World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Turkey -- Gallipoli Peninsula; World War, 1914-1918 -- New Zealand
At Suvla where there was more room than at Anzac, an inner position
was prepared by the erection of a strong barbed wire fence eight feet
high, with great gates across the roads. At Anzac, barricades were
made in all the principal deres and communication trenches. A final
covering position, manned by machine gunners, was prepared. Its left
flank was on No. 1 Post, and ran by way of Walker's Ridge, across to
Plugge's Plateau and so down Maclagan's Ridge to the sea, very much the
line decided on when the re-embarkation after the April landing was
momentarily considered. Oh! the what-might-have-beens of those eight
tragic months!
There were now only two nights to go, Saturday night and Sunday night.
The 20,000 troops remaining at Anzac and Suvla were to be evacuated at
the rate of 10,000 per night. The numbers from our division were 3491
on the second last night, and the final 3000 on the last night.
The line from Suvla to Chatham's Post was held as follows:
9th Army Corps--The Suvla front up to and including, Hill 60;
N.Z. & A. Division--from the right of Hill 60 to the Apex;
1st and 2nd Australian Divisions--from Walker's Ridge to Chatham's
Post.
The Suvla Army embarked from the piers in Suvla Bay and on the Ocean
Beach. The New Zealanders and Australians on the left of Anzac had to
come down the three principal deres to the piers on Ocean Beach. The
Australians from the centre and right of Anzac naturally moved down
Shrapnel Gully and along the beach from the extreme right towards the
piers at Anzac Cove.
The New Zealand Brigades were now disposed as follows:
RHODODENDRON SPUR
HILL 60 HILL 100 CHESHIRE RIDGE THE APEX
Wellington, Otago 4th Aust. Canterbury, Wellington
and Auckland Inf. Brigade and Auckland
Mounted Rifles Infantry Battalions
The Mounted Rifles would come down the Aghyl Dere, and the N.Z.
Infantry down the Chailak Dere to the Williams Pier on North Beach.
A divisional rendezvous was formed at No. 2 Post. Here the troops
paraded according to a timetable, and were drafted into groups of
400--the capacity of those big motor lighters that the men had
christened "beetles."
All through the night of that last Saturday at Anzac the little groups
assembled, and were packed into the lighters. By 4.30 a.m. on December
19, the last beetle cleared from the shore leaving the "Diehards" of
the Division, only 3,000 strong, to hold the line against a mighty army.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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