Chapter 15

_The British Press Bureau on June 30, 1915, issued the following:_

General Sir Ian Hamilton reports that the plan of operations on the 28th was to throw forward the left of his line southeast of Krithia, pivoting on a point about one mile from the sea, and after advancing on the extreme left for about half a mile to establish a new line facing east on ground thus gained. This plan entailed the capture in succession of two lines of the Turkish trenches east of the Saghir Dere, and five lines of trenches west of it. The Australian Corps was ordered to co-operate by making a vigorous demonstration.

The action opened at nine o'clock with a bombardment by heavy artillery. The assistance rendered by the French in this bombardment was most valuable.

At 10.20 the Field Artillery opened fire to cut wire in front of Turkish trenches, and this was effectively done. The effect on the enemy's trench near the sea was great. The very accurate fire of his Majesty's ships Talbot, Scorpion and Wolverine succeeded in keeping down his artillery fire from that quarter.

At 10.45 a small Turkish advanced work in the Saghir Dere known as the Boomerang Redoubt was assaulted. This little fort, which was very strongly sited and protected by extra strong wire entanglements, has long been a source of trouble. After special bombardment by trench mortar, and while bombardment of surrounding trenches was at its height, part of the Border Regiment at the exact moment prescribed leapt from their trenches as one man like a pack of hounds, and pouring out of cover raced across, and took the work most brilliantly.

The artillery bombardment increased in intensity till 11 A.M., when the range was lengthened, and infantry advanced. The infantry attack was carried out with great dash along the whole line.

West of Saghir Dere three lines of trenches were captured with little opposition. The trenches were full of dead Turks, many buried by the bombardment, and one hundred prisoners were taken in them.

East of the Ravine the Royal Scots made a fine attack, capturing the two lines of trenches assigned to their objective, but the remainder of the Brigade on their right met with severe opposition and were unable to get forward.

At 11.30 the Royal Fusiliers led its Brigade in the second phase of the attack west of the Ravine. The Brigade advanced with great steadiness and resolution through the trenches already captured, and on across the open, and taking two more lines of trenches reached the objective allotted to them, the Lancashire Fusiliers inclining half-right and forming line to connect with our new position east of the Ravine.

The northernmost objective had now been attained, but the Gurkhas pressing on under the cliffs captured an important knoll still further forward, actually due west of Krithia. This they fortified and held during the night, making our total gain on the left precisely one thousand yards.

During the afternoon the trenches, a small portion of which remained uncaptured on the right, were attacked, but the enemy held on stubbornly supported by machine-guns and artillery, and the attacks did not succeed.

During the night the enemy counter-attacked the furthest trenches gained, but was repulsed with heavy loss. A party of Turks, who penetrated from the flank between two lines of captured trenches, was subjected to machine-gun fire at daybreak, suffered very heavily, and the survivors surrendered.

Except for a small portion of trench already mentioned, which is still held by the enemy, all and more than was hoped for from operations has been gained. On the extreme left the line has been pushed forward to a specially strong point well beyond the limit of the advance originally contemplated.

All engaged did well, but certainly the chief factor in the success was the splendid attack carried out by the 29th Division, whose conduct on this, as on previous occasions, was beyond praise.

AUSTRALIANS IN ACTION

_The British Press Bureau states on July 1 that, in continuation of his last message respecting the British advance in the Gallipoli Peninsula, Sir Ian Hamilton had reported as follows:_

Further details have now been received with regard to the part played by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps in the operations of the 29th. As previously stated, the General Officer Commanding the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps was instructed to undertake operations with a view to preventing the enemy in his front from detaching troops to the southern area.

Between 11.30 A.M. and 12 noon the action was opened, His Majesty's ships Humber, Pincher, and Chelmer engaging enemy's heavy guns. At 1 P.M. part of the Second Light Horse Brigade and the Third Infantry Brigade moved out on the right of the position, advancing some 700 yards, when the enemy was encountered in strength. Meanwhile the artillery engaged the enemy's reserves, which were collecting in the ravine opposite right centre, by shelling them effectively with guns and howitzers.

About 2.30 P.M. the enemy appeared to be preparing a counter-attack against the left of our advanced troops, but on howitzer and machine-gun fire being turned on the enemy's attacks were easily repulsed. The retirement of the advanced troops was begun at 3 P.M., well covered by rifle, machine-gun, and artillery fire, and the troops were all back in the trenches between 4.30 and 5.30 P.M.

Our machine-guns and artillery did considerable execution. Naval gun fire also gave valuable assistance. Demonstrations made after dark at 8.45 and 11.30 P.M. with flares, star shell, and destroyer bombardment were successfully carried out.

The Eighth Corps report 180 prisoners taken since the morning of the 28th, namely, 38 of the Sixteenth Regiment, 139 of the Thirty-third Regiment, and three of the Thirteenth Regiment. A Circassian prisoner carried a wounded private of Royal Scots into our lines under fire.

ATTACKED BY THE TURKS

_Sir Ian Hamilton reported, as published by the British Press Bureau on July 6, the following details of the attack made by the Turks on the night of 29th-30th June:_

About 2 A.M. searchlights of His Majesty's ship Scorpion discovered half a Turkish battalion advancing near the sea northwest of Krithia. Scorpion opened fire, and few of the enemy got away. Simultaneously the enemy attacked the knoll we captured due west of Krithia, advancing from a nullah in close formation in several lines. The attack came under artillery and enfilade rifle fire, and the enemy lost heavily. The foremost Turks got within forty yards of the parapet, but only a few returned.

The Turks made several heavy bomb attacks during the night, our troops being twice driven back a short distance. Early in the morning we regained these trenches by bayonet attack, and they have since been strengthened.

At 5.30 A.M. 2,000 Turks, moving from Krithia into the ravine, were scattered by machine-gun fire. The operations reflect great credit on the vigilance and accurate shooting of His Majesty's ship Scorpion. The Turkish losses in the nullah and ravine are estimated at 1,500 to 2,000 dead.

About 10 P.M. on the 30th of June the Turks again attacked with bombs a portion of the most northerly trench captured by us on 28th. An officer of the Gurkhas being wounded, not dangerously as it turned out, the men became infuriated, flung all their bombs at the enemy, and then charging down out of the trench used their kukris for the first time and with excellent effect. About dawn the Turks once more attempted an attack over the open, but nearly the whole of these attacking forces, about half a battalion, were shot down, and a final bomb attack, though commenced, failed utterly.

Further reports from Australia and New Zealand Corps, as to the enemy's attack on 29th-30th on our right flank, state that the action commenced by very heavy fire from midnight till 1.30 A.M., to which our men only replied by a series of cheers. The Turks then launched their attack, and came right on with bayonet and bombs. Those who succeeded in getting into our saps were instantly killed; the remainder were dealt with by bomb and rifle fire from the 7th and 8th Light Horse. By 2 A.M. the enemy broke, and many were killed while withdrawing. The enemy's attack was strongest on his right. They were completely taken aback by a concealed sap constructed well ahead of our main line, and the dead are lying thickly in front of this. Some got into the sap and several across it; all these were wiped out by fire from the main parapet farther back.

Following the defeat of this attack, the enemy attacked at 3 A.M. on our left, and 30 men came over the parapets in front of the right of Quinn's Post. These were duly polished off. Prisoners brought in state that three fresh battalions were employed in the main attack, which was made by the personal order of Enver Pasha, who, as they definitely assert, was present in the trenches on June 29. This is confirmed by the statement of an intelligent Armenian prisoner captured on that date. According to him, stringent orders were recently issued that no further attacks were to be made, because if the Turks remained on the defensive the British would be forced to attack, and would suffer as severely as the Turks had hitherto suffered. But Enver Pasha, when he arrived in the northern section, overrode this instruction, and orders were received by the prisoner's regiment that the Australians were to be driven into the sea.

On July 2, after a heavy bombardment of our advanced positions by high explosives and shrapnel, lasting half an hour, the enemy infantry advanced, but were driven back to the main nullah about a mile to our front by the accurate shooting of His Majesty's ship Scorpion and by our rifle and machine-gun fire. About 7 P.M. the Turkish artillery recommenced their bombardment, under cover of which two battalions emerged from the nullah to the northeast of our most advanced trench and commenced an attack across the open, advancing in two regular lines. At the outset very effective shrapnel fire from the 10th Battery Royal Field Artillery caused great execution among the attackers. Gurkha supports then advanced, and there being insufficient room in trenches took up a position on some excavated earth in rear, whence deadly rifle fire was poured into the advancing lines. Turkish officers could be seen endeavouring to get their men forward, but they would not face the fire and retreated in disorder after suffering heavy casualties.

The ground in front of our trenches in every direction can be seen covered with Turkish dead, and patrols sent out at night report that the valleys and ravine are also full of them. There can be no possible doubt that the enemy's losses have been very heavy. After checking and counter-checking reports from all sources, I put down their total casualties between June 28 and July 2 at 5,150 killed and 15,000 wounded. The number of killed is, therefore, approximately correct, while the wounded is an estimate based partly on the knowledge of the number already reported arrived at Constantinople, and on experience of proportion of wounded to killed in previous engagements. Since June 29 the total amount of Turkish arms and ammunition collected is 516 rifles, 51 bayonets, 200 sets of equipment, 126,400 rounds of ammunition, 100 bombs.

The following is an extract from captured divisional orders: "There is nothing that causes us more sorrow, increases the courage of the enemy, and encourages him to attack more freely, causing us great losses, than the losing of these trenches. Henceforth commanders who surrender these trenches, from whatever side the attack may come, before the last man is killed will be punished in the same way as if they had run away. Especially will the commanders of units told off to guard a certain front be punished if, instead of thinking about their work, supporting their units and giving information to the higher command, they only take action after a regrettable incident has taken place.

"I hope that this will not occur again. I give notice that if it does I shall carry out the punishment. I do not desire to see a blot made on the courage of our men by those who escape from the trenches to avoid the rifle and machine-gun fire of the enemy. Henceforth I shall hold responsible all officers who do not shoot with their revolvers all the privates who try to escape from the trenches on any pretext. Commander of the 11th Div., Colonel Rifaat."

To the copy from which this extract was taken the following note is appended: "To Commander of the 1st Battalion. The contents will be communicated to the officers, and I promise to carry out the orders till the last drop of our blood has been shed. Sign and return. Signed. Hassan, Commander, 127th Regiment. Then follow signatures company commanders."

HEAVY TURKISH LOSSES

_The British Press Bureau on July 7 issued this report by General Ian Hamilton:_

The night of July 3-4 was quiet in the northern section, but at 4 A.M. the enemy started a heavy bombardment of the trenches. All the guns previously used against us, and some new ones, were in action, but the bombardment died away about 6 A.M. without doing much damage. During the bombardment about twenty 11.2-inch shells were dropped from a Turkish battleship in the strait.

In the southern section the Turks kept up a heavy musketry fire along the whole line during the night and did not leave their trenches. At 4 A.M. their batteries started the most violent bombardment that has yet been experienced. At least 5,000 rounds of artillery ammunition were expended by them.

Meanwhile this shelling of our lines on the peninsula proved the preliminary to a general attack on our front with special efforts at certain points. The principal effort was made at the junction of the Royal Naval Division section with that of the French.

Here, at 7.30 A.M., the Turks drove back our advanced troops and assaulted a portion of the line held by the Royal Naval Division. Some fifty Turks gained a footing in our trench, where, nevertheless, some men of the Royal Naval Division held on to our supports, and the men who had retired counter-attacked immediately and hurled the Turks out of the trench again.

Another attack on the right of the Twenty-ninth Division section, was practically wiped out by rifle and machine-gun fire. On our left the Turks massed in a nullah, to the northeast of our newly-captured trenches, and attempted several attacks. None of these was able to get home owing to the steadiness of our troops and our effective artillery support. The bombardment died down toward 11 A.M., though it was resumed at intervals.

Not only was the result a complete failure, but while our losses were negligible and no impression was made on our line, the enemy added a large number to his recent very heavy casualties. It seems plain from the disjointed nature of his attack that he is finding it difficult to drive his infantry forward to face our fire.

SLAUGHTER BY CANNON LIGHT

_In a dispatch by George Renwick to The London Daily Chronicle, dated at Lemnos, July 11, the following description of fighting, followed by heavy Turco-German casualties, appeared:_

The heaviest fighting which has taken place on Gallipoli Peninsula since the allied forces landed there began late on Tuesday and lasted well into Wednesday. It resulted in a swing forward of the southern line of the allied armies for five furlongs and in the infliction of staggering losses on the enemy. Those who were in the battle place the Turco-German casualties at 7,000 killed and from 14,000 to 15,000 wounded. Many prisoners were taken.

The whole army in the southern part of the peninsula was engaged, and the Australians and New Zealanders further north also played a part. The victory marks a definite stage in the initial work of throwing forces around Achi Baba, which may now be described as one of the strongest fortresses in the world.

The Allies had been resting in comparative tranquillity and the Turks had evidently become persuaded the enemy was experiencing a shortage of ammunition. This belief convinced them of the excellent opportunity of driving the invaders into the sea. Late Tuesday night the first signs of the enemy's movement were detected. No time was lost in flashing a warning message to headquarters. The French were soon alert and the artillery at that portion of the line against which the attack was being prepared was quickly and strongly reinforced.

French and British machine guns were rushed to the front until a perfect wall of heavy and light guns was in position. Then there came a short interval of silence and waiting, almost oppressive. Suddenly the stillness was broken by a tremendous burst of shells from the Turkish guns, and for a time shrapnel poured down on the French front. But the men were safely positioned in dugouts and little loss resulted. From the strait loud booming began. The battered Goeben was at work again, and during the bombardment she pounded our right with some forty 11-inch shells. Many did not burst--they were apparently of Turkish manufacture.

This hail of shells lasted just an hour and a half and was the severest bombardment to which our lines have been subjected during the weeks of struggle on the peninsula. No sooner had the heavy fire ceased than great solid masses of Turks leaped forward to the attack. On they came, the silence unbroken save for their shouts, until they reached a point within sixty or seventy yards of the French position. Then from 200 well placed machine guns a devastating answering fire burst from our Allies' trenches, and the rifles joined in, 20,000 of them. The big guns flared and cast a lurid light over the scene.

Italy's War on Austria

Second Month Closes with Offensive Operations in Swing Against Gorizia

On July 23, after two months of her war against Austria, an appraisement may be taken of Italy's extensive and business-like preparation for the conflict. Rapidly the passes leading to the Trentino, Carinthia, Friuli, and the valley of the Isonzo were secured, almost over night; and then, with the regularity of a railway time-table, the Italians began their hard, patient work, in hitherto impassable regions, of neutralizing the Trentino, so as to make impossible an invasion from that territory, and of linking up their columns along the Isonzo, so that now, at the beginning of August, a battle-front of seventy-five miles extending from Tarvis to the Adriatic, is ready to move eastward in the direction of Klagenfurt, beyond which there are no Austrian fortifications until Vienna is reached, 170 miles away--about as far as Cape Cod is from New York City. The right flank of this battle-front has been developed along the Carso plateau so as to neutralize, as the Trentino was neutralized, the Peninsula of Istria with the great commercial port of Trieste, the naval base of Pola, and the Hungarian Free City of Fiume.

The Italian field of activity saw during the week ended July 24 the blazing out of the Italian offensive. Italy apparently was then satisfied that all the passages by means of which Austria could pour troops to attack her rear are effectively stopped and has therefore begun a determined advance along the Isonzo front from Tarvis to the Adriatic, with the object of breaking down completely Austria's first defensive screen. The battle is, as is natural, centring around Gorizia.

Once Gorizia falls, the Italian problem in so far as Trieste is concerned, will be near solution. The Italians have made notable advances in Cadore and along the Isonzo, on the plateau of Carso. But Gorizia must be taken before a decided local victory can be recorded. The fighting has not progressed as yet to the point where definite information is available, but in late July it seemed to have reached the culminating stage. The surroundings of Gorizia, which is the key to the Isonzo district and the junction of five main roads and four main railway lines, are protected with all manner of fortifications. The official report from Rome on June 25 recorded the Italian occupation of Globna, north of Plava, and of the edge of the plateau between Sagrado and Monfalcone. From that date reports from Vienna recorded continuous and heavy Italian attacks from the bridgehead at Goritz to the sea. The correspondent of the Berliner Tageblatt at the Isonzo front reported on July 7 that the second great Italian offensive had forced its way into the Austrian line at Podzora--a height covering the bridgehead at Goritz--and at Vermegliano, between Doberdo and Monfalcone. A Geneva dispatch, dated July 14, reported the capture by the Italians of two miles of trenches in the Carnic Alps, the Alpine troops dragging their artillery to an altitude of 6,600 feet near Roskopel, and capturing to the south of Gorizia two important forts. On July 16 a dispatch from Rome told of a war council at the front held by King Victor Emmanuel and Premier Salandra, with Count Cadorna, Chief of the General Staff, and General Porro, his chief assistant. A Vienna official dispatch of that date reported increased artillery activity in the coast district and in Carinthia. Two passes at a height of over 10,000 feet were taken by the Italians at Venerodolol and Brizio, as reported July 17, and on July 18 they began an advance in Cadore, attacking a ring of powerful forts at a great height at Paneveggio, San Pelegrino, Monet, Livinallongo, and Tresassi, while Goritz was shelled from land and air.

Then began, on July 20, a great general Italian assault on a 75-mile line from Tarvis to the Adriatic shore. A dispatch from Turin from the correspondent of The London Daily Chronicle announced a victorious advance by the Italians on the Carso plateau, east of Sagrado, with the capture of 2,000 Austrian prisoners. The War Office in Rome reported on July 21 that while the Italian defense continued to develop energetically in Cadore, and the artillery was effectively working in Carnia, the struggle in the Isonzo zone continued with increasing intensity. Toward Goritz the Italians gained part of the line of the heights which form the right bank of the river commanding the town and the Isonzo bridges. On the Carso Plateau the Austrians were reported driven from some trenches, and 3,500 prisoners and much material captured. On July 22 the fall of Goritz and Tolmino was reported to be near, the War Office in Rome announcing a development of the offensive "along the whole front from Monte Nero to the Carso Plateau. Vienna reported that the heavy attacks were being repulsed. But on July 23 the official report from Rome for the first time declared that the Italian armies in the battle along the whole Isonzo front were achieving success," which was "constantly becoming more clearly apparent." On July 24 a dispatch from Udine said that General Cadorna was personally directing the battle in the presence of King Victor Emmanuel and the Duke of Aosta. A Milan dispatch to The London Daily News on July 25 reported the evacuation of Goritz by the Austrian General Staff in view of the imminence of its fall. Below appears a prospective account of Italy's formidable task, written on July 1 by an Italian correspondent of The London Morning Post.

The Task of Italy

[By a Special Correspondent of The London Morning Post]

Cormons, July 1.