rkation."

There was some fuss about the _Cornwallis_. She ought to have been back
from Morto Bay and lending a hand here, but she had not turned up. All
sorts of surmises. Now we hear she has landed our right flank attack
very dashingly and that we have stormed de Tott's Battery! I fear the
South Wales Borderers are hardly strong enough alone to move across and
threaten Sedd-el-Bahr from the North. But the news is fine. How I wish
we had left "V" Beach severely alone. Big flanking attacks at "Y" and
"S" might have converged on Sedd-el-Bahr and carried it from the rear
when none of the garrison could have escaped. But then, until we tried,
we were afraid fire from Asia might defeat the de Tott's Battery attack
and that the "Y" party might not scale the cliffs. The Turks are
stronger down here than at Gaba Tepe. Still, I should doubt if they are
in any great force; quite clearly the bulk of them have been led astray
by our feints, and false rumours. Otherwise, had they even a regiment in
close reserve, they must have eaten up the S.W.B. as they stormed the
Battery.

About noon, a Naval Officer (Lieutenant Smith), a fine fellow, came off
to get some more small arm ammunition for the machine guns on the _River
Clyde_. He said the state of things on and around that ship was "awful,"
a word which carried twentyfold weight owing to the fact that it was
spoken by a youth never very emotional, I am sure, and now on his mettle
to make his report with indifference and calm. The whole landing place
at "V" Beach is ringed round with fire. The shots from our naval guns,
smashing as their impact appears, might as well be confetti for all the
effect they have upon the Turkish trenches. The _River Clyde_ is
commanded and swept not only by rifles at 100 yards' range, but by
pom-poms and field guns. Her own double battery of machine guns mounted
in a sandbag revetment in her bows are to some extent forcing the enemy
to keep their heads down and preventing them from actually rushing the
little party of our men who are crouching behind the sand bank. But
these same men of ours cannot raise head or hand one inch beyond that
lucky ledge of sand by the water's brink. And the bay at Sedd-el-Bahr,
so the last messengers have told us, had turned red. The _River Clyde_
so far saves the situation. She was only ready two days before we
plunged.

At 1.30 heard that d'Amade had taken Kum Kale. De Robeck had already
heard independently by wireless