Saturday
April 24th -
Sunday
June 6th, 1915
Lemnos
Island
At last we have orders to
move. "Hurray!" All transports move at 11 pm. No lights to be
shown, all hands below, our escort consists of
about six warships and four torpedo boats. Reveille
at 2.30 am. Needless to say, there is
very little
attempt to sleep. Rations have been
issued for
three days, and we have strict orders regarding water,
one water bottle to last the whole time. 4.am
25th. Dawn is slowly breaking, we are
opposite our
landing place, and the guns of the fleet are beginning
to speak, all the boys are now on deck enjoying
the sight, and "my word" its a grand one. The
"Queen Elizabeth" laying well out in the "Bay" starts
sending her 15th shots on to Gaba Tepe Forts, soon
silencing the large fort, but there are several guns
in positions that the navy are unable to reach these,
apparently are placed well back in the gullies. Not so
large as "Christchurch Head", and the guns mentioned
are able to enfilade the whole beach and
landing place, at the same time, guns from about
2 miles back inland are sending large quantities
of shrapnel over he Bay. Our
first intended landing place was a low-lying sandy
beach, but it was found to be one mass of barbed
wire entanglements, both on shore and in the water, so
plans had to be suddenly altered. The
position we had to
take was cliffs similar to those at B'th. [Bournemouth] only
about 6 to 800 ft high,and one mass of scrub, the
gullies having running springs, and mud up to the
knees; these gullies were soon found to be death
traps, the enemy having the ranges to a yard, and
simply poured shrapnel down them.
(page 2)
Well,
at about 4. am the 3rd Brigade landed, our Bgde, the
2nd, having to follow, no sooner had the 3rd got in the boats,
than they were met by fire from Turks, hiding
in the scrub, without waiting for any orders they
fixed bayonets, and jumping from he boats, waist-high
in water, they charged as one man, practically taking
the hills in a few moments, excepting for a number of
snipers concealed in the bushes. During
this time we
were interested spectators o the transports, every available
position on deck being occupied, in spite of fire, and a
great sight it was, about a dozen boats of the fleet,
firing at once, and being answered from the shore
(for a time at least). At
last our time came to disembark, no one seemed the
least bit excited. Strict orders were to
have all
equipment loosened, no straps to be done up, rifles not to
be slung, in case anything happened to the boat in
deep water, - only one mishap occurred like that, no one
lost, - of course a large number were hit by shots
etc. Our boat got ashore safely, we then
formed up as
well as we could, and started for the top, plenty
of fire meeting us, (we were very glad to dump our packs) from
the top edge of the cliffs, was a sloping ridge (upwards) the
enemy holding this ridge now, our work was to clear them off. Some distance in the rear were several high
positions from
them the enemy met us with shrapnel and machine - gun
fire, our advance being under a perfect hail of shot. We
gained the ridge - digging in with the small entrenching tool
was no joke, bullets from every direction spitting all around
us, - twice we were driven back, and somewhere late in the
afternoon we succeeded in holding it, needless to say
our losses were terrible; the question was, could we
hold it until our artillery arrived?
which could not possibly
be for two days at least. We were
digging all night,
(page 3)
under
fire, and a sorry looking lot we were, tired wasn't the
name for it, could hardly stand up. (We
had been for
three weeks, cramped on a small boat, so were pretty [?off] Our
clothes were torn, almost rags, mud from head to foot,
and puttees (leggings) in a lot of cases were lost, or else just
hanging down over our boots, anyhow we held the
position,
(and I fancy it would puzzle any army to shift
us now) and we now have a good number of machine
guns & Howitzers etc, in good positions. Our
work now is to simply hold the position, while the other
flanks work around. The
trenches now are safe as houses, good support & communication
trenches, plenty of sand-bags and look-holes,
we also have the periscopes and a local invention by one
of the Aust. a rifle & periscope combined, fire without
showing oneself. Of course,
although our position is very secure, we get plenty of
attacks, and also make a good number. The
first week, every night they would come, about midnight and
would since or chant "Allah! Allah!"
We gave them "Allah"
just about as fast as we could pump our rifles, they
did not stay long, and the next night they would try
(?bugles), sounding our calls, but we are not using bugles at all. They
have a great number of German officers with them. This
sort of fighting went on for about two weeks; then our
Brigade was ordered to Cape Helles & Badi Bahr another
point, where great numbers of French & British also
Indians were, and we traveled on small transports. Strange
to say, ours was an old Jersey boat, G.W.R. "Reindeer" only
painted grey now, with the name still on it, one of the
stewards told it was the one. Our C.G. told us we were going there as a compliment to us, later on we didn't think so.
(page 4)
Zouaves and a lot of French, all kinds of Indians. After two days rest, we went forward, and it was almost like the Sunday again. The Aust Corp had to go to a position directly in front of the firing line, about 600 yds, and we did it in broad daylight; it's very cheerful racing cross open country with machine-guns playing on you and then you have the painful duty of digging in. No wonder the other troops call us mad; amongst the "Tommies" we have the name of "White Ghurkas" This movement could have been done at nightfall, without much loss, at least, we think so. It's alright getting fancy names, but we'd rather be without them, thanks, especially when you see mates, dropping all around you. We stayed at Cape Helles about ten days, and then back again to our old position, to re-organise; the 5th mustering about 170 out of about 1100, the 6th had only one officer left, so it was time we moved; for a time we were in reserve, fairly easy, except that they had a nasty habit of putting all spare men on road-making, and our neighbours will keep on sending shrapnel along. On May 24th, Empire Day, the Turks were granted one eight hours' armistice, to bury their dead, thousands had been lying, just in front for a month, and things were getting rather high; each side sending out parties, several of us
went
out, and had a look, I saw a lot of 5th men just by the
badge. I'll close up, the sight was
simply awful. Taking
it on the whole, things since have been very quiet, of
course it doesn't do to put ones head above the trench, nor to
wander about much in support. The
cliffs are very much like B'th. [Bournemouth]with lots of chines, these
chines are one mass of caves where we live, just a
hole big enough for two, it's great fun
(page 5)
when
the shrapnel starts to see (the) everyone dive in
head first like a lot of rabbits, after a while you
will see a head poke out, "is it all over?"
then
the rest will come out and perhaps finish their
cooking. Almost every day someone doesn't get in
quick enough, so perhaps he goes on the hospital ship. Well I
fancy I've told you everything and the next puzzle
is to get this past the "Censor". I must
scheme it somehow. At
present I am on a very decent wicket, have a large
party of men "sapping" from our firing-line towards
the Turks, underground of course, so there will
be trouble presently, when we blow it up.
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