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Chapter XI.
The Last Six Weeks on the Peninsula.

Conditions on Gallipoli were now vastly different, and there was not the same hardships as before. The weather was very much cooler. There was no longer the unbearable heat of August. With the heat had gone the flies. No longer was every moment of the day a torment from flies. True, the lice were no less active than before and all spare time was devoted to the search for these vermin.

Proper dug-outs had by now been built and nearly all trench construction work had been completed, so that "resting" was not such hard work as before. All the main saps had been widened and protected from enemy observation and fire, and a road had been formed along the beach parallel to the old main sap which had been widened to five feet. In August, the main sap had been only three feet wide and, as it had to take all the traffic including the pack mules with supplies, progress through it was not easy. The dug-outs now afforded reasonable cover from shell fire. In the earlier days, dugouts had been only shallow excavations made with entrenching tools after the pattern of graves with oiled sheets stretched across the top to keep the sun out. There was now a greater sense of security, and, although equipment had to be kept on at all times, a certain amount of sleep could be had. To lighten the darkness of dug-outs there was improvised little lamps made out of tobacco tins. In the lids of the tins, holes would be made, through which pieces of rag ran down into a reservoir of reduced bacon fat. The light so produced was effective enough but the smoke was certainly a drawback, and lumps of light soot, almost as big as one's fist, would form and fall every few minutes.

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Rifle fire, which before had been a feature, was now not nearly so intense. Gun fire, from our shore batteries and from warships, was still much the same as before and a number of shells were sent over each day. The Turks still shelled as before and with heavier guns; but there was now some protection from their shells. Both sides were content to sit still and watch each other and neither appeared willing to lanneh an attack. Casualties through wounds and sickness were not a fraction of those in the earlier days; but remainders of the August casualties were always present as in many parts of the newly formed trenches pieces of scrim concealed protruding bodies. Rations were more plentiful and varied and, as there was now plenty of water, we were never thirsty and always comparatively clean.

Tunnelling Operations were being carried on and listening posts constructed in the gully of No Man's Land beyond our wire entanglements. These listening posts were about six feet long by two feet wide and were reached by tunnels from our front line. In order to conceal them from the Turks in the daytime, a fresh branch of scrub was placed over them before daylight each morning.

Things went along quietly and comfortably for a week or two, and we thought we were to stay on over the winter without further fighting. About the middle of December, there was a rumour that another attack was to be made on Hill 971. As this hill had been strongly fortified during the past two months, the idea was not relished. A day or two later, however, there was another rumour, this time that the Peninsula was to be evacuated.

Shortly after our return to Anzac, Lord Kitchener had visited the Peninsula. We saw little of him, although some of our men down by the pier near Walker's Ridge caught a glimpse of him. Doubtless, the decision to evacuate the Peninsula was confirmed by Lord Kitchener at this visit.

Already there had been little snow and it was said that, in any event, our position would have become untenable when the January rains set in, as our trenches would have been washed away by the rush of water from the hills. Our posi-page 83tion at the Apex was the farthest inland and, as we had about two miles to travel to the jetty at Walker's Ridge, we could easily be cut off at any point on the way, which for the most part ran parallel to the Turkish position. At some parts of the line there were only a few yards between the Turkish trenches and our own and our chances of getting away seemed pretty slim.