actually got into the
trench dug by the "Y" Beach covering party on the day of the landing,
but had been knocked out again, a few minutes before the _Queen
Elizabeth_ came to the rescue, and, in falling back, had been (so the
Officer signaller told us) "badly cut up." Asked again who were being
badly cut up, he replied, "All of us!" No doubt the _Q.E._ turned up in
the very nick of time, at a moment when we were being forced to retire
too rapidly. A certain number of stragglers were slipping quietly back
towards Cape Helles along the narrow sandy strip at the foot of the
high cliffs, so, as it was flat calm, I sent Aspinall off in a small
boat with orders to rally them. He rowed to the South so as to head them
off and as the dinghy drew in to the shore we saw one of them strip and
swim out to sea to meet it half way. By the time the young fellow
reached the boat the cool salt water had given him back his presence of
mind and he explained, as if it was the most natural thing in the world,
that he had swum off to get help for the wounded! After landing, a show
of force was needed to pull the fugitives up but once they did pull up
they were splendid, and volunteered to a man to follow Aspinall back
into the firing line. Many of them were wounded and the worst of these
were put into a picket boat which had just that moment come along. One
of the men seemed pretty bad, being hit in the head and in the body. He
wanted to join in but, naturally, was forbidden to do so. Aspinall then
led his little party back and climbed the cliff. When he got to the top
and looked round he found this severely wounded man had not only
disobeyed orders and followed him, but had found strength to lug up a
box of ammunition with him. "I ordered you not to come," said Aspinall:
"I can still pull a trigger, Sir," replied the man.[13]

To-day's experiences have been of the strangest. As armies have grown
and as the range of firearms has increased, the Commander-in-Chief of
any considerable force has been withdrawn further and further from the
fighting. To-day I have stood in the main battery which has fired a shot
establishing, in its way, a record in the annals of destruction.

On our left we had gained three miles and had been driven back a mile or
rather more after doing so, apparently by fresh enemy forces. What would
have been a promenade if our original covering party had stuck to "Y"
Beach, had become too difficult for that wearied and greatly