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[Page 6]
when the 13th Battalion reinforced us. All through the day the Turks poured shrapnel on us & our men fell fast. Not long after taking up our position word was passed along that Howard Proctor of Maitland had been killed. It was our first death & it had a sobering effect on the others, as up till then they had been laughing & joking & enjoying themselves generally, notwithstanding that the bullets were sometimes too close to be healthy. One cannot speak too highly of the conduct of the Australian & N. Zealand troops, they went under fire like old & tried soldiers. Looking along our trenches one was led to believe that this was just another sham fight the likes of which we had gone through dozens of times before. But on looking again one could see a difference, the look on the men's faces although cheerfull enough meant something that the Turks soon found out to their sorrows. They had landed in the enemy's country after 9 weary months of waiting & they didn't mean to leave it again until their task was accomplished, they would go forward but never back. All through those 3 first days, men fell fast but although every man knew that if the Turks came on in any numbers, we were doomed, not one of them flinched. There was never a thought of retreat. We had been given a job, the General had said. The success of our mission lies in holding this Hill, stick to it boys and we stuck it. The country here and in the valley below was covered with thick schrub, in this cover Hundreds of Snipers were in hiding & they played havoc with us.