Item 03: Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett telegrams, 1915 - Page 127

[Page 127]

[Telegram form – The Eastern Telegraph Company, Limited. Alexandria Station. Dated 24 Aug. 1915. 234 words]
[Continuation of Ashmead Bartlett's first report of the British action at Suvla Bay,
6th – 10th August]
Section five
R.T.P. Daily Telegraph London
Section five August eighth As the sun went down over Kephalo Bay on August sixth the calm waters reflected a stirring spectacle every warship destroyer transport and light[er] was crowded with our soldiers packed like sardines on the decks knowing they would have to pass several uncomfortable hours before they could find themselves at grips with the enemy on an unknown shore stop behind lay a forest of deserted tents the last home that thousands of those in the bay will ever know stop
It was a grand sight but one could not overcome the feeling of the great trajedy in the lives and homes of so many waiting eagerly for news in far off England which lies behind it all stop all lights on board the ships were extinguished at sunset and this heterogenus collection of weird craft lay in absolute darkness throughout the early hours of the night stop
Up to the moment of landing the troops had no idea of their destination but I was informed about nine o'clock stop we then learnt that the point of disembarkation for the 10th and 11th Divisions was the Little Anafarta Bay or Suvla Bay as it is sometimes known roughly four miles north of the Australian position at Anzac stop Sir Ian Hamilton had disposed his troops as follows for this great movement [censor's deletion - which has for its objective the cutting off of the Kilid Bahr salient from the north and which if carried out successfully will obtain for us the European side of the Narrows and perhaps bring about the capitulation of the Turkish armies in front of Achi Baba unless they succeed in slipping through the net in time)] stop                [contd. on page 130]
ashmead Bartlett / Radcliffe censor