Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 91]
I doubt the resisting power of any earthwork or redoubt against these heavy shells. They plough huge craters in the ground & their size may be judged by the fact that one of the base of one wh was fired last night could have covered a large dinner plate with ease. And they stand 3½ feet high.
Tuesday 26th Oct 1915
Gen. Godley, accompanied by Lieut-Col Heaton Rhodes returns from Mudros.
The weather continues warm, but rain is again threatening.
There has been a heavy naval bombardment today of an enemy encampment in direction of Kilid Bair. The roar of the gun has rent the air all day & the incessant concussion has been of nerve-racking effect. The health of the troops is improving.
P.P. 26/10/15
Wednesday 27th Oct 1915
A wild boisterous day with high wind from SE. Rising temperature heralds approach of stormy weather. The office has been deluged with dust which lies an inch thick on tables etc.
The Turks are determined to shift us. At midday during the height of the gale they bombarded us for half an hour with big shell within a circle of 100 yds diameter. The shells owing to the roar of the wind could not be heard till right upon us & we could not place their direction. The first was beautifully timed – it came with a deafening whizz, glanced off the back wall of the cook house & went clean through one of the escort's dug-outs as if it were made of tissue paper. It came to a dead-end half a dozen yds above the General's quarters. A second shell planted itself near the wireless pole & a third tore a crater in the earth at the mouth of the gully near the Indian Camp. And then followed a fusillade of two or three shells a minute. The strong & cantankerous wind planted them in all sorts of odd places & interesting places but fortunately no one was injured. An Indian gunner received a slight chest bruise from a shell planted