At 5.30 A.M. our counter-attack was launched, and by 6 A.M. the position had been retaken with the bayonet by the 15th Australian Infantry Battalion, led by Major Quinn, who was unfortunately killed. All the enemy in the trench were killed or captured.
On May 30 preparations were made in Quinn’s Post to attack and destroy two enemy saps, the heads of which had reached within five yards of our fire trench. Two storming parties of thirty-five men went forward at 1 P.M., cleared the sap heads and penetrated into the trenches beyond, but they were gradually driven back by bombs, of which the enemy seemed to have an unlimited supply.
During May 31 close fighting continued in front of Quinn’s Post.
On June 1, an hour after dark, two sappers of the New Zealand Engineers courageously crept out and laid a charge of gun-cotton against a timber and sandbag bomb-proof. The structure was completely demolished.
The Demonstrations
On June 4 three separate enterprises were carried out by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. These were undertaken in compliance with an order which I had issued that the enemy’s attention should be distracted during an attack I was about to deliver in the southern zone.
First a demonstration in the direction of Kaba Tepe, the Navy co-operating by bombarding the Turkish trenches.
At Quinn’s Post an assault was delivered at 11 P.M. A party of sixty men, accompanied by a bomb-throwing party on either flank, stormed the enemy’s trench. In the assault many Turks were bayoneted and twenty-eight captured. At 6.30 A.M. the trench had to be abandoned.
On June 5 a sortie was made by two officers and 100 men of the 1st Australian Infantry, the objective being the destruction of a machine-gun in a trench (known as German Officer’s Trench). The darkness of the trench and its overhead cover prevented the use of the bayonet, but some damage was done by shooting down over the parapet. The aim of this gallant assault being attained, the party withdrew in good order with their wounded. Casualties in all were thirty-six.