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[Page 83]
of them blown absolutely to atoms the flesh hanging in long shred's & clothes torn to ribbon's this was done by the concussion from lyddite shell's in lots of places the sides of the trenches were quite yellow from the fumes of this explosive, & one old Turk I saw was sitting down making bricks as dead as a stone Our captures in Lone Pine" were about 250 prisoners 8 machine guns about 2,000,000 rounds of Mauser ammunition & various other things, there were a few German officers killed in here, & the boys cut all their buttons off as souvenirs After the severe fighting died down over a 1000 dead men were taken from these trenches & goodness knows how many more were buried in there some trenches were that full of dead that they could not move the
bodies on account of the frightful stench arising from them, for it was summer time, & the heat was terrific, & the flies in countless millions.
These 4 day's fighting were considered to be the severest hand to hand fighting since the Battle of Inkerman" in the Crimean War, that was how the English paper's looked on it, theres no one knows how or has any idea what that place was like unless they were actually in it the Turks fought as fairly & as brave as it was possible for men to fight.
Most of the dead men were taken out of the Pine" & buried in "Brown's Dip" the Turks were buried in a big long grave, & our chaps where possible were laid to rest in a decent grave, the "Connaught Rangers" an English regiment done the burying, they used to