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New Zealand Artillery in the Field, 1914-18

Chapter III. The Isolation of Anzac

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Chapter III. The Isolation of Anzac.

For nearly a fortnight after the landing the C.R.A., Lieut.-Colonel Johnston, had his headquarters at the foot of Howitzer Gully, close by the headquarters of the Division, on the northern end of the Cove. But these quarters were cramped and inconvenient, and it was soon discovered that the congested and exposed beach front was unsuitable for the location of the headquarters of the Division. Shelters were accordingly prepared on a terrace at the head of a small gully which ran almost to the foot of the precipitous slopes of Plugge's Plateau, where Headquarters remained from May 7th until the eve of the August offensive. Army Corps Headquarters was in a central and accessible position at the very foot of a gully running off the centre of the Cove, where General Birdwood, living as unpretentiously as the most junior member of his staff, directed the ceaseless activities of his soldiers. From the very day of the landing the Cove became the hub or centre from which radiated everything that was vital to the life of the Corps. There were located the Supply Depôts of the Army Service Corps, the Army Ordnance Stores, and the Field Ambulance stations. The Cove was protected from direct fire by the steep sides of Plugge's Plateau, from which two long shoulders ran down to the sea, terminating in the two points that marked the northern and southern extremities of the little strip of beach—Ari Burnu on the north, and Hell Spit on the south. Never was a force so precariously placed, clinging by virtue only of its tenacious courage to a strip of broken and barren coast-line three thousand yards in length, and a bare thousand yards in depth at the centre, with the sea at its back, and hemmed in on three sides by a foe superior in numbers and guns, and lacking little in courage and leadership. But no one ever doubted its ability to hold what had been seized. Who could have doubted in face of such bold confidence and intrepidity?

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The difficulties of supplying the troops with ammunition and the bare necessaries of existence were enormous and never-ceasing. Consider for a moment that the country they held yielded nothing, not even a sufficient water-supply, and that all supplies had to be brought by sea from the base at Alexandria, 800 miles distant, and landed on the open beaches at Anzac. The ordinary methods of supplying an army's needs could not be employed; there was no precedent which might be referred to for guidance, the position being unexampled in military history. Only the intelligent and skilful co-operation of the Navy made the task practicable. Between the base at Alexandria and Anzac there were but two harbours, Mudros Bay, distant 60 miles, and Kephalos, over at Imbros; and neither of these harbours possessed any piers or facilities for the transhipment of stores. The position became further complicated when enemy submarines began to make the Ægean Sea dangerous to shipping, and it became necessary to prohibit the big transports and store ships from proceeding north of Mudros. Up to that time the transports had stood off the coast at Anzac, and discharged their supplies or disembarked their reinforcements into lighters, which were towed into the beach; but the advent of the submarines made another transhipment necessary. At Mudros supplies were loaded into steam trawlers and mine sweepers, which discharged them into lighters and barges off Anzac or across at Kephalos. At Anzac the Turkish guns commanded all the landing places, so that everything had to be landed under cover of darkness.

The working of the whole system was dependent on the vagaries of the weather. Even during the summer months the broad surface of the bay at Mudros was sometimes swept by a northerly or southerly wind, which seriously impeded or delayed transhipment, but in the autumn and winter Anzac was often isolated for days at a time by gales which swept the open bay at Kephalos, and made the exposed beaches at Anzac quite unapproachable. The establishment of a reserve supply of stores at Anzac was the only measure which could be taken to minimise the dangers of isolation incurred by these breaks in the lines of communication. Within the first week after the landing of the force, the little mounds of stores on page 43the beach began to grow and expand, until the shelving beach flanking the landing piers was piled high with great pyramids of supplies of all descriptions, but chiefly bully-beef and biscuits.

The bulk of the water supply also came from overseas. A certain quantity of water was to be had at Anzac, and by seeking for water in likely places, and improving existing wells, the local supply was considerable increased. At the end of June it was estimated that there was a natural supply at Anzac of eighteen thousand gallons per day, a further thirty per day coming from Alexandria by transports and store ships. These vessels pumped their supplies into a water ship, from which it was taken to Anzac in water-barges which were moored to the shore, the water being finally pumped into tanks on the beach, where it was jealously guarded and doled out to the thirsty troops.

Though the maintenance of the army from a distant base over sea routes frequented by enemy submarines was certainly an arduous, and often a hazardous, undertaking, it was in the landing and distribution on shore that danger showed itself grim and in deadly earnest. From his vantage point to the south, on the bold headland of Gaba Tepe, the enemy could see almost everything that went on in the Cove, while his guns covered not only the beach but the sea for some distance off-shore. The beach was occasionally shelled by light guns firing from the direction of Anafarta; but the guns so cleverly concealed near the Olive Groves beyond Gaba Tepe commanded a perfect enfilade of the water-front, the accuracy and frequency of their fire making them a constant and deadly menace. So effective was their fire that an attempt to land anything during the hours of daylight was a flouting of death that received a quick and final answer. So during the long day the beach was quiet enough except for the frolicking of the bathers, who, making the most of their opportunity, disported themselves in the sparkling waters of the bay between the bursts of shelling.

With the coming of night the narrow water-front began to swarm with the activities of beach fatigues, carrying parties and the chattering muleteers of the Indian Supply Column.

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The pinnaces brought the unwieldy and heavily-freighted barges in to the piers, and the sweating fatigues filed in ghostly procession from the piers with their burdens of food supplies, ammunition and stores. From this advanced depôt on the beach the supply columns loaded up their pack mules and handy little transport carts, and filed off in the darkness on their various routes to the forward dumps.

Reinforcements for the Division were usually landed an hour or two before daylight. Full of curious questions, and marvelling at the seeming animated confusion on shore, the newcomers were promptly led into the comparative safety of one of the gullies running off the beach, and thence taken by guides away to their respective units. By the time the stars had begun to pale before the first roseate flush of dawn, the tumult had subsided; the last lighters had been emptied, the Supply Depôt had sent out its last load of stores, the Ordnance Depôt its final consignment of ammunition, and the transport drivers were commencing to filter back and arrange their little carts in orderly rows on the beach. With the rising of the sun the water's edge and the piers were given over to the morning bathers, who came trooping down, lightly or not at all clad, from their burrows and shelters on the slopes overlooking the bay.

For an army so disadvantageously situated the daily ration was a liberal one, and the occasions on which there was anything approaching a shortage were very rare. But there was an appalling lack of variety about the ration, and this circumstance was a contributory cause of much of the sickness which so grievously weakened the force during the summer months. Tinned beef—"Bully-beef"—and the square white granite army biscuit formed the foundation of the ration, and a very firm foundation too. These two articles of diet were never in short supply; great quantities of them were always kept stacked on the beach, and they were perfectly secure from the attentions of acquisitive souls who visited the Supply Depôt under cover of night in hopes of agreeably supplementing their ration. The biscuits were impervious to climatic influences or change of temperature, but the beef was often found to be par-boiled when brought straight from the page 45stacks standing in the blazing sun. But that was a minor affliction. Supplementary items were jam, always of a constant brand and variety, "Machonachies"—a meat and vegetable ration much appreciated as a variant from the tinned beef, and, as a matter of course, tea. Fresh vegetables would have been worth their weight in gold, but unfortunately they were almost unknown.

When the summer was advanced, and almost every soldier was weakened by the ravages of dysentery and kindred troubles, some efforts were made to alleviate the distress by introducing some variety into the ration, but they did not go far, and achieved little. There was no one who would not willingly have given a portion of his pay each week if thereby he could have secured an occasional change from a diet so monotonous that it became nauseating to a sick stomach. But the Gallipoli campaign was nearing its conclusion before any active steps were taken to provide canteens over at Imbros, and by the time the canteens had become well established, and the system of purchase by unit representatives was in running order, preliminary steps were being taken for the evacuation.

Obviously it is impossible for an army in the field to carry into practice all the laws of sanitation that ordinarily govern a civilised community. The soldiers are too busy fighting for one thing; too busy at times even to bury their dead; and for a host of other reasons the sanitation of a fighting army must always be a matter of difficulty, and, especially in a warm climate, a source of anxiety. At Anzac these difficulties were intensified a hundred-fold by the circumstance that for many months the force was confined to the narrow strip of country on which it first established itself. From the outset nothing was left undone to keep the area as clean as possible, and so minimise the risks of an outbreak of disease; but inevitably much of the ground became foul, and formed breeding places for myriads of flies, which swarmed everywhere, and seriously aggravated the already prevalent dysentery. The colonials had experienced the fly plague in Egypt, which was a natural breeding-ground for anything that had its origin in filth; but the flies in Egypt were a pleasant and soothing companionship page 46compared to the voracious hosts that from dawn to dusk tormented the very souls of these unfortunate campaigners at Anzac. No efforts could keep them out of the food. They came from the unburied dead in No Man's Land, and from the gaping latrines, and buzzed about the supply depôts, and swarmed even on the very food as the soldier conveyed it to his mouth. Small wonder that the great majority of the force suffered from dysentery and diarrhœa as the season advanced.

The Fighting in Midsummer.

The varied activities of the artillery, both offensive and defensive, during the three weeks that had elapsed since the landing, culminating in the big Turkish attack in the middle of May, made such serious inroads on the slender ammunition supplies that a drastic curtailment of the normal daily expenditure became an imperative necessity. After the fighting of May 19th and the two following days had simmered down, an order was issued cutting down the allowance for 18prs., 4.5in., and 6in. howitzers to two rounds per gun per day. Two rounds per gun did not even suffice for the checking of registrations. Observing officers in their posts had to content themselves with gazing at targets which they could not engage, however tempting they might be. This was galling enough, but it was even harder for battery commanders to refuse, as they must, the frequent requests from the front line for support from the guns. Their cruel necessities forced them to deny to the infantry the support they expected and so sorely needed. The gunners employed much of this enforced leisure in further improving the gun positions, and their own accommodation. Here again they were faced with the almost absolute lack of materials. A few sandbags could be had, but nearly all the timber and sandbags that were landed went to meet the prior claims of the front line. So for the artillery there ensued a long period of irksome and enforced inactivity, which was broken in real earnest only when the guns were called on to help in countering a Turkish attack, as on May 29th, or in supporting some local operation by their own troops.

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It had become apparent that the Army Corps could not hope to make any decisive move forward without first receiving strong reinforcements and a more liberal supply of ammunition. Although the enemy had been unable to accomplish his avowed purpose of sweeping the invaders into the sea, he had succeeded in confining them to the circumscribed area on which they had established themselves on the day of landing. Week by week the fighting began more closely to approximate to siege warfare. The failure of the series of attacks in which the New Zealand Infantry Brigade had been engaged at the southern end of the Peninsula early in May had similarly made it equally plain that no decisive step towards victory was likely to be achieved with the forces which Sir Ian Hamilton then had at his command in that theatre of operations. The situation was summed up in a Force Order issued by the General Officer Commanding the M.E.F. on May 11th, in which it was stated that "Owing to the numerous and well-planned entrenchments now held by the enemy in the vicinity of Achi Baba, and also at Gaba Tepe, the operations in the immediate future will approximate more to semi-siege warfare than to open operations in the field. Further progress must now be made by continuous and systematic attack on certain portions of the hostile line rather than by a general action involving the advance of the whole line at once…."

The fact that trench warfare had set in and that no operations on a large scale appeared to be contemplated, did not diminish the aggressive alertness of the colonial troops at Anzac, nor did it mean any lessening of the constant struggle between the two opposing forces; a struggle which became more bitter and intense in those places where the front line trenches ran close together, and grave issues hung on the loss or gain of a few yards, or even of a few feet. At Quinn's Post, that vulnerable point in the defences where the defenders dare not yield one inch, so close to their backs was the edge of the cliff, the fighting assumed a character which invested it with new and fearful dangers. Despairing, doubtless, of ever advancing over the open against the devastating fire which his assaults always encountered from the trenches page 48and the guns of the 2nd Battery, the Turk commenced mining operations in an endeavour to blow the Post and its defenders into the gully behind them. There was only one way to meet such a threat, and that was by prompt counter-mining. Experienced miners in plenty were to be had from the ranks of both Australians and New Zealanders, and to these men was entrusted the task of outwitting the Turkish miners who were secretly sapping into the vitals of the defences at the head of Monash Gully. Work went on unceasingly; cramped in the narrow confines of sap or tunnel the miners toiled and sweated, advancing their underground ways as cautiously as they might. Listening at intervals to the dim and muffled noises of the Turkish miners, they endeavoured to calculate, by sense and instinct, how far off they might be, and the direction of their drive. It was an uncanny game, in which skill and chance were mingled; and there was the ever-present possibility, despite the miners' untiring watchfulness and untrained judgment, that the Turk might advance his gallery undetected, and at any moment strike a surprise blow. And from surprises of that nature escape was difficult, if not impossible. Several Turkish galleries were discovered and destroyed by counter-mining in front of Quinn's; but about 3.30 a.m. on May 29th, the enemy succeeded in springing a mine which almost wrecked No. 3 Sub-section of the Post. The explosion was followed by a heavy bomb attack by a storming party of Turks, who succeeded in penetrating the front trenches, and isolating the sub-section of the left from the other two on the right. Some inevitable confusion resulted and for a few moments the situation was dangerous and obscure; but the garrison on each flank of No. 3 Sub-section desperately resisted all enemy attempts to extend their gains. Meanwhile reinforcements were clambering up the slopes, and the 2nd Battery and the 4th Battery's section of howitzers on the beach at once opened fire on the enemy's trenches and his reserves in front of Quinn's Post and at the head of Bloody Angle. About dawn a counter-attack succeeded in re-taking the lost trenches, and the attack was thus finally and decisively defeated. The batteries of the New Zealand Artillery engaged did good work in assisting to beat off the attack, and in addi- page break
The "Water-Queue" on the Beach at Anzac [Photo by the Author

The "Water-Queue" on the Beach at Anzac [Photo by the Author

page break page 49tion
to keeping the enemy's trenches under constant fire and shelling his reserves in the open, several enemy batteries were engaged and silenced.

Close fighting continued in front of Quinn's Post for the next couple of days. The Turks had an apparently unlimited supply of bombs with which they constantly harassed the defenders of the Post, who replied as best they might with the "jam tin" bombs made at Anzac. Two enemy saps were actually pushed forward to within five yards of the front line, and these it became necessary at all hazards to destroy. At 1 p.m. on May 30th two parties of thirty-five men each went forward under covering fire from the 2nd Battery and the guns of two batteries of Indian Mounted Artillery, the operation being preceded by a heavy fire from the 2nd Battery on the enemy trenches, 100 yards in rear of their front line. The storming parties cleared the sap-heads and penetrated into the trenches beyond; but in spite of the supporting fire they were gradually driven back by a series of counter-attacks in which the enemy's lavish supplies of bombs placed the attackers at a grievous disadvantage. Colonel Chauvel, commanding the 3rd Section of Defence, was again warmly appreciative of the 2nd Battery's shooting, and in a message to the Divisional Commander expressed the opinion that the guns had caused great execution amongst the enemy, and fulfilled their task of keeping down hostile fire.

Practically ever since the day of the landing the weather had been consistently fine except for an occasional shower of rain. The days had been bright and warm and the nights fine, but somewhat cool to men who had been tempted by the brilliance of the sun to discard most of their warm clothing. But the hot summer season was advancing, and by June the heat had become oppressive, and combined with the ills and afflictions that it brought in its train, was a grievous burden to men who had already been sorely tried in body and spirit. As the heat increased, the amount of clothing worn by the average individual became less and less, until the absolute minimum was reached by the many, who contented themselves with a very short pair of "shorts," boots, and headgear of the page 50variety that most appealed to their own particular tastes. Clad thus in abbreviated uniforms that were anything but uniform, the rank and file of the army grew bronzed, and some even heightened the suggestion of the primitive by becoming bearded, for the morning shave had become but a memory of another existence. Thoroughly verminous as they were, and often lacking sufficient fresh water even for drinking purposes, the soldiers might almost have been pardoned for ceasing to worry about personal cleanliness; but good habits persist as well as bad, and the desire to wash and be clean never waned. The gunner provided himself with a small pannikin-full of water, when it was to be had, and went about his toilet with the gravity of a man engaged in an absorbing morning ritual. Under such conditions it can be easily conceived what a joy to the soldier were those invigorating swims in the clear, cool, sparkling waters of the Cove.

Every day the guns from the Olive Groves swept the beach with their deadly enfilade, and hardly a day passed when they did not exact a toll in killed and wounded, but none ever thought of foregoing his swim in consequence of these risks. It was certainly a characteristic of Anzac that immunity from constant danger was to be sought nowhere; but there was something infinitely more tragic and terrible in being stricken down while enjoying an hour off duty on the beach, than while in the trenches, or serving the guns in the heat of battle. The guns usually fired in short bursts at uncertain intervals; and as they were firing at a considerable range the shells gave some warning of their approach and enabled the most active to dive for the shelter of the big stacks of boxed provisions or the lee side of the iron barges that usually lay alongside the pier. There they crouched while the shrapnel swept over their heads with that familiar but frightful swishing sound; and the stretcher-bearers rushed the wounded to cover. In a few moments the shelling would cease, men would straighten themselves up with an air of mingled relief and caution; then one, more intrepid than the rest, would lead the way again into the tempting waters, and in a few minutes it would seem as if there had never been anything to disturb their splashing and frolicking.

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The summer dragged on slowly enough. The strength of the force was slowly dwindling through the wastage from sickness and the daily casualties in killed and wounded, and the prospect of making some decisive move without the addition of strong reinforcements became more and more remote. At every point the Army Corps was faced with wire entanglements and deep entrenchments which the enemy, strongly reinforced and enjoying every possible advantage that the position could offer, was daily making more formidable. For the garrison at Anzac there was never any rest. The inactivity of the force was only comparative. Because it was not called upon to make any prodigious effort there was none the less no lessening of the incessant and arduous fatigues, no respite from the constant dangers and alarms, the sniping, night patrols, and the fierce bombing encounters at those places where the opposing lines ran closely together. Before the commencement of the lengthy preparations for the August offensive gave them a heartening indication of big events at hand, the soldiers were inclined sometimes to wonder how much longer the depressing routine of "holding on" was to continue. The monotonous waiting during the hot summer weeks was calculated to do more to lower the morale of the soldier than all the exhausting struggles that had preceded it. In men of another temper it would have produced a fatal lethargy, and a decay in their fighting spirit, but in the Australians and New Zealanders it bred only a restlessness and a growing desire for some decisive action to end the seeming impasse.

In this frame of mind everyone turned with anxious interest to the theatre of operations at the southern end of the Peninsula, where the British and French forces were laying siege to the great natural fortress of Achi Baba. Those battles and the possibilities they suggested were a constant topic of discussion in June; and there were always at least one or two rumours in circulation that Achi Baba had fallen or was about to fall. Every time the noise of the guns at Helles rolled up to Anzac in swelling volume, and the shoulders of the big hill were cloaked in the sullen gloom of war, it was freely prophesied that its fall was imminent. So strongly does hope page 52spring up in the heart of the soldier! But the story of those heroic but fruitless struggles is now well known. Achi Baba did not fall, and at last, hope shattered and prediction falsified, those who had long and valiantly persisted in the belief of its ultimate capture, came to regard Achi Baba as some great indestructible barrier which barred the path to victory. And so in a measure it was.

The fighting at Relies, however, had a more immediate material effect on the affairs of the Army Corps, inasmuch as any big attack by the Allied forces in the south always found an echo at Anzac in the shape of a local operation undertaken in the hope of diverting some of the Turkish reserves from the real attack. In rear of his positions on the Peninsula the enemy possessed ample sheltered country in which to dispose his reserves, and with lateral communications was able to move men to either Anzac or Helles at short notice. A diversion at Anzac was liable to be of a costly nature; but at any rate it never failed to attain the dual object of retaining the Turkish forces opposite the colonials and attracting some portion of his reserves.

On the occasion of the big attack at Helles on June 4th, the efforts made at Anzac to distract the attention of the enemy took the form of three distinct enterprises—a demonstration in the direction of Gaba Tepe, and raids on a section of trench opposite Quinn's, and on German Officers' Trench, opposite Courtney's Post. New Zealand infantrymen carried out the raid from Quinn's Post, the assaulting party numbering sixty men. They were to leave their own trenches at 11 p.m., under cover of artillery fire, make a dash across No Man's Land, and capture the selected portion of trench, which was then to be put in a state of defence, and linked up with their own front line. The first phase was accomplished swiftly enough, the trench being successfully seized, and some Turks bayoneted, in addition to twenty-eight who were taken prisoners. The raiders were supported by the 2nd Battery, N.Z.FA, the 4th Australian Battery, and the 21st Indian Mountain Battery, firing on the front and left front of their objective, while a section of the 4th Howitzer Battery page 53accurately shelled the enemy's main communication trench leading to the captured trenches. The 1st Battery engaged the northern face of Johnston's Jolly. When they endeavoured to consolidate their gain the raiders found themselves enfiladed by machine-gun fire as a consequence of the non-success of the attack by the Australians on German Officers' Trench, and all night long the Turk assailed them with bombs. By dawn the two flanks had been driven in to such an extent that the raiders occupied only a narrow strip of trench, which the enemy was doing his best to render untenable. Heavy casualties had been suffered; further endeavours to hold on could be productive of no good, and ultimately the raiders were obliged to relinquish what they had gained, and withdraw to their own front line.

The closing days of June were marked by further heavy fighting, but this time it was the Turk who attacked, and the Turk who suffered heavy losses. Activity commenced with another containing movement to assist the forces at Helles, local attacks being made on the right of the Anzac position by the Australians. Whether or not this diversion simply succeeded beyond expectations, or whether the enemy had been planning an attack upon Anzac is not quite clear, but at any rate the Turk assembled in great force in his trenches during the hours following the attack, and himself advanced to the assault shortly after midnight on June 29th, after a preliminary bombardment of great intensity, and a torrent of rifle and machine-gun fire. On the right of the Anzac sector the enemy's reserves had already been severely handled by guns of the Australian and New Zealand Artillery during the afternoon, the 1st Battery having effectively engaged large parties behind Lone Pine. Again when the enemy determinedly launched several heavy columns against the left and left-centre of the line, shortly after 1 a.m., the guns played havoc with his reserves, and cut gaps in his ranks as they moved forward to the attack. Showing more than usual determination, the attackers still pressed on in face of a murderous machine-gun and rifle fire, and some few even penetrated into the trenches held by the 3rd Australian Light Horse Brigade, where they were promptly bayoneted. A large force then page 54endeavoured to work round the left flank, but advancing with fixed bayonets they blundered against a concealed sap, and, being met with a devastating fire, lost over 250 of their number. Completely beaten everywhere, the enemy retired in some disorder, harassed by the fire of the 18prs. and howitzers. This, the last attack on the Anzac position, was to have been a decisive effort, and it was stated by prisoners that Enver Pasha himself was on the battlefield to share the expected triumph of his soldiery. How little their sanguinary repulse agreed with his great expectations!