Next morning (May 7) we opened with shrapnel upon the enemy's trenches
opposite our extreme left, and at 10 a.m. the Lancashire Fusiliers
Brigade began the attack. But our artillery had not been able to locate
the cleverly sited German machine-gun batteries, whose fire rendered
it physically impossible to cross that smooth glacis. Next to the
right the 88th Brigade swept forward, and the 1/5th Royal Scots, well
supported by artillery fire, carried the fir trees with a rush. This
time it was discovered that not only the enfilading machine-guns had
made the wood so difficult to hold. Amongst the branches of the trees
Turkish snipers were perched, sometimes upon small wooden platforms.
When these were brought down the surroundings became much healthier.
The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, of the 87th Brigade, were pushed up
to support the left of the 88th, and all seemed well, when, at 1.20
p.m., a strong Turkish counter-attack drove us back out of the fir
clump. As an off-set to this check the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers
captured three Turkish trenches, and a second battalion of the 87th
Brigade, the King's Own Scottish Borderers, was sent forward on the
left to make these good.
At 3 p.m. the Lancashire Fusiliers Brigade again reported they
were definitely held up by the accurate cross-fire of batteries of
machine-guns concealed in the scrub on the ridge between the ravine
and the sea, batteries which also enfiladed the left flank of the 88th
Brigade as it endeavoured to advance in the centre. Unless we were to
acquiesce in a stalemate the moment for our effort had arrived, and a
general attack was ordered for 4.45 p.m., the whole of the 87th Brigade
to reinforce the 88th Brigade, and the New Zealand Brigade to support
it.