The 42nd (East Lancashire) Division 1914-1918Gibbon, Frederick P.
History
The 42nd (East Lancashire) Division 1914-1918
Gibbon, Frederick P.
Great Britain. Army. Division, 42nd; World War, 1914-1918 -- Regimental histories -- Great Britain
those few thought of what might have been, and of the great-hearted
comrades and brothers-in-arms whom they had left behind. Many now lay
in the cemetery above Lancashire Landing, a glorious resting-place from
which, when alive, they had looked out upon the intense blue of the Ægean
Sea, with the peaks of Imbros and Samothrace to the west, to the south
and east the coast of Asia Minor and the straits, and direful Achi Baba
to the north; others had been buried where they fell. Soon the lovely
blossoms of the rock-rose and the gorgeous poppy would be covering their
graves.
Perhaps to none of the survivors would these memories be more poignant
than to two of the padres, the Rev. E. T. Kerby, M.C.,[7] and the Rev. F.
W. Welbon, M.C., who had been untiring and absolutely fearless in giving
comfort to the dying, in performing the last rites under fire, and in
sharing the dangers and privations of the men in the front line.
The Divisional Artillery remained behind, and also a small detachment of
Engineers and the 1st and 3rd Field Ambulances, all attached for duty
to the 13th Division. The more modern guns must first be saved, and as
each battery was withdrawn a battery of the old 15-pounders of the 42nd
Division was substituted, so there was no cessation of fire during the
day. For several nights no artillery fire was permitted between 9 p.m.
and 2 a.m., in order to accustom the Turk to quiet nights with little
or no firing. When the final evacuation took place three of the old
guns were taken away successfully and the remainder destroyed. Some of
the gunners and the greater part of the R.A.M.C. left a few days before
the curtain fell on the final scene of the great tragedy of Gallipoli.
The last men of the 42nd Division—and among the very last of the allied
forces—to leave the peninsula were detachments of artillery and R.A.M.C.
and a small party of Engineers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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