f the Peninsula._ A biggish sea
running, subsiding as the day went on--and my mind grew calmer with the
waves. For we are living hand-to-mouth now in every sense. Two days'
storm would go very near starving us. Until we work up some weeks'
reserve of water, food and cartridges, I shan't sleep sound. Have lent
Birdwood four Battalions of the Royal Naval Division and two more
Battalions are landing at Helles to form my own reserve. Two weak
Battalions; that is the exact measure of my executive power to shape the
course of events; all the power I have to help either d'Amade or
Hunter-Weston.

Water is a worry; weather is a worry; the shelling from Asia is a thorn
in my side. The sailors had hoped they would be able to shield the
Southern point of the Peninsula by interposing their ships but they
can't. Their gunnery won't run to it--was never meant to run to it--and
with five going aeroplanes we can't do the spotting. Our Regiments, too,
will not be their superb selves again--won't be anything like
themselves--not until they get their terrible losses made good. There is
no other way but fresh blood for it is sheer human nature to feel flat
after an effort. Any violent struggle for life always lowers the will to
fight even of the most cut-and-come-again:--don't I remember well when
Sir George asked me if the Elandslaagte Brigade had it in them to storm
Pepworth? I had to tell him they were still the same Brigade but not the
same men. No use smashing in the impregnable sea front if we don't get a
fresh dose of energy to help us to push into the, as yet, very pregnable
hinterland. Since yesterday morning, when I saw our men scatter right
and left before an enemy they would have gone for with a cheer on the
25th or 26th,--ever since then I have cursed with special bitterness the
lack of vision which leaves us without that 10 per cent. margin above
strength which we could, and should, have had with us. The most fatal
heresy in war, and, with us, the most rank, is the heresy that battles
can be won without heavy loss--I don't care whether it is in men or in
ships. The next most fatal heresy is to think that, having won the
battle, decimated troops can go on defeating fresh enemies without
getting their 10 per cent. renewed.

[Illustration: "W" BEACH]

At 9 o'clock I boarded H.M.S. _Kennett_, a destroyer, and went ashore.
Commodore Roger Keyes came along with me, and we set foot on Turkish
soil for the first time at 9.45 a.m.