World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Turkey -- Gallipoli Peninsula; World War, 1914-1918 -- New Zealand
A party of the Otago Infantry had a most trying time. They did not fall
back with their comrades during the darkness, and suffered severely
all next day. They were hard pressed and given up for lost, but next
evening managed to cut their way out through the exultant Turks.
The Evolution of the Anzac Line
The evolution of the Anzac front line was most interesting. Military
text books lay down principles and often suggest their application to
different situations. It is considered most necessary to get a good
field of fire, so that the maximum loss may be inflicted on the enemy,
and good communications assured for the passage of troops and the
carriage of ammunition and food.
Consider for a moment what really does take place. The tide of battle
sways backwards and forwards until at the end of a desperate day,
those of the troops left alive on both sides sink exhausted behind any
natural cover--it may be a clay bank, a bush, a big stone, a natural
or artificial depression in the ground. Because these men have some
protection while they are firing they often escape becoming casualties.
These are the men who have really established the line. Other men have
got into depressions and behind crests from which they cannot fire
at the enemy at all. The energetic soldiers who have gone forward to
exposed places have undoubtedly performed great service, but generally
at the price of death. So it happens that when night comes, the men
left alive increase the cover they have by digging in; thus the front
line grows up--little "possies," as the soldier calls them, deepened
and connected up with those on the right and left. By daybreak a
line has been constructed--not sited according to the book--it is
probably in the main based on tactical strong points, but many portions
of it are incorporated because of their safety--field of fire hardly
being considered. Here it is that the tactical knowledge of ground is
valuable, and trained officers and men are not slow to take advantage
of it, thus avoiding much dangerous and laborious work later in sapping
and tunnelling.
[Illustration: SKETCH MAP OF THE ANZAC AREA IN MAY, 1915 SHOWING
THE INNER AND OUTER LINES.
The distance from Chatham's Post to the mouth of the Sazli Beit Dere is
about 3400 yards: from the centre of Anzac Cove to Quinn's Post, in a
direct line, is 1300 yards.]
At the head of Monash Gully the valley forked into three steep gullies.
The one to the left ran up behind Pope's Hill; the second between
Pope's and Dead Man's Ridge; the third branched slightly to the right
and culminated in the little ravine separating Dead Man's Ridge from
Quinn's Post. Courtney's Post was just to the right of Quinn's, and was
perched upon the side of a steep hill, in many places really a cliff.
On this general line the fighting ebbed and flowed, and on the second
day the troops began really to dig in. Harassed by snipers and bombers,
the troops clung to the ground they had so pluckily won.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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