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[Page 34]
From Sunday 25th April (1st day at Gallip.).
Landed Gallipoli on Sunday 25th April 1915 under heavy fire from rifle & shrapnel per one of HMS destroyers. Almost immediate destruction to all concerned. Landing under a mountain (5.00) an immediate bayonet charge drove the Turks to opposite ridge, where shrapnel, machine guns and rifles dropped our boys like flies. The German officer commanding Turks urged them on to make noises & utter shouts of derision at us. Their favourite was suggestive of Jack Johnson & his ringside traddle & started "Come on Kangaroo" & ended in a series of "Allahs". The losses on our side were enormous and it was feared our advance would be nil owing to insufficient forces, & on Monday 26.4.1915 in the early hours of morning when we were lined up to go aboard ship our hopes were a good deal dashed. We dragged on until daylight & with the sun our hopes rose again & we once more got moving. This day was heavy, too, the wounded from previous days having to be found & brought in – the day as ever memorable, & the person who sits quietly at home imagining the Red Cross doing his work miles behind the firing lines is a sadly mistaken person. Our poor lads left their bodies mingled with the dead & dying on the first line of fire. Where our boys suffered mostly was in exposed parts, hill tops, etc., where wounded mostly lay & had to be gathered from. Turks hidden in secluded spots found our stretcher parties easy marks & with shrapnel overhead our work was far from bright. My own personal feelings are still vivid & my first wild rush in company with comrades among