MAY 6 AT HELLES

The battle lasted three days (May 6 to 8 inclusive). The reorganised 29th Division began the attack on the left, the French being on the right, the Plymouth and Drake Battalions keeping the two sections in touch from the centre. At 11 a.m. the advance was prepared by a brief bombardment, the French batteries as usual expending far the greater number of shells, and firing with their customary method and precision. The 87th Brigade and Lancashire Fusiliers (Territorials) on the British left then moved along the flat and open ground between the Gully Ravine (Saghir Dere) and the sea. Part also penetrated up the gully itself, which swarmed with Turkish snipers, and at the farther end was commanded by machine-guns. On their right, the 88th Brigade with the Indians attempted to conform to the advance, fighting for every yard over ground affording cover to the enemy in unsuspected pits and dry ravines, but especially in a scattered wood of firs, which grew along the edge of a downward slope near the centre. Against this wood, company after company of the 88th Brigade was led in vain. Hidden machine-guns also checked the progress of the R.N.D. battalions. On the right the French threw forward a swarm of Senegalese in open order. They struggled almost to the crest overlooking Kereves Dere, but were there encountered by a strong redoubt. The French troops advanced through the Senegalese as they came back, but made no further progress. All the R.N.D. battalions suffered heavy loss.[108] The fighting developed into a struggle of scattered groups to push forward. The naval guns continued a heavy bombardment, but so deep and narrow were the Turkish trenches that naval shells had little but moral effect, and moral effect rapidly diminishes. By middle afternoon (4.30) it became evident that the wearied and harassed men could go no farther, and the order was given to dig in, keeping a fairly connected line. By sheer hard “hammering,” between 200 and 300 yards had been gained, but no more, and the main Turkish defences were still far ahead.

MAY 7 AT HELLES

In the night, the Turks rushed upon the French lines with the bayonet, but the French lines held. Next morning at ten o’clock our attack was resumed. After a short but violent bombardment, the Lancashire Fusiliers attempted to push forward again upon the extreme left so as to clear the Gully Ravine, about half-way between Gully Beach and Y Beach, but were stopped by a redoubt and machine-guns upon the ridge overlooking the sea. On their right, in the difficult ground of scrub and donga between the Gully Ravine and the Krithia Nullah, the 88th Brigade struggled to advance the line, and for a time the 5th Royal Scots obtained a footing in the savagely disputed fir wood. Here they discovered snipers perched on wooden platforms among the branches; and here, as in other places during the campaign, Turks had cleverly “camouflaged” themselves with green paint and boughs of trees till they looked like moving or stationary bushes, though hitherto the process of “camouflage” had not been generally practised. The Inniskilling Fusiliers of the 87th Brigade came up to the support of the Scots, but soon after 1 p.m. a violent Turkish counter-attack recaptured the firs. The French and Naval Brigade had made little progress, and in the early afternoon the battle paused. But it was impossible to lose the advantage of attack and leave the initiative to an enemy only eager to rush forward and chase the Allies back to slaughter upon the beaches. Accordingly, just before five o’clock, after another violent bombardment, especially from the French guns, Sir Ian ordered a general advance of the whole line. French, British, and Irish (the Dublins and Munsters having been united into the “Dubsters”) all rose visibly together, and charged forward with the bayonet. The firs were again taken and held. The line swept over the first Turkish trenches; considerable ground was gained, in places as much as 400 yards. The success was general, except on the extreme left. Here the original failure to hold Y Beach at the first landing was now bitterly felt, for in that direction the Lancashire Fusiliers found it impossible to advance. Indeed, their advance appears to have been counter-ordered at the last moment, perhaps in the belief that the position was too difficult to storm. For a time, on the right also, the situation was serious. Such a storm of shrapnel met the French advance that African fugitives in great numbers came sweeping down through the Naval Brigade, and spread a confusion only checked by the advance of the French reserves.[109]

The battle had now lasted without intermission for two days, and the nights brought little rest. The Regular troops had been fighting close upon a fortnight without relief. More than half their comrades were killed, wounded, or prisoners; more than half their officers gone. The relics of battalions were merged together; one whole brigade had disappeared. The surface of the hollow plain was strewn with dead, whom there was hardly time to bury; and before the lines, dead and wounded lay together in places which no one could reach and live. The bare sand, the flowering heaths, the groves of olive and fir were splashed with patches of sticky blood. The sinister smell of death pervaded all. On windless days the heat was severe, and a slight breeze from the north stirred up dust storms which increased with the increasing traffic, blinding the eyes, choking the throat, and streaming far out to sea in yellow clouds. Perpetually exposed to fire, no matter where they were placed, the men longed for sleep, shade, an interval of security, and drink of any kind. Short as is the time allowed for a soldier’s grief, yet grief for the loss of friends was there, and in the heart of each lurked the knowledge that in another day or another minute he might be as they.[110]

MAY 8 AT HELLES

Though well aware of loss and exhaustion, Sir Ian resolved to make another call upon his troops for the following day. A new French Division had been long but indecisively promised, and it was gradually arriving during these three days.[111] General Bailloud was in command, a bald-headed veteran of seventy, very small, active, and alert, endowed with an irrepressible sense of comedy, which he gaily diffused among men and officers alike. One of his brigades was at once sent forward to strengthen the French position. On the British section, the Lancashire Fusiliers and the Indian Brigade were withdrawn into reserve; the 87th Brigade was left to struggle on the terribly exposed and narrow height between the Gully Ravine and the sea; the New Zealanders were ordered to pass through the 88th Brigade and advance directly upon Krithia; the Australians remained temporarily on their right in reserve, and, as before, R.N.D. battalions formed the connecting link with the French on both sides of the main Krithia road.

Sir Ian and the Headquarter Staff had pitched camp in a depression of the ground above Cape Tekke, too close to the Divisional Headquarters, but the limited space allowed no choice. Before the neighbouring high ground above W Beach, beside the cemetery, the scene of battle lay openly extended, and the movements of each section could be watched from hour to hour, except when advancing lines disappeared for a while into dongas, or when the smoke and upheaval of bursting shells obscured the view with black or yellow clouds. Otherwise, all was visible except the enemy, and, from the vacant appearance of the ground before them, it would have seemed possible for the army to advance in uninterrupted lines across the gently rising slopes to Krithia or the truncated pyramid of Achi Baba itself.

At 10.15 on May 8, the customary bombardment from sea and land began, and was received with the customary silence. At 10.30 the infantry moved, and at once the roar of rifles and machine-guns arose from the Turkish trenches, while overhead the Turkish shrapnel burst incessantly. The 87th Brigade attempted to push forward, but could hardly advance a hundred yards, the South Wales Borderers losing heavily. Among the scattered trees and rugged ravines on the right of the gully, the New Zealanders, under Brigadier-General F. E. Johnston, advanced by short rushes for nearly 300 yards, but, exposed to machine-guns on both flanks, were forced to dig in soon after midday.[112] Shortly before, General Paris, R.N.D., commanding the composite division, ordered the Australians to advance into the centre of the attacking line upon the New Zealanders’ right.[113] They were under command of Brigadier-General J. W. M‘Cay, who, with his Brigade-Major, Major Cass, went up into the firing line with his battalions, recklessly exposing himself to the heaviest fire until evening, when he was wounded, as Major Cass had twice been at an earlier stage.

THE AUSTRALIAN CHARGE