Enough has been said to show, if internal evidence did not shout it aloud, that my diary has no literary pretensions whatsoever. I am no John Masefield, and do not seek to compete with my betters. Those who desire to survey the whole amazing Gallipoli campaign in perspective must look elsewhere than in these pages. Their sole object was to record the personal impressions, feeling, and doings from day to day of one supply officer to a Division whose gallantry in that campaign well earned for it the epithet “Immortal.” If in spite of its many deficiencies my diary should succeed in interesting the reader, and if, in particular, I have been able to place in the proper light the services of that indispensable but underrated arm, the A.S.C., I am more than content.
I have now seen the A.S.C. at work in England, Egypt, France and Flanders, as well as in Gallipoli, and the result is always just the same. Tommy is hungry three times a day without distinction of place, and without distinction of place three times a day, as regularly as the sun rises and sets, food is forthcoming for him, food in abundance with no queues or meat cards. The A.S.C. must never fail, and it never does fail, for its organization is one of the most brilliant the Army knows. But few, other than those in the A.S.C. itself or on the staffs of armies, can appreciate its vastness and its infallibility. To do so one should watch the supply ships dodging the enemy submarines and arriving at the bases, the supply hangars at the base supply depots receiving and disgorging the supplies to the pack trains, the arrival of the trains at the regulating stations on the lines of communication, whence they are dispatched to the railheads just behind the line, the staff of the deputy directors of supplies and transport of armies at work, following carefully the movements of formations and the rise and fall of strengths, to ensure that not only shall sufficient food arrive regularly each day at the railheads, but that there shall be no surpluses to choke the railheads. It is hardly less important that there should not be too much than that there should not be too little.
The slightest miscalculation may easily lead to chaos—to the blocking of trains carrying wounded back and ammunition forward, or the deprivation of a few thousand men of their food at a critical moment. One should watch the arrival of the supply pack trains at the railheads where the supply columns of motor lorries or the divisional trains of horse transport unload the pack trains and load their vehicles, regularly each day at scheduled times, under all conditions, even those caused by a 14-inch enemy shell bursting at intervals of five minutes in the railhead yard, causing all and sundry to get to cover, except the A.S.C., who must never fail to clear the train at the scheduled time. One should watch the divisional train H.Q. at work, following its division and arranging for the daily correct distribution and the delivery of the rations to units. Often horse transport, by careful managing on the part of train H.Q., is released for other duties than those of drawing and delivering supplies to units. Then one may watch the A.S.C. driver delivering R.E. material, etc., to the line, along roads swept by high-explosive shell and shrapnel and machine guns, where all but the A.S.C. driver can get to ground, while he must stand by his horses and get cover for them and himself as best he can. Then, although one has only seen the skeleton framework of this vast service, and has had no opportunity to go into the technicalities of the system or to investigate the many safety valves of base supply depots, field supply depots, reserve parks and emergency ration dumps in the line, all of which are ready to come to the rescue should a pack train be blown up or a convoy scuppered, nor to study the wonderfully efficient organization of transport, covering mechanical transport, horse transport, Foden lorries and tractors which ply from the base to the line, carrying, as well as supplies, ammunition, R.E. material, and every imaginable necessity of war, and moving heavy guns in and out of position, at times under the very noses of the enemy, yet one cannot fail to have gained a great respect for that vast and wonderfully silent organization, the Army Service Corps.
J. G. G.
France,
May 1918.
CONTENTS
| PAGE | |
| PREFACE | [5] |
| INTRODUCTION | [15] |
| THE CLIMATE AT THE DARDANELLES | [17] |
| PROLOGUE—MARCH 1915 | [23] |
| APRIL | [25] |
| MAY | [62] |
| JUNE | [114] |
| JULY | [156] |
| AUGUST | [180] |
| SEPTEMBER | [218] |
| OCTOBER | [237] |
| NOVEMBER | [256] |
| DECEMBER | [282] |
| JANUARY 1916 | [310] |
| EPILOGUE | [325] |
| INDEX | [326] |
ILLUSTRATIONS
| FACING PAGE | |
| THE GANGWAY OF THE RIVER CLYDE, OUT OF WHICH TROOPS POURED AS SOON AS THE SHIP GROUNDED ON APRIL 25, 1915. CAPE HELLES | [32] |
| BATHING OFF GULLY BEACH, HELLES | [64] |
| “Y” BEACH, CAPE HELLES, WHERE THE K.O.S.B.’S LANDED ON APRIL 25, 1915, HAVING TO EVACUATE THEREFROM ON THE FOLLOWING DAY | [64] |
| 29TH DIVISIONAL HEADQUARTERS, GULLY BEACH, AT THE FOOT OF THE GULLY, HELLES | [92] |
| VIEW OF “V” BEACH, CAPE HELLES, TAKEN FROM THE RIVER CLYDE | [92] |
| COAST LINE, CAPE HELLES | [176] |
| A VIEW OF THE GULLY, CAPE HELLES, LOOKING TOWARDS THE ENEMY LINES | [176] |
| A VIEW OF THE PROMONTORY, SUVLA BAY, TAKEN FROM 29TH DIVISIONAL HEADQUARTERS | [200] |
| A CAPTURED TURKISH TRENCH, SUVLA BAY | [216] |
| A VIEW OF SUVLA BAY | [216] |
| GENERAL DE LISLE’S HEADQUARTERS, SUVLA BAY | [224] |
| 4·5 HOWITZER IN ACTION, SUVLA BAY | [244] |
| 29TH DIVISIONAL HEADQUARTERS, SUVLA BAY, HIDDEN FROM THE ENEMY BY THE SLOPE OF THE HILL | [244] |