RENEWED ATTACK ON SCIMITAR HILL
General Stopford, however, was naturally still anxious to retrieve the check suffered by General Hammersley’s command, and indeed W Hill was still the most vital and threatening point upon the encompassing heights. He, therefore, determined to renew the attack upon Scimitar Hill and the more open field country between it and W Hill, around the Abrikja farm. For this task he allotted nine battalions of the 53rd Division (Major-General Lindley), supported by two battalions of the 11th Division on each flank. The result was more lamentable even than the failure of the previous day. The troops of the 53rd Division set off about six a.m. across the Salt Lake. The Turkish shrapnel and rifle-fire poured upon them as they advanced, and only increased at the foot of Scimitar Hill. To watch parties of them attempting to steal up sheltered portions of the hill was a piteous sight. The cover was much reduced, because the ground was now black with burning, and most of the bushes gone. Many fell on all sides. The corner of a small wheatfield near Abrikja was fringed with dead who looked like a company lying down in the shade. One saw many deeds of courage among officers and men.
Backwards and forwards, the fighting went on all morning, but without result. In the evening the battalions were withdrawn to their original lines, only more confused, more disheartened, and fewer in numbers. Generals Maxwell and Hill remained on Chocolate Hill that day. Hill’s brigade was chiefly occupied in holding Green Hill just in front of the other, and we were much exposed to shrapnel there, as the trenches were incomplete. That evening, however, the withdrawal of Hill’s five battalions in turn began. They were allowed rest and the joy of bathing on the beach till the 13th (Friday), when they rejoined their own 10th Division upon Kiretch Tepe Sirt.[193]
On this day, the 10th, Chunuk Bair was lost, and the chance of advance from Suvla was almost gone. It was the saddest day in the record of the expedition. Sir Ian telegraphed to General Stopford, ordering him not to risk the proposed renewal of the attacks with tired and disintegrated troops, but to consolidate the line from the Asmak Dere past the front of Chocolate Hill through Sulajik to Kiretch Tepe Sirt.
From the evening of August 10 to the evening of the 11th.
THE LAST RESERVE LANDED
It was indeed time that the line was consolidated. During the night and early morning, the 54th (East Anglian) Division was being landed on the new A Beaches near Suvla Point.[194] They formed, as has been noticed, Sir Ian’s last reserve, and were commanded by Major-General F. S. Inglefield, a stalwart and experienced soldier, who had seen service in South Africa and had commanded this Territorial Division for two years, but was already sixty. As in the case of the 53rd (Welsh) Division, some of the best battalions had been taken for France, and others suddenly inserted without knowledge of him or of the other battalions, so that the essential bond of the Territorial spirit was severed. The landing of some 10,000 or 12,000 inexperienced Territorials ignorant of cohesion was inevitably a confused business, though only the infantry had been sent. But that would not have mattered if the confusion upon the front lines had not been far worse. There the condition was indeed deplorable. Along the most critical part of the line, between Green Hill and Sulajik, battalions and brigades were hopelessly mixed together. The men had lost sight of their officers and their units. They lay in any ditch or cover they could find. Here and there a party dug trenches or improved the trenches dug at night. But theirs was not the spirit of victory. One of the bridged fountains was now almost deserted, as it came under fire from snipers or from the troops on Scimitar Hill. But round the other, which was concealed among large trees, the men still swarmed. In consequence, there was much delay and much waste of the plentiful water, nor did any attempts to get them into file, so that each might take his turn, avail for long.
There was no help for it. The only thing to be done was to pull out the battalions gradually and reorganise. It was now Wednesday, and so far as action went the day was wasted, as Sunday had been, though there was better reason for the waste.
From the evening of August 11 to the evening of the 12th.
That evening Sir Ian again sailed over to Suvla with the object of urging forward his project for the occupation of the Kavak Tepe and Tekke Tepe heights before the Turkish reinforcements could arrive and entrench there. He had expected the 54th Division to start at once upon a night march, so as to make the ascent at dawn, while the 53rd Division stood in reserve. But General Stopford raised objections, foresaw difficulties, and asked for at least twenty-four hours’ delay. He hoped that by that time the 53rd Division would have been reorganised sufficiently to clear the way for the passage of the 54th through the jungly, tree-covered ground at the foot of the mountain.