Diary of Herbert Vincent Reynolds, 1914-1915 (second diary) - Part 6










April 1915
packed with hoops & she began to move
off, when all of a sudden there was
a ^sharp crack & her ^aft mast carrying the wireless
came down, one of the out swung derricks
on the transport having fowled it as
we began to move, several received
a severe bump though fortunately no
one received much injury, & the damaged
mast & wireless was rigged up again in
less time than it takes to tell. The
destroyer slipped in as close to shore
as possible we then got into row boats
which were in tow, along the destroyers
sides, picks shovells & various other
equipment including streatchers was tossed
in & we were towing behind a steam
pinace before the destroyer had even
stopped, & was making straight for
the shore at a real good speed, a
short distance from the beach the pinace
cast us adrift & the sailors in each
boat comenced to row their boats
the remaining distance, we had almost
reached the beach when there was
a scream in the air & a crash followed
by a splashing in the water just
to get away clear of the boat it was a shrapnell &
no one needed telling of the fact, we
were in the water as soon as it was
shallow enough & was wading ashore
in water up to our waists & loosing
no time in doing it. On reaching the
beach we got rid of our equipment & with
our section officer Capt Wassail we climbed
the first ridge, I here we found things pretty
unhealthy & plenty to do for & our first
duty in action came pretty very soon for as
we reached the crest of the ridge we
April 1915
came upon a chap badly wounded he was
attended to & my three mates & I (we
work in parties of four) set out to carry
him to the beach, which this proved to be
a difficult undertaking down the steep
side of the hill, there are no tracks
to follow & the wounded have to be carried
down sideways on, or they would slide
off the streatcher, then the scrub which
is about 5 ft high & pretty thick, also
the loose rocks which roll down into
the gully when disloged, give us no end
of bother, however the wounded are
prepared to put up with the rough
handling they receive in being brought in
& which we are unable to prevent under
the circumstances. On returning up the
ridge we came under fire from an
enemy machine gun & though sheltered
from it by a bank just below the
crest of the ridge, it was trained in
such a way as to prevent any one going
any further, at that particular point,
shrapnell began to explode pretty
freely in the gully below us & a
couple of chaps were wounded by it
we attended to them & they then walked
back to the beach, a few minutes
later as we approached the crest of
the ridge again a chap called to us
in the scrub & got one of the mates
to dress one of his fingers which had
the top shot off at the first joint,
he then went back through the scrub
saying he would let some - know
he could ^still use a rifle. All the wounded
we attended to in any way showed, a
disregard for pain that is really remarkable.
April 1915
After numerous trips to the beach
we received instructions late in the
afternoon to assist in placing some
of the wounded in barges, which
carried them out to the hospital
ships & transports. The beach
presented an awful scene, evidently
the wounded had been collecting on
the beach all day & none were being
transported out to the boats till
late in the afternoon, there must
have been somewhere about 1200 wounded
& numbers of dead lying along in
the shelter of the cliff which gave
very limited shelter even then, especially
from shrapnell which every now &
then would explode over the beach
taking its toll & adding to the
already huge death roll.
The doctors worked like trojans doing their
utmost under the circumstances to, attend
to all serious cases that urgently required
it, their job was an impossible one as
everyone ^could well understand The courage
shown by the wounded will never be
forgotten by those who witnessed it, it was
brilliant, they were prepared for anything,
& gave a great deal more thought for how
things were going in the line, than they
seemed to do for their wounds, many
would be cursing their wounds & their
helplessness not on account of any pain
but for the reason that they were
out of the thick of the fight.
All the while the guns of the ships
were at it, constant, & their roar, mingled
with the crackle of rifle & machine gun
fire & the scream & crash of shells in
April 1915
the air & when they exploded, created
such a medely of sound, that it
became hard to realize that it was
not all a great nightmare.
The broadsides from the 15 in guns on
the Lizzee seemed to shake the very
earth when she fired. I have no idea
of the time, but it was getting on towards
sunset & while engaged on the beach
that I came across Ellis with a severe
wound in the knee, we only had time for a
few words, as we put him on a barge, x
he informed me about Will being killed
just after leaving the boat. Just about
sunset we went over the first ridge at
a point away to the right of where we
were engaged this morning, & worked our
way up the gully behind it to where
it seemed to meet the second ridge, there
we collected a number of wounded & carried
them to the beach. An attempt was being
made after sunset to get some of our
artillery ashore, only two Indian mountain
batteries of are ashore & we are badly
in need of artillery support, everywhere
the enquiry is being made along the
front "Where is our artillery"? & a
constant call for reinforcements at one
point or another is made, there appears
to be no sign of us pushing through
to our objectives without them, for the
casualties have already been enormous.
& the battalions are scattered everywhere,
although there is a definite
understanding between everyone, to stick
the thing through, & hold out against
the increasing numbers of the enemy at
any cost.
Rumors concerning the British at Helles
April 1915
are very favourable of correct, we heard
that Indian & French forces are making
an attempt to link up with our right
flank to assist us, & that early
tomorrow British troops will be sent
to our front, to push on, tonight.
we are being held, & our line is
very weak of the enemy make any
serious attempt to attack. All along
the coast the battleships are firing, &
at every discharge a blinding flash
splits the darkness followed by a
crash like a roll of thunder. The rifle
fire has been intense all day & continues
to be so, so far our rifle fire has
stopped all enemy attempts to drive
us back though we have had to give
some ground.
Mond 26th. Obtained about an hours sleep early
this morning we had hardly been told
to make the best of a few minutes to rest,
before I was asleep, I have vague recollections
of being awakened & told to get my gear ^& be ready to go
back to the boats, but evidently went off
to sleep without grasping the full meaning
of the order, however we are still here, x
It seems there was some talk of evacuating
our position here & reembarking ^during the night our unit
seems to have been the first intended to
withdraw, had we been compelled to take
such a step; fortunately it did not come
about. The units of the division are
thoroughly disorganised & there appears to be no
possibility of sorting one battalion from another
at present; as the enemy is throwing increasing
weight against our line every hour, rendering
any efforts at organising impossible, all our
efforts are needed now to defend & hold hang on to what
April 1915
we already hold. Practically all the
wounded have been cleared from the aid posts.
& have been got away to the ships, there is still
a constant stream of wounded coming down
from the line. Shrapnell fire gave us an
extremely lively time during the day in Shrapnell
Gully, it has been exploding very high a thing we
have reason to be thankfull for. A seaplane
has been very buisy today circling over our
position. The enemy is making every effort
to prevent us landing more troops & stores
by keeping up an incessant fire over the
water with shrapnell, all day the sailors
in charge of the boats have been back &
forward from the transports to the beach
with stores & ammunition etc going through
the it give as though there it I was nothing
more than an ordinary days work. At about
6 pm a party of us comenced to work from
the aid post at the head of Shrapnell gully
a large number of wounded having collected there.
Tues 27th. Things got extremely lively about midnight
when we received a call from the head of Shrapnell
gully for all available streatcher parties, there we
came upon several wounded chaps in an almost
inexcessable position, & we had great difficulty
in getting them to the beach, there being no
track of any sort, we had to slide them
down a bank (which gave absolutely no foothold
into the bed of the gully where the only
way down ^to the beach was to wade through the small
stream which ran through it, & it was a
thoroughly back breaking job as we found to our dismay, xx the water was knee deep, & the clay like mud
in it caused a suction that almost
kept you from walking in it let along having
the weight of a wounded man to carry as well.
The enemys shrapnell has been more severe
April 1915
today & has done a fair amount of
damage. A mine sweeper was sunk just
off Hell Spit this morning about 10 am.
A couple of extremely large shells
supposed to be from the Goeben in the
straits fell in the sea near the
transports at about 10 am. At about
7 pm Capt Wasail Wassail went with
most of B Sect to an aid post in
Victoria Gully the shelling was very severe
at the time & there being no shelter for
everyone he took all except my party
back to the bivouacs x near the beach
having us to bring a wounded chap back
after he had received medical attention. Things
had quietened down a bit when we left
the post but just as we reached the
crest of the ridge between Shrapnell &
Victoria gullies the enemy concentrated
a battery upon the crest & sent shell after
shell into our vicinity, however none of us
lost any of our nine lives & besides feeling a
bit unsettled in the wind got out of the mix
up none the worse for being caught in it.
At about 11 pm we were releived for a spell, my
mate & I lost no time in making a bit of a
bivouac, we no sooner got down than a flash & a
crash simultaneously right along side us, made
us think untill we felt ourselves that the
worst had happened however what I thought
was nothing less than a leg off turned out
to be a com^mon ordinary bruize above the ^left knee
with just a slight, cut to shew where a lump
of iron bumped me, I can thank my great coat
for breaking the force as it suffered more than
me. One of our sea planes was damaged
today by shell fire but fortunately it managed
to land safely.
April 1915
Wed 28th. The Goepen sent over some heavy stuff
today in an attempt to hit some of the transports
but was not successful. The enemys field
artillery has been less active all day than usual.
A welcome sight appeared at about 11 am
when a few more transports arrived with
fresh troops who are badly needed to give us
a bit of a let up from entrenching & beating
off attacks at the same time, our infantry
are more or less worn out in consequence of
this continual strain. This afternoon our unit
shifted its position to the right flank & we
spent a busy time getting dug into reasonably
safe dug outs, a thing we had not had time to
do at our old bivouac on the first ridge above
the Clearing station. One of the mates got
a bullet wound in the arm just after we
comenced digging in. Just before sunset all
the battleships set up a heavy bombardment
of the enemys positions the ships all along
the line from Cape Helles to Suvla Pt took
part & the din was ter^riffic especially when
the Queen Elizabeth let go with a broadside
at each discharge of her 15" guns there is
a tremendous concussion that can be felt.
in the air.
Thurs 29th The Goeben again sent over about half a doz
shells this morning one falling dangerously
close to the Majestic standing off Suvla Pt.
as the shells strike the water a column of
water shoots up to a height of about 20 ft.
The enemy have been fairly quiet all day their
artillery got busy for about an hour just
before sunset. Our battleships have been
extremely active today especially the "Lizzie"
which set something on fire away in the
direction of Maidos great clouds of smoke
could be seen rising, probably from an oil well.
April 1915
Friday 30th Things have been pretty quiet all day, we
are strongly entrenched now & there is not
so much hard work as tracks are being
made up the hills through the scrub & a mule
transport column has arrived & they are now
carting most of the supply's to the trenches
At Sunset the enemys artillery comenced to
shell our positions but, the battleships
quickly replied & they soon quietened down.
Another mate received a bullet wound in the
shoulder today & went away to hospital.
May
Sat 1st. A few more shells from the Goeben, came over
this morning with the usual result that they
accounted for a few fish. The Triumph which
is generally standing off Kapa Tepe always
replies with broadsides after which there
is no reply from the square heads. We have
had a very easy day as there have ben exceptionally
few wounded today which is remarkable
as the enemys artillery has been very active.
Now that our trenches are fixed up & dug out
shelters made we should not have the any number
of casualties to contend with until we start
advancing again. At present there seems very
little posibility of doing that, untill we receive
more reinforcements, as after, our losses since
the landing & the continual strain involved
by holding our positions since, against the
counter attacks of the enemy, it has left
all our battalions too weak to start attacking
again to any big extent for a while, it
appears now as though we are settling down
to hold our positions & to await further support.
This afternoon the Triumph sent 4 shells
into the old fort on Kapa Tepe & made things
fly.
Sund 2nd. There has been practically no wounded at
A May 1915
any of the dressing stations today About 5 pm
the battleships put a number of shells
into the fort on Kapa Tepe while our
field guns burst a few shrapnell around
it. Just at sunset all the battleships
commenced a terrific bombardment of the
enemy a seaplane was circling around
overhead evidently, directing their fire.
Mond 3rd. The Goeben sent over a good number of shells
this morning & succeeded in hitting one of
the transports anchored off our positions
it evidently, do no great, amount of damage
though a huge sheet of flame went up when
it exploded. it as it steamed off with
the rest of the boats & anchored further
off shore. There have been a fairly large
number of casualties today
Tues 4th. A party of 100 infantry & engineers landed
on Kapa Tepe point from a destroyer at about 5 am
the guns of the destroyer covered their landing
but upon reaching the beach the fire from
the enemys machine guns became so severe that
it was plainly seen that the venture with so
small a party was a hopeless undertaking
& that nothing was possible except for the
party to remain in under the shelter of the
cliffs where the enemy's fire could not get at
them, here they remained till about 7.30 am
when they made a hasty departure on the life
boats back to the destroyer which had kept
up an incessant fire upon the enemys trenches
since they landed. After landing the party
at the No 2 depot pier the destroyer went back
to the point again & sent a boat in to pick
up 3 of the party who had been left behind
when the main body withdrew. The unsuccessful
undertaking cost us 6 killed & 30 wounded
This afternoon an arangement was made between

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