It is now 10 p.m. and having come 2 miles nearer Achi Baba I had to go out and study what was doing. The usual all-night rifle fire goes on; roars occasionally from the batteries near us; Asiatic shells I can hear exploding over at V. Beach; star shells are going up from our lines, and the French, but theirs are superior to ours. Ours are merely rockets, theirs have parachutes which open when the rocket reaches its highest point, and they remain practically stationary for a considerable time.
We are in a very exposed position and have been warned that we will be sniped at once if we show a light. A few stray bullets have come about us, and I could wish that my parapet was a trifle higher, and I am, moreover, doubtful whether my candle light is not reflected through the roof stretchers which have a wrong tilt. But I will risk both dangers to-night, and will heighten my wall by daylight.
The Achi Baba guns shelled W. Beach rather furiously to-day, and in the afternoon a large number of shells fell in the harbour.
August 5th.—Had a quiet day at Pink Farm (in some of our maps this is called Saliri Farm). In the forenoon, our water-cart not arriving when expected, I had a long hunt for a well where we could draw a small quantity of water, but it was with great difficulty we got it, every well being reserved for some particular unit.
We are on the eve of a big battle. To-morrow the front of Krithia is to be captured at any cost. We must get on and the cost must no longer be counted. In preparation for this there has been much ranging by all the batteries, to which the Turks feebly replied. We have no right to have our dressing station where it is, we have dumped ourselves down, and have erected our largest Red Cross flag, in front of several closely packed lines of reserve trenches, which is contrary to the rules of warfare, and if we get shelled it is our own lookout. To-day these trenches swarmed with men, and four shells were fired at them, the first just grazing the trench we are in. In the same way two submarines lie off the coast, close to the C.C.S. on one side and the hospital ships on the other, hence shells are continuously dropping in the former, but for this we cannot blame the Turk. So far, all are agreed that the Turk has not only put up a valiant fight, but a straight one, and if he continues as he is doing it will be better for him when the day of reckoning comes round.
August 6th.—When sitting at dinner with Fiddes word reached us that Kellas had been killed. Such a blow to us and to all who knew good and gentle Kellas. Curiosity had frequently led us both into positions of danger where we ought not to have been, and I always noted how fearless he was. To-day he had been along a deep communication trench, along which wounded were to be carried in the action we knew was about to take place, and he had been viewing the ground, and while standing at the extreme end of this trench a sniper had caught sight of the group he was standing in and a shot laid him low. About an hour after this sad event I had orders to take his place in The Gully. As the fight was to begin at 2 p.m. I had little time to get into my place, at least three miles distant. I set off at once to our advanced dressing station at the Zigzag, three-quarters of a mile up The Gully from Aberdeen Gully.
To-day's battle has been a most bloody affair, wounded beginning to drop in at once. As often happens, out of our four first cases three were wounds in the left hand—one a bullet through the centre of the palm, another was minus the first phalanx of his fore finger, the third minus another finger. All these were undoubtedly self-inflicted. We are bound to notify all these suspicious cases to their C.O.'s and until a guard is sent for them we retain them under a guard of our own men. If a hand is found blackened it of course shows that it was done at very close quarters, but to avoid this a glove or bandage is applied before firing.
I was kept very busy and had no time for food during the rest of the day. The wounds were particularly severe, and very few had single wounds, many having four to six.
August 7th.—The Turks failed to make their usual counter-attack last night, though firing never ceased. I worked for nine hours without one minute's halt, and by night felt very tired. I lay down on a stretcher and tried to get a little sleep, but got none. The snores of my neighbours, the groans of a few wounded we had retained over-night, and the death rattle of two dying men beside me were sufficient to banish sleep.
Two of our battalions have each lost 700 out of the 900 they went into action with. We have gained very little ground; we took trenches and lost them. The long interval from the last fight to the present gave the Turks time to dig trenches almost proof against shell fire, so that when the bombardment began they retired back to these, knowing there could be no assault on their front trenches by the infantry while this lasted.