Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/232/1 - Folder - Part 7

Diagram - see original 

SKETCH A-T^I  FROM TOP CHULAR SI^.RT

Key to Wilkin's Photos of Essad Pasha's Headquarters.

33.

2/3/19.  dressing pannier of one of our xxxxxxx early battns.

A little further N again there was a distinct line

of fired cartridges along the little open track in the

scrub - scarcely a track - probably just gravel

interstices in the low scrub.  This line ended near the

graves of 4 or 5 men (28) up near W side of the 6-in.

gun enclosure.  The graves were a little in rear of the

line - certainly buried on armistice.  There were I

suppose 12 bodies visible on this line.  In the forward

line just S of the big gun there were about 20 or 30 I

should say - there had been firing from this line also.

Nothing like as many of our cartridges or clips remain as 

in the case of the Turks - but perhaps they have been

picked up (Front line 27).

On the NW side of the 6-in. gun I found again the

bodies of our men - 20 or 30 of them; perhaps more.  With

the leading one was a New Zealander - for part of a N.Z.

entrenching tool cover was with him.  These men as far as

I could make out were trying to get over the top of Baby

700 facing Battleship Hill (29 here).

From there I struck down the wooded slope from which

Snipers' Nest springs.  There were 4 prongs to this

ridge - Snipers' Rest is most north-easterly.  I often

looked at this ridge and wondered why more sniping was

not done xxxxxx  from it.  The scrub seemed to overlook

the beach.  A trench ran most of the way down the S side

of the ridge - and then a track through the scrub.  This

ended in a single short trench at the edge of the scrub

over the precipice.

xxx  Diagram - see original

There had been no sniping from this - only observation

apparently.  From here I made sketch A T (4 parts).

Then went through scrub - therehad been some sniping

from the scrub near the edge of the cliff down onto the

beach - to the 4th prong leading to Snipers' Nest.

Snipers' Nest I founf not to be the end of the 4th prong,

as I thought, but the knob half-way down it.  It ends in

a camel's hump.  The 2nd or 3rd prong ends in No. 1 post :

xxx  Diagram - see original 

Snipers' trench is revetted with basket work, which makes

loopholes: 

Diagram - see original

At one point where the trench opened towards Table Top I

picked up for our museum at least 100 of our bullets.

From Snipers' Nest Walker's Ridge cut out everything

except Ari Burnu from the Stationary Hospital to the

point.  You can see the whole of the Mile and therefore

the end of that one of the evacuation pier which joined it

to the shore.

The O.P. was a trench about 10 ft. by 3 ft. deep and 

3 ft. broad.  The trench showed a little sign of naval

bombardment.

Sketch from Snipers' Nest - A U.

Diagram - see original

SKETCH  A-U FROM SNIPERS NEST.

Diagram - see original

SKETCH  A-V

Howes Tasmanians must have been sniping from NEK on to

Prong 4 of Snipers Nest Hump.

The men beckoning would be on the little nose which

projects in the top end of Malone Gully.

Diagram - see original

SKETCH A-W

Diagram - see original

SKETCH  A-X

Diagram - see original

SKETCH  A-Y

Diagram - see original

SKETCH  A-Z

34.

2/3/19.  Went along the steep knife-edge from Snipers' Nest to

Camel's Hump.  Then across the flat and up No. 1 Post (sketch

A U from here whowing 4 prongs) in order to get across Malone

Gully with the object of seeing if many of the men had retired

to the beach that way on April 25th.  I had heard that the

gully was thick with with bones and traces of our men.  Went over

No. 1 Post and across a level open patch to the stream in the

bottom of Malone Gully and then up the gully.  All the way

up the gully I was coming across Turk cartridge cases - which

were probably dropped there on April 25.  Higher up they
were certainly the shells of snipers' positions - fired at

No. 1 post.  The bullets fired back by No. 1 pos were there

also.

I was almost exhausted before getting to the top of No. 1

post; and going up Malone's Gully, which was very steep - at

once time I wondered if I should be able to get to the top

carrying the trophies I had picked up (not as heavy probably

as our men's kit on the first day).

There was not a shred of our kit until very near the top

when I struck a waterbottle or something which seemed to have

fallen from the Nek.

From the top of Malone Gully I looked across at the Prong

4 (southernmost) of the 4-pronged crest, where the Turks were

at whom Howe was sniping with xxx some men of 12th Bn. on
April 25. The fighting he afterwards took part in was on

this prong 4, a little further east nearer junction with Baby 

700.

Back to camp.

March 3rd.  Bigg Wether of the Auckland Mounted Rifles came over and

Monday.  we went to Chunuk Bair where he had taken part in the attack

on Aug_ 8, 1915.  He showed us the straight trench running

along the neck south of Chunuk Bair.

xxx  Diagram - see original 

They started early the night before from Chailak Dere

where they camped for the night.  They had no difficulty xxxxx 

getting up - but were only able to stay there about 15 mins.

They were turned out by a Turkish attack which came from the

direction shown, and by enfilade fire from theirright.  They

had to get out andretire about 50 yards down the hill.  They

were right in front of Sazli Beit Dere, Wellington on right,

Auckland on left.

The shallow trench in which the English relieved from them is

still clearly marked - about the xentre it is exactly 50 yds.

from the centre of the road on the summit.  Its position in

reference to Salzi Beit is shown in Sketch A X.  Some

reinforcements came up Salzi Dere Beit.

How it was enfiladed by the Turks on Chunuk Bair is shown

in Sketch A Y;  how it is enfiladed by Battleship HIll is 

shown in sketch A Z.

Malone's H.Q. was not in the trench I thought (Bigg Wether

says), but in a trench behind the trench he was in at the head

of Salzi Beit Dere.

From there we went down onto the farm - Wilkins, Bigg W

Wether, Hughes, James, Buchanan and I.  At first, at the N.Z.

35.

3/3/1919.  end of the farm we could find no trace of any English

attack in force.  In a trench, however, immediately 

under the Apex we came on a number of Ebglish soldiers

killed - probably after the smash on Aug. 10.  Bigg Wether

says that the officers tried to reorganise the English 

from Chunuk Bair at the Pinnacle but couldn't get them to

stop.

There is little left of the actual farm - a few 

tumbled stones.  As we worked along the southern edge of

the shelf we soon came on a bit of C.T. running up the

steep side to the shelf; in it were remains of Tommies.

It T-d out on the seaward edge of the shelf - the Turks

had partly used it for a fire trench, but it had a bad

field of fire being partly below the edge of the bank.

A Tommy had been sniping from behind a stone at the right
(S) where open the shelf bends down the slope.  From

there onwards we came across the remains of men xxxx

thick - all below the seaward edge of the shelf.  The
slope for 100 yards down was simply covered with them. 

Those on the right were mostly Royal Irish rifles;  then

some Wilts and Hants.  As far as the xxxxxxxxxxxxx

northern edge of the farm lope (the slope below the xxxxx

shelf) the bodies of Tommies were thick - their helmets

everywhere.  In some places they had dug themselves

little dugouts - scoops in the slope.  Only one man as far 

as I could see had got around the left-hand shoulder of
the slope.

xxx  Diagram - see original

From the left of the slope we could see across the

valleys northward, and I started with Bigg Wether and

James to see if we could come across any traces of the

Ghurkas' attack of Aug. 9.  We could see the bones of

men on two hills ahead of us, something as in the above 

sketch, and cut across the valley intervening.  We

found on both the further heights the remains of

Worcestershire Regt. and a few South Lancs.  Those at 

the very top seemed to have been attacking a Turkish

trench or dedoubt on the hilltop.  None had got quite to

the top;  but we found them very near to it.  And some

of those on top had bombs (old jam-tin bombs) lying near 

them.  Hughes came across what seemed to be a colonel's
coat;  and the buttons showed that he belonged to the 1st

Bn. Worcester Regt.  I havenowhere, except at the Nek,

seen the dead lying so thick, I think, as on these slopes

and those of the farm.  We searched for signs of the

general (Baldwin) but could not find any.

We went on as far as the second crest of Hill Q and

there, on the top, found a couple of bits of web kit and
a mess tin cover.  There is a steep slope up from the 

valley, but it is scrub-covered all the way at the point 

below Q (north summit).  This seems the likeliest place fo

for them to have reached the top.  A piece of kit was

also found south of Q (southern summit), but if the 

Ghurkas had gone up this way they must surely have seen
something of Baldwin's attack - which they did not.

Diagram - see original

SKETCH  B-A

View of Abdel Rahman Bair from position on Hill 100 where 4th A.I.Bde came under fire of Turkish

11thRegts.M.Gs. on August 8th 1915.  The M.Gs. were on the crest in front of Abdel Rahman Bair

where marked. 

Diagram - see original

SKETCH-B-B  HILL 100 FROM POSITION
OF TURKISH M.G'S IN 8^th AUG FIGHT.

Diagram - see original

SKETCH-B-C  LEANE'S TR. FROM SNIPER'S RIDGE