World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Turkey -- Gallipoli Peninsula
There is a good place where I bathe and often visit, not so very far
from our dugout. It is a little cove, plentifully besprinkled with
huge boulders and protected on all sides. We walk up the rugged slope
opposite our dugout to the top of the cliff. Then there is a difficult
descent down the sheer face of the cliff to the water’s edge. It seems
so odd, to be on this little patch of rock where we seem to leave
the war miles behind us. Then we hear it muttering and grumbling
in the hills above and behind us—sometimes, when least expected, a
battleship looses off with a roar that shakes the crags above us—but
we are safe, quite safe, as no shells can reach this spot; and so, in
the midst almost of this welter of blood, disease, and death, quite
light-heartedly we proceed to the most peaceful of pastimes—bathing.
I go up to H.Q. after dinner and enjoy the walk, feeling ready for bed
when I return.
_September 18th._
It has been very quiet this morning. The work of getting supplies
on shore, carting them up to the Main Supply depot, and from there
to the several divisional depots, goes on now day and night like a
well-managed business. The Main Supply depot is rapidly accumulating
a reserve of supplies for us to fall back on should bad weather set
in and prevent us landing on some days. I learn that we now have
sufficient preserved food in the Main depot to feed 60,000 men and
5,000 animals on shore for a month, and soon there will be stores for
six weeks.
At five o’clock the Turks sprang a surprise bombardment on to the
left of our line, and simultaneously, just as I was walking the few
yards from our Supply depot to our men, four 18-pounder shrapnel
burst overhead. All about the depot dive for cover, and many of them
rush into our dugout, it being the most handy. A minute only and four
more come, burst overhead, the bullets rattling on the shrapnel-proof
roof. Foley is with me; Way and Carver are up on the cliff in a safe
spot. Petro is up on the high ground behind our dugout, having gone
there to watch a battleship firing on to Burnt Hill, while Phillips
is down on the beach, looking after a water-cart. Never before have
we had 18-pounder shrapnel burst as far up the promontory as this,
and we are naturally surprised how the Turks could have pushed one of
their batteries so close up to get the range. As fast as we put our
heads out to see if Phillips or Petro is about, a salvo of four shells
arrives over, most of them bursting in the neighbourhood of our depot
and a few on the beach further over to the left. No one is about; all
have gone to ground like rabbits. They give it us hot and strong for
fifteen minutes, and then stop. All the time the battleships have
been firing, and I think must have got on to this particular battery.
We cautiously come out of our dugout and look about. Gradually men
all over the beaches appear from all directions and go about their
respective jobs. Petro turns up from a dugout close by, beaming all
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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