Gallipoli Diary

[June-1915]

Tuesday June 1/15

Hot Day. At 10 am Ruahine & H Bay
coys moved from Reserve Gully to Courtenay's
Post. Had a long wait in communication
trenches of Monash Gully owing to fire causing
delay in effecting relief of posts. Eventually
got in to bivvys with my coy at 6 pm.

Wellington Batt. took over Courtenay's
Post Canterbury took Quinns' & Auckland
Pope's. Otago being in reserve.

Thursday 3/6/15 Courtenay's Post trenches

Again very hot day. I spent the
whole night moving round trenches
in my section. Had 2 [ unclear: now] steel
loopholes erected. This morning this
being discovered, Turks shelled our
trenches & blew out bodily 1 pair
of plates fortunately no loss of life

One man hit in shoulder by bullet
Several casualties in reserve bivouac
amongst Taranaki Coy. by snipers.
Must admit Turks have superiority
of fire owing to their higher sited
trenches overlooking ours. We can
only fire during day light by means
of periscope rifles & at night do
not fire much except in case of attack.

Our Japanese trench mortar bombs
(26 pounders) seem to have good effect &
must be demoralising to enemy. about 4 pm Lieut Cargo was mortally
wounded in trenches while engaged in
trying to locate a sniper in
trenches opposite. He was shot right
through the head & only lived about an hour.

This man, promoted only a week ago
to commissioned rank & posted to
my company (Ruahine) from Taranaki
was a most promising fellow and
having been associated with him for
a long time I deeply regret his loss.
Formerly he was a bank clerk in
New Plymouth.

At 10 pm a demonstration for [ unclear: strategical]
reasons, was made along our entire front
It was replied to by Turks & lasted about
an hour & a half. Remainder of night
usual trench warfare.

Friday June 4th KABA TEPE Courtenay's Post Trenches

Quiet day here. At 11 am very heavy
cannonading began at ACHI BABA by
naval & field artillery, and lasted until
after 2 pm. No official news through
concerning the bombardment. My company
(Ruahine) was relieved by Taranaki at
2 pm in trenches, former remaining in
support.

Saturday June 5-15 Courtenay's Post

At 11 pm last evening a sortie was
made under cover of darkness, by small
parties from our Section (
Quinns' Post) with
idea of demolishing with explosives the
Turkish trench only 20 yards in our front.

At same time small party also went
out in night with designs on a machine
gun emplacement on our right. What
success attended these efforts is not yet
known but they began a heavy engagement
which was kept up along whole front
from 11 pm till day break with great
[ unclear: vigour] Daylight again brought heavy
shelling & continuance of action which
is still in progress (10 am). The uproar
of battle is awful & during darkness
rather weird to see flashes of artillery,
the trail of the projectile as the fuse
sparkles in the dark, the heavy trench
mortar & the bombs & grenades, always
accompanied by lines of flame from
rifles & machine guns and above all
the incessant din of battle. We are
well used to all this now & the
noise has no terrors except to the
ear drums & it sometimes keeps us
awake when we are supposed to be having
our spell of rest from the firing line.

It appears that the sortie from Quinn's
Post by Canterbury men was successful.
They routed the enemy from their front trench
& captured 30 prisoners: However they could
not hold the trench taken as the Turks
next line was so close they could throw
hand grenades & bombs onto our men
as if throwing stones. We therefore
destroyed the position as far as possible
& vacated it.

Monday June 7/15 Courtenay's Post

I again took over left section of
this post with my company yesterday.
During today usual sharpshooting
continues with occasional shelling
from both sides. Very warm weather

Wednesday June 9th 15 QUINN'S POST

My company was relieved from
Courtenay's at 2 pm yesterday and at
8 am this morning I took over left
half section of this position & which
contains 3 sub-posts. Hawkes Bay
coy taking right section of 3 posts.

This is recognised to be the hottest
position on our front (or anywhere else)
and is a very unique one certainly.

It would take pages to describe and
the skill of a professional man to
draw an accurate plan of the
maze of trenches bombproofs & tunnels
which form the position though the
actual post is only about 200 yds,
and in one place at least the Turks
trenches on ground sloping upwards
in their favour are only 10 yards distant.

The situation is governed by many
considerations principal among which
are that circumstances prevent our
artillery getting to work on the hostile
position & neither party can harass
each other by rifle fire but merely
keep them in their trenches. This
has not deterred us alltogether
tho [ gap — reason: illegible] for [ gap — reason: illegible] four occasions now we
have rushed them with the bayonet
at night & captured their front line
with many prisoners but their
successive trenches in rear & enfilade
fire made the place untenable.
So the fight goes on mostly with
hand grenades & bombs thrown
from trench mortars (on our side)
A climax will be reached
though for we have a gang
of miners driving three tunnels
12 feet from surface right forward
under the Turks. These are
now being connected up horizontally
and we hope soon to give them
a lift heavenwards with a few
[ gap — reason: illegible] of guncotton. This post
being rather a trying one to the
men we work it 24 hours on &
24 hours off now.

Friday June 11/15 QUINN'S POST

My Coy (Ruahine)
& Hawke Bay returned to trenches
relieving West Coast & Taranaki
as usual. 2 am this morning
we made a mild demonstration
against enemy for tactical reasons
then firing died down & fairly
quiet day & following night
was experienced. Lieut Morison
[ gap — reason: illegible] & 2 men of H Bay Coy
were wounded slightly by a
bomb during afternoon.

Monday 14th

9 am. Was relieved by West Coast &
proceeded to usual bivouac in rear
putting in quiet day. Fairly
heavy artillery fire over our valley
during afternoon but did not affect
our rest.

Tuesday 16th June 15

Returned for 24 hrs duty at
QUINNS' at 9 am. Fairly quiet day.
Turks have erected heavy timber
head cover over parts their trenches
last night. They also tried new dodge
of rolling high explosive bomb towards
our trench and exploding it with
rifle fire but so far have not got
them near enough to damage us.

Today detached 6 men to form
part of escort of Wellington Battalion
men for
Sir Ian Hamilton while
ashore at Imbros. General Godley
visited our Post. today and went
through the trenches — on all fours, as
they are not very deep for men over
6 ft. Our miners have again
discovered enemy tunneling near
us underground in front of the
trenches. At 10 pm I sent out two
men to reconnoitre on my immediate
left towards enemys trenches. Each
man carried a hand grenade in addition
to rifle & bayonet. They were quite suc-
cessful
in getting desired information
and then for a time watched the
enemys trench from a distance of 10
to 15 yds. On seeing 2 Turks get
up to the parapet and begin to work
adjusting sandbags etc. they fired
each getting his man. Immediately
afterwards they hurled their bombs
which exploded right on the hostile
trench, then they made back safely,
being under cover of an old trench.

The Turks immediately opened fire &
sent up two rocket flares but to no
purpose and the incident closed.

Friday 18/6/15 (Waterloo Day)

Issue of rum all round in
commemoration of Wellington's victory.

9 am my local reserve
moved to
Rest Gully being
relieved by 2 coys Canterbury.

Several heavy Turkish shells landed
near H.Q. in Monash Gully but
did no damage to men though
one exploded amongst the stores
& sent cheeses biscuits & meat
tins flying in all directions.

A big heap of picks & shovels
were likewise distributed but
did no damage. We now
get a spell for a few days
though working parties have
to be supplied each day; this
however is only for 4 hour shifts
and keeps the men from getting
too soft. The roads and various works done here including
well sinking, building piers, shafts
& tunnels, miles of bombproof cuttings
along the hillsides and numerous
other constructions are wonderful
and would be an education to
many a budding civil engineer.

Saturday June 19th 15 REST GULLY

Another sultry day marked only
by few shells dropping in our
lines – one man being wounded.

Sunday June 20

Yesterday first mail from NZ
since receipt of our landing on
Gallipoli was received there. Another
sweltering day. Church service by
presbyterian chaplain was held.
Lieut Jardine (wounded 27/4/15) returned
to Hawkes Bay Coy for duty.

Tuesday June 22

Again very hot day. quiet in firing
line Col. Braithwaite of Div Staff
replaces Col. F. E. Johnston (sick)
in command of N.Z Inf Brigade

Wednesday 23rd

Our battalion still in Mine
Gully in reserve. Men doing
4 hours fatigue duties on trenches
& other works daily. Weather
continues hot & dry. We continue
to hold our lines without any
serious engagements taking place.

Artillery fire is exchanged daily
with varying effect, but we are
now so used to it that we hardly trouble to record it.

Nearly every evening shells come
pretty close to us here but have
only lost 3 or 4 men in the week.

Thursday 24th As per usual.


Last evening I sent up 2
platoons 13 & 16 to QUINN'S POST to
act as inlying picquet & await
the arrival of remainder on Friday.

Friday 25th

8 am Ruahine (less 2 platoons
allready up) & Hawkes Bay Coys moved
to QUINN'S Post from
Rest Gully and
took over trenches we occupied on
previous occasions here. No serious
happenings to record usual bombs
& shooting going on with only
occasional casualties on our side.

Quiet night also. Post is much
improved with head cover & bombproof
now and miners have numerous
tunnels running right forward
below the enemys trenches 18 ft
from the surface. Good results
may be expected from mines here
later. Engineers can hear Turks at
work in tunnels but above us

Sunday 27/ 5 [sic]/15

4 am we fired a mine at QUINN'S
which began a fire fight started by
the Turks. Little damage to us.
Ruahine & H. Bay again occupy
trenches. 1-30 pm we fired two
more heavy mines under the Turks
trenches and blew up a good part
of their works. For a time
bombing & revolver shooting took
place in the underground tunnels
where we burst into the enemy.

Weather remains very hot and
calm & flies are an awful pest.

Wednesday 30/6/15 Local Reserve QUINN'S

Usual reliefs took effect and day
has been quiet except for intermittent
shrapnel shelling. Men on Gen Sir
Ian Hamilton escort returned today
from Imbros. About 10 pm when it was
very dark before the moon rose Turks
opened heavy fire on us probably to
prevent our making a move under
cover of darkness. At the same time
a thunderstorm took place accompanied
by very constant & vivid lightning
which produced a weird effect.

Firing eased up about 11 pm and
we had a short downpour of rain

It appears that on night of
29th (see notes) the Turks made a
feint on our right & then made a
fierce attack on the left flank
(
Walkers Ridge & Popes Hill.) These
positions were heavily shelled in
the dark beforehand but the Turks
were repulsed all along with much
loss. We had very few casualties.