Volume I Part 26 (1/2)
”Either Babtie must order up the shi+ps when and where he wants them, or Porter must order the wounded dohen he is ready for them This is my considered opinion”[24]
Have also sent an earnestthat what I want _first_ is drafts, and only _second_ fresh divisions
My old Chief has been his kind self again:--so very considerate has he been in his recent es that I feel it ale of his goodness But we are dealing with lives of men and I _must_ try and ard to the question of reinforce the period 28th to 30th June, the Brigades of the XXIXth and Lowland Divisions dropped in strengths approximately as follows:--86th from 71 officers, 2,807 others to 36 and 1,994; 87th from 65 and 2,724 to 48 and 2,075; 88th from 63 and 2,139 to 46 and 1,765; 156th from 102 and 2,839 to 30 and 1,399 All Officers who have arrived froures Maxwell has agreed to let ypt Of the other ranks I have no appreciable reinforcements to put in This is the situation after an operation carried out by the XXIXth and two brigades of LIInd Divisions, which was not only successful but even more successful than we anticipated; wherein the initial losses on 28th June were comparatively small, namely 2,000, but as the result of nuht, have since swelled to some 3,500
”The drafts promised in your No 5793, AG2a, would, provided there were nothe units of the XXIXth Division to approximately 75 per cent of establishment, but would leave none available as further reinforceer scale, with increased forces, I feel I should draw your attention to the risk introduced by the theatre of operations being so far froland I have no reserves in base depots nohile the operations we are engaged in are such that heavy casualties are to be expected The want of drafts ready on the spot to fill up units which have suffered heavily e as the result of a local success At a critical ht find myself compelled to suspend operations until the arrival of drafts froht involve a month and in the meantime the enemy would have time to consolidate his position The difficulty of the drafts question is fully realized, but I think you should know exactly how I am placed and that I should reflect and make clear the essential difference between the Dardanelles and France in so far as the necessity offirst reinforcements for each unit is concerned Our real need is a system which will enable me to maintain drafts for the deficiencies in depots on ypt”
If K did not want brief spurts sandwiched between long waits, all he had to do was to tell his AG to see to it that the XXIXth Division was kept up to strength A word and a froould have done it But he has not said the word, or scowled, and the troops have by extraordinary efforts and self-sacrifice carried through the work of strong battalions eak ones--but only to some extent That is the whole story
_4th July, 1915 I Made a close inspection of the Surrey Yeomanry under Major Bonsor Even with as free a hand as the Lord Al man than the British Yeomanry; only, they have never been properly appreciated by the martinets who have ruled our roost, and chances have never been given to them to make the most of themselves as soldiers
The Escort was made up of men of the 29th Division under Lieutenant Burrell of the South Wales Borderers--that famous battalion which stor,--also of a detachment of Australians under Lieutenant Edwards and a squad of New Zealanders under Lieutenant Sheppard, fine men all of them, but very different (despite the superficial resemblance imparted by their slouch hats) when thus seen shoulder to shoulder on parade The Australians have the pull in height and width of chest; the New Zealanders are thicker all through, chests, waists, thighs
After Church Parade, boarded HMS _Basilisk_ (Lieutenant Fallowfield) and steamed to helles The Turks, inconsiderate as usual, were shelling Lancashi+re Landing as we got ashore Every living soul had gone to ground Strolled up the deserted road with an air of careless indifference, hopped casually over a huge splosh of fresh blood, and crossed to Hunter-Weston's Headquarters Had I only been my simple self, I would have out-stripped the hare for swiftness, as it was, I, as C-in-C, had to play up to the dugouts As Hunter-Weston and I were starting lunch, an orderly rushed in to say that a shi+p in harbour had been torpedoed So we rushed out with our glasses and watched She was a French transport, the _Carthage_, and she took exactly four minutes to sink The destroyers and picket boats were round her as sar, and there was no loss of life Sad to see the old shi+p go down I knew her well at Malta and Jean once came across in her from Tunis She used to roll like the devil and was always said, hat justice I do not know, to be the sister shi+p to the _Waratah_ which foundered so ood chap, a MFH, Percy Brown, on board At 230 General Bailloud, now co the French, came over to see me When he had finished his business which he handles in so original a manner as to make it a recreation, I went off with Hunter-Weston and Staffs to see General Egerton of the Lowland Division Egerton introduced e, AAG, Major Maclean, DAAG (an old friend), Captain Tollemashe, GSO3, and to his ADC, Lieutenant Laverton We then went on and saw the 156th Brigade Passed the ti those whose naadier; Captain Girdwood, Brigade Major; Captain Law, Staff Captain; Colonel Peebles, 7th Royal Scots; Captain Sinclair, 4th Royal Scots; Lieutenant McClay, 8th Scottish Rifles The last Officer was one of the very few--I am not sure they did not say the only one--of his Battalion ent into the assault and returned untouched
The whole Brigade had attacked H 12 on the 28th ult and lost a nuood men The rank and file see it--they have been given a bad shake and many of them were down on their luck As we came to each Battalion Headquarters ere told, ”These are the remnants of the----,” whatever the unit was Three times was this remark repeated but the fourth time I had to express my firm opinion that in no case was the use of the word ”re,” an expression which authority should employ in the presence of the ot back to Imbros fairly late
A set of Turkish Divisional orders sent by the Turkish General to the Coht zone at helles has been taken from a wounded Turkish officer They bear out our views of the blow that the 29th Division have struck at the enemy's _moral_ by their brilliant attack on the 28th inst
”There is nothing that causes us es hireat losses, than the losing of these trenches Henceforth, commanders who surrender these trenches from whatever side the attack may come before the last man is killed will be punished in the same way as if they had run away Especially will the couard a certain front be punished if, instead of thinking about their work supporting their units and giving inforher corettable incident has taken place
”I hope that this will not occur again I give notice that if it does, I shall carry out the punishe of our men by those who escape froun fire of the enemy Henceforth, I shall hold responsible all Officers who do not shoot with their revolvers all the privates who try to escape from the trenches on any pretext Com on this order to his battalions, the Colonel of the 127th Regiment adds:--
”To Commander of the 1st Battalion The contents will be communicated to the Officers and I promise to carry out the orders till the last drop of our blood has been shed”
Then followed the signatures of the coe ring about these orders but they are, I a to the recipients than laments and condolences over their losses
_5th July, 1915 I at the end of the wire Heavy firing on the Peninsula last night under cover of which the Turks at dawn rand, concerted attack Not a soul in England, outside the Ordnance, realizes, I believe, that barring the guns of the 29th Division and the few guns of the Anzacs, our field artillery consists of the old 15-prs, relics of South Africa, and of 5-inch hows, souns are already unserviceable and, in the 42nd Division, to keep one and a half batteries fully gunned, we have had to use up every piece in the Brigade The surplus personnel are thus wasted To take on new Skoda or Krupp guns with these short-range veterans is rough on the gunners Still, but for the Territorial Force we should have nothing at all, and but for those guns to-day soot hoossip turned up to-day from GHQ France We do not seem to be so popular as we deserve to be in _la belle France!_ But what I would plead were I only able to get at Joffre and French is that we are ”such a little one” Were we all to be set down in the West to-morroith our shattered, torn formations, they'd put us back into reserve for a uns, they'd scrap the lot _They_ don't want ancient 15-prs and 5-inch hows out there
They picture us feasting upon their munitions, but half of e use they would not touch with a barge pole and, of the good stuff, one Division in France will fire away in one day ould serve to take the Peninsula
Braithwaite has a letter fro him that 5,000 Russians sailed froiment of four Battalions plus one Sotnia of Cossacks A reinforce out of the skies! Russians placed here are worth twice their number elsewhere, not only because we need rifles so badly, but because of the moral effect their presence should have in the Balkans
This little vodka pick-ainst the tenor of the news of to-day which is splendid indeed in one sense; o heavily reinforced All the eneht were fresh arrivals frorumble at the attack (on the contrary we like it), but at the reason they had forit, which is that two fresh Divisions, newly arrived, asked leave to show theirus into the sea Full details are only just in The biggest bombardment took place at Anzac A Turkish battleshi+p joined in fro about twenty 112-inch shells into our lines At helles, all night, the Turks blazed away from their trenches At 4 aun they could bring to bear from Asia or Achi Baba Their Asiatic Batteries alone fired 1,900 rounds, of which 700 fell on Lancashi+re Landing At least 5,000 shell were loosed off on to helles A lot of the stuff was 6-inch and over
The bombardment was very wild and seemed almost unaimed Soon after 4 ae froainst the left of the 29th Division ”It wanted to be the hell of a great attack,” as one of the witnesses, a entle they senthiinning to overflow He was adamant He had only a few rounds of HE and he would not spend the sure his 18 prs
with their shrapnel were masters of the field At 6 am out came the Turks, not in lines, but just like a swaran to wonder whenever they were going to stop, and what on earth _could_ stop them! Thousands of Turks in a bunch, so the boys say, swarmed out of their trenches and the Gully Ravine Well, they were stopped _dead_ There they lie, _still_ The guns ate the life out of theroup of artillery who did it As that big oblong crowd of Turks showed their left flank to Baikie's nine batteries they were swept in enfilade by shrapnel The fall of the shell was corrected by the two young RA subalterns at the front, neither of ould observe in the usual way through his periscope They looked over the parapet because that method was reat There is a ruh the head: I pray it may be but a rumour Out of all these Turks some thirty only reached our parapets The sudden destruction which befell the heroes At 730 aot in aht up their own supports and killed 300, driving out the rest Ninety dead Turks are laid out on their parapet
Another, later, eneht of the 29th Division was clean wiped out 150 Turks are dead there But it is on the far crestline they lie thick
Every one of these attacking Turks were _fresh_--froht as coiven ti, we can't really tell hoe stand Still; they are not now as fresh as they were They have lost a terrible lot ofRavine and all the small nullahs are chock-a-block with corpses Their casualties in these past few days are put at very high figures by both Birdie and HW
and it is probable that 5,000 are actually lying dead on the ground I have on my table a statement made by de Lisle; endorsed by Hunter-Weston and dated 4th instant, saying that 1,200 Turkish dead can be counted corpse by corpse from the left front The actual numbers de Lisle estimates as between 2,000 and 3,000 Noe have to-day's losses to throw in The Turks are burning their candle fast at the Anzac as well as the helles end Ten days of this and they are finished[25]