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[Page 12]
whilst lying round were witnesses of the intensity of our barrage.
In one place I saw a German, rifle to shoulder, finger crooked round the trigger, standing in the trench, but without the slightest movement. On walking up to him I ascertained he was dead and killed by concussion and left standing as he was when the shell burst. There was no wound, apparently the shell has landed close by. His heart has given one last jump and then forever stood still.
By daylight things had quietened down. We has securely consolidated our positions and were able to count the cost. we were surprised at the few casualties we had sustained. To us, moving through and under the barrage, it seemed impossible for many to escape, yet when we counted those who were left, the percentage that had actually gone under in the passage of No Man's Land was almost negligible. We in the fullness of our conceit and the depth of our ignorance congratulated ourselves on the wonderful success we had and were not slow in saying that the magnitude of the victory was out of all proportion to the number of casualties. We were young and had much to learn. The next 60 hours taught quite a lot about attacks and the aftermath thereof.
All day Monday,23rd July. we felt elated at our success. Parties wandered through the villages collecting prisoners and souvenirs. The enemy sent over an occasional shell but not sufficient even to foreshadow the holocaust that tomorrow was to bring. Our guns too were quiet – all were rearranging and awaiting the inevitable counter bombardment from the Germans. Monday was spent almost as a holiday. We lay on the parados of the trench basking in the sun. Here half a dozen would be sitting down having a meal. The iron rations were in great demand. All day there was much movement in and around the trench. To us it signified nothing but the enemy were making full use of the powers of observation and we were to pay the full price of our recklessness on the morrow and the days that followed.
During the Monday night we "stood to" and once or twice an attack seemed imminent but each time it was broken up before it eventuated and so Tuesday morning dawned. Tuesday was as ideal July summer day. The blue sky above and the sun's warm rays called for a day of pleasure and we do recall that day, not because of the pleasure we had but because of the hours of untold agony we endured.
The Australians had made their name for their powers of endurance under adverse natural and physical conditions. They had "held on" the Peninsular under circumstances perhaps unequalled in the annals of this war. They endured lack of food, water, rest, and the thousand and one things that made Gallipoli the grave of so many good men; but on the 24th July they were called upon to suffer hardship of another kind.
That they would endure it no Australian doubted and how they endured the story of Pozieres has told.
Towards morning of the Tuesday I must have dozed a bit for my first recollection of the opening day was a couple of shells landing just over the trench. This was the beginning. The shelling never stopped. Hour after hour shells fired from the enemy batteries fell within yards of the trench or on the trench itself. I had been in bombardments but always hold the opinion that the Tuesday's bombardment was the worst I was ever called upon to suffer.
Why? Because of the precision of the shell fire. Few shells indeed went astray. Only on about two occasions was there what one would call a barrage put down on us, but for 60 hours from Tuesday morning till the time we were relieved, the shell fire was sustained unbroken. Shells of small calibre were not much in evidence. By four the greater part of the shell fire was5.9 or larger shells and these fell with unbroken regularity throughout the following hours within a few yards of their target. We were the target.