Gallipoli Diary Volume II Part 13

c.o.x's attack on Knoll 60 to the North-east of Kaiajik Aghala came off well. The New Zealanders under Russell and the Connaught Rangers did brilliantly. Fighting is still going on.

A reply from the War Office to mine of last week wherein I pointed out that the once splendid 5th Battalion Royal Scots had fallen from a strength of 1,000 down to 289. They have had no one since the campaign began. To-day the Battalion is just over 250--a Company! Now I am officially told that "no reinforcements can be found for the 1/5th Battalion of Royal Scots." This is the Battalion which did so well about 11 o'clock on the dreadful night of the 2nd May. I shall cable the Lord Provost of Edinburgh. If we could get into touch with the human beings of Edinburgh they would help us to keep a battalion like the Royal Scots on their legs even if they had to break up half a dozen new formations for the purpose.

Freddie and I dined with de Robeck on board H.M.S. _Triad_. The V.A. was well pleased with my cable of the 26th.

_29th August, 1915. Imbros._ Last night two cables:--

"(No. 7414, cipher. C.I.G.S.). From War Office to General Headquarters, Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. Reference your No. M.F.Q.T. 2737.

The two Territorial Force battalions originally detailed--_see_ my No.

7172 of 20th August--to sail in the _Orsova_ will be taken by the _Ceramic_. Of these, the 2/5th Devons is only about 700 strong and contains a large percentage of recruits, while the 1/6th Royal Scots contains about 40 per cent. partially trained men and a new Commanding Officer who has only just been appointed. Until it has had further training neither battalion is fit for anything more than garrison duty.

I suggest that under these circ.u.mstances the _Ceramic_ should proceed direct to Egypt."

"(No. 7401, cipher, 554/A.3.). From War Office to Inspector-General of Communications, Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. We are receiving from Malta and Alexandria very large demands for materials and explosives for making grenades. The supply of these seriously interferes with our manufacture of grenades. At present we are hoping to send you 30 to 40,000 grenades weekly and this figure will be increased. When the materials already sent out to Malta and Alexandria have been used up, can the manufacture of grenades at those places cease? Please reply at once; the matter is urgent."

Do what I will my pen carries me away and I find myself writing like an ill-conditioned "grouser." As an old War Office "hand" I ought to know--and I do know--the frightful time of stress under which Whitehall labours. But, just look at these two cables, you innocent and peaceful citizen of a thousand years hence! The residue of the famous 47,000 rifles sent me by the Adjutant-General are now being valued by the official valuer, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff. In all our calculations the 2/5th Devons has. .h.i.therto masqueraded as an efficient battalion at full strength. Figures are sometimes more eloquent than words!

As to the second cable, that deals us a worse blow. Seeing clearly, at last, we should extract no hand grenades from the War Office, we turned to Maxwell and Methuen, who have interested themselves in our plight and have been making us so many that, with what we ourselves can add to their manufacture, we are at last beginning to make things hum in the Turkish trenches. Then in comes this War Office cable to crush our nascent industry and give us in exchange some pious aspirations.

There is no good making any trouble about the hand grenades. As to the two raw battalions, I am asking they be sent, raw and weak as they are, as I can train them in the trenches much better and more quickly than they could be trained in Egypt or England.

Church Parade; office work; sailed over to "K" Beach; inspected Clearing Stations and walked up to site for new camp. Then back to G.H.Q., to meet the V.A. and Roger Keyes. They remain the best of friends always.

This evening we were all in good form owing to the news from Anzac.

Knoll 60, now ours throughout, commands the Biyuk Anafarta valley with view and fire--a big tactical scoop.

_30th August, 1915. Imbros._ Still good news from Anzac. Seeing that the stunt was on a small scale, we seem to have got into the Turks with a vengeance. In falling back as well as in counter-attacking after we had taken Hill 60, the enemy were exposed to the fire from our trenches along the Kaiajik Dere. Birdie declares that they have lost 5,000. We have taken several machine guns and trench mortars as well as some fifty prisoners. Have sent grateful message to all on the spot.

At 10.30 four Russian Officers made their salaams. They are to report how things are going, and they seem to have the usual quick Slav faculty for grasping essential points combined, no doubt, with the usual Slav slackness which lets them go again. I told them everything I knew. They told us that our landing had saved the whole Army of the Caucasus; that the Grand Duke knew it and that His Imperial Highness bitterly regretted that, first of all, sheer lack of supplies; afterwards the struggles in Galicia and Poland, had prevented Istomine and his Army Corps from standing by to help.

At 1.30 the C.G.S., Deedes, Val., Freddy and I crossed to h.e.l.les in the _Arno_. Had a hard afternoon's walking, going first to 8th Corps Headquarters; next to the Royal Naval Division and last to the 52nd Divisional Headquarters. Returned to the 8th Corps Headquarters and there met Bailloud. He is now full of good cheer. Got back to Headquarters without adventure or misadventure.

Have cabled home a suggestion made to me by Mahon, that the 16th Irish Division at home might be used to fill up the gaps in the units of the 10th Division out here.

_31st August, 1915._ After early lunch, left in the _Arno_ for Suvla. With me were Braithwaite, Manifold, Freddy and Val. Walked up to the 9th Corps Headquarters and saw Byng. I am very anxious indeed he should work his men up into the mood for making a push. He charms everyone and he is fast pulling his force together. Maude, Fanshawe, and de Lisle seem to be keen to do something, but Byng, though he also is keen, has the French standards for ammunition in his head. He does not think we have enough to warrant us in making an attack. Also, he does not realize yet that if he is going to wait until we are fitted out on that scale he will have to wait till doomsday.

Walked to de Lisle's Headquarters and saw him, and on to the 11th Divisional Headquarters where I met Fanshawe and Malcolm. With them I climbed back on to Karakol Dagh and sat me down on the identical same stone whereon I sweated blood during that confused and indecisive battle of the 21st August. From the Karakol Dagh I got a very fair idea of our whole trench system. On either flank we hold the hills; elsewhere we are on the flat. The 11th Division have recovered and only need drafts to be as good a formation as any General could wish to command. In the evening I left in the _Arno_ carrying off with me de Lisle and Captain Hardress Lloyd to dine and stay the night. Quentin Agnew also dined.

My first feeble little attempt to act on K.'s a.s.sumption that Egypt and its army are mine has fallen a bit flat. The War Office promptly agreed to my taking these two weak, half-trained battalions, the 1/6th Royal Scots and 2/5th Devons, to be trained in my trenches. That was yesterday. But the Senoussi must have heard of it at once, for Maxwell forthwith cables, "The att.i.tude of the Senoussi is distinctly dangerous and his people have been latterly executing night manoeuvres round our post at Sollum." To me, the night manoeuvres of these riff-raff seem ridiculous. But distance, perhaps, has lent its enchantment to my view.

The quibble that the troops in Egypt are mine has been broken to pieces by my first touch! I have renounced the two battalions with apologies and now I daresay the Senoussi will retire from his night manoeuvres round Sollum and resume his old strategic position up Maxwell's sleeve.

_1st September, 1915. Imbros._ Remained at Headquarters working. Wrote, amongst other things, to K. as follows:--

"I have just finished two days' hard physical exercise going round visiting Egerton and Paris with Davies, and Fanshawe and de Lisle with Byng. At h.e.l.les everything is quite right although they have only troops enough there for the defensive. They are getting a lot of stores in, and the really only anxious feature of the situation is the health of the men who are very, very tired right through, having had no sort of relief for months, and who go sick in large numbers.

"Fanshawe is first cla.s.s. Full of go and plans, he will, if the Lord spares him, be a real treasure. Maude and Mahon I am going to see after Mail-day, and then I shall hope to inspect our new captured position on the left of Anzac.

"I do not know if they showed you the cable saying Hammersley has gone home very ill with a clot of blood in his leg. He has to lie perfectly prostrate and still, so I am told, as the least movement might set it loose and it would then kill him. Evidently he was not really fit to have been sent out on service. And this was the man, remember, on whom, under Stopford, everything depended for making a push.

"This Suvla Bay country, a jungle ringed round by high mountains, is essentially a country for Boers or for Indian troops. De Lisle and others who have watched them closely in India, say that a native soldier on the Peninsula (although there, too, he goes to pieces if he loses his Officers and under too prolonged a strain) is worth at least two Indian soldiers in France. The climate suits him better, but, most of all, the type of enemy is more or less the sort of type they are accustomed to encounter. Not _Sahibs_ and _Ghora Log_ in helmets but _Mussalman Log_ in turbans. As to the South Africans there can be no two opinions, I think, that they would stand these conditions better than those of Northern Europe. Indeed, we have one or two Boers serving now with the Australians, and they have done extremely well."

Some of K.'s questions take my breath away. I wish very much indeed he could come and spend a week with me. Otherwise I feel hopeless of making him grasp the realities of the trenches. On the 30th of August he cables, "If required, I could send you a fresh consignment of junior Officers. Or have you sufficient supernumerary Officers to fill all casualties?" I have replied to him that, in my four regular Divisions, I am short of 900 effective Officers in the Infantry alone. To meet my total shortage of 1,450 Officers I have twenty-five young gentlemen who have lately been sent out here to complete their training!

De Lisle and Hardress Lloyd sailed back to Suvla in the evening.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 11: As will be seen further on the 47,000 actually panned out at 29,000, of whom two battalions were at once diverted to Egypt, whilst two other battalions turned out to be non-fighting formations.--IAN H., 1920.]

CHAPTER XIX

THE FRENCH PLAN

_2nd September, 1915. Imbros._ An ugly dream came to me last night. My tent was at Imbros right enough, and I was lying in my little camp bed, and yet I was being drowned, held violently under the h.e.l.lespont.

The grip of a hand was still on my throat; the waters were closing over my head as I broke away and found myself wide awake. I was trembling and carried back with me into the realms of consciousness an idea that some uncanny visitor had entered my tent. Already the vision was fading. I could visualize the form of the presence, but the face remained hidden in shadow. Never had I suffered from so fearful a dream. For hours afterwards I was haunted by the thought that the Dardanelles were fatal; that something sinister was a-foot; that we, all of us, were pre-doomed.

Dreams go by contraries. Strange that so black a night should be followed by a noon so brilliant--so brilliant beyond compare.

K. cables the French are going to send three or four Divisions to work with us along the Asiatic mainland. From bankrupt to millionaire in 24 hours. The enormous spin of fortune's wheel makes me giddy!

These French Divisions will be real Divisions: _must_ be; they have no others.

O, Hallelujah!

"The sending of a force of three or four Divisions to operate on the Asiatic mainland, independent as regards command, but in close relation with the British forces on the Peninsula, is being considered by the French Government. They will require an exclusively French military base at Mitylene, and us to help with transport and fleet.

"So far I have not discussed any details with the French, and have simply told them we shall be delighted to have the help, which would be given by such an expedition, towards the solution of the Dardanelles problem.

"Presumably they would require their two divisions now at Cape h.e.l.les.

What forces would you require to relieve them? I have asked Sir John French if the XXVIIth and XXVIIIth Divisions could be spared for this purpose.

"Wire me any points that you think I had better settle with the French authorities."

_Deo volente_ we are saved; Constantinople is doomed. How clearly stand forth the mosques and minarets of the Golden Horn.

Mr. Murdoch, an Australian journalist, paid me a visit to thank me for having stretched a point in his favour by letting him see the Peninsula. Seemed a sensible man.