The question was now whether this rolling up of the newly captured line
from the right would continue until the whole of our gains were wiped
out. It looked very like it, for now the enfilade fire of the Turks
began to fall upon the Manchester Brigade of the 42nd Division, which
was firmly consolidating the furthest distant line of trenches it had
so brilliantly won. After 1.30 p.m. it became increasingly difficult
for this gallant Brigade to hold its ground. Heavy casualties occurred;
the Brigadier and many other officers were wounded or killed; yet it
continued to hold out with the greatest tenacity and grit. Every effort
was made to sustain the Brigade in its position. Its right flank was
thrown back to make face against the enfilade fire and reinforcements
were sent to try to fill the diagonal gap between it and the Royal
Naval Division. But ere long it became clear that unless the right of
our line could advance again it would be impossible for the Manchesters
to maintain the very pronounced salient in which they now found
themselves.
Orders were issued, therefore, that the Royal Naval Division should
co-operate with the French Corps in a fresh attack, and reinforcements
were despatched to this end. The attack, timed for 3 p.m., was twice
postponed at the request of General Gouraud, who finally reported
that he would be unable to advance again that day with any prospect
of success. By 6.30 p.m., therefore, the 42nd Division had to be
extricated with loss from the second line Turkish trenches, and had to
content themselves with consolidating on the first line, which they had
captured within five minutes of commencing the attack. Such was the
spirit displayed by this Brigade that there was great difficulty in
persuading the men to fall back. Had their flanks been covered nothing
would have made them loosen their grip.
No further progress had been found possible in front of the 88th
Brigade and Indian Brigade. Attempts were made by their reserve
battalions to advance on the right and left flanks respectively, but in
both cases heavy fire drove them back.
At 4 p.m. under support of our artillery the Royal Fusiliers were able
to advance beyond the first line of captured trenches, but the fact
that the left flank was held back made the attempt to hold any isolated
position in advance inadvisable.
As the reserves had been largely depleted by the despatch of
reinforcements to various parts of the line, and information was to
hand of the approach of strong reinforcements of fresh troops to the
enemy, orders were issued for the consolidation of the line then held.
Although we had been forced to abandon so much of the ground gained
in the first rush, the net result of the day's operations was
considerable--namely, an advance of 200 to 400 yards along the whole of
our centre, a front of nearly 3 miles. That the enemy suffered severely
was indicated, not only by subsequent information, but by the fact of
his attempting no counter-attack during the night, except upon the
trench captured by the French 1st Division on the extreme right. Here
two counter-attacks were repulsed with loss.
The prisoners taken during the day amounted to 400, including 11
officers: amongst these were 5 Germans, the remains of a volunteer
machine-gun detachment from the _Goeben_. Their commanding officer was
killed and the machine-gun destroyed. The majority of these captures
were made by the 42nd Division under Major-General W. Douglas.