors a very
-severe labor of digging. The trenches won
-from the defence have to be converted to the
-uses of the attack and linked up, by saps and
-communication-trenches, with the works from
-which the attack advanced. All this labour
-had to be done by our men in the midst of bitter
-fighting, for the Turks fought hard to win
-back these trenches in many bloody counter attacks,
-and (as always happened, after each advance)
-outlying works and trenches, from
-which fire could be brought to bear upon the
-newly won ground, had to be carried, filled in,
-or blown up before the new line was secure.</p>
-
-<p>A little after dawn on the 21st June the
-French stormed and won the Haricot redoubt,
-and advanced the right of the Allied position
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">{120}</a></span>
-by 600 yards; the Turkish counter attacks were
-bloodily defeated.</p>
-
-<p>In the forenoon of the 28th June, the English
-divisions advanced the left of the Allied position
-by a full 1,000 yards. This attack, which
-was one of the most successful of the campaign,
-was the first of which it could be said
-that it was a victory. Of course our presence
-upon the Peninsula was in itself a victory, but
-in this battle we were not trying to land nor
-to secure ourselves, but (for the first time) to
-force a decision. Three of our divisions challenged
-the greater part of the Turk army and
-beat it. And here, for the first time in the
-operations, we felt, what all our soldiers had
-expected, that want of fresh men in reserve to
-make a success decisive, which afterwards lost
-us the campaign.</p>
-
-<p>Our enemies have often said, that the English
-cannot plan nor execute an attack. In this
-battle of June 28th, the attack was a perfect
-piece of planning and execution. Everything
-was exactly timed, everything worked smoothly.
-Ten thousand soldiers, not one of whom had
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">{121}</a></span>
-had more than six months' training, advanced
-uphill after an artillery preparation and won
-two lines of elaborately fortified trenches, by
-the bayonet alone. Then, while these men consolidated
-and made good the ground which they
-had won, the artillery lengthened their fuses
-and bombarded the ground beyond them.
-When the artillery ceased, ten thousand fresh
-soldiers climbed out of the English lines, ran
-forward, leaped across the two lines of Turk
-trench already taken and took three more lines
-of trench, each line a fortress in itself. Besides
-advancing our position a thousand yards,
-this attack forced back the right of the Turks
-from the sea, and won a strong position between
-the sea and Krithia, almost turning Achi
-Baba. But much more than this was achieved.
-The great triumph of the day was the certainty
-then acquired that the Turks were beaten, that
-they were no longer the fierce and ardent fighters
-who had rushed V beach in the dark, but
-a shaken company who had caught the habit of
-defeat and might break at any moment. They
-were beaten; we had beaten them at every point
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">{122}</a></span>
-and they knew that they were beaten. Every
-man in the French and British lines knew that
-the Turks were at the breaking point. We
-had only to strike while the iron was hot to
-end them.</p>
-
-<p>As happened afterwards, after the battle of
-August, we could not strike while the iron was
-hot; we had not the men nor the munitions.
-Had the fifty thousand men who came there in
-July and August but been there in June, our men
-could have kept on striking. But they were
-not there in June, and our victory of the 28th
-could not be followed up. More than a month
-passed before it could be followed up. During
-that month the Turks dug themselves new
-fortresses, brought up new guns, made new
-stores of ammunition, and remade their army.
-Their beaten troops were withdrawn and replaced
-by the very pick and flower of the Turkish
-Empire. When we attacked again, we
-found a very different enemy; the iron was cold,
-we had to begin again from the beginning.</p>
-
-<p>Thirty-six hours after our June success, at
-midnight in the night of June 29-30th, the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">{123}</a></span>
-Turks made a counter attack, not at Cape
-Helles, where their men were shaken, but at
-Anzac, where perhaps they felt our menace
-more acutely. A large army of Turks, about
-30,000 strong, ordered by Enver Pasha "to
-drive the foreigners into the sea or never to
-look upon his face again," attacked the Anzac
-position under cover of the fire of a great artillery.
-They were utterly defeated with the loss
-of about a quarter of their strength, some
-7-8,000 killed and wounded.</p>
-
-<p>All this fighting proved clearly that the
-Turks, with all their power of fresh men, their
-closeness to their reserves, and their superior
-positions, could not beat us from what we had
-secured, nor keep us from securing more. Our
-advance into the Peninsula, though slow and
-paid for with much life, was sure and becoming
-less slow. What we had won we had
-fought hard for and never ceased to fight hard
-for, but we had won it and could hold it, and
-with increasing speed add to it, and the Turks
-knew this as well as we did. But early in May
-something happened which had a profound
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">{124}</a></span>
-result upon the course of the operations. It
-is necessary to write of it at length, if only to
-show the reader that this Dardanelles Campaign
-was not a war in itself, but a part of a
-war involving most of Europe and half of
-Asia, and that, that being so, it was affected
-by events in other parts of the war, as deeply
-as it affected those parts in turn by its own
-events.</p>
-
-<p>No one, of the many who spoke to me about
-the campaign, knew or understood that the
-campaign, as planned, was not to be, solely, a
-French and English venture, but (in its later
-stages) a double attack upon the Turkish
-power, by ourselves, on the Peninsula and the
-Hellespont, and by the Russians, on the shores
-of the Black Sea. The double attack, threatening
-Turkey at the heart, was designed to force
-the Turks to divide their strength, and, by causing
-uneasiness among the citizens, to keep in
-and about Constantinople a large army which
-might otherwise wreck our Mesopotamian expedition,
-threaten India and Egypt and prevent
-the Grand Duke Nicholas from advancing
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">{125}</a></span>
-from the Caucasus on Erzerum. But as the
-Polish campaign developed adversely to Russia,
-it became clear that it would be impossible for
-her to give the assistance she had hoped.</p>
-
-<p>Early in May, Sir Ian Hamilton learned,
-that his advance, instead of being a part of a
-concerted scheme, was to be the only attack
-upon the Turks in that quarter, and that he
-would have to withstand the greater part of the
-Turkish army. This did not mean that the
-Turks could mass an overwhelming strength
-against any part of his positions, since in the
-narrow Peninsula there is not room for great
-numbers to man&oelig;uvre; but it meant that the
-Turks would have always within easy distance
-great reserves of fresh men to take the place
-of those exhausted, and that without a correspondingly
-great reserve we had little chance of
-decisive success.</p>
-
-<p>This change in the strategical scheme was
-made after we were committed to the venture:
-it made a profound difference to our position.
-Unfortunately we were so deeply engaged in
-other theatres that it was impossible to change
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">{126}</a></span>
-our plans as swiftly and as profoundly as our
-chances. The great reserve could not be sent
-when it became necessary, early in May, nor
-for more than two months. Until it came, it
-happened, time after time, that even when we
-fought and beat back the Turks they could be
-reinforced before we could. All through the
-campaign we fought them and beat them back,
-but always, on the day after the battle, they
-had a division of fresh men to put in to the
-defence, while we, who had suffered more,
-being the attackers, had but a handful with
-which to follow up the success.</p>
-
-<p>People have said, "But you could have kept
-fresh divisions in reserve as easily as the Turks.
-Why did you not send more men, so as to have
-them ready to follow up a success?" I could
-never answer this question. It is the vital
-question. The cry for "fifty thousand more
-men and plenty of high explosive" went up
-daily from every trench in Gallipoli, and we
-lost the campaign through not sending them in
-time. On the spot of course our generals knew
-that war (like life) consists of a struggle with
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">{127}</a></span>
-disadvantages, and their struggle with these
-was a memorable one. Only, when all was
-done, their situation remained that of the Frank
-rearguard in the Song of Roland. In that
-poem the Franks could and did beat the Saracens,
-but the Saracens brought up another army
-before the Franks were reinforced. The
-Franks could and did beat that army, too, but
-the Saracens brought up another army before
-the Franks were reinforced. The Franks
-could and did beat that army, too, but then they
-were spent and Roland had to sound his horn
-and Charlemagne would not come to the summons
-of the horn, and the heroes were abandoned
-in the dolorous pass.</p>
-
-<p class="gap-above">Summer came upon Gallipoli with a blinding
-heat only comparable to New York in July.
-The flowers which had been so gay with beauty
-in the Helles fields in April soon wilted to
-stalks. The great slope of Cape Helles took
-on a savage and African look of desolation.
-The air quivered over the cracking land. In
-the blueness of the heat haze the graceful terrible
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">{128}</a></span>
-hills looked even more gentle and beautiful
-than before; and one who was there said that
-"there were little birds that droned, rather
-like the English yellow-hammers." With the
-heat, which was a new experience to all the
-young English soldiers there, came a plague of
-flies beyond all record and belief. Men ate
-and drank flies, the filthy insects were everywhere.
-The ground in places was so dark with
-them, that one could not be sure whether the
-patches were ground or flies. Our camps and
-trenches were kept clean; they were well
-scavenged daily; but only a few yards away
-were the Turk trenches, which were invariably
-filthy: there the flies bred undisturbed, perhaps
-encouraged. There is a fine modern poem
-which speaks of the Indian sun in summer as
-"the blazing death-star." Men in Gallipoli
-in the summer of 1915 learned to curse the sun
-as an enemy more cruel than the Turk. With
-the sun and the plague of flies came the torment
-of thirst, one of the greatest torments which
-life has the power to inflict.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">{129}</a></span>
-At Cape Helles, in the summer, there was
-a shortage but no great scarcity of water, for
-the Turk wells supplied more than half the
-army and less than half the water needed had
-to be brought from abroad. At Anzac however
-there was always a scarcity, for even in
-the spring not more than a third of the water
-needed could be drawn from wells. At first,
-water could be found by digging shallow pans
-in the beach, but this method failed when the
-heats began. Two-thirds (or more) of the
-water needed at Anzac had always to be
-brought from abroad, and to bring this two-thirds
-regularly and to land it and store it under
-shell fire was a difficult task. "When operations
-were on," as in the August battle, the
-difficulty of distribution was added to the other
-difficulties, and then indeed want of water
-brought our troops to death's door. At Anzac
-"when operations were on" even in the intensest
-heat the average ration of water for all
-purposes was, perhaps, at most, a pint and a
-half, sometimes only a pint. And though this
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">{130}</a></span>
-extremity was as a rule only reached "when
-operations were on," when there was heavy
-fighting, it was then that the need was greatest.</p>
-
-<p>In peace, in comfortable homes, in cool
-weather, civilised people need or consume a
-little less than three pints of liquid in each day.
-In hot weather and when doing severe bodily
-labour they need more; perhaps half a gallon
-in the day. Thirst, which most of us know
-solely as a pleasant zest to drinking, soon becomes
-a hardship, then, in an hour, an obsession,
-and by high noon a madness, to those
-who toil in the sun with nothing to drink.
-Possibly to most of the many thousands who
-were in the Peninsula last summer, the real
-enemies were not the Turks, but the sun in
-Heaven, shaking "the pestilence of his light,"
-and thirst that withered the heart and cracked
-the tongue.</p>
-
-<p>Some have said to me, "Yes, but the Turks
-must have suffered, too, just as much, in that
-waterless ground." It is not so. The Turks
-at Cape Helles held the wells at Krithia; inland
-from Anzac they held the wells near Lonesome
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">{131}</a></span>
-Pine and Koja Dere. They had other
-wells at Maidos, and Gallipoli. They had
-always more water than we, and (what is
-more) the certainty of it. Most of them came
-from lands with little water and great heat,
-ten (or more) degrees further to the south
-than any part of England. Heat and thirst
-were old enemies to them, they were tempered
-to them. Our men had to serve an apprenticeship
-to them, and pay for what they learned in
-bodily hardship. Not that our men minded
-hardship; they did not; they were volunteers
-who had chosen their fate and were there of
-their own choice, and no army in the world has
-ever faced suffering more cheerily. But this
-hardship of thirst was a weight upon them,
-throughout the summer; like malaria it did not
-kill, but it lowered all vitality. It halved the
-possible effort of men always too few for the
-work in hand. Let it now double the honour
-paid to them.</p>
-
-<p class="gap-above">In the sandy soil of the Peninsula were many
-minute am&oelig;bę, which played their part in the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">{132}</a></span>
-summer suffering. In the winds of the great
-droughts of July and August the dust blew
-about our positions like smoke from burning
-hills. It fell into food and water and was
-eaten and drunk (like the flies) at each meal.
-Within the human body the am&oelig;bę of the sand
-set up symptoms like those of dysentery, as a
-rule slightly less severe than the true dysentery
-of camps. After July, nearly every man in
-our army in Gallipoli, suffered from this evil.
-Like the thirst, it lowered more vitality than
-it destroyed; many died, it is true, but then
-nearly all were ill: it was the universal sickness
-not the occasional death that mattered.</p>
-
-<p>Pass now to the position of affairs at the
-end of June. We were left to our own strength
-in this struggle, the Turks were shaken: it was
-vital to our chances to attack again before they
-recovered. We had not the men to attack
-again, but they were coming and were due in
-a few weeks' time. While they were on their
-way, the question, how to use them, was considered.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">{133}</a></span>
-As the army's task was to help the fleet
-through the Narrows it had to operate in
-the southwestern portion of the Peninsula.
-Further progress against Achi Baba in the
-Helles sector was hardly possible; for the
-Turks had added too greatly to their trenches
-there since the attacks of April and May.
-Operations on the Asian coast were hardly possible
-without a second army; operations against
-Bulair were not likely to help the fleet. Operations
-in the Anzac sector offered better chances
-of success. It was hoped that a thrust southeastward
-from Anzac might bring our men
-across to the Narrows or to the top of the
-ridges which command the road to Constantinople.
-It was reasonable to think that such
-a thrust, backed up by a new landing in force
-to the north, in Suvla Bay, might turn the
-Turkish right and destroy it. If the men at
-Helles attacked, to contain the Turks in the
-south, and the men on the right of Anzac attacked,
-to hold the Turks at Anzac, it was
-possible that men on the left of Anzac, backed
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">{134}</a></span>
-up by a new force marching from Suvla, might
-give a decisive blow. The Turk position on
-the Peninsula roughly formed a letter L. The
-plan (as it shaped) was to attack the horizontal
-line at Cape Helles, press the centre of the
-vertical line at Anzac, and bend back, crumple
-and break the top of the vertical line between
-the Anzac position and Suvla. At the same
-time, Suvla Bay was to be seized and prepared
-as a harbour at which supplies might be landed,
-even in the stormy season.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
- <a name="Img_134" id="Img_134">
- <img src="images/134.jpg" width="500" height="315" alt="134jpg"/>
- </a>
- <div class="caption">
- <p class="center">View of Anzac, looking towards Suvla</p>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Some soldier has said, that "the simple
-thing is the difficult thing." The idea seems
-simple to us, because the difficulty has been
-cleared away for us by another person's hard
-thought. Such a scheme of battle, difficult to
-think out in the strain of holding on and under
-the temptation to go slowly, improving what
-was held, was also difficult to execute. Very
-few of the great battles of history, not even
-those in Russia, in Manchuria, and in the Virginian
-Wilderness have been fought on such
-difficult ground, under such difficult conditions.</p>
-
-<p>The chosen battlefield (the southwestern
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">{135}</a></span>
-end of the Peninsula) has already been described;
-the greater part of it consists of the
-Cape Helles and Anzac positions, but the vital
-or decisive point, where, if all went well, the
-Turk right was to be bent back, broken and
-routed, lies to the north of Anzac on the spurs
-and outlying bastions of Sari Bair.</p>
-
-<p>Suvla Bay, where the new landing was to
-take place, lies three miles to the north of
-Anzac. It is a broad, rather shallow semicircular
-bay (open to the west and southwest)
-with a partly practicable beach, some of it
-(the southern part) fairly flat and sandy, the
-rest steepish and rocky though broken by
-creeks. Above it, one on the north, one on
-the south horn of the bay, rise two small low
-knolls or hillocks known as Ghazi Baba and
-Lala Baba, the latter a clearly marked tactical
-feature. To the north, beyond the horn of
-the bay, the coast is high, steep-to sandy cliff,
-broken with gullies and washed by deep water,
-but to the south, all the way to Anzac the
-coast is a flat, narrow, almost straight sweep of
-sandy shore shutting a salt marsh and a couple
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">{136}</a></span>
-of miles of lowland from the sea; it is a lagoon
-beach of the common type, with the usual
-feature of shallow water in the sea that washes
-it. The northern half of this beach is known
-as Beach C, the southern as Beach B.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 221px;">
- <a name="Img_map3-thumb" id="Img_map3-thumb" href="images/map3-large.jpg">
- <img src="images/map3-thumb.jpg" width="221" height="350" alt="map3-thumbjpg"/>
- </a>
- <div class="caption">
- <p class="right"><i>Stanford's Geog<sup>l</sup> Estb<sup>t</sup> London.</i></p>
- <p class="center">Map No. 3</p>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Viewed from the sea, the coast chosen for
-the new landing seems comparatively flat and
-gentle, seemingly, though not really, easy to
-land upon, but with no good military position
-near it. It looks as though once, long ago,
-the sea had thrust far inland there, in a big
-bay or harbour stretching from the high ground
-to the north of Suvla to the left of the Anzac
-position. This bay, if it ever existed, must
-have been four miles long and four miles across,
-a very noble space of water, ringed by big,
-broken, precipitous hills, into which it thrust in
-innumerable creeks and combes. Then (possibly)
-in the course of ages, silt brought down
-by the torrents choked the bay, and pushed the
-sea further and further back, till nothing remained
-of the harbour but the existing Suvla
-Bay and the salt marsh (dry in summer). The
-hills ringing Suvla Bay and this flat or slightly
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">{137}</a></span>
-rising expanse which may once have been a part
-of it, stand (to the fancy) like a rank that has
-beaten back an attack. They are high and
-proud to the north, they stand in groups in the
-centre, but to the south, where they link on to
-the broken cliffs of the Anzac position, they
-are heaped in tumbling precipitous disordered
-bulges of hill, cut by every kind of cleft and
-crumpled into every kind of fold, as though
-the dry land had there been put to it to keep
-out the sea. These hills are the scene of the
-bitterest fighting of the battle.</p>
-
-<p>Although these hills in the Suvla district
-stand in a rank, yet in the centre of the rank
-there are two gaps where the ancient harbour
-of our fancy thrust creeks far inland. These
-gaps or creeks open a little to the south of the
-north and south limits of Suvla Bay. They
-are watered, cultivated valleys with roads or
-tracks in them. In the northern valley is a
-village of some sixty houses called Anafarta
-Sagir, or Little Anafarta. In the southern
-valley is a rather larger village of some ninety
-houses called Biyuk Anafarta, or Great Anafarta.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">{138}</a></span>
-The valleys are called after these
-villages.</p>
-
-<p>Between these valleys is a big blunt-headed
-jut or promontory of higher ground, which
-thrusts out towards the bay. At the Suvla end
-of this jut, about 1,000 yards from the bight
-of the Salt Marsh, it shoots up in three peaks
-or top knots two of them united in the lump
-called Chocolate Hill, the other known as
-Scimitar Hill or Hill 70; all, roughly, 150 feet
-high. About a mile directly inland from
-Chocolate Hill is a peak of about twice the
-height, called Ismail Oglu Tepe, an abrupt and
-savage heap of cliff, dented with chasms, harshly
-scarped at the top, and covered with dense
-thorn scrub. This hill is the southernmost
-feature in the northern half of the battlefield.
-The valley of Great Anafarta, which runs east
-and west below it, cuts the battlefield in two.</p>
-
-<p>The southern side of the Great Anafarta
-valley is just that disarrangement of precipitous
-bulged hill which rises and falls in crags, peaks
-and gulleys all the way from the valley to
-Anzac. Few parts of the earth can be more
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">{139}</a></span>
-broken and disjointed than this mass of precipice,
-combes and ravines. A savage climate
-has dealt with it since the beginning of time,
-with great heats, frosts and torrents. It is
-not so much a ridge or chain of hills as the
-manifold outlying bastions and buttresses of
-Sari Bair, from which they are built out in
-craggy bulges parted by ravines. It may be
-said that Sari Bair begins at Gaba Tepe (to the
-south of the Anzac position) and stretches
-thence northeasterly towards Great Anafarta
-in a rolling and confused five miles of hill that
-has all the features of a mountain. It is not
-high. Its peaks range from about 250 to 600
-feet; its chief peak (Koja Chemen Tepe) is a
-little more than 900 feet. Nearly all of it is
-trackless, waterless and confused, densely covered
-with scrub (sometimes with forest) littered
-with rocks, an untamed savage country.
-The southwestern half of it made the Anzac
-position, the northeastern and higher half was
-the prize to be fought for.</p>
-
-<p>It is the watershed of that part of the Peninsula.
-The gulleys on its south side drain down
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">{140}</a></span>
-to the Hellespont; those upon its north side
-drain to the flat land which may once have been
-submerged as a part of Suvla Bay. These
-northern gulleys are great savage irregular
-gashes or glens running westerly or northwesterly
-from the hill bastions. Three of
-them, the three nearest to the northern end of
-the Anzac position, may be mentioned by name:
-Sazli Beit Dere, Chailak Dere, and Aghyl
-Dere. The word Dere means watercourse;
-but all three were bone dry in August when the
-battle was fought. It must be remembered
-that in the trackless Peninsula a watercourse of
-this kind is the nearest approach to a road, and
-(to a military force) the nearest approach to
-a covered way. All these three Deres lead up
-the heart of the hills to those highlands of Sari
-Bair where we wished to plant ourselves.
-From the top of Sari Bair one can look down
-on the whole Turkish position facing Anzac,
-and see that position not only dominated but
-turned and taken in reverse. One can see
-(only three miles away) the only road to Constantinople,
-and (five miles away) the little
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">{141}</a></span>
-port of Maidos near the Narrows. To us the
-taking of Sari Bair meant the closing of that
-road to the passing of Turk reinforcements,
-and the opening of the Narrows to the fleet.
-It meant victory, and the beginning of the end
-of this great war, with home and leisure for
-life again, and all that peace means. Knowing
-this, our soldiers made a great struggle for
-Sari Bair, but Fate turned the lot against them.
-Sari was not to be an English hill, though the
-flowers on her sides will grow out of English
-dust forever. Those who lie there thought, as
-they fell, that over their bodies our race would
-pass to victory. It may be that their spirits
-linger there at this moment, waiting for the
-English bugles and the English singing, and the
-sound of the English ships passing up the Hellespont.</p>
-
-<p>Among her tumble of hills, from the Anzac
-position to Great Anafarta, Sari Bair thrusts
-out several knolls, peaks and commanding
-heights. Within the Anzac position, is the
-little plateau of Lone or Lonesome Pine to be
-described later. Further to the northeast are
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">{142}</a></span>
-the heights known as Baby 700 and Battleship
-Hill, and beyond these, still further to the
-northeast, the steep peak of Chunuk Bair. All
-of these before this battle were held by the
-Turks, whose trenches defended them. Lone
-Pine is about 400 feet high, the others rather
-more, slowly rising, as they go northeast, but
-keeping to about the height of the English
-Chilterns. Chunuk Bair, the highest of these,
-is about 750 feet. Beyond Chunuk, half-a-mile
-further to the northeast, is Hill Q, and beyond
-Hill Q a very steep deep gulley, above which
-rises the beautiful peak, the summit of Sari,
-known as Koja Chemen Tepe. One or two
-Irish hills in the wilder parts of Antrim are
-like this peak, though less fleeced with brush.
-In height, as I have said, it is a little more than
-900 feet, or about the height of our Bredon
-Hill. One point about it may be noted. It
-thrusts out a great spur or claw for rather more
-than a mile due north; this spur, which is much
-gullied, is called Abd-el-Rahman Bair.</p>
-
-<p>For the moment, Chunuk Bair is the most
-important point to remember, because&mdash;</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">{143}</a></span>
-(a) It was the extreme right of the prepared
-Turk position.</p>
-
-<p>(b) The three Deres mentioned a couple of
-pages back have their sources at its foot and
-start there, like three roads starting from the
-walls of a city on their way to the sea. They
-lead past the hills known as Table Top and
-Rhododendron Spur. Close to their beginnings
-at the foot of Chunuk is a building known
-as The Farm, round which the fighting was
-very fierce.</p>
-
-<p>The "idea" or purpose of the battle was
-"to endeavour to seize a position across the
-Gallipoli Peninsular from Gaba Tep to Maidos,
-with a protected line of supply from Suvla
-Bay."</p>
-
-<p>The plan of the attack was, that a strong
-force in Anzac should endeavour to throw back
-the right wing of the Turks, drive them south
-towards Kilid Bahr and thus secure a position
-commanding the narrow part of the Peninsula.</p>
-
-<p>Meanwhile a large body of troops should
-secure Suvla, and another large body, landing
-at Suvla, should clear away any Turkish forces
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">{144}</a></span>
-on the hills between the Anafarta valleys, and
-then help the attacking force from Anzac by
-storming Sari Bair from the north and west.</p>
-
-<p>The 6th of August was fixed for the first day
-of the attack from Anzac; the landing at Suvla
-was to take place during the dark hours of
-the night of the 6th-7th. "The 6th was both
-the earliest and the latest date possible for the
-battle, the earliest, because it was the first by
-which the main part of the reinforcements
-would be ready, the latest, because of the
-moon." Both in the preparation and the surprise
-of this attack dark nights were essential.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
- <a name="Img_144" id="Img_144">
- <img src="images/144.jpg" width="500" height="315" alt="144jpg"/>
- </a>
- <div class="caption">
- <p class="center">A "long focus" view taken over the top of our trenches at Anzac</p>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Sir Ian Hamilton's Despatch (reprinted
-from the London <i>Gazette</i> of Tuesday, the 4th
-January, 1916) shows that this battle of the
-6th-10th August was perhaps the strangest and
-most difficult battle ever planned by mortal
-general. It was to be a triple battle, fought
-by three separated armies, not in direct communication
-with each other. There was no
-place from which the battle, as a whole, could
-be controlled, nearer than the island of Imbros,
-(fourteen miles from any part of the Peninsula)
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">{145}</a></span>
-to which telegraphic cables led from Anzac and
-Cape Helles. The left wing of our army, designed
-for the landing at Suvla, was not only
-not landed, when the battle began, but not concentrated.
-There was no adjacent subsidiary
-base big enough (or nearly big enough) to hold
-it. "On the day before the battle, part were
-at Imbros, part at Mudros, and part at Mitylene
-... separated respectively by 14, 60, and
-120 miles of sea from the arena into which
-they were simultaneously to appear." The
-vital part of the fight was to be fought by
-troops from Anzac. The Anzac position was
-an open book to every Turk aeroplane and
-every observer on Sari Bair. The reinforcements
-for this part of the battle had to be
-landed in the dark, some days before the
-battle, and kept hidden underground, during
-daylight, so that the Turks should not see them
-and suspect what was being planned.</p>
-
-<p>In all wars, but especially in modern wars,
-great tactical combinations have been betrayed
-by very little things. In war, as in life, the
-unusual thing, however little, betrays the unusual
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">{146}</a></span>
-thing, however great. An odd bit of
-paper round some cigars betrayed the hopes of
-the American Secession, some litter in the sea
-told Nelson where the French fleet was, one man
-rising up in the grass by a roadside saved the
-wealth of Peru from the hands of Drake. The
-Turks were always expecting an attack from
-Anzac. It is not too much to say that they
-searched the Anzac position hourly for the certain
-signs of an attack, reinforcements and
-supplies. They had not even to search the
-whole position for these signs, since there was
-only one place (towards Fisherman's Hut)
-where they could be put. If they had suspected
-that men and stores were being landed,
-they would have guessed at once, that a thrust
-was to be made, and our attacks upon their
-flanks would have met with a prepared defence.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
- <a name="Img_146" id="Img_146">
- <img src="images/146.jpg" width="500" height="315" alt="146jpg"/>
- </a>
- <div class="caption">
- <p class="center">Australians at work at Anzac two days before the evacuation took place</p>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>It was vital to our chance of success that
-nothing unusual, however little, should be
-visible in Anzac from the Turk positions during
-the days before the battle. One man staring
-up at an aeroplane would have been evidence
-enough to a quick observer that there was a
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">{147}</a></span>
-new-comer on the scene. One new water tank,
-one new gun, one mule not yet quiet from the
-shock of landing, might have betrayed all the
-adventure. Very nearly thirty thousand men,
-one whole Division and one Brigade of English
-soldiers, and a Brigade of Gurkhas, with their
-guns and stores, had to be landed unobserved
-and hidden.</p>
-
-<p>There was only one place in which they could
-be hidden, and that was under the ground.
-The Australians had to dig hiding places for
-them before they came.</p>
-
-<p>In this war of digging, the daily life in the
-trenches gives digging enough to every soldier.
-Men dig daily even if they do not fight. At
-Anzac in July the Australians had a double
-share of digging, their daily share in the front
-lines, and, when that was finished, their nightly
-share, preparing cover for the new troops.
-During the nights of the latter half of July the
-Australians at Anzac dug, roofed and covered
-not less than twenty miles of dugouts. All of
-this work was done in their sleep time, after
-the normal day's work of fighting, digging and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">{148}</a></span>
-carrying up stores. Besides digging these
-hiding places they carried up, fixed, hid, and
-filled the water tanks which were to supply the
-newcomers.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
- <a name="Img_148" id="Img_148">
- <img src="images/148.jpg" width="500" height="315" alt="148jpg"/>
- </a>
- <div class="caption">
- <p class="center">A boatload of British troops leaving the S.S. <i>Nile</i> for one of the landing beaches</p>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>On the night of the 3rd of August when the
-landing of the new men began, the work was
-doubled. Everybody who could be spared
-from the front trenches went to the piers to
-help to land, carry inland and hide the guns,
-stores, carts and animals coming ashore. The
-nights, though lengthening, were still summer
-nights. There were seven hours of semi-darkness
-in which to cover up all traces of what
-came ashore. The newcomers landed at the
-rate of about 1,500 an hour, during the nights
-of the 3rd, 4th and 5th of August. During
-those nights, the Australians landed, carried
-inland and hid not less than one thousand tons
-of shells, cartridges and food, some hundreds
-of horses and mules, many guns, and two or
-three hundred water-carts and ammunition
-carts. All night-long, for those three nights,
-the Australians worked like schoolboys.
-Often, towards dawn, it was a race against
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">{149}</a></span>
-time, but always at dawn, the night's tally of
-new troops were in their billets, the new stores
-were under ground and the new horses hidden.
-When the morning aeroplanes came over, their
-observers saw nothing unusual in any part of
-Anzac. The half-naked men were going up
-and down the gullies, the wholly naked men
-were bathing in the sea, everything else was as
-it had always been, nor were any transports on
-the coast. For those three nights nearly all the
-Australians at Anzac gave up most of their
-sleep. They had begun the work by digging
-the cover, they took a personal pride and pleasure
-in playing the game of cache-cache to the
-end.</p>
-
-<p>It is difficult to praise a feat of the kind and
-still more difficult to make people understand
-what the work meant. Those smiling and
-glorious young giants thought little of it.
-They loved their chiefs and they liked the fun,
-and when praised for it looked away with a
-grin. The labour of the task can only be felt
-by those who have done hard manual work in
-hot climates. Digging is one of the hardest
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">{150}</a></span>
-kinds of work, even when done in a garden with
-a fork. When done in a trench with a pick
-and shovel it is as hard work as threshing with
-a flail. Carrying heavy weights over uneven
-ground is harder work still; and to do either
-of these things on a salt-meat diet with a scanty
-allowance of water, is very, very hard; but to
-do them at night after a hard day's work, instead
-of sleeping, is hardest of all; even farm-labourers
-would collapse and sailors mutiny
-when asked to do this last. It may be said
-that no one could have done this labour, but
-splendid young men splendidly encouraged to
-do their best. Many of these same young men
-who had toiled thus almost without sleep for
-three days and nights, fell in with the others
-and fought all through the battle.</p>
-
-<p>But all this preparation was a setting of precedents
-and the doing of something new to war.
-Never before have 25,000 men been kept
-buried under an enemy's eye until the hour for
-the attack. Never before have two Divisions
-of all arms been brought up punctually, by ship,
-over many miles of sea, from different ports,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">{151}</a></span>
-to land under fire, at an appointed time, to
-fulfil a great tactical scheme.</p>
-
-<p>But all these difficulties were as nothing to
-the difficulty of making sure that the men fighting
-in the blinding heat of a Gallipoli August
-should have enough water to drink. Eighty
-tons of water a day does not seem very much.
-It had only to be brought five hundred miles,
-which does not seem very far, to those who in
-happy peace can telephone for 80 tons of anything
-to be sent five hundred miles to anywhere.
-But in war, weight, distance and time become
-terrible and tragic things, involving the lives
-of armies. The water supply of that far
-battlefield, indifferent as it was, at the best, was
-a triumph of resolve and skill unequalled yet
-in war. It is said that Wellington boasted
-that, while Napoleon could handle men, he,
-Wellington, could feed them. Our naval
-officers can truly say that, while Sir Ian Hamilton
-can handle men, they can give them drink.</p>
-
-<p>As to the enemy before the battle, it was
-estimated that (apart from the great strategical
-reserves within 30 or 40 miles) there were
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">{152}</a></span>
-30,000 Turks in the vital part of the battlefield,
-to the north of Kilid Bahr. Twelve
-thousand of these were in the trenches opposite
-Anzac; most of the rest in the villages two
-or three miles to the south and southeast of
-Sari Bair. Three battalions were in the Anafarta
-villages, one battalion was entrenched on
-Ismail Oglu Tepe; small outposts held the two
-Baba hillocks on the bay, and the land north
-of the bay was patrolled by mounted gendarmerie.
-These scattered troops on the Turk
-right had guns with them; it was not known
-how many. The beach of Suvla was known to
-be mined.</p>
-
-<p>August began with calm weather. The
-scattered regiments of the Divisions for Suvla,
-after some weeks of hard exercise ashore, were
-sent on board their transports. At a little before
-four o'clock on the afternoon of the 6th
-August, the 29th Division began the battle by
-an assault on the Turk positions below Krithia.</p>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">{153}</a></div>
-
-<h2>V</h2>
-
-<p>Roland put the horn to his mouth, gripped it hard
-and with great heart blew it. The hills were high and
-the sound went very far: thirty leagues wide they heard
-it echo. Charles heard it and all his comrades; so the
-King said, "Our men are fighting." Count Guenes
-answered: "If any other said that, I should call him
-a liar."</p>
-
-<p>Count Roland in pain and woe and great weakness
-blew his horn. The bright blood was running from
-his mouth and the temples of his brains were broken.
-But the noise of the horn was very great. Charles
-heard it as he was passing at the ports; Naimes heard
-it, the Franks listened to it. So the King said, "I
-hear the horn of Roland; he would never sound it if he
-were not fighting." Guenes answered, "There is no
-fighting. You are old and white and hoary. You are
-like a child when you say such things."</p>
-
-<p>Count Roland's mouth was bleeding; the temples
-of his brain were broken. He blew his horn in weakness
-and pain. Charles heard it and his Franks heard
-it. So the King said: "That horn has long breath."
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">{154}</a></span>
-Duke Naimes answered, "Roland is in trouble. He is
-fighting, on my conscience. Arm yourself. Cry your
-war-cry. Help the men of your house. You hear
-plainly that Roland is in trouble."</p>
-
-<p>The Emperor made sound his horns.... All the
-barons of the army mounted their chargers. But what
-use was that? They had delayed too long. What
-use was that? It was worth nothing; they had stayed
-too long; they could not be in time.</p>
-
-<p>Then Roland said, "Here we shall receive martyrdom,
-and now I know well that we have but a moment
-to live. But may all be thieves who do not sell themselves
-dearly first. Strike, knights, with your bright
-swords; so change your deaths and lives, that sweet
-France be not shamed by us. When Charles comes
-into this field he shall see such discipline upon the
-Saracens that he shall not fail to bless us."</p>
-
-<div class="foot">
-<div class="right1"><i>The Song of Roland.</i></div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">{155}</a></span>
-<span class="smcap">The</span> Cape Helles attack, designed to keep the
-Turks to the south of Kilid Bahr from reinforcing
-those near Anzac, became a very desperate
-struggle. The Turk trenches there were
-full of men, for the Turks had been preparing
-a strong attack upon ourselves, which we forestalled
-by a few hours. The severe fighting
-lasted for a week along the whole Cape Helles
-front, but it was especially bloody and terrible
-in the centre, in a vineyard to the west of the
-Krithia road. It has often happened in war,
-that some stubbornness in attack or defence
-has roused the same quality in the opposer, till
-the honour of the armies seems pledged to the
-taking or holding of one patch of ground, perhaps
-not vital to the battle. It may be that in
-war one resolute soul can bind the excited minds
-of multitudes in a kind of bloody mesmerism;
-but these strange things are not studied as they
-should be. Near Krithia, the battle, which
-began as a containing attack, a minor part of
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">{156}</a></span>
-a great scheme, became a furious week-long
-fight for this vineyard, a little patch of ground
-"200 yards long by 100 yards broad."</p>
-
-<p>From the 6th-13th of August, the fight for
-this vineyard never ceased. Our Lancashire
-regiments won most of it at the first assault on
-the 6th. For the rest of the week they held
-it against all that the Turks could bring against
-them. It was not a battle in the military textbook
-sense: it was a fight man to man, between
-two enemies whose blood was up. It was a
-week-long cursing and killing scrimmage, the
-men lying down to fire and rising up to fight
-with the bayonet, literally all day long, day
-after day, the two sides within easy bombing
-distance all the time. The Turks lost some
-thousands of men in their attacks upon this
-vineyard after a week of fighting, they rushed
-it in a night attack, were soon bombed out of
-it and then gave up the struggle for it. This
-bitter fighting not only kept the Turks at Cape
-Helles from reinforcing those at Anzac; it
-caused important Turk reinforcements to be
-sent to the Helles sector.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">{157}</a></span>
-Less than an hour after the 29th Division
-began the containing battle at Krithia, the
-Australians at Anzac began theirs. This, the
-attack on the Turk fort at Lone Pine, in the
-southern half of the Anzac front, was designed
-to keep large bodies of Turks from reinforcing
-their right, on Sari Bair, where the decisive
-blow was to be struck. It was a secondary
-operation, not the main thrust, but it was in
-itself important, since to those at Anzac, the
-hill of Lone Pine was the gate into the narrowest
-part of the Peninsula, and through that
-gate, as the Turks very well knew, a rush might
-be made from Anzac upon Maidos and the
-Narrows. Such a thrust from Lone Pine, turning
-all the Turkish works on the range of Sari
-Bair, was what the Turks expected and feared
-from us. They had shewn us as much, quite
-plainly, all through the summer. Any movement,
-feint, or demonstration against Lone
-Pine, brought up their reserves at once. It
-was the sensitive spot on their not too strong
-left wing. If we won through there, we had
-their main water supply as an immediate prize
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">{158}</a></span>
-and no other position in front of us from
-which we could be held. Any strong attack
-there was therefore certain to contain fully half
-a division of the enemy.</p>
-
-<p>The hill of Lone or Lonesome Pine is a little
-plateau less than 400 feet high running N.W.
-S.E. and measuring perhaps 250 yards long
-by 200 across. On its southwestern side it
-drops down in gullies to a col or ridge, known
-as Pine Ridge, which gradually declines away
-to the low ground near Gaba Tepe. On its
-northeastern side it joins the high ground
-known as Johnston's Jolly, which was, alas,
-neither jolly nor Johnston's, but a strong part
-of the Turk position.</p>
-
-<p>We already held a little of the Lone Pine
-Plateau; our trenches bulged out into it in a
-convexity or salient known as The Pimple, but
-the Turks held the greater part, and their
-trenches curved out the other way, in a mouth,
-concavity or trap opening towards The Pimple
-as though ready to swallow it. The opposing
-lines of trenches ran from north to south across
-the plateau, with from 50 to 100 yards between
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">{159}</a></span>
-them. Both to the north and south of the
-plateau are deep gullies. Just beyond these
-gullies Turk trenches were so placed that the
-machine guns in them could sweep the whole
-plateau. The space between the Australian
-and Turk lines was fairly level hilltop, covered
-with thyme and short scrub.</p>
-
-<p>For some days before the 6th August the
-warships had been shelling the Turk position
-on Lone Pine to knock away the barbed wire
-in front of it. On the 5th, the Australian
-brigade, told off for the attack, sharpened
-bayonets and prepared their distinguishing
-marks of white bands for the left arms and
-white patches for the backs of their right
-shoulders. In the afternoon of the 6th the
-shelling by the ships became more intense; at
-half-past four it quickened to a very heavy fire;
-at exactly half-past five it stopped suddenly,
-"the three short whistle blasts sounded and
-were taken up along the line, our men cleared
-the parapet," in two waves on a front of about
-160 yards, "and attacked with vigour." The
-hill top over which they charged was in a night
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">{160}</a></span>
-of smoke and dust from the explosions of the
-shells, and into that night, already singing with
-enemy bullets, the Australians disappeared.
-They had not gone twenty yards before all that
-dark and blazing hill top was filled with explosion
-and flying missiles from every enemy
-gun. One speaks of a hail of bullets, but no
-hail is like fire, no hail in a form of death crying
-aloud a note of death, no hail screams as
-it strikes a stone, or stops a strong man in his
-stride. Across that kind of hail the Australians
-charged on Lone Pine. "It was a grim
-kind of steeplechase," said one, "but we meant
-to get to Koja Dere." They reached the
-crumpled wire of the entanglement, and got
-through it to the parapet of the Turk trench,
-where they were held up. Those behind them
-at The Pimple, peering through the darkness,
-to see if any had survived the rush, saw figures
-on the parados of the enemy's trench, and
-wondered what was happening. They sent
-forward the third wave, with one full company
-carrying picks and shovels, to make good what
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">{161}</a></span>
-was won. The men of this third wave found
-what was happening.</p>
-
-<p>The Turkish front line trench was not, like
-most trenches, an open ditch into which men
-could jump, but covered over along nearly all
-its length with blinders and beams of pinewood,
-heaped with sandbags, and in some places with
-a couple of feet of earth. Under this cover
-the Turks fired at our men through loopholes,
-often with their rifles touching their victims.
-Most of the Australians, after heaving in vain
-to get these blinders up, under a fire that grew
-hotter every instant, crossed them, got into the
-open communication trenches in the rear of the
-Turk line, and attacked through them; but
-some, working together, hove up a blinder or
-two, and down the gaps so made those brave
-men dropped themselves, to a bayonet fight like
-a rat fight in a sewer, with an enemy whom they
-could hardly see, in a narrow dark gash in the
-earth where they were, at first, as one to five
-or seven to ten.</p>
-
-<p>More and more men dropped down or
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">{162}</a></span>
-rushed in from the rear; the Turks so penned
-in, fought hard, but could not beat back the
-attack. They surrendered and were disarmed.
-The survivors were at least as many as their
-captors, who had too much to do at that time
-to send them to the rear, even if there had been
-a safe road by which to send them. They
-were jammed up there in the trenches with the
-Australians, packed man to man, suffering from
-their friends' fire and getting in the way.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 315px;">
- <a name="Img_162" id="Img_162">
- <img src="images/162.jpg" width="315" height="500" alt="162jpg"/>
- </a>
- <div class="caption">
- <p class="center">Inside an Australian trench, showing a man using a periscope rifle
- and another man keeping watch by means of a periscope</p>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The first thing to be done was to block up the
-communication trenches against the Turkish
-counter attack. Every man carried a couple of
-sandbags, and with these, breastworks and
-walls were built. Their work was done in a
-narrow dark sweltering tunnel, heaped with
-corpses and wounded and crowded with prisoners
-who might at any moment have risen. Already
-the Turks had begun their counter attacks.
-At every other moment a little rush of
-Turks came up the communication trenches,
-flung their bombs in the workers' faces, and
-were bayoneted as they threw. The trenches
-curved and zigzagged in the earth; the men in
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">{163}</a></span>
-one section could neither see nor hear what the
-men in the nearest sections were doing. What
-went on under the ground there in the making
-good of those trenches will never be known.
-From half-past five till midnight every section of
-the line was searched by bombs and bullets, by
-stink pots, and sticks of dynamite, by gas-bombs
-and a falling tumult of shell and shrapnel,
-which only ceased to let some rush of Turks
-attack, with knives, grenades and bayonets,
-hand to hand and body to body in a blackness
-like the darkness of a mine. At midnight the
-wounded were lying all over the trenches, the
-enemy dead were so thick that our men had to
-walk on them, and bombs were falling in such
-numbers that every foot in those galleries was
-stuck with human flesh. No man slept that
-night. At half-past seven next morning (the
-7th) a small quantity of bread and tea was
-rushed across the plateau to the fighters, who
-had more than earned their breakfast. Turk
-shell had by this time blown up some of the
-head-cover and some of the new communication
-trenches were still only a few feet deep. A
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">{164}</a></span>
-Colonel passing along one of them told an
-officer that his section of the trench was too
-shallow. Half-an-hour later, in passing back,
-he found the officer and three men blown to
-pieces by a shell; in a few minutes more he was
-himself killed. At noon the bombing became
-so severe that some sections of the line were
-held only by one or two wounded men. At one
-o'clock the enemy attacked furiously with bomb
-and bayonet, in great force. They came on in
-a mass, in wave after wave, shoulder to
-shoulder, heads down, shouting the name of
-God. They rushed across the plateau, jumped
-into the trenches and were mixed up with our
-men in a hand-to-hand fight, which lasted for
-five hours. Not many of them could join in
-the fight at one time, and not many of them
-went back to the Turk lines; but they killed
-many of our men, and when their last assault
-failed our prize was very weakly held. At
-half-past seven the survivors received a cheering
-(and truthful) message from the Brigadier
-"that no fighters can surpass Australians," and
-almost with the message came another Turk
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">{165}</a></span>
-assault begun by bomb and shell and rifle fire,
-and followed by savage rushes with the bayonet,
-one of which got in, and did much slaughter.
-No man slept that night; the fight hardly
-slackened all through the night; at dawn the
-dead were lying three deep in every part of the
-line. Bombs fell every minute in some section
-of the line, and where the wide Turk trenches
-had been blasted open they were very destructive.
-The men were "extremely tired but determined
-to hold on." They did hold on.</p>
-
-<p>They held on for the next five days and
-nights, till Lone Pine was ours past question.
-For those five days and nights the fight for
-Lone Pine was one long personal scrimmage in
-the midst of explosion. For those five days
-and nights the Australians lived and ate and
-slept in that gallery of the mine of death, in a
-half darkness lit by great glares, in filth, heat
-and corpses, among rotting and dying and mutilated
-men, with death blasting at the doors
-only a few feet away, and intense and bloody
-fighting, hand to hand, with bombs, bayonets
-and knives, for hours together by night and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">{166}</a></span>
-day. When the Turks gave up the struggle
-the dead were five to the yard in that line or
-works; they were heaped in a kind of double
-wall all along the sides of the trench: most of
-them were bodies of Turks, but among them
-were one quarter of the total force which ran
-out from The Pimple on the evening of the 6th.</p>
-
-<p>Like the fight for the vineyard near Krithia,
-this fight for Lone Pine kept large numbers
-of Turks from the vital part of the battlefield.</p>
-
-<p>When the sun set upon this battle at Lone
-Pine on that first evening of the 6th of August,
-many thousands of brave men fell in for the
-main battle, which was to strew their glorious
-bodies in the chasms of the Sari Bair, where
-none but the crows would ever find them. They
-fell in at the appointed places in four columns,
-two to guard the flanks, two to attack. One
-attacking column, guarded and helped by the
-column on its right, was to move up the Chailak
-and Sazli Beit Deres, to the storm of Chunuk
-Bair, the other attacking column, guarded and
-helped by the column on its left, was to move
-up the Aghyl Dere to the storm of Sari's peak
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">{167}</a></span>
-of Koja Chemen Tepe. The outermost, left,
-guarding column (though it did not know it)
-was to link up with the force soon to land at
-Suvla.</p>
-
-<p>They were going upon a night attack in a
-country known to be a wilderness with neither
-water nor way in it. They had neither light
-nor guide, nor any exact knowledge of where
-the darkness would burst into a blaze from the
-Turk fire. Many armies have gone out into
-the darkness of a night adventure, but what
-army has gone out like this, from the hiding
-places on a beach to the heart of unknown hills,
-to wander up crags under fire, to storm a fortress
-in the dawn? Even in Manchuria, there
-were roads and the traces and the comforts of
-man. In this savagery, there was nothing, but
-the certainty of desolation, where the wounded
-would lie until they died and the dead be never
-buried.</p>
-
-<p>Until this campaign, the storm of Badajos
-was the most desperate duty ever given to
-British soldiers. The men in the forlorn hope
-of that storm marched to their position to the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">{168}</a></span>
-sound of fifes "which filled the heart with a
-melting sweetness" and tuned that rough company
-to a kind of sacred devotion. No music
-played away the brave men from Anzac.
-They answered to their names in the dark, and
-moved off to take position for what they had
-to do. Men of many races were banded
-together there. There were Australians, English,
-Indians, Maoris and New Zealanders,
-made one by devotion to a cause, and all willing
-to die that so their comrades might see the
-dawn make a steel streak of the Hellespont
-from the peaked hill now black against the
-stars. Soon they had turned their back on
-friendly little Anzac and the lights in the gullies
-and were stepping out with the sea upon
-their left and the hills of their destiny upon
-their right, and the shells, starlights and battle
-of Lone Pine far away behind them. Before
-9 <small>A.M.</small> the Right Covering Column (of New
-Zealanders) was in position ready to open up
-the Sazli Beit and Chailak Deres, to their
-brothers who were to storm Chunuk. Half an
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">{169}</a></span>
-hour later, cunningly backed by the guns of the
-destroyer <i>Colne</i>, they rushed the Turk position,
-routed the garrison and its supports, and took
-the fort known as Old No. 3 Post. It was an
-immensely strong position, protected by barbed
-wire, shielded by shell-proof head cover, and
-mined in front "with 28 mines electrically connected
-to a first-rate firing apparatus within."
-Sed nisi Dominus.</p>
-
-<p>This success opened up the Sazli Dere for
-nearly half of its length.</p>
-
-<p>Inland from Old No. 3 Post, and some 700
-yards from it is a crag or precipice which looks
-like a round table, with a top projecting beyond
-its legs. This crag, known to our men as
-Table Top, is a hill which few would climb for
-pleasure. Nearly all the last 100 feet of the
-peak is precipice, such as no mountaineer would
-willingly climb without clear daylight and every
-possible precaution. It is a sort of skull of
-rock fallen down upon its body of rock, and
-the great rocky ribs heave out with gullies between
-them. The table-top, or plateau-summit,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">{170}</a></span>
-was strongly entrenched and held by the Turks,
-whose communication trenches ran down the
-back of the hill to Rhododendron Spur.</p>
-
-<p>While their comrades were rushing Old No.
-3 Post, a party of New Zealanders marched to
-storm this natural fortress. The muscular
-part of the feat may be likened to the climbing
-of the Welsh Glyddyrs, the Irish Lurig, or the
-craggier parts of the American Palisades, in
-a moonless midnight, under a load of not less
-than thirty pounds. But the muscular effort
-was made much greater by the roughness of the
-unknown approaches, which led over glidders
-of loose stones into the densest of short, thick,
-intensely thorny scrub. The New Zealanders
-advanced under fire through this scrub, went
-up the rocks in a spirit which no crag could
-daunt, reached the Table-top, rushed the Turk
-trenches, killed some Turks of the garrison and
-captured the rest with all their stores.</p>
-
-<p>This success opened up the remainder of the
-Sazli Beit Dere.</p>
-
-<p>While these attacks were progressing, the
-remainder of the Right Covering Column
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">{171}</a></span>
-marched north to the Chailak Dere. A large
-body crossed this Dere and marched on, but the
-rest turned up the Dere and soon came to a
-barbed wire entanglement which blocked the
-ravine. They had met the Turks' barbed wire
-before, on Anzac Day, and had won through
-it, but this wire in the Dere was new to their
-experience; it was meant rather as a permanent
-work than as an obstruction. It was secured
-to great balks or blinders of pine, six or eight
-feet high, which stood in a rank twenty or
-thirty deep right across the ravine. The wire
-which crossed and criss-crossed between these
-balks was as thick as a man's thumb and profusely
-barbed. Beyond it lay a flanking trench,
-held by a strong outpost of Turks, who at once
-opened fire. This, though not unexpected, was
-a difficult barrier to come upon in the darkness
-of a summer night, and here, as before, at the
-landing of the Worcester Regiment at W beach,
-men went forward quietly, without weapons, to
-cut the wire for the others. They were shot
-down, but others took their places, though the
-Turks, thirty steps away on the other side of
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">{172}</a></span>
-the gulley, had only to hold their rifles steady
-and pull their triggers to destroy them. This
-holding up in the darkness by an unseen hidden
-enemy and an obstacle which needed high explosive
-shell in quantity caused heavy loss and
-great delay. For a time there was no getting
-through; but then with the most desperate
-courage and devotion, a party of engineers
-cleared the obstacle, the Turks were routed,
-and a path made for the attackers.</p>
-
-<p>This success opened up the mouth of the
-Chailak Dere.</p>
-
-<p>Meanwhile those who had marched across
-this Dere and gone on towards Suvla, swung
-round to the right to clear the Turks from
-Bauchop's Hill, which overlooks the Chailak
-Dere from the north. Bauchop's Hill (a
-rough country even for Gallipoli) is cleft by
-not less than twenty great gullies, most of them
-forked, precipitous, overgrown and heaped with
-rocks. The New Zealanders scrambled up it
-from the north, got into a maze of trenches,
-not strongly held, beat the Turks out of them,
-wandered south across the neck or ridge of the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">{173}</a></span>
-hill, discovering Turk trenches by their fire, and
-at last secured the whole hill.</p>
-
-<p>This success, besides securing the Chailak
-Dere from any assault from the north, secured
-the south flank of the Aghyl Dere beyond it.</p>
-
-<p>Meanwhile the Left Covering Column
-(mainly Welshmen) which for some time had
-halted at Old No. 3 Post, waiting for the
-sound of battle to tell them that the Turks on
-Bauchop's Hill were engaged, marched boldly
-on the Aghyl Dere, crossed it in a rush, taking
-every Turk trench in the way, then stormed the
-Turk outpost on Damakjelik Bair, going on
-from trench to trench in the dark guided by the
-flashes of the rifles, till the whole hill was theirs.
-This success opened up the Aghyl Dere to the
-attacking column.</p>
-
-<p>As the troops drew their breath in the still
-night on the little hill which they had won, they
-heard about three miles away a noise of battle
-on the seacoast to their left. This noise was
-not the nightly "hate" of the monitors and
-destroyers but an irregular and growing rifle
-fire. This, though they did not know it, was
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">{174}</a></span>
-the beginning of the landing of the new Divisions,
-with their 30,000 men, at Suvla Bay.</p>
-
-<p>For the moment, Suvla was not the important
-point in the battle. The three Deres were the
-important points, for up the three Deres, now
-cleared of Turks, our Attacking Columns were
-advancing to the assault.</p>
-
-<p>By this time however, the Turks were roused
-throughout their line. All the Anzac position
-from Tasmania Post to Table Top was a blaze
-of battle to contain them before our trenches,
-but they knew now that their right was threatened
-and their reserves were hurrying out to
-meet us before we had gained the crests. Our
-Right Attacking Column (of English and New
-Zealand troops) went up the Sazli Beit and
-Chailak Deres, deployed beyond Table Top
-and stormed Rhododendron Spur, fighting for
-their lives every inch of the way. The Left
-Column (mainly Indians and Australians)
-pressed up the Aghyl, into the stony clefts of
-its upper forks, and so, by rock, jungle, heartbreaking
-cliff and fissure to the attack of Hill
-Q, and the lower slopes of Sari. They, too,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">{175}</a></span>
-were fighting for their lives. Their advance
-was across a scrub peopled now by little clumps
-of marksmen firing from hiding. When they
-deployed out of the Deres, to take up their
-line of battle, they linked up with the Right
-Assaulting Column, and formed with them a
-front of about a mile, stretching from the old
-Anzac position to within a mile of the crests
-which were the prize. By this time the night
-was over, day was breaking, the Turks were
-in force, and our attacking columns much exhausted,
-but there was still breath for a last
-effort. Now, with the breath, came a quick
-encouragement, for looking down from their
-hillsides they could see Suvla Bay full of ships,
-the moving marks of boats, dotted specks of
-men on the sandhills, and more ships on the
-sea marching like chariots to the cannon. In
-a flash, as happens when many minds are tense
-together, they realised the truth. A new landing
-was being made. All along the coast by
-the Bay the crackle and the flash of firing was
-moving from the sea, to shew them that the
-landing was made good, and that the Turks
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">{176}</a></span>
-were falling back. Hardening their hearts at
-this sight of help coming from the sea the Australians
-and Sikhs with the last of their strength
-went at Koja Chemen Tepe, and the New Zealanders
-upon their right rose to the storm of
-Chunuk.</p>
-
-<p>It was not to be. The guns behind them
-backed them. They did what mortal men
-could do, but they were worn out by the night's
-advance, they could not carry the two summits.
-They tried a second time to carry Chunuk; but
-they were too weary and the Turks in too great
-strength; they could not get to the top. But
-they held to what they had won; they entrenched
-themselves on the new line, and there they
-stayed, making ready for the next attack.</p>
-
-<p>Two or three have said to me: "They
-ought not to have been exhausted; none of them
-had marched five miles." It is difficult to
-answer such critics patiently, doubly difficult to
-persuade them, without showing them the five
-miles. There comes into my mind, as I write,
-the image of some hills in the west of Ireland,
-a graceful and austere range, not difficult to
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">{177}</a></span>
-climb, seemingly, and not unlike these Gallipoli
-hills, in their look of lying down at rest. The
-way to those hills is over some miles of scattered
-limestone blocks, with gaps between them
-full of scrub, gorse, heather, dwarf-ash and
-little hill-thorn, and the traveller proceeds, as
-the Devil went through Athlone, "in standing
-lepps." This journey to the hills is the likest
-journey (known to me) to that of the assaulting
-columns. Like the Devil in Athlone the
-assaulting columns had often to advance "in
-standing lepps," but to them the standing lepp
-came as a solace, a rare, strange and blessed
-respite, from forcing through scrub by main
-strength, or scaling a crag of rotten sandstone,
-in pitch darkness, in the presence of an enemy.
-For an armed force to advance a mile an hour
-by day over such a country is not only good
-going, but a great achievement; to advance four
-miles in a night over such a country, fighting
-literally all the way, often hand to hand, and
-to feel the enemy's resistance stiffening and his
-reserves arriving, as the strength fails and the
-ascent steepens, and yet to make an effort at
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">{178}</a></span>
-the end, is a thing unknown in the history of
-war. And this first fourteen hours of exhausting
-physical labour was but the beginning.
-The troops, as they very well knew, were to
-have two or three days more of the same toil
-before the battle could be ended, one way or
-the other. So after struggling for fourteen
-hours with every muscle in their bodies, over
-crags and down gullies in the never-ceasing
-peril of death, they halted in the blaze of noon
-and drew their breath. In the evening, as they
-hoped, the men from Suvla would join hands
-and go on to victory with them; they had fought
-the first stage of the battle, the next stage was
-to be decisive.</p>
-
-<p>The heat of this noon of August 7th on
-those sandy hills was a scarcely bearable torment.</p>
-
-<p class="gap-above">Meanwhile, at Suvla, the left of the battle,
-the 11th Division, had landed in the pitch-darkness,
-by wading ashore, in five feet of water,
-under rifle fire, on to beaches prepared with
-land mines. The first boat-loads lost many
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">{179}</a></span>
-men from the mines and from the fire of snipers,
-who came right down to the beach in the darkness
-and fired from the midst of our men.
-These snipers were soon bayoneted, our men
-formed for the assault in the dark and stormed
-the Turk outpost on Lala Baba there and then.
-While Lala Baba was being cleared other battalions
-moved north to clear the Turk from
-the neighbourhood of the beach on that side.
-The ground over which they had to move is a
-sand-dune-land, covered with gorse and other
-scrub, most difficult to advance across in a wide
-extension. About half a mile from the beach
-the ground rises in a roll of whale-back, known
-on the battle plans as Hill 10. This hill is
-about three hundred yards long and thirty feet
-high. At this whale-back (which was entrenched)
-the Turks rallied on their supports;
-they had, perhaps, a couple of thousand men
-and (some say) a gun or two, and the dawn
-broke before they could be rushed. Their first
-shells upon our men set fire to the gorse, so
-that our advance against them was through a
-blazing common in which many men who fell
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">{180}</a></span>
-wounded were burnt to death or suffocated.
-The Turks, seeing the difficulties of the men
-in the fire, charged with the bayonet, but were
-themselves charged and driven back in great
-disorder; the fire spread to their hill and
-burned them out of it. Our men then began to
-drive the Turks away from the high ridges to
-the north of Suvla. The 10th Division began
-to land while this fight was still in progress.</p>
-
-<p>This early fighting had won for us a landing-place
-at Suvla and had cleared the ground to
-the north of the bay for the deployment for the
-next attack. This was to be a swinging round
-of two Brigades to the storm of the hills directly
-to the east of the Salt Lake. These hills
-are the island-like double-peaked Chocolate
-Hill (close to the lake) and the much higher
-and more important hills of Scimitar Hill (or
-Hill 70) and Ismail Oglu Tepe (Hill 100)
-behind it. The Brigade chosen for this attack
-were the 31st (consisting of Irish Regiments)
-belonging to the 10th Division, and the 32nd
-(consisting of Yorkshire and North of England
-Regiments) belonging to the 11th Division.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">{181}</a></span>
-The 32nd had been hotly engaged since
-the very early morning, the 31st were only just
-on shore. The storm was to be pushed from
-the north, and would, if successful, clear the
-way for the final thrust, the storm of Koja-Chemen
-Tepe from the northwest.</p>
-
-<p>This thrust from Suvla against Koja Chemen
-was designed to complete and make decisive the
-thrust already begun by the Right and Left Attacking
-Columns. The attack on Chocolate
-Hill, Scimitar Hill and Ismail Oglu was to
-make that thrust possible by destroying forever
-the power of the Turk to parry it. The Turk
-could only parry it by firing from those hills
-on the men making it. It was therefore necessary
-to seize those hills before the Turk could
-stop us. If the Turks seized those hills before
-us, or stopped us from seizing them, our
-troops could not march from Suvla to take part
-in the storm of Koja Chemen. If we seized
-them before the Turks, then the Turks could
-not stop us from crossing the valley to that
-storm. The first problem at Suvla therefore
-was not so much to win a battle as to win a
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">{182}</a></span>
-race with the Turks for the possession of those
-hills; the winning of the battle could be arranged
-later. Our failure to win that race
-brought with it our loss of the battle. The
-next chapter in the story of the battle is simply
-a description of the losing of a race by loss of
-time.</p>
-
-<p>Now the giving of praise or blame is always
-easy, but the understanding of anything is difficult.
-The understanding of anything so vast,
-so confused, so full of contradiction, so dependent
-on little things (themselves changing from
-minute to minute, the coward of a moment ago
-blazing out into a hero at the next turn) as a
-modern battle is more than difficult. But
-some attempt must be made to understand how
-it came about that time was lost at Suvla, between
-the landing, at midnight on the 6th-7th
-August, and the arrival of the Turks upon the
-hills, at midnight on the 8th-9th.</p>
-
-<p>In the first place it should be said that the
-beaches of Suvla are not the beaches of seaside
-resorts, all pleasant smooth sand and
-shingle. They are called beaches because they
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">{183}</a></span>
-cannot well be called cliffs. They slope into
-the sea with some abruptness, in pentes of rock
-and tumbles of sand-dune difficult to land upon
-from boats. From them, one climbs onto sand-dune,
-into a sand-dune land, which is like nothing
-so much as a sea-marsh from which the
-water has receded. Walking on this soft sand
-is difficult, it is like walking in feathers; working,
-hauling and carrying upon it is very difficult.
-Upon this coast and country, roadless,
-wharfless, beachless and unimproved, nearly
-30,000 men landed in the first ten hours of
-August 7th. At 10 <small>A.M.</small>, on that day, when
-the sun was in his stride, the difficulty of those
-beaches began to tell on those upon them.
-There had been sharp fighting on and near the
-beaches, and shells were still falling here and
-there in all the ground which we had won.
-On and near the beaches there was a congestion
-of a very hindering kind. With men coming
-ashore, shells bursting among them, mules
-landing, biting, kicking, shying and stampeding,
-guns limbering up and trying to get out
-into position, more men coming ashore or seeking
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">{184}</a></span>
-for the rest of their battalion in a crowd
-where all battalions looked alike, shouts, orders
-and counter-orders, ammunition boxes being
-passed along, water carts and transport being
-started for the firing line, wounded coming
-down or being helped down, or being loaded
-into lighters, doctors trying to clear the way for
-field dressing stations, with every now and then
-a shell from Ismail sending the sand in clouds
-over corpses, wounded men and fatigue parties,
-and a blinding August sun over all to exhaust
-and to madden, it was not possible to avoid congestion.
-This congestion was the first, but not
-the most fatal cause of the loss of time.</p>
-
-<p>Though the congestion was an evil in itself,
-its first evil effect was that it made it impossible
-to pass orders quickly from one part of the
-beach to another. In this first matter of the
-attack on the hills, the way had been opened for
-the assault by 10 <small>A.M.</small> at the latest but to get
-through the confusion along the beaches
-(among battalions landing, forming and defiling,
-and the waste of wounded momentarily increasing)
-to arrange for the assault and to
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">{185}</a></span>
-pass the orders to the battalions named for the
-duty, took a great deal of time. It was nearly
-1 <small>P.M.</small> when the 31st moved north from Lala
-Baba on their march round the head of the Salt
-Lake into position for the attack. The 32nd
-Brigade, having fought since dawn at Hill 10,
-was already to the north of the Salt Lake, but
-when (at about 3 <small>P.M.</small>) the 31st took position,
-facing southeast, with its right on the northeast
-corner of the Salt Lake, the 32nd was not
-upon its left ready to advance with it. Instead
-of that guard upon its left the 31st found
-a vigorous attack of Turks. More time was
-lost, waiting for support to reach the left, and
-before it arrived, word came that the attack
-upon the hills was to be postponed till after
-5 <small>P.M.</small> Seeing the danger of delay and that
-Chocolate Hill at least should be seized at
-once, the Brigadier General (Hill) telephoned
-for supports and covering fire, held off the attack
-on his left with one battalion, and with the
-rest of his Brigade started at once to take
-Chocolate Hill, cost what it might. The men
-went forward and stormed Chocolate Hill, the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">{186}</a></span>
-7th Royal Dublin Fusiliers bearing the brunt of
-the storm.</p>
-
-<p>At some not specified time, perhaps after this
-storm, in a general retirement of the Turks,
-Hill 70, or Scimitar Hill, was abandoned to us,
-and occupied by an English battalion.</p>
-
-<p>During all this day of the 7th of August all
-our men suffered acutely from the great heat
-and from thirst. Several men went raving
-mad from thirst, others assaulted the water
-guards, pierced the supply hoses, or swam to
-the lighters to beg for water. Thirst in great
-heat is a cruel pain, and this (afflicting some
-regiments more than others) demoralised some
-and exhausted all. Efforts were made to send
-up and to find water; but the distribution system,
-beginning on a cluttered beach and ending
-in a rough, unknown country full of confused
-fighting and firing, without anything like
-a road, and much of it blazing or smouldering
-from the scrub fires, broke down, and most of
-the local wells, when discovered, were filled
-with corpses put there by the Turk garrison.
-Some unpolluted wells of drinkable, though
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">{187}</a></span>
-brackish water, were found, but most of these
-were guarded by snipers, who shot at men going
-to them. Many men were killed thus and
-many more wounded, for the Turk snipers were
-good shots, cleverly hidden.</p>
-
-<p>All through the day in the Suvla area, thirst,
-due to the great heat, was another cause of loss
-of time in the fulfilment of that part of the
-tactical scheme; but it was not the final and
-fatal cause.</p>
-
-<p>Chocolate Hill was taken by our men (now
-utterly exhausted by thirst and heat) just as
-darkness fell. They were unable to go on
-against Ismail Oglu Tepe. They made their
-dispositions for the night on the line they had
-won, sent back to the beaches for ammunition,
-food and water, and tried to forget their
-thirst. They were in bad case, and still two
-miles from the Australians below Koja Chemen
-Tepe. Very late that night word reached them
-that the Turks were massed in a gulley to their
-front, that no other enemy reserves were anywhere
-visible, and that the Turks had withdrawn
-their guns, fearing that they would be
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">{188}</a></span>
-taken next morning. Before dawn on the all-important
-day of the 8th August, our men at
-Suvla after a night of thirst and sniping, stood
-to arms to help out the vital thrust of the
-battle.</p>
-
-<p>Had time not been lost on the 7th, their task
-on the 8th would have been to cross the valley
-at dawn, join the Australians and go with them
-up the spurs to victory, in a strength which the
-Turks could not oppose. At dawn on the 8th
-their path to the valley was still barred by the
-uncaptured Turk fort on Ismail; time had been
-lost; there could be no crossing the valley till
-Ismail was taken. There was still time to take
-it and cross the valley to the storm, but the
-sands were falling. Up on Chunuk already
-the battle had begun without them; no time was
-lost on Chunuk.</p>
-
-<p>Up on Chunuk at that moment a very bitter
-battle was being fought. On the right, on
-Chunuk itself, the Gloucester and New Zealand
-Regiments were storming the hill, in the
-centre and on the left the Australians, English,
-and Indians were trying for Hill Q and the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">{189}</a></span>
-south of Koja Chemen. They had passed the
-night on the hillsides under a never-ceasing fire
-of shells and bullets, now, before dawn, they
-were making a terrible attempt. Those on
-Chunuk went up with a rush, pelted from in
-front and from both flanks by every engine of
-death. The Gloucesters were on the left and
-the New Zealanders on the right in this great
-assault. They deployed past The Farm and
-then went on to the storm of a hill which rises
-some four hundred feet in as many yards.
-They were on the top by dawn; Chunuk Bair,
-the last step, but one, to victory, was ours and
-remained ours all day, but at a cost which few
-successful attacks have ever known. By four
-o'clock that afternoon the New Zealanders had
-dwindled to three officers and fifty men, and
-the Gloucester battalion, having lost every officer
-and senior non-commissioned officer, was
-fighting under section-leaders and privates.
-Still, their attack had succeeded; they were conquerors.
-In the centre the attack on Hill Q
-was less successful. There the English and
-Indian regiments, assaulting together, were
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">{190}</a></span>
-held; the Turks were too strong. Our men
-got up to the top of the lower spurs, and there
-had to lie down and scrape cover, for there was
-no going further. On the left of our attack the
-Australians tried to storm the Abd-el-Rahman
-Bair from the big gulley of Asma Dere. They
-went up in the dark with Australian dash to a
-venture pretty desperate even for Gallipoli.
-The Turks held the high ground on both sides
-of the Asma gulley, and were there in great
-force with many machine guns. The Australians
-were enfiladed, held in front, and taken in
-reverse, and (as soon as it was light enough
-for the Turks to see) they suffered heavily.
-As one of the Australians has described it:
-"The 14th and 15th Battalions moved out in
-single file and deployed to the storm and an
-advance was made under heavy rifle and machine
-gun fire. After the 15th Battalion had
-practically withered away, the 14th continued
-to advance, suffering heavily, and the Turks in
-great force. As we drove them back, they
-counter attacked, several times. The Battalion
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">{191}</a></span>
-thus got very split up and it is impossible
-to say exactly what happened."</p>
-
-<p>It is now possible to say exactly that that
-14th Battalion fought like heroes in little bands
-of wounded and weary men, and at last, with
-great reluctance, on repeated orders, fell back
-to the Asma Dere from which they had come,
-beating off enemy attacks all the way down the
-hill, and then held on, against all that the Turk
-could do.</p>
-
-<p>By noon, this assault, which would have been
-decisive had the men from Suvla been engaged
-with the Australians, was at an end. Its right
-had won Chunuk, and could just hold on to
-what it had won, its centre was held, and its
-left driven back. The fire upon all parts of
-the line was terrific; our men were lying (for
-the most part) in scratchings of cover, for they
-could not entrench under fire so terrible. Often
-in that rough and tumble country, the snipers
-and bombers of both sides, were within a few
-yards of each other, and in the roar and blast
-of the great battle were countless little battles,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">{192}</a></span>
-or duels to the death, which made the ground
-red and set the heather on fire. Half of the
-hills of that accursed battlefield, too false of
-soil to be called crags and too savage with
-desolation to be called hills, such as feed the
-sheep and bees of England, were blazing in
-sweeps of flame, which cast up smoke to heaven,
-and swept in great swathes across the gullies.
-Shells from our ships were screaming and bursting
-among all that devil's playground; it was an
-anxious time for the Turks. Many a time
-throughout that day the Turkish officers must
-have looked down anxiously upon the Suvla
-plain to see if our men there were masters of
-Ismail and on the way to Koja Chemen. For
-the moment, as they saw, we were held; but not
-more than held. With a push from Suvla to
-help us, we could not be held. Our men on the
-hills, expecting that helping push, drew breath
-for a new assault.</p>
-
-<p>It was now noon. The battle so far was in
-our favour. We had won ground, some of it
-an all-important ground, and for once we had
-the Turks with their backs against the wall and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">{193}</a></span>
-short of men. At Helles they were pressed, at
-Lone Pine they were threatened at the heart,
-under Koja Chemen the knife point was touching
-the heart, and at Suvla was the new strength
-to drive the knife point home and begin the
-end of the war. And the Turks could not stop
-that new strength. Their nearest important
-reserve of men was at Eski Kevi, ten miles away
-by a road which could scarcely be called a goat
-track, and these reserves had been called on
-for the fight at Krithia, and still more for the
-two days of struggle at Lone Pine. All
-through that day of the eighth of August Fate
-waited to see what would happen between Suvla
-and Koja Chemen. She fingered with her dice
-uncertain which side to favour; she waited to
-be courted by the one who wanted her. Eight
-hours of daylight had gone by, but there was
-still no moving forward from Suvla, to seize
-Ismail and pass from it across the valley to the
-storm. Noon passed into the afternoon, but
-there was still no movement. Four hours
-more went by, and now our aeroplanes brought
-word that the Turks near Suvla were moving
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">{194}</a></span>
-back their guns by ox-teams, and that their foot
-were on the march, coming along their breakneck
-road, making perhaps a mile an hour, but
-marching and drawing steadily nearer to the
-threatened point. The living act of the battle
-was due at Ismail: from Ismail the last act, the
-toppling down of the Turk forever among the
-bones of his victims and the ruin of his ally,
-would have been prepared and assured. There
-was a desultory fire around Ismail, and the
-smoke of scrub fires which blazed and smouldered
-everywhere as far as the eye could see,
-but no roar and blaze and outcry of a meant
-attack. The battle hung fire on the left, the
-hours were passing, the Turks were coming.
-It was only five o'clock still; we had still seven
-hours or more. In the centre we had almost
-succeeded. We could hang on there and try
-again, there was still time. The chance which
-had been plainly ours, was still an even chance.
-It was for the left to seize it for us, the battle
-waited for the left, the poor, dying Gloucesters
-and Wellingtons hung on to Chunuk for it, the
-Gurkhas and English in the trampled cornfields
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">{195}</a></span>
-near The Farm died where they lay on
-the chance of it, the Australians on Abd-el-Rahman
-held steady in the hope of it, under
-a fire that filled the air.</p>
-
-<p>If, as men say, the souls of a race, all the
-company of a nation's dead, rally to the living
-of their people in a time of storm, those
-fields of hell below Koja Chemen, won by the
-sweat and blood and dying agony of our thousands,
-must have answered with a ghostly
-muster of English souls in the afternoon of that
-eighth of August. There was the storm, there
-was the crisis, the one picked hour, to which
-this death and mangling and dying misery and
-exultation had led. Then was the hour for a
-casting off of self, and a setting aside of every
-pain and longing and sweet affection, a giving
-up of all that makes a man to be something
-which makes a race, and a going forward to
-death resolvedly to help out their brothers high
-up above in the shell bursts and the blazing
-gorse. Surely all through the eighth of August
-our unseen dead were on that field, blowing the
-horn of Roland, the unheard, unheeded horn,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">{196}</a></span>
-the horn of heroes in the dolorous pass, asking
-for the little that heroes ask, but asking in vain.
-If ever the great of England cried from beyond
-death to the living they cried then. "De
-ēo qui calt. Demuret i unt trop."</p>
-
-<p>All through the morning of that day, the
-Commander-in-Chief, on watch at his central
-station, had waited with growing anxiety for the
-advance from the Suvla Beaches. Till the afternoon
-the critical thrust on Chunuk and the
-great Turk pressure at Lone Pine made it impossible
-for him to leave his post to intervene,
-but, in the afternoon, seeing that neither wireless
-nor telephone messages could take the
-place of personal vision and appeal, he took
-the risk of cutting himself adrift from the main
-conflict, hurried to Suvla, landed, and found
-the great battle of the war, that should have
-brought peace to all that Eastern world, being
-lost by minutes before his eyes.</p>
-
-<p>Only one question mattered then: "Was
-there still time?" Had the Turks made good
-their march and crowned those hills, or could
-our men forestall them? It was now doubtful,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">{197}</a></span>
-but the point was vital, not only to the
-battle, but to half the world in travail. It had
-to be put to the test. A hundred years ago,
-perhaps even fifty years ago, all could have
-been saved. Often in those old days, a Commander-in-Chief
-could pull a battle out of the
-fire and bring halted or broken troops to victory.
-Then, by waving a sword, and shouting
-a personal appeal, the resolute soul could pluck
-the hearts of his men forward in a rush that
-nothing could stem. So Wolfe took Quebec, so
-Desaix won Marengo, so Bonaparte swept the
-bridge at Lodi and won at Arcola; so Cęsar
-overcame the Nervii in the terrible day, and
-wrecked the Republic at Pharsalia. So Sherman
-held the landing at Shiloh and Farragut
-pitted his iron heart against iron ships at Fort
-Jackson. So Sir Ian Hamilton himself snatched
-victory from the hesitation at Elandslaagte.
-Then the individual's will could take instant
-effect, but then the individual's front was not a
-five mile front of wilderness, the men were under
-his hand, within sight and sound of him
-and not committed by order to another tactical
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">{198}</a></span>
-project. There, at Suvla, there was no chance
-for these heroic methods. Suvla was the modern
-battle field, where nothing can be done
-quickly except the firing of a machine gun. On
-the modern field, especially on such a field as
-Suvla, where the troops were scattered in the
-wilderness, it may take several hours for an
-order to pass from one wing to the other. In
-this case it was not an order that was to pass,
-but a counter-order; the order had already
-gone, for an attack at dawn on the morrow.</p>
-
-<p>All soldiers seem agreed, that even with
-authority to back it, a counter-order, on a modern
-battlefield, to urge forward halted troops,
-takes time to execute. Sir Ian Hamilton's determination
-to seize those hills could not spare
-the time; too much time had already gone. He
-ordered an advance at all costs with whatever
-troops were not scattered, but only four battalions
-could be found in any way ready to
-move. It was now 5 <small>P.M.</small>: there were perhaps
-three more hours of light. The four battalions
-were ordered to advance at once to make
-good what they could of the hills fronting the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">{199}</a></span>
-bay before the Turks forestalled them. At
-dawn the general attack as already planned was
-to support them. Unfortunately the four battalions
-were less ready than was thought; they
-were not able to advance at once, nor for ten
-all-precious hours. They did not begin to advance
-till 4 o'clock the next morning (the 9th
-of August) and even then the rest of the Division
-which was to support them was not in concert
-with them. They attacked the hills to the
-north of Anafarta Sagir, but they were now too
-late, the Turks were there before them, in great
-force, with their guns, and the thrust, which
-the day before could have been met by (at most)
-five Turk battalions without artillery was now
-parried and thwarted. Presently the Division
-attacked with great gallantry, over burning
-scrub, seized Ismail and was then checked and
-forced back to the Chocolate Hills. The left
-had failed. The main blow of the battle on
-Sari Bair was to have no support from Suvla.</p>
-
-<p>The main blow was given, none the less, by
-the troops near Chunuk. Three columns were
-formed in the pitchy blackness of the very early
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">{200}</a></span>
-morning of the 9th, two to seize and clear
-Chunuk and Hill Q, the third to pass from Hill
-Q on the wave of the assault to the peak of
-Koja Chemen. The first two columns were on
-the lower slopes of Chunuk and in the fields
-about The Farm, with orders to attack at dawn.
-The third column consisting wholly of English
-troops was not yet on the ground, but moving
-during the night up the Chailak Dere. The
-Dere was jammed with pack-mules, ammunition
-and wounded men; it was pitch dark and
-the column made bad going, and those leading
-it were doubtful of the way. Brigadier-General
-Baldwin, who commanded, left his Brigade
-in the Dere, went to the Headquarters of the
-1st column, and brought back guides to lead his
-Brigade into position. The guides led him on
-in the darkness, till they realised that they were
-lost. The Brigadier marched his men back to
-the Chailak, and then, still in pitch darkness,
-up a nullah into the Aghyl Dere, and from
-there, in growing light, towards The Farm.
-This wandering in the darkness had tragical
-results.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">{201}</a></span>
-At half-past four the guns from the ships and
-the army opened on Chunuk, and the columns
-moved to the assault. Soon the peaks of their
-objective were burning like the hills of hell to
-light them on their climb to death, and they
-went up in the half-darkness to the storm of
-a volcano spouting fire, driving the Turks before
-them. Some of the Warwicks and South
-Lancashires were the first upon the top of
-Chunuk; Major Allanson, leading the 6th
-Gurkhas, was the first on the ridge between
-Chunuk and Hill Q. Up on the crests came
-the crowding sections; the Turks were breaking
-and falling back. Our men passed over the
-crests and drove the Turks down on the other
-side. Victory was flooding up over Chunuk
-like the Severn tide: our men had scaled the
-scarp, and there below them lay the ditch, the
-long grey streak of the Hellespont, the victory
-and the reward of victory. The battle lay like
-a field ripe to the harvest, our men had but to
-put in the sickle. The Third Column was the
-sickle of that field, that Third Column which
-had lost its way in the blackness of the wilderness.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">{202}</a></span>
-Even now that Third Column was coming
-up the hill below; in a few minutes it
-would have been over the crest, going on to
-victory with the others. Then, at that moment
-of time, while our handful on the hilltop
-waited for the weight of the Third Column to
-make its thrust a death-blow, came the most
-tragical thing in all that tragical campaign.</p>
-
-<p>It was barely daylight when our men won
-the hilltop. The story is that our men moving
-on the crest were mistaken for Turks, or (as
-some think) that there was some difference in
-officers' watches, some few minutes' delay in beginning
-the fire of the guns, and therefore some
-few minutes' delay in stopping the bombardment,
-which had been ordered to continue upon
-the crest for three-quarters of an hour from
-4.30 <small>A.M.</small> Whatever the cause, whether accident,
-fate, mistake, or the daily waste and
-confusion of battle, our own guns searched the
-hilltop for some minutes too long, and thinned
-out our brave handful with a terrible fire. They
-were caught in the open and destroyed there;
-the Turks charged back upon the remnant and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">{203}</a></span>
-beat them off the greater part of the crest.
-Only a few minutes after this the Third Column
-came into action in support: too late.</p>
-
-<p>The Turks beat them down the hill to The
-Farm, but could not drive the men of the First
-Column from the southwestern half of the top
-of the Chunuk. All through the hard and
-bloody day of the 9th of August the Turks tried
-to carry this peak, but never quite could, though
-the day was one long succession of Turk attacks,
-the Turks fresh and in great strength,
-our men weary from three terrible days and
-nights and only a battalion strong, since the
-peak would not hold more. The New Zealanders
-and some of the 13th Division held that end
-of Chunuk. They were in trenches which had
-been dug under fire, partly by themselves, partly
-by the Turks. In most places these trenches
-were only scratchings in the ground, since
-neither side on that blazing and stricken hill
-could stand to dig. Here and there, in sheltered
-patches, the trenches were three feet deep,
-but whether three feet deep or three inches, all
-were badly sited, and in some parts had only
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">{204}</a></span>
-ten yards field of fire. In these pans or scratchings
-our men fought all day, often hand to
-hand, usually under a pelt of every kind of
-fire, often amid a shower of bombs since the
-Turks could creep up under cover to within
-so few yards. Our men lost very heavily
-during the day but at nightfall we still held the
-peak. After dark the 6th Loyal North Lancashires
-relieved the garrison, took over the
-trenches, did what they could to strengthen
-them, and advanced them by some yards here
-and there. At four o'clock on the morning of
-the 10th, the 5th Wiltshires came up to support
-them and lay down behind the trenches in
-the ashes, sand and scattered rubble of the hilltop.
-Both battalions were exhausted from four
-days and nights of continual fighting, but in
-very good heart. At this time, these two battalions
-marked the extreme right of our new
-line; on their left, stretching down to The Farm,
-were the 10th Hampshires, and near The Farm
-the remains of the Third Column under General
-Baldwin. There may have been in all
-some five thousand men on Chunuk and within
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">{205}</a></span>
-a quarter of a mile of it round The Farm.</p>
-
-<p>In the darkness before dawn when our men
-on the hill were busy digging themselves better
-cover for the day's battle, the Turks, now
-strongly reinforced from Bulair and Asia, assaulted
-Chunuk with not less than 15,000 men.
-They came on in a monstrous mass, packed
-shoulder to shoulder, in some places eight deep,
-in others three or four deep. Practically all
-their first line were shot by our men, practically
-all the second line were bayoneted, but
-the third line got into our trenches and overwhelmed
-the garrison. Our men fell back to
-the second line of trenches and rallied and fired,
-but the Turks overwhelmed that line too and
-then with their packed multitude they paused
-and gathered like a wave, burst down on the
-Wiltshire Regiment, and destroyed it almost
-to a man. Even so, the survivors, outnumbered
-40 to 1, formed and charged with the
-bayonet, and formed and charged a second
-time, with a courage which makes the charge
-of the Light Brigade seem like a dream. But
-it was a hopeless position, the Turks came on
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">{206}</a></span>
-like the sea, beat back all before them, paused
-for a moment, set rolling down the hill upon
-our men a number of enormous round bombs,
-which bounded into our lines and burst, and
-then following up this artillery they fell on the
-men round The Farm in the most bloody and
-desperate fight of the campaign.</p>
-
-<p>Even as they topped Chunuk and swarmed
-down to engulf our right, our guns opened upon
-them in a fire truly awful, but thousands came
-alive over the crest and went down to the battle
-below. Stragglers running from the first
-rush put a panic in the Aghyl Dere, where bearers,
-doctors, mules and a multitude of wounded
-were jammed up with soldiers trying to get up
-to the fight. Some of our men held up against
-this thrust of the Turks, and in that first brave
-stand, General Baldwin was killed. Then our
-line broke, the Turks got fairly in among our
-men with a weight which bore all before it,
-and what followed was a long succession of
-British rallies to a tussle body to body, with
-knives and stones and teeth, a fight of wild
-beasts in the ruined cornfields of The Farm.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">{207}</a></span>
-Nothing can be said of that fight, no words can
-describe nor any mind imagine it, except as a
-roaring and blazing hour of killing. Our last
-reserves came up to it, and the Turks were
-beaten back; very few of their men reached
-their lines alive. The Turk dead lay in thousands
-all down the slopes of the hill; but the
-crest of the hill, the prize, remained in Turk
-hands, not in ours.</p>
-
-<p>That ended the battle of the 6th-10th of
-August. We had beaten off the Turks, but our
-men were too much exhausted to do more.
-They could not go up the hill again. Our
-thrust at Sari Bair had failed. It had just
-failed, by a few minutes, though unsupported
-from the left. Even then, at the eleventh hour,
-two fresh battalions and a ton of water would
-have made Chunuk ours, but we had neither
-the men nor the water; Sari was not to be our
-hill. Our men fought for four days and nights
-in a wilderness of gorse and precipice to make
-her ours. They fought in a blazing sun, without
-rest, with little food and with almost no
-water, on hills on fire and on crags rotting to
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">{208}</a></span>
-the tread. They went, like all their brothers
-in that Peninsula, on a forlorn hope, and by
-bloody pain they won the image and the taste
-of victory, and then, when their reeling bodies
-had burst the bars, so that our race might pass
-through, there were none to pass, the door was
-open, but there were none to go through it to
-triumph, and then, slowly, as strength failed,
-the door was shut again, the bars were forged
-again, victory was hidden again, all was to do
-again, and our brave men were but the fewer
-and the bitterer for all their bloody sacrifice
-for the land they served. All was to do again
-after the 10th of August, the great battle of
-the campaign was over. We had made our
-fight, we had seen our enemy beaten and the
-prize displayed, and then (as before at Helles)
-we had to stop for want of men, till the enemy
-had remade his army and rebuilt his fort.</p>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">{209}</a></div>
-
-<h2>VI</h2>
-
-<p>The day passed, the night came, the King lay down
-in his vaulted room. St. Gabriel came from God to
-call him. "Charles, summon the army of your empire
-and go by forced marches into the land of Bire, to the
-city that the pagans have besieged. The Christians
-call and cry for you." The Emperor wished not to go.
-"God," he said, "how painful is my life." He wept
-from his eyes, he tore his white beard.</p>
-
-<div class="foot">
-<div class="right1"><i>The end of the Song of Roland.</i></div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">{211}</a></span>
-<span class="smcap">That,</span> in a way, was the end of the campaign,
-for no other attempt to win through was made.
-The Turks were shaken to the heart. Another
-battle following at once might well have broken
-them. But we had not the men nor the shells
-for another battle. In the five days' battle
-on the front of twelve miles we had lost very
-little less than a quarter of our entire army,
-and we had shot away most of our always
-scanty supply of ammunition. We could not
-attack again till fifty thousand more men were
-landed and the store of shells replenished.
-Those men and shells were not near Gallipoli,
-but in England, where the war as a whole had
-to be considered. The question to be decided,
-by those directing the war as a whole, was,
-"should those men and shells be sent?" It
-was decided by the High Direction, that they
-should not be sent: the effort therefore could not
-be made.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">{212}</a></span>
-Since the effort could not be made, the campaign
-declined into a secondary operation, to
-contain large reserves of Turks, with their guns
-and munitions, from use elsewhere, in Mesopotamia
-or in the Caucasus. But before it became
-this, a well-planned and well-fought effort
-was made from Suvla to secure our position by
-seizing the hills to the east of the Bay. This
-attack took place on the 21st August, in intense
-heat, across an open plain without cover of any
-kind, blazing throughout nearly all its length
-with scrub fires. The 29th Division (brought
-up from Cape Helles) carried Scimitar Hill
-with great dash, and was then held up. The
-attack on Ismail Oglu failed. Two thrusts
-made by the men of Anzac in the latter days
-of August, secured an important well, and the
-Turk stronghold of Hill 60. This last success
-made the line from Anzac to Suvla impregnable.</p>
-
-<p>After this, since no big attempt could be made
-by the Allied Troops and no big attempt was
-made by the enemy, the fighting settled down
-into trench warfare on both sides. There was
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">{213}</a></span>
-some shelling every day and night, some machine
-gun and rifle fire, much sniping, great
-vigilance, and occasional bombing and mining.
-The dysentery, which had been present ever
-since the heats began, increased beyond all
-measure; very few men in all that army were
-not attacked and weakened by it. Many thousands
-went down with it; Mudros, Alexandria
-and Malta were filled with cases; many
-died.</p>
-
-<p>Those who remained, besides carrying on the
-war by daily and nightly fire, worked continually
-with pick and shovel to improve the lines.
-Long after the war, the goatherd on Gallipoli
-will lose his way in the miles of trenches which
-zigzag from Cape Helles to Achi Baba and
-from Gaba Tepe to Ejelmer Bay. They run
-to and fro in all that expanse of land, some of
-them shallow, others deep cuttings in the marl,
-many of them paved with stone or faced with
-concrete, most of them sided with little caverns,
-leading far down (in a few cases) to rooms
-twenty feet under the ground. Long after we
-are all dust the goats of Gallipoli will break
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">{214}</a></span>
-their legs in those pits and ditches, and over
-their coffee round the fire the elders will say
-that they were dug by devils and the sons of
-devils, and antiquarians will come from the
-west to dig there, and will bring away shards
-of iron, and empty tins and bones. Fifty years
-ago some French staff officers traced out the
-works round Durazzo, where Pompey the
-Great fought just such another campaign, two
-thousand years ago. Two thousand years
-hence, when this war is forgotten, those lines
-under the ground will draw the staff officers
-of whatever country is then the most cried for
-brains.</p>
-
-<p>Those lines were the homes of thousands of
-our soldiers for half a year and more. There
-they lived and did their cooking and washing,
-made their jokes and sang their songs. There
-they sweated under their burdens, and slept, and
-fell in to die. There they marched up the burning
-hill, where the sand devils flung by the
-shells were blackening heaven, there they lay in
-their dirty rags awaiting death, and there by
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">{215}</a></span>
-thousands up and down they lie buried, in little
-lonely graves where they fell, or in the pits of
-the great engagements.</p>
-
-<p>Those lines at Cape Helles, Anzac and
-Suvla, were once busy towns, thronged by thousands
-of citizens whose going and coming and
-daily labour were cheerful with singing, as
-though those places were mining camps during
-a gold rush, instead of a perilous front where
-the fire never ceased and the risk of death was
-constant. But for the noise of war, coming
-in an irregular rattle, with solitary big explosions,
-the screams of shells or the wild whistling
-crying of ricochets, they seemed busy but very
-peaceful places. At night, from the sea, the
-lamps of the dugouts on the cliffs were like the
-lights of seacoast towns in summer, and the
-places seemingly as peaceful, but for the pop
-and rattle of fire and the streaks of glare from
-the shells. There was always singing, sometimes
-very good, and always beautiful, coming
-in the crash of war; and always one heard the
-noises of the work of men, the beat of piledrivers,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">{216}</a></span>
-wheels going over stones, and the little
-solid pobbing noises, from bullets dropping in
-the sea.</p>
-
-<p>I have said that those positions were like
-mining camps during a gold rush. Ballarat,
-the Sacramento, and the camps of the Transvaal
-must have looked strangely like those camps at
-Suvla and Cape Helles. Anzac at night was
-like those crags of old building over the Arno
-at Florence; by day it was a city of cliff dwellers,
-stirring memories of the race's past. An immense
-expanse was visible from all these places;
-at Cape Helles there was the plain rising gradually
-to Achi Baba, at Anzac a wilderness of
-hills, at Suvla the same hills seen from below.
-Over all these places came a strangeness of
-light, unlike anything to be seen in the west, a
-light which made the hills clear and unreal at
-the same time, softening their savagery into
-peace, till they seemed not hills but swellings of
-the land, as though the land there had breathed-in
-and risen a little. All the places were dust-coloured
-as soon as the flowers had withered,
-a dark dust-coloured where the scrub grew
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">{217}</a></span>
-(often almost wine-dark like our own hills
-where heather grows) a pale sand colour, where
-the scrub gave out, and elsewhere a paleness
-and a greyness as of moss and lichen and old
-stone. On this sandy and dusty land, where
-even the trees were grey and ghostly (olive and
-Eastern currant) the camps were scattered, a
-little and a little, never much in one place on
-account of shelling, till the impression given was
-one of multitude.</p>
-
-<p>The signs of the occupation began far out at
-sea where the hospital ships lay waiting for
-their freight. There were always some there,
-painted white and green, lying outside the range
-of the big guns. Nearer to the shore were the
-wrecks of ships, some of them sunk by our men,
-to make breakwaters, some sunk by the Turk
-shells, some knocked to pieces or washed ashore
-by foul weather. Nearly all these wrecks were
-of small size, trawlers, drifters and little coastwise
-vessels such as peddle and bring home fish
-on the English coasts. Closer in, right on the
-beaches, were the bones of still smaller boats,
-pinnaces, cutters and lighters, whose crews had
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">{218}</a></span>
-been the men of the first landings. Men could
-not see those wrecks without a thrill. There
-were piers at all the beaches, all built under
-shell fire, to stand both shell fire and the sea,
-and at the piers there was always much busy
-life, men singing at their work, horses and mules
-disembarking, food and munitions and water
-discharging, wounded going home and drafts
-coming ashore. On the beaches were the hieroglyphs
-of the whole bloody and splendid story;
-there were the marks and signs, which no one
-could mistake nor see unmoved.</p>
-
-<p>Even after months of our occupation the
-traces were there off the main tracks. A man
-had but to step from one of the roads into the
-scrub, and there they lay, relics of barbed wire,
-blown aside in tangles, round shrapnel-bullets
-in the sand, empty cartridge-cases, clips of cartridge
-cases bent double by a blow yet undischarged,
-pieces of flattened rifle barrel, rags of
-leather, broken bayonets, jags and hacks of
-shell, and, in little hollows, little heaps of cartridge-cases,
-where some man had lain to fire
-for hour after hour, often until he died at his
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">{219}</a></span>
-post, on the 25th of April. Here, too, one
-came upon the graves of soldiers, sometimes
-alone, sometimes three or four together, each
-with an inscribed cross and border of stones
-from the beach. Privates, sergeants and officers
-lay in those graves and by them, all day
-long, the work which they had made possible
-by that sacrifice on the 25th, went on in a
-stream, men and munitions going up to the
-front, and wounded and the dying coming down,
-while the explosions of the cannon trembled
-through the earth to them and the bullets piped
-and fell over their heads.</p>
-
-<p>But the cities of those camps were not cities
-of the dead, they were cities of intense life,
-cities of comradeship and resolve, unlike the
-cities of peace. At Mudros, all things seemed
-little, for there men were dwarfed by their setting;
-they were there in ships which made even
-a full battalion seem only a cluster of heads.
-On the Peninsula they seemed to have come for
-the first time to full stature. There they were
-bigger than their surroundings. There they
-were naked manhood pitted against death in
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">{220}</a></span>
-the desert and more than holding their own.</p>
-
-<p>All those sun-smitten hills and gullies, growing
-nothing but crackling scrub, were peopled
-by crowds. On all the roads, on the plain,
-which lay white like salt in the glare, and on
-the sides of the gullies, strange, sunburned,
-half-naked men moved at their work with the
-bronze bodies of gods. Like Egyptians building
-a city they passed and repassed with boxes
-from the walls of stores built on the beach.
-Dust had toned their uniforms even with the
-land. Their half-nakedness made them more
-grand than clad men. Very few of them were
-less than beautiful; whole battalions were magnificent,
-the very flower of the world's men.
-They had a look in their eyes which those who
-saw them will never forget.</p>
-
-<p>Sometimes as one watched, one heard a noise
-of cheering from the ships, and this, the herald
-of good news, passed inland, till men would
-rise from sleep in their dugouts, come to the
-door, blinking in the sun, to pass on the cheer.
-In some strange way the news, the cause of the
-cheering, passed inland with the cheer; a submarine
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">{221}</a></span>
-had sunk a transport off Constantinople,
-or an aeroplane had bombed a powder factory.
-One heard the news pass on and on, till it rang
-from the front trenches ten yards from the Turk
-line. Sometimes the cheering was very loud,
-mingled with singing; then it was a new battalion,
-coming from England, giving thanks
-that they were there, after their months of training,
-to help the fleet through. Men who heard
-those battalions singing will never hear those
-songs of "Tipperary," "Let's all go down the
-Strand," or "We'll all go the same way home,"
-without a quickening at the heart.</p>
-
-<p>Everywhere in the three positions there were
-the homes of men. In gashes or clefts of the
-earth were long lines of mules or horses with
-Indian grooms. On the beaches were offices,
-with typewriters clicking and telephone bells
-ringing. Stacked on one side were ammunition
-carts so covered with bushes that they
-looked like the scrub they stood on. Here and
-there were strangely painted guns, and everywhere
-the work of men, armourer's forges, farrier's
-anvils, the noise and clink and bustle of
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">{222}</a></span>
-a multitude. Everywhere, too, but especially
-in the gullies were the cave-dwellings of the dugouts,
-which so dotted the cliffs with their doors,
-that one seemed put back to Cro-Magnon or
-Tampa, into some swarming tribe of cave-dwellers.
-All the dugouts were different,
-though all were built upon the same principle,
-first a scooping in the earth, then a raised earth
-ledge for a bed, then (if one were lucky) a corrugated-iron
-roof propped by balks, lastly a
-topping of sandbags strewn with scrub. For
-doors, if one had a door or sunshade, men used
-sacking, burlap, a bit of canvas, or a blanket.
-Then, when the work was finished, the builder
-entered in, to bathe in his quarter of a pint of
-water, smoke his pipe, greet his comrades, and
-think foul scorn of the Turk, whose bullets
-piped and droned overhead, all day and night,
-like the little finches of home. Looking out
-from the upper dugouts one saw the dusty,
-swarming warren of men, going and coming,
-with a kind of swift slouch, carrying boxes from
-the beach. Mules and men passed, songs went
-up and down the gullies, and were taken up by
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">{223}</a></span>
-those at rest, men washed and mended clothes,
-or wandered naked and sun reddened along
-the beach, bathing among dropping bullets.
-Wounded men came down on stretchers, sick
-men babbled in pain or cursed the flies, the
-forges clinked, the pile drivers beat in the balks
-of the piers, the bullets droned and piped, or
-rushed savagely, or popped into a sandbag.
-Up in the trenches the rifles made the irregular
-snaps of fire-crackers, sometimes almost ceasing,
-then popping, then running along a section
-in a rattle, then quickening down the line and
-drawing the enemy, then pausing and slowly
-ceasing and beginning again. From time to
-time, with a whistle and a wailing, some Asian
-shell came over and dropped and seemed to
-multiply, and gathered to herself the shriek of
-all the devils of hell, and burst like a devil and
-filled a great space with blackness and dust and
-falling fragments. Then another and another
-came, almost in the same place, till the gunners
-had had enough. Then the dust settled, the
-ruin was made good, and all went on as before,
-men carrying and toiling and singing, bullets
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">{224}</a></span>
-piping, and the flies settling and swarming on
-whatever was obscene in what the shell had
-scattered.</p>
-
-<p>Everywhere in those positions there was
-gaiety and courage and devoted brotherhood,
-but there was also another thing, which brooded
-over all, and struck right home to the heart.
-It was a tragical feeling, a taint or flavour in
-the mind, such as men often feel in hospitals
-when many are dying, the sense that Death was
-at work there, that Death lived there, that
-Death wandered up and down there and fed
-on Life.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
- <a name="Img_224" id="Img_224">
- <img src="images/224.jpg" width="500" height="315" alt="224jpg"/>
- </a>
- <div class="caption">
- <p class="center">An Australian bringing in a wounded comrade to hospital</p>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Since the main object of the campaign, to
-help the fleet through the Narrows, had been
-abandoned (in mid-August), and no further
-thrust was to be made against the Turks, the
-questions "Were our 100,000 men in Gallipoli
-containing a sufficiently large army of Turks
-to justify their continuance on the Peninsula?"
-and "Could they be more profitably used elsewhere?"
-arose in the minds of the High Direction
-from week to week as the war changed.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">{225}</a></span>
-In the early autumn, when the Central Powers
-combined with Bulgaria to crush Serbia and
-open a road to Constantinople, these questions
-became acute. During October owing to the
-radical change in the Balkan situation which
-was produced by the treachery of Bulgaria and
-the bewildering indecision of Greece the advantage
-of our continuing the campaign became
-more and more doubtful and in November,
-after full consideration, it was decided to
-evacuate the Peninsula. Preparations were
-made and the work begun.</p>
-
-<p>Late in November, something happened
-which had perhaps some influence in hurrying
-on the date of the evacuation. This was the
-blizzard of the 26th-28th, which lost us about
-a tenth of our whole army from cold, frostbite,
-exposure, and the sicknesses which follow them.
-The 26th began as a cold, dour Gallipoli day
-with a bitter northeasterly wind, which increased
-in the afternoon to a fresh gale, with
-sleet. Later, it increased still more, and blew
-hard, with thunder; and with the thunder came
-a rain more violent than any man of our army
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">{226}</a></span>
-had ever seen. Water pours off very quickly
-from that land of abrupt slopes. In a few
-minutes every gully was a raging torrent, and
-every trench a river. By an ill-chance this
-storm fell with cruel violence upon the ever
-famous 29th Division then holding trenches at
-Suvla. The water poured down into their
-trenches, as though it were a tidal wave. It
-came in with a rush, with a head upon it like
-the tide advancing, so quickly that men were one
-minute dry and the next moment drowned at
-their posts. They were caught so suddenly that
-those who escaped had to leap from their
-trenches for dear life, leaving coats, haversacks,
-food and sometimes even their rifles, behind
-them.</p>
-
-<p>Our trenches were in nearly every case below
-those of the Turks, who therefore suffered
-from the water far less than our men did.
-The Turks saw our men leaping from their
-trenches, and either guessing the reason or fearing
-an attack, opened a very heavy rifle and
-shrapnel fire upon them. Our men had to
-shelter behind the parados of their trenches,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">{227}</a></span>
-where they scraped themselves shallow pans in
-the mud under a heavy fire. At dark the sleet
-increased, the mud froze, and there our men
-lay, most of them without overcoats, and many
-of them without food. In one trench when
-the flood rose, a pony, a mule, a pig, and two
-dead Turks were washed over a barricade
-together.</p>
-
-<p>Before the night fell, many of our men were
-frost-bitten and started limping to the ambulances,
-under continual shrapnel fire and in
-blinding sleet. A good many fell down by the
-way and were frozen to death. The gale increased
-slowly all through the night, blowing
-hard and steadily from the north, making a
-great sea upon the coast, and driving the spray
-far inland. At dawn it grew colder, and the
-sleet hardened into snow, with an ever-increasing
-wind, which struck through our men to the
-marrow. "They fell ill," said one who was
-there, "in heaps." The water from the flood
-had fallen in the night, but it was still four
-feet deep in many of the trenches, and our men
-passed the morning under fire in their shelter
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">{228}</a></span>
-pans, fishing for food and rifles in their drowned
-lines. All through the day the wind gathered,
-till it was blowing a full gale, vicious and bitter
-cold; and on the 28th it reached its worst. The
-28th was spoken of afterwards as "Frozen
-Foot Day;" it was a day more terrible than
-any battle; but now it was taking toll of the
-Turks, and the fire slackened. Probably either
-side could have had the other's position for the
-taking on the 28th, had there been enough unfrosted
-feet to advance. It was a day so blind
-with snow and driving storm that neither side
-could see to fire, and this brought the advantage,
-that our men hopping to the ambulances
-had not to go through a pelt of shrapnel bullets.
-On the 29th, the limits of human strength
-were reached. Some of those frozen three
-days before were able to return to duty, and
-"a great number of officers and men who had
-done their best to stick it out were forced to go
-to hospital." The water fell during this day,
-but it left on an average 2&frac12; feet of thick,
-slushy mud, into which many trenches collapsed.
-After this the weather was fine and warm.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">{229}</a></span>
-At Helles and Anzac the fall of the ground
-gave some protection from this gale, but at
-Suvla there was none. When the weather
-cleared, the beaches were heaped with the
-wreck of piers, piles, boats and lighters, all
-broken and jammed together. But great as
-this wreck was the wreck of men was even
-greater. The 29th Division had lost two-thirds
-of its strength. In the three sectors
-over 200 men were dead, over 10,000 were
-unfit for further service and not less than
-30,000 others were sickened and made old by
-it.</p>
-
-<p>The Turk loss was much more serious even
-than this, for though they suffered less from
-the wet, they suffered more from the cold,
-through being on the higher ground. The
-snow lay upon their trenches long after it had
-gone from ours, and the Turk equipment though
-very good as far as it went, was only good for
-the summer. Their men wore thin clothes,
-and many of them had neither overcoat nor
-blanket. The blizzard which was a discouragement
-to us, took nearly all the heart out of the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">{230}</a></span>
-Turks; and this fact must be borne in mind in
-the reading of the next few pages.</p>
-
-<p>The gale had one good effect. Either the
-cold or the rain destroyed or removed the cause
-of the dysentery, which had taken nearly a
-thousand victims a day for some months. The
-disease stopped at once and no more fresh
-cases were reported.</p>
-
-<p>This storm made any attempt to land or to
-leave the land impossible for four days together.
-Coming, as it did, upon the decision
-to evacuate, it gave the prompting, that the
-evacuation should be hurried, lest such weather
-should prevent it. On the 8th of December,
-the evacuation of Anzac and Suvla was ordered
-to begin.</p>
-
-<p>It was not an easy task to remove large
-numbers of men, guns and animals from positions
-commanded by the Turk observers and
-open to every cruising aeroplane. But by ruse
-and skill, and the use of the dark, favoured by
-fine weather, the work was done, almost without
-loss, and, as far as one could judge, unsuspected.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">{231}</a></span>
-German agents, eager to discredit those
-whom they could not defeat, have said, "that
-we bribed the Turks to let us go;" next year
-perhaps they will say "that the Turks bribed
-us to go;" the year after that perhaps, they
-will invent something equally false and even
-sillier. But putting aside the foulness and the
-folly of this bribery lie, it is interesting to
-enquire how it happened that the Turks did not
-attack our men while they were embarking.</p>
-
-<p>The Turks were very good fighters, furious
-in attack and resolute in defence, but among
-their qualities of mind were some which greatly
-puzzled our commanders. Their minds would
-sometimes work in ways very strange to
-Europeans. They did, or refrained from
-doing, certain things in ways for which neither
-we nor our Allies could account. Some day,
-long hence, when the war is over, the Turk
-story of our withdrawal will be made known.
-Until then, we can only guess, why it was that
-the embarkation, which many had thought
-would lose us half our army, was made good
-from Anzac and Suvla with the loss of only
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">{232}</a></span>
-four or five men (or less than the normal loss
-of a night in the trenches). Only two explanations
-are possible. Either (1) the Turks
-knew that we were going and wanted to be rid
-of us, or (2) they did not know that we were
-going and were entirely deceived by our ruses.</p>
-
-<p>Had they known that we were going from
-Anzac and Suvla, it is at least likely that they
-would have hastened our going, partly that
-they might win some booty, which they much
-needed, or take a large number of prisoners,
-whose appearance would have greatly cheered
-the citizens of Constantinople. But nearly all
-those of our army who were there, felt, both
-from observation and intelligence, that the
-Turks did not know that we were going. As
-far as men on one side in a war can judge of
-their enemies they felt that the Turks were
-deceived, completely deceived, by the ruses employed
-by us, and that they believed that we
-were being strongly reinforced for a new attack.
-Our soldiers took great pains to make
-them believe this. Looking down upon us
-from their heights, the Turks saw boats leaving
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">{233}</a></span>
-the shore apparently empty, and returning,
-apparently, full of soldiers. Looking up at
-them, from our position our men saw how the
-sight affected them. For the twelve days during
-which the evacuation was in progress at
-Anzac and Suvla, the Turks were plainly to be
-seen, digging everywhere to secure themselves
-from the feared attack. They dug new lines,
-they brought up new guns, they made ready
-for us in every way. On the night of the 19th-20th
-December, in hazy weather, at full moon,
-our men left Suvla and Anzac, unmolested.</p>
-
-<p>It was said by Dr. Johnson that "no man
-does anything, consciously for the last time,
-without a feeling of sadness." No man of all
-that force passed down those trenches, the
-scenes of so much misery and pain and joy and
-valour and devoted brotherhood, without a
-deep feeling of sadness. Even those who had
-been loudest in their joy at going were sad.
-Many there did not want to go; but felt that it
-was better to stay, and that then, with another
-fifty thousand men, the task could be done, and
-their bodies and their blood buy victory for us.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">{234}</a></span>
-This was the feeling even at Suvla, where the
-men were shaken and sick still from the storm;
-but at Anzac, the friendly little kindly city,
-which had been won at such cost in the ever-glorious
-charge of the 28th, and held since with
-such pain, and built with such sweat and toil
-and anguish, in thirst, and weakness and bodily
-suffering, which had seen the thousands of the
-13th Division land in the dark and hide, and
-had seen them fall in with the others to go to
-Chunuk, and had known all the hope and fervour,
-all the glorious resolve, and all the bitterness
-and disappointment of the unhelped attempt,
-the feeling was far deeper. Officers and
-men went up and down the well-known gullies
-moved almost to tears by the thought that the
-next day those narrow acres so hardly won and
-all those graves of our people so long defended
-would be in Turk hands.</p>
-
-<p>For some weeks, our men had accustomed
-the Turks to sudden cessations of fire for half-an-hour
-or more. At first, the Turks had been
-made suspicious by these silences, but they were
-now used to them, and perhaps glad of them.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">{235}</a></span>
-They were not made suspicious by the slackening
-of the fire on the night of the withdrawal.
-The mules and guns had all gone from Suvla.
-A few mules and a few destroyed guns were left
-at Anzac; in both places a pile of stores was
-left, all soaked in oil and ready for firing. The
-ships of war drew near to the coast, and trained
-their guns on the hills. In the haze of the
-full moon the men filed off from the trenches
-down to the beaches and passed away from
-Gallipoli, from the unhelped attempt which
-they had given their bodies and their blood to
-make. They had lost no honour. They were
-not to blame, that they were creeping off in
-the dark, like thieves in the night. Had others
-(not of their profession) many hundreds of
-miles away, but seen as they, as generous, as
-wise, as forseeing, as full of sacrifice, those
-thinned companies with the looks of pain in
-their faces, and the mud of the hills thick upon
-their bodies, would have given thanks in Santa
-Sophia three months before. They had failed
-to take Gallipoli, and the mine fields still
-barred the Hellespont, but they had fought a
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">{236}</a></span>
-battle such as has never been seen upon this
-earth. What they had done will become a
-glory forever, wherever the deeds of heroic
-unhelped men are honoured and pitied and
-understood. They went up at the call of duty,
-with a bright banner of a battle-cry, against an
-impregnable fort. Without guns, without
-munitions, without help and without drink they
-climbed the scarp and held it by their own
-glorious manhood, quickened by a word from
-their chief. Now they were giving back the
-scarp and going out into new adventures, wherever
-the war might turn.</p>
-
-<p>Those going down to the beaches wondered
-in a kind of awe whether the Turks would discover
-them and attack. The minutes passed,
-and boat after boat left the shore, but no attack
-came. The arranged rifles fired mechanically
-in the outer trenches at long intervals, and the
-crackle of the Turk reply followed. At Anzac,
-a rearguard of honour had been formed. The
-last two hundred men to leave Anzac were survivors
-of those who had landed in the first
-charge, so glorious and so full of hope on the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">{237}</a></span>
-25th of April. They had fought through the
-whole campaign from the very beginning; they
-had seen it all. It was only just that they
-should be the last to leave. As they, too,
-moved down, one of their number saw a solitary
-Turk, black against the sky, hard at work
-upon his trench. That was the last enemy to
-be seen from Anzac.</p>
-
-<p>At half-past five in the winter morning of the
-20th December the last boat pushed off; and
-the last of our men had gone from Suvla and
-Anzac. Those who had been there from the
-first were deeply touched. There was a longing
-that it might be to do again, with the same
-comrades, under the same chiefs but with better
-luck and better backing. Some distance from
-the shore the boats paused to watch the last
-act in the withdrawal. It was dead calm
-weather, with just that ruffle of wind which
-comes before the morning. The Turk fire
-crackled along the lines as usual, but the withdrawal
-was still not suspected. Then from the
-beaches within the stacks of abandoned stores
-came the noise of explosion, the charges had
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">{238}</a></span>
-been fired, and soon immense flames were licking
-up those boxes and reddening the hills. As
-the flames grew, there came a stir in the Turk
-lines, and then every Turk gun that could be
-brought to bear opened with shrapnel and high
-explosive on the area of the bonfires. It was
-plain that the Turks misread the signs. They
-thought that some lucky shell had fired our
-stores and that they could stop us from putting
-out the flames. Helped by the blasts of many
-shells the burning rose like balefire, crowned by
-wreaths and streaks and spouts of flame. The
-stores were either ashes, or in a blaze which
-none could quench before the Turks guessed
-the meaning of that burning. Long before the
-fires had died and before the Turks were
-wandering in joy among our trenches, our men
-were aboard their ships standing over to
-Mudros.</p>
-
-<p>Some have said, "Even if the Turks were
-deceived at Anzac and Suvla, they must have
-known that you were leaving Cape Helles.
-Why did they not attack you while you were
-embarking there?" I do not know the answer
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">{239}</a></span>
-to this question. But it is possible that they
-did not know that we were leaving. It is possible
-that they believed that we should hold
-Cape Helles like an Eastern Gibraltar. It is
-possible, on the other hand, that they were deceived
-again by our ruses. It is however,
-certain that they watched us far more narrowly
-at Cape Helles after the Anzac evacuation.
-Aeroplanes cruised over our position frequently,
-and shell-fire increased and became
-very heavy. Still, when the time came, the
-burning of our stores, after our men had embarked,
-seemed to be the first warning that the
-Turks had that we were going.</p>
-
-<p>This was a mystery to our soldiers at the
-time and seems strange now. It is possible that
-at Cape Helles, the Turks' shaken, frozen and
-out-of-heart soldiers may have known that we
-were going yet had no life left in them for an
-attack. Many things are possible in this
-world, and the darkness is strange and the
-heart of a fellow-man is darkness to us. There
-were things in the Turk heart very dark indeed
-to those who tried to read it. The storm had
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">{240}</a></span>
-dealt with them cruelly, that is all that we know.
-Let us wait till we know their story.</p>
-
-<p>The Cape Helles position was held for
-twenty days, after we had left Anzac and Suvla.
-On the 8th-9th of January in the present year,
-it was abandoned, with slight loss, though in
-breaking weather. By 4 o'clock on the morning
-of the 9th of January, the last man had
-passed the graves of those who had won the
-beaches. They climbed on board their boats
-and pushed off. They had said good-bye to
-the English dead, whose blood had given them
-those acres, now being given back. Some felt,
-as they passed those graves, that the stones
-were living men, who cast a long look after
-them when they had passed, and sighed, and
-turned landward as they had turned of old.
-Then in a rising sea, whipped with spray,
-among the noise of ships weltering to the rails,
-the battalions left Cape Helles; the <i>River Clyde</i>
-dimmed into the gale and became a memory,
-and the Gallipoli campaign was over.</p>
-
-<p class="gap-above">Many people have asked me, what the campaign
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">{241}</a></span>
-achieved? It achieved much. It destroyed
-and put out of action many more of
-the enemy than of our own men. Our own
-losses in killed, wounded and missing were,
-roughly speaking, one hundred and fifteen
-thousand men, and the sick about one hundred
-thousand more, or (in all) more than two and
-one-half times as many as the army which made
-the landing. The Turk losses from all causes
-were far greater; they had men to waste and
-wasted them, like water, at Cape Helles, Lone
-Pine and Chunuk. The real Turk losses will
-never be tabled and published, but at the five
-battles of The Landings, the 6th May, the 4th
-June, the 28th of June, and the 6th-10th August,
-they lost in counted killed alone, very
-nearly as many as were killed on our side in the
-whole campaign. Then, though we did not do
-what we hoped to do, our presence in Gallipoli
-contained large armies of Turks in and near the
-Peninsula. They had always from 15 to 20,000
-more men than we had, on the Peninsula
-itself, and at least as many more, ready to
-move, on the Asian shore and at Rodosto. In
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">{242}</a></span>
-all, we disabled, or held from action elsewhere,
-not less than 400,000 Turks, that is, a very
-large army of men who might have been used
-elsewhere, with disastrous advantage, in the
-Caucasus, when Russia was hard pressed, or,
-as they were used later, in Mesopotamia.</p>
-
-<p>So much for the soldiers' side; but politically,
-the campaign achieved much. In the beginning,
-it had a profound effect upon Italy; it
-was, perhaps, one of the causes which brought
-Italy into her war with Austria. In the beginning,
-too, it had a profound effect upon the
-Balkan States. Bulgaria made no move against
-us until five months after our landings. Had
-we not gone to Gallipoli she would have joined
-our enemies in the late spring instead of in the
-middle autumn.</p>
-
-<p>Some of our enemies have said that "the
-campaign was a defeat for the British Navy."
-It is true that we lost two capital ships, from
-mines, in the early part of the campaign, and I
-think, in all, two others, from torpedoes, during
-the campaign. Such loss is not very serious
-in eleven months of naval war. For the campaign
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">{243}</a></span>
-was a naval war, it depended utterly and
-solely upon the power of the Navy. By our
-Navy we went there and were kept there, and
-by our Navy we came away. During the nine
-months of our hold on the Peninsula over three
-hundred thousand men were brought by the
-Navy from places three, four, or even six thousand
-miles away. During the operations some
-half of these were removed by our Navy, as
-sick and wounded, to ports from eight hundred
-to three thousand miles away. Every day, for
-eleven months, ships of our Navy moved up
-and down the Gallipoli coast bombarding the
-Turk positions. Every day during the operations
-our Navy kept our armies in food, drink
-and supplies. Every day, in all that time, if
-weather permitted, ships of our Navy cruised
-in the Narrows and off Constantinople, and the
-seaplanes of our Navy raided and scouted
-within the Turk lines. If there had been, I
-will not say, any defeat of, but any check to
-the Navy, we could not have begun the campaign
-or continued it. Every moment of those
-eleven months of war was an illustration of
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">{244}</a></span>
-the silent and unceasing victory of our Navy's
-power. As Sir Ian Hamilton has put it "the
-Navy was our father and our mother."</p>
-
-<p>"Still," our enemies say, "you did not win
-the Peninsula." We did not; and some day,
-when truth will walk clear-eyed, it will be known
-why we did not. Until then, let our enemies
-say this: "They did not win, but they came
-across three thousand miles of sea, a little army
-without reserves and short of munitions, a
-band of brothers, not half of them half-trained,
-and nearly all of them new to war. They
-came to what we said was an impregnable fort
-on which our veterans of war and massacre had
-laboured for two months, and by sheer naked
-manhood they beat us, and drove us out of it.
-Then rallying, but without reserves, they beat
-us again and drove us further. Then rallying
-once more, but still without reserves, they beat
-us again, this time to our knees. Then, had
-they had reserves, they would have conquered,
-but by God's pity they had none. Then, after
-a lapse of time, when we were men again, they
-had reserves, and they hit us a staggering blow,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">{245}</a></span>
-which needed but a push to end us, but God
-again had pity. After that our God was indeed
-pitiful, for England made no further
-thrust, and they went away."</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="stanza">
-
-<div class="verse">Even so was wisdom proven blind,</div>
-<div class="verse">So courage failed, so strength was chained,</div>
-<div class="verse">Even so the gods, whose seeing mind</div>
-<div class="verse">Is not as ours, ordained.</div>
-
-</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="foot">
-<div class="left1">Lollingdon,</div>
-<div class="left2">June 29, 1916.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class="gap-above center">THE END</p>
-
-
-<p class="gap-above center x-small">PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA</p>
-
-
-
-<div id="box">
-
-<p class="nodent"><span class="smcap">The</span> following pages contain advertisements of
-a few Macmillan books by the same author</p>
-
-</div>
-
- <p class="center"><i>BY THE SAME AUTHOR</i></p>
-
- <p class="center">JOHN MASEFIELD</p>
-
-
-<p class="title">Salt Water Poems and Ballads</p>
-
-<p class="descr"> With plates in color and black and white illustrations by
-Charles Pears</p>
-
-<p class="small">It is first of all as a poet of the sea that most people
-think of John Masefield. Consequently the publication of
-what may be called a de luxe edition of his best salt water
-ballads and sea poems is particularly gratifying. Here
-will be found one or two absolutely new pieces, new, that
-is, so far as their inclusion in a book is concerned. Among
-these are "The Ship and Her Makers," and "The New
-Bedford Whaler." Here also well-chosen selections from
-"Salt Water Ballads," from "Philip the King," and "The
-Story of a Round House." Mr. Masefield has been extremely
-fortunate in his illustrator. The twelve full-page
-illustrations in color and the twenty in black and white by
-Mr. Pears admirably reflect the spirit of the poet's lines.</p>
-
-<p class="title">The Locked Chest and The Sweeps of Ninety-Eight:
-Two One Act Plays</p>
-
-<p class="small">That Mr. Masefield is well grounded in the principles of
-dramatic art has been amply proved by the plays which he
-has published hitherto&mdash;"The Faithful," "Philip the King,"
-"The Tragedy of Pompey" among others. In this book
-two further additions are made to a literature which he
-has already so greatly enriched.</p>
-
-<p class="title">Multitude and Solitude</p>
-
-<p class="small">Published a good many years ago, before the genius of
-John Masefield was fully appreciated, this novel is found
-to exhibit those qualities which, present in his later works,
-have served to mark him as one of the shrewdest of observers
-of human nature. "Multitude and Solitude" is a
-fascinating story of adventure, having to do with a courageous
-fight that is made against the far too often fatal sleeping
-sickness.</p>
-
-<p class="title">Captain Margaret</p>
-
-<p class="descr"><i>Cloth, $1.35</i></p>
-
-<p class="small">Captain Margaret, owner of the <i>Broken Heart</i>, mild dreamer and
-hardy adventurer in one, is a type of character one does not often
-meet in fiction, and his troubled pursuit of the vision he is always
-seeing, in Mr. Masefield's telling, is a story such as we seldom hear.
-It is a strange crew that goes scurrying out of Salcombe Pool on a
-darkening flood-tide in the <i>Broken Heart</i>, bound for the treasure-land
-of Darien. There is Captain Cammock, strong and fine,
-Stukeley the beast, Perrin the feeble, Olivia beautiful and blind, and
-Captain Margaret wisely good and uncomplaining&mdash;not a one of
-them but shines out from the story with unforgettable vividness.
-From England to Virginia and the Spanish Main with men at arms
-between decks goes the <i>Broken Heart</i> following her master's
-dream, and her thrilling voyage with its storms and battles is
-strongly and stirringly told. When John Masefield writes of the
-sea, the sea lives.</p>
-
-<p class="small">"Worthy to rank high among books of its class. The story
-has quality, charm, and spirited narrative."&mdash;<i>Outlook.</i></p>
-
-<p class="title">Good Friday and Other Poems</p>
-
-<p class="center small"><span class="smcap">By JOHN MASEFIELD</span><br />
-Author of "The Everlasting Mercy" and "The Widow in the Bye Street," etc.</p>
-
-<p class="descr"><i>Cloth, $1.25. Leather, $1.60</i></p>
-
-<p class="small">The title piece in this volume is a dramatic poem of sixty pages
-the action of which takes place in the time of Christ. The characters
-introduced include Pontius Pilate, Joseph of Ramah and Herod.
-The play, for it is really such, is written in rhyme and is one of Mr.
-Masefield's most interesting and important contributions to literature.
-In addition to this there are in the book many sonnets and
-short poems.</p>
-
-<p class="small">"Reveals an interesting development in poetic thought and expression
-... a new Masefield ... who has never written with
-more dignity, nor with more artistry. Those who go in quest of
-Beauty will find her here.... Here is beauty of impression,
-beauty of expression, beauty of thought, and beauty of phrase."&mdash;<i>The
-New York Times.</i></p>
-
-<p class="title">The Tragedy of Nan</p>
-
-<p class="descr"><i>New edition. Cloth, $1.25. Leather, $1.60</i></p>
-
-<p class="small">"One of the most distinctive tragedies written by a dramatist of
-the modern school."&mdash;<i>N.Y. Evening Post.</i></p>
-
-<p class="title">The Faithful: A Tragedy in Three Acts</p>
-
-<p class="descr"><i>Cloth, $1.25. Leather, $1.60</i></p>
-
-<p class="small">Mr. Masefield's contributions to dramatic literature are held in quite as high
-esteem by his admirers as his narrative poems. In "The Faithful," his new
-play, he is at his best.</p>
-
-<p class="small">"A striking drama ... a notable work that will meet with the hearty appreciation
-of discerning readers."&mdash;<i>The Nation.</i></p>
-
-<p class="title">Philip the King, and Other Poems</p>
-
-<p class="center small"><span class="smcap">By JOHN MASEFIELD</span><br />
-Author of "The Tragedy of Pompey," "The Everlasting Mercy," "The Daffodil Fields"</p>
-
-<p class="descr"><i>Cloth, 12mo, $1.25. Leather, $1.60</i></p>
-
-<p class="small">"Mr. Masefield's new poetical drama is a piece of work such as only the author
-of 'Nan' and 'The Tragedy of Pompey' could have written, tense in situation
-and impressive in its poetry.... In addition to this important play, the
-volume contains some new and powerful narrative poems of the sea&mdash;the men
-who live on it and their ships. There are also some shorter lyrics as well as an
-impressive poem on the present war in Europe which expresses, perhaps, better
-than anything yet written, the true spirit of England in the present struggle."</p>
-
-<p class="small">"Mr. Masefield has never done anything better than these poems."&mdash;<i>Argonaut.</i></p>
-
-<p class="small">"The compelling strength of John Masefield's genius is revealed in the memorable
-poem, 'August, 1914,' published in his latest volume of poetry."&mdash;<i>Review
-of Reviews.</i></p>
-
-<p class="title">The Story of a Round-House, and Other Poems</p>
-
-<p class="descr"><i>New and revised edition, $1.30. Leather, $1.60</i></p>
-
-<p class="small">"The story of that rounding of the Horn! Never in prose has the sea been so tremendously
-described."&mdash;<i>Chicago Evening Post.</i></p>
-
-<p class="small">"A remarkable poem of the sea."&mdash;<i>San Francisco Chronicle.</i></p>
-
-<p class="small">"Vivid and thrillingly realistic."&mdash;<i>Current Literature.</i></p>
-
-<p class="small">"A genuine sailor and a genuine poet are a rare combination; they have produced a
-rare poem of the sea, which has made Mr. Masefield's position in literature secure beyond
-the reach of caviling."&mdash;<i>Everybody's Magazine.</i></p>
-
-<p class="small">"Masefield has prisoned in verse the spirit of life at sea."&mdash;<i>N.Y. Sun.</i></p>
-
-<p class="title">The Everlasting Mercy and
-The Widow in the Bye Street</p>
-
-<p class="center small">(Awarded the Royal Society of Literature's prize of $500)</p>
-
-<p class="descr"><i>New and revised edition, $1.25. Leather, $1.60</i></p>
-
-<p class="small">"Mr. Masefield comes like a flash of light across contemporary English poetry. The
-improbable has been accomplished; he has made poetry out of the very material that has
-refused to yield it for almost a score of years."&mdash;<i>Boston Evening Transcript.</i></p>
-
-<p class="small">"Originality, force, distinction, and deep knowledge of the human heart."&mdash;<i>Chicago
-Record-Herald.</i></p>
-
-<p class="small">"They are truly great pieces."&mdash;<i>Kentucky Post.</i></p>
-
-<p class="small">"A vigor and sincerity rare in modern English literature."&mdash;<i>The Independent.</i></p>
-
-<p class="small">"John Masefield is the man of the hour, and the man of to-morrow too, in poetry and
-in the playwriting craft."&mdash;<span class="smcap">John Galsworthy.</span></p>
-
-<p class="small">"&mdash;recreates a wholly new drama of existence."&mdash;<span class="smcap">William Stanley Braithwaite</span>,
-<i>N.Y. Times</i>.</p>
-
-<p class="title">The Daffodil Fields</p>
-
-<p class="descr"><i>Cloth, 12mo, $1.25. Leather, $1.60</i></p>
-
-<p class="small">"Neither in the design nor in the telling did or could 'Enoch
-Arden' come near the artistic truth of 'The Daffodil Fields.'"&mdash;<i>Sir
-Quiller-Couch</i>, <i>Cambridge University</i>.</p>
-
-<p class="title">A Mainsail Haul</p>
-
-<p class="descr"><i>Cloth, 12mo, $1.25. Leather, $1.60</i></p>
-
-<p class="small">As a sailor before the mast Masefield has traveled the world over.
-Many of the tales in this volume are his own experiences written
-with the same dramatic fidelity displayed in "Dauber."</p>
-
-<p class="title">The Tragedy of Pompey</p>
-
-<p class="descr"><i>Cloth, 12mo, $1.25. Leather, $1.60</i></p>
-
-<p class="small">A play such as only the author of "Nan" could have written.
-Tense in situation and impressive in its poetry it conveys Masefield's
-genius in the handling of the dramatic form.</p>
-
-<p class="gap-above center">THE MACMILLAN COMPANY<br />
-<span class="small">Publishers&nbsp;&nbsp;64-66&nbsp;&nbsp;Fifth Avenue New York</span></p>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
-
-
-
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