Item 03: Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett telegrams, 1915 - Page 190

[Page 190]

[Telegram form – The Eastern Telegraph Company, Limited. Alexandria Station. Dated 3 Sept. 1915. 306 words]
[Continuation of Ashmead Bartlet's report on the second combined British/Anzac operations at Suvla Bay and Lone Pine, 21st August]
Daily Telegraph London R.T.P.

Cable six section eight stop for a few minutes to looked as if the hill was won for our men were swarming all over it just below the crest and had actually occupied a section of the trench line on the south but then the Turkish battery behind Hill112 began to pour salvoes of shrapnel into our ranks at a range of only twelve houndred yards which simply swept whole lines away and forced the survivors to retire further down the slopes to some feeble cover stop here they hung on for a few minutes but the attack had spent its force and [censor's deletion] came [censor's deletion] back to the trenches they had so recently left stop the attack had failed [censor's deletion – where so many had failed before them] stop once more Hill seventy was left to the Turks the wounded and dead stop
meanwhile the fighting had been just as severe on the right for at three thirty the troops of the eleventh Division rushed from their trenches and stormed the first Turkish line under fearful fire over ground without a particle of cover the advance of the [censor's deletion] Brigade from the ridge in front Yilghin Burnu being held up until the right had accomplished its first task stop unfortunately it was found impossible to storm the second Turkish line in the flat a deadly loopholed trench with overhead cover stop attempts were made but our men fell in groups the dead and wounded lay scattered everywhere stop unable to clear the Turks from the open our infantry wheeled to the north according to the previous plan to form for an assault on Hill 112 whilst [censor's deletion] a Brigade advance from the ridge in front of Yolghin Burnu or rather they were driven off it to the south side by the terrible fire which had broken out
ashmead bartlett / Capt Maxwell Censor