Photograph: Anzac area from a collection of Aerial Photos of Gallipoli taken by Murat Soylemez
Corporal Herbert Hitch, 11th (Western Australia) Battalion, 3rd Brigade
"I was supposed to keep in touch with any unit on the flank, any unit in the front or the rear as we advanced through the scrub. Whenever I reached any vantage point where I could wave the flag - a small flag white with a blue stripe through it. I was watching out for answering signals, I didn't get any - we were out of touch. It was quite a distance between us and the next unit on the right as far as I know. By that time our numbers were down to about twenty, perhaps thirty."
As he was receiving a signal, he got a sudden and terrible shock.
"The Turkish artillery had opened up and were firing salvos, dropping the range a 100 yards at a time, searching the ground. I was right in the line with two bursts. I thought, “My goodness, the next one will catch me!” It burst behind me and the whole contents of the shell went round me. I had the rifle leaning against my crutch and that spun to the ground. The pellets flew past and they sounded like a flight of parrots and puffs of dust rose here and there where the pellets struck the ground. I fell down thinking I must have been hit; twitching my muscles. When I picked the rifle up it had three hits on the barrel. Two close together on a hand guard knocking the woodwork away, leaving the springs on the barrel and one on the hand guard casing above the barrel. I also had one through my clothing I found later on. That was remarkable because there were about 300 odd bullets in a shrapnel shell."
As the Turkish 57th Regiment arrived they first formed a firing line and were then sent into to attack the tentative Australian positions on Baby 700 and Tulloch’s men on Incebayor Spur. The Australians partially dug in on Battleship Hill were caught totally unawares by Kemal’s counter-attack. Some had never guessed that the Turks would counter-attack; imagining that once a position was taken then it was only onwards and upwards to success. Now they found themselves suddenly out-numbered by the Turks. Tulloch’s men were unable to do anything much more than cower down in small folds in the ground. Retreat was unavoidable if they wanted to live.
"Then the order came, retire in sections from the right and being on the right flank I jumped up to run and as soon as I jumped up to run the air was alive with bullets, most of them going overhead. We ran back about 200 yards, but by the time we reached the top of the next ridge all the rest were in motion. We opened fire and we fired about six or seven rounds each just to keep the enemy from coming on too quickly and then we all ran back together for about another 150 yards and the order was passed along, “Reform left, Turks advancing on the left!” They were a fine looking body of men. They weren't running but were walking very quickly. As they came under our fire they ran back and I had two shots at a running man and missed him each time - I thought my rifle must have had the barrel bent. Then suddenly down from the sky as if by magic came the shells – their artillery observer had put them on to us. Providentially they were bursting late and the shrapnel was shredding the scrub behind us."
Back they tumbled during a gap in the shellfire. By this time in all the confusion Hitch lost touch with his comrades.
"I burst through the scrub suddenly and found myself on the edge of a steep ravine. I broke through so suddenly I had to grasp a sapling to save going over. There seemed no way of getting out from there. I thought, "I'm going to get across here somehow!" and I threw my rifle down into this ravine and jumped. I sailed through the air about 25 feet and landed on a slope of 1 in 1. As I jack-knifed I felt as though I had landed on a couple of bayonets. I pitched over head first and seemed to be heading for a precipice, but I was lucky enough to grab a root with my left hand and swing round and go down feet first. I went over two or three vertical falls of about 8 to 10 feet and landed like a sack of spuds each time until finally I reached the breakaway with a drop of about 30 feet and I managed to stop there with about 6 feet to the next drop. As I stopped the earth I had dislodged came tumbling after me."
SOURCE: Brotherton Special Collections Library, Leeds University, Liddle Collection: H. V. Hitch, Transcript of tape 235 & 252
No comments:
Post a Comment