[Page 30]
[Continuation of Compton Mackenzie's despatch of 30 June 1915]
the victory upon the left would be fruitless, that the position would become an untenable salient and the Haricot redoubt revert to the enemy. At this moment a message was sent to say that the trenches must be recaptured, and when recaptured held. There were still five hours of daylight for this battle of the longest day. British guns and howitzers were asked for and were lent at once. The bombardment was resumed throughout that afternoon, and at half past five it seemed as if every gun on earth was pouring shells on the Turkish lines.
At six o'clock the third assault was delivered. In one trench there was a temporary shortage of ammunition, but the enemy fought even with stones and sticks and fists. A battalion came hurrying up from the Turkish right to reinforce. It was caught on open ground by the drumming 75'3 and it melted away. 600 yards of Turkish trenches were taken, and still the bombardment continued in order to ward off the counter-attack that was anticipated. The smoke of the shells which at dawn had been ethereal, almost translucent, was now in the sunset turbid and sinister. Yet the sunset was very splendid, flaming in crimson streamers over Imbros, tinting the East with rosy reflections and turning the peaks of Asia to sapphires. It had a peculiar significance on this longest day of the year, crowning as it did those precious five hours of daylight that for the French had been fraught with such achievement.
Slowly the colour faded out and now minute by minute the flashes of the guns became more distinct. The smoke was merged in the gathering dusk, and away over the more distant Turkish lines the bursts of shrapnel came out like stars against the brief twilight. One knew how anxious would be the darkness that now was falling upon the twenty-first of June, but in the morning we heard gladly that the enemy's counter attacks had failed and that our Allies were indeed firmly established. The Turkish casualties were at least 7,000. One trench two hundred yards long and ten feet deep was brimming over with the dead. They were valiant, those dead men. French Officers who have fought in the west say that