aeroplane
crossed us at 7 p.m. flying at a great height. No bombs were dropped.

"Asiatic Annie," as a famous gun across the Dardanelles is called, has
thrown a number of ugly shells this way to-day, but all were short of
W. Beach.

The "Majestic" is sinking gradually, her ram, which must have been 15
feet out of the water, is now nearly submerged.

_June 6th._--Sunday--6.40 a.m.--The day by preference for a big fight.
Last night--about 8--the Turks appear to have made a feint attack on
the French, this going on for hours, the rifle fire very heavy. Then
in the small hours of this morning they had concentrated on our
left--the other end of the line--where they were in great force. My
informants are three wounded from the Essex Regiment who have walked
in to hospital. They say the Turks were ten to our one, and they came
on with great dash, fighting being very fierce at a distance of only
20 yards. Then they got mixed up with the Essex and Royals, who must
have been badly cut up and were the last to retire. The Turks used a
large quantity of hand grenades. These are very deadly, and have been
making ghastly wounds as we know. We too use these freely, all the
empty 1 lb. tins of the camp having been collected for some time back,
and charged with gun-cotton. For missiles they have chopped up Turkish
barbed wire into inch lengths.

The howitzer fire was terrific between 4 and 5 when I woke up and came
to the top of the ridge to see what was doing. Plainly something
unusually desperate was on the move. "Asiatic Annie" was also busy and
several shells came this way, one falling in the C.C.S. where no harm
was done. Luckily it had chosen a clear spot in front of the store
tent to pitch into. I had gone down to examine this when the wounded
men I have referred to arrived. They say that all the trenches we took
two days ago, after so much hard fighting, are lost. Now at 7.15
firing has become much more desultory, and judging from where our
shells are bursting the distance we have been driven back is not
serious--and so to breakfast.

10 a.m.--Firing is too hot for us to collect in groups, therefore,
there is to be no church parade this morning. The walking wounded
still come straggling in, singly or in groups, all greatly depressed
at having such bad news to relate. Another constant stream flows from
the C.C.S. to the little cemetery at the top of the Beach, each unit
of this stream consisting of two bearers carrying a d