Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/5/1 - April - May 1915 - Part 5

√Ruse. Message signed Lorenzo
Ruse: message signed Lorenzo (one of our officers)(came thro to Brigade
signal office from written message in trench) "Yr battalion will be relieved
by the 16th so you are to leave your trenches - o'clock." This ws wired
sent to Divl H.Q. who knew nothing abt it.
Another message to Capt Hogan (? 8th Bn) machine guns to
take guns to another quarter signed by Capt Scott (or some such name)
of the artillery. Name ws not recognised - but guns were moved:
found they weren't wanted

Sergt? Cook - a Sydney policeman - one o / military police o /
3 1ts Bde. - heard tt a friend of his ws lying out in front o  / lines
on / first night - wounded - & cdnt be brought in. He simply sd:
I'll go - and he went - & ws shot thro' & thro' w a m.g. Well -
"he laid down his life for his friend" - just that. No more.

39
The second anxiety ws / artillery. Some guns had bn actually brought
in to / shore during / afternoon (some told me they had bn landed) &
were sent off again to / ships. I cannot yet say what exactly were /
facts. But I know tt coming down from / hills where / one cry was for
guns, & finding tt instead of being landed / guns had bn sent away
again, one cd not help being bitterly disappointed. I dont know
what / men wd have sd. But of course / most urgent need ws
for / infantry. We knew we had lost pretty heavily - abt 750
Howse told me, I think,  as far as he cd guess ws all he had any
evidence of - but there were clearly more. Old Marshall who ws not
a man easily shaken himself told me / men were shaken - he ws
clearly doubtful if they cd hold on. I doubted if they were really as
shaken as he thought. One ws exceedingly pleased, however to hear from / artillery
people tt / guns were to be landed after all, Lieut. Parker A.D.C. ^orderly officer to Col. Hobbs was
waiting for / first sign of them in barges from / boats.
All the while the men of the 4th Australian Bde were landing
- some were ashore abt 6 o'c. in / afternoon - & never ws one more
glad to see any body of troops. One o / great comforts of our positn ws
[*(see posts
30-31*]
tt whether we had / guns ashore or not at any rate we shd be
one brigade (4000 men) stronger by / morning than on / night before.
The pier One cd not help reflecting how easy it wd be
for any Oriental to dress up as an Indian & come along / beach -
not one of our men wd have distinguished him - & there were Indians
there of at least two Corps - the transport corps & the mtn batteries. Indeed
that night a man might easily have got in amongst us & walked /
beach amongst / stragglers with an Australian uniform on. One Turk
ws brought in - a Red Crescent man w a number of small tubes in
his pack - I dont know if he ws innocent or no. There were very few
prisoners. Our men had mostly heard / story of Larkin or at any
rate of the sergt. of marines who ws sd to have bn found to have
bn mutilated by / Turks when his comrades returned to him after
dismantling / Dardanelles Forts.
I went to steep at abt 11 or 12 for a couple of
hours or less - I dont know if I even dropped off. The firing on / ridge
above ws tremendous & incessant & it sounded as though it were
on / ridge above our heads - in fact many down on / beach
thought It was - but it was not. There were every now &
then a few specially sharp cracks & bullets whistled softly thro'
/ air. xxxxxxx at first till Some o / others thought that this
indicated snipers on / hill above us - I did not think so
at first. Afterwds those soft whistling bullets seemed to go
so frequently near the Head quarters dugout that they tt I
was inclined to think they must be silenced bullets. [I am
sure now they were really overs. But as / firing ws back

√ Signals.
In 1st 4 days 2nd Brig H.Q. Signallers recd. 814 signals )
sent 720 ) on wires & written.
(besides Verbal messages wh going &
coming all time).
[The boats of one o / transports City of Benares were sent in to disembark some
portion o / force. A senior naval officer came up to the casualty clearing
hospital & told them tt / orders were for them to embark.
And message ws sent off earlier to Gen. Birdwood by Bridges & Godley tt it
ws their opinion tt it ws important for him to come off and see them
- this ws earlier, abt 6 p.m. I think. He went all round the lines tt night,
Col White told me tt all thro' / first turmoil of events ^one man who
kept a levelheaded even view ws Bridges.]
The Boats of the Seeang-chun were sent in for wounded. Perh. this ws / mistake.
Ramsay ws sent along this 1st night to collect stragglers on beach by Glasfurd. He got
a number who were lying down on beach at S. end – dead fagged. Bullets were
whistling over. Some absolutely refused to move - sd they were crook. One little
chap of 3rd Bde scarcely as big as his rifle Ramsay had to shake hard 3 or 4 times
before he cd wake him. Finally he looked up. "Look old chap," R. sd,  "you'll have 
to come." He jumped up blinking his eyes. "What? another bay'nit charge Sir?" he sd.

We heard tt Mackay ws being attacked - sometimes fiercely. At 2.15 communc'n
with him was lost for a time. We heard tt they had had several fierce
to charge w / bayonet several times. Howse tells me tt at a guess our
casualties are abt 1200. Some o / transports got so full of wounded tt they
refused to take any more wounded on board. Boats used simply to leave
/ wounded on whatever transport wd first take them. For tt reason
no one knew where any particular wounded man was - I
cdnt hear what boat Jack was on at all.

40
further from / beach than ever left since I am sure now there were dropping bullets
from a big distance. One calls them "spent" but there is no such thing as a spent
bullet nowadays. It will kill a man right up to / end of its flight - Men were hit by
them on / beach this first day. The ceaseless rifle fire continued all night.
I thought I mig cd not tell how important these hours o / first night
might be - & I particularly wanted to know how / enemy artillery ws landing; so
I got up again & sat down by D.H.Q with some of the others. General Godley had
been in there earlier in / evening as / guest of our general. Howse ws standing
outside, talking to Col. Giblin. Watson o / signal Coy ws there & clearly something
ws in the wind. In a minute or two I heard what it was - some question
as to whether we were to hold on or to disembark at once. xxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Col. Howse unquestionably thought it
ws likely tt / Casualty clearing hospital wd have to move off at once - & I don't
know from what, but I am sure tt / question was at issue at tt moment
whether we shd all disembark or no. [See note next page].
It ws two o’clock then. I cdn't help looking at / sky to see if /
dawn were breaking. One knew tt it might have bn possible to
disembark part o / force before daybreak if we had begun at night
- but there were only 2½ hours of darkness left. It wd have been sheer
annihilation to attempt disembarkatn then - I was sure of that - the only
possible way wd be to hold on all next day, prepare all possible means of
safeguarding / retirement & then dis embark next night without / enemy
knowing what we were thinking of (if it were possible to deceive him.) Even so
/ last part o / force covering / retirement wd probably be sacrificed. I waited
there sitting on / sand slope w some companion in / moonlight - with Howse
& Col Giblin standing talking in front of us. The General had gone somewhere
- I dont know where - but one understood tt / decision wd be made
brought back by him. At first two thirty either he, or some message, came
back. There ws a general stir in / small crowd wh ws in the know.
I heard a message being read out from the generals dugout for
sending to all / troops coming under units out on the ridges. "Sir Ian
Hamilton hopes they will dig ... & tt / morning will find them safely securely
dug in where they are  .... The Australian sailors have just got a
submarine thro' the Dardanelles & torpedoed a Turkish ship."
That clearly settled it. There were abt 2 hours to dawn.
Monday April 26th
That clearly settled it. I don't know if it was
settled for all / actual settlement - it settled it for me. The group about the
signal office broke up and everyone seemed to be digging start digging - they were
digging in / moonlight above / D.H.Q. office; digging everywhere clink of
shovels everywhere – there ws just 2 hours to daylight. The warships
were firing all night, & the two on / N. & S. flanks kept their searchlights
steadily on / low country on / flanks. It ws raining slightly but a
waterproof sheet overhead & a drain leading out of ones dug out
kept the rain from making much discomfort. I went back to / dug

Note 2 or 3 conferences were held at / last of wh ^at any rate the Admiral was present.
I have absolute information as to the effect of them:
They were at 9, 11 or abt 12 (I believe).
Our two generals had been receiving reports from brigades practically
saying tt they cd not hold on.
Godley gave in his hand first.
He convinced Bridges, who was against it at first.
They convinced Birdwood.
Walker - the little fighting cock - who came into / conference w
his eyes flashing like a tigers - ws against any thought of retirement.
Birdwood asked the Admiral - well, what can you do in /
matter of getting us off. The Admiral sd that to get all / trawlers etc up
would take some hours. They wd have to hold on till next night &
he would collect all his trawlers etc. & take them off next day.
The casualty hospital had bn cleared by 11.55 tho' boats
didnt leave till 2 - & order ws actually gn for the hospital
to reembark & boats came in for it.
A pinnace ws sent round to all / transports
ordering them to ^be ready to tow their boats inshore so as to be ready
to reembark.

[(Med. arrangements)
Navy were to take over wounded at high water mark
and provide 200 s.bs, but this ws never done. We loaded all
wounded]. There had bn practically no medical arrangements for evacuating
wounded at all. The Gascon ws switched of at / last moment from Alex & only reached
us because we landed 2 days later than expected. Another boat ship the Hindoo, lay
at Helles for several days between two battleships without a wounded man aboard but
[*w / equipment of two stationary hospitals wh was meant for the transports*]
If trawlers had bn all there the order to dis embark
might have bn given – (it had be decided that this ought to
be done) – but when it came to actual giving of order I don't
know of it wd ever have bn given.

The work Glasford & Blamey did tt night & day finding where
units were, & getting to know positn & how things actually were & guiding
units about will never be sufficiently recognised. Hancock & Wagstaff
& esp. Gen Walker were also doing the same.

41
out as most others now did, & got a snatch of sleep before dawn.
It ws / early grey of morning when I got out again. I walked
along / beach in my overcoat to see if / artillery guns had bn landed
yet. Parker ws there & he said that not one had bn landed - they
cdnt make out why none of them had, but the Navy for some reason
cdn't land these hurry them. It struck me tt as they we had sent them
off in / day / Navy had probably given tt transport a back berth -
anyway here ws 4 am, & / guns had not yet bn landed. Communicatn
had now bn established with all / brigades. I wrote my notes in /
dark. The moon ws down & I wrote my notes in / dark.
The positn as I then knew it was:  "We hold two ridges
Diagram - see original
by evening. There were very steep gullies in between. The 3rd
" Bde hung on splendidly all day but ws very heavily tried. The enemy
" worked round our left flank but this ws reinforced by N.Z. & the 2nd
" Bn. The guns in some gully to the N of us cd not be located and all /
" afternoon they were pumping shrapnel on to an unfortunate party on /
" furthest ridge. The N.Z. Bde had landed & ws in / firing line before evening
" The 3rd Bde had suffered heavily, Col. Clarke dead; 2nd in C. wounded - 
" Swannell o /  first group Bn I believe fought like a tiger. W Our
" wounded sd / Turks werent strong in nos but knew / place & were
" splendidly concealed.They may not have had more than 10 guns in action
" agst all day but these were almost impossible to find. The pleasure of
" our men at hearing / six solid bangs o /  Mtn battery behind them ws
" almost pathetic. We thought it ws / N.Z. Howitzer battery. I believe this
" one o / mtn batteries lost an English officer & 2 native officers. [The oppositn to / landing
" had come from a blockhouse on a point] The one thing / men wanted ws /
" landing of our guns. We ^had got no guns ashore exc. one & the mtn battery."
" We heard tt the 29^th Divn had landed but had not made very much
progress."
As far as I cd make out the 4 guns wh were shelling / beach & / 
troops going up hill in / morning were / same tt caused all / trouble in
/ afternoon. There were 2 others wh fired from almost due E - the others 4 were
N.N.E. (I saw a seaman on a trawler signalling to / beach when a
shrapnel burst almost opposite his face. He went on signalling
quite calmly] - semaphoring w red & yellow flags. Diagram - see original

At last, at abt 4.30 am. we got some o / N.Z. Howitzers ashore.
They came off the heavy punts with a rattle of chains & gangway tt did ones
heart good to hear - altho' when you've had a good deal of shrapnel its

42
wonderful how many things will sound like shrapnel - escaping steam
a mule starting to bray - almost any noise you can think off.
But no sign of our own guns. In / early light I saw 3 punts come ashore & heard
some the man in charge of them asking where / horses were to be landed. The naval
beach party didn't seem to worry, as there ws no one there to whom the
horses belonged. The three boats sidled abt for 10 minutes / man in charge
continually asking where they were wanted. I thought I wd go & tell
Parker. Out my way down / beach I met Gen. Birdwood. He ws
walking up / beach. He stopped to speak to me & I mentioned / horses. He
sent off Chirnside to see what horses they were & C. returned presently to
say there weren't any horses - only mules. But I found saw later there
were horses, as I thought - & they were / first instalment of our guns
(except one) to come ashore.
Birdwood told me he had bn all round / line last night &
seen all / men - they were fairly comfortable now. But he ws obviously
most disappointed by the result o / venture. "First there ws / mistake
of landing us a mile & a half north of where we shd have landed," he
sd, "in this ghastly country. And then there's this enormous line. The
troops very gallantly took an enormous extent of country against
500 well entrenched Turks." He ws confident they'd hold it. "But
its such a pity theres all this firing," he sd looking up at / hills
from wh / continual crackle of musketry still came. "All this
answering of snipers is absolutely useless - I doubt if a single
round tells & it means / waste of 1000 upon 1000 of rounds. The thing
to do ws as Braund did – to wait till they come on & then into them
w / bayonet. He did it 3 or 4 times."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I think I went to sleep again. Anyway when I got up
- perhaps 5 o'clock - / day was breaking properly. Everyone ws getting
up. I saw Col. White buttoning on his revolvers & his belt with a look
up / valley behind him & it seemed to me tt there was a general
air of expectancy abt / camp. In fact I'm sure tt many officers there,
when tt morning broke, quite expected tt we might be defending
ourselves on / beach by evening & I think / whole lot were resolved
tt / Australian Divn shd not leave / beach – it wd either stay there or
cease to exist. I know tt ws / feeling o most of / junior officers & I am
sure / seniors if they thought of / matter thought of it in / same way.
Well, /  first surprise to me ws tt / expected bombardment
did not come. The enemy Daylight came - but no bombardment. The
sun got up. About this time I think the same big gun tt fired yesty
fired to or three huge rumbling shots out to sea amongst towards / transports.

8.30 an aeroplane - not a sea plane - flew over. They say it
is ours. It is simply circling.

The 2nd Ind. Mtn Battery also was ashore by today.

43
But / howitzers wh were to pick us off bit by bit, like a bird
picks up a grub, didn't come. Instead, as / light grew, we saw the
old  Q.E. standing off to / South. I knew she had come to give / men
moral support as much as physical & presently she blazed her
first shot. A gigantic muffler of yellow brown smoke seemed to be wrapped suddenly
round her. There was a was buffet tt shook wait of ^many seconds - then
a buffet tt shook / world - then, hard on top of it, a fearful roar in the hills
The roar sounded awfully close & I ws inclined to think tt it might have
bn a bit short - but of course they wd have taken care to avoid this. There were
Diagram - see original
They started firing away at their various targets - & the problem of artillery
ws solved as far as we were concerned. Abt this time one our own
guns got ashore & / others were expected. Horse teams dragged them along
/ beach & later on I saw / men of our artillery hauling them up a road
they had made up the side o / knoll at / south end o / beach, and also
over & up over / neck.
The other gun ws placed on the
neck itself - / one ashore yesty.
Diagram - see original
The N.Z. howitzers were put in positn beside the road wh goes up / other edge
o / beach.
At 8 o'c. came a message (from one o / crusiers ^I think - I have an idea
it ws / Bacchante) "prepare to receive crossfire on / beach." The
beach ws hurriedly cleared as quickly as possible. The cross fire
didnt come. Kaba Tepe had apparently bn quite silenced & no gun
fired from round our Northern flank as we expected or anywhere near it.
Col. Maclaurin had bn close to Col. Maclagan all yesty. It
It ws arranged today tt Col. Maclaurin shd relieve Col. Maclagan
at his H.Q. xxxx this afternoon. The unit under him ws to be known as
the 1st Bde tho' it wd consist of a variety of all sorts [I think the 3rd
Bde ws to be, if possible, withdrawn & reformed near / beach].
I went off after breakfast, on Col. Howse's advice to see what cd
be seen from the A.M.C station in the Gully. He sd one wd get a
far view of something really going on round there. I accordingly went over
the knoll xxxxxx / knoll at S end of beach. Here ws one of
our guns. (Maj. Phillips Batty). I yarned a bit to / men & went on
down the valley past the A.M.C. depot. It ws in / bed of a creek. A few
bullets whistled here down / hillside & / creek bed & were put down
xxxx
to snipers but I was pretty sure they were "overs." I went on past /

A dummy gun ws near this hut but I never
saw it.

[abt 2 days later I saw these same packs opened & everything of
solid use taken, but singlets, pants, shirts, photos, letters lying
all over / roadside. I suppose / officer whose Coy or platoon they
belonged to ws dead. A stronger police organisatn cd stop a very great deal
of irregularity of this sort & wd pay for itself 100s of times over]

44
dressing stn, there ws a little hut to / right of the creek bed, under /
knoll, & / signs of a path down
thro' / scrub - & lower down
across / creek bed & over
/ hill, of course lots & lots
of our men had bn this way,
but I think those paths had
bn made before.
Diagram - see original
As I ws lying on / hillside looking
at / sea I saw Maj. Wagstaffe  o / Army Corps staff coming from / South.
He told me / way to Col. M'Cays H.Q.- over / next hill & up to the
left following the wire. I went on xxxxxxx On / path up / hill were
some of / packs of some bn. (I fancy the 5^th) lying on / left o / rd – no one looking
after them altho there must have bn 100 or 200 packs at least.
There was a distinct track over this neck - A little on / further
side I left / track & followed the telephone wire up a dead gully to
Mackays H.Q.. Where you went over / neck there were a few over bullets.
The gully ws a steep little one thickly covered, the bottom of it thickly covered
with arbutus & other scrub - very like Australian bush without / big 
trees - About 100 yds up it I found Gould & some of his signallers;
just above them in a bit of a floor in / creek, old Cass & Wallis
both of whom made me very welcome. And above them Col. M'Cay.
Mackay showed me / view from his H.Q. You cdnt see the
enemy's line ahead of him for / H.Q. ws below /  crest.
Diagram - see original
But you saw / country to / South laid out like a
map. I had copied tt map, & painted in / contours
& so I knew it almost by heart - & this ws like
a birdseye view.
The 2nd Bde H.Q. were getting returns from the C.O.s of the
casualties. M'Cay gave me some - as far as he had them:
7^th Bn. up to midnight.  3 officers k. 4 wd:
13 out of 29 were k, or w. in one boat.
6^th Bn 2 officers k. 7 w. (One officer? of the 7th ? ws

They wd be / Turks coming down the side of the
971 - 700 ridge.
[The Turks this day - a small body or else singly - 
sneaked along Walkers Top as far as a washout
or open sandy gully running from Walkers Ridge down to
Monash Gully - right at the back of 3 Bn.
of Saturday]
This evg as stretcher bearer Wright of 3 Bn &
a s.b. of 2 Bn were returning at abt 7 pm from / beach up Monash
Gully - just at dusk - a Turk jumped out at them w his
bayonet from / side bushes at / side o / path. One s.b. ws dropped
the stretcher - the other, Wright, stooped to grab it & the Turk
who lunged at him missed w / boyonet but hit him very
hard in / side w / butt. Wright picked up the stretcher & hit
/ Turk with it & then, grabbing a meat chopper somewhere handy,
hit / Turk accoss / face w it. The Turk seems to have fallen
or bn dazed for / other fellow (2 Bn) picked up / chopper &
cut the Turks throat from ear to ear.

42
wounded & ? 5^th Bn, officers 5 k. 8 w. - one ws wounded in taking a m.g. & mountain
gun. (I rather think I have got this wrong)
Col. M'Cay tells me tt / Turks charged during / night shouting
"Allah." When they got within 70 yds we charged. They imd. turned.
Whilst I ws talking to M'Cay a message came along: "The
gun wh gave trouble this morning has bn blown in / air -
observed by our right flank observer - / shot came either from
/ Triumph or / Queen."
Col. M'Cay took me up onto / hill top just to get a
view of a Turk. There is a sniper who has a pot at him
when he goes up there. He put my telescope onto a hill
on / left - a high rounded hill w a brown-green
heath over it, & a gully in front of it, & a big sort of quarry
on / side of it. On / lower slopes of it working down into / gully
were several things wh he sd were Turks - dark blue things
[*10 a.m.*]
I thought I cd see, working down towards / gully. I cd not
be sure I had seen them tho' I thought I did. A fair number of
bullets were coming over there, over / low scrub so we didn't stay long.
Away South one cd see / ships firing on Achi Baba wh. according to /
scheme we shd take by today.
There ws a tremendous outburst of firing over / hill just
in front of 2nd Bde H.Q. M'Cay sd tt meant tt / Turks had made
some small advance opposite the 7th Bn. I'm waiting
Men from / beach occasionally came up & passed the
H.Q. inquiring their way to / trenches. They had to get to them over
/ scrub o / hilltop wh ws exposed to direct fire from in front
& unaimed fire from the north (like most of our positions ) being
in an angle it catches fire from everywhere). Its wonderful how
few were hit at this stage, in walking to & from their regts.
I went back to D.H.Q abt midday. Blamey told me he
had bn up the the 3rd Bde H.Q. - that it ws quite safe ^getting up there &
you got a good view. The only thing was to dodge to the right (instead of
going straight up the gully) to the back of one o / hills in / valley
where it became too exposed.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  I started
up the same gully in wh / dressing stn ws except tt this time I
went up it & not down it. The shrapnel ws coming down it pretty
frequently & yet stretcher bearer parties seemed not to greatly
worry - they brought wounded men down, others came & went w
water & ammunition. A good many shetered under / sides of
/ creek whilst / shrapnel ws close to them - & by dodging from
side to side o / ck you cd to some extent keep under cover. The

43
enemy ws clearly trying to get at our infan mountain guns wh
were on a hill in / middle o / valley.
Diagram - see original
Empty cases were lying abt everywhere.
I am bound to say I took an occasional
rest under a bank whilst going up – but / parties resting under some
o / lower reaches o / ck were so numerous as to be o / nature of
stragglers - men who had collected there as a comfortable positn
having nowhere else to go - & noone to see tt they went there - tt is /
straggler's frame of mind, They were collected afterwds by Foster.
There ws a little water & a good deal of mud in / bed o / creek
wh formed / path. In / scrub to left at one point ws a dead Turk.
I inquired my way up – & presently, a long way up, I found the path to
telephone line leaving / road to go up a steep gully to the right.
The gully ws densely covered in scrub & very steep. But one managed
to fight a way up it, occasionally meeting someone who ws going / same
way. There were some men apparently reinforcing or being put up
in reserve on this hillside. I got up a gully trickle a little to / right
of theirs. As the crevice got higher / bullets smacked louder -
there is tt curious bang or crack in / air, close to your head,
wh one has often heard when one gets in exposed positns & wh
makes men say / bullets are explosive. "Those are / fellows tt
do / damage" - one man sd to me - "explosive bullets. The snipers
use 'em." I sd (because I believed it then - it sounded so like it &
I thought these might be specially served out to snipers) - I sd - "Have
you ever seen men hit by / fragments of them?"  "Oh yes, often," ws
/ answer.
xx I puffed up to a tiny ledge - mostly sand - in wh were
/ signallers; they told me - that one cd nip into / trench just
above them - H.Q. ws there. I clambered up, found a number of
chaps w rifles behind a parapet looking at me; & there ws the
I dropped in. There ws Major Brand, young Holmes, Col. Maclagan;
old Brand standing up, field glasses in hand, looking out at / enemy
across / front o / trench; Clowes (an artillery observer) ws also standing
up look watching / effect o / warships' shots and giving results to
the signallers in / trench beside him.  We
The H.Q. ws actually in / firing trench & it ws a
curious trench too. It faced both ways, down / gully &
over the ridgetop onto / hillslope in front of it. Bullets were
coming over fairly thick but I dont didnt know enough abt them to
say how close they were. I momentarily expected to see old

44
Brand hit - he must have be exposed to them. A
It ws an excellent place to find out what ww going on just then.
Diagram - see original
On / extreme left, up at / head o / gully, / Turks were making an attack
from / directn of / main ridge. They xxxx have Col MacLagan
ws, it seemed to me, anxious
as to whether they might not
get in round his rear there.
At / same time they were also attacking
on his right. where his H.Q. slightly
overlooked A gully ran up behind him
& past his right & his H.Q. ws on / edge
right shoulder of the hill. The gully separated him,
I think, from / part of / line next to him - I dont
think our line extended across tt little dip but ws
interrupted by it. Then there ws an Across / gully ws
another hill w a scrubby flat top w only a few
unevennesses in it. And just at this moment the
battalion wh had held this hill ws tt runnng off it.
The men were coming off it quite quick, getting down into
/ gullies & / hollows on / sides of it & into some unevennesses
so I fancy on its surface. Anyway they were leaving it quite
bare of any protection. The Turks creep up gullies on to this
hill - it is one of their main avenues of attack, &, / hill
being now bare of our fellows Col. MacLagan expected every
minute to see / Turks come over / edge of it opposite to us.
There seemed to be several shots coming from tt directn - & so Col.
MacLagan made his men get down into their trench so tt they
faced both ways. "That will be damned awkward," he sd, "if
they go & get work round in our rear down - they will too / beggars."
"I tell you Brand there's nothing for it - we shall have to put
the old 9th & in again - Poor fellows, I hoped to give them a
bit of a rest." He kept a close watch on / hill - there
seemed to be several fellows in one or two trenches
further back - "Can you see if there's anyone there," he sd to
Brand - The The hill seemed to be deserted & so / Colonel
went down / hill himself & disappeared from our view.
He had previously told Brand tt / positn of Bde H.Q.
wd have to be shifted down / hill a bit - it ws getting too
exposed.
Reed Now tt Maclagan ws tooking after the putting
in of the 9th & 10th somewhere down the valley Brand turned his

Col. White & Mackworth
were at / other end of this
telephone line doing /
spotting practically themselves,

(Prob. by Major Glasford)

(? Possibly Col. M'Cay & Gen Bridges)

45
whole attention to / attack on our left – a good distance away on
high land. Clowes, & little Holmes were spotting for / naval guns
here & presently / navy began to fire. The Queen Elizabeth ws
firing for one & the Queen for another. They told me it had been a sight
to see / Q. Elizabeths shells firing bursting there during a short time before.
I ws anxious to get a photo of them but when she fired again / shot
was too far over / hill to see from where / stood up. Presently a several messages
came along / trench, the or by telephone - I cant say which:
"Queen's last shot just right." XXXX  "Enemy has retired
on left - no enemy in front of our left." "The Queen is firing on
our own men." When I last move  I fancy / last message
put an end to / Queens firing for tt day or afternoon or most
of it. When we wanted it again a little later it was not there.
However / warships firing seemed to have killed tt attack upon / left dead.
The troops were now begining to come across the top of 400 plateau, from
/ ssssss gully end of it. I first saw an officer – I think in a macintosh -
leading up some o / troops who were already on the hill. There seemed to
be a few in odd holes or perhaps trenches in / scrub where we cd not
see them & around under / edges of / plateau. I got a photo of him
I think but I suppose it will be too small to show
[*Probably Glasfurd*]
- waving the men on with his arm - hopping
Diagram - see original
over the scrub. When he got the first lot up, lying down in the scrub on the
top o / hill a little in front of us, he hopped down / line of them &
then went right back to / rear slope o / hill for some more. Away
back toward the rear o / hill were two officers standing watching – I didnt
see them - but Maclagan & some of / officers with him afterwds did, &
were quite ready to believe (in our then condition – abt 60 hours
without sleep it ws possible to believe anything) that they might be
German officers - one seemed to be got up as a naval officer, so those who
saw him said. The officer in / macintosh went back for some more
men & presently came up a second time leading them. Then the 9th &
10th began to come over / hill [from Whites Valley I shd say] in lines
making rushes. You didnt notice / men hit - you noticed them
limping or rolling back wounded. I saw one man - wounded or
unwounded I dont know, for / surface of tt hill ws very hot - rolling
over & over & over thro / scrub until he reached a hollow. Most ^o / men
continued straight ahead but some came back or slipped sideways
down into / protection o / gullies & crevices o / hillside. There ws a
machine gun in front, & shrapnel (altho' we cdnt see it then) ws
making tt hilltop almost useless uncomfortable. I saw a most
curious sight there - some of men in / front line came