GULLY RAVINE.
GULLY RAVINE. STRETCHER BEARERS.
Floods and Frost
During the first half of November there had been occasional heavy showers and some frost. On the 15th-17th a violent storm, accompanied by a deluge of rain, drove the sea higher and higher up the shore, swamping the bivouacs on the beach. In the Gully conditions were even worse. Bales of hay, sacks of bread, drowned mules, were washed down the ravine into the sea. On the night of the 26th a still fiercer storm raged in the peninsula, a storm as disastrous to the combatants as any that ever affected armies in the field. The flood-gates of heaven indeed opened, and at Anzac and Suvla the trenches were quickly waist deep, and the current swept down like a mill-race—kit, equipment, rations, even men, being washed away. In places the trenches filled, and the troops must drown or stand on the top, a sure target for the Turk had he not been in a like predicament. As in a prairie fire or other of Nature’s more appalling manifestations, the beast of prey and its natural victim flee side by side, or cower together, so Briton and Turk regarded one another as fellow-sufferers rather than as implacable enemies. The gale became a hurricane; the crash of thunder, the blinding flashes of lightning, heightened the sense of catastrophe, and the bitter cold made it the more unbearable. Piers and landing-stages were destroyed and the beaches strewn with wreckage. During the 27th the rain came down steadily; then the wind veered to the north and brought snow and cruel blizzards. A hard frost followed, and at Anzac and Suvla men were frozen to death; others lost their limbs—some their reason—and cases of frost-bite were very numerous. In the south the conditions were less disastrous than further north, but the suffering of the troops was intense. Altogether about 10,000 sick had to be removed from the peninsula as an outcome of the four days’ tragedy. When the floods subsided Gully Ravine was a bed of deep mud, and its passage—a vital matter to the Division—could only be accomplished with infinite labour.
The activity of the hostile artillery increased as superior guns and munitions of war arrived from Germany, and the bombardments became more accurate and deadly. On December 14 Lieutenant W. R. Hartley, 7th Lancashire Fusiliers, led a patrol with great boldness and judgment close up to the Turkish trenches and located the entrance of a mine-shaft in the Gridiron, only six yards from a crater occupied by our men. Captain A. W. Boyd, of the same battalion, accompanied by Corporal W. Downton and Privates F. Mottershead and C. Bent, volunteered to carry out the destruction of this mine-head on the night of the 15th. Unobserved by the enemy they succeeded in placing a charge of forty pounds of gelignite in position in the Turkish trench, the charge being laid by Mottershead, who had originally discovered the mine-shaft. In addition to the electric wire a thin rope was attached so that a slight jerk would cause the charge to fall into the shaft; and as it was essential that the rope should be laid in a straight line Mottershead had to return to his trench over the Turkish barbed wire and in full view of the enemy. This was successfully accomplished; the rope was jerked, and the charge fired. On the following night Lieutenant Hartley (killed three days later) ascertained that the entrance to the shaft had been completely filled. Mottershead was awarded the D.C.M., and the gallant act was specially mentioned in 8th Corps Orders, the last paragraph of which stated that: “This enterprise is only part of the good work that has been done recently by this battalion under the command of Major W.J. Law, and the keenness and energy displayed are deserving of all praise.”
Lord Kitchener had visited the peninsula in the middle of November, and on his return to England had reported in favour of evacuation. On December 8 General Monro issued orders to evacuate Suvla and Anzac, and on the 16th the withdrawal of 80,000 men, nearly 5000 animals, 2000 vehicles and 200 guns began. The highest estimate of probable loss that might be incurred in this most difficult and critical of operations was fifty per cent.; the lowest, fifteen per cent. Preparation was made at Mudros to accommodate from 5000 to 10,000 wounded, yet the evacuation was carried out without loss. It was one of the finest and most wonderful achievements of this or any other war, and all ranks shared the credit—though in very different degrees—from General Birdwood down to the humblest Indian mule driver.
Two minor operations were arranged for December 19 to take place simultaneously with an advance of the 52nd Division by the Krithia Nullah and the evacuation of Suvla and Anzac. Mines were laid at the Gridiron and at the east end of Fusilier Bluff. The intention was to take advantage of the explosions to establish bombing stations in the craters formed. The “jam-tin” bombs were now obsolete, and those used were the Mills and “cricket-ball” types. The task at the Gridiron was assigned to the 125th Brigade, the troops attacking being drawn from the 7th Lancashire Fusiliers, with some of the 1/2nd (West Lancashire) Field Company, R.E. The 6th Battalion held the original line and supplied catapult parties to fire from behind. Major Law was to have directed operations, but this able and gallant officer was killed two hours before the time fixed for the attack, and Captain Gledhill assumed temporary command of the 7th Battalion, Captain Boyd being in charge of the attacking party. The artillery gave strong support. The mine was exploded on the far side of a great crater which had a Turkish and English trench on either side. The explosion blew in the enemy trench and extended the crater, which the attacking party crossed, and then pressed down the horns of the Turkish trench and constructed barricades. By 6 p.m. the new line was well established in spite of rifle fire and enfilade fire from machine-guns. A Turkish attack at 9.40 p.m. succeeded in driving our men out, but Captain Boyd with great resource and promptness organized a counter-attack, and within fifteen minutes the lost ground had been retaken and a further gain made. In fact, the bombing parties had to be restrained from going too far down the enemy trenches in pursuit. A lot of work had to be done to make the crater tenable, and assistance was sent. A bomb team of the Sussex Yeomanry did remarkably good work in consolidating the left trench under heavy machine-gun fire, which continued all night. By daylight they had succeeded in deepening and sandbagging the trenches and in digging through from Cawley’s Crater into the new one. Of two mines laid only one had exploded at first, but after the counter-attack our men were withdrawn into safety and the second mine was fired. It caught a number of Turks who were seen pressing up a sap, probably with the intention of counter-attacking again. Lieut.-General Sir Francis Davies, the Corps Commander, telegraphed his congratulations and gave permission for the new crater to be called officially “Boyd’s Crater.”
