Item 01: Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett diary, 1915-1917 - Page 166

[Page 166]

Division have failed and if they did how could new untried troops be expected to succeed. He said that there would certainly be no further movement for some days and that Head Quarters were considering what should be the future of the campaign. In the afternoon we again went out to Chocolate Hill in serach of my belongings. In this we were partly successful as my coat was discovered a long way over the parapit but the firing was too heavy to attempt to bring it in. However some of the Naval Maxim people promised to have a try after dark and to look for my other property. The battlefield presented a ghastly sight being covered with corpses of our men stiff and cold while many wounded unable to reach our lines still moved under any shelter they had been able to find.

The Turks kept up an incessant shrapnel fire on our lines of communication and on the beaches. This shell fire is infernal andb gets on men's nerves worse than anything. I visited General Marshall who had charge of the 29th Division in this fight. He gave me a resume of what had occured and said the task assigend to him namely to attack the section between Hill 70 and Hill 8 112 was absurd. He therfore changed his orders and treid to get the horns of the horseshoe first. This morning I was shown an order from Headquarters ordering the Naval Authorities to suspend the landing of all men stores animals and transport until further orders. There is enough on shore for four days. Does this mean that the Army is to be reembarked.
I asked General Marshall if he had heard anything about it. He replied know and smiled saying . 'You can guess what it May mean jsut as well as I can'. We returned to camp under a heavy and most unpleasant shell fire the whole way. Nevinson obatined a lift back in an Ambulance but regretted it afterwards as he