[Page 111]
[Proclamation by Gen. Birdwood, of 5th August – contd.]
Remember too to do all you can to conserve and keep your ammunition during the beginning of your advance, i.e., while on the flat and in the lower hills. It will then be dark, so that the majority of any ammunition that might be fired would probably be wasted, while you may hope to get at the enemy with the bayonet and either capture or kill him at once or get him while on the run. Later, when you get to the top of the hill, all the ammunition we can possibly carry will be wasted, as we may be sure that the enemy will not give up his strong position without a struggle, and when we have taken it he will very likely counter attack to drive us out.
Every effort will be made to bring up ammunition and water as quickly as possible, but you all know as well as I do there will be difficulties in getting these up quickly enough, so keep all the ammunition you can for shooting purposes when it is light enough to see and destroy the Turks in front of you and keep you water bottle full as long as you possibly can.
We know that we have established a moral superiority over the Turks, and have been able not only to keep their snipers completely under, but in many cases we have gone far to stop their bombing. Though they are terrified of the Australian and New Zealand soldiers in the open, yet there is no doubt that they will always fight well when behind trenches. On this occasion, however, I trust we may be able to get a good many of then in the open, when by constantly pressing them let us hope they will again do as our men said they did when they landed on the 25th April – run faster than they had ever seen men run before.
There is just one more point I want you all to remember, which is that when we have taken the enemy's position and driven him off it, our work is by no means ended, so men must not think that they will then be able to get off and come down to the beach for a swim. It is then that our hardest work, and possibly the greatest determination, will be required, as we have not only got to turn the enemy off his present position, but having once shifted him from his front trenches, we have to keep running him out of them as far as we possibly can, capturing we hope everything he possesses, and giving him no rest until he is completely defeated here.
(Sgd) W. R. Birdwood.
Anzac Cove,
5/8/15.