he losses except that they have been
heavy. If the Turks get hold of a lot of fresh men and throw them upon
us during the night,--perhaps they may knock us off into the sea. No
General knows his luck. That's the beauty of the business. But I feel
sanguine in the spirit of the men; sanguine in my own spirit; sanguine
in the soundness of my scheme. What with the landing at Gaba Tepe and at
Kum Kale, and the feints at Bulair and Besika Bay, the Turkish troops
here will get no help to-night. And our fellows are steadily pouring
ashore.

_26th April, 1915. H.M.S. "Queen Elizabeth."_ At 12.5 a.m. I was dragged
out of a dead sleep by Braithwaite who kept shaking me by the shoulder
and saying, "Sir Ian! Sir Ian!!" I had been having a good time for an
hour far away somewhere, far from bloody turmoil, and before I quite
knew where I was, my Chief of Staff repeated what he had, I think, said
several times already, "Sir Ian, you've got to come right along--a
question of life and death--you must settle it!" Braithwaite is a cool
hand, but his tone made me wide awake in a second. I sprang from bed;
flung on my "British Warm" and crossed to the Admiral's cabin--not his
own cabin but the dining saloon--where I found de Robeck himself,
Rear-Admiral Thursby (in charge of the landing of the Australian and New
Zealand Army Corps), Roger Keyes, Braithwaite, Brigadier-General
Carruthers (Deputy Adjutant and Quartermaster-General of the Australian
and New Zealand Army Corps) and Brigadier-General Cunliffe Owen
(Commanding Royal Artillery of the Australian and New Zealand Army
Corps). A cold hand clutched my heart as I scanned their faces.
Carruthers gave me a message from Birdwood written in Godley's writing.
I read it aloud:--

"Both my Divisional Generals and Brigadiers have represented to me that
they fear their men are thoroughly demoralised by shrapnel fire to which
they have been subjected all day after exhaustion and gallant work in
morning. Numbers have dribbled back from firing line and cannot be
collected in this difficult country. Even New Zealand Brigade which has
been only recently engaged lost heavily and is to some extent
demoralised. If troops are subjected to shell fire again to-morrow
morning there is likely to be a fiasco as I have no fresh troops with
which to replace those in firing line. I know my representation is most
serious but if we are to re-embark it must be at once.