the front line. The trenches were
full of water, and the gullies became almost impassable. On the 28th,
Lockwood, our musketry expert, was severely wounded in the chest.

On the same day Lieutenant-Colonel Gresham was forced by ill-health to
leave us. He was invalided to Malta, and thence to England. A year later
he relinquished his command, without having been able to rejoin. He had
served with the Battalion ever since 1890. He was known to suffer from
chronic illness, but he let nothing interfere with the call of duty, and
his hard work overseas set a fine example to all ranks. It is, indeed,
still, in 1917, difficult to think of the Battalion with any other
Commanding Officer. His departure was widely regretted, and the later
achievements of his men in the War are the best tribute to the many
years of labour he had given to their training and organisation.

His immediate successor in command was Major Staveacre. On the night of
the 28th May the Battalion advanced, and B and D Companies dug
themselves in under a full moon and in the face of the enemy, a platoon
of C Company finishing the work on the following evening. In these
operations fell Captains T.W. Savatard and R.V. Rylands, men of sterling
character and capacity, and Lieut. T.F. Brown, a gallant boy, who, in
the happier days of the threatened war in Ulster, had served in the West
Belfast Loyalist Volunteers.

The advance of the 28th May was preliminary to the historic attack of
the whole allied line from sea to sea, which had been timed for midday
on the 4th June 1915. In this attack the Battalion advanced as the
extreme right unit of our Infantry Brigade. On the left of the
Manchesters was the 29th Division; on our right was the Royal Naval
Division, and on their right were the French.

During the previous night the Turks, writes an eyewitness in the
_Sentry_, gave us "our first taste of bombing. They crawled down a small
gully and threw eight or nine bombs on to our gun emplacement, hurting
no one, but putting the gun out for twenty minutes." Meanwhile they
fired the gorse in front of the 29th Division.

[Illustration: GALLIPOLI.]

At eight in the morning the British guns opened the bombardment. "At
eleven-twenty our whole line from the sea to the Straits got up and
waved their bayonets, pretending the attack was to start." At twelve,
"with wild cheers" the assault was launched. A and C Companies rushed
the first Turkish trench, and captured the survi