World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Turkey -- Gallipoli Peninsula
The second and third lines are thickly wired with barbed wire in front,
which stands in fences 8 feet high. At intervals there are passages
through these fences to allow us to pass through on our way to and
from the line. On the last night these passages will be closed, and
the only way to get through will be by barbed wire gates across the
few roads. Officers will be on duty at these gates, and they will
have fixed thereon telephonic communication to the beaches. The final
evacuation of the front line will be carried out as is the present
daily evacuation of troops, keeping to a strict programme. The officer
in charge of the last party down a certain road will report his unit
and name to the officer in charge of the gate. This will be checked
by the list which the officer will have with him of the last parties
down, and if correct the officer, who will then know that the last
troops have passed through, will telephone this information to the
beach, close and bar the gate, and proceed with the party to the next
line and himself report to the officer at that gate, where the same
procedure will follow. And so on to the beaches, the only way to which
is by the roads. After the last parties have passed through the last
line, then those on the beaches will know that all have passed safely
through, and that there are three lines of trenches thickly protected
by barbed wire between the beaches and the enemy. The last parties to
leave will be hurried on board the waiting destroyers, trawlers, and
ships; the skeleton framework of the Supply depot, the remaining stores
which have been unavoidably left, will be set ablaze by the igniting of
petrol-sodden hay. The remaining officers will make a bolt for the few
remaining pinnaces. That is the scheme.
The British population of Suvla daily dwindles away, unbeknown to
the ignorant Turk. Ammunition and ordnance and all manner and kind
of stores and equipment are daily disappearing into the holds of the
waiting ships. These ships are not more numerous than the ships which
have lain in the bay in the safety of the boom since August 6th, so
that from their presence our plot is not given away. To the enemy
our daily life appears the same, and he gives us our daily ration of
shells—now of good quality and effective—and no doubt is laughing at
us, with the memory of the recent awful storm and the coming blizzards
of a rigorous winter. If all goes well, if the well-laid schemes of
our G.S. “gang not agley,” and no bloody rearguard action is forced
upon us, it will be our turn to laugh in a few days. To-night the wind
has changed to the north-west; we may hoodwink the Turks, but not
the mighty elements, and we pray that they will be our allies in our
task. If our enemies, then we must give ourselves up in unconditional
surrender, hoping for no mercy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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