World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Turkey -- Gallipoli Peninsula
Why the troops who were a little lower down the slope, in support, did
not at once push up to the assistance of the Gurkhas and Lancastrians
on the summit has not been explained. They belonged to the New Army,
and were rushed into a most difficult and terrible conflict. It was
Monday morning, and they had been given little sleep since Saturday,
and little if any food or water except in the rations and water-bottles
(1½ pint) which they brought with them. No doubt they were exhausted.
But every one was exhausted, and others had been out longer in the
assaulting column. One might have supposed that here their great
opportunity had come. Why they did not take it, we are not informed.
[Sidenote: TURKS RECAPTURE THE SUMMIT]
It was in vain now that General Baldwin’s brigade, arriving at the Farm
at the very crisis of frustrated design, began to push up the steep
with the 10th Hants and two companies of the 6th East Lancashires. They
appear to have attempted a spur nearer the Farm than the point where
the Gurkhas climbed, which was half a mile away to the left. But they
made little progress. The Turks, crowding the summit, now exultant in
their turn, poured down such storms of fire that the new advance was
checked, and General Baldwin was compelled to order re-concentration at
the Farm, where the brigade remained.
The Turks in their triumph, though not daring as yet to advance far
over the crest, turned in exultant assault upon the exhausted body of
New Zealanders and Gloucesters still lying exposed near the summit of
the Chunuk Bair shoulder, just to the right of the Nek on Rhododendron
Ridge, up which Baldwin’s brigade ought to have advanced at dawn. About
800 men still clung to the shallow and hastily constructed trenches
there. They lay unprotected by wire, and below the sky-line, so that
when the enemy came swarming over the summit with bayonet or bomb, our
rifles had only some twenty or thirty yards’ interval in which to mow
them down. This mistake in position was thought at the time to spring
from a memory of old South African tactics, in which the sky-line was
always avoided. But we have seen the reasons why Colonel Malone had
been compelled twice to remove the trenches a few yards farther from
the top.
Through the heat of the day and afternoon the men lay there
resisting repeated onset. Late on that Monday evening, they were at
last withdrawn and relieved. The New Zealanders had been fighting
continuously and under extreme strain since Friday night; the
Gloucesters since Saturday. The noblest endurance could stand no more.
The 6th Loyal North Lancashires (38th Brigade) and the 5th Wilts (40th
Brigade) were sent up to occupy the extreme position which had been so
steadfastly retained.
_From the evening of August 9 to the evening of August 10._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account