Item 03: Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett telegrams, 1915 - Page 132

[Page 132]

[Telegram form – The Eastern Telegraph Company, Limited. Alexandria Station. Dated 24 Aug. 1915. 230 words]
[Continuation of Ashmead Bartlett's first report of the British action at Suvla Bay,
6th – 10th August]
Section 7
R.T.P. Daily Telegraph London
Section seven August eighth by moving along the flat ground stretching north from Fisherman's hut a force can with difficulty climb up the lower spurs and Dongas [censor's deletion – (of hill 971)] and perhaps eventually work its way to the summit stop it is however impossible to organise an advance in any regular formation and it must be left entirely to the initiative of the troops themselves for an operation of this sort the Australians and New Zealanders are peculiarly suited stop [censor's deletion – the importance of hill 971 cannot be overestimated for once it is in our possession we hold the most dominant point half way across the peninsula and can look down on Maidos and Kilid Bahr stop)]
Suvla Bay the sight chosen for the disembarkation of the 10th and 11th Divisions is a mile and three quarters wide at its extreme points the one to the south a low spit and the northern rising gradually to the range of hill known as the Kizlar Dagh stop the two arms of the bay are connected by a narrow sandy causeway behind which is the strange inland Salt Lake a morass in winter but partly dry in summer although liable to become impassable after rain stop on the far side of the Salt Lake is a low stretch of land partly bare and partly covered with scrub which gradually rises to the hills on which stand the villages of Kuchuk Anafarta and Biyuk Anafarta stop the heights on this ridge vary being highest toward the north from seven houndred to one hundred feet stop the immediate objective of the 10th and 11th Divisions after landing was this ridge the possession of which would place
[These deleted lines are repeated on page 134]
Ashmead Bartlett / Radcliffe censor