VICTORIANS' CHARGE AT KRITHIA
While the Australians' position at Anzac was being made secure,
preparations were pushed forward at Cape Helles for the storming of
the loaf-shaped hill of Achi Baba, on which the Turks had, after the
fortnight's fighting, been forced to take up a defensive position.
There they had strongly entrenched themselves behind line after line of
trenches. Their actual first resisting line, however, was by this about
3 miles from the toe of the peninsula on the right, at a point near De
Tots battery, the taking of which the French eventually accomplished
with great gallantry. Later the Gurkhas on the opposite (the left)
flank performed a magnificent feat in reaching a point south-west of
Krithia village by storming and obtaining a footing on the slopes of
the Great Dere, while the British line swung round before the southern
angle of the Krithia village. The fresh "shove" was meant to take the
village at the point of the bayonet and capture the slopes of Achi
Baba. Whatever that fortress position may have become later (and the
German officers captured boasted that it was a position that would
never be taken by frontal assault), at that time there seemed every
prospect of it falling into the hands of bold, determined troops. It
was for this reason, to give impetus to the attack, to strengthen the
British troops that held the central portion of the line, that the 2nd
Australian Brigade, under Colonel (later Brigadier-General) M'Cay,
were, on the night of 5th May, silently removed from the beach at
Anzac, and, 3,000 strong, were landed at Cape Helles at six o'clock
in the morning. Though this brigade had been through the thick of the
landing and attack on Anzac, it had, perhaps, suffered least of all
the brigades, and was now chosen suddenly for this fresh assault. The
New Zealand Infantry Brigade, under Colonel F. E. Johnston, was also
landed, and took up a position on the left flank of the Australians;
their left flank in turn in touch with troops on the coast.
So much for the general situation. The embarkation orders for the
brigade came suddenly, while the troops were resting after a week's
fight. At 9 p.m. the brigade was assembled on the beach. Here the
men suffered a bitter experience, exposed to considerable fire, for
insufficient transports had been provided. Eventually they embarked
from six wharves and slipped silently away. Twenty casualties had been
suffered from what were called spent bullets, the Anzac firing-line
being over 1,000 yards away. The men left the shore in rowing-boats
and went out to the trawlers, and then to the destroyers and on to
transports. They knew naught of their destination. A very few hours'
steaming and they arrived off the British position. All disembarked
at 6 a.m. at Seddul Bahr (near the _River Clyde_) under a heavy shell
fire from the Asiatic batteries, where the wandering, disappearing
gun, "Asiatic Algy," began to pour shells on the brigade. The jetties
at this time were only of the roughest wood, joining barges moored
alongside one another.
One is never likely to forget one's sensations upon landing on the end
of the peninsula in the track of the victorious British armies. Thick
masses of tangled Turkish barbed wire (wire so thick that ordinary
shears would not sever it) were rolled round deserted trenches, guns
lay dismounted from their concrete bases, houses had been torn down and
lay shattered, with hardly a wall standing. There were 30,000 French
troops now on the British right flank. All manner of stores, including
great casks of their ration wine, had been landed, and lay piled in the
sandy cove that stretched between two headlands, Seddul Bahr on the
right, Helles fort on the left. The menacing walls of Seddul Bahr rose
above it round the cliff, but no longer a fortress of the Turks. The
village, in ruins, was buried behind.
[Illustration: MAJOR STEVENSON COMMANDING BATTERY 18-POUNDER GUNS AT
CAPE HELLES.
Dugouts of the 29th Division on the sides of the Great Dere.]
[Illustration: THE GREAT DERE, UP WHICH THE GURKHAS MADE SO BOLD AN
ADVANCE.
To face p. 144.]
After a steep pull up a ridge (on which stood two haystacks) from
this beach, the brigade advanced across country to the Krithia road.
What country it was to look down on, after the bushy hills and
gullies of Anzac! Here was a flowering heath and meadows of corn and
poppies and wild flowers. There were orchards and aged olive-trees
and some farmers' huts and houses in the distance; while cattle
grazed in sheltered hollows. It was undulating country, resembling
a hollow plain, of miles in extent, and especially flat-looking to
the Australians, fresh from Anzac's rugged hills. Grim, but not
very forbidding, stood the smoothly rounded hill of Achi Baba--Tree
Hill--barring the advance up the peninsula, a long arm stretching down
to each shore. Shells from the warships were plastering the face of it
as the brigade advanced. Dense clouds of white shrapnel were bursting
over the Turkish trenches which lay round the long, rolling slopes that
ended at the village of Krithia on the left (the west), and which ran
out to the Dardanelles on the east, falling away into steep gullies on
the seashore.
The bivouac chosen for the brigade was about a mile from the landing
and on the west of the road that led direct into the distant village.
Here, as in every line, the troops might rest in some comfort, though
not safety; for besides the shells from Achi Baba batteries there were
guns firing from the Asiatic shore. Nothing remained but to again
dig and dig in for one's life. However, here a new difficulty was
encountered, for water was struck when the trenches were sunk about
18 inches, and that is why in so many trenches there were such high
parapets. It was the only means of getting sufficient protection. If
one thing at this time and under the particularly trying conditions
heartened the troops more than another, it was to hear, and watch, the
French "75" batteries sending fourteen shells to the minute to the
Turkish trenches. Moreover, Australian batteries--a whole brigade, in
fact, under Colonel Christian--were discovered entrenched beside the
French guns in the very centre of the peninsula, and the troops knew
that, in any attack, they would have their own guns to support them.
No sooner had they halted than they started to prepare their meal, and
were laughing, singing, and joking. They felt a certain security even
in the face of the foe.
That afternoon, the 6th May, the Brigadier (Colonel M'Cay) and his
Brigade Staff (Major Cass and Captain Walstab) moved forward to a stony
rise, occupied by the gunners as an observation station, and from
there they looked down over the whole of the ground undulating away
to Achi Baba, 4 miles distant. The country was, I have said, flat. It
was not a plain, strictly speaking, for there were small depressions
and dry creek beds that would be sufficient to protect a great number
of troops when the time came for advance. The southern slopes of the
big hill were intersected by many ravines, which in wet weather formed
the head-waters of the three _deres_ or gullies that flowed south down
the peninsula--the Kereves Dere (the great gully) and Maltepe Dere and
Kanli Dere. This divided the peninsula into three ridges, which ran
parallel with one another in a northerly and southerly direction. On
the eastern slopes, facing the Straits, these _deres_ were particularly
rugged and often precipitous. There still remained portions of a
telegraph line across a ridge on the right going north-east from Seddul
Bahr; it had been the scene of heavy fighting, in which the French
made many gallant charges to take what has been called the "Haricot,"
a formidable redoubt placed on the crest of a hill, and which had held
up the French advance for many previous days and cost many lives to
finally capture.
To realize how any advance across such open country could be
accomplished, it is necessary to explain that the guns on the peninsula
were placed in a great semicircle, starting from the northern slopes
of Morto Bay, where the French guns, hidden behind the grape-vines and
clustered corn and hedges, lay. In the valley, between the low hills
through which the Krithia road runs, were some British 60-pounders, and
on the southern slopes of a hill in the centre of the peninsula British
and Australian 18-pounders were firing. Hidden amongst some trees was a
heavy British battery, and in the Kanli Valley were other guns.
The French firing-line extended along in front of their batteries
for about 1,000 yards, and adjoining them on the left was the Naval
Division. Next to their left flank was the 29th Division. It was the
New Zealand and Australian Brigade and General Cox's Indian Brigade
that formed a composite Division held in reserve to the 29th.
It must be here explained of this composite Division that in the first
day's fighting the Australians took no part. The New Zealanders
were called into action to support the 29th Division, and suffered
heavy casualties. But to give the true significance to the share of
the Australians in the grand offensive during the early days in May,
the early stages of the battle that began on the morning of the 6th
at eleven o'clock and continued for three days, need describing.
The artillery duels of those days were terrific in the extreme, and
the whole of the battle lines were violently swept with shell. The
configuration of the country was such that the hills on the extreme
end of the peninsula gave a grand-stand view, and the Staffs of the
Army Corps operating could be seen on these points watching the armies
moving forward into action. It has been described as "a Melton Prior
battlefield," where you saw each unit going into action. Such an
offensive was only possible on account of the comparative weakness of
the Turkish trenches, a defect which they lost no time in rectifying
later on, when a period of sullenness set in. For the Turk has, in
this campaign at least, proved himself to be a most industrious, even
colossal, digger of trenches and a fine trench fighter, however poor he
shows himself to be in open combat.
A general advance was the order on the 6th. The French "75" batteries,
with their sharp bark, began fiercely to smash the enemy trenches,
concentrating fire on the "Haricot" and the Kereves Dere, and the
valleys beyond that contained Turkish supports. The Krithia village
was shelled by the heavy British guns, aeroplanes spotting. French
and British battleships had moved up on the flanks and were pouring a
terrible enfilade fire on the Turks and covering the slopes of Achi
Baba with sheets of flame as the shells burst along the position. It
was in vain that the Turkish batteries, prodigal with their ammunition,
tried to silence our guns, carefully concealed, and in the absence of
aeroplanes, which the Turks did not seem to possess at that time or
were afraid to send into the air, the British and French gunners went
on without interruption, except for chance disabling shots which put a
gun or two out of action.
As the French and British lines advanced there came the roar of
musketry and the rattle of machine guns to add to the already terrific
din. The British maintained their advance, though the machine guns
in the thick scrub could not be located, while the French swept on,
gaining the "Haricot," then losing it. All this battle panorama was
rapidly passing before the eyes of the leaders of the Australian
troops, who were waiting their turn to charge and take their part in
the battle. Soon the French were forced to retire to the trenches
they had lately left, much to the chagrin of all, though the British
troops held their gain of about 1,000 yards, while the Naval Division
had gone forward about 700 yards in the centre. The 29th also advanced
nearly 1,000 yards on the left, near the Ægean shore. This line they
entrenched during the night. It was a very bent line, with the French
farthest in the rear. The Turks were too exhausted to attempt any
counter-attack, and so the line stood till the morning of the 7th.
Then a further advance was made at 10.30, the guns blazing the way and
plastering the slopes of Achi Baba for the infantry to advance. As on
the previous day, the Australian officers watched the fighting from a
position which overlooked the battle-front of 4 miles, subjected only
to an occasional whizzing bullet and a stray shell.
This was a curious battlefield for modern warfare, where most of the
fighting is underground. Imagine an area of about 5 square miles. The
valley road was the main transport route, despite the fact that the
enemy overlooked and commanded it. On the west side were the red and
pink farms, hidden by a copse of fir-trees. The French at this time
had placed their headquarters in one of these houses. With a start of
surprise one saw their Staff moving along, with orderlies, mounted
messengers, and signallers, all beautifully mounted, riding right up
to within half a mile of the firing-line down this valley, through the
shot and shell. Along the road rumbled the French ammunition-wagons,
the caissons, turning east to Morto Bay, bearing supplies to the
batteries there. The French gunners got their supplies by day and the
British, who were more exposed, by night; and so the traffic on the
roads was regulated, otherwise the congestion would have been terrible.
A motor-cyclist, with the latest word from the battlefield, would ride
at breakneck speed through the traffic, and, once past the mules,
plodding stolidly along, would travel at 50 or 60 miles an hour for the
short stretch until he dipped out of sight behind the last ridge on
the peninsula. Dust rose constantly in dense clouds. I remember looking
at these clouds as the armoured cars on another occasion swept forward,
and wondered that the Turks did not shell them, which eventually
they did; but during these days they directed all their energies to
searching for the guns and plastering the slopes of the Seddul Bahr
ridges and the clumps of trees scattered over the peninsula, where it
seemed obvious our artillery might be concealed.
[Illustration: ARTILLERY WATER-CARRIERS FROM THE SPRINGS AT CAPE
HELLES.]
[Illustration: HEADQUARTERS 1ST AUSTRALIAN ARTILLERY BRIGADE.
Dining-room cellar on the left, ten feet deep, and protected by iron
and sandbags. Firing-line 600 yards distant.
To face p. 148.]
It was not till the third day that the Australians went into the fight.
This Saturday, 8th, had opened much as the other two days had done with
intense bombardments, and then an advance by the infantry in short
rushes, always driving the Turks before them, pressing them back to
the village of Krithia and the foot slopes of Achi Baba. But by this
time on the flanks the Turks had concealed a great many machine guns in
the fir woods, and built redoubts, and such advances became terribly
expensive. On the 7th the New Zealanders had moved away to the support
of the 29th Division, and they lost heavily from these guns. At 10.30
on this morning they were ordered to go through the British lines and
try to take the trenches on the left front of Krithia--now a village
wrecked and shattered by the shells that burst in it and smouldering
with fires that the artillery had started. Once I had seen it, a pretty
little hamlet with white- and red-roofed dwellings snuggling down in
the hollow of a hill, with the stern, flat-topped Achi Baba mound lying
just to the east. On a ridge stood sentinel windmills, their long arms
stark and bare, waving from the side of a curious round stone store,
like a silo. They were the Turkish granaries, and made fine observation
posts. The Wellington Battalion, under Lieut.-Colonel W. G. Malone,
was on the left, the Auckland, under Lieut.-Colonel A. Plugge, in the
centre, and Canterbury, under Lieut.-Colonel D. M. Stewart, on the
right. The Otago, under Lieut.-Colonel T. W. McDonald, was in reserve.
On the flanks the battalions, facing an awful fire, slowly moved up
about 300 yards, but the centre battalion, a dense copse in front
concealing a strong force of the enemy, were unable to go ahead. By
2.30 there was nothing left for the gallant New Zealand battalions to
do but to dig in. The Otagos had been called to support and repair the
fearful losses, but the advance was checked. However, it was determined
that the New Zealanders should again attack just at dusk. Later on this
order was changed to a general attack by the whole line. With but a few
minutes' notice the Australians, till then in reserve, were ordered to
prepare to form the front, or rather centre front, of the advancing
line.
It had been bright and crisp all the morning, and the troops were
in high fettle. At midday, General Paris, commanding the composite
Division, had ordered the Australians to move up in support of the
British centre, which they did, advancing due north about a mile. Their
new position was in a broad _dere_ (gully), and as fairly a protected
and comfortable spot as such places go so near the firing-line. Colonel
M'Cay, to reach it, had deployed his troops on lines best calculated
to avoid searching shrapnel fire, moving them up in platoon columns,
that is, in small bodies placed some 200 yards' distance from one
another, which had the effect of almost neutralizing the shelling of
the Turks. The 6th Battalion was in the lead, followed by the 7th, 5th,
and 8th. The Turks, for some reason, did not open fire as the troops
moved across the valley, though it was fully expected they would, and
so they arrived at a position where there were trenches--some British,
some Turkish--already dug, while the _dere_ itself offered further
cover. The men began to deepen and widen these trenches for their
comfort. The 6th, under Lieut.-Colonel M'Nicol, was bivouacked on the
steep sides of the stream; and opposite them on the left was the 8th,
under Lieut.-Colonel Bolton. About 30 yards in rear of the 6th was
brigade headquarters, just in line with Colonel Cox's Indian Brigade.
Lieut.-Colonel Garside, commanding the 7th, was behind the 8th, and
headquarters and the 5th, under Lieut.-Colonel Wanliss, behind the 8th.
In the midst of taking in reinforcements and entrenching, the plan for
the general attack was communicated to the Australian leaders.
Just a few minutes after five o'clock Colonel M'Cay received by
telephone from General Paris orders to advance without delay. It was
now definitely known that the French had been held up at the "Haricot"
for two days, and that they had now been ordered to make a general
advance (which they did with colours flying and bands playing, an
extraordinary and inspiriting sight, white and black troops fighting
side by side). At all costs the Turks had to go. So sudden had been
the decision for the general advance that there was no time to issue
written orders, a dilemma in which the Brigadier (Colonel M'Cay) found
himself. However, by 5.15 the troops were on the move, the Brigade
Staff giving the directions and the orders verbally. So, one may write,
there began an offensive which in detail and execution was like the
battles of half a century ago, when generals, calling on their men,
dashed into the thick of the fray.
No man will ever be able to do justice to the events of the next half
hour or fifty minutes. As might have the finest regulars in the world,
those Victorians moved from their bivouac, into which they had yet
scarcely settled. The 7th were to occupy about 500 yards of front on
the right, and the 6th Battalion on the left with a similar frontage.
The general direction of the attack was the north-east, and striking
point just on the east of the village of Krithia. The flanks rested,
therefore, on two valleys: on the right Mai Tepe Dere, and Kanli Dere
on the left. The 5th Battalion was supporting the right flank, and the
8th the left. Seeing the preparations for the new attack, the Turkish
guns turned from the first line of British troops, already in position
some 500 yards away ahead, and directed a veritable hell-fire of
shrapnel and bullets against the supports, which they rightly judged
must be moving up about this time.
The whole Allied front was barely 4 miles, swept by a terrible inferno
of shells. The air was filled with the white, woolly clouds that the
Anzac men--old soldiers now--knew meant a hail of lead. The ground was
torn and ripped up as the shells fell; little parties of men were swept
away, killed outright. Overhead whined and whistled the shells; ours on
their way to the Turkish trenches, theirs coming on to our advancing
line. Overhead might have been a whirling shield of armour.
Rapidly the Australians scrambled over the Indian trenches which were
in their path, the 7th doubling forward so as to continue the line
of the 6th, and together with the other two regiments (in support),
the whole mass of 3,000 men started to move forward rapidly towards
the front trenches occupied by the Naval Division. Pictures of the
ground will show its openness; they do not show the first slight slope
up which the Australians charged in a 1,000 yards advance, of which
that was the first sector. At the top of the slope--it was hardly
appreciable to the casual glance--were the Naval Division trenches.
Beyond these the ground sloped away down into a broad depression, that
only began to rise again a little to the south of the Krithia village
and Achi Baba. Once it had been cultivated ground. Over this the
Australians charged. The right flank was resting now on the Krithia
road. The troops were heavily laden; for besides their packs, many
carried shovels, entrenching tools, and picks; they had to dig in when
they had advanced. They stumbled or fell into the British trenches,
where they lay for a while panting. Many lads were unable to reach the
security of the trenches (for they were strongly held and crowded), and
so they lay in whatever depressions were available behind the parados,
while the lead streamed over them--whizz--swing--whizz--swing--little
singing messages of death. You heard them close to your ear even above
the din of the booming shells.
With bayonets fixed the Australians left the trenches. Colonel
M'Cay--surely his life was charmed that day--walked along the parapet
swinging his stick, as was his custom, and looking down into the
trenches, called: "Come on, Australians!" The Brigade-Major, Major
Cass, was in another sector doing the same. No second call was needed
to rouse the troops. They would follow those brave officers to the
very jaws of death. They scrambled to the parapets, and crouching low,
began to advance, 50, 60, 70 yards at a rush, and then, as exhaustion
overcame them, a short respite lying flattened to the ground. But the
line never wavered, though thinned at every step, going on and on with
the officers rallying the men as they panted forward.
God! the marvel of it! The ground was quite bare, except for isolated
bushes of green shrub, through which the bullets sang and tore. Intense
masses of rifles and machine guns poured down lead on to the advancing
Australian lines. The British had cheered these heroes as they left
the trenches--now they stood watching and wondering. Rushing downhill,
the troops were in a regular shallow basin, like a huge plate. The
Turkish trenches lay scarcely 800 yards ahead. That was the only
information that the Australians got as to their objective: that was
all they wanted; anyway, no enemy could be seen now in the battle smoke
and dust. No reconnaissance had been possible, except in a general sort
of way, and it was for this reason that Colonel M'Cay led his men and
allotted sections of the line to the rest of his Brigade Staff. For the
rest he trusted to the spirit of his men.
[Illustration: THE ROAD INTO KRITHIA ON WHICH THE RIGHT FLANK OF THE
AUSTRALIANS RESTED IN THE ADVANCE.
Achi Baba in the distance on the extreme right. Krithia village is
about a mile along the road. The firing-line crosses the road some
1,500 yards away.]
The Turks, well entrenched and concealed, waited for the Australian
charge. No use for the attackers to fling themselves down and fire;
they had no target. On again they went, panting, lying down, advancing
in short rushes of 50 yards, or less, as the men grew more and more
tired. The line thinned. The slopes were covered with dead and
wounded. Darkness was falling. A constant stream of disabled men were
toiling slowly back to the shelter of the gullies. Stretcher-bearers,
regardless of the stream of lead, were going forward and dragging
back to the naval trenches those men whom they found badly wounded.
Sometimes a British soldier leaped out to help in a comrade.
Then, after a charge of 400 yards, across the Krithia road was seen the
low parapet of a Turkish trench, and the 7th Battalion opened fire as
the Turks commenced to fly before the unbroken Australian line; but it
was only a short halt, for the 6th Battalion was still advancing, so
as to get to close quarters with the bayonet. "Bayonet them" had been
the orders, and the steel the Turks were to get if they waited. On went
the 7th, the reserve battalions now coming up into the firing-line.
Losses got more and more terrible. They reached the parapet of a now
deserted enemy trench, yet still the Turkish fire came in a steady
stream from the front and the left, where machine guns were rattling
from a copse that had before broken the New Zealand ranks. On the right
it had become silent. Major Cass, leading there, found it strangely
so, and for the moment, could not account for the pause, as according
to the plan the French were to have charged and advanced. What had
happened he learned very shortly. Again the French had been checked.
But 400 yards' advance had been made by the Australians and New
Zealanders. The extreme left of the line was brought to a standstill,
the British-Indian force unable to press farther on. Australians,
and alongside them New Zealanders, were entrenching for their lives.
The Turkish trenches had been stormed, and the first objective taken,
though Krithia was still unstormed, 800 yards away. But, in this moment
of success, a horrible fresh danger made itself manifest.
The French had not taken the "Haricot." While the Australians' right
still pushed on the Frenchmen were not advancing. A gap of many hundred
yards yawned between the right of the Australian line and the left of
the French. Into this breach the Turks were not slow to hurl their men.
They began working down a gully. The manner in which the discovery of
this attempt to pierce the line was made is dramatic in the extreme.
Major Cass, who had been leading the right of the Australian line, had
fallen wounded, shot through the shoulder (it broke his collar-bone),
and as he lay behind a slight mound that had been dug for him by some
of his devoted men, there came from the left, almost at right angles
to him, a bullet that smashed his other shoulder. Although suffering
from shock, his arms helplessly hanging by his side, he managed,
nevertheless, to get his pocket-book out, and began to write. As a
soldier the truth had quickly flashed in his mind: the Turks were
between the Allied lines, and very soon they would be in the rear as
well. The peril of the situation demanded instant action. Hastily
he scribbled a note in triplicate, explaining the position to the
Commander of the Naval Brigade, holding the trenches in the rear,
through which the Australians in their charge had advanced. Major
Cass sent these notes back by Private H. Wilson, Headquarters Staff,
who returned with an answer after what, to the wounded man, seemed an
interminable time. The shrapnel still screamed overhead and the bushes
were cut by the descending bullets, that made a spluttering sound as
they swept the valley. Another verbal message was sent by Lieutenant
Stewart to the Brigadier. At last the reassuring reply came back from
the Naval Brigade that the breach would be filled. The Drake Battalion
advanced with the 5th Australian Battalion, under Colonel Wanliss,
until the distance between--some 300 yards--was filled. So was the
Turkish flanking movement hindered and pressed back. Five hours later
Major Cass, in the early hours of the morning, reached the beach and a
hospital ship. The devotion of the messenger who carried the message
and then wished to take his officer from the firing-line was duly
rewarded, while Major Cass received the D.S.O.
Meanwhile it happened that the reserve battalions had come up into the
firing-line almost at the same moment as that line came to a halt,
exhausted. Entrenching tools and sandbags were carried, and at once the
whole line commenced to dig in. It was dusk. During the whole of that
night the Turks kept up a continuous fire, with the idea, no doubt,
of preventing reinforcements being brought up by us under cover of
darkness. Nevertheless, further drafts of reinforcements were hurried
into the firing-line, and the new trenches were secured. Not a single
yard of trench was retaken by the Turks. From that day on till the
final evacuation of the peninsula was accomplished, visiting officers
would be shown the "Australian" trenches, which marked the point of
their magnificent charge of 1,000 yards--a sheer gain of some 400
yards, made in a few minutes. The brigade held the trenches until the
following Tuesday morning, when they were relieved by the 29th Division.
The Australian losses had been appallingly heavy, partly on account
of the open ground over which the advance was made, and partly from
the fact that the Turks had a concealed and well fortified position.
The whole of the Brigade Staff was wounded, and the casualties amongst
the officers were very severe indeed. The Brigadier, Colonel M'Cay,
was wounded about nine o'clock as he was returning from the trenches,
having lived a charmed life for many hours as he superintended the men
digging the new trenches. Lieut.-Colonel Garside, who was commanding
the 7th Battalion, was killed almost at the side of Major Wells,
both fine soldiers, who had showed magnificent courage. It was in
this charge, too, that Lieut.-Colonel M'Nicol, of the 6th, received
machine-gun wounds which nearly cost him his life. For his magnificent
work he received the D.S.O. Probably half the brigade was either killed
or wounded, and the Brigadier estimated his loss at 1,800, thereby
reducing his command by half.
Till Monday night the removal of the wounded proceeded. Progress to the
beach, 2 miles away, was painfully slow. Never, so a wounded officer
told me, shall he forget the calls of the men for "water," for "help"
as the stretcher-bearers and doctors, working with unsurpassed heroism,
passed to and from the first dressing-station, 2 miles in the rear.
Here the wounded could be placed on rough general service wagons and
taken over the fearful rutted roads to the beach. Two further transfers
had to take place before the men reached the hospital ship. The bitter
cold of the night added to the intensity of the suffering of the men.
Yet so long as they knew that they would be found the men bore their
wounds and pain patiently and stoically, content in the news from the
front that they had won and the Turks had fled.
On the 12th, the brigade--all that was left of it--was withdrawn from
the firing-line, and on the 15th reached Anzac again, to the tired
troops almost like a homecoming. They came back to a new fight, but one
in which the Turks attacked, were broken, and repulsed.