Talk to an old Greek, who has been all over the world, and in all the
ports of England, and who has come home to his native island for the
rest of his days. Try fishing, but catch nothing. After lunch, start
back to camp on ponies, stopping at Panaghia for tea, arriving home at
6.30.
_September 5th._
Start off again for Panaghia with Duff and Elliott, and have lunch
there. After lunch we go off to another village, where an annual
holiday is being held. Bands are playing and the inhabitants are
dancing weird native dances, appearing very solemn about it. Parties
are going round from house to house, visiting and partaking of
refreshment, such as grapes, figs, wine and liqueurs. An old Greek
invites us in, and his wife forces us to have grapes, melon, jelly, and
liqueurs. I took a bite of cake and was nearly violently ill.
We came back another way through vineyards, where grapes can be had for
the asking, olive groves, and fig-tree orchards.
_September 6th._
A fine day again, but windy. No news, but a rumour that Bulgaria is
against us now, and that we shall be in Gallipoli for the winter. We go
back to-morrow night.
We get up a concert, which takes place in the evening. We rig up a
platform, borrow a piano from the Y.M.C.A., and make up a programme.
I snaffle some champagne for Headquarters, and after a cheery dinner
we go to the concert. We have some excellent talent, and everybody
thoroughly enjoys it. It is a sight worth seeing—the platform lit by
candles, and the Brigade seated around on the sand: some of those who
took part in the landing, some recently in the fighting at Suvla, and
new drafts who had not yet tasted war.
“The Defence of Lucknow” was recited by Lieutenant Butler, of the
Worcesters, an actor by profession and a good fellow, and it went
splendidly and gripped us all. New Brigade Major arrives, Wilson, of
the Royal Fusiliers.
_September 7th._
Awake at five, and on becoming conscious of the fact that to-day I have
to go back to that Peninsula, to remain there for Lord knows how long,
I have the same depressed feeling, only more so, that one has in the
days of school on the last day of the holiday.
At 6 a.m. Phillips and I and the Supply Section embark, and on a
tossing trawler, bucking about like a wild horse, we undergo the misery
of a four hours’ crossing in a very rough sea to Suvla Bay, where we
arrive at 10 a.m. We lie off the _Swiftsure_ for an hour, and then two
pinnaces come alongside, to take us on shore. Shrapnel is bursting
steadily over the low lands, and one or two high explosives are now
and again bursting on “A” Beach and “W” Beach. We land soon after 11
a.m., and on arrival back at our part of the promontory we find that
our camp has been moved to the end of the long gully, where on the side
of a hill D.H.Q. are dug in.
The contours of the country are curious. Great natural scars run down
to a flat plateau washed by the waves. In these gullies hundreds of men
and animals are getting what protection they can. The Engineers are
building a road, on one side of which is a row of dugouts, artfully
hidden by a row of great boulders. This is our advanced Horse Transport
depot, and a pretty hot shop, as the Turks have the exact range. In
front of the dugouts are the horse-lines, where rows and rows of mules
and horses are packed into the throat of the gorge for shelter. A dry
watercourse winds down the gorge, so the place will be impossible in
winter; as it is, Death takes his daily toll of men and animals, while
down the path comes a never-ending procession of sick and wounded
from the front line, and very occasionally a prisoner or two. Up the
same path, at night, the reinforcements march to rest in dugouts just
behind the line until their turn to take over arrives. To the left of
the gorge a huge rocky point runs out to the sea—this point also is
a thick mass of men and animals, practically in the open, so limited
is space. Truly an unfriendly and uninviting country. The hot dust is
over everything—the flies torment, and shells take their toll of us,
while we are powerless to hit back. The mouth of the gorge widens to
the beach, where there are three tiny bays, which with the plateau form
“A” Beach: Kangaroo Beach, with its lighter and pontoon quays, its
sand-bagged dugouts, and the like; West Beach—the main landing-place,
with rather better piers and offices; and Little West Beach, a sort
of overflow to West Beach proper, embellished with a tram line for
horse-drawn trucks, the Ordnance depot, etc.—all these places are
swarming with men, and over all hangs the eternal dust!
Further along on the plateau from West Beach, and looking towards Lala
Baba, is the Supply depot and the watering-places for the animals,
all in the open, with no protection at all: a wonderful spectacle,
if you like to think of it, and only possible because John Turk is
short of ammunition. Here in the bare open the troops live from day to
day, a few sand-bags only between them and death, and very few of the
dugouts boast a real roof; blankets and waterproof sheets answer that
purpose, and so it is not difficult to imagine the havoc wrought when
shrapnel is about. To the north lies the bold, forbidding point, before
mentioned, with the waves flinging their white manes in anger against
its sides. Such, roughly, is Suvla Bay as I see it now, and I cannot
say that it impresses me as a practical proposition.
Dug in on the side of a slope the others have built a house, or, as far
as dugouts in Gallipoli go, a summer residence. The door faces the rise
leading up to the rugged point, from the craggy back of which one sees
the cliff-side dropping sheer to the sea.
The roof of corrugated iron slopes at the same angle as the slope of
the ground in which we have dug. For walls, the dugout earth forms
the back wall, and the side walls are built of biscuit boxes. We
spend the day improving on this. Immediately in front is our Supply
depot, divided into three dumps, one each for the 86th, 87th, and 88th
Brigades. At dusk the pack-mules and A.T. carts form up, and we load
on to the set of mules or carts allotted to each unit the rations and
fuel. The transport then moves off by Brigades to the front, the mules
led by Drabis, the carts driven also by Drabis, and the whole escorted
by Indian N.C.O.’s under a white N.C.O. Q.M.S.’s Transport N.C.O.’s,
guides of the units, and the A.S.C. Transport Officer accompany them to
the respective battalion and dumps, situated a distance of two hundred
to three hundred yards behind the front line. In some cases convoys
proceed direct to the regimental cookhouses. The transport dares not
show itself by day. To-night our Brigade arrives from Imbros, and is to
spend the night in De Lisle’s Gully, some short distance to the left of
the road that leads to Lone Tree Gully, but up the hill rather, and so
our rations go there. Water has been put there for them by Carver last
night. We watch this water question closely. It needs careful handling
and foresight. A man can go hungry much longer than he can go thirsty,
and water is far more difficult to transport by sea than food. Imbros
is the source of our supply, and water-tank lighters are filled there
and towed over each day.
The water dump is on “A” Beach, and all the Divisions that are being
supplied from this promontory draw from this dump. An able man,
one Private Jones, is in charge. Though before the war an L.C.C.
school-teacher, he appears to be the one man in the world who could be
chosen to be the most efficient and tactful organizer of the difficult
task of satisfying an army of 30,000 men with their daily requirements
of water, from a limited source, and by means of a limited supply of
receptacles, steadily diminishing in number.
At seven I go up with Carver to the H.Q. of the 86th Brigade. Instead
of walking up the road that leads to Pine Tree Gully, we bear off
to the right, and pass along a lower road through the wooded,
gorse-covered low lands for a distance of about a mile and a half
inland, until bullets are merrily singing their song of war overhead.
“Zi-i-ip” goes one between us. A pause in the conversation, and Carver
says, “That was not pleasant,” to which I agree, but adding, “If hit,
it means Blighty, my boy, the Savoy, and theatres, or ‘Finish,’ as we
say in Egypt.”
We come to a wide space in front of us, and to our left is high ground,
rising in one place to about 30 feet. Carver tells me that we are at
Brigade dumping-ground. A.T. carts are packed here in readiness to
bring the baggage back to the beach for the 86th Brigade, as it is
their turn now to go to Imbros.
[Illustration: GENERAL DE LISLE’S HEADQUARTERS, SUVLA BAY.]
He searches for his Staff Captain in the dark, and I go up to the
bushes in front and talk to Baxter, the Quartermaster of the Munsters,
and a few other officers who are sitting down on a rock. As I stand
there I hear close to my ear “zi-i-ip”—an unseen hand appears to strike
a bush with a big stick on my left. Baxter says, “You are standing in
a place where bullets keep dropping. You should sit down. One just
passed your head.” I am always sensitive as to how to behave on these
occasions, with men whose lives are always passed in the trenches,
and so I reply “Did it?” I heard the thing plain enough, and sat down
promptly. I have learned to take my cue as to what to do from such
men, and they are always right. Many a man has been hit by totally
disregarding the necessity of taking cover, believing that others may
think he has “cold feet,” and he wishes to prove that he is brave by
bravado. He forgets he is more useful to his country alive. There are
many times when he must take risk, so it is wiser for him to reserve
his bravado for those times.
I sit down, and a minute after, “zi-i-ip” again, and thud into the
bush. Baxter tells me that it is only this corner which is dangerous,
but that they are sitting there because it is a nice seat and the only
one handy for waiting. If you walk about the rest of the space, the
bullets are flying high and one is safe. This happens all over the
Peninsula, owing to the curious formation of the land. At one area of
a certain spot, bullets may hit the ground regularly on or near that
part, while a few yards away they fly high. Soon one becomes familiar
with this peculiarity and acts accordingly. It is because some Turks
may be on a rise, others on the ground. They generally fire at nothing
in particular, but straight in front of them. All night they fire
away—crack, crack, crack, crack—and must waste a lot of ammunition.
Carver, having finished his arrangements, calls me, and we walk back
a short distance over a small rise, threading our way along a path no
doubt used not long since by Turkish farmers; descending a slope, we
pass to the right by a little hill not more than 30 feet high, and make
towards a light, which is 86th Brigade H.Q. We are walking up to the
door, and can see General Percival and Thomson sitting in the mess-room
dugout. When we are four yards away from them the General says, “Good
evening, Carver,” when Carver, to my astonishment, using a fearful
oath, disappears into the earth. The light from H.Q. mess dazzles my
eyes somewhat, and I stop dead, still looking at the place where Carver
had performed his pantomimic vanishing trick, when he again appears,
looking foolish. He had neatly stepped into a dugout, which, I found
out after, was waiting to be filled in, and we had not noticed it on
account of the light in our eyes. We go in and chat, and I tell them of
the joys and beauty which they are to taste and see on Imbros.
Back to the beach, where I find our Staff Captain, Hadow, arrived. The
Brigade is arriving, hundreds of dark, shadowy figures quietly falling
in in platoons and marching off inland. I talk to Mould awhile about
the eternal topic—water—and then turn in.
_September 8th._
To-night I go up to Brigade, this time a different way across country,
following a guide who has been down for rations and tells me he knows a
quick way. We pass in and out of boulders and clumps of gorse, down the
rocky gully where D.H.Q. were for a few nights, past clumps of trees,
over grass, over an open space with more pinging bullets than ever, at
last to H.Q., and find them all sitting in darkness, and the General
rather anxious about the non-arrival of two of his battalions, who have
missed their way and are having a country night ramble all over the
place, groping about in the dark.
Coming back, I pass the Hampshires, and an officer asking me the way, I
direct him to H.Q.
_September 14th._
The past days, since I last entered up my Diary, have been so
monotonous that in a fit of sulkiness I threw it on one side, saying
I would not record another day’s events, for nothing happens. The
monotony knocks Helles sideways. I go up every morning to D.H.Q. at the
top of our gully to take instructions. I see the Main Supply depot to
arrange drawing the day’s supplies. I wire the strength of the Division
to G.H.Q. I read papers three to four weeks old; I answer letters of
the same age. Some days I go up the slope opposite our bivouac, and,
climbing down the cliff on the other side, have a topping bathe. I
strafe flies by the thousand—they are a damnable pest. I watch the
battleships pooping away, and at odd times have to duck from a Turkish
shell. At dusk I superintend the loading up of rations and water, and
go up to Brigade H.Q. for a chat. The atmosphere of their company,
however, always bucks me up.
Our guns poop off at odd intervals each day, and ammunition appears
to be becoming more plentiful. The Turks are continually busy with
shrapnel over Chocolate Hill and the low land, especially at Hill 10,
where we have several batteries, and now and again the beaches.
“C” Beach, on the other side of Lala Baba, over the bay, however, gets
it far worse than we do. However, generally speaking, I do not think
that the Turk fires as much as we do.
Well, I will continue the Diary: things cannot go on like this for
ever, and the best thing to do is to accept the life as it comes and
treat everything as a matter of course—even shells. All of us who have
been on here any length of time feel that our time to get hit will
eventually arrive. Personally, I prefer the sledge-hammer blow from the
unseen hand—namely, a bullet from a rifle.
I have been feeling very seedy the last few days, with the common
complaint that men are going sick fast with now.
I went up to the Brigade to-night, but felt very ill when there, and
was glad to swallow a strong brandy which the General offered to me.
Coming back over the gorse, bullets seemed freer than usual, thudding
into the bushes on my right and left. I felt sick and faint, and sat
down waiting for an empty mule-cart returning on its way to the beach.
One soon came, with two men of the Essex, and I was thankful for the
lift home. “Pukka” original 29th men of the Essex, and good fellows.
About a dozen motor-lorries have landed, and I have managed to snaffle
four of them to draw supplies from the Main Supply depot to our
divisional depot, both now at this end of the promontory. Transport at
this end of the promontory, if not too congested, only gets shelled at
very rare intervals during the day—not sufficient to stop its work.
Motor-lorries make the time that we take in drawing much shorter, and
I wonder that they were not at Helles. Before, we used A.T. carts for
this drawing here, and it took up practically the whole morning.
We do not have such good targets as the Turks have. To them we are laid
out as a panorama, and to us they are dug in out of sight on the slopes
of rocky, almost impregnable fastnesses.
To-day we have heard the boom of guns from the south, and there must be
a heavy bombardment going on there.
The weather has broken, and we get a strong wind blowing each day
now, frequently developing into a gale. A cold wind is now and again
thrown in, and at nights we get a little rain. It is very rough, and
difficulty is being experienced in landing stuff.
Told that good news will be published to-night.
_September 15th._
Heavy rain before breakfast this morning. Clears off later.
Everybody busy digging in. Can see new airship going up at Imbros. It
has not yet made an active trip. _Prince George_ is firing with a heavy
list in order to get long range. Probably firing at Chanak.
_September 16th and 17th._
Each day the battleships, at odd intervals, fire at various targets on
shore—first, a small hill rising from the high ground on the Turkish
right, which we have named the Pimple, and on which Turkish batteries
are in position; next on Anafarta and Burnt Hill, behind Chocolate
Hill; next on to the slopes of Sari Bair. Our batteries on shore
occasionally fire off a few rounds. Owing, I suppose, to the fact that
there are hills in front of us, the sound of guns firing is louder than
it was at Helles. When our 18-pounder batteries on shore fire, the
noise of the report is very much like a door upstairs banging loudly on
a windy day.
I am getting much fitter, and think it is because I manage to get a
bathe now and again.
There is a good place where I bathe and often visit, not so very far
from our dugout. It is a little cove, plentifully besprinkled with
huge boulders and protected on all sides. We walk up the rugged slope
opposite our dugout to the top of the cliff. Then there is a difficult
descent down the sheer face of the cliff to the water’s edge. It seems
so odd, to be on this little patch of rock where we seem to leave
the war miles behind us. Then we hear it muttering and grumbling
in the hills above and behind us—sometimes, when least expected, a
battleship looses off with a roar that shakes the crags above us—but
we are safe, quite safe, as no shells can reach this spot; and so, in
the midst almost of this welter of blood, disease, and death, quite
light-heartedly we proceed to the most peaceful of pastimes—bathing.
I go up to H.Q. after dinner and enjoy the walk, feeling ready for bed
when I return.
_September 18th._
It has been very quiet this morning. The work of getting supplies
on shore, carting them up to the Main Supply depot, and from there
to the several divisional depots, goes on now day and night like a
well-managed business. The Main Supply depot is rapidly accumulating
a reserve of supplies for us to fall back on should bad weather set
in and prevent us landing on some days. I learn that we now have
sufficient preserved food in the Main depot to feed 60,000 men and
5,000 animals on shore for a month, and soon there will be stores for
six weeks.
At five o’clock the Turks sprang a surprise bombardment on to the
left of our line, and simultaneously, just as I was walking the few
yards from our Supply depot to our men, four 18-pounder shrapnel
burst overhead. All about the depot dive for cover, and many of them
rush into our dugout, it being the most handy. A minute only and four
more come, burst overhead, the bullets rattling on the shrapnel-proof
roof. Foley is with me; Way and Carver are up on the cliff in a safe
spot. Petro is up on the high ground behind our dugout, having gone
there to watch a battleship firing on to Burnt Hill, while Phillips
is down on the beach, looking after a water-cart. Never before have
we had 18-pounder shrapnel burst as far up the promontory as this,
and we are naturally surprised how the Turks could have pushed one of
their batteries so close up to get the range. As fast as we put our
heads out to see if Phillips or Petro is about, a salvo of four shells
arrives over, most of them bursting in the neighbourhood of our depot
and a few on the beach further over to the left. No one is about; all
have gone to ground like rabbits. They give it us hot and strong for
fifteen minutes, and then stop. All the time the battleships have
been firing, and I think must have got on to this particular battery.
We cautiously come out of our dugout and look about. Gradually men
all over the beaches appear from all directions and go about their
respective jobs. Petro turns up from a dugout close by, beaming all
over his face, and says that he had done a hundred yards’ sprint over
boulders and rocks in record time, at the finish making a beautiful
head-dive into the nearest dugout that he could see, on to a half-dozen
Tommies crouching inside. We then see Phillips limping up from the
beach, being helped by two Tommies. I run down to him, and we go to
the 11th Division Casualty Clearing Station. We unwind the puttee of
his left leg, which had been hit, when a shrapnel bullet rolls out
and runs along the floor like a marble. I pick it up and put it in
his pocket. It had drilled a hole clean through his leg, just above
the ankle, through which blood is pouring freely. He is bound up and,
though in great pain, perspiration pouring off his face, keeps smiling
and cheerful. One of the most painful parts of the body to be hit is
just above the ankle. When the first four shells burst he fell flat
behind a big boulder, which protected all of him but his long legs,
and after the third or fourth salvo he felt the sledge-hammer blow of
a bullet and knew he was hit. Lying there wounded while other shells
burst overhead was a beastly experience for him, and he thanked his
stars when it was all over. With one arm around my shoulder he leans on
me and slowly limps back to our dugout, I hoping that they won’t burst
out again. I lay him on my bed; the swarms of flies that are with us
always now buzz round the wound, which I cover up with muslin. I go up
to O’Hara to tell him, and find there some of our D.H.Q. Staff, just
back from the line, having had to clear quickly when the attack opened.
When O’Hara gets back with me we find Phillips has gone off, assuring
the others that he will be back in a month.
The Turkish gunners were too quick for old Phillips this time, giving
him no chance to read their minds. But thank the Lord he is wounded and
not gone West! I miss him to-night, and feel depressed, and wonder how
long I shall remain on this God-forsaken place or how long it will be
before my turn comes to get hit.
It is now a beautiful moonlight night, quiet, calm, and still, and an
enemy aeroplane sails over, making a circle of the bay.
I have got an idea that the old Turk is laughing at us now.
_September 19th._
A fairly quiet day. Beautiful calm moonlight night. Have to get water
up from “A” Beach to De Lisle’s Gully ready for the 86th, who arrive
to-morrow. Thank Heaven it is moonlight. Go up first to H.Q. of Brigade
by car. Country smells lovely. We have not been here long enough yet
to spoil the land. Hardly a rifle shot in front. Go over to De Lisle’s
Gully and back to D.H.Q., up to Brigade again, and once more; then
to the gully, arriving home at midnight. Actually enjoyed the trip,
but looking at the calm sea and moon, and the landscape of mountain
and gorse, with the continual chirping of the crickets, how I longed,
craved, and yearned for the day when Peace will be declared.
_September 20th._
Turks shell us unceasingly all morning, several shells coming near our
depot, but they are only light shells, and many of them do not explode.
A Newfoundland regiment joins our Brigade. They get shelled while on
the beach, just an hour after landing, and suffer casualties. They
appear to look upon it as a huge joke.
Way and Carver come back. 86th Brigade due from Imbros to-morrow. Hear
that Captain Koebel, who came over with me from Alexandria at the end
of July, has died of wounds. We became great friends on board the
_Anglo-Egyptian_ in July.
Go up to Brigade by night. Beautiful moonlight night again. Go up by
car. Nothing doing. Lachard joins us now in place of Phillips.
_September 21st._
Fairly quiet to-day so far. Though just as I go over to depot this
morning several shells fly overhead. Horrid feeling when you are in the
open. Very fine day, but flies terrible. All quiet on front. Exactly a
month now since last battle.
_September 22nd._