RETURN TO GALLIPOLI
I was very impatient to get back to Gallipoli and made several
applications to the Staff both by letter and by telegram to do so, but
it takes a long time for the machine to move! At last I received the
anxiously looked for orders for myself and my new men to embark.
I had a little trouble with a member of the Staff before I left, and, as
it illustrates the pettiness of some men even when great events are at
stake, I think it is worth recounting. I had sent him my embarkation
return, showing the number of officers and other ranks bound for the
Dardanelles. In the meantime a telegram arrived from Gallipoli asking
for two of my officers to be sent there immediately. I had them on board
and on their way to the front within four hours of the time I read the
message. Two days afterwards when I came to embark, I had with me my men
and one other officer, but the red-tape, red-tabbed acting Staff man
objected to this officer going, as he said my original application was
for three officers only, and of these, he said, "Two have already gone;
you make the third, therefore the other officer cannot go; he must be
left behind to look after the men at Wardian Camp." It was in vain that
I pointed out to him that this officer would be of little use at
Wardian, but that he was invaluable to me, as he knew the various
languages of the men, which I did not, and that I could not very well
get on without him. He was obdurate, so I said that, as I must have the
officer with me, I would, if necessary, go and see the General and get
his sanction. On hearing this threat he took counsel with another
red-tab man, whose official designation entitled him to write half the
letters of the alphabet after his name, and who, from the little I saw
of him, was, I consider, fully entitled to three or four more! These two
tin gods, having privily consulted together, issued a _ukase_ to the
effect that it would be impossible to allow the officer to accompany me
to Gallipoli. "All right, then," I said; "there is nothing for it but to
see the General, as I must have this officer." This meant that I had to
motor some three miles and lose a lot of precious time in order to
outwit these ruddy obstructionists, a thing I was determined to do at
all costs. When I got to the General's office, I first interviewed his
Staff Officer, Major Ainsworth, one of the most sensible and helpful
staff officers it has been my luck to come across during the whole
campaign. On my proceeding to tell him what I wanted, he said: "Oh, I
know all about it. Major ---- has already telephoned to me that you were
on the way, and has said that, in his opinion, you should not be allowed
to embark your extra officer." I remarked to Major Ainsworth that it
appeared to me that some of the Staff were only there to obstruct, and I
repeated that this man was necessary to me for the efficiency of my
Corps, and that it was much more to the point to have efficient officers
in Gallipoli, rather than to leave them behind kicking their heels in
idleness in Alexandria. This had the desired effect on a sensible man
like Major Ainsworth, who tactfully told Major ---- that I must have the
officer with me that I wanted; and so the incident was closed.
On embarking for Gallipoli for the second time I found that I had 1,100
men on board, made up of 102 different units, many of them without
officers, and as I was again the senior on board, I had to take command
of the whole, and jolly glad was I to know that I would only be
responsible for such a heterogeneous collection for two or three days.
The first thing that I discovered on going aboard was that for the 1,100
men we had only boat accommodation for 700 in the event of the ship
being sunk. I asked the skipper if he usually put to sea in war-time,
when submarines were about, with an inadequate supply of boats, and I
refused to sign the clearing papers to say that I was satisfied with all
the arrangements on board ship. The captain fully agreed with me; he
anchored the vessel in the outer harbour, and we went back together next
morning and interviewed the naval authorities, who were furious at the
delay in sailing and at my demand for more boats, but at the same time
promised to send them out to us in the course of an hour or two, and as
soon as they arrived and were stowed away on the deck, we sailed for
Lemnos.
I am very thankful that we dodged the submarines on the way, because
with such an overcrowded vessel, with so many different units, most of
them without officers, and hardly standing room for everybody, and with
very inadequate means of getting boats out, I fear that there would not
have been many survivors had the vessel been sunk. I issued orders to
all on board never to part with their life belts, as they would have to
depend on them principally, and not on the boats, for their lives. We
were lucky to escape, for just about this time the transport _Ramadan_
was sunk with heavy loss of life. It passes my comprehension that
ship-owners should be allowed to continue the antiquated methods of boat
lowering which are still in existence. How many hundreds of lives have
been lost owing to the stupid method in use! Ropes, blocks and tackle
are fixed to the bow and stern of each boat, and to ensure that it
should reach the sea on an even keel the men using both sets of tackle
must lower away at exactly the same rate. What actually happens in any
time of excitement is that one rope is lowered much more quickly than
the other, with the result that the unfortunate occupants are tilted
into the sea and drowned. It would be a simple matter to lower boats by
means of one rope only, and this method should be made compulsory on all
ship-owners.
Captain Williams of the Munsters was my ship's adjutant. I believe he
was the only surviving officer who had landed from the _River Clyde_ on
that memorable morning of the 25th of April; he had gone through that
desperate fight, and had been engaged in every battle on the Peninsula
since that date, and yet had come through it all unscathed. He must have
borne a charmed life, and I sincerely hope his luck will stick to him
to the end. He practically did all the work of the ship for me, and I
never had a more efficient adjutant.
We reached Lemnos in safety, and got into the harbour at dusk, just
before the entrance was blocked up, because, of course, the harbour
mouth was sealed every night from dark to dawn, owing to the fear of
submarines. We lay at anchor all night and most part of the next day,
and, as nobody seemed to take the slightest notice of our arrival, the
captain and I sailed across the harbour in a tiny boat, although the sea
was far from calm, and, on reaching the _Aragon_, I reported myself to a
gentleman in an eye-glass, whom I had never seen before and never want
to see again. He was very "haw haw," and said that I had no business to
leave my ship until the military landing officer had been aboard. I
remarked that we had been waiting in the harbour so long that I thought
perhaps the military landing officer was dead, and so I had come myself
to report our arrival. With that I left him and returned to the ship,
and soon afterwards we were boarded by the landing officers, and the
1,100 men were drafted off to their different units, I going with mine
on a trawler to Cape Helles. We arrived at Lancashire Landing on a
beautiful calm moonlight night, and were received with joyous shouts of
"Shalom" (the Hebrew form of salutation) from the veterans of the Corps.
I missed the face of Lieutenant Gorodisky from among those who greeted
me, for, alas, he had died during my absence from an illness contracted
owing to the hardships of the campaign. By his death the Corps suffered
a severe loss. He had resigned from an important and lucrative post in
Alexandria and enlisted as a private soldier in the Zion Mule Corps. His
ability and soldierly qualities soon raised him to officer's rank, and
he was one of the best and most useful in the Corps. Like all Israelites
he was passionately fond of music, and it was he who wrote out for me
the Hatikvoh, the music of which has been arranged for me by Miss Eva
Lonsdale and will be found in the Appendix. He told me once that, though
the Germans claimed that they were the most musical nation in the world,
yet all their best musicians were either Jews or had Jewish blood in
them. His death was a sad blow to his widowed mother, as he was her only
child. Madame Gorodisky may, however, be proud to have been the mother
of such a noble character, and it will, I trust, be some consolation to
her to know that he was held in the highest esteem by every officer and
man, not only in the Zion Mule Corps but also by those who knew him in
the French and British regiments among whom we were camped.