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Authors: Keith Murdoch
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from side to side with the slight sea swell. At Anzac, there is only open anchorage. We have made three small wooden piers, each of them banked on one side with sand-bags as a protection for the men against shells. But against these the water barges are beginning to sway dangerously. At Suvla more ships are to be sunk. There can be no sort of safe landing place there either.
Can we keep the armies supplied with food, munitions and drafts? Many mariners and some naval men say no. I discussed this question with naval transport officers on the staff ship in Mudros, including a high and responsible official, and I am assured that the work can be done. It will mean great cost. The Navy says, in effect, that great reserves must be stored up in spells of calm weather, and that at times it may be necessary to get stuff ashore by running a supply ship on to the beach, from which the goods will have to be taken by the beach parties under the concentrated and accurate fire of the enemyâs artillery.
I do not think, therefore, that the question of rough seas is vital. But certainly, should as I hope the Cabinet decide to hang on through the winter for another offensive, or for peace, we are faced with serious dangers from cold rain and snow on land. All our engineering work has been done with the idea that our positions would be evacuated by winter; and the roads are made in winter water-courses, the trenches are summer trenches, and the dug-outs mere protection against shrapnel, not against weather. All this means tremendous structural changes, and the immediate construction of good roads. And I fear that the decision has been left too late for such work to be thoroughly undertaken before the winter is upon us. No structural material had reached Anzac when I left. Nor had the food reserves amounted to more than 14 daysâ supplies.
Perhaps the most vital danger from weather is that, before the rains come to end all our water troubles, there will be a spell of bad weather at sea that will prevent us from getting water ashore, and our troops will have a grave water shortage added to their other trials. No water supply for a month would raise questions of the utmost gravity.
But we can overcome weather troubles at Helles and Anzac, and even at Suvla also, though General Byng asserts that he cannot keep his forces there when the Lake cuts his position in twain, unless he can bridge the immense width of this strange seasonal stretch
PLATE 7 A trench at Lone Pine after the battle, showing Australian and Turkish dead on the parapet. In the foreground is Captain Leslie Morshead (later Lieutenant General Sir Leslie Morshead) of the 2nd Battalion and on his right (standing facing camera) is 527 Private James (Jim) Brown Bryant, 8th Battalion, of Stawell, Victoria.
The fighting in the battle of Lone Pine was ferocious, conducted largely underground in the Turkish trenches across three days and nights. Seven Australians fighting there would be awarded the Victoria Cross, though none of these awards dated from the first hours of fighting: no officer survived to make a recommendation. Photographer Phillip F.E. Schuler, AWM Neg. No. A02025
of water. What is more serious is the question of Turkish attacks during the cold, wet winter months.
They cannot drive us from Anzac. Of that I am sure. Australasian ingenuity and endurance have made the place a fortress, and it is inhabited and guarded by determined and dauntless men. But Suvla is more precarious. I am not prepared to say that Suvla can be held during winter. There is a grave possibility of a German army appearing on the scene. In any case, the arrival of a number of heavy German guns might be quite sufficient to finish our expedition off. Big German howitzers could batter our trenches to pieces, and we would have no reply. And remember that several of our vital positions, such as Quinnâs Post, are only a few small yards of land on the top of a cliffâmere footholds on the
Can we keep the armies supplied with food, munitions and drafts? Many mariners and some naval men say no. I discussed this question with naval transport officers on the staff ship in Mudros, including a high and responsible official, and I am assured that the work can be done. It will mean great cost. The Navy says, in effect, that great reserves must be stored up in spells of calm weather, and that at times it may be necessary to get stuff ashore by running a supply ship on to the beach, from which the goods will have to be taken by the beach parties under the concentrated and accurate fire of the enemyâs artillery.
I do not think, therefore, that the question of rough seas is vital. But certainly, should as I hope the Cabinet decide to hang on through the winter for another offensive, or for peace, we are faced with serious dangers from cold rain and snow on land. All our engineering work has been done with the idea that our positions would be evacuated by winter; and the roads are made in winter water-courses, the trenches are summer trenches, and the dug-outs mere protection against shrapnel, not against weather. All this means tremendous structural changes, and the immediate construction of good roads. And I fear that the decision has been left too late for such work to be thoroughly undertaken before the winter is upon us. No structural material had reached Anzac when I left. Nor had the food reserves amounted to more than 14 daysâ supplies.
Perhaps the most vital danger from weather is that, before the rains come to end all our water troubles, there will be a spell of bad weather at sea that will prevent us from getting water ashore, and our troops will have a grave water shortage added to their other trials. No water supply for a month would raise questions of the utmost gravity.
But we can overcome weather troubles at Helles and Anzac, and even at Suvla also, though General Byng asserts that he cannot keep his forces there when the Lake cuts his position in twain, unless he can bridge the immense width of this strange seasonal stretch
PLATE 7 A trench at Lone Pine after the battle, showing Australian and Turkish dead on the parapet. In the foreground is Captain Leslie Morshead (later Lieutenant General Sir Leslie Morshead) of the 2nd Battalion and on his right (standing facing camera) is 527 Private James (Jim) Brown Bryant, 8th Battalion, of Stawell, Victoria.
The fighting in the battle of Lone Pine was ferocious, conducted largely underground in the Turkish trenches across three days and nights. Seven Australians fighting there would be awarded the Victoria Cross, though none of these awards dated from the first hours of fighting: no officer survived to make a recommendation. Photographer Phillip F.E. Schuler, AWM Neg. No. A02025
of water. What is more serious is the question of Turkish attacks during the cold, wet winter months.
They cannot drive us from Anzac. Of that I am sure. Australasian ingenuity and endurance have made the place a fortress, and it is inhabited and guarded by determined and dauntless men. But Suvla is more precarious. I am not prepared to say that Suvla can be held during winter. There is a grave possibility of a German army appearing on the scene. In any case, the arrival of a number of heavy German guns might be quite sufficient to finish our expedition off. Big German howitzers could batter our trenches to pieces, and we would have no reply. And remember that several of our vital positions, such as Quinnâs Post, are only a few small yards of land on the top of a cliffâmere footholds on the
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