[129] The loss, unhappily, included Colonel Giraudon, Chief of the Staff, who had been rashly put to command the 2nd Colonial Brigade of the 1st Division on this occasion—a serious, brave, and intellectual soldier. He was dangerously wounded, as was Colonel Noguès, commanding the 6th Colonial Regiment in that brigade, who with his regiment had distinguished himself greatly in the attack upon Kum Kali and elsewhere (see Uncensored Letters from the Dardanelles, p. 137). Colonel Giraudon returned to his position in the Dardanelles, and survived to do excellent work in France, where he was, however, ultimately killed in action.
[130] Account by Mr. Compton Mackenzie, who acted as authorised correspondent for the London papers during Mr. Ashmead Bartlett’s temporary absence.
[131] The division consisted of the 155th Brigade (Brig.-General J. F. Erskine, succeeded by Lieut.-Colonel Pollok-M‘Call), containing the 4th and 5th Battalions Royal Scottish Fusiliers, and the 4th and 5th Battalions K.O.S.B.; the 156th Brigade (Brig.-General Scott-Moncrieff, killed on June 28; then Brig.-General H. G. Casson, succeeded by Brig.-General L. C. Koe), containing the 4th and 7th Royal Scots, and the 7th and 8th Scottish Rifles; and the 157th Brigade (Brig.-General R. W. Hendry, succeeded by Brig.-General H. G. Casson), containing the 5th, 6th, and 7th Highland Light Infantry, and the 5th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
[132] Now (spring, 1918) Commander-in-Chief in Mesopotamia in succession to Sir Stanley Maude, who commanded the 13th Division during the later part of the Dardanelles campaign.
[133] “Scenes of desperate fighting are plainly visible all around our front line. On a small rise a little to the left (i.e. of our advanced position up the Gully) lie half a dozen of our men killed in the final advance, whom it had been impossible to get at and bury. Right in front a line of khaki figures lie in perfect order only a few yards away, yet the sniping is so heavy that even at night it is almost impossible to bring them in. Farther up the ravine are heaps of Turkish dead, piled together, who have fallen in the big counter-attack. In a gorse patch farther to the left lie a further large number of the enemy, mixed up with some of our men, for there seems to have been a general mêlée in the open at dawn on the 29th, when our men issued from their trenches and hunted the enemy out of the gorse, killing large numbers of them.”—Dispatches from the Dardanelles, by E. Ashmead Bartlett, p. 152 (July 4).
[134] Uncensored Letters, pp. 144–146.
[135] Australia in Arms, pp. 205–210.
[136] “A rough estimate of their number (Turkish troops) since mobilisation is as follows: At the Dardanelles, 130,000; in Thrace, 30,000; at Constantinople and Chitaldja, 20,000; on the Bosphorus, 20,000; in the Caucasus, 60,000; at Bagdad and the Persian Gulf, 20,000; Syria, 30,000; Aleppo and Mersine, 30,000; Smyrna district, 30,000; gendarmerie, 30,000; at the depôts, 50,000; scattered, 30,000” (Inside Constantinople, p. 125). This makes a total of 480,000, and the writer estimates that Turkey had by that time (June 18, 1915) lost 260,000, including 100,000 on Gallipoli. But these statistics are probably of little more than Turkish value.
As to the neglect to supply the Dardanelles Expedition with guns and shells, it must, of course, be remembered that they were then short on all fronts, and it was only in the beginning of June that Mr. Lloyd George was appointed to a Ministry of Munitions.
[137] This destruction of a signal and telegraph station was probably the incident referred to at the end of Sir Ian’s second dispatch. He tells how Corporal G. A. Walker, R.E., although much shaken, repaired the damage, collected men, and within 39 minutes reopened communication by apologising for the incident and saying he required no assistance. Twelve were killed or wounded, beside the officer on duty, killed.