Gallipoli
Page 36
I do not like this job, it will be night work. We have to wait on the Maoris and our Mounted Rifles clearing some hills and trenches over or by which we have to tackle the high ridge and none of our troops are trained enough for night work in very rough country. We shall possibly mistake the Maoris for Turks and the confusion in the dark will be terrible. If we could only start fighting at dawn and have the day before us, we should have a real good fight, artillery support and seeing what to do and when to go would be a treat. Still it is not for me to decide. If, and a big if, the Maoris and Mounted Rifles do their job properly then unless we get lost, ours ought to come off all right. And if too the Otago and Canterbury people do theirs – I wouldn’t be surprised if the Wellington Battalion gets up alone the first and has to dig in and stick it out.4
Lieutenant Colonel William Malone, Wellington Battalion, New Zealand Brigade, NZ&A Division, NZEF
Malone could see the risks inherent in the operations they were about to undertake. It would indeed be a dangerous business.
THE TASK OF THE 1ST BRIGADE in launching their diversionary attack on a front just 140 yards wide across eighty to 130 yards of bare, open ground to reach the Turkish trenches on Lone Pine was also daunting. The Turks had tried their best to make their trenches impregnable, carefully layering pinewood logs and earth to provide head cover and, where possible, they had put out barbed wire. Major General Harold Walker, commanding the 1st Australian Division, was worried and he seems to have strained every sinew to improve the chances of his men by a series of measures designed to get them across the killing zone as quickly as possible. After all, the more successful they were the more effective the diversion would be. A series of shallow tunnels were dug, pushing out into No Man’s Land to within just forty to sixty yards of the Turks. Some of the men could burst out of these but, perhaps more importantly, the roofs could then be pulled in to create readymade communication trenches for reinforcements if the attack went well. As a diversion they were meant to draw attention to themselves, so a leisurely three-day bombardment was opened up to gradually destroy the Turkish wire defences. At 14.00 on 6 August, three mines would be detonated in No Man’s Land in order to create a degree of cover from the disturbed earth. For the men there were more mundane preparations. In the last half hour the bombardment would be increased in weight in the hope of smashing holes in the covered trenches and forcing the Turks to take shelter in deep dugouts.
White patches were sewn on the back of the men’s tunics and around the sleeves as distinguishing marks. Dry rations, ammunition, picks and shovels were carried by all ranks. Officers carried rifles, ammunition, packs, etc., and in addition each platoon commander carried two artillery indication flags and a large percussion bomb. Lieutenant Cradick’s last advice to me was to fix a certain sandbag in the enemy’s parapet, make a bee-line for it and run my hardest when the whistle went.5
Second Lieutenant Charles Lecky, 2nd (New South Wales) Battalion, 1st Brigade, 1st Division, AIF
These were no longer the green, unsophisticated troops that had landed on 25 April. Collectively they had become far more tactically adept and no longer needlessly exposed themselves to fire when there was good cover to be had. Equally, they knew the terrors that lay ahead of them. Finally the whistle blew and the three waves of men went over the top, running as fast as they could. Among them was Lieutenant Lecky.
I followed the advice and ran for one of the black sandbags in the Turkish line. I cannot remember hearing a sound, although the Turkish machine guns and rifles must have been firing. Neither can I remember having seen anything except that sandbag until I crashed into a deep hole about halfway across. Captain Pain was in the hole busily trying to plug a bullet hole in his arm. He requested me to help him out, as it was too deep for him to scramble out with an injured arm. I tried to get out but toppled back under the weight of my equipment. Captain Pain pushed me up with his good arm and I then pulled him out. Captain Pain, despite his wound, and I then raced on and reached the Turkish line. Many of the men, exposed to and suffering casualties from machine gun fire, were firing through the logs with which the front line was covered. I called to them to jump into a communication trench which I saw and jumped in myself.6
Second Lieutenant Charles Lecky, 2nd (New South Wales) Battalion, 1st Brigade, 1st Division, AIF
Over to the left, Major Iven Mackay and his men of the 4th Battalion had been ordered to vault over the Turkish front line and run a further fifty yards before entering the support trenches and sending parties back towards the front line to mop up any remaining Turks.
Our sudden attack took them by surprise, but nevertheless I have a distinct recollection of little puffs of dust appearing at every loophole as we ran across No Man’s Land. As ‘A’ Company ran beyond the front line we found the Turks running beneath us in the communication trenches whilst we ran along the top. We shot a number of these men, firing our rifles from our hips.7
Major Iven Mackay, 4th (New South Wales) Battalion, 1st Brigade, 1st Division, AIF
They ran on and dropped into the next Turkish trench before turning back to clear out the Turks in between. Lance Corporal Joseph Aylward was lucky enough to pick a relatively quiet spot.
Where I landed in the support trench, no great opposition was met with. Picking up with two other members of the battalion, the three of us moved along the trench until we came to a cross-trench leading to the front line. On the other side of a bend were a number of Turks, who, however, gave way as we charged round it, shouting as loudly as possible. Reaching the front line we were again temporarily held up. At this stage, Lieutenant Seldon, with his eye shot away, came round from the support trench and ordered us to advance along the front line and clear out the enemy.8
Lance Corporal Joseph Aylward, 4th (New South Wales) Battalion, 1st Brigade, 1st Division, AIF
Seldon’s eye was a macabre sight, the mangled remnants hanging down his cheek. He nevertheless refused treatment and pushed on with his party down the parallel support trench. As ordered, Aylward charged along the front line.
We hunted around and found a few bombs, which we threw into the trench, shouting and cheering as we followed them up with rifle fire. The ruse succeeded, the Turks retreating across the communication trench into the Jolly. On arrival at the point where the Pine ended in the trench across Owen’s Gully, we found Lieutenant Seldon’s body lying across the head of it.9 Peering round the edge of the trench, I saw a large body of Turks, apparently waiting to repulse an attack down the communication trench. I therefore cut a niche in the side-wall of this trench, and engaged the Turks with fire, while the others proceeded to drag the sandbags from the top of the old front line, in order to block the trench. The sun, glistening on my bayonet, soon gave our position away and the Turks poured in a hot fire. By this time the sandbags were ready to place in position, and when they had been built high enough I crawled across to Lieutenant Seldon, but found that he was quite dead. I therefore took possession of his revolver and we buried his body in the sandbag barricade. There was no sign of any of his party. While we were thus engaged numbers of the enemy had taken advantage of the absence of firing to crawl towards the barricade, but they were discovered in time and driven off by fire. The trench at this point was about 9 feet deep, but had no fire-steps on the side facing the Jolly. Setting the others to cut fire-steps, I proceeded along the front line to establish touch with the rest of the battalion.10
Lance Corporal Joseph Aylward, 4th (New South Wales) Battalion, 1st Brigade, 1st Division, AIF
He had done a splendid job helping to secure the northern flank of the advance on to the Lone Pine position. Somewhere nearby was Private Charles Duke.
I was trying to get my breath when from the right end of the traverse a big fellow of a Turk came bolting along the trench. He took no notice of me because close at his heels were two Aussies and as he passed me I raised my rifle and let him have it fair in the middle of the back, almost at the same time as the other two. He went
down like a poleaxed bull and the three of us then followed on down the trench to be met by some Turks who came at us suddenly and savagely. I lunged at the nearest, but my bayonet stuck in his leather equipment and for the moment I was helpless. Instantly he raised his rifle to shoot me, but before he could there was an awful bang alongside my ear and he crumpled up at my feet. My mate behind had put his rifle over my shoulder and had shot him but that discharge nearly blew my head off.11
Private Charles Duke, 4th (New South Wales) Battalion, 1st Brigade, 1st Division, AIF
The battle had broken up into hundreds of vicious skirmishes. All along the front the Australians were creeping through the network of covered trenches. The cramped tunnels were dark and dust-filled, with the threat of a Turk behind every corner.
We proceeded to penetrate with misgiving into Turkish territory. As each bend in the trench was reached I placed my cap on the end of my bayonet and if nobody shot at it I poked my head round and went on until I thought we had gone more than a mile. As a matter of fact, we were only a couple of hundred yards away from the captured Turkish position. The men who followed were ordered to block up the trench with sandbags and unremitting hard work was carried on to try and secure the position before the counter-attack arrived.12
Second Lieutenant Charles Lecky, 2nd (New South Wales) Battalion, 1st Brigade, 1st Division, AIF
By about 18.00 the front lines had been over-run. Despite the preliminary bombardment, the Turks had been taken by surprise and it took them a while to react. Kemal ordered forward the 1/57th Regiment.
From the regimental headquarters at the back of Mortar Ridge you could see clearly. There was a lot of dust raised by the shells at Lone Pine. I could not see through it, but when the bombardment there ceased we heard infantry fire – like after thunder you hear the rain beginning; and the observers beside us said, ‘The English are getting into our trenches!’ Our observation of this bombardment had given us the impression that the trenches subjected to it would not be in a condition to repel the attack – there had been much damage, and heavy loss. At that moment an order arrived by telephone lines from Mustafa Kemal Pasha, ‘The battalion of reserve will move at once to Lone Pine!’ The battalion was ready to go. I gave the order to move as fast as possible to Lone Pine. On the way, we fixed bayonets. The moment we turned into that valley we came into fire, from your men at the head of it. Near there I met the commander of one of the battalions which had been holding the centre of the Lone Pine front. I asked, ‘What has happened?’ But he was clearly very shocked. He kept on saying, ‘We’re lost; we’re lost!’ I saw it was useless to ask for information from him, and I didn’t want to lose time.13
Major Zeki Bey, 1st Battalion, 57th Regiment, 19th Division, Fifth Army
Major Zeki launched his men into the counter-attack. The Turkish onslaught was presaged by a flurry of bombs: the shattering detonations and slicing fragments brought sheer terror to the Australians trapped in the confined trenches.
A dark head appeared round the traverse. I immediately let fly with my rifle from my hip and missed. In reply came two cricket ball bombs. One was kicked by one of my mates round a corner, but the other was behind us. I had a moment or two of uncontrollable paralysing fear – to be utterly helpless with that thing sizzling within a few feet of me. I flattened myself in the side of the trench, clawing at it with my fingers and certainly thought my last moment had come. By some miracle none of us was seriously hurt.14
Private Charles Duke, 4th (New South Wales) Battalion, 1st Brigade, 1st Division, AIF
Not too far behind the bombs would be the glittering bayonets and, not surprisingly, they fell back. Further along, Second Lieutenant Lecky struggled to hold his swiftly built barricade as the Turks raged up against them.
Then the bombing attack started. We had no bombs to retaliate with: Harkness and Cox were killed, among scores of others. Despairing appeals were made to Company Headquarters for bombs, but none were to be had. The men caught the enemy’s bombs as they fell and hurled them back before bursting. Many were killed, hands and arms being blown off as bombs exploded in the act of being thrown back at the Turks. The trench was now packed with dead and wounded. The wounded had no hope of rescue and when the Turks finally drove us out of this section I am quite sure no survivors were left.15
Second Lieutenant Charles Lecky, 2nd (New South Wales) Battalion, 1st Brigade, 1st Division, AIF
The Turks threw their local reserves into the battle with a grim determination to retake every last inch from the Australians. By this time Private Duke had been forced back and found Lieutenant Giles, who was organising the defence.
From the trench less than 30 yards away I saw the Turks emerging and gave the warning to Giles who ordered us to line the parapet to shoot at them. We did so but almost before we could get our rifles into position our appearance above the parapet was greeted with an appalling burst of Turkish supporting rifle fire. There was an almighty crash right in front of my face which knocked me reeling back into the trench. I knew I was hit as blood was streaming from my forehead into my eyes and over my glasses. I was not knocked out and took my glasses off so that I could wipe them and my eyes sufficiently to look round. Imagine my horror to see every one of those lads who had lined the parapet with me lying still and dead in the bottom of the trench – six of them all hit clean in the head – which left Giles and I the only survivors. It had all happened in less than one minute. Fortunately for us the attacking Turks had been wiped out by rifle fire from our chaps further up the trench.16
Private Charles Duke, 4th (New South Wales) Battalion, 1st Brigade, 1st Division, AIF
It was obvious that the 1st Brigade could not hold out for long under this kind of pressure and more Australian battalions were moved forward to reinforce the line. By now some of the trenches were all but blocked by the dead and the helpless wounded.
The elaborate overhead cover prepared by the Turks was in many places intact and gave one the impression of passing through a tortuous tunnel, the gloom being accentuated by leaving the bright sunshine. The Turkish dead had not yet been removed and so thickly carpeted the ground that there was no alternative but to tread along a line of bodies. On arrival in the firing line, the Company moved along to the left of this sector, where the Turks during the morning had counter-attacked and effected a lodgement. The trenches here were extremely narrow and not well traversed. Our own and Turkish dead lay anywhere and everywhere, and in some instances our own wounded were still lying at the bottom of the trench.17
Major Denis Lane, 12th (South & Western Australian and Tasmanian) Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, AIF
The former communications trenches were barricaded off by both sides, but the contested space between was choked with even more bodies as the battle swayed to and fro. But in the midst of all that death and destruction there were moments of humour, as evinced by one Sergeant Campbell.
A sniper’s bullet removed the whole of his front top teeth, which protruded beyond his upper lip as if they had been taken off with a fretsaw. Recovering from the shock, the ‘bullocky’ in Campbell asserted itself and there followed the best exhibition of cursing in between the gulping and spitting of mouthfuls of blood it would be possible to imagine. I don’t know what the Turks thought, but the dozen or so men left in that trench roared with laughter as the eloquent Campbell beat it for the beach. I was told later that Campbell hadn’t exhausted his vocabulary by the time he had reached the hospital ship.18
Sergeant Major Paul Goldenstedt, 3rd (New South Wales) Battalion, 1st Brigade, 1st Division, AIF
The situation grew more and more fraught as the Turks refused to accept the loss of their trenches at Lone Pine. For almost four days the fighting raged before building up to a spluttering crescendo amidst mutual exhaustion on 9 August.
The rifle, bomb and machine gun fire just after daybreak was something never to be forgotten. Our men were swept off the parapets like flies. General Smyth, VC, who commanded the 1st Bri
gade, issued an order for every man to step down off the parapet and prepare to meet the Turk on the floor of the trench. I was then near Lieutenant Percy Woods – Percy and I had been sergeants together. He took out a pencil and wrote a few words to his wife on a field service post card. Having no wife and few relations that I could think of for the moment, I scribbled a few lines to her as well, and Percy fixed a bayonet to his rifle. I preferred my revolver. The feeling at that moment must be something like what a condemned man feels when the hangman is tying the rope. Anyhow, of a sudden there was a wild cheer and before we knew where we were the Turks had beat it for their trenches.19
Sergeant Major Paul Goldenstedt, 3rd (New South Wales) Battalion, 1st Brigade, 1st Division, AIF
Never had an anti-climax been more welcome. An hour or so later they were relieved and their ordeal was over. It was estimated that in the fighting the Australians lost approaching 2,000 men while the Turks’ relentless counter-attacks took their losses to as high as 5,000. The Australians had triumphed, but the gain of the trench and a hundred or so yards of blood-drenched ground, however much it was regretted and disputed by the Turks, meant little. Tactically, the situation at 400 Plateau remained much the same. But had the fighting at Lone Pine distracted the Turks’ attention sufficiently from the great left hook launched from Anzac?
THE ASSAULTING COLUMNS had been hidden in the valleys of Anzac waiting patiently for their moment. Now their time had come and as soon as night fell the four columns began to file their way slowly out of Anzac. In front were the Right Covering Force, composed of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade and the attached Otago Mounted Rifles. Their crucial task was to overwhelm any Turkish posts guarding the various routes up to the heights of Sari Bair. The most significant of these was the Old No. 3 Post (on a lower extension of Rhododendron Ridge), which guarded the entrance to Sazli Beit Dere. A cunning ruse was employed and, for once, it worked. Every night the navy had sent the destroyer Colne to shell and illuminate the post with searchlights between 21.00 and 21.10, then again from 21.20 to 21.30. This time it was no different, except that the bombardment concealed the approach of the Auckland Mounted Rifles, who stormed the post catching the Turks in their shelters. The Turkish posts on Destroyer Hill and Table Top were overwhelmed by the Wellington Mounted Rifles, and the way was clear for the New Zealand Infantry Brigade which made up the Right Assaulting Column to move through Sazli Beit Dere and Chailik Dere and up on to Rhododendron Ridge. Further along, the Otago and Canterbury Mounted Rifles were forced to endure a brisk fight to capture Bauchop’s Hill standing guard over the entrance to Aghyl Dere, up which would advance the Left Assaulting Column under the overall command of Brigadier General Vaughan Cox and made up of his 29th Indian Brigade and the 4th Australian Brigade led by Brigadier General John Monash. Meanwhile, the Left Covering Force, made up of two battalions of 40th Brigade, was clearing Damakjelik Bair in order to secure firmly their left flank.