The Turks for some days back have been making a huge excavation on this side of the actual peak of Achi Baba. Its purpose is a great puzzle here. The first object one would think of is that it is a big gun emplacement, but, as they say at H.Q., they have made it on the wrong side of the hill. Still I cannot see why not, if they front it with a big enough mound. But there could be no advantage in making it on this side, where we could so easily "spot" our shots.
We, too, are making a big excavation on one side of the aerodrome, but when the first aeroplane enters it for the night I am mistaken if the Turks do not knock it out within an hour. It is intended for a monoplane that can fly 113 miles an hour, and its special purpose is to give chase to the first Taube that appears.
That Achi Baba excavation makes one suspicious that the German officers with the Turks are to be up to some form of frightfulness. It cannot be gas, but, if it is, we have been prepared for that for some weeks, and every man has his respirator. To-day I was asked by the A.D.C. about a paper dealing with gases, with which we are to retaliate should the Turk use these first, but it contains names I never heard before, and can give him no enlightenment on the subject.
6 p.m.—I have been on the General's observation hill with one of the staff, and his opinion about the excavation is probably correct. It must be a redoubt, in which the Turks will have a large number of field and machine-guns, which will mean some taking, but our artillery should make short work of it.
July 11th.—Was knocked up at 6.30 to see the General who is ill. This is awkward, as I have just gathered at breakfast that the next big fight ("stunt" is the word always used) comes off to-morrow. I also heard at breakfast that in our last stunt when the first lines of the Turks were slaughtered, new troops as they were brought up refused to cross the masses of their dead comrades, and that one of the reasons for General Hunter-Weston refusing the armistice asked for by the Turks two days ago was that he wished to retain their dead as a wall of defence.
Much business has to be transacted in preparation for to-morrow and the General is getting little rest.
6 p.m.—I walked over to the Ambulance to notify them about to-morrow's stunt. The road between the aerodrome and the Beach was being shelled, so I took the other side of the aerodrome, past the Ordnance Stores, and as I was nearing these the Asiatic gunners thought they might pepper this side, and I had some big crashes near me. A shell entered the road just behind the 89th F.A. without exploding, and one of our men pushed a 7-foot stick down the hole without reaching the bottom. The hole was the cleanest I ever saw, 7 inches in diameter, and every mark of the rifling of the driving band was beautifully moulded in the clay. Here at H.Q. they dug up one of these new and unexploded shells, and it had penetrated 14 feet into the ground.
A New Zealander was telling me yesterday that his people closely resembled those of the old country in every respect, while the Australians seem to completely alter. When the British and New Zealanders hear a shell approaching they duck, while an Australian straightens his back, gets his head and shoulders over the parapet, and swears.
General Hunter-Weston kept improving during the day, and by evening was much better.
July 12th.—An important battle took place to-day, and still rages, beginning at 4 a.m. but in real earnest by 5, when many new big guns were used for the first time. Our centre (Naval Division) and the right (French) are mainly involved, although the whole line took part in the preliminary bombardment. News came in that the first attack failed, but that by 7.30 the first line of the Turks was captured. On the top of the Observation Hill at H.Q. I met an interesting fellow, who said he was the only civil surgeon who had got permission to join us. He had a Government appointment in the Soudan, and having three months' leave he was allowed to spend it here without pay. He said he would have been ashamed to go home.