1st Brigade-1st Battery ’ 2nd Battery 3rd Battery 2nd Brigade-4th Battery 5th Battery Each battery comprising 6th Battery ’ four 18-Pdr* guns 3rd Brigade-7th Battery 8th Battery 9th Battery , 58 THE STORY OF ANZAC [Apr.-May, 1915 nioved to any position to which a mule could climb. When, therefore. the 26th was forced out of action on April 25th. with losses in officers, men, and material so heavy that only four of its guns could be manned, two of these, under Lieutenant Rossiter,l were sent that evening up precipitous slopes to Plugge’s Plateau, which rose for 300 feet almo3t sheer from the Beach. Here they were joined by two guns of the sister battery, the ZIst, and so constituted a four-gun battery firing upon the heights of the main range north of the New Zealand front. The remaining guns of the 21st Battery, placed near the lower end of Shrapnel Gully, provided a second battery firing at the same heights. The two other active guns of the 26th Battery, under Lieutenant Whitting. were sent next day to a third position, a spur of Bolton’s Ridge on the right flank, where they overlooked Galla Tepe. When on April 27th the two divisions of the army corps were completely ashore and working under their own coni- manders, the Indian mountain-batteries were allotted, the 26th to the N.Z. & A., and the 21st to the 1st Australian Division. The 21st Battery placed its six guns in Shrapnel Gully, still firing for the time being against the encmy facing the N 2. 8 A. The 26th kept Rossiter’s section (two guns) on Plugge’s Plateau, removed Whitting’s to another position on Bolton’s-from which it could conveniently fire northward upon the inland slopes of the main range-and with the help of twenty drivers of an Australian ammunition column* got its two unmanned guns into action, under Major Bruce,* on the rugged razor-edge of Walker’s Ridge, from which they fired northwards along the seaward slopes of the same range. A section of the 21st Battery, under Lieutenant Ramson,’ was transferred to Bolton’s to fire south-east or north. The position of the mountain-batteries at the hecinning of May therefore was this-26th Rattery : two 1 Lieut -Col. F. N. C. Rossiter. bl B.E . M.C : R G.A.; b. Exwick. Devonshire. Eng 25 Oct.. 1838 ’The 3rd Bde. Ammn. Col. A month later. on May 29, two of these men, still fighting as members of the 26th (Jacob's) nltn Btr.. were killed Thev were Gnrs. J E Le blasurier (of Jersey. Channel Islands). and 31 3lcDonnell (of Brishane) ‘Maj J. E. L. Bruce, RA ; h Rangoon, Burma. TO Jan, 1870 Killed in action, a9 May, 191s. ‘Brigadier C. D. Rawson. D.S 0, p s.c.; R G.A ; b. Coimhatore, Madras residency, India, zz Oct, 1883 O\erhed traversc (against erililade hi e I hatid wall ) Soldiers' sleeping shelte; or " pozzy cwered Iy waterproof re step sheet ep. SECTION OF AN i\S7AC FIKL-T6ENCH NEAR STEELE'S POSr, SHO\VINC; T\\@ RECESSES AND ILLUSTR\TINC THE bREAT DEPTH OF THE TRENCHES AND 1 HE NECFSSITY OF FIRF-STEPS ..lust. Ti'or Mc1noriai Oficial Photo h'o Gro75 To p 58 THE NALAL AKTILLEKI OE~EI<V\TI(IN-PCISTOh EOLTONS HILI.. 3KD LIAY, 1915 Officers oi the Australian artillery directing the warships’ tire. Aust. ff’ar hlemorral Ofir:ul Photo No (;940 Tu f~ct.p 59. Apr.-May, 19151 THE ARTILLERY 59 guns on Walker’s, two on Plugge’s, two on Bolton’s, all firing north or north-eastward ; 21st Battery : four guns in Shrapnel Gully, firing north or north-east. Two on Bolton’s, firing south, east, or north. The last two were the only mountain-guns which really covered targets in front of the 1st Australian Divi- sion, the other ten firing mainly upon positions facing the N.Z. Sr A. The N.Z. & A. Division had also at its command the four batteries of New Zealand field artillery. Of these the howitzers, - being the most useful in moun- tainous country, had been landed on April 26th. Although the 2nd New Zealand Battery was disembarked on the 27tl1, no suitable position was found for it until April 3oth, when two of its guns were hauled by hand tip the newly-made road to Plugge’s and eniplaced near Rossiter’s mountain-guns. From that time it became the special protection of Quinn’s Post, 950 yards distant. The 1st New Zealand Battery, which landed that day, could as yet he used only along the Beach, no possible emplacement having been found elsewhere in the precipitous New Zealand sector. The 3rd was still in its ship when, on May 4th, it was sent with four Australian batteries to Cape Helles. It has already beeit explained that, of the mountain artil- lery allotted to the 1st Australian Division, only two guns- Rawwn‘s-were firing against the enemy facing their division, while the rest covered the heights at the end of Monash Valley; of the Australian artillery proper there had been emplaced, by May 5th, only nine guns. The knoll at the southern end of the Beach, which was occupied on April 25th by one field- gin of the 4th Battery, and within a few days by two more guns of the 4th and two of the 5th, became the position of the 2nd Field Artillery Brigade under Colonel G. J. Johnston; meanwhile the site which Rosenthal had originally discovered for the 7th Battery on Bolton’s Ridge remained the only one occupied by his brigade (the 3rd). This position on the right I 60 THE STORY OF ANZAC [Apr.-May,i915 was not indeed one in which artillery would normally he employed, and Rosenthal had been compelled to use the whole force of his thrusting personality to get it approved; but at least it was d ridge to which guns could he dragged, and from which they could be fired to assist the infantry and affect the course of the fighting. They were emplaced immediately behind the actual firing line, each of the four being directed towards a different point of the compass, so that together they covered all the country round the southern flank. On the other hand Johnston's five guns near the mouth of Shrapnel Gdly fired chiefly upon the slopes of the main range beyond the N.Z. Sr A. Division, frequently searching for the trouble- some enemy batteries concealed there, and for snipers shooting down Monash Valley. From the first, therefore, the front of the N.Z. i3 A. Division was fairly well covered by artillery. But of the nine emplaced Australian field-guns not one could burst its shell upon the summits of Lone Pine, Johnston's Jolly, or German Officers' Ridge, the vital sector of the line of their own division. At the beginning of May the remaining twenty-seven Australian guns were not in use, and, though the rest of the 4th and 5th Batteries had landed and the 8th was being brought ashore, the entire 1st Brigade and all the guns of the 6th and 9th Batteries were still in their ships. It was at this stage that the call arrived for additional batteries at Cape Helles, where the advance had proceeded sufficiently to allow of the employment of a large force of artillery: and where the country was suitable for field-guns. As a result the Ist, and, 3rd, and 6th Batteries, Australian Field L4rtillery,and the 3rd New Zealand Battery nere sent thither to take part in the impending thrust towards Achi Baba." Not only had General Bridges thus lost the use of sixteen of his guns, but of the fifteen-nine of field and six of moun- tain artillery-which had by May 1st been emplaced in his half of the Anzac area, only two were in such a position that they could attempt to deal with the Turkish works on the 400 Plateau. upon which he most urgently required them io 8 The first guns in action at Helles had been a few horse-artillery batteries of the 29th Div which landed on April 27 and zS, but all the remaining guns of that division were now being rapidly disembarked. a C.H Q appears to have asked for all the Australian guns not then on shore. Gen Bridges. however pointed out that one N Z hattery was still afloat, and he was therefore allowed to retain the 9th Australian Battery, the 3rd New Zealand Rattery going in its place 1st-8th May, 19151 THE ARTILLERY 61 fire. When on May 1st the Turks attacked the marines along the whole centre of the Australian line, the Shrapnel Gully guns, although little over Iiadf-a-mile from the assault and firing over that part of the line, were unable to interfere with the enemy. Yet it chanced that this was the very sector upon which General Bridges, for another urgent reason, desired at the beginning of May the assistance of his artillery. At that time, after Hamilton’s order to stand on the defensive, the commander of the 1st Australian Division con- centrated all his energy upon obtaining a suitable foothold for the resumption of the offensive which, he never doubted, would shortly come. He was eager for that movement, and was convinced (as probably was Birdwood also at this time) that a preliminary to it must be the capture of Gaba Tepe.