3 June 1915

HELLES - In the final days before the next leap forward - the planned attack all along the line at Helles on 4 June 1915 - the practice of sapping forward to reduce the distance they would have to charge across during the attack was continued. This eminently sensible measure threw up an example of the continued intransigence Major General Sir Aylmer Hunter-Weston 's and his unwillingness to adapt to the grim necessities of circumstance.

Photograph of Major General Sir Aylmer Hunter-Weston, GOC, VIII Corps

Brigadier-General Marshall had been attached to the 42nd Division to provide assistance to the inexperienced staff of the 127th Manchester Brigade when he learnt the details of the proposal for the night of 2-3 June 1915.

"A night advance was to be made on the night of 2nd June and all the troops destined to carry out the attack were to dig themselves in within 200 yards of the enemy trenches. In front of the Manchester Brigade the line of the enemy trenches formed a re-entrant, and, with an almost full moon, I would have preferred not to advance into this re-entrant, so I ventured to point out that the resulting casualties might be very heavy. However the orders were very explicit and had to be carried out. The result was the brigade made the advance successfully, and dug itself in all along the line within the stipulated 200 yards. Luckily the enemy fired high and the resulting casualties only amounted to fifty or sixty, nearly all being wounded cases. Hunter-Weston came down on the 3rd personally to congratulate Lee's Brigade on their successful effort; to me he said: "There you are! You see the thing has been done with no casualties". I gently murmured "Fifty" to which he retorted: "Well, that's nothing, it would have been worth doing if you had five hundred". (Brigadier General William Marshall, (attached) 127th Brigade, 42nd Division)

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SOURCE: W. Marshall, Memories of Four Fronts, (London: Ernest Benn Ltd, 1929), p79