The Incomparable 29th and the "River Clyde" Part 11

Many of their underground dwellings were so elaborate that they had evidently made up their minds that they were to spend the coming winter here.

Our casualties, although light compared with the Turks, must be heavy.

Over 300 pa.s.sed through our station before dark, but at that time perhaps the bigger half was still to come. Those lying between trenches have usually to lie where they fall till dark. Our losses would likely be 3000 to 4000.

The Asiatic guns, finding they could take little active part in the proceedings, although they fired occasionally on the French, amused themselves by firing at W. Beach and the battery on Tekke Burnu, and with forty-two shots managed to kill two men and wound eight. One of our men, Corporal Dunn, got badly hit while in Aberdeen Gully by a two-pound sh.e.l.l cap. It was due to the premature bursting of one of our own sh.e.l.ls. (Corporal Dunn died a day or two afterwards.) So far the wounds received by our Ambulance have been slight.

Padre Creighton had a peculiar experience at 1 a.m. to-day, while asleep in his "crow's nest". He has taken up his quarters with us in Aberdeen Gully, and has a dugout about 15 feet above the path that winds the length of our Gully. This is almost sheer up and is reached by steps cut in the rock and sandbags. It was formed by levelling a natural recess, and had a galvanised iron roof. Sheer up from this again the rock rises another 70 or 80 feet to the mule track above. A packhorse with two heavy tanks lost its footing on its way up and fell cras.h.i.+ng down on Creighton's place, carrying away the roof and a number of sandbags, and dropping one of the boxes in the middle of his bed. The padre escaped untouched. Kellas, sleeping further down the path, rushed out and found himself face to face with the runaway steed, which, still more strange to say, was also unhurt. The padre in the bright moonlight was standing in his pyjamas on the top of his steps, scratching his head, and wondering what it all meant.

The heat all through the day had been most trying, and as I trudged down The Gully by myself, Thomson remaining behind, in the sweltering heat, the whole way packed tight with ammunition and other wagons, through a dust that filled The Gully to the very brim, I felt dead tired after a hard day's work and the long tramp of yesterday, when we looked in vain for a site for a new advanced dressing station. The road seemed without end. As I neared "home" and came over the slight rise at our cemetery the moon rose through a slight haze over the cla.s.sic Mount Ida, as a great blood-red ball, while on my other side, out in the Gulf of Saros, a dense cloud hung over Imbros, which every few seconds was lit up by a flash of lightning. I had little food all day, and was too tired to eat, but after a big drink of lime juice I retired to bed and slept the sleep of the just--of the tired at any rate.

And so ended a day in which we had had a good specimen of a modern battle, where both sides had shown equal and indomitable pluck.

_June 29th._--Spent the day resting and was.h.i.+ng clothes. When I can I have a was.h.i.+ng day twice a week.

Many wounded pa.s.sed through Aberdeen Gully after I left last night, the total up to some hour this morning being 566, which meant a lot of hard work.

After I left, Ashmead-Bartlett was pa.s.sing, and recognising Padre Creighton he went over our Gully, and greatly admired the place for its suitability and picturesqueness, and is to give a description of it in one of his early articles to the home papers--so he says. He told our fellows the following story of a friend of his, who had been through the landing of April 25. He wrote home saying that sh.e.l.ls flew thick about his ears, torpedoes chased him about, and mines floated all round; still he was not in the least afraid, he just thought of what his padre told them the previous Sunday, when he exhorted them when in danger to look upwards. He looked upwards, and behold! here was a b.l.o.o.d.y aeroplane dropping bombs.

Early in the afternoon we had a goodly number of sh.e.l.ls. Yesterday, when I was up The Gully, a large piece of sh.e.l.l flew through our mess tent, where the servants were sitting, and landed in a jam pot on the table, splas.h.i.+ng an orderly all over; he, mistaking jam for his own blood, did not know whether he was really alive or dead.

_June 30th._--We had seven large sh.e.l.ls during the night, all landing on our side of W. Beach. Two traction engines have been fitted up lately down on the sh.o.r.e, and one of these was smashed, and a tool-house beside it blown pretty well to pieces. There was also some fighting about our left and centre, but I have not heard the result.

The Turks have now a plentiful supply of ammunition, and all yesterday afternoon and this morning have poured a constant stream of high explosives into the French side of Kereves Dere.

Soon after 8 p.m. lightning flashed thick about Imbros, which had an inky black cloud hanging overhead. The storm moved to the east, till it came over Achi Baba, and by this time the flashes were almost constant and the thunder loud. It was one of the grandest thunderstorms I ever saw, and what made it more impressive was the din and flas.h.i.+ng of all our guns, the searchlight from Chanak, which always plays over the Dardanelles and us, and then we had a severe sh.e.l.ling from Asia all to ourselves. We just wanted a good rattling earthquake to complete this fearsome picture of h.e.l.l where both man and the G.o.ds warred.

The Turks have started a new form of frightfulness. They sh.e.l.l us every now and then from Asia, and from there last night they dropped into W. Beach a huge sh.e.l.l that detonates with a terrible crash, and every twenty minutes or so they treated us to one of these, and made the whole night hideous, and sleep impossible.

This afternoon a French battles.h.i.+p stationed herself off the entrance to the Dardanelles, and fired about fifty rounds from her biggest guns at a point on a hill about a mile beyond k.u.m Kale. As the Turkish guns are believed to be in tunnels they were firing practically at right angles to these, and I could not possibly see how they could get a direct hit, and prophesied that as soon as the s.h.i.+p left they would show that there was life in the old dog yet, by giving a worse cannonade than usual, and this was just what happened. No fewer than five sh.e.l.ls fell in the C.C.S. beside us, killing the cook, and wounding two orderlies, and a number of the already wounded. I saw several horses and mules fall to their bag also. Then as soon as it got dark they made up their minds that we were not to be allowed to sleep, and every fifteen to twenty minutes we had a terrific crash in the camp up to 5 a.m. This becomes very trying, and all wish that something could be done to silence these guns. Nothing will do but a landing on the Asiatic side.

_July 1st._--I came out to Aberdeen Gully after breakfast. Here one feels comparatively safe, and we are enjoying the peace after our nocturnal sh.e.l.lings, and the thought of a good night's sleep braces one up wonderfully. Fiddes and I walked over to the Artillery Observation Post to see the extent of our advance, the other day, and I was surprised to find our front trenches so far forward. Some of these front trenches we still divide with the Turks, and during their attempts to recover some of these last night the darkness of the night and the thunderstorm terrified the Gurkhas so much that they nearly lost their most advanced line.

_July 2nd._--Spent a quiet day out at the dressing station--as far as work went. I went over to Y. Beach by the mule track, but as sh.e.l.ls were dropping about both these places I returned sooner than I intended. In the afternoon a message from the Turks, dropped from an aeroplane, gave the whole army half an hour to clear out of the peninsula, otherwise they would sh.e.l.l us into the sea. The sh.e.l.ling had to be resorted to, and commencing at 5 p.m. they worked so vigorously that plainly they meant what they said. The artillery duel then started was on this left side, and, our Gully being between the two fires, all the sh.e.l.ls went right over our heads, and the shrieking was as bad as any I ever heard. At periods during the three hours this lasted they crossed at the rate of 200 per minute. We were close to three of our own batteries, and these had to be peppered over our heads, and most of the sh.e.l.ls being shrapnel, timed to burst in the air, we had many an explosion immediately above us. We all cowered as well as we could up against the rocks, and although shrapnel bullets and half a sh.e.l.l base came among us no one was. .h.i.t. In spite of all this bombardment, an artillery officer told me next day that all the casualties he knows of are one man and five horses wounded. All these were hit in a small side Gully like our own, a sh.e.l.l bursting in their midst.

Padre Creighton came back tired and hungry at 8.30 and found no supper nor fire to cook it with, the cook's life having been frightened out of him he forgot the necessity for bodily sustenance for the rest of us. I noticed the cook at one time flouris.h.i.+ng a spade like a cricket bat, and on asking him what this was for he declared, "You can easy see the b.l.o.o.d.y thing comin'". He intended to let fly at the first sh.e.l.l that came his way. Creighton in his usual energetic way buckled to, and prepared an excellent supper of fried onions on toast, with a little bacon. This was much enjoyed, as was also the Bivouac cocoa with which it was washed down.

_July 4th._--Aberdeen Gully. A glorious Sunday morning. A slight shower during the night has refreshed the air and nature's dusty face, and now, with a brilliant sun and a gentle breeze, one can feel as happy as one can out here, thousands of miles from home--but are we downhearted? No! There is also almost an absolute calm from those noisy death dealers, shots being only very occasional. A big howitzer is going off at times, but apart from that the unnatural silence seems ominous, like a calm before a storm.

Padre Creighton is to-day offering five pounds to a s.h.i.+lling that it will be Christmas before we take Achi Baba. My forecast is we will be there before this day week, while any combatants I have spoken to say it will take us to the end of July. At the present rate we will take months, but in my opinion it will be necessary to push on faster than we have been able to do so far, although I believe by wearing out the Turks slowly our casualties will be less. But a more rapid advance would be a greater help to our comrades fighting in other parts of the Continent.

_Afternoon._--Had an excellent lunch cooked by Fiddes, who is a first-rate _chef_. An officer lunched with us who says he is the last of his battalion. He came in slightly wounded, but his nerves have so completely gone that he says he will never be able to shoot a rabbit again, and sheds tears at the thought of such cruelty. Many will follow in the same condition if we cannot get relief, and out of reach of the Turks' guns for an occasional rest.

_July 5th._--We have had a terribly hot morning, we opening the artillery ball at 3.45, when the Turks made an attack on the most important front trench we now hold, and took from them this day last week. Now, at 9 o'clock, things are still very warm, but nothing to what they were during the first three hours, when the fire from both sides was about equal. After the first rush of the Turks the fight has been nothing but an artillery duel.

In Aberdeen Gully, we are wonderfully protected by our high rocks, and natural banks which have been improved by ourselves, and although many pieces of sh.e.l.l have fallen in it to-day no one was. .h.i.t.

The Turks are said to have suffered enormously, being taken by surprise in a nullah along which they were marching in close formation. An officer with a machine-gun says he alone accounted for about eighty. We have had about twenty-four wounded Dublins so far, some mere boys. Those boys who are slightly hit are in great glee over their prowess, one as he walked proudly in exclaiming, "Py Jasus, we gave them a holy paestin' this mornin'".

Last night we had a call from the M.O. of the Scottish Rifles. He was telling us about the casualties in the Lowland Brigade on Monday last.

They went in 2900 strong and only 1200 came out. Their Brigadier and three Colonels were killed. I have spoken to several officers of the Brigade, and they unanimously put this loss down to some tactical mistake. They charged much too soon, and moreover the men had to a.s.sault trenches that had never been sh.e.l.led. This M.O. says he had been speaking to an officer who said he a.s.sisted to cut the rope by which one of the Turkish gunners was bound to his machine-gun. To prevent their running away we have heard that they are sometimes tied to their guns by chains.

6 p.m.--I am back again at W. Beach where I find they have had a perfect h.e.l.l of a time. A big French transport was sunk off this by a torpedo on Sat.u.r.day.

In the morning after the fight of the 29th I met in The Gully three wounded soldiers of the Lowland Brigade, two of them trying to put a sling on the third, who had a smashed hand. I a.s.sisted and asked about their casualties. One said, "We lost our Brigadier, Scott-Moncrieff, did ye ken him, a wee wiry beggar?"

After dinner to-day I walked to the Dublin trenches with Creighton, who was to bury some of the men killed last night. As we pa.s.sed a workshop and engineers' dump on our way back, Creighton was again asked to bury a man. While he was doing so I sharpened my pocket knife on a grindstone standing by, and asked a soldier if that was all the killed they had last night. "Yes," he said, "and we had an officer buried to-day." "Oh," said I, "when was he killed?" "He wasn't killed at all." "Then why did you bury him?" "A sh.e.l.l blew in a trench on the top of him, but we dug him out, and he was none the worse."

Another mule--but it was a horse this time--toppled down from the path above us this afternoon. He started on his career with his full load, but he had nothing but his saddle when he dumped himself down on the path three yards from my sleeping bunk, after a drop of about 50 feet.

I would much rather have a whole mule flying in among us than a chunk of sh.e.l.l. He picked himself up and looked scared, and went away puffing hard, but quite unharmed except for a bleeding nose.

_July 6th._--W. Beach. What's wrong? Not a shot in our neighbourhood during the night, and I must have slept seven hours.

_Later._--By afternoon we had a few sh.e.l.ls, some dropping uncomfortably near--forty-five in all, so many from Achi Baba, and ten huge ones, with big explosions, from Asia. These last were aimed at our ammunition dumps, where some damage was done.

At supper our Q.M. d.i.c.kie told us the following little anecdote, which I jot down as it was connected with our Corps. One evening a recruit presented himself at Fonthill Barracks, Aberdeen, and informed the CO.--Captain Robertson--that he wanted to "Jine". "But we are full up," says R. "Oh, I thocht ye wintet men." "Oh well, as you are a likely looking chap, I think I'll take you; when would you like to be examined?" "I'll be examined noo, far's the doctor?" "I'm the doctor,"

said R. "G.o.d," says the chap, "ye dinna look muckle like a doctor."

"But why do you wish to join?" "It's jist like this, I hid a dram, an'

the maister said I was a d.a.m.ned feel, so I telt him if I wis a d.a.m.ned feel, he wis a d.a.m.neder, an' he telt me to gang tae h.e.l.l, sae I jist gaed, an' here I am." "When can you join?" "Weel, this is Saeterday nicht, it wid need tae be Tiesday or Wednesday. Ye see I drive the milk caert, a d.a.m.ned responsible poseeshen." Not much of a story but real Aberdeen.

_July 7th._--Had seventy sh.e.l.ls to-day on W. Beach, mostly big ones from the "Asiatic Annies"; bag, two killed and three wounded.

_July 8th._--W. Beach. Yesterday we had a big mail--great rejoicing.

When we came out of the mess tent to-day at 1.15 we found a great swarm of what we all think must be locusts, but no one is sufficiently well up in zoology to be certain. All are flying inwards in the same direction, as if they had come out of the sea, but it is more likely they have come from Asia, across the Dardanelles. There is a slight breeze and they have difficulty in flying, and are resting everywhere, and b.u.mp up against tents and everything that comes in their way, and are not strong flyers. They have powerful gra.s.shopper legs, red from the knee downwards, and an inner pair of wings, which are also red and give the whole animal a red colour when in flight. Now, after an hour, they are still more plentiful, and are flying past actually in myriads.

At 4.30 I got a message to relieve Col. Yarr at Corps H.Q. An aeroplane was drawn up there, and along with myself a second one arrived. Now I am in for a sh.e.l.ling, I said to myself, and I had just entered Col. Yarr's dugout when the first sh.e.l.l exploded a few yards off, and this was immediately followed by two others. Near the middle of the aerodrome a large gun emplacement--or whatever it is--is being dug, which, it is hoped, will draw some of the fire away from here.

The swarm of locusts (?) did not diminish for three hours, when it tailed off. Their b.u.mping into one's face made walking almost impossible.

_July 9th._--Head-quarters. We have had a quiet night. The sh.e.l.ling does not commence here till the aeroplanes arrive from Tenedos. Last night at dinner various subjects were discussed, such as the duration of the war. The views of all were very depressing, although no one had the slightest doubt as to the ultimate complete smas.h.i.+ng up of Germany, and the longer the war lasted the more complete would the smas.h.i.+ng be. One man was sure it would be ended by next spring, another, who had lived long in Macedonia, is positive it will take two years from now. General Hunter-Weston took no part in this discussion, but looked interested and amused while his juniors threshed the subject out. All agreed that it was most laughable to read the forecasts in the papers at home, and that it was only now that England was realising how enormous the task before her was, and that the war will continue till both sides are just about played out, but there can be no doubt of our ability to hold out longest.

The plans for the next big attack were also discussed. The General, who commands the whole army on the peninsula--including the French--arranges all details, under the Commander-in-chief, Sir Ian Hamilton. The dates of former attacks were known to us all several days before they took place, and these invariably reached the Turks.

To avoid this more secrecy is now observed, and it amused me last night to hear the General emphasise his dates in a voice that denoted that he did not mean them to be taken literally. This was to bamboozle me, I thought, the only non-combatant present, but occasionally he stumbled. As it was always with regret that I came to know the dates of former attacks some days ahead I was glad to observe this attempt at secrecy. I remember we were once to commence at 7 o'clock, and the Turk let fly at us at 6.45, determined, sensible man, to get in the first blow.

When talking about crus.h.i.+ng Germany, all regretted that our country was so soft, and would not crush sufficiently; however, they thought they could rely on Russia and France insisting on this being carried out very thoroughly.

After breakfast I walked down about 300 yards to h.e.l.les point, wondering what had come of all our s.h.i.+pping. The hospital s.h.i.+ps are there, one small supply s.h.i.+p only, a few mine-sweepers, and close in under the rocks a British and a French submarine, lying beside the keel of the "Majestic". It appears a German submarine had been sighted last night, hence as many of the s.h.i.+ps as possible had fled. A French s.h.i.+p is battering k.u.m Kale, and kicking up a tremendous dust. An officer from H.Q. was regretting the inability of the Navy to help us.

At last, I hope, even the Navy has discovered this for themselves, for land operations they are of little use. Then we must rely on our field guns and howitzers, and these only. Another 5-inch howitzer battery arrived last night, I hear, and we have 9.2-inch guns somewhere, but I fail to gather whether these had been actually landed.