World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Turkey -- Gallipoli Peninsula
On inspecting it and making arrangements for the attack on the second
objective, he came back to his old H.Q. to telephone the result, an
orderly accompanying him. Half-way back a Turk leapt up from behind
a bush, ten yards away from him, and fired his rifle, the bullet
instantly killing Colonel Williams’s orderly. Colonel Williams drew his
revolver, took deliberate aim, and the Turk, also taking deliberate
aim, levelled his rifle at the same time. For a second an old-time
duel might have been taking place, in the middle of an historic
battleground, which was lately No-man’s-land. Both fire; the Turk falls
dead, and Colonel Williams is wounded in the left arm. That Turk was a
brave man, but I think Colonel Williams is a braver.
_June 6th, 7 a.m._
Shells come over on east side of the beach from a four-gun Turkish
battery, and big stuff too, about 6-inch.
_7.30 a.m._
More arrive in middle of our camp on the west side of the battery. We
take cover under a cliff. I, wanting to get down to Train office, go up
a cliff and am just about to descend the steps when the shriek of one
is heard, by which I could tell it is close to me. I fall flat into a
hole on one side of the cliff, and it passes over the cliff and bursts
on the beach, killing gunner sergeant-major. Ugh! how they shriek.
Heavy firing continued on left all night. We lost a trench, but
regained it. A Turkish Padre is a prisoner on the beach to-day. He
looks rather a dear old chap, with quite a benevolent expression.
_6 p.m._
I go up to Brigade with Carver in the afternoon, leaving our horses at
Pink Farm. My old mare knows Pink Farm well now. When I dismounted
to-day and let go the reins, she walked over to the tree that I always
tie her to, under cover of the farm, quite on her own.
At H.Q. bullets are zipping over more frequently than I have ever
known them to do before. Waiting to see General Doran, who should I
see strolling calmly across the country but my friend Dent, of the
Inniskillings. The last time we had met was at a gramophone dance at
some common friends’ home in Edgbaston. We have a chat about those
days, and ask each other for news of the partners we used to dance
with. All the time, “ping-ping,” bullets fly about, but as he does
not seem to mind, I take my cue from him and try not to mind either.
Besides, it would be rather nice to get a cushy one in the arm.
_11 p.m._
We are being shelled by a battery from Kum Kale. This is the first time
we have been shelled at night. They do not reach our side of the beach,
and, as Phillips says he “can read the mind of the Turkish gunner” (he
is always saying this, and I have great confidence in him), and that we
are off the target, I go to sleep without anxiety.
_June 7th._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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