Item 03: Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett telegrams, 1915 - Page 130

[Page 130]

[Continuation from page 127 of Ashmead Bartlett's first report of the British action at Suvla Bay, 6th – 10th August]
Section six
Daily Telegraph London
Section six August eighth The three new divisions were disposed as follows the 13th which has had two weeks previous experience in the trenches in front of Achi Baba was landed at Anzac to reinforce the Australian and New Zealand Corps together with the twenty ninth Indian Brigade and the twenty ninth Brigade of the 10th Division stop the remainder of the 10th Division and the whole of the 11th were employed on the new landing stop [censor's deletion – (the first objective of the troops at Anzac would be the great hill known as 971 which is the highest point held by the Turks in front of Anzac it was the original objective of the Australians on the day of the first landing but although small groups reached its lower slopes the difficult nature of the country proved too much and it has ever since defied capture)] stop
The country is in fact terrible [censor's deletion – to get over] the hills are an awful jumble with no regular formation but broken up into valleys dongas ravines and partly bare sandstone and partly covered with dense scrub in places there are sheer precipices over which it is impossible to climb and down which a false step may send you sliding several hundreds of feet stop [censor's deletion – no direct advance against 971 is possible from Anzac until the Turkish trenches have been carried but from the extreme left of the Australian position] along the sea shore at the point known as the Fisherman's Hut the hills recede leaving a wide stretch of grassy soil partly covered with low trees and dense scrub which stretches right up to the southerly arm of Suvla Bay the point chosen for the new landing stop

Ashmead Bartlett / Radcliffe censor