ur in a letter fired off to Colonel Clive Wigram
at "11.25 a.m., 7th May, 1915."

"I broke off there because I got a telephone message in from
Hunter-Weston to say his centre was advancing, and that by a pretty
piece of co-operation between Infantry and Artillery, he had driven the
Turks out of one very troublesome trench. He cannot see what is on his
left, or get any message from them. On his left are the Lancashire
Fusiliers (Territorials). They are faced by a horrid redoubt held by
machine guns, and they are to rush it with the bayonet.[15] It is a high
thing to ask of Territorials but against an enemy who is fighting for
his life, and for the existence of his country, we have to call upon
every one for efforts which, under any other conditions, might be
considered beyond their strength.

"Were we still faced by the Divisions which originally held the
Gallipoli Peninsula we would by now, I firmly believe, be in possession
of the Kilid Bahr plateau. But every day a regiment or two dribble into
Gallipoli, either from Asia or from Constantinople, and in the last two
days an entire fresh Division has (we have heard) arrived from
Adrianople, and is fighting against us this morning. The smallest
demonstration on the part of Bulgaria would, I presume, have prevented
this big reinforcement of fresh troops reaching the enemy, but it seems
beyond the resources of diplomacy to get anyone to create a diversion."

At 4.30 I ordered a general assault; the 88th Brigade to be thrown in on
the top of the 87th; the New Zealand Brigade in support; the French to
conform. Our gunners had put more than they could afford into the
bombardment and had very little wherewith to pave the way.

By the 4th instant I had seen danger-point drawing near and now it was
on us. Five hundred more rounds of howitzer 4.5 and aeroplanes to spot
whilst we wiped out the machine guns; that was the burden of my prayer.
Still, we did what we could and for a quarter of an hour the whole of
the Turkish front was wreathed in smoke, but these were naval shells or
18 pr shrapnel; we have no 18 pr high explosive and neither naval shells
nor shrapnel are very much good once the targets have got underground.
On our left no move forward.[16] Elsewhere our wonderful Infantry fought
like fresh formations. In face of a tempest of shot and shell and of a
desperate resistance by the Turks, who stuck it out very bravely to the
last, they carried and held the first line ene