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[Page 68]
arranged that they should meet at a certain hour on the next day, which they did, & arranged an 8 hour armistice we were to bury all men half way between our lines & the Turks, while they were to do the same with their half all our biggest men were picked for the job, no doubt to impress the Turks with the physique of the Australians, & I suppose they done the same, in front of our companys lines they got no less than 167 rifle bolts off Turkish rifles, we took their bolts & handed the rest of the rifle back & they done the same with our's, I could never see the sense of that, but I suppose they would have a job to get other bolts to fit. Some of the German officers showed themselves, & the Turkish
officers & ours exchanged cigarettes & the Turks done the same with our men, while the armistice was on a number of Turks rushed across the ground separating the trenches & gave themselves up, The Turkish officers then so as to stop this sort of thing ordered all men to keep their heads down & we never saw much more of them after that, excepting of course those who were helping to bury the dead our fellows wore a white bandage with a red cross, while they had the crescent on theirs, they wont recognise a red cross.
The first estimate of 4000 Turkish killed was found to be a long way below the estimate it was more like 7000, without their wounded, they were taught a lesson that day.