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[Page 130]

[Colling]wood battalion being wiped out. They had never previously been in action and were hurried up into the firing line without experience of trench warfare or any local knowledge of the ground. The He criticised with equaly severity the fate of the wounded many houndreds of whom he declares have perished simply from inadequate treatment. His opinions of the Headquarters Staff were really priceless. It is now definitely confirmed that Hunter Weston has left the Peninsula. His departure is variously ascribed to enteric dysentery or sunstroke but it is certain he will never return having proved himself from the very start to be a perfectly incompetent commander.

I realised that after my first conversations with him. He seemed to me not to have the smallest knowledge of war and to throw away many lives in the most wicked and reckless manner without having any clear idea in his mind of any objective. He was detested by his troops. I never in fact heard anyone say a good word for him. He was known as the Giggling Butcher. He had the habit of going round and seeing the survivors of his abortive assaults on Achi Baba and congratulating them on their achivements in the same words every time. The men who had gone through Hell naturally got sick of this realising how they had been mishandled. Wilson vouched for this story. Hunter Weston went to the end of the Pier at Lancashire Landing to see someone off. Whilst he was there a shell as fired from Asis and hourly occurence of which no one takes much notice after 4 months of this sort of thing. But the General Commanding the Helles Army Corps did not wait for a second one neither did he retire with dignity but dashed off the Pier and made for a dug out at full speed

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