Corps H.Q. is on the east side of the aerodrome, while our camp at W. Beach is on the other. When I entered the mess for lunch the only person there was an officer in a half faint, seated in a corner glaring at a shell on the floor. This had come through the roof that very minute and was luckily a "dud". The roof is made of heavy beams, thick iron plates from the "River Clyde," sandbags and earth, but this shell entered at the edge of the iron which did not project far enough over the wall. The place had just been excavated and completed and was used to-day for the first time. General Hunter-Weston and his staff were present at lunch, also Compton Mackenzie, author and war correspondent.
The French have been very busy all day. The Turks are only a little less active from their having fewer guns—fifty-two on Achi Baba said to be, and they must have six very big guns on the Asiatic side, and these have been throwing huge shells into our lines, across Morto Bay, all morning. Occasionally there is a burst of rifle fire which would show that the French are making an attempt to regain two trenches I hear they lost yesterday or the day before. It is said that to-day's attack is to be entirely French. We are giving no help at present, but for an hour in the early morning we bombarded, likely with the view to distract the Turks' attention from the French front.
10.15 p.m.—The French are said to have been very successful in their attack at 4.30, when they captured two Turkish trenches. The story about their losing two trenches is said, at H.Q., to be incorrect. About 8 o'clock a counter-attack was made, the result of which is not yet known.
June 22nd.—The fight between the French and the Turks raged without the slightest intermission for seventeen hours, in which time the former must have fired at least 60,000 shells. I hear the French had taken either two or three trenches in the early morning, and during the day had repulsed several counter-attacks. Just before dark I observed the continuous bursting of French shells on the S.E. corner of Achi Baba, as if the Turks were forced back out of Kereves Dere, which has so long been a natural protection to them.
I have been asked to-day for a report of the case of —— No. —, who is to be court-martialled for spreading alarmist reports of the fight the other day. The double charge of leaving the firing line without permission and spreading alarmist reports is a serious one.
The last time Agassiz and I were at the Y. Beach O.P. we had peeps at the Turks' trenches from four different points, and at each a bullet flew past us, showing that their snipers keep their eyes open. Major W—— and I were fired at the other day when out in the open, and we had to take to our heels to find cover.
To-day the 5th Battalion Royal Scots have received the highest praise from General Hunter-Weston for their brilliant work. They have three times retaken trenches from the Turks that had been lost by our Regulars. This is the only Territorial Battalion in the whole of our Division, and was looked on by the others as our one weak point. Their Lt-Col. (Wilson) received the D.S.O. from His Majesty by cable the day after he was recommended.
Later.—The French captured five lines of trenches, a large concrete redoubt, and possibly a battery, but there is some doubt about this last. All are greatly satisfied at the result, although the cost to the French was very heavy. A great number of Turks are said to have been slaughtered and a large number taken prisoners, but so far I have heard no exact figures.
Still Later.—The French casualties are placed at 3000 and they are said to have taken that number of prisoners, but as a man said to me, "Where are they then, they must have buried them?" General Hunter-Weston, I was told, "is as proud as a dog with two tails over the French success".
A Taube visited us early and one of our biplanes gave chase and is said to have winged it, as it was seen to descend behind Achi Baba, while our airmen dropped bombs on it. I watched the chase as the two circled about. While the chase was in progress a second Taube appeared, and the coast being clear it flew round us and dropped a couple of bombs.