Five Months at Anzac | Page 6

much
for them. It was now that there occurred what I think one of the finest
incidents of the campaign. This was the landing of the Australian
Artillery. They got two of their guns ashore, and over very rough
country dragged them up the hills with what looked like a hundred men
to each. Up they went, through a wheat-field, covered and plastered

with shrapnel, but with never a stop until the crest of the hill on the
right was reached. Very little time was wasted in getting into action,
and from this time it became evident that we were there to stay.
The practice of the naval guns was simply perfect. They lodged shell
after shell just in front of the foremost rank of our men; in response to a
message asking them to clear one of the gullies, one ship placed shell
after shell up that gully, each about a hundred yards apart, and in as
straight a line as if they were ploughing the ground for Johnny Turk,
instead of making the place too hot to hold him.
The Turks now began to try for this warship, and in their endeavours
almost succeeded in getting the vessel we were on, as a shell burst right
overhead.
The wounded now began to come back, and the one hospital ship there
was filled in a very short time. Every available transport was then
utilised for the reception of casualties, and as each was filled she
steamed off to the base at Alexandria. As night came on we appeared to
have a good hold of the place, and orders came for our bearer division
to land. They took with them three days' "iron" rations, which consisted
of a tin of bully beef, a bag of small biscuits, and some tea and sugar,
dixies, a tent, medical comforts, and (for firewood) all the empty cases
we could scrape up in the ship. Each squad had a set of splints, and
every man carried a tourniquet and two roller bandages in his pouch.
Orders were issued that the men were to make the contents of their
water-bottles last three days, as no water was available on shore.
The following evening the remainder of the Ambulance, less the
transport, was ordered ashore. We embarked in a trawler, and steamed
towards the shore in the growing dusk as far as the depth of water
would allow. The night was bitterly cold, it was raining, and all felt this
was real soldiering. None of us could understand what occasioned the
noise we heard at times, of something hitting the iron deck houses
behind us; at last one of the men exclaimed: "Those are bullets, sir," so
that we were having our baptism of fire. It was marvellous that no one
was hit, for they were fairly frequent, and we all stood closely packed.
Finally the skipper of the trawler, Captain Hubbard, told me he did not

think we could be taken off that night, and therefore intended to drop
anchor. He invited Major Meikle and myself to the cabin, where the
cook served out hot tea to all hands. I have drunk a considerable
number of cups of tea in my time, but that mug was very, very nice.
The night was spent dozing where we stood, Paddy being very
disturbed with the noise of the guns.
At daylight a barge was towed out and, after placing all our equipment
on board, we started for the beach. As soon as the barge grounded, we
jumped out into the water (which was about waist deep) and got to dry
land. Colonel Manders, the A.D.M.S. of our Division, was there, and
directed us up a gully where we were to stay in reserve for the time
being, meantime to take lightly-wounded cases. One tent was pitched
and dug-outs made for both men and patients, the Turks supplying
shrapnel pretty freely. Our position happened to be in rear of a
mountain battery, whose guns the Turks appeared very anxious to
silence, and any shells the battery did not want came over to us. As
soon as we were settled down I had time to look round. Down on the
beach the 1st Casualty Clearing Station (under Lieutenant-Colonel
Giblin) and the Ambulance of the Royal Marine Light Infantry were at
work. There were scores of casualties awaiting treatment, some of them
horribly knocked about. It was my first experience of such a number of
cases. In civil practice, if an accident took place in which three or four
men were injured, the occurrence would be deemed out of the ordinary:
but here there were almost as many hundreds, and all the flower of
Australia. It made one feel really that, in the words of General Sherman,
"War is hell," and it