Item 02: From Australia to Gallipoli, ca. 1916 / Dudley V. Walford - Page 43

[Page 43]

Walker's Ridge – Pope's Hill – Quinn's Post

To repay the Turks, some specially imported Japanese mortars were erected in the trenches. They fired a bomb weighing 18 lbs, and we could see them as they slowly travelled through the air on their journey to the Turk's trenches. They made terrible noise on contact, and the concussion could be felt in our trenches. We could distinctly hear the terrified squealing of the Turkish voices as they went to their doom.

As we expected on May 10th, the Turks fired a mine at 3.30 a.m., and our trenches went sky high. Many of our men were buried beneath the debris. The Turks followed up their success by an attack with hand grenades and bayonets. At first they were successful, and they gained a firm footing in our trenches by way of the quater which was caused by the explosion. With rapidity & precision they threw hand grenades down our principal saps and paths, but their supply soon became exhausted, and the attack gradually dwindled away. In the meantime our men retaliated by throwing jam tin & Japanese's grenades, and these seemed to take effect. Our machine guns played a successful part, and our infantry shot a great many Turks as they were caught in the act of jumping into our trenches. Taking advantage of the inactivity of the Turks our men, who had been reinforced by the 15th battalion, retook the trench at the point of the bayonet. It was then seen that the Turks had suffered heavily, for the trenches were strewn with corpses which were frightfully cut about.