Volume I Part 11 (1/2)
One thing is sure Whatever happens to us here we are bound to win glory There are no other soldiers quite of the calibre of our chaps in the world; they have _esprit de corps_; they are _volunteers_ every one of them; they are _for it_; our Officers--our rank and file--have been so _entered_ to this attack that they will all die--that ill all die--sooner than give way before the Turk Theblindly as in South Africa: they are not fighting against forces hose ain, exactly e are after They understand Their eyes are wide open: they _know_ that the war can only be brought to an end by our joining hands quickly with the Russians: they _know_ that the fate of the Ee they display Should the Fates so decree, the whole brave Arht more dreadfully than that of Sennacherib; but assuredly they will not surrender: where so e I feel both light and joy
Here I write--think--have ht where shall we be?
Well; what then; what of the worst? At least we shall have lived, acted, dared We are half way through--we shall not look back
As night began to settle down over the land, the _Queen Elizabeth_ seeive full vent to her wrath An order fro of an eye, she shook froreat shi+p was fighting all out, all in action Every gun spouted flame and a roar went up fit to shi+ver the stars of Heaven Ears stopped ax; eyes half blinded by the scorching yellow blasts; still, in some chance seconds interval, we could hear the hive-like b rr rr rr rr rr r r r r of the sh some break in the acrid smoke, the profile of the castle and houses; nay, of the very earth itself and the rocky cliff; see thee, break, dissolve into dust; crue new outlines, under the enorutted: walls and trenches turned inside out and upside down: friend and foe surely ether under such a fire: at least they are stupefied--uns? Not so Areen and white; the beach, the cliffs and the ra dusk, to sparkle all over with hundreds of tiny flecks of rifle fire
Just before the shadows of night hid everything froht, we could see thatall day under the sandy bank in the centre of the arena, were taking advantage of the pillars of se away to their right and scale the ra to the Fort of Sedd-el-Bahr Other small clusters lay still--they have made their last attack
Now try to sleep What of thosefor their lives in the darkness I put the back to safe England, but forone another close by! Well, why not; I _end whereby a Co a battle dies hard Heheart Hea brave face upon the game when it seems to be up By his character, he may still stop the rot and inspire his men to advance once more to the assault The old Bible idea of the Corew heavy Amalek advanced; when he raised theards directions, modifications, orders, counter-orders,--in precise proportion as his preparations and operation orders have been thoroughly conceived and carried out, so will the actual conflict find hi of the troops to Hunter-Weston as I a the battle of the Shaho by shooting pigeons sitting on Chinese chihosts My own dark hours pass s in pedlar's French The detachment of the writer comes over me; calms down the tue of sleep No order is to be issued until I get reports and requests I can't think now of anything left undone that I ought to have done; I have no more troops to lay ht; I won't ways Braithwaite calls me if he must No word yet about the losses except that they have been heavy If the Turks get hold of a lot of fresh ht,--perhaps they may knock us off into the sea No General knows his luck That's the beauty of the business But I feel sanguine in the spirit of the uine in the soundness ofat Gaba Tepe and at kum Kale, and the feints at Bulair and Besika Bay, the Turkish troops here will get no help to-night And our fellows are steadily pouring ashore
_26th April, 1915 HMS ”Queen Elizabeth”_ At 125 aed out of a dead sleep by Braithwaite who kept shaking , ”Sir Ian! Sir Ian!!” I had been having a good time for an hour far away somewhere, far from bloody turmoil, and before I quite knehere I was, my Chief of Staff repeated what he had, I think, said several ti--a question of life and death--you must settle it!” Braithwaite is a cool hand, but his toneon my ”British Warm” and crossed to the Ad saloon--where I found de Robeck hi of the Australian and New Zealand Aradier-General Carruthers (Deputy Adjutant and Quartermaster-General of the Australian and New Zealand Ar Royal Artillery of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) A cold hand clutched ave
I read it aloud:--
”Both adiers have represented to hly demoralised by shrapnel fire to which they have been subjected all day after exhaustion and gallant work inline and cannot be collected in this difficult country Even New Zealand Brigade which has been only recently engaged lost heavily and is to some extent deain to- there is likely to be a fiasco as I have no fresh troops hich to replace those in firing line I know my representation is most serious but if we are to re-embark it must be at once
(_Sd_) ”BIRDWOOD”
The faces round that table took on a look--when I closeon earth unless it be the guests when their host flings salt upon the burning raisins To gain time I asked one or two questions about the tactical position on shore, but Carruthers and Cunliffe Owen seeeneral statement
I turned to Thursby and said, ”Admiral, what do you think?” He said, ”It will take the best part of three days to get that crowd off the beaches” ”And where are the Turks?” I asked ”On the top of 'em!”
”Well, then,” I persisted, ”tell me, Admiral, what do _you_ think?”
”What do I think: well, I think myself they will stick it out if only it is put to the silence, I wrote Birdwood as follows:--
”Your news is indeed serious But there is nothing for it but to dig yourselves right in and stick it out It would take at least two days to re-embark you as Admiral Thursby will explain to you Meanwhile, the Australian subunboat at Chunuk Hunter-Weston despite his heavy losses will be advancing to-morrohich should divert pressure from you Make a personal appeal to your round
(_Sd_) ”IAN HAMILTON”
”PS You have got through the difficult business, now you have only to dig, dig, dig, until you are safe Ian H”
The men from Gaba Tepe made off with this letter; not thea clear order Be the upshot what it may, I shall never repent that order Better to die like heroes on the eneround than be butchered like sheep on the beaches like the runaway Persians at Marathon
De Robeck and Keyes were aghast; they pat o horribly wrong Midnight decisions take it out of one Turned in and slept for three solid hours like a top till I was set spinning once more at 4 am
At daere off Gaba Tepe Thank God the idea of retreat had already made itself scarce The old _Queen_ let fly her first shot at 530 am
Her shrapnel is a knockout The explosion of thesun; the bullets cover an acre; the enee One after the other she took on the Turkish guns along Sari Bair and swept the skyline with thee of relief and thankfulness ca howaround until about half-past eight suns whenever they dared show their snouts By that hour our troops had regained their grip of the of the Turks was growing feeble An organised counter-attack on the grand scale at daas the one thing I dreaded, and that has not come off; only a bit of a push over the downland by Gaba Tepe which was steadied by one of our enormous shrapnel About this time we heard froe in the situation at helles and Sedd-el-Bahr I wirelessed, therefore, to d'A him he would not be able to land his ed but that he should bring all the rest of the French troops up from Tenedos and disembark them at ”W” by Cape helles About this time, also, ie, somewhere about 9 am, we picked up a wireless from the OC ”Y” Beach which caused us soe,” it said, ”till the wounded are embarked” Why ”till”? So I told the Adht we ought to lose no ti ”Y” Beach on our way At once we steamed South and hove to off ”Y” Beach at 930 a close inshore and we could see a trickle of ourferried off to the _Goliath_: the wounded no doubt, but we did not see a single soul going _up_ the cliff whereas there wereabout on the beach I disliked and mistrusted the looks of these ai; a rifle shot now and then from the crests whereour fellows clearly The little crowd and the boats on the beach were right under them and no one paid any attention or seenallers were at sixes and sevens The _Goliath_ wouldn't answer; the _Dublin_ said the force was coet into touch with the soldiers at all At about a quarter to ten the _Sapphire_ asked us to fire over the cliffs into the country soave Krithia and the South of it a taste of herhinterland from view, even from the crow's nests A couple of shrapnel were also fired at the crestline of the cliff about half a mile further North where there appeared to be so down the cliffs continued No one liked the look of things ashore Our chaps can hardly beoff in this deliberate ithout orders; and yet, if they _are_ ht to have consulted me first as Birdwood consulted ht My inclination was to take a hand ainst interference when I have no knowledge of the facts--and I suppose they are right To see a part ofbefore h: a second Battalion was added to it and then the South Wales Borderers' Coood et in, or whether, having done so, men armed and accoutred would be able to scale the yellow cliffs; or whether, having by some miracle climbed, they would not be knocked off into the sea with bayonets as they got to the top I admitted every one of these possibilities but said, every tiether, they destroyed one another If the venture seemed so desperate even to ourselves, who are desperadoes, then the enemy Chief would be of the saet up, at least ould not find resistance organised against us Whether this was agreed to, or not, I cannot say
The logic of a C-in-C has a convincing way of its own But in all our discussions one thing was taken for granted--no one doubted that once our troops had got ashore, scaled the heights and dug themselves in, they would be able to hold on: no one doubted that, with the British Fleet at their backs, they would at least e-head into the enemy's vitals until we could decide what to do with it
At a quarter past ten we steamed, with anxious minds, for Cape helles, and on the way there, Braithwaite and I finished off our first cable to K:--
”Thanks to God who calmed the seas and to the Royal Navy who rowed our fellows ashore as coolly as if at a regatta; thanks also to the dauntless spirit shown by all ranks of both Services, we have landed 29,000 upon six beaches in the face of desperate resistance fro Turkish Infantry forces well backed by Artillery Eneleht try to concentrate for an advance Worst danger zone, the open sea, now traversed, but on land not yet out of the wood Our e, at foot of amphitheatre of low cliffs round the little bay West of Sedd-el-Bahr At sunset last night a dashi+ng attack was hts from Tekke Burnu to set free the Dublins, Munsters and Hants, but at the hour of writing they are still pinned down to the beach
”The Australians have done wonderfully at Gaba Tepe They got 8,000 ashore to one beach between 330 aanisation; sea discipline and steady course of boat practice Navy report not one word spoken or movementthe transit over the water in the darkness or nearing the land when the bullets took their toll But, as the keel of the boats touched bottom, each boat-load dashed into the water and then into the ene could stop therees wire, scrub and cliffs; thirst, sheer exhaustion broke the back of their iuns had it all their oay, forcing attack to yield a lot of ground Things looked anxious for a bit, but by thisin, cool, confident