Glorious Deeds of Australasians in the Great War

by E. C. Buley

The preparations made by Sanders Pasha for his great attack upon the Anzacs were long and elaborate. For days beforehand he was busy in organizing the transport of great stores of ammunition to the neighbourhood of Maidos, a town on the neck of the peninsula, opposite Gaba Tepe. Five fresh regiments were brought from Constantinople to stiffen the attacking force; they afterwards proved to have been chosen from the very élite of the Turkish army. He detached in addition heavy reinforcements from the main body of defenders, who were holding back the Allies at Achi Baba. He had determined to do the thing very thoroughly.

His attack was launched on May 18, and he himself assumed personal charge of the operations. Shortly before midnight on May 18 he began to expend his huge store of shell after the approved German fashion. All the batteries concealed in the hills around set up a hideous din, swollen by the roar of the machine guns, and the cracking of countless rifles. In that shelling, 12-inch guns, 9-inch guns, and huge howitzers were employed, as well as artillery of smaller calibre. Naturally every Anzac was on the look out; and word was sent to every post to be prepared for the frontal attack it was assumed would follow. The assumption was a correct one; for soon countless Turks poured over the ridges and made for the centre of the Anzac line.

General Monash, Commander of the 4th Brigade, Australian Infantry.

It has already been explained that this line was a rough semicircle, the left, or Northern wing being situated on high ground above Fisherman's Hut. Here was a ridge facing North-East, named Walker's Ridge after Brigadier-General Walker, and to the right of that was Pope's Hill. These spots were North of the great central gully or valley, which was at first known as Death Gully by the Australian soldiers, but was afterwards called Monash Gully, after General Monash, commander of the 4th Brigade. Immediately to the right of the Gully was Dead Man's Ridge, and the point where the line takes a sharp turn to the South was known as the Bloody Angle.

The Turkish lines, which were some 250 yards distant at the extreme left of the position, continued to get closer to those of the Australasians until here they approached very closely. At Quinn's Post, named after a gallant Major from Queensland who fell fighting bravely at the spot, the lines were only twenty yards apart. The gap widened going South to Courtney's Post, and continued to do so through the other main positions at Steel's Post and McLaurin Hill, down to Point Rosenthal, which faced Gaba Tepe itself on the extreme right wing.

Quinn's Post, at the extreme curve of the Australasian semicircle, came in for the hottest attack of all. In this part of the line were stationed the Fourth Infantry Brigade, which comprised the bulk of the Second Australian Contingent, and is commanded by General Monash. Of this 4th Brigade more will soon be told, but it suffices to say that their steadiness and fighting qualities were put to the supreme test on this early morning of May 19. The trenches here faced the ridge called Dead Man's Ridge, and over this ridge the Turks pushed one another to the attack. Their advance was covered by a continuation of the heavy bombardment of the trenches from Hill 700, and from the top of the ridge where guns, heavy, light and machine, had been concentrated.

This fire, added to the bullets from thousands of rifles, kept all Anzac heads down. Bravely the Turks dashed through the scrub, taking all the cover it afforded, and regardless of the field guns and howitzers of the Anzacs, which were concentrated on them with deadly effect. Many of them got right up to the edge of the trenches, and were shot down at point-blank range. Still they crept out of their cover, massing in every thicket, and advancing under pressure of those behind.

The first light of early morning revealed to the waiting Anzacs a dense mass of the enemy, exposed and within easy range. Then the rifles of the best shots in the world—for there are at least no superiors to them anywhere—rang out, and as fast as each man could pull the trigger, the Turk fell under that deadly fusillade. Still they poured over the ridges, their officers driving them on from behind with loaded revolvers, and still the discriminate slaughter went on.