Item 01: Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett diary, 1915-1917 - Page 152
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[Page 152]
others have been dispoiled by theTurks at night who take wa away their rifles food equipment and ammunition to use them on the following day against ourselves. On Chocolate Hill I met two Brigadiers General Hill commanding th 31st Brigade of the 10th Division and General Maxwell commanding the 33rd Brigade of the 11th. Neither knew who was senior and therefore in command or whose troops were really supposed to be holding this section of the line. General Hill who took a sound view of the operations complained bitterly of the muddles of Sir Francis Stopford and the Staff of the 9th Corps. This is ho they muddled up the Brigades of General Mahonfs Division. The 29th was sent to Anszac. The 31st was lent to the 11th Division for the landing for some reason and the 30th alone remained under General Mahon's orders but two battalions of the 11th Division were given him as a kind of sop. So before the troops ever got ashore the germs of confusion were already well planted. All these Brigades belonging to different Divisions were now mixed up in the low country which rendered it impossible to organise any sort of a proper firing line with supports and reserves or to get the men to go forward. In the middle of this muddle to add to the confusion the 53rd Welsh Territorial Division was pushed forward and became involved in the general hotch pot. The officers of the Staffs of these new Divisions seem to be extraordinary ignorant of their work and to have no idea of modern warfare. Artillery was badly wanted and we had a mountain battery with warn outguns pushed forward behind chocolate Hill. I heard a dispute between Generals Maxwell and Hill as to whether these guns could not be removed because General Hill