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[Page 87]
19 May 1915
Wednesday Battle of Gaba Tepe
40 wks of soldiering
The Turks advanced at 3 PM & were met by an awful fire from our troops every arm possible did deadly work & cut them to pieces & at Courtneys they lay two deep. We held & beat them badly without reinforcements the New Zealanders charged and utterly routed them, gunboats lend a hand on both sides our howitzers do deadly work in 1 case 500 Turks were assembled below Quinns & two shots from our guns put the whole crowd out of action, 1 m gun got a whole battalion who were reinforcing. Every move was foreseen & beaten, aeroplane's ours and enemy's are seen everywhere & saw ours giving theirs a go, Turkish prisoners & wounded arrive, one m gun put out of action, water jacket blown off. Arty fire at 5 AM was stupendous indescribable the scream of the shells carry A naval battle has been in progress all day over to our right, battle still raging tonight.
20 May 1915
Thursday Armistice 6 PM to 7.30 PM
Stand to arms at 3
We expected the Joe Mcquirks again last night for aeroplanes reported last night that they observed 3000 Turks in a wood over to our right front & then a further 3000 coming to strengthen their centre, 14 prisoners taken last night & 1 German officer, snipers get cheeky this morning and one pokes his head over Steels point & goes out, aeroplanes give us further amusement, at 6 an impromptu armistice was declared for the Turks to bury their dead we have none. They came right out of their trenches with a white flag, German officers were there of course having a 'screw of our positions in front of Popes, 2000 Turks threw down their arms but we couldn't provide an escort for it would weaken our trenches, prisoners were taken though & were sent into camp under an escort, at 7.30 they commenced to fire & so did we, & our artillery opened, theirs were afraid to give away their positions, and by 11 they had had enough for we gave em fits