.

In the early part of the day very heavy casualties were suffered in the
boats which conveyed the troops from the destroyers, tugs, and
transports to the beach. As soon as it became light, the enemy's
sharpshooters, hidden everywhere, simply concentrated their fire on the
boats....

Throughout the whole of April 25th the landing of troops, stores, and
munitions had to be carried out under these conditions, but the gallant
sailors never failed their equally gallant comrades ashore. Every one,
from the youngest midshipman straight from Dartmouth and under fire for
the first time, to the senior officers in charge, did their duty
nobly....

When the sun was fully risen and the haze had disappeared, we could see
that the Australians had actually established themselves on the top of
the ridge, and were evidently trying to work their way northwards along
it....

The fighting was so confused, and took place amongst such broken ground
that it is extremely difficult to follow exactly what did happen
throughout the morning and afternoon of April the 25th. The role
assigned to the covering force was splendidly carried out up to a
certain point, and a firm footing was obtained on the crest of the ridge
which allowed the disembarkation of the remainder of the force to go on
uninterruptedly except for the never-ceasing sniping.

But then the Australians, whose blood was up, instead of entrenching
themselves and waiting developments, pushed northward and eastward
inland, in search of fresh enemies to tackle with the bayonet. The
ground is so broken and ill-defined that it was very difficult to select
a position to entrench, especially as after the troops imagined they had
cleared a section, they were continually being sniped from all sides.
Therefore they preferred to continue the advance.... The Turks only had
a comparatively weak force actually holding the beach, and they seemed
to have relied on the difficult nature of the ground, and their
scattered snipers, to delay the advance until they could bring up
reinforcements from the interior.

Some of the Australians who had pushed inland were counter-attacked and
almost outflanked by these oncoming reserves, and had to fall back after
suffering very heavy casualties.

It was then the turn of the Turks to counter-attack, and this they
continued to do throughout the afternoon, but the Australians never
yielded a foot of ground on the main ridge, and reinforcements were
contin