May 19
On May 18 Anzac was subjected to a heavy bombardment from large calibre guns and howitzers. At midnight of the 18th-19th the most violent rifle and machine-gun fire yet experienced broke out along the front. Slackening from 3 A.M. to 4 A.M. it then broke out again, and a heavy Turkish column assaulted the left of No. 2 section. This assault was beaten off with loss. Another attack was delivered before daylight on the centre of this section; it was repeated four times and repulsed each time with very serious losses to the enemy. Simultaneously a heavy attack was delivered on the north-east salient of No. 4 section, which was repulsed and followed up, but the pressing of the counter-attack was prevented by shrapnel. Attacks were also delivered on Quinn’s Post, Courtney’s Post, and along the front of our right section. At about 5 A.M. the battle was fairly joined, and a furious cannonade was begun by a large number of enemy guns, including 12-inch and 9.2-inch, and other artillery that had not till then opened. By 9.30 A.M. the Turks were pressing hard against the left of Courtney’s and the right of Quinn’s Post. At 10 A.M. this attack, unable to face fire from the right, swung round to the left, where it was severely handled by our guns and the machine-guns of our left section. By 11 A.M. the enemy, who were crowded together in the trenches beyond Quinn’s Post, were giving way under their heavy losses.
According to prisoners’ reports 30,000 troops, including five fresh regiments, were used against us. General Liman von Sanders was himself in command.
The enemy’s casualties were heavy, as may be judged from the fact that over 3,000 dead were lying in the open in view of our trenches. A large proportion of these losses were due to our artillery fire. Our casualties amounted to about 100 killed and 500 wounded, including nine officers wounded.
The next four days were chiefly remarkable for the carrying through of the negotiations for the suspension of arms, which actually took place on May 24. The negotiations resulted in a suspension of arms from 7.30 A.M. to 4.30 P.M. on May 24. The procedure laid down for this suspension of arms was, I am glad to inform your Lordship, correctly observed on both sides.
The burial of the dead was finished about 3 P.M. Some 3,000 Turkish dead were removed or buried in the area between the opposing lines. The whole of these were killed on or since May 18. Many bodies of men killed earlier were also buried.
Quinn’s Again
From May 28 till June 5 the fighting seemed to concentrate itself around Quinn’s Post. Three enemy galleries had been detected there, and work on them stopped by counter-mines, which killed twenty Turks and injured thirty. One gallery had however, been overlooked, and at 3.30 A.M. on May 29 a mine was sprung in or near the centre of Quinn’s Post. The explosion was followed by a very heavy bomb attack, before which our left centre subsection fell back, letting in a storming party of Turks. This isolated one subsection on the left from the two other subsections on the right.