DISADVANTAGES OF NEW DRAFTS
Drafts came, but though the drafts were small they sometimes overwhelmed the original battalions, and, partly owing to the unavoidable suspension of drill, they were long in imbibing a good battalion’s spirit.[215] Even more serious was the necessity of hurrying new drafts at once into advanced positions. In a note written at Helles on August 30, after visiting the lines before Krithia, I observed:
“A newly arrived draft has usually to join the rest of the battalion in the trenches or firing line at once. The men know nothing of the realities of war and weather. Shells and bullets affect them as they affect every one at first, and most people to the end. The sun strikes through them like X-rays. Dust fills their eyes and mouths. Flies cover their food, and keep them irritated and sleepless. In the advanced trenches, ten to one they get little beyond biscuit and bully beef, with an occasional share in an onion or pot of jam. Diarrhœa begins to affect them. They grow weak and their spirit sinks. In that condition they are probably called upon to resist or deliver an attack against a tough race of semi-barbarous soldiers famous at trench fighting for generations.”
Interrupted by only few cool and rainy days, the heat continued through September, and the victims to dysentery increased. The shadow of approaching winter also lay upon the army, and its horrors were exaggerated, partly through the classic reputation of inhospitable Thrace, partly by the inexperience of the Anzacs, who had never seen snow or endured cold. More serious than cold was the anticipated downpour of rain, which would convert our roads along ravines into torrents, and fill the dusty communication trenches with mud. Unhappily, owing to the steep ascent to such positions as Quinn’s Post, and the far longer climb to the Apex, where we still clung to a scarcely tenable position overhanging the Farm below the summit of Chunuk Bair, the chief hardships of winter were likely to fall upon Anzac, where the men were least accustomed to resist them. In a note during the first week of September I observed:
“If we remain through the winter, Anzac will need looking to. Cement, solid iron plates, corrugated iron to support sandbag roofs, timber such as the Turks already use for trenches, careful and difficult drainage in a country where the dry watercourses which become torrents in winter are now used as roads, spiked boots to climb the slimy paths now deep in dust—all must be prepared. The daily toil, already severe, will be much increased, and the fighting force can hardly be expected to carry it out. A crowd of ordinary labourers will be needed.”
Gangs of Egyptian labourers were, in fact, brought to Imbros and set to work upon the main road through the camps there.
As to numbers, at the end of August we had 83,000, including 15,000 French troops, on the Peninsula, as against an estimate of 100,000 Turks there, with 25,000 in reserve. During September, a few small but serviceable units arrived, such as the Scottish Horse (about 3000 men unmounted) under their commandant, the Marquis of Tullibardine; the 1st and 2nd Regiments of “Lovat’s Scouts,” under Lord Lovat, between whose force and Lord Tullibardine’s a rivalry as of old Highland clans persists; a brigade of East and West Kent and Sussex Yeomanry (Brigadier-General Clifton-Browne); a South-Western Mounted Brigade of North Devons, Royal 1st Devons, and West Somersets; and the 1st Newfoundlanders’ Battalion (Colonel Burton) attached to the 29th Division. These units, together with drafts, brought the forces upon the Peninsula up to about half their nominal strength at the end of September. In the beginning of that month, two brigades of the 10th Division’s artillery also arrived at last. The 55th was stationed at Helles, the 56th at Suvla.[216] But even so, on September 10, there were only 60 guns at Suvla in place of the full complement of 340.
BYNG IN COMMAND OF IXth CORPS
None the less, in spite of inactivity, sickness, and the discouragement of decreasing strength, the Divisions continued to improve. The improvement was most marked in the 53rd Division (now under Major-General Marshall), the 54th (still under Major-General Inglefield), and the 11th (now under Major-General E. A. Fanshawe). The 13th Division, which had done so well at Anzac under Major-General Shaw, was sure only to increase its reputation under so fine and ardent a commandant as Major-General Stanley Maude. Finally, there was Major-General Sir Julian Byng, who arrived from his cavalry command in France together with Generals Maude and Fanshawe on August 23. He took over the command of the IXth Corps at Suvla from Major-General De Lisle, who returned to his 29th Division, which was retained at Suvla, except that the brigades went separately to the rest camp on Imbros.
Every one expected the order for fresh advance so soon as the new Generals had thoroughly re-established confidence and the IXth Corps Staff had recovered a more sanguine temper. As is usual in times of inaction, rumours flew. The French, it was stated, were sending out new Divisions under General Sarrail. Another landing was to be made on the Asiatic coast, perhaps at Kum Kali, perhaps at Smyrna, more likely at Adramyti Bay, a scheme much favoured by authorities in Mitylene. Another very persistent rumour was for sending the fleet up the Dardanelles again, and hope rose high in the Navy, tired and irritated at their effective but subsidiary service to the military force. Meantime, the actual fighting was limited to the stationary trench warfare of bombing, casual bombardments, and local assault or defence on either side. It gradually became evident that the fate of the expedition depended no longer upon itself, but upon events and speculations far removed from the scene.[217]