Correspondence between Field Marshal Lord William Birdwood and Lady Janetta Birdwood, 1916 and 1918 - Part 3

[*Cape Helles*] 
[*Please return  it*] 
  
Headquarters, 
Dardanelles Army, M E. F. 
7th January, 1916. 
  
[*To his wife*] 
  
I am beginning a letter to you just before the 
final evacuation of the Gallipoli Peninsula.  I wrote and 
told you what a very trying time of it I had over "Anzac" and  
Suvla, and I am now again in the throes of the whole thing 
over Helles, which I am sincerely hoping to see through 
successfully tomorrow night.  It is of course a very different 
proposition, as the Turks are naturally thoroughly awake to  
what may happen, and the latest prisoners tell us that German 
officers are constantly going round their trenches at night,  
so they evidently mean to have at us if they can.  They keep 
aeroplanes flying over our position day and night, while they 
have lately been keeping up a continuous bombardment through- 
out the twentyfour hours on our beaches, mostly with big shells 
 - 4.2", 8" etc., which makes work extremely difficult and  
dangerous.  Two nights ago, a note was thrown across into one 
of our trenches in German - "When are you finally leaving here? 
"We shall all meet again on the Suez Canal!" so they have 
evidently made more than an intelligent anticipation of their 
own and our intentions.  In spite of this, I am full of 
confidence and hope of being able to withdraw successfully, 
provided always (as before) that the weather is kind to us, and  
I have every faith that this will be the case. 
I am arranging at Helles to withdraw 17,000 men in  
one night.  We have 20,000 men there at present, of whom we  
get off 3,000 tonight, and leave the balance for another 
twentyfour hours, but it is of course quite possible that heavy  
weather may spring up at any moment, in which case we are strong  
enough there to hold our own for a week, and all arrangements 
are made, if heavy weather should come on, to stand fast until  
the/ 

-2- 
the first fine night, when all will be withdrawn.  We have 
still got about 50 guns ashore - French and English, and I  
am afraid that I must make up my mind to sacrifice between 
twenty and thirty of these, but they will of course all be  
blown up at the last moment.  Though these may sound a  
largish number, yet they really are negligible.  Among the 
British guns that we are abandoning, only one is what you 
might call a modern weapon, viz., a 6" gun.  Of the remaining  
English guns, we have got off all modern weapons, viz., 18 pr., 
6" and 4.5" howitzers, leaving behind only the old 15 pr. and 
5" howitzers, which have been brought out here by Territorials, 
and for which I understand no more ammunition is being 
manufactured.  With the French guns I am getting away all their 
beloved 75's, and leaving behind only four 9.2" and two Naval  
guns.  They tell me that all of these have fired about 5,000 
rounds each, and are really of little value to them, so I think 
we can blow them up without regret. 
I am sorry to say that we will have to destroy a 
goodish number of transport animals before going, which may  
possibly amount to eight or nine hundred.  We have had real 
bad luck regarding them which has been unavoidable.  The first 
night when we started evacuation, I sent over a horse ship, 
which would have brought away 500, when the French Flagship 
proceeded - apparently without much reason, to ram and sink 
her as she left the harbour here, defeating me for that night. 
The following night a high wind got up, making work practically 
impossible, and a whole lighter load of mules, that was on the 
point of being shipped, got driven out to see and was lost. 
If we could only rely upon fine weather, we would  
of course be able to get off all our animals, but I dare not  
gamble with them against men's lives, and I feel I must take 
advantage of the first fine night to get away, and just destroy 
the remaining animals; but I mean to get off all I possibly  
can between now and the actual time of going.  It will be a  
real load taken off my shoulders, and, if we succeed, Government  
should 

-3- 
should indeed be grateful for the efforts made by this force 
to see them through a very uncomfortable position. 
I am delighted to say that I have found my 
relations with the French, since I have been in command here, 
have been excellent, and I am most grateful to little 
General Brulard for the way he has met me in every detail. 
Some little time ago, by the wish of the French Government, 
we evacuated their Senegalese (24 companies) and 1,500 Creoles, 
so as to get them out of the cold.  As soon as I get definite 
orders for evacuation here, I at once withdrew the whole of the 
remaining French Infantry - about 5,000 men, so as not to have  
any possibility of divided command in the final rearguard, but 
General Brulard at once agreed to leave me the whole of his 
artillery, to be withdrawn entirely at my discretion, gun by 
gun pari passu with the British guns - their C.R.A. taking his  
orders direct from mine, and giving me an entirely free hand 
about abandoning any of his guns.  I have or course explained 
to him that every possible French gun we can get away will be  
withdrawn, while he agreed it would be out of the question to 
get away his six big guns, which he assured me were of very  
little value to them.  The little man has played the game most 
thoroughly, and I am extremely grateful to him.  I will of course 
bring his name to notice when I send in my report on the  
evacuation, and I sincerely trust it may be found possible to 
give him a "K.C.B.," which I know he and the French troops  
would sincerely appreciate.  He has been kind enough to send 
me a telegram yesterday, telling me that his Government have 
approved of my becoming a Grand Officier de Legion d'Honneur, 
while they have also conferred upon me the "Croix de Guerre 
avec palme," though I am at a loss to think why they should  
have thought fit to honour me in this way. 
The Germans are evidently very keen upon getting  
at my Headquarters, and we almost daily have a visit from  
"Fritz."  He came along over here yesterday, and got in two 
good sized bombs just either side of my tiny wooden hut, and 
then/ 

-4- 
then proceeded to fly over our transport lines, where I am  
sorry to say he sent showers of hand grenades, causing 
casualties to 130 mules and about 30 men in our camp, so I  
fear it was for him a successful raid.  All our anti-aircraft  
guns on the ships and on shore were firing away at him for all 
they knew, but I am sorry to say with no success.  We sent up 
our machines over to their aerodromes at once in retaliation, 
and I am glad to say they seem to think they did some good.  
I am delighted to have Admiral de Robeck back here, 
and he has kindly come up here and made his headquarters  
alongside of me;  we see each other daily to arrange about all 
details, as was the case with Wemyas before the other withdrawals. 
Admiral Fremantle is also here with tow of the ships of his 
lately arrived squadron, "Hibernia" and Russell," both of which 
are delighted I think to be here in time to join in, and we  
have been having some very successful shooting recently by them 
on the Turkish batteries on the Asiatic coast with I hope good 
results. 
Monro and his staff went down to Egypt ten days ago,  
and I presume I shall follow on down there, as soon as I have  
cleared Helles - but exactly in what capacity, and what force I 
shall have under me when I get there, I do not yet know.  de 
Robeck is very anxious that I should go over to Salonika with 
him to look round there before I go to Egypt, and I hope 
perhaps I may be able to manage this for a couple of days. 
  
(Later - 9/1/16.) 
Not having been able to get this off before, I have 
kept it until our evacuation was over, which I am thankful to  
say was the case at 4 a.m. today, and I now again feel a free 
man with no anxieties - but just a little done up, though only 
for a day or so.  After a lot of bad weather the sky suddenly 
cleared, and we had two days which were lovely, so I decided to 
take advantage of this, and put forward final evacuation by 24 
hours, viz., the night of 8/9th.  
On the afternoon of the 7th, the Turks suddenly 
developed/

- 5 - 
developed a big attack on our right. They started with a very 
heavy bombardment with I fancy all their guns, and real 
intensive fire for four or five hours, knocking our trenches 
about a good deal, and I am sorry to say causing a certain  
amount of casualties in the 13th Division.  Then we saw whole  
trenches fill up with men with fixed bayonets, and officers 
going along them evidently trying to induce them to charge. 
The men, however, appeared reluctant to do this except in one 
or two places where small bodies of them left their trenches  
to come at us; but these were all either killed or wounded, 
and no other attack matured.  In the meantime our guns had of  
course opened on them, while the "Edgar" and "Wolverin" - a 
cruiser and a destroyer, who always keep off our left flank, 
got into them really well, the latter in fact using up the 
whole of her ammunition. The effect of this in crowded  
trenches, of which the ships knew the exact range (for they  
have been on those particular targets for several months) must,  
I think we may take it, have created very considerable losses 
to the Turks, and possibly this had the best of results for 
us - also, I think it is possible they may have got through 
a good deal of any spare ammunition they happened to have in 
hand.  At all events, the results were excellent, for on our  
evacuation taking place the following night, they seemed to  
have little or no ammunition to spare, for our beaches were 
practically left unshelled all night - thank goodness, as it  
was from this shelling that I had most anticipated considerable  
losses.  Our causalities during this attack were about 5  
officers and 160 men killed and wounded, which is much more 
than one likes to think of, though I hope we gave back as good 
as, if not better than we got. 
Everything being settled for last night, the wind 
rather to our dismay began to rise at about 7 o'clock.  I went 
on board the flagship "Lord Nelson" to join de Robeck, and we 
then went off on "Chatham" to cruise up and down the position 
all/

-6- 
all night.  I had been over to Helles during the day just to 
see that all final arrangements there were all fixed up, and 
that everybody was quite happy. 
The Admiral was the opinion that the wind would  
probably go down, and that in any case it was not sufficiently 
strong to warrant our putting off operations, which of  
course we would not have done except if unless it looked really very 
bad.  Several times during the night when heavy squalls came 
on, our hearts rather jumped into our mouths, but, as when we  
vacated "Anzac" and Suvla, Providence again stood by us, an d  
saw us thought all our difficulties.  The work of the Navy was 
quite beyond praise, and for them the anxieties were 
tremendous, as the rising wind of course made all their 
evacuations extremely difficult, and it only wanted to have 
been a little stronger to have probably made them impossible.  
To add to our anxieties, at about 10 p.m. we got 
a message from the right flank to say that a submarine was 
apparently coming down the Straits on the surface.  The Admiral 
was doubtful whether this was really the case, when half an  
hour later, the "Prince George" ( an old man o'war now being  
temporarily used as a trooper) sent up two rockets, and  
signalled that she thought a torpedo had been fired at her, and 
that she had been hit, but not damaged.  We at once started 
off full steam in pursuit, and cruised all about the place for 
an hour, but saw nothing, and you can imagine our relief in 
consequence, as the "Prince George" had at the time 8,600 
troops on board - but it made our anxieties none the less 
as "Mars" with an equal number of men, and of course a large 
number of other ships were about.   
In spite of the weather, the Navy were able to 
stick to their original programme, and the actual  evacuation 
of the position was carried out in very much the same way as 
was done at "Anzac" and Suvla.  The troops all got off on time, 
even though we had to abandon the use of one beach owing to the  
heavy/

-7- 
heavy swell running into it, and the men ready there had to  
be marched round about three miles to one of the other  
beaches - fortunately, only a few men had to go from that spot. 
I am glad to say that we were able to get off  
more  guns than I had at one time hoped for.  We had to leave 
the good 6" gun, as it was essential to keep one long range 
gun up to the very last, and it was then impossible to move  
a big one like that.  We however got away the whole of the  
howitzers, and only left ten of the old 15 pr., which may 
really be regarded as obsolescent guns and of no value. 
The French guns were got away as in the intended programme 
leaving six only, and of course all abandoned guns were  
thoroughly blown up. The French are I think most awfully  
pleased not having had to sacrifice a single '75" and not to 
have suffered a single casualty. 
Our own casualties were one man wounded only, and 
and he only slightly! By getting a real good hustle on about 
the animals during the last 24 hours, I am glad to say we were  
able to do much better than I had dared to hope for, and at 
the last we only had to leave x behind 400 animals altogether, 
[* x This meant we got away about 3300.] 
though even those I abandoned with the very greatest regret, 
and of course they were destroyed before the troops embarked -  
a horrible thing to think of, but a far better fate for them 
than falling into the hands of the Turks, to whom they would 
of course have been of the greatest value. 
We got off practically the whole of our ammunition, 
and though it was impossible to get all the transport carts 
away, yet we got off about half of them.  and got away the  
wheels of the greater part of the remaining half, while naturally  
all those left behind were broken up.  A considerable quantity 
of supplies naturally had to be  left and all our hospitals that 
were left standing in the open, but after all these (except  
perhaps the tents) cannot be of any great value to them for any  
length of time, while for the next few days the Navy will be  
bombarding them hard, and getting into the Turks wherever they 
see/

-8- 
see a chance. 
As the troops left, all the dumps of supplies  
were set on fire, and formed a huge bonfires which went on for 
hours with occasional  tremendous explosions, so I do not think 
our friends, the enemy, will have profited very much, though I  
am sure they heartily glad to be rid of us.  Indeed, a 
deserter, who came in two days ago, told us they were quite 
convinced we were going, and they therefore did not see much  
object in attacking us and getting killed before we went, and 
I dare say this had something to do with their unwillingness 
to come on and close in a big attack on the 7th. 
As I have said, we really have to give our whole 
thanks for our complete success in both these withdrawals to 
Providence, but as far as the work goes, the wonderful way  
in which we got off last night was due to the real good work  
put in by de Robeck and the Navy (with a wind at times of 42 
miles an hour), and that of Davies and the 8th Corps Staff, 
who ran their show excellently, leaving precious little for us to do. 
Now that it is all over, I am glad to think that 
I am probably one of the few remaining here, who actually  
landed on the peninsula on our first day - the 25th April, and  
were was still on it on the last - 8th January, having had the  
good fortune to keep my health, and not having had to go away 
for a day - a few individuals of the 29th Division are I think 
are the only other ones who can have done the same, as they are 
the only troops left here now who landed on the 25th April. 
The Naval Division have had a long spell of it too, and have 
improved very much.  When we all go down to Egypt, they remain  
behind to garrison these islands, and I fancy will not be 
sorry for a long well-earned rest, with a chance of pulling 
themselves together and doing some excellent training, which 
is quite possible here.  They will have to look out for 
German aeroplanes,  which will I dare say be fairly busy, but  
I hope our anti-aircraft guns will improve in their practice  
on them. 
Now/

-9- 
Now I fancy I shall be off to Egypt almost 
immediately, and am quite looking forward to getting my boys 
together again - especially the Australians, from whom I hate 
being separated, and if as I believe they are still sending  
out a good many/more troops, there will be a chance of doing a 
good deal of organization with them, while training in Egypt 
for these next few months can be done with such tremendous 
advantage.  I fear though that in the sand there, my boys will 
not have the chance of shewing that wonderful expert skill and 
ingenuity which they have shewn here in the trench digging 
line, as in the deep sand probably nothing but the ordinary,  
stereotyped trencht enwill be possible - but these we must 
and will make as good as they possibly can be made, and I dare 
say some of my officers and men will devise something cunning 
regarding them.