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Page 18
THE ATTEMPT ON SARI BAIR
Our Ambulance was attached to the Left Assaulting Column, which
consisted of the 29th Indian Brigade, 4th Australian Infantry Brigade,
Mountain Battery and one company of New Zealand Engineers under
Brigadier-General Cox.
The commanding officers of all the ambulances in General Godley's
Division met in the gully and had the operation orders explained to
them by the A.D.M.S. of the Division, Colonel Manders, a very capable
officer. To my great regret he was killed two days later; we had been
acquainted for some time, and I had a great regard for him.
The 4th Infantry Brigade was to operate in what was known as the Aghyl
Dere (Dere in Turkish means "gully"). The operation order gave out that
we were to establish our Field Hospital in such a position as to be
readily accessible for the great number of wounded we expected.
Meantime, after making all arrangements for the move and ascertaining
that each man knew his job exactly, we sat about for a while. The
bombardment was to commence at 5 p.m. Precisely at that hour the
_Bacchante_ opened fire, the howitzers and our field guns co-operating,
the Turks making a hearty response. The din was frightful. To make a
man sitting beside me hear what I was saying, I had to shout at the top
of my voice. However, there were not many men hit. We had tea--for
which Walkley had got three eggs from somewhere, the first I had
tasted since leaving Egypt. We tried to get some sleep, but that was
impossible, the noise being so great; it was hard, too, to know where
one was safe from bullets. Mr. Tute, the Quartermaster, and I got a
dug-out fairly well up the hill, and turned in. We had not been long
there when a machine-gun appeared to be trained right on to us--bullets
were coming in quantities. It was pitch-dark, so we waited until they
stopped, and then got further down the gully and tried to sleep
there--but this particular dug-out had more than ourselves in it, and
we passed the night hunting for things. The Division started to march
out just after dark, the 4th Brigade leading. It was almost daylight
before the rear of the column passed the place at which we were
waiting. The men were all in great spirits, laughing and chaffing and
giving the usual "Are we down'earted?". I think those men would laugh
if they were going to be hanged. Our bearer divisions, in charge
respectively of Captains Welch, Jeffries and Kenny, followed in rear of
the Brigade, while the tent divisions came in rear of the whole column.
Major Meikle and I had often, like Moses viewing the Land of Promise,
looked at the country over which the fight was now to take place--a
stretch of flats about three miles long, from the beach up to the foot
of the hills. As the day broke, we found a transformation at Nibronesi
Point, which is the southernmost part of Suvla Bay. At nightfall not a
ship was there; now there was a perfect forest of masts. The place
looked like Siberia in Newcastle when there was a strike on. I counted
ten transports, seven battle-cruisers, fourteen destroyers, twelve
trawlers and a lot of pinnaces. These had landed the force which was
afterwards known as the Suvla Bay Army. A balloon ship and five
hospital ships were also at anchor in the bay. As we passed what was
known as our No. 3 Outpost, we came across evidences of the
fight--dead men, dead mules, equipment, ammunition boxes and rifles
lying all over the place. We noted, too, little hillocks of sand here
and there, from behind which the Turks had fired at our column. It was
evident that our men had soon got in touch with the enemy and had
driven him back. The Aghyl Dere proved to be a fairly wide gully with
steep hills on either side. A little distance, about three quarters of
a mile up, we came to what had been the Turkish Brigade Headquarters.
Here everything was as they had left it. The surprise had been
complete, and we had given them very short notice to quit. Clothing,
rifles, equipment, copper pans and boilers were in abundance, and it
was evident that Abdul makes war with regard to every comfort, for
there were visible also sundry articles of wearing apparel only used
by the gentler sex. The men had comfortable bivouacs and plenty of
bed-clothing of various patterns. The camp was situated in a hollow,
round in shape and about a hundred yards in diameter, with dug-outs in
the surrounding hillsides; all was very clean, except for the fleas,
of which a good assortment remained. The dug-outs were roofed in with
waterproof sheets, buttoned together and held up by pegs which fitted
into one another. These sheets, with the poles, made handy bivouac
shelters, easily pitched and struck. Altogether, their camp equipment
was better than ours.
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