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[Page 31]
They have a large room on her, fitted as an Office, with men in uniform typewriting & working at desks, & plans & charts spread on tables around which were clustered groups of Officers, whilst launches were darting backwards & forwards to the various Ships with orders etc. Heard a rather good joke about the Queen Elizabeth & Inflexible at the Dardanelles.
Our warships, during the bombardment of the Forts there, appeared in force, but these two were elsewhere & to represent them a dummy Ship was rigged up, fitted with huge wooden guns, being an exact replica of each so as to mislead the enemy as to our strength. A similar demonstration was made at Smyrna. The Queen Elizabeth has gone today to the Dardanelles with all the Military Commandants, to show them around, so that they can get an idea of the Country they have to lead their men over shortly. They return tonight.
April 13th. Lemnos Is.
All Ships here (nearly 100) have been practising landing Troops today on this Island. This is being done in small boats, barges etc & will be done in the same way at the Dardanelles I took a photograph of the Indian Troops.
April 15th
Went over on Lemnos Island today & took a photograph of the Troops that are encamped. The Civilian population of the Island is 27,500. & there are about 2000 Soldiers there preparing for the attack