Part 25 (1/2)

It will be seen from Captain Glossop's despatch that he was on escort duty with the convoy under the charge of Captain Silver of H.M.A.S.

_Melbourne_. This convoy was carrying Australian and New Zealand troops to the scene of the great conflict in Europe. The act of self-denial on the part of Captain Silver in sending the _Sydney_ to engage the _Emden_, instead of taking that duty upon himself, certainly deserves to be noted. This officer denied to himself and to the officers and men under his command, the privilege of dealing with the notorious raider, and in so doing he was actuated solely by his high sense of duty and the responsibility that he owed to his country. In his judgment the _Sydney_ was the more suitable s.h.i.+p, so she was sent, and the _Melbourne_ remained with her convoy until the affair was concluded.

LANDING ON GALLIPOLI

+Source.+--Dispatch from a special Correspondent at the Dardanelles printed in The Times, 7 May 1915

Soon after the commencement of the war Turkey joined the Central Powers, and consequently the Australian Imperial Forces, having experienced a rigorous training in Egypt, were used to a.s.sist the Navy and other Allied troops in an attempt to force the Dardanelles.

VIEWED FROM A BATTLEs.h.i.+P

Slowly through the night of April 24th our squadron, which was to land the covering forces of the Australian contingent just north of Gaba Tepe, steamed towards its destination....

At 1 a.m. the s.h.i.+ps arrived off their appointed rendezvous, five miles from the landing-place, and stopped. The soldiers were aroused from their slumbers, and were served with a last hot meal. A visit to the mess decks showed these Australians, the majority of whom were about to go into action for the first time under the most trying circ.u.mstances, possessed at 1 o'clock in the morning courage to be cheerful, quiet, and confident....

At 1.20 a.m. the signal was given from the flags.h.i.+p to lower the boats, which had been left swinging from the davits throughout the night. Our steam pinnaces were also lowered to take them in tow....

On the quarter-deck, backed by the great 12 in. guns, this splendid body of colonial troops were drawn up in serried ranks, fully equipped, and receiving their last instructions from their officers, who, six months ago, like their men, were leading a peaceful civilian life in Australia and New Zealand, 5,000 miles away....

At 2.5 a.m. the signal was given for the troops to embark in the boats which were lying alongside, and this was carried out with great rapidity, in absolute silence, and without a hitch or an accident of any kind....

The whole operation had been timed to allow the pinnaces and boats to reach the beach just before daylight, so that the Turks, if they had been forewarned, would not be able to see to fire before the Australians had obtained a firm footing and, it was hoped, good cover on the foresh.o.r.e....

At 4.53 a.m. there suddenly came a very sharp burst of rifle fire from the beach, and we knew our men were at last at grips with the enemy.

This fire lasted only for a few minutes, and then was drowned by a faint British cheer wafted to us over the waters....

The first authentic news we received came with the return of our boats.

A steam pinnace came alongside with two rec.u.mbent forms on her deck and a small figure, pale, but cheerful, and waving his hand astern. They were one of our mids.h.i.+pmen, just sixteen years of age, shot through the stomach, but regarding his injury more as a fitting consummation to a glorious holiday ash.o.r.e than a wound; and a chief stoker, and petty officer, all three wounded by that first burst of musketry, which caused many casualties in the boats just as they reached the beach.

From them we learned what had happened in those first wild moments. All the tows had almost reached the beach, when a party of Turks, entrenched almost on the sh.o.r.e, opened up a terrible fusillade from rifles and also from a Maxim. Fortunately most of the bullets went high, but, nevertheless, many men were hit as they sat huddled together forty or fifty in a boat.

It was a trying moment, but the Australian volunteers rose as a man to the occasion. They waited neither for orders, nor for the boats to reach the beach, but, springing out into the sea, they waded ash.o.r.e, and, forming some sort of a rough line, rushed straight on the flashes of the enemy's rifles. Their magazines were not charged, so they just went in with cold steel, and I believe I am right in saying that the first Ottoman Turk since the last Crusade received an Anglo-Saxon bayonet in him at 5 minutes after 5 a.m. on April 25th. It was over in a minute.

The Turks in this first trench were bayoneted or ran away, and a Maxim gun was captured.

Then the Australians found themselves facing an almost perpendicular cliff of loose sandstone, covered with thick shrubbery, and somewhere half-way up the enemy had a second trench strongly held, from which they poured a terrible fire on the troops below, and the boats pulling back to the destroyers for the second landing party.

Here was a tough proposition to tackle in the darkness, but these Colonials are practical above all else, and they went about it in a practical way. They stopped a few moments to pull themselves together, and to get rid of their packs which no troops could carry in an attack, and then charged their magazines. Then this race of athletes proceeded to scale the cliffs without responding to the enemy's fire. They lost some men but did not worry, and in less than a quarter of an hour the Turks were out of their second position, either bayoneted or in full flight.

This ridge under which the landing was made, stretches due north from Gaba Tepe, and culminates in the height of Coja Chemen, which rises 950 feet above the sea level. The whole forms part of a confused triangle of hills, valleys, ridges, and bluffs which stretches right across the Gallipoli Peninsula to the Bay of Ba.s.si Liman, above the Narrows. The triangle is cut in two by the valley through which flows the stream known as Bokali Deresi....

In the early part of the day very heavy casualties were suffered in the boats which conveyed the troops from the destroyers, tugs, and transports to the beach. As soon as it became light, the enemy's sharpshooters, hidden everywhere, simply concentrated their fire on the boats....

Throughout the whole of April 25th the landing of troops, stores, and munitions had to be carried out under these conditions, but the gallant sailors never failed their equally gallant comrades ash.o.r.e. Every one, from the youngest mids.h.i.+pman straight from Dartmouth and under fire for the first time, to the senior officers in charge, did their duty n.o.bly....

When the sun was fully risen and the haze had disappeared, we could see that the Australians had actually established themselves on the top of the ridge, and were evidently trying to work their way northwards along it....