faithful to prayer. There was a lull at this
time in warfare. Casualties were few, and the periscope disclosed little
beyond the vista (soon too familiar) of arid heath, broken only by
patches of wild thyme, and of the intricate lacework of sandbagged
trenches stretching from the tip of Cape Helles behind us to the top of
Achi Baba. But for the constant booming of the guns and the plague of
flies, these first days on Gallipoli were days of peace and happiness
under a quiet, blue sky. Our men were hopeful, and a stray memorandum of
mine of the 3rd August records that "P.H. Creagh bets Fawcus L1 that the
Turks will be driven out of the Peninsula within a month." Our faith was
great in those days.

CHAPTER IV

THE AUGUST BATTLES AT CAPE HELLES

In the history of the expedition to the Dardanelles, the August battles
in the area of Cape Helles figure as a pinning or holding attack by the
British Army, designed to occupy the enemy while the Suvla Bay landing
was effected. The line of communications that linked the Achi Baba
position with Maidos and Gallipoli was to be cut by our forces operating
from Suvla and Anzac, and the Narrows were to be opened to our fleet by
the capture of Sari-Bair. The epic of the actual Suvla effort has been
nobly told in both Sir Ian Hamilton's dispatches and Mr Masefield's
_Gallipoli_.

The Regimental officer at Cape Helles naturally knew very little of the
strategy underlying these operations, and nothing of events at Suvla or
Anzac, though Suvla was but thirteen miles and Anzac but five from
Fusilier Bluff. His could only be the impressions of an eyewitness in an
orbit limited to his Brigade. During the whole of our Gallipoli
experiences, we were only conscious of Divisional organisation and
personnel through the literature and correspondence of the orderly-room,
or from mere glimpses on the occasion of our rare visits to the base on
Gully Beach. I am glad to have once seen the Commander-in-Chief, Sir Ian
Hamilton. He passed our Headquarters on the Western Mule Sap, walking
briskly towards the trenches. The fine appreciation of the Manchester
Territorial Brigade's work on the 4th June, which he wrote in his
dispatches, made his name a name always to conjure with, but to the man
in the trenches, an Army Commander can at most be but a shining name.
Consequently, the story of the fighting in August, as we saw it, must
needs be silent on all vexed questions of high policy, and also on t