Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/13/1 - August 1915 - Part 4

In the Pine trenches instructions were issued by T. officers
that no more attacks were to be made as men could not be
spared and they didn't fear any attack from the English as we also had
no men to spare.
It is clear that the losses sustained by the Turks during the bombardment
and the attack and c. attacks must have been considerably more than our own.
A battalion of the 47 regiment which was in the trenches at the time lost
heavily.  A supporting battalion also were rendered unfit for
action and was reduced when they were sent into J Jolly
to assist in manning these works, and the 3 battalions of 13^th
regiment were said to have been reduced by nearly half their number.
This is probably some xxx exaggeration but it is almost evident that
in these days 4000 casualties must have occurred amongst the Turks.
12th regiment was later brought up from Boghali
and with the 13th now holds the remaining works at L.P.
They still have 3 lines of trenches and are working hard at them.

No prisoners were taken. here.

At Krithia they captured sergeant and 15 men.

They seemed to be perfectly indifferent to our losses.

Ts spent their time cursing an officer commanding 47^th regiment

very bitterly for having lost the L.P. trenches which they considered

should not have been lost. 

They have been reduced in rations  meat once a 

week.

Morning ration:  "German" soup,

Noon:  olives

Evg:  ground corn, broad beans,

lentils, small loaf of bread

some biscuit.
Food is cooked in olive oil, oil

recently has bn bad.

They have a good few [[shorthand]].

Med. [[shorthand]] good. Wounded looked after well.

Taken in stretchers to ambulance

carts wh hold 6 wounded in each.

Taken to the coast to Agoba Pier; Thence

taken to Bega in Asia Minor, Constant.

& Takia Dagh.  A large proportion of the wounded returned

in quick time, often 10 to 21 days.

Everyone carries a field dressing inside his coat
& they have one doctor 8 NCOs & men

to each regiment - 8 sbs to each company.

Morale:  thinks Ts are losing heart but

in talking amongst themselves they say they don't think it is much good fighting
against the English. They are sure to be beaten in the end owing to the
English [[shorthand]] in ships.  But they consider they have gained quite
a lot of success on shore and get very much bucked
by their success.
Knew nothing of the work of the N.  A report had been

current that the British had landed near

Anafarta and advanced, Turks attacked them,
prac. annihilated them driving them back to sea.
Most of the prisoners know nothing about gas.
One T. officer most indignantly denied
that they ever thought of using gas.
He & a friend after the bad dinner had decided that they would
escape.  They were digging and about 20 yards away could
see our people digging.  He hopped away in the dusk
and went towards our sentry.  Sentry charged  He held up
his hands  sentry fired.  Held up hands again
sentry fired again and hit him  glanced off

his ribs.  He still came on & sentry
saw he ws wanting to surrender and
alld him to come in.
Otago M.R. 6^th Aug.

As soon as over Chailak - in col of

troops.  Every man knew exactly what was wanted.
After which whole reorganised.  Took abt 9 trenches.  As soon
as gave cheer the Turks probably ran.  We bayoneted about 30 to 40.
Men onto whom we got before they were able to get away.
Nordenfelt was on top.
75 was seen shortly after firing in
gully abt 600 yds away.
12th Sq. took the hill in the left flank
(near sea) turning Eastwards.
↑ After taking trenches for about 200 yards from bottom
of hill we turned N onto top and W
slope of Bauchopes.  We met Cant.
We knew 7^th and the 5^th Sq of our regt
were there - but we cd see tt they
had finished their fighting.  12^th took
Nordenfelt.  An officer thinking he
was going to pull it round pulled
it off (it used to fire a small shell at warships)

The retreating Turks made a bit of a stand

in front of T Headquarters in front of

5^th Sqn on our extreme right.  There

we had most of our casualties.  It seemed to

be at them tt / 75 ws firing.  We

& Cant. were going to send down
Monash & Ghurkas were
by then coming over Taylors gap 

& into Aghyl Dere & wd ha

must have very nearly got the

gun. We presently heard the gun being

limbered up - & it got away

(we cd hear the chains).

Col. Bauchope ws k. early in

the morning on top of B. hill above

the Turk H.Q.

NZ Inf Bde:

Night of 5^th moved into Happy Valley.

& spent 24 hours there.

Bde. 26 M.B. (less 2 guns) & No 1

F. Coy NZ Engrs. This was the right [[climb?]]

objective Chunuk Bair.

Also ordered to move in 2 Cols via

Chailak & Sazli. All under Gen J.

Sub - Rt Col: Canterbury under Hughes

Attack Rhodo from W, (sea).

Thence Chunuk.

Left Col:  Otago.  Well.  Auck in tt

order Field Coy & M.B.

via Sazli. Chailak.

Otago to attack Rhodo from N.W.

Well to seize & picket 8 d5 & 9

Now Cheshire ridge.  Both thence

to Chunuk. Auck. reserve.

Cheshire = ridge next N of Rhodo.
Due to start 10.30 - M R having been ordered
to clear the Bauch. Table Top Old No 3.

We waited an hour for them to clear

Bauch; & Otago was sent at 11.20 to

clear it.  They rushed several lines of

T. trench in Dere. Otago also

cleared Chailak (sev. trenches)

Then Otago went for Table Top.

(Wellington M.R. rifles supposed to do this)

Otago was just abt to rush it when the

whole of Turks surrendered w loud applause

piled arms clapped & cheered to be
quite sure making extraordinary noise. Abt 

250 of them.

Otago then went to Rhodo.
& took 2 T. trenches there w very little oppositn.
Then abt 4.a.m. Joind there by Cant.
Ot. & Cant continued up

Spur & by 8 am. Ot & Cant

were holding 80 J 3 K1 &

Well. 80 D 5 & 9.

6 Coys of 10 Ghurkas had

lost direction & joined brigade here.

At 9 a.m. an advance ws made to

80 K1 (the Apex wh we now hold)

9.30 Bde received orders to assault

Chunuk.

Attack ws del. at 11 am by

10 Ghurk & Auckl. They were

at head of Chailak & as they

debouched thro a narrow pass

attacked about 30 to 40 men.  Came as heavy

fire.  Auck on right Gurk on left.
Auck was brought to a standstill in
T trench abt 80 K 2 (wh Ts now
hold)  15 men actually went on
to T trench on summit.  Nothing more seen of them

Gs. edged down slope a good deal

& their advance died away.

No good sending any more men

in by 12 am it was seen that further progress was hopeless.

Auck. held the trench.

Ordered to attack at dusk -

cancelled - & ordered to attack

at 4.15 a.m. preceded by art bombt.

beginning 3.30.  Glos. Batt. 8 Welsh Pions.

Auck MR  & Maoris came

under Gen. J. from this post.  Orders:  assault

Glos. on left; Well on rt; Pioneers
2nd line; Auck MR Maori contingent 3rd

line. Bns sent forward a little before 4.15 to get
beneath all the bombt.  Well went straight up to the top of the hill
without oppositn capturing a m.g. section in
trench.  m.g. sectn ws only troops in this section.
Prisoners said regiment had marched from Settil Bahr day before,
Col. had bn killed on hill & regt marched
withdrawn except for m.g. section 9 p.m. night
before.
Glos. A to 81 a 4
Well. H (in Chunuk) to 161.
Wellington in solid climb going along top of ridge
to the left of sky line  The observers down below could see them
in the great dawn.  By that time they were in platoons in
close formation expecting every minute to see a [[perfect?]]
ball of a fire.

Glos. shortly after advance began came under heavy

enfilade fire which [[shorthand]] over to edge of the right
to lose objective.  They were coming up to the S of

farm & got fire from spurs N of

farm.  Some Glos. edged to right.  Entrenched

below Wells right (first time under fire) 2
Coys got up to original objective & into

trench in touch w NZ.

They first occupied T. trench which was a commn

trench.  After bit Ts collected men &

started bombing from flanks & front

(scrub & possibly another trench.)  Col. Malone

decided to dig another trench 15 yds

this side of T trench & did so.

Welsh Pioneers went forward.  Suffered

from same enfilade but [[shorthand]]

got to right.  Mixed lot - 2 Coys

Welsh & some Glos. arrived on right

& held right all day under Major

Stevens of 8 W.P. The

flanks were both bent back a bit.

Hand drawn diagram - see original document

Auck MR & Maoris went forward

2 hours later.  Maoris got to left

towards farm where they remained.

Auck MR got 300 yds & were held up

in gully by heavy Enfilade but

eventually were able to reinforce summit

in aftn. w 2 sq. abt 4 p.m.

Enfilade all day frequently shelled by enemy

and sometimes by ourselves.  Bombing.

Laid telephone and it ws cut by shrapnel & ws

relaid & repaired by Bde Sig Sectn.

3 main c. attacks delivered on our right.

Left ws left.  Whole afternoon our artillery

ws searching behind Batt. Hill,

Ran out of bombs, short of water &
ammn. Tried to send it out but

cdnt get beyond Auck MR.

Cdnt get there till dusk.  V

violent bombardt at 4 pm.

from S.

One Wellington front trench had to be evacuated

as full of dead & dying & to

dig a fresh one.

8 p.m. Well MR & Otago Bn

reinforced & got there without any casualties.  Bombs

food water etc.

Well Bn wh went up 20 off

750 men 3 offrs & 53 unw. men

returned. Not a man had come

back.  Lying out on the top trying to dig themselves in under shell fire.

Col. Moore (Otago) assumed command.

Malone k. abt 5 p.m. He ws

at H.Q. & hit by shrapnel.

They didn't hold 161 but held about 400yds of

crest.
11 pm Col. Moore ws wounded

Lt Col Meldrum took command.  Abt 4 am

Ts were seen preparing c.attack & tho shell fire was

accurate & heavy casualties became very bad
on left whole front trench ws blown in
& when our own guns dropped high explosives in [[shorthand]]