Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/232/1 - Folder - Part 9

Diagram - see original document
French 45th Regt, has marked Tommies' trench as "Position
Anglaise du 30 Avril", I do not think this is right.
Our front line of May 8th is marked by French - "Position
Anglaise du 4 Mai"
Diagram - see original document

43
9/3/1919
Diagram - see original document
 xx This last I was pacing leading a
horse and the paces may be small.
M'Cay's little H.Q. was between the C.T.'s at 480
yards in front of Tommies' Trench and 45 yards behind
Australian support trench ("Redoubt support" on British
maps), there is a new road crossing obliquely just in
rear of it about 7 yards away. It is a little closer
to the eastern C.T. than to the W one.
A man is buried in the parados of it - and another,
I think, in the parapet.
The western C.T. joins the Australian Support line
just on top of the slope down to the Nulla. I think
Major Bennett's H.Q. in front trench would be just to the
W of this - the C.T. is of course of later construction.
From our support trench I  xxxx went on to see if I
could find any trace of some position from which the
Turks were firing at our advancing line on May 8. (I
found a few isolated clips of Australian cartridges behind
our line which may have meant that our men were using
covering fire at the end of their advance - but probably
not, for one would have found the empty cartridge shells
with them in that case).
(By the bye - the Indian position in the fork of the
Nulla near Bde. H.Q. was not an island but an elevated
and elongated little peninsula ending in a promontory -
something this shape with a semi-circular trench on the
high end of it):
[* xxx*]
Diagram - see original document
Bigg Wether had noticed some Turkish firing positions
out in the direction of the vineyard yesterday - and
noticed that the Turks had been firing very heavily from
some little dugout positions behind an infinitesimal bank.
 

9/3/1919.

44.
From the Australian front trench to the next trench
I found nothing - no trace of a Turkish firing line. But
beyond the next line, near a small copse of firs, I came
on the position which Bigg Wether had pointed out.The
position was not im the firs - I could find none there
though I didn't look closely; this little fir copse was
on our (the Australian) side of the next trench ahead of
ours at (say) 220 yards from our front line. There were
24 young firs - about 4 or 5 ft. high at most - in this
copse, and it covered perhaps 20 yards square. The left
of the two C.T.'s was in these fir trees e through the E
edge of them. At the N end of them came the line next
ahead of the Australian line, which is an English line
purely and simply; and 85 yards beyond that is this little
line of pozzies. There is a very old partition between
two cultivations there - long ago the land was allowed to
go into disuse again, and it is covered with low scrub like
saltbush. But the slight ridge between two fields is
quite traceable, and along this the Turks had made (S of
the line of the C.T. later made) about 10 or 12 little
pozzies, about 6" deep at most. In one of them there
must have been the clips of 100 rounds. East of the C.T.
the pozzies continued irregularly - not more than 10 of them
perhaps 6. Then in the left rear of them, not far, in
front of the vineyard, were several (?3) more with the
Turks buried in them.
I searched north of the road and I fancy there were
some skirmishers forward of this line. By the occasional
cardboard cartridge-packets there seemed to be. But the
first real fixed Turkish position was on the near edge of
the vineyard. The distances were as under:
Diagram - see original document
This can only have been a line of skirmishers. It could
not account for the fire which met the Australians - nor
for the casualties - nor for the bullets which we picked
up on the ground.
Wilkins and Buchanan joined me here and we went on
to Achi Baba. From the top we could quite clearly see
the three thorn bushes at the Tommies' Trench, past which
we attacked on May 8. The sun on the sea would be in the
enemy's observers' eyes and may have accounted for them not
catching us more severly with their shrapnel.
 

45.
9/3/1919.
Achi Baba is a long crest - about 150 yards long I
should say - on a very long shoulder of the same shape
(from the Krithia side).
Diagram - see original document
The shoulder holds up a plateau of flat open xxxxx
ground - the crest stands out of this half-covered with
scrub. There is a deep, well-traversed trench around the
xxxxx top and in this are several deep big observing
stations (one of them contained the beginnings of a big
rangefinder - either uncompleted or else looted by the
French. There are a good many shellholes big and small
on either side of the crest and in the plateau - I expect
that the trenches have been hit in places and rebuilt.
Some of the shellholes are big; but they are widely
distributed, and barring noise they would do no great harm.
On the top were a number of fragments of shell, from 9 or
12-in, down to field-gun size, carefully salved by the
Turks.
What struck you on the top of Achi Baba was (1) That
it commanded the whole foot of the peninsula; and (2)
That it commanded nothing else except an excellent view of
Anzac. Not the slightest direct observation over Chunuk
or the Narrows could be seen from there - only a featureless
little triangle of the Narrows. The big shoulder to the
south and the Kilid Bahr plateau completely shut out any
further observation.
We went down to the Soghun Dere across a very swampy
shoulder immediately south of Achi Baba - and so back to
Kilid Bahr. There have been guns on the south shoulder
of Achi Baba - and from Anzac we could see the flash of
others behind the N shoulder.
On arrival found the camp at Kilid Bahr (N.Z. camp).
We found that Balfour had managed to arrange for our
passage by a transport tomorrow to Constantinople.
March 10th Embarked at 11 on the s.s. ΣΠΕΤΣΑ / for
Constantinople. She is full of French officers - nice
enough fellows and very gay; going (with at least one
mistress who lives with them at Kilid Bahr) to
Constantinople. Sailed about 5 p.m.

Diagram - see original document
16th Turkish Division and part of 2nd Turkish division made the
attack at Anzac on May 19, 1915. 16th Division lost 6000 men.
It was a 9000-man (?infantry) division and at full strength.
The 2nd Division had just (?) been made up to strength by the
inclusion of 4 battns, of gendarmerie in bright cornflower
blue uniforms.
16th Divn, was later completely cut up in Palestine.