Item 02: Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett articles on the Gallipoli campaign, 1915 - Page 76

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[Page 76]

The Famous Gully Ravine
E Ashmead-Bartlett

The successful advance of our left wing on June the twenty eighth took place on both sides of what is now universally known as the Gully Ravine and although our troops made no effort to advance directly up the Ravine itself - having learnt from bitter experience in the past what a dangeous and difficult obstacle it is to tackle - the fall of the enemy's trenches on either side placed another mile of this awful valley of death in their hands. I suppose that years from now when the surviving veterans of this campaign in Gallipoli are gathered round some festive board holding the annual celebration to commemorate the Fall of Constantinople that the name which will be most frequently omtheir lips and which will recall to them the most sombre memories will be the Gully Ravine.

Someone discribed it as 'a devil of a place' and that discription is not inaccurate. Steaming along the western shore of Gallipoli you would not suspect its existance and if you examined the maps with which we started on this campaign you would have remained equally ignorant. As you steam south towardsX) Beach you come upon a small opening in the cliffs which looks merely as if it ran back fifty yards forming a narrow cleft. In reality this is where the Gully Ravine starts. Almost every yard of it has been the scene of desperate fighting and as we have gradually forced our way further up it it has become the main artery for the supply of all the troops on the left of our line. It is the great high road to the front trenches. Along it pass all our reinforcements supply trains water food ammunition and the

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