Volume 2: Letters written on active service, M-W, 1914-1919 - Page 432

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[Page 432]

information & a certificate that the bearer was a bona-fide member of medical service, under the Geneva Convention.

As the Turks were only about 200 yds from our wharves, they could plainly see all our transportation after the lighters had proceeded 100 yds. Till then the high cliffs screened our movements & the base for stores & ammunition.

The way we removed stores was most barefaced. All day long for the last week self-propelled lighters were busy taking impedimenta off to transports.
At night they carried 400 troops each trip & heavy guns & animals.

Although we had to move men away to the transports in bright moonlight, it gave us a counter advantage in showing up the enemy, should they attack & making the position defensible by reduced numbers.
On the 18th Dec the Garrison was 6,000 men in Anzac position. That night 3000 were got away.

Now one way of reckoning an enemy's numbers is by observing the amount of rations & water taken to the different positions [so] we had to keep men & pack mules moving along the different communications to make things appear normal. The Indians who controlled the mules left 3 days before the end. Infantrymen took their places

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