Item 03: Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett telegrams, 1915 - Page 13

[Page 13]

[censor's deletion - of Shrapnel valley there is a break in our line] between Walkers ridge and Popes hill [censor's deletion – where] the enemy is strongly entrenched [censor's deletion - that up to the present it has been impossible to turn him out and thus] he can look right down the valley and snipe all those going up it at long range whilst his guns never weary of pouring an incessant hail of shrapnel [censor's deletion - down the main road which has given the valley its sinister name] stop But if the actual area of ground held by the Australians and New Zealanders remains to-day as it was three weeks ago in every other respect the general aspect [censor's deletion - of Anzac] has changed and instead of resembling the temporary home of a vast number of shipwrecked mariners the cliffs have the appearance of being a prosperous mining camp in full swing stop [The following two sentences deleted by censor]
the beach has its pier built out into the sea and the whole of the foreshore except for a narrow passage has disappeared under immense piles of wooden boxes containing every necessary for an army for a considerable period stop the face of the hills has been cut out into terraces along which are constructed the bombproof shelters of those who are having a spell stop

good roads have been made from the foreshore up to the front lines and in those places where you are exposed to shrapnel or sniping they have been banked to give some protection stop for although the Turks have made no attack until the one I shall attempt to describe for some time they have never ceased to shell the whole position not only with shrapnel but with high explosive shells of large calibre against which the strongest of bombproofs are liable to fail if there is a direct hit stop [censor's deletion - General Birdwood who is immensely popular with his men still living in their midst constantly visiting the front trenches and sharing]