New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 3, June, 1915: April-September, 1915Various
History
New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 3, June, 1915: April-September, 1915
Various
World War, 1914-1918
When it became light the covering warships endeavored to support the
troops on shore by a heavy fire from their secondary armament, but at
this time, the positions of the enemy being unknown, the support was
necessarily more moral than real. When the sun was fully risen and the
haze had disappeared we could see that the Australians had actually
established themselves on the top of the ridge and were evidently trying
to work their way northward along it. At 8:45 the fire from the hills
became intense and lasted for about half an hour, when it gradually died
down, but only for a short time. Then it reopened and lasted without
cessation throughout the remainder of the day. The fighting was so
confused and took place among such broken ground that it is extremely
difficult to follow exactly what did happen throughout the morning and
afternoon of April 25. The role assigned to the covering force was
splendidly carried out up to a certain point, and a firm footing was
obtained on the crest of the ridge which allowed the disembarkation of
the remainder of the force to go on uninterruptedly, except for the
never-ceasing sniping.
But then the Australians, whose blood was up, instead of intrenching
themselves and waiting developments, pushed northward and eastward
inland in search of fresh enemies to tackle with the bayonet. The ground
is so broken and ill-defined that it was very difficult to select a
position to intrench, especially as, after the troops imagined they had
cleared a section, they were continually being sniped from all sides.
Therefore, they preferred to continue the advance.
It is impossible for any army to defend a long beach in any force,
especially when you do not know exactly where an attack will be made,
and when your troops will come under the fire of the guns of warships.
The Turks, therefore, only had a comparatively weak force actually
holding the beach, and they seemed to have relied on the difficult
nature of the ground and their scattered snipers to delay the advance
until they would bring up reinforcements from the interior. Some of the
Australians who had pushed inland were counter-attacked and almost
outflanked by these on-coming reserves and had to fall back after
suffering very heavy casualties.
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