With one or two exceptions these officers were in command when the units left England. Lieut.-Colonel Heywood (6th Manchesters) had been pronounced unfit for active service by reason of defective eyesight, and Lieut.-Colonel Needham (A.S.C.) was left at Alexandria sick. [Illustration: 1/2nd GURKHA RIFLES CROSSING 1ST FIELD COMPANY’S BRIDGE OVER SUEZ CANAL AT FERRY POST.] [Illustration: TURKISH PONTOONS CAPTURED AT TOUSSOUM, SUEZ CANAL.] [Illustration: 6th BN. MANCHESTER REGT. EMBARKING AT ALEXANDRIA FOR GALLIPOLI.] [Illustration: UNLOADING HORSES AT C. HELLES.] [Illustration: SHIPPING OFF C. HELLES, MAY 1915.] [Illustration: BIVOUACS IN THE “REST AREA,” C. HELLES.] CHAPTER II GALLIPOLI (_May 1915_) Gallipoli! Who in Lancashire, in England, before the year 1915, knew where or what it was, or had even heard the name? Bitter was the dispelling of ignorance; hard indeed the road that led to knowledge! A name of death, of affliction, of suffering almost too heavy to be borne; but also a name of heroism and endurance and of high endeavour. A name of Failure, but no less of Glory. More than 14,000 Lancashire Territorials—bronzed, clear-eyed, _trained_ men now—put forth from Egypt in the first days of May 1915, upon the second stage of the Great Adventure, bound for the Ægean Sea, the very source and well-spring of adventure, whose shores and islands were the playgrounds of heroes. As the transports steamed northward into the Ægean, some, perhaps, had visions of a parade across the peninsula, an astonished enemy falling back before them in disorder, and a triumphant procession into Constantinople. The glamour of that romantic city laid hold of the imagination of others, who pictured a victorious entry after some weeks or months of hard fighting, and the loss of good comrades. The majority, however, had a better, if still rather vague, idea of the difficulties of the task that confronted them, for most had heard by now of the enemy’s preparedness and of the reception that had been given to the 29th Division, the Anzacs, and the French, and of the awful losses sustained before a precarious footing had been gained. So, while the Division is at sea, let us review very briefly the position on the peninsula of Gallipoli. After a naval bombardment on February 15, which only served as a threat and warning to the enemy, a naval attempt on March 18 to force the Straits failed disastrously, though it certainly attained one of its objects—that of relieving the pressure upon the Russians. But as the large Turkish forces withdrawn from the Caucasus were employed upon the defence of Gallipoli and the Straits, the result was that the hitherto undefended peninsula was converted into an impregnable position against the now expected attack. Artillery was mounted to cover every approach, and barbed wire entanglements were concealed in the shallows and placed on shore—wire compared with which the British article was as thread.