Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett, the British war correspondent, visited Anzac on 16th August 1915.

 Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett, the British war correspondent, visited Anzac on 16th August 1915.

Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett, the British war correspondent, visited Anzac on 16th August 1915.

“Nevinson, Lawrence and I left for Anzac at 11 a.m. I met Ross and Schulyer on board. On arriving I went out to Godley’s headquarters, and had a long talk with him, and he explained the whole of the operations of his corps to me. He was loud in his praise of the manner in which the Dominion soldiers had fought. 

Afterwards, accompanied by Ross, I climbed to the highest point now held by our troops up the Rhododendron Ridge, which gives access to Chunuk Bair, the scene of some of the most stubborn fighting during the advance. 

The climb was steep and very dangerous, owing to the enemy’s snipers, who commanded almost the whole valley from Chunuk Bair, Hill Q, and Koja Chemen Tepe. Signboards, giving advice to those who were obliged to follow this Via Dolorosa of so much human suffering, had been put up. Each of them marked the spot where men had been killed or wounded.

 “Keep well to your left,” “Leave the road and keep to your right,” “Keep your head well down,” and, at the worst point, a strip of about forty yards with no cover, “Double across one at a time.” We followed this advice and passed safely, but even then the snipers had time to get in half a dozen very accurate shots. 

From our front trenches I could see the high-water mark reached by the advance about fifty yards ahead. Here our dead were lying in rows: Australians, New Zealanders, Maoris, and Britons, a confused jumble of bodies of men, drawn from all over the Empire, who had taken part in the final rush. 

The lines here were now being held by the 13th Division, good troops who fought well at Anzac. The New Zealand Infantry Brigade under General Johnstone was the first to reach the top of the ridge, but they were now in the second line. From the high ground I could obtain a view of the country for miles around and could follow the whole of the Anzac line round the coast to where it was linked up by a series of posts with the 9th Corps at Suvla.

 Yet the dominating heights everywhere remain in the enemy’s possession. In my opinion the situation of the army renders it hopeless to attempt any further advance from the positions we now hold; the essential element of surprise has vanished, and the Turks have entrenched all points from which we can debouch.” 

Ashmead-Bartlett, Ellis, “The Uncensored Dardanelles,” pp. 200-201, Hutchinson & Co. (London) 1928.

Image: “Rhododendron Ridge, Gallipoli. 1915. Members of the 9th Light Horse Regiment sniping over the top of the trenches.” AWM P01531.005.