CHAPTER XXIII THE RELIEF BY THE MARINES THEAustralian and New Zealand Corps was originally to have been reinforced by Major-General Cox’ with the 29th Indian Infantry Brigade, which had been garrisoning the Canal at Suez. When the plans for the landing were being first drawn up, Hamilton intended to add a Gurkha brigade to the N.Z. and A. Division as its third brigade in place of the light horse and mounted rifles who were being left in Egypt. He was eventually promised Cox’s brigade, consisting of mixed Indian troops, but it had not yet arrived when the A. and N.Z. Corps left I-eninos for the landing. On Tuesday, April 27th, a message from Sir Ian Hamilton was circulated by the Corps Staff. “Well done, Anzac,” it said. “You are sticking it splendidly. Twenty-ninth Division has made good progress, and French Division is now landing to support it. An Indian brigade is on the sea and will join Anzac on arrival.” Rirdwood expected Cox’s Indians to arrive on April 27th and 28th; on the 30th he was still looking for them. Hamilton, however, quite rightly at the time, was far more anxious to use them in reaching Achi Baba while the Turks were still few in that quarter; and his diary shows that, if they had arrived on April 28th, they would have been thrown in at Helles. Hamilton did not realise that Birdwood’s Corps had until Wednesday been Withstanding nearly the whole of the Turkish striking force in the south of the Peninsula. But he knew that Birdwood’s men were very weary; and on the morning of April 28th he decided that, as the French were supporting the 29th Division, part of the Royal Naval Division (which had made the feint at Bulair) should be sent to the.Aus- tralians. During that morning Major-General Paris, its com- mander, visited Birdwood, and was asked to land two of his battalions the same afternoon and two more as soon as possible.

1 General Sir H V Cox. G C.B , K C.hl G , C S I. Commanded 4th Aust. DIV. 1916. Officer of Indian Regular Army; b. Watford, Herts, Eng, IZ July, 1860. Died 8 Oct., 1923. 924 qth-27th Apr., 19151 RELIEF BY THE MARINES 525

The troops most urgently in need of relief were the 1st and 3rd Australian Infantry Brigades on MacLaurin’s Hill and the 400 Plateau. These two brigades, being completely intermingled, were treated as one. While under the command of MacLagan on Sunday and Monday they had borne the name of the “3rd Brigade” ; shortly after MacLaurin relieved him, the same troops became provisionally known as the “,” and as such they remained under Colonel Owen. The task of re-creating the Army Corps in its proper units began on Sunday night, when the Staff of the 3rd Brlgade attempted to disentangle their men from the line and to re-form the four battalions near the Beach. About 200 of each were collected, but they had to be rushed back to the line next day, the 9th and 10th onto the 400 Plateau, the 11th to Steele’s, and the 12th to MacLaurin’s Hill. The first rough organisation of the front had been into three sectors. M’Cay with the held the right; Mac- Lagan with a mixture of the 1st and 3rd Brigades and some New Zea- landers the centre; Braund with the 2nd Battalion and portions of the (1 New Zealand Infantry Brigade the left.2 The 4th Australian Infantry Brigade was then thrown in between MacLagan and Braund in the effort to connect them. The brigade staffs strove during Monday to re-organise both the New Zealand Infantry and the 3rd Aus- tralian Brigade, but the continuous fighting prevented their disengagement. On Tuesday morning, however, General Birdwood took General Godley, General Walker, Colonel Monash, and Colonel Skeen up onto Plugge’s Plateau, from which the whole Second ridge could be seen, and there and then, in view of the line, decided on a partition of the front. As the group stood on Plugge’s, the Turkish general attack-unrealised by them- ’Brig -General Walker of the N 2. Inf Bde. would have established himself on the left on April 25th but for his conviction (due to the defective map), that the proper approach to the left flank was over Plugge’s 526 THE STORY OF ANZAC [27th Apr., 19x5 was being delivered, and shrapnel was showered upon the hill- top. When the fire became too hot, Birdwood moved the party into the partial shelter of the old Turkish trench and continued the conference there. He now divided the line into four sectors. Walker with the New Zealand Brigade was to take the left, on Walker’s Ridge and Russell’s Top; and Monash L with the 4th Australian Infantry Brigade Pkerfg40msh 5 the left centre, from Russell’s Top to Courtney’s. Thus the two brigades form- ,wacLaur,,, 1 ing the N.Z. and A. Division would be together on the left and left centre, con- trolled by General Godley. From Court- ney’s southward the front was divided into two other sectors, garrisoned by the 1st Australian Division under General Bridges-the right centre held by the 1st and 3rd Brigades mixed (then under Colonel MacLaurin), and the extreme right by the 2nd Brigade under Colonel M’Cay. The line to be held by Monash’s was. like that of MacLaurin, occupied by a mixture of troops from almost every battalion in both divisions. At the same time a consider- able part of the 4th Brigade was away from its sector, filling the old gap between the 2nd and 3rd Brigades. It was now ordered that troops who were not with their proper brigades should be withdrawn from the line when the local commander considered it safe to dispense with them, and should rejoin their brigade in its allotted sector. Monash was to take with him his last intact battalion, the 14th. to the head of Monash Valley, and was to discuss with MacLaurin where the division of their sectors should be. Monash saw Bridges and MacLaurin shortly before the latter was killed. The right flank of the 4th Brigade was fixed at Courtney’s, which was reinforced at once by part of the 14th Battalion under Major Steel,s and at 4 p.m. on Tuesday Colonel Monash took over command of this most difficult sector. He placed his headquarters near the head of Monash Valley (which thus acquired its name) opposite a Lieut -Colonel T. H. Steel. 0.B.E : 14th Bn Merchant, of Malvern. Mel- bourne, Vic; b. Horsham. Vic., 19 Nov.. 1878 zgth-27th Apr., 19151 RELIEF BY THE MARINES 527 the foot of Steele’s Post. It was at one time intended that his left should join Walker’s right at some point on the summit of Russell’s Top. But he was relieved of this obliga- tion a few days later, the whole of Russell’s Top being given to Walker’s New Zealanders, while Monash’s left rested on Pope’s Hill. Monash’s sector was necessarily the most difficult in the line. Few positions of the nature of Pope’s Hill and Quinn’s Post were held by any troops during the war. The garrison lining Pope’s Hill at this date knew nothing of the other side of the valley in rear of it, except that Turks existed there. The position at Quinn’s was even more danger- 4 artended ous. In consequence of fire from but pod trenches the left rear and both flanks the Australians at that point were /+lrd4v wr/twfrum A/Wr G/asfur& unable to live on the crest, and no&e-booh ,?7A,wil 1915) were holding only the reverse slope, the Turks continually accumulating on the other side of the narrow summit. The position of the 4th Brigade was one of constant tension. But its troops, having landed rather later than the rest, were held to be comparatively fresh. The New Zealand Brigade also had troops with whom to reinforce or relieve its own units. The 2nd Australian In fatitry Brigade, since the terrible fighting upon the 400 Plateau, had not sus- tained the same continuous pressure as that along Monash Valley. Its 5th, 6th, and 7th Battalions were completely intermingled, but were not scattered along the whole front of the Corps, and the 8th Battalion-and also the 4th, which had been lent from the 1st Brigade-were fairly well organised. But on MacLaurin’s Hill and along Monash Valley the endurance of the men who landed in the dawn of April 25th had been stretched almost to the last point of human elasticity. In front of this part of the line, so difficult to dig, there had existed ever since Sunday a series of small groups known as “battle outposts.” These were posts, in most cases originally of the strength of a platoon (about fifty men), lying ahead 528 THE STORY OF ANZAC [25th-28th Apr., 1915 of the line to cover it from sudden attack. Wire Gully came so close to the Australian position that there was danger of Turks massing there and behind German Officers‘ Ridge in the same way as they had massed at Quinn’s. At Quinn’s no battle outpost was possible-no party could live on its low crest with Baby 700 and the Chessboard looking down on them -and the danger of a rush by the Turks had to be accepted. But on Maclaurin’s Hill, opposite German Officers’ Ridge, and in Wire Gully advanced posts were possible, and they were placed in position, despite the fire, as soon as the troops arrived. Lieutenants Loutit and Haig of the 10th formed such an outpost in front of the 10th immediately south of Wire Gully; north of the gully Captain McConaghy of the 3rd formed another. On the left side of the valley, between Loutit and McConaghy, the 3rd Battalion had scratched several tiers of rifle-pits. Lieutenants McDonald and Beeken, with about fifty men, were isolated near a tiny spring fifty yards down the actual gully bed. Lieutenant Carter‘ was wounded in the first rush to it, and McDonald later. Lieutenants Moore5 and Goldringa were down in the same valley, and Lieutenant Butler7 on the summit of German Officers’ Ridge. The posts connected on their left with the forward line of rifle-pits under Barnes, Croly, Selby, and others on MacLaurin’s Hill. The whole of this system of forward posts was still in position on Wednesday. On the earlier nights Loutit and Haig had put sentries after dark across their part of Wire Gully and had withdrawn them in the morning. But it was physically impossible for sentries to keep awake. Loutit’s post gradually dwindled-they rolled the dead over the steep gully-side. By Tuesday night there were nine men left alive. The posts in Wire Gully were most difficult to reach, even by night, with ammunition or water. One 3rd Battalion post lay all Tuesday afternoon with bayonets fised, but without a cartridge. For water some crept to McDonald’s spring by night. In Loutit’s post, as no water came. two of the men on Monday morning collected water-bottles from the remaining Major W. B Carter: 3rd Bn Grazier: of Fletree Goolmangar. Rlchmond River. N S W : b Wardell Richmond River, 18 Feb, 1875. 5 Lielit.-Colonel D T Moore. C M G. D S 0. Commanded 3rd Bn. 1916j19. Clerk: b. Singleton. N S W. 28 March, 18qz ‘Lieut E G Goldrmg; 3rd Bn. Commercial Traveller; b. 30 Oct , 1891. ‘Captain H. E. Butler; 3rd Bn. Bank manager: b. I Sept. 1885. 25th-26th Apr., 19151 RELIEF BY THE MARINES 529 seventeen and tried to crawl back to the line to fill them. Both were killed by snipers from Mule Valley, and one of them could be seen for days afterwards upon the skyline, still on his hands and knees, with the bottles slung round him. The post eventually obtained water on Monday night from the line of the 10th Battalion. under Lieutenant Todd: behind it. Goldring’s post in a hollow of Wire Gully was entirely without water, but on the second day there reached them from the line, despite the deadly risk, a stretcher-bearer with a bottle. The difficulties of this part of the line are well illustrated by the experience of the post just named. It originated with a few men of the 11th Battalion under Corporal Louch, who formed it on Sunday morning in the narrow part of Wire Gully, not far in front of the crest. On the first night, when the Turks approached amid shouts of “Indian troops,” a few of the enemy remained all night in the gullv, but, running away in the morning, were killed almost to a man by Loutit’s party. On Monday afternoon Lieutenant Goldring of the 3rd Battalion came down the valley. “We have been ordered to move further down here,” he said. A post further down the valley, of which Louch had no knowledge, had been losing men and needed reinforcements. “Come on you seven !” cried Goldring to Louch’s party, and together they advanced down the gully. Presently they saw pot-holes in front of them occupied by Australians. As they dived for these, Goldring was hit across the chest and abdomen. In the new post there were mostly two men to a rifle-pit, there being room in each for one to stand and one to sit, turn and turn about. Goldring soon became delirious, calling. as the wounded were wont to do, for stretcher-bearers. When the stretcher-bearer brought them water on Monday, they merely moistened Goldring’s lips with it, all having been warned that it was fatal to allow any man hit in the abdomen either to drink or eat. He appeared to be dying when, after sunset, he suddenly revived, stood up. and insisted upon walk- ing back to the lines, a private helping him. The rest of the post remained. High on its right was Johnston’s Jolly. The ‘Captain D. L. Todd; 50th Bn. Clerk; of Thebarton, S. Aust.; b. , S. Aust , ag June, 1891. 530 THE STORY OF ANZAC [zgth-28th Apr., 1915 enemy were digging their first trenches there-the post at first thought they were Australians. Turks all the time tried to get up Wire Gully, but were prevented by outposts on the two sides of the valley. All day long messages were passed along the line of posts, at first verbal, afterwards written on paper and folded in a cartridge clip. The men threw these from left to right or from right to left, and those near the creek bed, who had no field of fire, came to imagine that this was the duty for which they were holding on. During two more days no water arrived. Without realising the fact, the men were becoming dazed. On the fourth evening -Wednesday-two of the 7th Battalion arrived, looking for the 4th Battalion which the 7th was to relieve. The 4th was half a mile away, but as no one knew its whereabouts, these two men stayed on, relieving Louch and his mate, a 3rd Bat- talion man named Clarke. The latter, hardly knowing what they were doing, after crouching in their hole for days, found themselves sitting on its parapet with their backs to the Turks, talking to the newcomers. Presently they nodded good-bye and climbed the hill. At the top a surprise awaited them. They suddenly dropped over a parapet into trenches-excellent trenches-a system of wide alleys in the red earth, deeper than a tall man’s height, with room for two to walk abreast- trenches wandering like the streets of a city, with short byways which led them out to the back of the hill. They had not even dreamed of the existence of this system. All over the front on MacLaurin’s Hill and the 400 Plateau were men who had been fighting since the dawn of the day of landing-Kindon, Salisbury, Everett, Giles, Street, Selby, Raf- ferty, Connell, Knightley. and thousands of others, officers and men. Jacobs, who had supported Kindon’s right on Baby 700, was still with part of his original handful of the 1st and 3rd Brigades at Quinn’s Post. Cowey was wounded. Major Lamb, still between Quinn’s and Courtney’s, after the heavy attack on Tuesday evening wrote to his brigadier: On Sunday morning I was placed in command of 3 platoons of C Coy. 3rd Rn., 1 section B Coy. 3rd Bn, and about 40 men from different companies of 3rd Bde. We have been kept going constantly night and day ever since then. We have had no sleep since Saturday night. I have just received about 150 reinforcements. Could these relieve a couple of platoons of my men? M. LAMB,Major. 27th Apr -1st May, 19151 RELIEF BY THE MARINES 53 1

The tremendous strain of the command on MacLaurin’s Hill had worii out MacLagan, and was now telling heavily upon Owen. The brigade-major was dead, and King, the staff-captain, a young and vigorous British officer, was near to breaking under the tension. Major Brown, Colonel Owen’s right-hand man in the 3rd Battalion, an old Australian soldier of iron nerve, twice hit and his face scarred by shrap- nel after a dash to McDonald’s outpost, vowed he could see a Turkish sniper beside him in the same trench. On Wednesday General Bridges had Brown to a quiet tea on the Beach and sent him back, after a few hours’ sleep, restored. But few could obtain any such respite. Eyes were ctull and glazed ; some spoke heavily like drunken nien ; others with unnatural vivacity. One sign of the strain was the seeing of spies and snipers everywhere. Snipers there were behind the lines on Russell’s Top; as late as May 1st such a state of things existed there as can seldom have been known in modern warfare. But snipers were imagined in every gully. Most of the bullets which fell behind the lines came from the Turkish front trenches, either in sight or over the hills; but wherever a bullet fell, a sniper was suspected. For a week it was a common thing behind the lines to see a platoon of unshaven Australians, with bayonets, scouring the scrub in pairs. They were to use the bayonet only. On May 1st such a platoon was working half-way along Russell’s Top when there was a shot. An Australian fell. There was a scuffle, and a sniper was bayoneted ; then came a second shot, and a sniper was brought in as prisoner. After the first or second day no snipers were found elsewhere, although both they and spies were suspected to exist. Telephone wires-which now ran everywhere through the scrub-were thought to be tapped or cut by the enemy when they were broken by shells or torn by the boots of passing men. The strain showed in a hundred ways, though without a sign of demoralisation. Men would not run from a shell, though they would turn savagely and curse it as a dog snarls at his tormentors. Such was the condition of the force which, with its last slender reserves all thrown into the line, fought through the wild night of Tuesday. April 27th, always waiting for the promised advance of the British upon Achi Baba to relieve 532 THE STORY OF ANZAC [qth-z8th Apr., 1915 it of the unceasing pressure of the Turks. Men and officers little guessed that, thirteen miles to the south, the 29th Division lay equally exhausted after a struggle as fierce as their own. The day-April 27th-when the advance at Helles might have been possible, had lapsed. By the nSth, when movement was made towards Krithia, the Turks had been reinforced, and the 29th Division, worn out, could barely hold what it gained. Birdwood decided to relieve the 1st and 3rd Australian Brigades as soon as ever the Naval reliefs could be hurried to the trenches to replace them. At 4 p.m. two battalions of Royal Marines landed. The Royal Naval Division had been raised by the Admiralty at the outbreak of war to provide a landing force for small expeditions without recourse to the Army. There had first been formed a brigade of Royal Marines from the regular dCpbts at Plymouth, Ports- mouth, Chatham, and Deal. On the 17th of August, 1914, it was decided to expand this by a 1st and 2nd Naval Brigade, consisting of men of the Fleet Reserve, Royal Naval Reserve, and Royal Naval Volunteers, in eight battalions named after great British admirals. A few of the battalions had been landed at Cape Helles, and only four-half of the Royal Marine Brigade and half of the 1st Naval Brigade-were sent to Birdwood. The troops who landed on Wednesday after- noon were the Portsmouth and Chatham Battalions of the Royal Marine Brigade, under Brigadier-General Trotman. The mere knowledge that British troops were landing came as an immense relief to the Australians and New Zealanders. They knew that these men belonged to an old and famous regiment of regulars. For months their officers had spoken to them of the British regular as the model whose steadiness, order, and training they were to imitate; they had seen with their own eyes the cool bravery of British seamen under fire. They estimated the Marines by that magnificent standard, and the mere fact that British troops were now in their arca was accepted as an assurance that the foothold was at last secure. Yet some of those who saw the two new battalions lined, in their great sun helmets and faded khaki, along the Beach could not but feel a doubt. These men seemed strangely young and slender to represent the old seasoned regular Marines. Some of the 3rd Brigade, already disentangled from the Ath-zgth Apr., 19151 RELIEF BY THE MARINES 533 trenches, were bathing in the sea off Hell Spit, great sunburnt muscular men. They had had their tea under intermittent shrapnel on the green side of Victoria Gully, strolling about with their mess tins and conversing without so much as turning to look at the occasional shell-burst whose pellets fell among them. Now, as they splashed each other in the water, one had been killed by a bullet; but nothing would have stopped their swimming. The Marines, many of them youngsters, wondering open-eyed at the heights above and at the crowds and business on the Beach, moved past the bathers up the scrubby gullies. The longed-for relief began before dark. All through the night the relief continued. It was a cold, dismal evening. A black storm of rain descended at sunset, followed by a drizzle lasting till dawn. The Marines, each man laden with his blankets, waterproof sheets, ammunition, and rations as well as his rifle, were exhausted before they reached the hilltops. Though the Australians were not told it, these troops were for the most part raw recruits-gallant youngsters who had volunteered at the outset from the big English dockyard towns. Some had but a few weeks’ training; most only a few months’. Not many had lived out- side a city. They had no conception of the conditions of the fight at Gaba Tepe. Expecting to garrison definite trenches -one asked his way to the officers’ mess-they were led over the top to the worst sectors of the line, to trenches of which those who had held them for days did not realise the badness, to wretched, isolated pot-holes from which the fight on Mac- Laurin’s and the 400 Plateau was still being carried on. The untiring Glasfurd himself, hopping from rifle-pit to rifle-pit, before dusk saw part of the Marines in their line where the old gap had been upon the 400 Plateau. They knew nothing of what was ahead of them or on their flanks. Far on the left, wild and incessant fighting continued at the head of Monash Valley. From the dark came the distant sounds of Turkish bugle-calls. Close in front of them from the dense scrub flashed the occasional rifles of snipers : overhead the bullets cracked ; machine-guns sent the mud of the parapets in showers upon them. Up and down the line came the same wild messages that had passed for days. The relief had not been completed by the dawn. But the Staff, the battalion commanders, the tired officers and men 534 THE STORY OF ANZAC [~7th-3othApr., 1915

who were coming out of the trenches, had begun to realise that the young troops in whose safe possession they had counted to leave the trenches for a few days were being tested by a strain somewhat too exacting. Late on Wednesday night Captain Butler, medical officer of the gth, still working at his aid-post, then in Bridges’ Road, was startled to find a rush of Marines back through his station. Loutit’s post appears to have been lost. Some sort of retirement occurred. But a proportion of the 3rd Australian Infantry Brigade, which had enjoyed a day’s rest, had been ordered before dusk to stand ready during the relief. Major Brand organised 100 men from each battalion. The 9th and-12th were sent to MacLaurin’s Hill. The 12th Battalion party under Captain KayserS and Lieutenant Rafferty, after being held in support for two hours behind the crest, was taken forward to garrison some of the advanced rifle-pits, and was kept there till Friday. The 9th Battalion party returned to the Beach in the morning. Two more units, the Deal Battalion of Royal Marines, and the Nelson Battalion, with Brigadier-General Mercerlo and the Staff of the 1st Naval Brigade, landed on Thursday, April 29th. The Nelson Battalion was kept in reserve, but the Deal Battalion during Thursday night relieved most of the Australian line upon the 400 Plateau. In the new line of the Marines there were still parties of Australians unrelieved and difficult to reach. On Thursday, April 29th, twenty men under Lieutenant Heming of the 10th still held a post there, short of food and water. Everett and his men were kept between Steele’s and Courtney’s because they could not be spared. In the vital posts in Monash Valley, held by the 4th Brigade, there were still forty men of the 3rd Battalion and other rem- nants, with whom the officers thought it unwise to dispense until scattered portions of the 4th Brigade itself could be brought to the head of Monash Valley. But though the authorities could not give them so complete a rest as had been intended, it was found possible on Wednes- day to extricate for a swift reorganiqation most of the 3rd @MajorJ. A W. Kayser; 12th Bn. Schoolmaster, Education Dept., S. Aust.; of Alberton. Port Adelaide, S. Aust.; b. Lyndoch, S. Aust., 4 Oct., 1877. Kdkd in action. 16 Feb., 1917. 10 Major-General Sir. D. Mercer, K.C.B. Subsequently Adjutant-General, Royal Marine Forces; b. Islington, London, Eng., I July, 1864; died I July, 1920. 28th-3oth Apr , 19151 RELIEF BY THE MARINES 535

Brigade, and on Thursday most of the 1st. A concentration area was fixed at the mouth of Shrapnel Gully and on the folds south of it, and to this for two days there straggled along the Beach or down various tracks from the hilltops in- dividual men, men in twos and threes, men in platoons, with or without officers. Bearded, ragged at knees and elbows, their putties often left in the scrub, dull-eyed, many with blood on cheeks and clothes, and with a dirty field-dressing round arm or wrist, they were far fiercer than Turks to look upon. They had long since taken the wire hoops from their caps in order to break the obvious outline which too often had showed like a disc in the scrub. Many had learned to wear for camouflage a spray of holly over the peaks of their caps or in the bands of their battered and bullet-torn Australian hats. Officers were often indistinguishable from men; buttons were gone, and stars scored in indelible pencil on shoulder-straps became a recognised badge of an officer’s rank. The normally dapper Majcr Drake Brockman. sitting worn-out at the foot of Pope’s Hill, was accosted by a sergeant-major of the 13th Battalion as he rounded up a ration party. “Come on m’ lad ; we’re all tired, but we’ve got to get this water up the hill !” Many wan- dered in a half-sleep, like tired children. When that nurse 04 his men. Major Brand, gave the last worn-out party under Rafferty biscuits and cheese, cigarettes, and a tot of rum, the men, after beginning to eat, went to sleep with the food still in their hands Corporal Louch, of the IIth, when he stumbled into the trenches from the battle outposts, found a tin of water and then fell asleep. He waked, went down steep paths in the scrubby hillside to the Beach, collected some sticks, lit a fire, boiled a mess-tin of water for tea, and cleaned his rifle while the water was boiling. Then he tried the tea and found he did not want it. He started along the Beach to Hell Spit, dragging his rifle through the sand by its sling and trailing in the other hand the overcoat-either Clarke’s or that of some other man of the 3rd-which he had dragged with him from his pot-hole. His face, cut by a bullet, was caked with blood, and he had a four days’ beard. Some friend passing asked him where Clarke was. “Yes-he’s here,” he replied; and then realised that he had not seen him since reaching the trenches. 536 THE STORY OF ANZAC [zgth-30th Apr., 1915 Many of these men came to the Beach as country men come to the city-to a great centre of wonderful sights of which they had heard the vague mention-a scene changed beyond all recognition since the wild rush from the landing- place in the dawn. The packs which they had piled there were in many cases long since rifled or scattered, for the sentries guarding them had been rounded up on the first night and sent to the firing line. But men met friends and mates whom they had little thought to see again. Often each group had imagined itself to comprise all the survivors of the battalion. The concentration area was under intermittent shrapnel and sprayed with a desultory fire from unaimed or distant rifles. But they heeded all this less than the drops of a summer shower. All day the men swam, washed, mended their clothes, and gave one another the benefit of their experiences. The roll of each battalion was called. On the average it had entered the fight with thirty officers and 930 men. The num- bers of those killed, wounded, and missing up to noon on April 30th were found to be:- 3rd BRIGADE. Unit. Killed. Wounded. Missing. Totals. Off. Others Off. Others Off. Others (Iff. Other8 Bde. H.Q. - - -1 -- -I 9th Bn. 7 25 11 229 1 242 19 396 10th.. .~~ Bn.~.. 5 45 8 224 - 184 13 453 11th Bn. 2 37 7 183 - 154 9 369 12th Bn. 4 69 15 224 2 191 21 484 Total loss ------3rd Bde. I8 171 41 861 3 771 62 1,803 Of the missing a proportion were afterwards found to have been sent away wounded without any record being kept. The rest were dead. Of 5.000 who were lost in the 1st Australian Division only one man was a prisoner. 1st BRIGADE. Unit. Killed. Wounded. Missing. Totals. Off. Others Off. Others Off. Others Off. 0:hers Bde. H.Q. 2- -- .- - 2- 1st Bn. 3 36 13 201 I 174 17 411 2nd Bn. 5 39 10 24: 1 154 16 434 3rd Bn. 3 37 14 180 - 81 17 298 4th Bn. 2 26 6 89 .- 67 8 182 Total loss -- .- - __ - -- 1st Bde. 15 138 43 711 2 476 60 1,325 c ; i

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c1

c 9 x 25th Apr.-1st May, 19151 RELIEF BY THE MARINES 537 The northern portion of the line of the 2nd Brigade also was relieved by the Deal Battalion of Marines on Thursday night, most of the sth, 6th, and 7th Battalions being released. This left the 8th and 4th Battalions at the southern end of the line. On Friday the 3rd Brigade, after two days’ respite. was put into that part of the front, and the relief of the 2nd Brigade was complete. Its losses were found to number- 2nd BRIGADE. Unit. Killed. Wounded Missing. Totals Off. Others Off. Others Off. Others Off. Others Bde. H.Q. ------5th Bn. 1 29 12 247 1 220 14 4% 6th Bn. 4 30 10 155 - 212 14 397 7th Bn. 2 68 15 229 - 227 17 524 8th Bn. 3 21 8 136 1 50 12 207 Total loss ------2nd Bde. 10 148 45 767 2 709 57 1,624 The 1st Brigade returned to the trenches on Saturday night, relieving the Marines on part of MacLaurin’s Hill and the 400 Plateau. Thus, from Thursday, April 2gth, to Saturday, May rst, a considerable part of the Anzac line was in the hands of the Marines. It remains to follow the fighting which occurred during that time. The Chatham and Portsmouth Battalions of Marines relieved the 3rd Battalion on MacLaurin’s Hill and also the 10th Battalion on the northern part of the 400 Plateau. The line on the Plateau south of this was held by the Deal Battalion, which came in on Thursday night. General Trotman, of the Royal Marine Brigade, took over from Colonel Owen the head- quarters on the southern shoulder of MacLaurin’s Hill (known as Scott’s Point). The Marines in the rifle pits on MacLaurin’s Hill were strengthened by a sprinkling of men of the 3rd Brigade-already looked upon as veterans-under Kayser (who had fought at Pine Ridge) and Rafferty; also when the Marines in the early hours of Thursday, climbing on hands and knees up the wet greasy slope to Courtney’s Post, relieved Major Lamb’s men and part of the 14th, this portion of the 14th camped on the hillside close behind the relieving troops. 538 THE STORY OF ANZAC [~Sth-zgthApr., 1915

Half the eastern front, 1,000 yards, from Courtney’s to Brown’s Dip, was thus held by the Chatham, Portsmouth, and Deal Battalions of Marines.ll Each was supposed to be gw strong. This was none too many for so difficult a front, and General Trotman felt some anxiety about the extension of his line to Courtney’s. Little help, however, could be given him except as an extreme measure. The 4th Australian Brigade was involved in constant fighting (described in a later chapter) at the still more pre- , carious positions of Quinn’s and Pope’s ; the other Australian bri- gades were reorganising. Thursday was in most parts of the line as quiet as the pre- vious day. General Birdwood’s appeal to the troops to save ammunition and allow the Turks to waste theirs had duly circulated, and though a roar of rifle fire still continued throughout the night, nearly the whole of it came from the enemy. During these days both sides were digging actively. Rafferty and his men of the 12th on MacLaurin’s Hill managed to connect their wretched pits by tunnelling from one to the other, keeping close enough to the surface to see the roots of the grass and then breaking down the roof. The Marines with Rafferty worked with all their might. But on the 400 Plateau Glasfurd, conscientiously going his precarious round from rifle-pit to rifle-pit, found th’e trenches still un- improved. Officers and N.C.O.’s of the Marines had to expose themselves in visiting their line, and many were killed. The first signs of a Turkish trench system appeared on the Chessboard at dawn on Wednesday; on Thursday the enemy was seen to be entrenching opposite every part of the line. Some zoo were burrowing upon Lone Pine, until the artillery was turned upon them. Turks were pushed forward at dusk to dig at Quinn’s, the Chessboard, and The Nek. On the horizon they could be seen entrenching along Gun

~ The Portsmouth Bn. held the Sector south of Wire Gully, including the gully itself. z7th-3oth Apr., 19151 RELIEF BY THE MARINES 539 Ridge. So fierce had been the fire that until that day the Turks had not been able to establish themselves definitively upon the knuckles of the same ridge as the Australians. During the time when Pope and Walker were out of com- niunicatioii, each feeling blindly for the other’s flank, a similar uncertainty existed on the Turkish side. For days the 33rd Regiment on the 400 Plateau could get no touch with the 125th, which had arrived since Tuesday’s attack and gone in to the south of it. They were in communication during a part of Wednesday night, but on Thursday had lost touch with one another again. Their junction was urgently necessary if Mustafa Kemal was to carry out his immediate plans. Kemal intended at the earliest moment to launch a third general counter-attack. Reinforcements, again amounting to five fresh battalions, had arrived. Kemal seems to have attributed the failure of Tuesday’s attack to two causes- first, its coming under the fire of the warships, and, second, the neglect of the attacking regiments to advance together and support one another. The first could be eliminated by avoiding an advance from a distance over hills visible to the ships. As to the second, he enjoined upon his commanders to keep a constant watch on the progress of other regiments on their flanks and to act with them. Now that a trench system was taking shape, there wasno need for the Turkish troops to approach for the attack by moving in waves across country. Regular routes of approach were now in use, beginning far back along runnels or wash- aways, and finally leading through communication trenches to the front line. Infantry for the assault could be marched up through these overnight and massed close to the front for the attack in the morning. During two quiet days-Wednes- day and Thursday-the Turkish reinforcements arrived in the area. Arms and equipment were collected from the dead on the field and sent back by empty ration carts to a store at Boghali. Sniping squads of ten, twenty, or even fifty men were pushed forward by every unit. Strong efforts were made on Thursday to establish a trench line everywhere close to the Australian front. The 33rd Regiment tried vainlv to gain touch with the 125th. On Friday night at the southern end of the 300 Plateau a company of the 2nd Battalion of the 125th endeavoured to advance to a position on the flank 540 THE STORY OF ANZAC [3oth Apr., 1915 of the ~3rd. But through making a great deal of noise it brought on itself heavy fire. A leading officer was killed, and the rest retired. There remained still the gap between the left of the 33rd and the right of the next unit,12 about 1,000 yards wide. with the 125th Regiment somewhere in the rear. On Friday, April goth, Iiemal assured his troops that, with the five fresh battalion^'^ and certain machine-guns and artillery, they would, by the help of God, deal the enemy a final blow before further reinforcements reached him. The line was to reorganise and the men to have all possible rest. The officers themselves were to see to this, and supply officers of the 33rd were ordered to supervise in person the bringing up of hot food to the men. Commanders of sectors were to come to a conference at Mustafa Kemal’s headquarters at 2 p.ni. on Friday. The attack was fixed for Saturday, May 1st. On Friday afternoon and night great activity was noticed in the Turkish lines opposite the Chatham Battalion upon MacLaurin’s Hill. Vigorous sniping was part of the Turkish plan, and behind it, at about 4 p.m., the Turks appear to have been massing in Wire Gully. The pressure upon the Marines from Courtney’s southwards became very great. The 14th Battalion relieved them at Courtney’s, and the Marines from that post were moved further south along the hill. A break was feared, and at 4 o’clock the Marine supports were brought up close behind the crest at Steele’sl‘ to a point where they ceased to be protected by the shoulder of the indentation. Clustered together, they were seen by the Turks at the Chess- board and The Nek. A machine-gun was turned upon them from the rear, and large numbers were slaughtered. On Friday afternoon Rafferty and his men of the 12th, who for three days had been reinforcing the Marines in the forward rifle-pits on MacLaurin’s Hill, were at last relieved. At 5 p.m. Captain Graham of the Chatham Battalion, on the southern end of the hill, appealed urgently for help, The Australians at the head of Monash Valley could perceive that the Turks were heavily reinforcing their line Probably the 7znd (Arab) Infantry Regiment 13 There is some evidence that these were the 125th Regt of the 16th Div and part of the 13th Regt. of the jth Div. hlustafa Kemal in his orders said that he expected two further battallons during Frlday night 14 Plates at pp jz~and j37 show this position a few days later. 30th Apr.-Ist May, 19151 RELIEF BY THE MARINES 541 opposite the left of the Marines. The fusillade there became intense. Graham reported that he was holding on “by the skin of his teeth,” with no trenches in his possession. “The enemy occupy our trench over the bluff,” he said. “The footholds are so bad that I shall want every available man to hold them.” Major Steel, with 150 men of the 14th Battalion, was at once sent up. Some of them occupied, together with the Marines, the narrow trenches on the crest; others were held in support. As night fell, the firing became furious. The Turks did not attack the trench which Steel had reinforced, but about midnight there came to Bridges a most alarming report from the Marines of the same sector. The Turks, it was said, had broken through and were in their trenches. By hurried measures a further party of the 4th Brigade was sent up. A portion of trench was found empty of men but the Turks had not reached it. The position was confused, hut part of the old battle outposts in Wire Gully appears to have been lost. The Marines had sought by digging to make a continuous line of these wretched rifle-pits, down one side of the gully and up the other. But with the Turks on the two knuckles looking down into them, these trenches were impossible to hold and should never have been taken over.15 Now that they were dug, they were useless, and were occupied mainly by the crowded dead of the Marines and of the 3rd Battalion. On the top of the hill a few Marines were still garrisoning Loutit’s isolated trench, cut off in front of the line. Sergeants MeageP and McLeod,“ with some of the 3rd Battalion, knowing the post, went out and stayed with these for several days, until May Sth, when the post was withdrawn.* Whether the Turkish movements on Friday night were an attack or an attempt to gain advanced positions preliminary to an attack will probably never be known. The assault was launched in earnest with the dawn. At 4 a.m. the enemy, about a battalion strong, advanced against MacLaurin’s Hill.

13 Captain NcConaghy of the 3rd Bn said afterwaras that he had advised the hlnrines not to take over his hattle outpost as the trenches were fairly complete But presumahlg the Marines had been ordered to occupy them ‘“Lieut H R 1%’ Meager: 3rd Bn Clerk: b. Newport. Isle of Wight, Eng., 188; Killed in action. h’8 Aug, 1915 l’1.ieut T D NcLeod: 3rd Rn Jeweller: of Cootamundra District, N.S.W.: b Geelong. Vic. 20 Feb , 1892 Killed in action. 8 Aug, xgrj. A much fuller account is given In the preface, p+p xtr-rxgs 542 THE STORY OF ANZAC [ 1st May, 1915 The Marines and the 14th Battalion met them with a tremendous fire. When 200 yards distant, the Turks broke and fled, losing heavily. They were rallied, and advanced again; but the heart had gone out of the attack. It swerved to the right towards Courtney’s and withered. About the same time a rush was made against the 15th Battalion in Quinn’s. It was easily beaten. The Turkish shrapnel fire on the whole area was heavy all day. Shortly after midday large numbers of Turks were observed moving over the spurs at the end of Mule Valley, and between there and Baby 700. About a battalion approached from the gullies near Baby 700 in the direction of the Bloody Angle and Pope’s Hill; others swept into Mule Valley ; others onto Johnston’s Jolly. About 300 massed opposite Captain Graham on MacLaurin’s Hill. At 4 p.m. they attacked along the front from Quinn’s to Lone Pine. Some 300 pushed close enough to Quinn’s to throw a few bombs into tlie trenches. Across Johnston’s Jolly about 1.000 made a spirited attack upon the Marines’ line, jumping over the bushes on the plateau and advancing in a manner which called forth the admiration of the gallant Glasfurd, who was making another of his many journeys along the line. The machine-guns and rifles of the Marines opened, and, when 200 yards distant. tlie advance broke down. By 6 o’clock the enemy had retired to their newly-dug trenches on the 400 Plateau. At the head of Monash Valley the Turks rallied and attacked again; and far on th,e right, after dark when the moon rose, they suddenly appeared in droves, sweeping past the left of the 12th Battalion-which was now in the line again on Bolton’s Hill -towards the Deal Marines. The 12th poured in a controlled fire in bursts-“five rounds rapid”-whenever a good target offered. Rosenthal’s guns opened at 700 yards range. The Turks fell back disordered, but again advanced and again were broken by bursts of fire. The Marines bore the brunt of Mustafa Kemal’s third attack. Though better timed and delivered than the last, it completely failed. Kemal planned no further general assault. The struggle now resolved itself into bitter and continuous fighting for the vital ground at the head of hlonash Valley.