THE DAWN OF ANZAC--THE LANDING
Anzac! In April--a name unformed, undetermined; June--and the worth
of a Nation and Dominion proved by the five letters--bound together,
by the young army's leader, Lieut.-General Sir W. Birdwood, in the
inspired "Anzac"--Australian, New Zealand Army Corps.
In reality, the first battle of Anzac began when the transports
commenced to steam out of the great harbour of Mudros on Saturday
afternoon, 24th April. All that was needed for the swift commencement
of the deep-laid plan was a perfectly calm sea. This condition General
Sir Ian Hamilton had, as he sent forth, under the care of the Navy and
Rear-Admiral Thursby, his fine army of Australians and New Zealanders.
Already on the evening of the 23rd, the covering force for the British
landing at Cape Helles, which had been entrusted to the 29th Division,
had steamed to Tenedos, where the fleet lay enchained as in the story
of ancient Troy, waiting for the remainder of the ships, which on
the morning of the 24th began to stand off Tenedos. It was as if the
shipping of the Levant had been suddenly diverted to lock the gates of
the waterway leading to the heart of the Turkish Empire, for the sea
was covered with ships--ships one-funnelled, two or four-funnelled;
ships that went creeping along, skulking inshore; ships that were
guarded by giant battleships and destroyers and escorted up to the
land; and tiny little ships--scouts, picket boats, pinnaces, and
trawlers.
The majestic battleships led the lines from the great harbour amidst
the beating of drums and ringing cheers from the crowded French and
British transports that formed a channel down which each Division
steamed from the port. With their minds set to the last task, the very
test of themselves as soldiers, the Australians lay most of the night
on the decks of the transports. On the battleship _Queen_, 1,500 of
the finest men of the 3rd Brigade attended a short service held by the
Padre, and heard the stirring message from the Admiral and the Army.
Then for six hours of ease and smoke and chat with the Navy. Here was
the beginning of the mutual admiration that grew in the hearts of the
two services--in the one for England's mariners of old, in the other
for the spirit of the young, vigorous, and physically great Nation.
By dusk on that April evening, as calm as any spring night, and as cool
as the troops would know it in Melbourne, a long string of transports,
battleships, torpedo boats, pinnaces, and row boats, were slipping
through the waters round the western headland of Imbros Island, where
a lighthouse blinked its warning, towards the mountainous shores of
Gallipoli.
In a bight in the land the ships lay awhile, their numbers increasing
as the hours drifted on. Down on the troopships' decks the men were
quietly singing the sentimental ditties of "Home and Mother," or
chatting in a final talk, yarning of the past--the future, so imminent
now, left to take care of itself--until they were borne within a
distance when silence was essential to success. Then they clenched
their teeth. Leaders, instructed in the plan, knew exactly what their
objectives were to be, though nothing but dark, hazy hills could
they see in the dropping rays of the moon. Again and again they had
rehearsed it, had placed their fingers on the knolls that the enemy
held--just then in what numbers they did not know, but could only
guess--went carefully through each operation of getting the troops from
the ships to the shore and on those hills. Once finally now they went
over it all, calmly, ever so calmly, calculating every step that they
were to advance.
[Illustration: PORTION OF THE FLEET AND TRANSPORTS IN MUDROS HARBOUR
JUST BEFORE THE LANDING.]
[Illustration: BALLOONSHIP "ARK ROYAL" AND TRANSPORTS OFF THE
DARDANELLES IN MAY.
To face p. 100.]
Midnight. The moon still hung obstinately above the horizon, tipping
with silver the island mountain peaks towering over the fleet.
The smoke trickled from the funnels of the huge battleships that
surrounded, and mingled between, the transports; it rolled in thick,
snaky coils from the funnels of the low destroyers panting alongside
the ships, ready for their mission. Over the whole of that army,
30,000 men, there hung a lifetime of suspense. Would the moon never
go down! On the battleships, where companies of the 3rd Australian
Brigade--the covering party--were waiting quietly, parting instructions
were given. The voices of the high officers sounded crisp and deathly
calm in the night. Against the grim, grey decks of the warships the
waiting men were as patches of deeper shadow, circled by a ring of
luminous paint. That line separated them into boat loads. Down the
steel sides silently were dropped the rope ladders. So soon as the
moon would descend, so soon would the men go down these into the
destroyers--as elsewhere off that Gallipoli Peninsula, thousands would
go over the sides of other transports on to other destroyers waiting to
dash to the shore.
Three o'clock, and still the moon was above the horizon, but just
above it. It dipped. The opaque light faded from the sky. That intense
darkness which precedes dawn settled on the sea. It blotted out even
the faint line of the hills. The transports steamed forward to their
appointed stations off the coast. The mystery of it! The silent,
terrible power of an organized fighting machine! The wheels set in
motion! Alongside of each ship came the destroyers, and alongside them
in turn drifted the strings of boats into which the troops had to go
on the last stage of their journey. Already the men, fully equipped
with their heavy packs, greatcoats, and weapons of war, were drawn up
on the decks. No unnecessary word was spoken now. I believe that the
troops had so much to think of, that the thought of bullets did not
enter their mind at that time. Those that did not carry a pick, had a
spade; and every man carried a special entrenching tool. All had bags
for filling with sand, wire-cutters, to say nothing of three days'
rations in their haversacks, and their packs besides. They had 200
rounds of ammunition per man. Their rifles they tucked away under their
arms, gripping them with their elbows. This left their hands free. So
down four ladders they dropped over the sides of the battleships and
transports on to the decks of the destroyers. They were crowded there;
no room to move at all. To the unknown hostile strand they went. The
last 2 miles was a race against time, for soon now the Turks would
know of the landing. At least, they knew not at which point it would
come, so they prepared the whole of the beaches. Later I shall tell you
exactly how. It was four o'clock in the morning, and bitterly cold.
The men said they remembered that much, and the last warm breakfast of
coffee and rolls that they had on deck; they remembered little else
than that. They had a rifle and no target that they could see.
Now the Army Corps had, as I have told elsewhere, a covering force
chosen specially and assiduously practised in landing on Mudros
beaches--the 3rd Brigade, under Colonel Maclagan. This daring force was
to blaze the way, or brush aside, in a military sense, any obstruction
of the enemy; barely 3,500 men, on whom the reputation of an army and a
Nation was staked.
To be more exact. At 2.30 a.m. the transports, together with the tows
and the destroyers, steamed in to within 4 miles of the coast. The
moon was sinking slowly, and the silver haze it cast in the heavens,
back of the island of Imbros, may have silhouetted the ships dimly and
served as a warning for the Turks. Probably the ships came undetected,
but no sight of land could be seen, not even a signal light. From the
battleship _Queen_, lying but a mile off the promontory of Gaba Tepe,
all directions were given and the attack commanded.
Six bells and "All's well" still with the adventure. No smoking is
allowed. Fierce oaths rap out at thoughtless soldiers who, by a simple
act, might imperil the lives of all. Has a signal light on shore any
significance? Nothing happens; so all believe it has not. The murmurs
of the men had been lowered to whispers as they had last talks and
confidences and chats over the "game afoot." It was only 12 miles
across from Imbros to the intended point of disembarkation, but at a
slow 4-knot speed, what length those three hours! Suddenly in the midst
of all the whisperings and lapping of the waves on the black fleet, a
ray of light stretches like a gaunt white arm far into the sky, and
begins to sweep round stiffly behind the rugged hill. It rests down
south at the entrance to the Straits, and then, as if satisfied in its
search, roves idly along, until suddenly as it appeared, it vanishes.
Yes, the fleets had escaped detection surely, for the light came from
Chanak Fort, where the restless Turk spent another night in trembling
anticipation. Often after did we see that wandering restless ray, with
others, go streaming down the Straits in search of victims on which to
train the fortress guns. That night, so well planned was the attack, it
found naught of the ships lying concealed behind Tenedos, and which,
so few hours later, were to set forth, British manned, at the time the
Australians were hurling themselves ashore on the narrow cove that goes
down to history named after them--Anzac.
Only a general idea of the shore on which the army corps was to set
foot had been gained by the leaders from the decks of warships. It
revealed to them, just north of Gaba Tepe, a short strip of beach,
little more than a hundred yards in length, with a low plain behind
it, out of which rose up the ridges and foothills, ending in the great
ridge of Sari Bair and culminating in Koja Chemin Tepe (Hill 971), the
objective of the Army Corps. There was to be a descent on this beach,
so it was planned, and a turn north-east up along a plateau or ridge
that rose rapidly to the crowning hill. Gaba Tepe itself was a headland
in which the Turks had concealed batteries of machine guns to enfilade
this landing and other beaches, but which same point had served for
weeks as a good target for the warships. This point was to be stormed
and held.
The 2-1/2-knot current that sweeps along the coast from the mouth of
the Straits, bore the bows of heavily laden but shallow draft lifeboats
and barges down the Gulf farther than was intended, and so the landing
beach was mistaken in the dark. The attack once launched, there was no
withdrawal or remedy, so the troops began to pour ashore a mile farther
along the coast to the north than was intended; not, on landing, to
reach a plain, but to be faced with terrible hills and deep ravines.
But was it so awful an error? Chance had carried in her womb a deeply
significant advantage, for at the original point the beach had been
carefully prepared with barbed-wire, that ran down into the very water.
Trenches lined the shore--making similar obstacles to those the British
troops faced 9 miles away at Helles. So Chance guided the boats into
a natural cove, certainly not very large--just a segment of a circle
some 400 yards long. Never anticipating an attack at the foot of such
a ridge, the Turks had dug but few trenches to protect this spot,
more so as the whole of the beach might be commanded by machine guns,
concealed in certain knolls. Around the northern point of the cove,
however, the breach broadened out again into what, in winter, was a
marsh about 200 yards wide, which eventually, towards Suvla Bay, opened
out into the marshes and plains of Suvla Bay and the valley that leads
up to the Anafarta villages.
Unwittingly, into the cove and around its northern point, Ari Burnu,
the first boats were towed by destroyers and pinnaces until, the water
shallowing, the ropes were cast off and a naval crew of four, with
vigorous strokes, pushed on until a splutter of rifles proclaimed that
the Turks had realized the purpose. The battle opened at 4.17 a.m. The
racket of the rifles reached the ears of the other brigades, locked
still in the transports, while the 3rd Brigade, men of the 9th, 10th,
11th, and 12th Battalions, went ashore to form the screen for the
landing army--the 9th (Queensland) Battalion led by Lieut.-Colonel
Lee, the 10th (South Australian) led by Lieut.-Colonel Weir, the 11th
(West Australian) led by Lieut.-Colonel J. L. Johnston, and the 12th
(from S.A., W.A., and Tasmania) led by Lieut.-Colonel Clarke, D.S.O.
It was a terrible duty, but a proud position, and Colonel Sinclair
Maclagan had command. The men had orders not to fire. They had to judge
for themselves, and leap into the water when they were nearing the
shore. So the men jumped from the boats into the icy Ægean, up to their
armpits sometimes, their rifles held above their heads, and slowly
facing the stream of lead, waded to the shore. Eager to be free of
action, they at once dropped their packs and charged. Some Turks were
running along the beach to oppose them. These were killed or wounded.
At other places round the northern extremity of the cove the boats were
drifting in, and along the broader shore were grounding on the beach,
only to be shattered and the whole parties in them decimated by the
machine guns in Fisherman's Hut and the low hills above this enemy post.
[Illustration: GABA TEPE AND THE PLANNED LANDING BEACH.
Picture taken from Tasmania Post looking south on to Achi Baba in the
far distance.]
[Illustration: A SHELL BURSTING IN THE VERY HEART OF ANZAC COVE, NEAR
LIEUT.-GENERAL BIRDWOOD'S DUGOUT AND THE END OF WATSON'S PIER.
To face p. 104.]
So the Turks found the attack on them before they realized its
proximity and strength. A few companies of the enemy were manning
shallow trenches on the foothills, others were on the ridges
overlooking the beach. Firing spread from end to end of the beaches,
the machine guns spluttering a deadly line. Against this opposition,
with a yell and cheers, the Australians dashed into their first action.
"Impshee,[1] Impshee, Yallah--you black devils!" was the cry that broke
from a thousand throats. Louder and still louder grew the crack of the
rifles, and when the Turks turned, not waiting for the army that now
tumbled on to the beach, and ceased firing, the guns from behind the
ridge and from Gaba Tepe point, took up the tale. Shrapnel soon began
to burst over the beach, flicking to foam the waters between the now
dimly visible transports and the water's edge. It was fortunate the
Turkish gun fire went high in that first hour's fighting, and only fell
harmlessly into the water, the men ashore escaping hurt as they swiftly
advanced through the bushes, routing the Turks on the beach. Then,
faced by almost perpendicular cliffs, these fearless fighters turned
half-right (they had bayoneted the few Turks that remained) and went up
the side of a high ridge--Maclagan's Ridge, 200 feet high--and paused
only for want of breath. On they went a moment later, the officers
leading what squads of men they could gather up, on to a plateau, known
afterwards as "Plugge's Plateau," and down into a great ravine or
_dere_--Shrapnel Gully.
[1] Egyptian: "Get out!"
Only men in perfect health and of the physique of these troops could
have accomplished the scaling of those hills and still charge on, their
vigour unabated. That climb had been amongst firs and holly bushes,
over carpets of poppies, anemones, and wild flowers. The troops fired
now from the ridges into the running Turks, whom they could not well
see, but could hear crashing away ahead of them. It was the first step
in a great charge. The Turks had not been numerous, but their position
might well have been called impregnable. I do not suppose more than 500
to 800 Turks composed the force that manned the heights, but they had
trenches, machine guns in positions, and had but to turn their fire on
the water's edge that gently lapped the shore. They knew they had many
thousands in reserve at Maidos, Bogali, and Kojadere, the nearest camp,
but fearful of the landing host, they had turned and gone back to the
gully, where, joined by reserves, they waited the next onslaught. These
enemy lines too, now the gallant 3rd Brigade, spreading out in a thin
line, drove before them. Raked by machine guns from other ridges, the
bullets came whistling through the leaves of the bushes round them. It
was no use to pause in the valley--bullets came from behind, as snipers
waited while the onward rush went over them, and then fired into the
rear of the advancing parties--only to push on and on. Terrible work
this was, crashing through the undergrowth, down, down into a valley,
the bottom of which could not be seen, over broken ground, to reach at
last creeks, and then to climb the hill outlined faintly in irregular
silhouette before the advancing dawn.
As it grew lighter the enemy in great numbers could be seen running
along these ridges, or establishing themselves in hasty entrenchments.
Had they attacked, 4,000 strong as they were, they must have dispersed
our isolated parties, driving them back at least. But the fierceness
of the landing had shaken the nerve of the Turkish army; for the
moment, I believe, the attack was paralysed. For an hour the Turks had
ceased firing--between 5.30 and 6.30. Oh, thrice blessed hour, that
gave the landing army time to gather its strength! The main gully was
intersected by many smaller gullies, and down each of these parties
of shouting Australians went, wherever they could find a leader--a
sergeant, a South African veteran, or officer--to lead them. Some
waited for word to go on, others went on till they were lost to their
comrades for ever in the distant ridges.
In the early hours Major Brand, Brigade-Major of the 3rd Brigade,
directing the right of the line that was working east, led a party
across a crest, and, on the hillside below, saw a redoubt and
earthworks, on which, after opening rapid fire, without delay he
charged. The Turks fled, leaving as a prize to fall into our hands
a three-gun battery of Krupp guns. One cannot overestimate the
gallantry of this small party, who lost no time in spiking the guns
and destroying them as best they could. For already the Turkish first
counter-attack was developing, and it became necessary for Colonel
Maclagan, while waiting for the new regiments, to contract his front.
Major Brand had to retire to the hill crest, and for this deed and
other heroism that morning he obtained the D.S.O.
Hours ere this had fled by, and meanwhile other regiments were pouring
from the transports. Still the darkness hung over the shore. Only with
the faint streaks of dawn could it be definitely learned that the
brigade that had landed had won and held the heights. As one section
of transports, having discharged its human freight, moved out, others
filed in to take their places. The flashes of rifles could be seen on
the cliffs, the error of the landing--that fortunate error--realized
with a gasp of horror, surprise, and fear. All need for silence now
ended, the orders rang out sharp and clear. Torpedo-boats bumped
alongside, swiftly brought to rest, while the troops dropped down on
to their decks, only to find there wounded men who had returned, never
having set foot ashore.
"Hullo, mates, stung!" called some men from the transports to the
wounded men.
"Blasted bad luck!--months of training, and never got a shot at the
blighters, and only twenty minutes of fighting."
Wounded were being lifted gently on board by the slings; others lay on
the torpedo-boats, the time too precious to render anything but first
aid while the task of disembarking still remained unfinished.
How magnificent the attitude of the Navy now that the strain was
lifted, and a silent, stern air had given place to a jaunty assurance.
Boys ran pinnaces up to grim transports and took command of hundreds of
men, fearing death as little as any tried veterans. Reckless of danger,
they never flinched. Let me only tell of one such midshipman hailing a
transport (the skipper told me the story himself later), saying:--
"Admiral's orders, but you will move in to ---- position, closer in
shore."
"Is there any danger?" bellowed back the skipper, thinking of the
safety of his ship and the shells that threw towers of water up over
his decks.
"Danger, sir! What is danger?" came back the piping reply.
And those men a little more senior, commanding the destroyers, the
adventure of it all appealed to their deep-rooted instincts--the
instincts of the Navy.
"Well, where do you want to go to?" asked a destroyer commander of a
young infantry officer with his hundreds of men as he came aboard from
the liner towering above the squat little warship.
"Good God!" exclaimed the officer, and, turning, shouted up to his
commanding officer, still on board the transport, "He does not know
where to take me!"
"That is all right," laughed the naval man. "I went a bit north last
time. I'll try a little higher up." And his engine-room bell tinkled
and they were off.
Amongst the boats and barges and small craft, as the dawn grew bright,
the shells from the Turks fell, and the bullets from the hills raked
them and killed the rowers at the oars.
Major Jackson, in command of a company of the 7th Victorians, related
to me his experience, that, in the words of a soldier, most vividly
tells the adventures of all those regiments landed about six o'clock in
the pale morning light:--
"We had few oars--not enough to get quickly out of the hell fire once
the pinnaces had cast us off, nearly 100 yards from shore. All the men
who could crouched low in the boat, while the others rowed or sat by me
on the gunwale. Then one lad caught a crab, and I commenced to curse
him till, taking one more stroke, he fell dead across his oar, shot
through the head. The bullets were ripping against our sides and the
boat was filling with water. Many of us had to jump out while still
the water was up to our armpits and push the boat inshore; many could
never leave the boat. I formed up all the men I could from my own and
other boats, and was directed up to the hills. But I can tell you that
in many boats few men came out, and others lay at the bottom jammed
beneath their dead comrades, who crushed them down."
[Illustration: ANZAC COVE, THE ACTUAL LANDING BEACH, SHOWING THE
TRAVERSES SUBSEQUENTLY ERECTED ON THE PIERS AND BEACH FOR PROTECTION.
The Beach Casualty Clearing Station was situated behind the boxes.
Suvla Bay, over Ari Burnu Point, to the north.]
Surely no words can describe the gallantry of troops who, without a
murmur, bore their wounds. They joked while in the boats, talked of
the nearness of the shot and shell, laughed as bullets flicked caps
and jackets. Their attitude to death roused the enthusiasm of the
sailors. "They believe they are still on a picnic!" exclaimed a naval
officer, and as the outline of the cliffs grew more distinct, "Hell!"
he exclaimed. "They are up there! Good on you, Australians!" It was the
beginning of the knowledge to the Navy what fighters the young Nation
had, and they welcomed them, and henceforth anything in their power
was too little to help men who could face death with a cheer and a
smile. Portions of the 5th, under Colonel Wanliss, and 6th Battalion,
under Colonel M'Nicol, came inshore on large lighters that remained
almost stationary off shore, with the shrapnel bursting over them, till
lines were passed to the beach and their comrades hauled them in. Major
Whitham, 12th Battalion, told me when he had called on his men from his
boat, but three had responded--the rest had been shot.
It is impossible to say which battalion landed first of the brigades.
Generally it is conceded that the Queenslanders got ashore first, but
only a few seconds later came the remainder of the troops from every
State of the Commonwealth. The 1st and 2nd Brigades landed at six
o'clock and were on shore by nine. The beach from a distance looked a
surging mass of khaki figures, while the hillsides were covered with
groups of men, who were working like fury, digging holes and tearing
down the bushes. Pinnaces, stranded and sunk, lay along the shore,
barges, too, and boats.
Major Cass (now Colonel Cass, D.S.O.), Brigade-Major of the 2nd
Brigade, commanded by Colonel M'Cay, described to me the landing of the
Victorians, who now followed hard after the clearing party, together
with the 1st Brigade, under Colonel M'Laurin. I will repeat it here as
the testimony of a gallant soldier:--
"The transports moved into position, but they could not get forward,
as warships and T.B.D.'s, with the 3rd Brigade, still occupied the
allotted places. In consequence, the 7th Battalion and portion of the
6th were embarking in boats before the 5th and 8th could get to their
places. The enemy now had light enough to use his field guns from Gaba
Tepe, and shelled the boats heavily. Gaba Tepe was at once engaged
by the _Triumph_ and _Bacchante_, but the guns were so well placed
that they continued in action at intervals during the whole landing.
This shell fire enfiladed the beach and caused many casualties in the
boats. Those casualties caused further delay in the disembarkation,
as wounded men were left in the boats, and even put in the boats from
the beach. When the boats returned to the transports it was necessary
to take the wounded on board, and, as provision had not been made
for this, increasing delays took place with each tow or string of
boats. It was interesting at this stage to watch the demeanour of the
troops. At least 90 per cent. of them had never been under fire before,
and certainly 95 per cent. had not been under shell fire. Yet they
looked at the wounded, questioned them, and then went on with their
disembarkation in a matter-of-fact way, as if they were used to this
sort of thing all their lives. There seemed to be one desire--to get to
grips with the enemy. Quickly and methodically the boats were loaded,
tools handed down and stowed away, and all made ready, as had been
practised at Mudros, and the tows started for the shore. On reaching
the beach there was a certain amount of confusion. Men from all four
battalions of the 2nd Brigade began landing at the one time, to find on
the beach many men from the 3rd Brigade who had gone forward. Because
of the landing being made a little farther north than was anticipated
or intended, the 3rd Brigade had gone to the left flank, and the 2nd
Brigade, after a hurried consultation between the two brigades, moved
to the right flank. The first ridge emphasized the necessity for
discarding the packs, and thus free of their loads, the men moved on.
But practically all semblance of company and battalion formation was
lost."
And here let me write of the praise that all ranks have for the 26th
Indian Mountain Battery that landed with the Victorians and pushed
immediately into the heart of the position. The busy bang, bang
of those terrible relentless little guns did much to stiffen and
strengthen the next twenty-four hours' resistance of the army. "Yes,
there are the guns, men, just behind you," and the officer saw on the
face of the soldier a contented smile. "We're all ---- well right now,
let the ---- come!" and on the soldier went digging. I shall have more
to say of these Indians later.
By midday the whole of the Victorians and the New South Wales Brigades
were landed. Unavoidably, in the stress of battle they had mingled
their battalions with the 3rd Brigade's, now forming a curved line on
the edge of the plateau that lay on the far side of Shrapnel Gully,
from a point about a mile from Gaba Tepe round on to the shoulder
of the main ridge, thus forming an arc of which the beach made the
cord. For, while the Australians had been holding the main ridge with
a line running almost due north and south, the New Zealanders had
landed, and had stormed and captured the ridge that lay almost at
right angles (a last spur of Sari Bair) to the beach, advancing from
the first ridge that had been stormed by the 3rd Brigade and making
good the plateau called--after their leader, Colonel Plugge (Auckland
Battalion)--Plugge's Plateau. Some of the landing parties, I have
related, had got ashore at the point of Ari Burnu, or even farther
north, and were enfiladed from machine guns placed in some fishermen's
huts about 200 yards along the beach. With magnificent gallantry
Captain Cribb, a New Zealand officer, led a party of men to the huts,
which he captured at the point of the bayonet, killing or dispersing
the Turks, who fled into the hills, leaving a quantity of ammunition
and some stores to fall into our hands. Rid of this menace, the beach
here suffered only from a frontal fire from the ridges, as it always
did even in subsequent months.
Later in the afternoon and evening the 4th Infantry Brigade, under
Colonel Monash, that came swiftly up, filled the gap at the head of
Shrapnel Gully and united the Australians and New Zealanders at a point
where the Turks might have easily come and severed our lines, at the
head of what was subsequently called "Monash Gully," near Pope's Hill
and Quinn's Post.
Now the fight for that main ridge was fierce in the extreme. While
the beach and the landing waters were raked with shrapnel that caused
hundreds of casualties, the gullies were also swept by fearful
machine-gun fire. Overhead whizzed and burst the continuous pitiless
shells. "Don't come up here!" yelled an officer to Lieutenant Mangar
as he attempted to lead a platoon of men over a small under feature
that formed a way to the main ridge. "This is riddled with machine-gun
fire!" It was an exclamation often heard as parties of men strove to
link up the firing-line. Early in the afternoon the Turkish first
attack developed. At three o'clock they attempted to pierce our line
in the centre along the main ridge. Already many of the most advanced
parties, that had gone well forward, unsupported on either flank, for
more than a mile farther (nearly three miles from the landing shore),
led by corporals, sergeants, and what officers were available--alas,
whose names must go unrecorded!--had been driven back and back
fighting, even cutting their way out. They saw that to remain would
mean to be slaughtered. The Turks were hurrying up reinforcements. How
many men fell in that retirement I would not like to estimate. Of the
5th Battalion alone, Major Fethers, Major Saker, Major Clements--all
leading groups of men towards the heart of the Turkish position--each
fell, mortally wounded--finest types of soldiers of the army. Hundreds
of men sold their lives in reckless valour, fighting forward, led by
their officers, who believed that while they thus pressed on, the hills
behind them were being made secure. This, indeed, was exactly what did
happen, which always leaves in my mind the thought that it was the very
bravery and zeal of those first lines of men--men from all battalions
of various brigades, who pushed forward--that enabled the position in
rear to be held and made good, though the pity was that sufficient
reserves were not ready at hand to make good the line, farther inland,
on the last ridge that overlooked Boghali and the main Turkish camp--a
ridge some men reached that day, but which the Army Corps never
afterwards gained.
On Lieut.-Colonel M'Nicol, commanding the magnificent 6th Battalion and
a portion of the 7th as well (Lieut.-Colonel Elliott, their leader,
having been wounded), the main fighting fell in that first attack made
on the right of the main ridge. Between him and the next battalion on
his flank, the 8th, under Lieut.-Colonel Bolton, was a gap of some
400 yards. It was a desperate time holding these until the arrival of
Lieut.-Colonel Thompson with the 4th Infantry, that effectively filled
the gap, driving back the Turks, though losing their gallant leader in
the charge. No time yet to dig in; the Turks' attack was pressed with
fury. Hand-to-hand fighting resulted in the Turk going down as the
Australian yelled defiance at him in his excitement and frantic despair
at the terrible hail of shrapnel raining from above. There seemed to
be constant streams of men making their way to the dressing-station.
Major Cass told me "four well-defined and partly sheltered tracks
were followed, but even along these tracks men were being killed or
wounded again by shrapnel coming over the firing-line on the ridge.
This continual thinning of the already weakened line for a time seemed
to imply disaster. The shrapnel of the Turks was doing its work with
a deadly thoroughness. The enemy's guns could not be located by the
ships' guns. We had only one mountain battery ashore, and it was seen
and met by a storm of shrapnel, losing half its strength in casualties.
Reinforcements were urgently needed, and so slowly did they come that
they appeared to be drops in the bucket. But with dogged persistence
our troops held the main ridge. In advance of this line were still to
be seen a few small parties of men--the remains of platoons which had
pushed forward and hung on."
[Illustration: ANZAC POSITION ON MAY 19TH, 1915.
To face p. 112.]
As night fell, the line, though not continuous, was linked in two
sides of a triangle round the position, with the beach as a base. The
4th Brigade had, under Colonel Monash, been dashed up to the central
portion of the line, where the Turks were massing in the greatest
numbers. General Bridges had come ashore and so had Lieut.-General
Birdwood, and sought to gain the true strength of the situation from
the leaders. For a memorable conference had been held between the three
Brigadiers earlier in the day, when roughly the line was divided up,
the 2nd being to the south, then the 3rd, the 1st, and finally the 4th
near the Sari Bair main ridge. It was not as the original plans had
been conceived, but it served well. The line was now desperately in
need, everywhere, of reinforcements.
On the beach the scenes were indescribable. The wounded were pouring
into the temporary dressing station that Colonel Howse, V.C., had
rapidly erected ashore; the boats that brought to the beach the living,
went back to the ships with the wounded and dead. General Bridges would
not permit the guns to be landed--thereby adding to the chaos on the
beach, where stores, equipments, and ammunition came tumbling from the
boats on to the narrow shore, not 10 yards wide--until after dusk, when
the first gun was brought into action, a Victorian gun, under Colonel
Johnston. Some guns of Colonel Rosenthal's Artillery Brigade had come
ashore at noon, but Colonel Hobbs, under orders from the Army Corps,
sent them back. It was, as yet, no place for guns, with the Turks
massing for attack and the situation critical, but it was guns that
were urgently needed.
The cry for reinforcements became more insistent as the night wore
on. Lieut.-General Birdwood was recalled to the _Queen_. Orders were
given to prepare for evacuation, and at midnight the boats were
simply carrying off the wounded in tightly packed boatloads. Delay was
inevitable with such casualties--three or four thousand--yet it was
this delay that made the situation desperate. Would the wounded have to
be abandoned when the position was relinquished and another 3,000 men
lost? Before night had deepened the Turks commenced to counter-attack
again. Charge after charge they made, their shrapnel bursting in front
of them over our lines; but they would never face the lines of bayonets
that waited for them, and well directed volleys sent them back to their
trenches and silenced their shrill cries of "Allah, Allah Din!" Towards
early morning the position became calmer, as the Turks were flung back.
What troops could be spared dug and dug for their lives, exhorted by
their officers. Orders, counter-orders, false commands, came through
from front to rear, from rear to front, from flank to flank. Snipers
fell to blows from the butt of a rifle, prisoners prayed for safety,
never dreaming it would be granted them.
So the crisis came and passed. A determination, long fostered in the
hearts of all, to "stick for Australia," to hang on or die in their
trenches, won the day. Moral, if not very sanguinary support was
given by two 18-pounder guns that opened fire from our own trenches
on the Turkish positions at dawn of the Monday morning. I doubt if
more surprised men ever faced shells than the Turkish leaders when
they realized that in the very firing-line, by the side of the landed
infantry, were field guns, generally in rear of the battle line, and
now firing at point-blank range at the enemy entrenched lines. It was
a feat of no mean importance to drag by lines of men, as the Italian
gunners later did at Gorizia, those great guns to the front of the
battle; it required great grit to keep them there. How the "feet"
cheered the gunners on that morning as they plumped shell after shell
into the disordered Turkish ranks. "There they go! Give it them, the
blighters!" yelled the excited infantrymen; and they poured their rifle
fire into the bodies of Turks that could be seen moving or crawling in
the green bushes which in those days covered the plateau.
So ended the most horrible night ever spent on Anzac, and thus began
the dawn of that famous position.