page 35

VI. Cape Helles

—"Anzac Book."

On the evening of May 5th, after dusk, the men crowded on board the lighters and were towed out to the destroyers and minesweepers, which were to carry them to the southern sector. During the embarkation Brian Willis was fatally hit, but there was no other mishap, except that, in the darkness, some of the lighters were lost and drifted round in the cold for a couple of hours. Finally everyone was packed on board. The sailors were full of admiration for the Anza C soldiers, and displayed their admiration in most practical fashion by giving up dinner and rum issue to their guests. It was a kind-ness that was very much appreciated by the tired, overwrought men, who had carried on for the last ten days with little sleep and nothing except bully-beef and biscuits to eat.

The Brigade landed, close to the stranded River Clyde, on the beach below Seddul Bahr, and marched inland for about a mile. It was a great change after Anzac. There was room to move. The 29th Division had swept in for several miles, and all the level ground, the green fields, the cultivated or-chards stretching right up to the slopes of Achi Baba were held by the British. The roads were good. Transport of all sorts was moving. Englishmen, Scotchmen, Frenchmen, Senegalese, Sikhs, Australians, New Zealanders, gave Helles a cosmopolitan character. Here, too, were the guns, seventy-fives, eighteen-pounders, howitzers—guns in numbers not thought of at Anzac. The land seemed a good land, in every way desirable after the experiences of the last ten days. Surely, with all the guns and the easy, level country, it must be a good war in these parts.

page 36

That night the Battalion dug shelter trenches, for there were many enemy shells flying round. The ground was wet, and it was not possible to go far without reaching water. The night was cold and miserable, and many spent it walking about in an attempt to keep warm. Next morning, loaded with extra ammunition, the New Zealanders marched across to the Gully Ravine. As far as Auckland was concerned, the route taken was not the most direct, and the Colonel was more than suspected of having lost his way, a crime which, in the eyes of an Infantry Battalion marching with full pack up, is the crime of crimes. The New Zealanders were now in close support to the 29th Division, which had been fighting desperately to move forward in the direction of Krithia Village.

On the morning of the 8th, orders were issued for the New Zealand Brigade to pass through the British Regulars, and advance towards the village. There was bungled staff work somewhere, with the result that, instead of the New Zealanders taking up their battle stations during the night, dawn found them a long way in the rear. This added several hundred yards to the open ground which had to be crossed under fire, and also took away any advantage which might have been gained by a swift attack unheralded by an obvious concentration under the very eyes of the enemy. Wellington were on the left connecting up with the 29th Division, Auckland in the centre, and Canterbury on the right linking up with the Australians. Otago were in reserve. The Aucklanders moved up along a winding creek bed, just deep enough to give shelter. This brought them within a couple of hundred yards of the main front line, which had to be reached across country. This distance was covered by platoon rushes. Here Lieut. Steadman was killed, and several casualties occurred. There was also a certain amount of confusion, and when everyone had crowded into the British fire-trench, the companies were found to be intermingled to a considerable extent. Very few had a clear idea as to what was to be done, or what really were the objectives—except that a general advance was to be made on Achi Baba.

page 37

Immediately in front the ground sloped away for a little distance; then came a field of beautiful wild flowers, and then a gentle scrub-covered slope rising to a crest-line in the middle distance. Beyond this again was the hump of Achi Baba. To the right front was a clump of pine trees. There was no visible sign of the enemy. The Colonel came along: "Well, boys, the orders are to go ahead, and we have got to carry them out." The Regulars were not encouraging. "What! You are going to cross the Daisy Patch—God help you!" They had tried the day before, with no success. "Yes, of course we are going!" and on the signal every man of the first line was over the parapet and down the slope. Then the hail of Turkish fire smote them. Riflemen and machine-gunners from the stunted pines on the right poured in a hell of fire. The enemy batteries back on Achi Baba picked up the range and swept the ground with shrapnel. Not a man of the first wave faltered, most of them went down, but a few crossed the little field, and in the scrub beyond formed up some sort of a firing-line. The second wave came on, and were shot down to the last man. A third wave tried to cross, but it seemed as though all the Turkish fire was converging on them, and the pleasant field of daisies was full of agony. Yet men got across somehow, somewhere —dashing a few yards from shallow cover to sliallow cover, crawling inches at a time, changing direction slightly. Turks in front took their toll, and then before the gleaming bayonets reached them, vanished back through the scrub. The Daisy Patch itself was a tangle of Auckland dead and wounded. Even when all who could had crossed, it was swept by a hellish fire, and many a poor wretch was hit again and again. The officers were leading very bravely, but they were nearly all shot down. Lieutenants Carpenter, Screaton, Morgan, and Graham Reid were killed. Major Dawson was badly hit. Lieutenants West, Macfarlane, who had led the "first rush, Fletcher, Weir, McDonald, Fraser, Westmacott and Baddiley were wounded. Without exception they had been a great example to their men.

Dr. Craig, back in the front line, was binding up the page 38wounded in the comparative safety of the trench. From be-yond the parapet came the moaning of scores of men lying helpless in their agony. The garrison tried to keep him back, but he would not remain. "How do you think I can stay here and listen to those poor fellows moaning ?" So he went over the top, he and Stacey with him, and crawled round bandaging wounds, easing some poor sufferer into a more comfortable position, giving a drink of water to those suffering the torments of thirst. It was a morning of heroic rescues and attempts at rescue. Heald was killed trying to bring in Blyth Macfarlane. Cowan bravely rescued Corporal Campbell. Sergt.-Major Leach and Savory were very forward in rescue work. One poor fellow lying in a terribly exposed position was crying for help, and the Doctor, with Donaldson and Dalziel, two volunteers, made a dash out to him. It seemed a miracle that they reached him, but they did, got him on to the stretcher, and were almost back to cover before one of them was hit. As they lowered the stretcher over the parapet the Doctor was hit in the thigh, but Stacey dragged him in. In the meanwhile, Major Harrowell, Captains Sinel and Bartlett, had worked something like two hundred men across, and had got them into a shallow drain. Tilsley and Gasparich had been doing great work here. The clump of pines was outflanked by the Canterbury advance, and the fire from that flank slackened somewhat. Some three hundred yards had been won, but the crest was still four hundred yards away. Breathless, exhausted, disorganised, the attack rested for the time being. Another attack was ordered. At five o'clock the whole line from sea to sea was to sweep forward. The ships lying off the coast shelled the ridge with fury. The roar swelled into pandemonium. Every gun, great and small, was firing as rapidly as the toiling gunners could serve it. The crest seemed lifted in pieces. It was shrouded in the drifting battle smoke. Once more the Aucklanders were sent forward. It seemed as though the Turks must surely have been blasted from their secure positions. But no! Scarcely had the line of bayonets moved out when the hellish machine-gun fire burst out in greater fury. page 39The whole air was full of screaming missiles. Death fell every-where—death and bloody wounds! The line went on for a hundred yards, then another hundred, little knots of desperate men crawled further. Captain Sinel, Tilsley, McCready, Gasparich, the McKenzies, Tribe, Melville and some thirty others reached a place just below the crest. Flesh and blood could do no more. The Colonel, Major Harrowell, Captain Bartlett, the brave commander of the 15th, were all wounded. The survivors scraped out little hollows, and lay still until night-fall. At nine o'clock an unauthorised order was passed along, and the exhausted remnant fell back on the line which had been won by the first charge in the morning. Captain Sinel had nothing to do with this order, but in the darkness and confusion it was obeyed.

The Battalion was in a terrible state; cut to pieces, disorganised, utterly spent, it was no longer an effective fighting unit, and so was withdrawn, its place being taken by the Otago companies. The remnant concentrated down on the beach under Capt. Sinel. There had been over four hundred casual-ties, and the residue of the third reinforcement only brought the Battalion up to half strength. Lieut.-Col. Young was appointed to the command.

Two days afterwards the remainder of the Brigade was withdrawn, and for another week the New Zealanders were in reserve, doing fatigues of one sort and another, mainly making roads. It was comparatively quiet, although the big guns from the Asiatic coast accounted for a certain number of casualties—Auckland losing another forty men.

On the 19th May, the Brigade embarked on minesweepers and were carried back to Anzac. Major Bayly was killed by a stray bullet from off the shore. Before daylight on the 20th the men had landed, and the Aucklanders went into reserve at Rest Gully.