Correspondence between Field Marshal Lord William Birdwood and Lady Janetta Birdwood, 1915 - Part 5

(the latter grown on the island) for us which my servant, steward

will carry which will be a very welcome addition to our  

bully beef & biscuits.

The post is just off so I must close.

Goodbye my own sweet wife. All my love.

Ever your very loving old 

Will

 

DONATED RECORDS LIST

3376

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3rd Series

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Date 29 April 15 

 

My own darling girl,

I wrote you last just as I was leaving

Mudros Bay on the Queen on 25th for our first

venture & already an age seems to have passed. You can

hardly imagine the scene & all our feelings. At

about Before starting we had taken on board 500 men

on each of our three battleships. At about midnight

we got opposite our rendezvous & stopped dead

while our men got out into boats in absolute

silence - a small pinnace taking a tow of about

six boats with 250 men. Behind each battle

ship came six destroyers in perfect silence

stealing along, with their decks crowded with

about 400 men on each & dragging tows behind.

When we got about 1000 yards from the shore

the pinnaces all shot forward with their tows

& we had to wait in expectancy the results

as the die was cast. It was now quite dark,

the moon having set, but unfortunately it was still

up when we were well in sight of land & our ships

were silhouetted against it. This however we

could not help as had we waited longer we

would have had to land in day light which I

particularly wished to avoid. We heard afterwards

from prisoners that they had seen us at 2, so

no surprise was possible. You can imagine my

anxiety as the boats disappeared in the dark

more especially as I realized they were not going

in quite the right direction, for instead of due East,

they all inclined to their left & landed me a 

good mile further North than I had intended -

but over this I had of course no control & could

do nothing. Why I had particularly wanted not

to go to the spot in which we were taken was

because it at once brought us into some

most difficult country in which I feared the

troops would be sure to lose themselves in the

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dark, and this is exactly what happened. But

at the same time I am not at all sure that

the hand of Providence did not directly 

guide them into a more sheltered place

than we would otherwise have had, and 

one which on account of its great difficulty

had perhaps not been so fully prepared

against us as others had been.

Straining our eyes through the darkness trying

to see if the boats had reached the shore

we could see nothing, but presently the cracks 

of musketry came along & we knew we could not

hope for a surprise. There was soon a regular

rattle of it, but of course the boats all pressed 

on & unloaded as fast as they could. I fear

they suffered heavily and in one boat alone

about 60 men were at once killed - a horrid thing

while there was no chance of doing anything

to defend oneself. The 1500 men from

the boats were followed at once by all those

from the destroyers so we had 4000 men

ashore in no time. They at once started straight

away to attack the huge difficult hill

before them & I really do not think there are

any troops in the world who could have done

it better or more bravely.  The whole place is 

covered with very thick scrub about 4ft high

with no paths through it - the hills are very steep

& there are many precipices. The men went straight

at everything & if possible went along with too much

dash for they took on more than we could manage,

dashing away to extreme spurs of the hills which

were much too extended to hold. The first 4000 were

of course followed immediately by more, & by about 8.30 I

had 12,000 men ashore. Before then however the

heavy guns had started pegging away at us 

probably from ships (possibly the Goeben's guns)

in the Dardanelles firing at us over the land,

and from the forts at the Narrows. Many 

of these plumped in alongside of us, but by

 

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great good luck I don't think one 

ship was hit - at all events badly -

several had however to up anchor & beat

hasty retreats which somewhat confused our

arranged order of landing & lead to confusion

later. As I say the covering force dashed ahead

& was only natural lost itself to a very great 

extent. Each new lot of troops as it landed had

to be pushed off up the hills to where most

urgently wanted & consequently Brigades and Regts soon

got hopelessly broken up & no one knew where any

of their men were.  The Turks all this time were

fighting us like the Devil & we afterwards

discovered we were opposed by 3 Brigades - and

we found they had got trenches everywhere. 

These I had hardly expected in all the broken

hilly country - but we found them covering

everywhere, and from these they had to be &

were turned out - in fact they were hunted

all over the place. The whole time there was

a perfect pandemonium of noise - the whole fleet

pouring out broadsides and the enemie's shrapnel

bursting everywhere. This went on the whole day, though

the guns only came into action with the light. My

troops had as I say bitten off rather more than

we could chew & we had to withdraw somewhat to

take up a position we could hold. It was only then

I began to discover the awful trouble I was in for

owing to the men being so scattered & broken up. They

had done absolutely magnificently - nothing had

stopped them, and they had accomplished what

any army might well be proud of, by effecting their

landing in face of such opposition & then taking a

position which one would   ordinarily alone be a great

action.  It is for just such work that they are well 

suited for - viz - to be thrown into an action which

wants great dash & recklessness. But, then

they had shot their bolt and the most awful

reaction followed. Both my Divisional Generals

& senior Brigadiers came to me & said it was their 
duty to represent to me that the men were

absolutely at their end, owing partly to the

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fearful hard work they had gone through - their

very heavy losses - and the terrible strain

on their nerves from all the shrapnel fire to
which we had been subjected - and they told

me they were convinced that if attacked they would

not be able to stand and that a most terrible

disaster threatened us. They asked me to wire to Sir

Ian H. putting the facts before him & saying I was 

consequently re-embarking my force, or it might

be a case of all having to go hands up!  An ordinary

retreat is difficult enough, but one including an 

embarkation would be too awful for words. I of course

refused to send such a wire & said in no case

could it be hands up as I'd fight to the last

even if it meant wiping us all out. I warned 

Sir Ian of the state the men were in, but

hoped for the best. What I really feared was the

enemy shelling us all night. We had had

no opportunity of any sort of digging in to

protect ourselves, so had naturally suffered much. The

men were mostly quite new to it, so naturally 

felt it very much.  Though the Turks

attacked more or less throughout the night

they luckily did not use their guns. You can

imagine however what an awful night I had of it.

It was very cold & raining a little, & of course I had

nothing but what I stood up in, though I found after that

that excellent little fellow Steward had carried a

blanket for me on his back. We only had one

narrow strip of beach for everything - time after 

time the shrapnel came on it & the confusion looked

awful, though it really was not so. What was

trying though, was the wounded. There were nearly

2000 of them - men being brought streaming in from all

sides & absolutely blocking the whole beach.
All we could do was to have them dressed & sent

off in every boat which arrived, back to ships.

The regular hospital ship was very soon overcrowded

& then transports had to be filled up - once they

were away it was all right. But the

sight of all these men was inclined to try

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the nerves of my soldiers - and it was
here too that the splitting up of Regts came
in, in trying the men.                                                                           

Almost before light I started out to go all round
my firing lines & see what was to be done. I found
the men already improving since the night before, 
but whenever I came across a small clump
of men & asked them their Regt, they would say "We
20 are all that are left of the 1st Bn. all the
others have been cut up" - and this is what
they thought. I of course chaffed them & told
them that just across the valley there were
another 500 all right & more elsewhere! This did
a lot to cheer them up, and fortunately we
hadn't a too hard day's fighting. The difficulties
of the country which they had been so magnificently
tackled with their dash, told against them however
in such circumstances, when the regular soldier's
discipline would have helped him - for in this
dense country covered with nullahs, many men