Item 02: Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett articles on the Gallipoli campaign, 1915 - Page 106

[Page 106]

in vain longing for the expected attack which failed to mature. Personally I was not one of those who shared the opinion that the enemy would make a final effort to achieve some definite success with which to greet the Deputies on the opening of the new Parliament. The problem before the Turks is a very simple one. They have time on their side, wheras we have time against us. It is now August 5th. All we can hope for is a further two months of settled weather which will enable us to land troops munitions and stores on the peninsula on exposed beaches unprotected by any form of break ater or harbour except temporary ones which have been made by sinking steamers.

The Turks no perfectly well we cannot fight a winter campaign unless we secure a base which will render us independent of the terrible southerly gales which sweep the Mediterranean and burst with unparalled fury on the shores of Gallipoli during the winter months. We shall not be able to feed our armies and the Australian position at Anzac would probably have to be abandoned altogther. We might hang on at Helles more especially if we take Achi Baba and are able to utilise Morto Bay by either silencing the Asiatic guns by occuping a portion of the Asiatic shore of the Dardanelles.

But the low ground whioh we occupy in front of Anzac is a morass in winter and our troops would never be able to stay in the trenches which would become simply drains of liquid mud. All experts are of opinion that the Australian positions at Anxac would be washed away in the winter and that our men would find them- selves clinging msierably to the slopes of hills fully exposed to the enem's fire. Now the Turks who know the ground and the climate are fully aware of these facts. They know they have simply to hold us