Hyder's letter to his mother, written 27-28 July 1915 / Laurie E. Hyder - Page 7

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could see hundreds of boats laden with troops making for the shore, by 5-5 we heard shots ashore & knew that our chaps were at grip with the Turks. Then came our turn we were all got ashore in due course, we passed the first empty boats coming back from the shore, they had a few dead & wounded men in them, there was a fort on the right of where we landed & one of the battleships the Becanty it was crawled right up to it & started pouring broadsides into it it was causing us a lot of trouble firing shrapenal at our boats as they were landing there was three shots fired at the boats that I was amongst , I just crouched down & never got touched. While we were getting towed ashore , & destroyer came dashing along almost running us down, our boat got about 10 feet from the shore, the chaps never waited till it got right in, but threw the picks and shovels ashore that they were carrying & jumped into the water, some going over their heads in water, off over the hills we went, we got into a gully & took our packs off, that meant leaving our tucker behind ,God knows when we were to see our packs again, for a joke I shook hands with our corporal & I went to shake hands with one of my best friends, he would