State Library of NSW
[Page 80]
points there are no roads and you mount to the top of the sides of the Ravine on steps out out of the sandy rook and thus gain the Observation Stations of Generals and Battery Commanders from any of which a most excellent view is obtainable of the country in front of our own advanced trenches and those of the enemy. In the Ravine you are constantlty coming upon lonely graves each marked with a cross and a name marking the last resting place of some soldier who has fallen in one of the early engagements or who has been killed on his way up to the front and who has been buried just where he fell; elsewhere you will see small cemeterys packed with similar crosses generally marking the last stage in our advance where there has been a heavy fight before we could claim a few yards more of the Ravine as our own. Rounding a bend you find the valley suddenly widens and here are the Headquarters of a Brigadier and his Staff living close up to the firing line.
No part of the theatre of this vast World War has claimed so many Generals and Colonels as Gallipoli. This is due to the nature of the task. Generals must live amongst their men sharing their dangers and hardships for there is nowhere else for them to go. Every section of our line being exposed to the enemy's artillery. Every time we have pushed forward our line on either side of the Ravine we have had to establish a fortified line across it whilst the enemy has done the same only a houndred yards away and endless sniping takes place between the two. This last advance on June 28th placed nearly another mile of the Gully in our hands and every yard [of] progress it becomes narrower and the hills less high so that now looking beyond our most
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