It was on Tuesday, April 27, that Enver Pasha launched the attack
against our lines that was to drive us into the sea. All through Monday
and Monday night our transports were landing fresh troops under heavy
and constant shelling from the Turkish big guns; under cover of the
darkness these troops were marched up and placed, some in the fire
trenches to fill up the many gaps caused by the enemy's shrapnel and
machine-guns, others massed in reserve at the base of the cliff. Yet
not a man of those who had stormed the position the first day, and
who had been hard at it ever since, could be spared from the front
line. Come to think, I don't fancy a single one would have left it. The
feeling had got abroad that the change was going to be taken out of the
Turks this time (it had leaked out that the big attack would certainly
take place on Monday night or Tuesday morning), and the chaps were fair
mad to get a bit of their own back. They did, too.
Our position as finally formed extended along the very crest, or rim,
of the cliff for a distance of about two miles, or rather better. Here
and there deep gullies, or cañons, ran into and cut the line, or caused
the line itself to "bulge" considerably towards the enemy position.
Such was "Shrapnel Gully," at the head of which lay "Quinn's Post,"
where our trenches had to be pushed perilously forward owing to the
configuration of the ground. "Quinn's Post," in fact, formed the key
to the whole position; it lay right in the centre of the line, and had
it been carried the whole bag of tricks would, in my opinion, have
crumpled up badly, and a big disaster might have occurred. When your
centre is pierced it's no picnic. To the left of "Quinn's" was "Dead
Man's Ridge," held by the Turks, and from which they were able to snipe
right down "Shrapnel Gully"--and, incidentally, our camps and dug-outs.
It was from "Dead Man's Ridge" that General Bridges was shot close to
Brigade Headquarters down in the "Gully." No man was safe from those
snipers; they seemed to be everywhere--before, alongside, and _behind_
our lines even. Hence no supplies could be brought up in daylight;
everything had to be done at night when there was only shell-fire
to worry about. Afterwards we got those snipers fossicked out (they
met strange deaths sometimes!), but in the meantime our life wasn't
anything to hanker after.
Now had the enemy only succeeded in pushing us over the rim of the
ridge, nothing would have saved us. Below lay the open beach. We
couldn't possibly have been taken off with the heights in the hands of
the Turks. I guess it would have been one of the biggest and finest
wipe-outs in history. Old Enver Pasha thought it would look jolly
well in the morning papers, I expect. Anyway he had no end of a hard
try--and to give him and his men their due I don't mind admitting that
they weren't so very far from succeeding.