The Turks were emboldened by the failure of the great offensive movement, and proved more enterprising than at any time since the first month's occupation of Anzac. The whole area was ranged by their artillery, posted on all the commanding positions in the neighbourhood, and there were many of these. The forts at Chanak shelled them morning and evening; so regular was the visitation that they were given the titles Sunrise and Sunset. Ceaseless mining was going on against them; and they were driven to retort in kind. There was little glory waiting for the Second Division on the shores of Gallipoli, but an immense amount of danger and cumulative suffering. The losses of the 5th, 6th and 7th Brigades through those late autumn months are eloquent of the everlasting risks they had to take. From Lone Pine to Hill 60 their line was constantly being shelled by the heavy guns on Battleship Hill and elsewhere; while Beachy Bill and his equivalents made the beach a place of death and danger. By this time the very ground of Anzac was reeking with infection. The theory has been advanced that, as upon the battlefields of Flanders, the germs lay in the subsoil ready to contaminate when turned up by the entrenching tool. The dangers of tetanus on the Western front were quickly grasped, and by scientific research a means of fighting them was soon at the disposal of the R.A.M.C. But in Gallipoli the epidemics of sickness were not so readily countered, and the suffering and loss was proportionately greater. Whether the soil of Gallipoli held the germs of old disease in its bosom, or whether, as appears more probable, it became infected through the conditions that prevailed there during the spring and summer of the year, it is at least certain that it was most insanitary during the autumn months. The swarms of flies, that no human agency could abate, spread the seeds of disease far and wide. Men suffered from an acute form of dysentery that was the more dangerous because it was intermittent. The water supply was insufficient, and water for washing could only be obtained from the sea. The sickly odour of the whole place rose in the nostrils of the fighting men, and afflicted them with a perpetual nausea. All food was suspect, for the flies, that buzzed perpetually over the rotting carrion that lay unburied between the lines, swarmed upon everything, and could not be prevented. Strong men conceived a loathing of their food. The bully beef that was their staple was thrown away by many of them, who could not even abide to look upon it. They tried to live upon the hard biscuits, and on these many of them broke their teeth, so that there was nothing they could find to preserve their strength. Many who lived through those last months have told me of the awful lassitude that fell upon them. The sickly weather, the hopeless day's work, the atmosphere of death and disease that permeated all their surroundings, combined to sap their vigour.