The whole of this ridge is steep and rocky on the south side overlooking Suvla Bay, but is everywhere accessible by climbing, and admits of paths being cut obliquely or in zigzag. The northern side falls abruptly into the Gulf of Xeros, across which the opposite coast of Thrace, from the mouth of the Maritza eastward, can be distinctly seen. Near Suvla Point the cliffs are precipitous, and leave little or no beach. Farther along, the face of the ridge, though always very steep, becomes accessible, and spreads out at the bottom into a kind of “undercliff” above the shore, which is indented by a succession of miniature bays, like bathing coves. All this part of the slope is deeply scored by ravines, rocky, steep, and covered with thick bush. This face was commanded by the enemy’s guns only from Kartal Tepe, a barren promontory of fantastic cliffs, different in formation, and apparently of dark and slaty shale, which projects from the coast a mile or so beyond the farthest point reached by our lines.
Farther along the coast towards Ejelmer Bay the razor-edge meets almost at right angles with a mass of mountain running south towards the Anafarta plateau. The range rises rapidly to the conjoined heights of Kavak Tepe and Tekke Tepe (Saint’s Hill), each about 850 feet. It completely shuts in the Suvla region on the north-east side, presenting a steep, though not really a precipitous, western face towards the bay, and commanding the whole district from end to end. It is dark with thick scrub to the rounded summits, and always reminded me of the Wrekin’s western face, looking towards Shrewsbury, as seen from the site of Uriconium. At the southern end it falls by a similar steep slope to the Anafarta plateau, throwing up one little isolated hill above the plateau, like the spadeful of rocks which the devil dropped in his hurry to pile the Wrekin.
From these descriptions of the northern, eastern, and southern positions around Suvla, it will be seen that the heights, starting from Kiretch Tepe and running round over Kavak Tepe and Tekke Tepe to the elevated Anafarta plateau, Scimitar Hill, and Ismail Oglu Tepe, form an irregular semicircle, roughly corresponding to the regular semicircle of Suvla Bay, and commanding it from a wide circumference. This outer semicircle encloses a fairly open plain, cultivated in parts by ancient farms, such as Anafarta Ova (Plain) and Sulajik. Large trees, so rarely seen in the Near East, give that part of the plain the appearance of a park in one of the fatted counties of England. But most of it is bare except for heath and thin grass, until the foot of the hills is reached, when the prickly bush becomes thick as usual, interrupting any advance in line, effectively concealing numberless snipers, and impenetrable except by devious and isolating paths. Each farm has a well or fountain, and one of the watercourses, running into the north-east corner of the Salt Lake, contains water. There is a spring at the foot of the Karakol Dagh, not far from the bay. Two good running fountains, constructed with low bridges, stone spouts, and troughs, are to be found on the plain north-east of the Salt Lake among the large trees mentioned; and there is a smaller source just south-west of Chocolate Hill. But these wells and springs might easily be missed by troops advancing under fire across an unknown and almost pathless country.
GENERAL STOPFORD AND THE IXth CORPS
Such was the district into which the IXth Army Corps was launched in the night of August 6–7. As has been mentioned, Lieut.-General Sir Frederick Stopford had arrived in the middle of July to take command, and for a short time had succeeded General Hunter-Weston in command of the VIIIth Army Corps at Helles, so as to gain experience in Peninsula warfare. He had entered the Grenadier Guards in the early “Seventies”; had seen the usual service of officers at the end of last century, in India, West Africa, and Egypt; during the South African War he was Military Secretary to General Buller, and entered Ladysmith with him at the relief. Since then he had occupied various military positions at home and was still on the Active List though a little over sixty. His reputation stood high as a student and teacher of military history, and long experience had given him an accurate knowledge of army routine. But he had never held high command in the field, and neither history nor routine in itself inspires to action; still less do years of official duty in the Metropolis. Rather they suppress the hopeful buoyancy of spirit and rapid fertility of resource essential for generalship, while they tend to accentuate the hesitating deliberation and cautious apprehension of risk which too often develop with increasing years. Habits mainly sedentary are also likely to reduce the enthusiasm for physical activity as middle age is passing.
At the same time it is fair to remember that the force now entrusted to General Stopford for this vital enterprise was an Army Corps only in name. Nominally it consisted of the 10th, 11th, and 13th Divisions, composed as we have seen. But the 13th Division (Major-General Shaw) had been deflected to Anzac for the assault against Sari Bair, together with the 29th Brigade (Brigadier-General Cooper) of the 10th Division. General Stopford was thus left with only the 11th (Northern) Division under Major-General Hammersley, and two brigades of the 10th (Irish) Division under Lieut.-General Sir Bryan Mahon. All the battalions in these Divisions were New Army men, and had never been in action before. Normally each Division should have possessed sixteen batteries of artillery (including the H.Q. Divisional Artillery), so that (allowing for the absence of the 13th Division and the 29th Brigade) the IXth Army Corps should have commanded twenty-eight batteries, or 112 guns; whereas, at the time of landing, it had only one Field Artillery battery and two Highland Mountain batteries of small calibre—old and useless for service—counting twelve guns in all.[177] It is true that General Stopford could also command the support of naval guns, but by the nature of the case the guns had been unable to register for fear of thwarting the surprise, the maps were uncertain, and most of the Suvla plain was invisible from the sea owing to its flatness.
Of the Divisional Generals, Sir Bryan Mahon was fifty-three, was a cavalryman (8th Royal Irish Hussars), held a long record of service in India and Egypt, and had won distinction by the relief of Mafeking in 1900. Since then he had been Military Governor of Kordofan, and had commanded the Lucknow Division till the outbreak of the war. Possessing many of the fine Irish qualities, and some of the supposed Irish defects, he was regarded with patriotic affection by his Division; but, like most of our Generals, had seen no active service for fourteen or fifteen years, and then in wars unlike the present. Major-General Frederick Hammersley (Lancashire Fusiliers) had also served in India, Egypt, and South Africa, and on various Staff appointments; but owing to serious illness had recently held no military position.
As in the last chapter, on Sari Bair, it will be convenient to divide the Suvla fighting by days and nights, counting from evening to evening.
From the evening of Friday, August 6, to the evening of August 7.
THE FORCE AT SEA