a
pessimist. One found fault with the war for not giving him enough
hardship and adventure; the other was entirely fed up with adventures
and hardships. This seems a trivial incident to jot down amidst issues
so tremendous, but life is life, and my chat with these youngsters put
some new life into me. Nearing the shore, I again struck Stopford's
Headquarters, now beginning to look habitable. Braithwaite, and one or
two others of my Staff turned up from Imbros at that moment. He shoved
some cables into my hand and hastened off to interview Reed. Helles and
Anzac have been duly warned we are both here for a few hours; all the
component parts of my machine, its cranks, levers, pulleys, are
assembled at Imbros, and G.H.Q. simply cannot be left under a junior
much longer. Meanwhile I told Stopford about Mahon and the gendarmes.
When I said that the sooner the Kiretch Tepe nettle was grasped the less
it would sting, he informed me he had issued an order that Commanders
were not to lose men by making frontal attacks on trenches but were to
turn them.

So here is a theory which South African practice proved to be more often
wrong than right being treated as an axiom at Gallipoli!

We next went into the question of digging a defensive line of trenches
half-way between Corps Headquarters and Mahon's force. Here we were in
accord. No man knows his luck and the tide may turn any moment. Both at
Liao-Yang and the Shaho the Japanese began to dig deep trenches directly
they captured a position.

Young Brodrick rejoined me here; rather anxious at having lost me. He
had found Mahon with the Brigade Staff. He had been shown the exact
positions on a rough sketch map made by one of the Officers. We had
three Battalions in the firing line and two in reserve. The gendarmerie
had been reinforced and were now estimated at 700 without machine guns
or artillery. We had a mountain battery shelling the gendarmes and a
monitor occasionally gave them a big fellow. The Brigade Staff had said
nothing to him about a battalion working round to the South. I repeated
this to Stopford and begged him to make a push for it here.

By now Braithwaite had finished with Reed, so we hurriedly discussed his
budget of news. Hammersley is expected but he has not turned up yet.
Indeed the situation is still by no means free from anxiety although the
arrival of the Welsh Division gives confidence. A battalion of the 32nd
Brigade did get up on to Tekke Tepe last n