THE BIG FIGHT [Illustration: Captain David Fallon, M.C.] THE BIG FIGHT (_Gallipoli to the Somme_) BY CAPT. DAVID FALLON, M.C. [Illustration] NEW YORK W. J. WATT & COMPANY PUBLISHERS Copyright, 1918, by W. J. WATT & COMPANY PRESS OF BRAUNWORTH & CO. BOOK MANUFACTURERS BROOKLYN, N. Y. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. FROM AUSTRALIA TO THE FRAY 1 II. FROM AUSTRALIA TO THE FRAY 15 III. GALLIPOLI 35 IV. THE GHASTLY LANDING 48 V. HOLDING ON 64 VI. GIVING UP GALLIPOLI 79 VII. COMPLIMENTS OF THE KING 97 VIII. AN INTERMISSION 106 IX. NO QUARTER 113 X. TRAPPING SAPPERS 126 XI. SPOTTING 143 XII. “RAZZLE DAZZLE” 157 XIII. MOQUET FARM 167 XIV. SPIES 185 XV. “WOODFIGHTING” 201 XVI. THE PLAY SIDE OF WAR 220 XVII. THE RAT IN THE NIGHT 233 XVIII. THE WORST ORDEAL 248 XIX. BLIGHTY 274 XX. HONORED BY THE KING 287 XXI. THE GRAY MOTHER 298 THE BIG FIGHT CHAPTER I FROM AUSTRALIA TO THE FRAY When great historians with their learned pens shall come to set forth the complete story of the most sweeping and horrible war the world has ever known, I figure they may perhaps have need of such evidence, information and material as a man like myself can give. I mean a man who has been through the red hell of the vast conflict in places where it has flamed most fiercely, a soldier who has been eye-witness of its superb heroisms, its stupendous tragedies, scientific marvels, has undergone its tense emotional and psychological experiences, bears on his body its wounds, has seen at first hand with the amazement all civilization has felt, the cowardice, bestiality, utter moral abandonment to which a nation may fall in a mad dream of the conquest of the world. My name is David Fallon. I am of the County Mayo, Ireland. And I’d ask your pardon for a word or two by way of boasting in stating that my ancestors for a pretty-long journey back into history, have always figured in the man-sized battles of their generations. My father, a naturalist, rushed away from gentle scientific pursuits in 1870 to bear arms for France against the Prussians. And it isn’t only because I’m Irish that I fought to get into this present big fight--and I did fight to get into it--but for the pertinent and additional reason that it was in France father met Mlle. Sarah Voltaire who not very long thereafter became Mrs. Fallon.