mbined. In the South the
enemy twice recaptured the redoubt taken by the French on the 29th, but
Gouraud, having a nice little parcel of high explosive on hand, was able
to drive them out definitely and to keep them out.

_2nd June, 1915. Imbros._ Working all day in camp. Blazing hot, tempered
by a cool breeze towards evening. De Robeck came ashore and we had an
hour together in the afternoon. Everything is fixed up for our big
attack on the 4th. From aeroplane photographs it would appear that the
front line Turkish trenches are meant more as traps for rash forlorn
hopes than as strongholds. In fact, the true tug only begins when we try
to carry the second line and the flanking machine guns. Gouraud has
generously lent us two groups of 75s with H.E. shell, and I am cabling
the fact to the War Office as it means a great deal to us. When I say
they are lent to us, I do not mean that they put the guns at our
disposal. They are only ours for defensive purposes; that is to say,
they remain in their own gun positions in the French lines and are to
help by thickening the barrage in front of the Naval Division.

De Robeck and Keyes are quite as much at sea as Braithwaite and myself
about this original scheme of the British Government for treating a
tearing, raging crisis; i.e., by taking no notice of it. I guess that
never before in the history of war has a Commander asked urgently that
his force might be doubled and then got no orders; no answer of any sort
or kind!

When I sent K. my M.F. 234 of the 17th May asking for two Corps, or for
Allies, one or the other, I got a reply by return expressing his
disappointment; since then, nothing. During that fortnight of silence
the whole of the Turkish Empire has been moving--closing in--on the
Dardanelles. Then, by a side-wind I happen to hear of the abstraction of
a Russian Army Corps from my supposed command; an Army Corps, who by the
mere fact of "being," held off a large force of Turks from Gallipoli.

So I have put down a few hard truths. Unpalatable they may be but some
day they've got to be faced and the sooner the better. Time has slipped
away, but to-day is still better than to-morrow.

What a change since the War Office sent us packing with a bagful of
hallucinations. Naval guns sweeping the Turks off the Peninsula; the
Ottoman Army legging it from a British submarine waving the Union Jack;
Russian help in hand; Greek help on the _tapis_. Now it is our Fleet
which has