Item 03: Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett telegrams, 1915 - Page 136

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[Page 136]

[Telegram form – The Eastern Telegraph Company, Limited. Alexandria Station. Dated 24 Aug. 1915. 264 words]
[Continuation of Ashmead Bartlett's first report of the British action at Suvla Bay,
6th – 10th August]
Section 9
R.T.P. Daily Telegraph London
Section nine August eighth simultaneously with this movement the 11th Division and the thirty first brigade of the tenth began to disembark at B and C landings on the southern spit in their immediate front there is a small hill known as Lala Baba which the enemy held stop there was a short sharp fight before it was rushed at the point of the bayonet and afterwards groups of Turkish snipers in the low scrub on the right of the Salt Lake caused some casualties stop at dawn both divisions were firmly established ashore holding both spits of the bay and the low narrow neck running across the front of the Salt Lake stop
[censor's deletion - no sooner had the fleet of transports entered the bay than a torpedo net was run across it with marvellous speed stop] as soon as it was daylight the Turkish artillery commenced to shell the neck and the landing places stop as far as I could gather they had two batteries in action and there fire was accurate but as usual the shrapnel was high and caused but few casualties whilst the common shell bursting in the soft sand also did but little damage stop
the precision with which this mass of men were put ashore was most remarkable and also the bearing of the new army under a heavy shell fire for the first time is something of which the whole country may be proud and opens up the brightest prospects for the future stop whilst these operations were in progress we could hear very heavy firing at about four am on the Anzac position showing that the Australians and 13th Division were also advancing [censor's deletion - (to open the advance on 971)]
ashmead Bartlett / Radcliffe censor

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