World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Turkey -- Gallipoli Peninsula
We are going out to sea again. A tug comes alongside with wounded,
and they are carefully hoisted on board by slings. They are the first
wounded that I have ever seen in my life, and I look over the side with
curiosity and study their faces. They are mostly Lancashire Fusiliers
from “W” Beach. Some look pale and stern, some are groaning now and
again, while others are smoking and joking with the crew of the tug.
I talk to one of the more slightly wounded, and he tells me that it
was “fun” when once they got ashore, but they “copped it” from machine
guns in getting out of the boats into shallow water, where they found
venomous barbed wire was thickly laid. He laid out four John Turks and
then “copped it” through the thigh, and three hours afterwards was
picked up by sailors.
And then, “Any chance of Blighty, sir?” and I said, “I’m afraid not; it
will be Malta or Alex, and back here again,” to which he replied, “Yes;
I want to get back to the regiment.”
_12 noon._
We are going closer in again, and the Royal Scots are leaving. The
Quartermaster, Lieutenant Steel, remains behind with ration parties.
He is very impatient and wants to get off; a curious man: tells me he
doesn’t think he will come off Gallipoli alive.
_2.15 p.m._
I have a dismal lunch, just like the breakfast. I can see French troops
pouring out of small boats now on to the Asiatic side and forming up
in platoons and marching in open order inland, while shrapnel bursts
overhead. During lunch I find that we went out to sea, but are nearing
the land now. Oh! when shall I get off this ship? I wonder. Milward
tells me that the delay occurred because at first we were to land at
“V” Beach, but that it has become so hot there that landing to-day is
impossible. He says that I shall land at 4 p.m. I hear a cheer, a real
British one. Is that a charge? My imagination had conjured up a mass
of yelling and maddened men rushing forward helter-skelter. What I see
is crouching figures, some almost bent double, others jog-trotting
over the grass with bright sun-rays flashing on their bayonets. Now
and again a figure falls and lies still—very still in a crumpled heap;
while all the time the crack-crack of musketry and the pop-popping of
machine guns never ceases. That is what a charge looks like. I chat to
Milward, and he tells me that the Navy are doing their job well, and
he will be surprised if a single Turk is alive for three miles inshore
by nightfall, but he expresses surprise that we have only the 29th and
Australians; as he figures it we want six Divisions and the job over in
a month. This depresses me.
I have orders to leave, and I must get ready.
_4 p.m._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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