time
enough still, and the first moves of the plan are working smooth as
oiled machinery. For the past few nights there has been steady flow
into Anzac of troops, including a Division of the New Army. This has
taken place, without any kind of hitch, under the very noses of the
Turkish Army who have no inkling of the manoeuvre--as yet! The Navy
are helping us admirably here with their organization and good sea
discipline. Also, from what they tell me, Shaw and the 13th Division of
the New Army are playing up with the clockwork regularity of veterans.
All this marks us up many points to the good, before even the flag
drops. For, given the fine troops we have, the prime factors of the
whole conception; the factors by which it stands or falls; are:--

* * * * *

(1) Our success in hoodwinking the Turks; i.e., surprise.

(2) Our success in getting the 13th Division and the Indian Brigade
unnoticed into Anzac.

(3) Our success in landing the Divisions from Imbros, Lemnos and
Mitylene, at moments fixed beforehand, upon an unknown, unsurveyed,
uncharted shore of Suvla. Of these three factors (1) and (2) may already
be entered to our credit; (3) is on the knees of the Navy.

The day before the start is the worst day for a Commander. The operation
overhangs him as the thought of another sort of operation troubles the
minds of sick men in hospitals. There is nothing to distract him; he has
made his last will and testament; his affairs are quite in order; he has
said _au revoir_ to his friends with what cheeriness he can muster.
Looking back, it seems to me that during two months every conceivable
contingency has been anticipated and weighed and that the means of
dealing with it as it may arise is now either:--embodied in our
instructions to Corps Commanders, or else, set aside as pertaining to my
own jurisdiction and responsibility. To my thinking, in fact, these
instructions of ours illustrate the domain of G.H.Q. on the one hand and
the province of the Corps Commander on the other very typically. The
General Staff are proud of their work. Nothing; not a nosebag nor a
bicycle has been left to chance.[1]

Davies and Diggle, his A.D.C., lunched and the Admiral came to haul me
out for a walk about 6 p.m.

Have written K. by this evening's Mail bag about the sickness of the
Australians, and indeed of all the troops here, excepting only the
native Indian troops, and also about our Medical _band-