e
sheltered from the Turkish fire, and was thus forbidden ground. All down
the slope were spread the dismembered remains of hundreds of Turks, who
must have been slaughtered in retreat by guns from our warships in the
AEgean Sea. It was impossible to bury them, owing to the enemy's fire.
The other side, where we slept on a rocky ledge high above the sea, was
still a beautiful glen.

An hour before dawn we went round the lines, while the men "stood to."
We returned for a bathe and breakfast in the open, while the destroyers
used to pass to and fro between Cape Helles and the Gulf of Saros, and a
pearly haze brooded over Imbros. Then back to the trenches, which were
always dusty and fly-pestered, to visit men always under fire, but full
of bravery and patience. Diarrhoea and dysentery were already sending
many of them from the Peninsula. The trenches were often noisome. Only
in the evening, with Imbros growing fainter in the fading day and
Samothrace rising huge and cloudy behind, while the red and green lights
of the hospital ships off Helles shone brightly across the water, was
physical vigour possible. When I acted as Second in Command, as was more
usual, my nights were spent in the centre of the firing line, with
excellent telephonists like Hoyle or Clavering close to me, but the
nights were usually quiet, and indeed it was not until the middle of
September that the Turks showed any symptoms of the offensive spirit.
Our casualties were mainly caused by random shots at night, which
chanced to hit our sentries as they peered into the gloom over the
parapet.

After a fortnight's spell in the trenches, rest bivouacs were welcome as
a change, though the name was a mere mockery. Mining and loading
fatigues were incessant. I admired the humour of a Wigan sergeant, whom
I heard encouraging a gang of perspiring soldiers, while carrying heavy
ammunition boxes up a hill-side one sweltering afternoon, with the
incitement that they must "Remember Belgium."

For a Field Officer one of the most trying experiences of such breaks in
the common routine was the task of presiding over field general
courts-martial. Courts-martial under peace conditions are not without
interest to a lawyer, but these in the field dealt wholly with grave
charges, such as falling asleep while on sentry duty and other offences
almost as dangerous and considerably more heinous morally. It was hard
in many cases to reconcile the exigencies of war with the ca