ns had always been without a supply, now they
were discovered when nobody wanted them.

At night-time shortly after it became dark the Turkish artillery which
had been reinforced with some heavier guns from Anzac and Suvla
subjected the beaches to pretty heavy shell fire. This caused much
discussion and difference of opinion as to what his action would be on
the night of the evacuation, and it was thought by most of us that we
were going to have a pretty thin time of it, as we considered the Turk
was too wily to be tricked a second time.

At last the day arranged for our departure came, the 8th January. Early
in the morning the Battalion returned from the Eski line to the rest
camp. The day was spent in destroying stores and equipment which had not
been removed so that nothing of any value would fall into the enemy's
hands. The orders issued with regard to movements of troops to the
beaches for embarkation were, that parties of fifty should be made up
including one officer. This was for purposes of checking at the various
control stations the numbers embarked. The Battalion being in rest camp
was included in the first embarkation, which was timed to take place
about 9 p.m. Just as it was growing dusk the parties of fifty already
detailed moved off and after various checks and halts reached "V" beach.
Up till now everything had been perfectly quiet. As the troops moved
forward on to the landing stages which led on to the _River Clyde_, the
famous Asiatic gun, known as "Asiatic Annie," started firing. That
morning she had had two direct hits on this landing stage and at the
moment, owing to some delay on the part of the lighters which were
carrying the troops off to the waiting transport, every square inch of
the landing stage was occupied; we passed a very anxious few minutes
there. It was a question of so near and yet so far, and we were greatly
relieved when the gun stopped firing after sending over three or four
rounds, none of which came nearer than about 25 yards away, landing in
the sea with a tremendous explosion and splash. Ultimately the
congestion was relieved and we moved forward into the province of the
navy, who were in charge of the operations as soon as we got on board
the lighters. Organisation up till this point had been perfect, but the
naval officers did not seem to care about keeping units together, the
one object being to get everyone off and load up the waiting transports
as quickly as possible. Th