World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Turkey -- Gallipoli Peninsula
I dine with Ritchie at 7.30 p.m. in his dugout under our cliff, between
our position and the bakery. Five other officers are there; amongst
them is Major Huskisson a charming “Gypy” Army A.S.C. man, who is in
charge of the Main Supply depot here, and also a man who was in the
_River Clyde_ at the landing and who saw Colonel Carrington-Smith
killed. Ritchie is O.C. a Labour Corps, camped on the side of the cliff
around his dugout. We play bridge after dinner, and I actually have
a whisky. First game of bridge I have had since we landed, and it is
weird playing in such surroundings. Outside, a perfect moonlight night.
Elsewhere I have mentioned the Isle of Imbros by night. But really it
is next to impossible to describe the beauty of these Greek islands,
unless one is a poet or a painter. To my mind, Imbros is the most
beautiful of any of the isles in reach of the Peninsula. But to-night,
as it seemed, she surpassed herself in beauty. The sea lies like a
sheet of liquid silver under the rays of the moon. There, like a
precious gem, lies Imbros, sleeping on the face of the waters; her deep
valleys and gorges, running down to the sea, are aswim with purple
shadows, and her rugged mountain crests stand out violet and clear-cut
against the star-spangled velvet of the skies. Her feet are wrapt about
as with a snowy drapery, woven of the little foaming crests of lazy
wavelets lapping around her. From behind her the feathery night clouds
appear to swathe themselves about her, and her mountain peaks seem
like a coronet set upon the dusky brow of some beautiful goddess of
the night. All is silent, and she sleeps peacefully upon the waters,
awaiting the coming of the fiery god of the morning, who, dashing
across the sky in his chariot of flame, will awaken her with a burning
kiss—driving the purple shadows from her valleys and filling them with
a swimming golden glory which shall make her seem even more lovely by
day than by night. Truly is she a goddess upon the waters, a rival
almost of Aphrodite herself.
As I go back to bed, walking back along the foot of the cliff, rifle
fire is rattling away on our left. I climb up to our “bivvy,” being
challenged several times, and turn into bed.
_May 27th._
Woke at 6.30 this morning, feeling very refreshed, and find it is a
beautiful morning. The view is perfect from our biscuit-box “bivvy.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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