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C H A P T E R IX
HOLDING ON 4T ANZAC
AT both Anzac and Helles the Allies were now faced
with complete trench lines, strongly held. Until these
could be broken through, the possibility of “open warfare” had passed. T h e obvious means of breaking through
was artillery bombardment, and Hamilton decided to use
this in making step by step advances, partly at night.
Relying now on artillery, he naturally still adhered to
his plan of attacking at Helles. Birdwood and his corps
a t Anzac were ordered to attempt only minor attacks so
as to facilitate any advance that might be planned later
dnd to keep busy a large force of Turks.
There were ample tasks confronting the Anzac troops
if their position was even to be held. First, the apex of
tlic position, Baby 7 0 0 with T h e Nek leading to it, was
held by the Turks. Already, exactly a week after the
Landing, when the troops had been reorganised (partly
by the loan of four battalions of “marines”-actually raw
troops lately raised by Churchill) the Anzac Corps
had endeavoured to close this gap by seizing Baby 700
and the extreme upper end of the Second Ridge north of
Quinn’s Post. At nightfall on Sunday hiay nnd, after a
heavy bombardment of that angle by naval and land
. I I !Illci y, hlonash’s 4th Brigade climbed the right branch
of the head of hionash Valley, with orders to link with
the New Zealand Infantry Brigade, which was to climb
the left branch and thence move across Baby 700.
T h e Australians attacked with great spirit. Monash
and his headquarters, far down the valley, could hear the
cheers as the attack topped its edge and with the cheers
HOLDIKG A T ANZAC
2nd-3rd May igitj]
came the sound of the supports singing ”Tipperary” and
“Australia will be there”.
But the approach march of the New Zealanders
around the crowded Beach and u p Shrapnel and Monash
Valleys took twice as long as planned. They attacked
nearly two hours late, to be met by a tempest of fire which
had already swept the unsupported flank of the Australians. Useless attempts were made during the night to
carry out the plan in the face of the now thoroughly
awakened Turks-even at dawn some of the hlarines were
thrown in; the bodies of some of them crowning the last
knuckle in hionash Valley, beyond Pope’s, gave their
name to “Dead Man’s” Ridge. T h e ichole effort achieved
nothing and cost 1 ooo casualties.
With its apex thus firinly in Turkish hands, the Anzac
position was difficult to hold; indeed, many tacticians
would probably call iL “untenable”. T h e Anzacs clung
barely to the inner edge of the Second Ridge-and, at
T h e Nek, not even to that-with the ‘Turks on the other
edge of it. At Quinn’s the Turhs, only forty yards away,
were digging, and perhaps mining, closer. They held the
continuation of this spur to Baby 700, and had thrust
forward to Dead hlan’s Ridge, ivhich not only conimanded part of the rear of Quinn’s but looked straight
down hlonash Valley, u p the stream bed of which-normally dry-came all traffic and supplies for that part of
the Anzac line.
It was also at Quinn‘s. and on Russell’s T o p (facing
T h e Nek on the main riclgej that the Turks had throw~i
missiles like black iron cricket balls. T h e Australians a n d
New Zealanders had heaid of b o ~ n b sbeing used 0 1 1 Lhe
Western Front but had ne\er seen one, and at first had
none to reply with. h.ioreoi,er. as trench periscopes were
unknown to them until the Xinines broiight a few, the
Anzac sentries had to obsen e by watching through loopholes or with heads 01er the parapets; but ns the Turkish
positions looked into Qninn’s fro111 three sidcs i t was
127
ANZAC T O AMIENS
[gth-15thMay 1915
almost certain death to expose one’s head there by day
for three seconds. As already stated, it seems that Quinn’s
was twice being abandoned when a junior overcame the
decision of his superior and was allowed to hold it.
In the following weeks the suspicion that the Turks
would tunnel under Quinn’s and blow it u p induced
General Godley to order the seizure of the Turkish
trenches on the reverse slope. T h e first attempt was made
by three parties of the 15th Battalion on the night of
May 9th. But though the parties (totalling 1 0 0 men) in
furious fighting took the trenches opposite them, and
three communication trenches were dug from Quinn’s
to the new positions, the Australians, having no bombs,
were in the morning bombed and shot out by flank
attacks-i o officers being killed and zoo casualties suffered among the attacking parties and their supports
who became involved in the effort.
T h e situation there was now very difficult. T h e three
communication trenches had been left joining Quinn’s
and “Turkish Quinn’s” (as it was called); and, using part
of these, the Turks in the next week were able to shower
bombs day and night into the Australian trenches there.
T h e Quinn’s garrison-by then consisting of light horsemen, who had just been brought to =Inzac without their
horses-had learnt from the infantry to catch the Turkish
bombs before they burst and throw them back, or else to
smother them with an overcoat or sandbag. ,41so bombs
improvised from jam tins filled with snippets of metal
were now being manufaclured 011 ,4ii7ac Bench and a
shower of these cliiieteiiecl the T u r b - h t i t not for- long.
Accordingly, 011 the night cit R l n y I d t l i . sc\*cr,ilparties
of the 2nd Light Horse Regiment chnrged out in a
planned atttsnipt to fill in the thi-ee saps and their
entrances. T h i s tiiiie the ‘Turks were ready; of the 60
,4ustraliaiis iie‘irlj 50 weie n t once hit and the attempt
failed.
I28
15th-19thMay
HOLDITU’G AT ANZAC
19151
O n the morning after this attack the fire of Turkish
snipers down Monash Valley increased in severity. Losses
being high, big sandbag buttresses were built at intervals
across the valley bed, but snipers fired a t men inoying
horn buttress to buttress, and o n this clay they mortally
wounded General Bridges there ’IVishing good-bye to a
friend in the hospital ship, “.Anyhow.” he said, “I have
commanded an Australian Division.”’
O n hlay 18th the Turkish rifle fire, which had been
constant since the Landing, airnost ceased, but the
Turkish artillery fire-hitherto mainly light shrapnel,
and painful only at certain vulnerable parts of the line
and valleys-became constant and included some heavy
shells. It had little effect, but a British aviator, who that
day happened to make one of the rare flights over that
area, detected Turkish troops massed in the valleys behind the Turkish line. A second airman sent out saw
other Turks arriving across the straits. A s the Xavy and
the Anzac obsen ers also reported unusual movements the
garrison was warned to expect attack.
In the small hours next morning expectant .%ustralians, peering down the gloomy depth of Wire Gully
(north of the 400 Plateau), noticed there the faint reflection of light from sheaves of moving bayonets. Heavy fire
was opened on these, and shortly afterwards choruses of
“Allah, Allah! ” were heard, first from there, and successively from most other parts of the front, and charging
Turks came dimly into view. In some parts they were
deliberately allowed to advance until l’er): close and then
the Australians opened a terrible fire, shouting tags of
slang learnt in Egypt: “Saida! ” “Backsheesh!” “Eggs-acook! ” Everywhere the attacking lines withered under
this fusillade. Here and there machine-guns and, on the
right, a field-gun added to the effect. T h e assault was
1 G e I’ol I f . p p 1 2 8 - j o Bridges died in the hospital ship but his b o d y
was taken to Australia and buried on the hilltop above Australia’s Military
College which h e had founded General W a l k was temporarily appointed
in his place while General Legge \ \ a s being sent from 4ustraliz
In-”,
I29
ANZAC T O AMIENS
[igth-24th May
1915
exceedingly brave and persistent; a few-a very fewstubborn men reached the parapets and even the trenches.
At Courtney’s Post, south of Quinn s, Turkish bombs
cleared one bay and nine of the enemy entered it; but,
after several deadly attempts to clear them, a Victorian
private, Albert Jacka, cleverly taking the necessary risks,
leapt into the bay while the enemy’s attention was held
by his mates, killed six, and wounded and captured one.2
T h e ill-co-ordinated attacks had been launched from
3.30 onwards, at different times against different sectors.
It was after daylight when, at 4.20, an effort was made to
rush Quinn’s. Though the trenches there were now, at
one point, only fifteen yards apart, no T u r k managed to
get through the crossfire of machine-guns protecting the
post. Later efforts were equally fruitless.
T h e Anzac troops had only 628 men hit-mostly
through exposing themselves too eagerly after daylight.
But no-man’s-land was strewn with Turks. Of the 42,000
-two old and two fresh divisions-that attacked, I 0,000
were hit, 3000 (it is said) being killed. One reaction to
this immense slaughter-which was mainly the work of
the Australian riflemen-was that the attitude of the
troops towards this enemy entirely changed; from being
bitter and suspicious they became admirers and almost
friends of the Turks-“Jacko” or “Abdul”, as they called
them-and so they remained to the end of the war. An
attempt by Australians on May 20th to rescue some of the
Turkish wounded led, first, to a short informal armistice.
and later, on May rqth, to a formal truce lasting nearly
all day, at which the dead were buried-and incidentally
the embarrassing saps between the opposing trenches at
Quinn’s were used as graves and conveniently filled in,
to the relief, probably, of both sides.
This greatest effort, made by order of the Turkish
government and Liman von Sanders, to have done once
2 He was the first Australian to win the Victoria Crosq in
the details see Yo!. 11, p p . I#’- j o
I30
111:if
w.tr. Foi
HOLDING AT ANZAC
29th May-5th June 19151
and for all with the invaders at Anzac, had thus ended
disastrously for the Turks. It is true that the small
triangular foothold, with the Turks looking down the
valley in its centre, was a difficult one to hold. On
May 29th the Turks by tunnelling (which Australian
iiiiners had heard but the engineer staff disregarded till
too late) blew up and captured part of Quinn’s; but after
a furious and tensely exciting fight they were quickly
driven out again. O n June 4th-when, down at Cape
Helles, General Hamilton continued his effort to “hammer away”, step by step, with bombardment, towards
Achi Baba-the Anzacs, being asked to pull their weight,
again assaulted the Turkish Quinn’s. This time the New
Zealand infantry attacked.‘ T h e enterprise at first went
well, but after daybreak the place became a reeking inlerno of bombing, and, though jam-tin bombs were now
being made in increasing numbers a t the improvised
factory on the Beach, the supply was still insufficient. T h e
Ilaiiking fire of Turkish machine-guns from other posts
on both flanks was, as always, most deadly. I n an attempt
to stop it on the southern flank the Australians now made
a swift trench-raid-a party under Lieutenant Longfield Lloyd suddenly dashing to German Officers’ Trench
and back. But the trench was found to be partly roofed
over and little could be effected. .4t Quinn’s the Turks
forced their way towards the new communication trench
just dug by the New Zealanders and, by 6.30 a.m., to
avoid being cut off, the survivors of the New Zealand
attack were withdrawn. T h e brigade lost over 1 0 0 men
and the Turks twice as many.
This ended for the present all attempts by the Anzacs
to make safe the apex of their position by open attack.
Instead they safeguarded their posts by mining, while
the Turkish sniping that u 3s taking such toll in Monash
3See 1’01 I I , p p 100. 2 0 3 , o n d 106 1 1 T h e final clearing of the crater
o n May 30th $bas heroicall\ covered I,) a young ..\tistralian machine-gunner.
Pre T. 4molt: see Yol. I I , p a a j .
131
ANZAC T O AMlENS
[hlay-June 1915
Valley was met by counter-sniping. In this the Anzac
snipers were helped by the invention, by a inan of the
2nd Battalion, of a periscope-rifle, the apparatus was
manufactured on the Beach and could be safely fired from
shelter in the most dangerous posts. Within a few weeks
the tables had been completely turned on the Turkish
snipers; RIonash Valley became safe;” even the Indian
mule train were able to go u p it by day without a shot
being fired at them, the Turkish snipers being prevented
from shooting down it until after dark, when they could
hit only by chance. For pedestrian traffic a trench was
dug along the whole western side of the valley, a little
above its bed.
In addition the Anzacs obtained on May 2 0 t h four
highly effective Japanese trench mortars, which inflicted
such loss that the ‘Turks began to roof over their important posts with logs and earth-a practice which is said to
have turned their trenches into death-traps when shelled
by howitzers later in the campaign. Meanwhile in order
to gain ground, as the dAnzacswere still clinging to little
more than the edge of the Second Ridge, shallow tunnels
were pushed out from niost parts of that front, and
ground was safely won by secretly breaking through from
these tunnels to the surface closer to the Turkish front
line. For low-level mining, deep tunnels also were begtin,
heading beneath the Turkish line.
Yet in the centre-where the niaiii ridge I 6 1 1 down
through Baby 700, T h e Nek, and Russell’s T o p , to end in
Plugge’s Plateau 300 feet above Anzac Beach-any
advance by the Turks must have been fatal. by driving
even 300 yards across Russell’s T o p they would place
themselves in direct rear of the vital Anzac posts on the
Second Ridge and would look down on North Beach.
.I T h e details of this classic contest of marksmen are described 111
I’ol. II, p p 148 and 285-7 T h e snipers were organised first by Lieiit. T h4
P. Grace. N Z Mounted Rifles. later by Sgt F M Mach, Australian I.lght
Hone. Periscopes also were no\\ manufactured on Anzac Beach.
132
29th J u n e - 1 z t h J u l y
1915]
HOL1)ISG .AT ANZ.-\C
Mustafa Kenial, who then cornrnarided this flank OE
Essad Pasha’s Corps at Anzac, was not one to miss such
a chance-and on the night of June 29th he attacked
from T h e Nek, using a well-trained regiment, fresh from
Constantinople. It was met by the dismounted 3rd Light
Horse Brigade, partly in the new secretly tunnelled
defences, and was defeated so disastrously that the attempt
was never repeated. Instead the Turks continued to
furrow the wide brow of Baby 700 with line after line of
trenches barring the way up the main ridge, and fighting
went on underground in the deeper tunnels with which
each side tried to undermine the other.
T h e British and French a t the toe of the Peninsula
made little progress in their attempts to push to .\chi
Baba by means of artillery support. O n June dth, June
2 ist, June 28th and July 12th major attacks were launched
by the British or French or both. I n most of these desperate efforts the attacking troops, after a first success, were
left with only one line of Turkish trench, or part of it,
in their hands. This fighting had some \slue; the repeated
counter-attacks by the T u r k s after June 4th arid 2 1st are
said to have cost them 25,000 men, and, at a time when
Hamilton had other plans maturing. the Turkish leaders
were induced to believe that Helles was the danger
point-but at a cost to the British which gl-ie\ously
affected the later efforts. During these operations the
.Anzac staff tried to tie the local Turkish reserves to .Anzac
by numerous “demoii~tratioii~”.
These ranged from
actual attacks, and difficult. costly sorties against the
enemy’s parapet or a crater in no-inan’s-land, down to
sham concentrations in which a platoon or two with
bayonets showing above the parapets ran like stage
soldiers round and round a circuit in the trenches to give
the appearance of a battalion assembling to attack; this
last method was possibly the most effective.
T h e heavy work, monotonous diet, and widespread
infection-of which the main carriers, the swarms of flies,
ANZAC T O AMIENS
Dune-July 1915
were insuficiently recognised-were straining the troops.
Undoubtedly immense casualties were averted through
the men’s previous inoculation for typhoid, but diarrhoea,
dysentery and paratyphoid attacked thousands. Only
serious cases were evacuated-or were willing to be evacuated. T h e rest struggled on, gaunt and weakened, infecting others, sometimes even fainting at their posts, but
indomitably eager. Their uniform was like no other in
the war, any degree of undress being sufficient for the
men6 and allowed by their officers. Half-naked, they dug,
tunnelled, carried food, water, and ammunition up the
dusty, precipitous tracks, swept their trenches free of
refuse, or patiently searched their clothes for the vermin
that nightly plagued them. Occasionally a visit to the
beach gave even men from the front line the chance of
a bathe from the piers and the crowded shingle. Men
whose duty was on or near the beach bathed daily-and
when they had this opportunity intermittent shrapnel
could never keep them long out of the water.
Life at Anzac-as at Tobruk in the Second World
War-differed from experience on the main fronts in that
the troops were nowhere away from shellfire and had
practically no chance of rest in peaceful conditions. In
the gullies where most of them lived, immediately behind
the front line, they were plagued, part of the time, by
Turkish rocket bombs (sometimes known as broomstick
bombs) arriving with a loud hiss and a bang. T h e Turks
even used a few spherical iron shells from old-time mortars-the Anzacs had their four good Japanese trench
mortars, others improvised in Egypt with metal tubing,
and also catapults resembling crossbows.
It is true that some battalions were taken, one at a
time, to Imbros Island, eleven miles away, but at this
stage the rest was only for 3-6 days. Until late in the
campaign no regular canteen and no Red Cross stores
5Sce Wallace Anderson’s figure of “Anzac” in the War Memorial.
Canberra.
134
Apr.-July 19151
HOLDING A T ANZAC
reached Anzac. T h e Australian mail, which came fortnightly, and the more frequent English mail, brought
news for which men hungered; the very rare sight of an
aeroplane, British or German, or the spectacle of a warship bombarding, were the chieE other excitements. T h e
nights were pestilential with fleas and, in the trenches,
lice, for which n o delousing apparatus existed at Anzac.
A few dentists-mostly unearthed from the fighting ranks
-tried to meet the hundreds of dental troubles for most
OE which, however, incn were either not treated or were
sent to Alexandria, against their will. By the end of July,
of 25,000 men a t Anzac, 2 0 0 were being sent away sick
each day. In Egypt the Australian hospitals, though
immensely expanded since the Landing, were overcrowded and their staffs at Limes worked almost to
exhaustion.
Anzac Beach was a sight perhaps never before seen in
modern war-a crowded, busy base within half a mile of
the centre of the front line; and that strongly marked and
definite entity, the Anzac tradition, had, from the first
morning, been partly created there. From the moment of
launching the campaign it was the resolve of those Australian soldiers who would usually be regarded as noncombatants to show themselves not a hairsbreadth behind
the combatants in hardihood. Wherever a call went
up for “stretcher-bearers” the coinpany bearers would as
a matter of course try to reach it. T h e first time the writer
heard that call, amid the whine OE bullets on a n exposed
slope on April 25th, two men instantly rose, pipe in
inouth, stretcher on shoulder, and sauntered casually in
the direction of the voice-a
doubtless intentional
example to the crouching infantry around them.
Later one bearer, Private Sinipson-his civil name was
K irkpatrick-annexed one of the donkeys (landed to take
water u p the hills but never so used) and for three weeks
tarried on it down Monash and Shrapnel valleys men
[Apr.-July 1915
ANZAC T O AMlENS
wounded in the legs. As well as the sniping, the shelling
of this route by shrapnel from the south was sometimes
severe, and on May 19th a burst of it killed him and his
patient. Another bearer,” who was seen to pass, without
stopping, under a shrapnel burst, carried his patient to
the dressing tent, sat quietly in the waiting ranks for the
doctor to come to him, and fell dead without having mentioned his wound. T h e “beach parties” under an old
-4nglo-.\merican soldier, Captain C. A . Littler, and the
naval men who also helped in the landing of men and
stores, carried on under almost any fire. Even the military
offenders, set on the open decks of the water barges to
pump water into the tanks on the Beach, were too proud
to turn their heads when shells burst over them. Part of
the tradition set, a t the Landing on Anzac Beach, by all
hands, from naval landing officer to private, from Birdwood to the youngest reinforcement, was-to carry on
under shellfire completely heedless, as i f the shrapnel
was a summer shower.
Within a week visitors were arriving a t An7ac to see
this sight. Not long afterwards several heavy boinbardments froin Turkish batteries (afterwards known as
“Beachy Rill”), eniplacecl a1 the “Olive Grove” on the
Hats beyoncl the right flank, I i i d e this procedure too
costly to continue, and a battery near Anafarta on the
northern flank later added a dangerous crossfire. T h e
mule- and horse-lines had hurriedly to be nioved off the
Beach into the gullies that opened on to it. T h e Turks
had observation posts on both flanks-at Nibrunesi Point
and Gaba Tepe-from both of which capes they could see
part of the Reach. Yet these batteries never succeeded in
stopping work or bathing for more than a short spell.
T h e Anzac field-guns fought Homeric duels with the
Olive Grove and Gaba T e p e batteries whenever these
opened fire. T h e piles of stores and ammunition and the
6
L.-Cpl G . T Hill. captain of
P
Sydney swimming club.
136
dressing stations remained on the Beach froiii first to last,
with Birdwood's and other headquarters 011 the slope
close above them.
No craft larger than a picket boat co~ilclby dayliglii
safely approach Watson's Pier or the c ~ ~ h jetties
er
built
by the Anzacs-shells from the Olive Grove would at once
fall on or around theni with unfailing accuracy; and from
May 13th the subniarine threat had driven away all craft
that used to anchor in the offing except the two destroyers
always watching the flanks, a few small craft, and the
white hospital ship which, relieved every few days by a
sister ship, used to lie there, a beautiful thing ivith her
bright motionless lights a t night, and the blazing Aegean
sky and sunsets, and clustered mountain tops of Imbros
and Samothrace, as her background by day. N o Turkish
shot or German torpedo ever threatened her.'
From the first, Generals Birdwood and Bridges wished
to be rid of the nuisance
afforded by the presence of
Turkish observers on the
projecting capes on either
Hank. Accordingly on Ala)
4th an atteinpt was made by
about 1 0 0 ineii under Major
Kay Leane of the 1 1 th Battalion to seize or raid the
promontory of Gaba Tepe.
They were landed from desLroyers on its beach, but
were at once pinned to the
bank there by a whirlwind
of fire from its crorvded
Nibrunes/
1
trenches. They wei e iiiosi
2 Miles
bravely taken off again b \
the Navy in boats under coier of vicious boiiibaidmeiit
7 It
macle
!\as on he] dethI [ l i n t \romen-iiirluding
onl\ al)pioacIi t o \n7at
tlicii
137
a fen 4 i i s r r ~ l 1 . 1 1i1i u r w s -
[Apr.-May 1915
ANZAC T O AMIENS
from the destroyers’ guns.* This southern flank of the
Anzac position was explored in the early days by some
Tasmanians, who passed round thc Turkish flank and
spent a night and day on the T h i r d Ridge close behind
the Turks; but when they tried with Major Blainey to
repeat this achievement they ran into a Turkish patrol
and sentry line, and after a rough and tumble fight
withdrew.
T h e southern flank had thus been closed by the
Turks; but any danger of their attacking from there was
offset by two facts: first, the valleys and ridges there could
be raked by naval fire; and though on May 25th the
battleship Triumph was torpedoed and sunk off Gaba
Tepe in full view of the Anzac lines, warships would
always come if urgently required, and daily (and nightly
with its searchlight) a destroyer kept watch oif each flank.
Second, from mid-June the 2nd Light Horse Brigade,
dismounted, under its stout-hearted leader, Brig.-General
G. de I,. Rvrie, carried out with the neighbouring infantry an asionishing extension of the defences on to the
neighbouring “Holly Ridge”, and from that time, with
these troops in such positions, Birdwood never had any
anxiety as to this flank.
North of Anzac the Turkish observation post at
Nibrunesi Point (Suvla Bay) was, as already mentioned,
raided and temporarily destroyed. On that flank the spurs
of the main range were so steep and sheer that the Turkish
Corps Conimnntler, Essad Pasha, hardly troubled to hold
them. Here the lowei ends of two spurs north and south
of Fisherman’s Hut were occupied by New Zealanders on
April jolh, and were named Nos. 1 and 2 Outposts.
Scouts of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles found they
could work u p the wild gullies north of these. Major
8 About .I t l i i i i l . induiliiig Leane, \\ere hit Four men got back to A n r x
along the l ~ ~ . i d iwatliiig
,
i ~ i i i i d the ‘1 iirkisli \bile. ’l’wo mole, isolated .lid
left beliiiid. \ \ e i e gall~ntly irscucll by iiaval lion1 T h e ‘rttrhs (lid not h l c
!\lien rlie \\oiiiitIrtl \ \ v i r Iwiiig helped to the I x ~ n t See Y u l . I , p p 558-61.
138
May 19151
HOLDING A T ANZAC
Overton crept up part of the main spur, Rhododendron,
almost to Chunuk Bair, and Lieut. Blackett, landing
from a trawler beyond Suvla Bay watched from the "W"
Hills one of the Anafarta batteries while he munched his
sandwiches." Also, into No. 2 Post there found their way
some Greek villagers from the north who said the couniry
was almost empty of Turkish troops. Birdwood's chief ol
staff, Brig.-General Skeen, a tall, brave, highly educated
Anglo-Indian soldier, leapt at the prospect of a way out
of the Gallipoli deadlock-the Anzacs, reinforced by
Gurkhas and others, were just the kind of troops who
could storm by night u p the valleys north OE Anzac and
thus seize the summits of the main range.
Possibly through the activity of the New Zealand
scouts, the Turks began to place additioxlal or sirongei
posts on these ridges. Birdwood and Skceii, herefore.
decided to lull their opponents into false security
by showing no activity on
this northern flank. Unfortunately, without their
authority the nearest
Turkish post, 400 yards
above No. 2, was seized by
the New Zealand Mounted
Rifles on the night of hlay
28th. It was to be converted into a "No. 3" Post;
but from dawn next day
Turkish snipers in the
wild country around prevented all digging, arid on
the following night a body of the eneriry cut off and
re-took the post, its garrison being saved by a gallant
sortie from No. 2 post.
I39
[May-June 1915
ANZAC T O AMIENS
Although arter this the Turks placed extra posts 011
Lhe foothills and extended their trenches along part of
the crest of the main range, Birdwood and Skeen were
convinced that the Anzacs could break out here; they
laid their plan before Hamilton on May 30th. He was
a leader with the priceless quality of imagination and,
after study, he accepted it with enthusiasm. Certain
reinforcements, he knew, were coming to him. On May
14tl1, after the Battle of Krithia, the British governtnent
had resolved frankly to face the position, and had inquired how many fresh divisions he needed in order to
guarantee success. He had then asked for two ai ~ n y
corps;
each of two divisions, and full reiiiforcenients for the
divisions already with him. After this answer a delay had
occurred, due to the decision of the Liberal government,
under hlr Asquith, t o strengtheii itself by forming a
coalition w i t h the Chnscrvatives. At last, o n June 7th,
largely through Rlr Churchill’s persuasion of Lord
Kitchenel, the governiiient promised him three divisionslo-sorne of the first of the “New Army” raised by
K itchener since the outbreak of war. T w o territorial
divisions-one English and one Welsh-were afterwards
:itltletl to these reinforcements. There was no space for all
I hese divisions 011 the Penitisula bridgeheads, but Harniltoil intended LO receive them on neighbouriiig islands,
Lmnnos, Imbros, Teneclos, and LO land then1 011 the
Peninsula only wlien required, l\.hich now cotild not be
before the beginning of August.
While the costly attempts to “hamii~el-away” from
Helles towards Achi Baba were still going on, the plans
for this second great effort to s e i ~ ethe Peninsula and
open the way for the fleet were completed. Hamilton
decided to make the main effort from Anzac, and would
use one New Army division ( 1 3th) and two detached
brigades (one of them Indian) to reinforce the troops
10
A
Sccillitli territorial ( l i t i \ i o n
also. 52nd. h a d alredd\ lreen pronii\ed
140
HOLDlSG A T ANZAC
June-July 19151
there; but, as a separate operation which would help the
Anzac attempt, the IX Corps (10th and I I th New Army
divisions) would be landed at Suvla Bav in the projecting
flats four niiles north of Xnzac, and would try to seize the
seiiiicircle of hills five miles inland of their landing place.
Their chances were good since the whole area was occupied by only three Turkish battalions, and the Anzac
attack should draw to itself most of the Turkish reserves.
I n order to attract these reserves towards the south and
away from the north, a feint attack u - o d d be made by the
British at Cape Helles; and the ;lustralians at Anzac
would seize the now strong Turkish position at Lone
Pine, on the southern and bigger half OE the 400 Plateau.
Immense labour was forthwith undertaken a t Anzac
in making shelites for extra water tanks, hauling thein to
position, installing pump and engine; preparing new
ledges, slielters and other facilities to ‘recei1.e twenty battalions, ambulances, and hcadqtiai-ters, and rvidening the
long trench to No. z Outpost in order to inahe a hidden
road for the nightly convoy of mule carts
By July all this work, together with the tunnelling of
underground trenches ready for the coming feint a t Lone
Pine and elsewhere, had aroused expectation among the
Anzacs, arid leakage of information through coininande~s
and clerks caused the troops gradtiall\ to ~ealiset h a t n
second great attempt was impending On the tried, gaunt
men who nine months before had left Australia and
New Zealand with such enthusiasni a i d ivitli \,isions ot
returning full of experience-as m a n y had done froin
South Africa-to march through cheering crowds in their
home towns, and regale their families wiih strange tales
and “souvenirs”-on these troops this new realisation had
a perceptible effect. On, many there dawned for the first
tiine the fact that for them the prospect of retiirn \\’a\
vanishing.
The vision was now one oE battle after battIe aftei
141
ANZAC T O AMIENS
[July 19 15
battle. Men felt themselves to be between two long walls
from which there seemed to be no turning except death,
or disabling wounds. These feelings were rarely expressed;
the tussle in each man’s mind as he faced the grim fact
was a silent one. It could be guessed only from a certain
quietness of demeanour or from an occasional remark.
New battalions had been arriving in Egypt from AusLralia and were just then being formed there into a 2nd
Australian Division. T h e men of the older ones at Anzac
read in newspapers, brought by the mail, the current
comment in Australia-that, whereas they themselves had
joined the army largely through love of adventure, these
new troops were enlisting from sober conviction. So the
old ones, or their friends at home, labelled the new lot
“ T h e Dinkum Australians”-the genuine breed. And at
Anzac, when someone, referring to a feat of the I i t h
Battalion, said: “Western Australia will be proud of
this,” the instant answer was: “This! T h e 28th (the battalion last raised in Western Australia) will get the
cheering for this!”
T h e fond dream of the return home was silently
surrendered by many without a word, or a sign in their
letters. T h e ambitions of civil life had been given up;
men’s keenness now was for the A.1.F.-for their regiinent, bat talion, coinpany-and for the credit of Australia.
Not that these or other tried soldiers were at normal
times eager for battle-in most men that enthusiasm was
more than satisfied by such a fight as that of the Landing;
whatever the newspapers might say, few men looked forward to a second such struggle without some underlying
dread, varying with the character and experience of
each man.
Yet, as the hour for this and later offensives approached, there did come over iiiost Australian troopseven over the young infantry officers who knew that their
chance of surviving three or four such battles was almost
I42
gist July-6th Aug. 19151
HOLDING .4T ANZAC
nil-a keenness to make another stroke for the Allies’
success. They had set their hand to this contest; they
could see no hope for the future happiness, or perhaps
existence, of their nation if they failed. T h e war had to
be carried through to victory-that it would end victoriously not one Anzac in a hundred doubted; indeedexcept in the worst days in France-each fresh Allied
offensive was approached with glowing hopes of breaking
through. A few more days, it seemed, would find the
Army pushing through into previously untouched
country and a campaign of swift movement would open.
So, as the appointed day, August 6th, drew near, and
young British troops1’ in their pith helmets and cotton
irnifornis began to land by night and camp on the ledges,
the Anzac sick parades diminished; men already evacuated tricd to “desert” back from ship, hospital or base;
and few of the thin, much-tried garrison doubted that one
more hard fight would bring them into control of the
Narrows.
A week before riiaking this great second attempt
General Birdwood had an opportunity of further attracting Turkish attention to his southern flank. T h e
Turks tried to establish a position on a subsidiary spur
there, Holly Ridge, on to which the Light Horse and
Tasiiianians had extended their trenches. On the night of
July gist parties oE the I ith Battalion under Major Ray
Leane, after a n explosion of mines, seized by a determined attack the trench newly made by the enemy along
the other edge of the spur. At dawn on August 6th-the
very day on which the great offensive was later to beginthe Turks, counter-attacking by surprise, retook part of
the position (now known as Leane’s Trench). But in the
following hours by several brave counter-rushes i t waq
cleared of them.
By this date the German commander, Liman von
ANZAC; T O AMIENS
[gist July-5th Aug. 1915
Sanders, had heard from Salonica runlours that a new
offensive was coming in Gallipoli, but he did not know
where. From J d y 3 1st to August 5th he sent out German
airmen daily over Anzac, sometimes in the early t l a w i .
Scvcixl tiiiies hey dropped bombs on Quinii’s Post and
near oilier positioiis. There were then no anti-aircratt
guns at Anzac to drive them away but they flew high a i d
apparently obscrved no important changes.’?
.-
Earliei i t ~~ l i ecampaign an cnemv Jeroplane llatl droppcd showers of
stnall sIeel d.irts, the siLe of pencil5 ‘rlic) did n o Ii.iiin .IC Anzac At dairn
on August 7 t h a Gerninii airinan tried to attack the balloon of the Afatirca,
which was off Callipoli that d3y, the German turned back o n the appearance
of two Drltlsh marhines.
12
144