e was
something like a stampede from North to South. Looking closer we could
see the enemy advancing behind their own bursting shrapnel and rolling
up our line from the left on to the centre. Oh for the good "Queen
Bess," her high command, and her 15-inch shrapnel! One broadside and
these Turks would go scampering down to Gehenna. The enemy
counter-attack was coming from the direction of Tekke Tepe and moving
over the foothills and plain on Sulajik. Our centre made a convulsive
effort (so it seemed) to throw back the steadily advancing Turks; three
or four companies (they looked like) moved out from the brush about
Sulajik and tried to deploy. But the shrapnel got on to these fellows
also and I lost sight of them. Then about 6 a.m., the whole lot seemed
suddenly to collapse:--including the right! Not only did they give
ground but they came back--some of them--half-way to the sea. But others
made a stand. The musketry fire got very heavy. The enemy were making a
supreme effort. The Turkish shell fire grew hotter and hotter. The
enemy's guns seemed now to be firing not only from round about Anafarta
Sagir, but also from somewhere between 113 and 101, 2,500 yards or so
South-west of Anafarta. Still these fellows of ours; not more than a
quarter of those on the ground at the outset--stuck it out. My heart
has grown tough amidst the struggles of the Peninsula but the misery of
this scene well nigh broke it. What kept me going was the sight of Sari
Bair--I could not keep my eyes off the Sari Bair ridge. Guns from all
sides, sea and land, Turks and British, were turned on to it and
enormous explosions were sending slices off the top of the high mountain
to mix with the clouds in the sky. Under that canopy our men were
fighting for dear life far above us!

Between 7.30 and 8.0 the Turkish reinforcements at Suvla seemed to have
got enough. They did not appear to be in any great strength: here and
there they fell back: no more came up in support: evidently, they were
being held: failure, not disaster, was the upshot: few things so bad
they might not be worse. By 8.0 the musketry and the shelling began to
slacken down although there was a good deal of desultory shooting. We
were holding our own; the Welsh Division are coming in this morning; but
we have not sweated blood only to hold our own; our occupation of the
open key positions has been just too late! The element of
surprise--wasted! The prime factor set aside for the sake of