stened to with breathless interest, I
asked him what about our troops at "Y"? He thought they were now in
touch with our troops at "X" but that they had been through some hard
fighting to get there. His last message had been that they were being
hard pressed but as he had heard nothing more since then he assumed they
were all right--! Anyway, he was cheery, stout-hearted, quite a good
tonic and--on the whole--his news is good.

To sum up the doings of the day; the French have dealt a brilliant
stroke at Kum Kale; we have fixed a grip on the hills to the North of
Gaba Tepe; also, we have broken through the enemy's defences at "X" and
"W," two out of the three beaches at the South point of the Peninsula.
The "hold-up" at the third, "V" (or Sedd-el-Bahr) causes me the keenest
anxiety--it would never do if we were forced to re-embark at night as
has been suggested--we must stick it until our advance from "X" and "W"
opens that sally port from the sea. There is always in the background of
my mind dread lest help should reach the enemy _before_ we have done
with Sedd-el-Bahr. The enveloping attacks on both enemy flanks have come
off brilliantly, but have not cut the enemy's line of retreat, or so
threatened it that they have to make haste to get back. At "S" (Eski
Hissarlick or Morto Bay) the 2nd South Wales Borderers have landed in
very dashing style though under fire from big fortress artillery as well
as field guns and musketry. On shore they deployed and, helped by
sailors from the _Cornwallis_, have carried the Turkish trenches in
front of them at the bayonet's point. They are now dug in on a
commanding spur but are anxious at finding themselves all alone and say
they do not feel able, owing to their weakness, to manoeuvre or to
advance. From "Y," opposite Krithia, there is no further news. But two
good battalions at large and on the war path some four or five miles in
rear of the enemy should do something during the next few hours. I was
right, so it seems, about getting ashore before the enemy could see to
shoot out to sea. At Gaba Tepe; opposite Krithia and by Morto Bay we
landed without too much loss. Where we waited to bombard, as at Helles
and Sedd-el-Bahr, we have got it in the neck.

This "V" Beach business is the blot. Sedd-el-Bahr was supposed to be the
softest landing of the lot, as it was the best harbour and seemed to lie
specially at the mercy of the big guns of the Fleet. Would that we had
left it severel