er were our targets fully manned than we shelled them in
earnest and went on at it until--on the stroke of mid-day--out dashed
our fellows into the open. For the best part of an hour it seemed that
we had won a decisive victory. On the left all the front line Turkish
trenches were taken. On the right the French rushed the _"Haricot"_--so
long a thorn in their flesh; next to them the Anson lads stormed another
big Turkish redoubt in a slap-dash style reminding me of the best work
of the old Regular Army; but the boldest and most brilliant exploit of
the lot was the charge made by the Manchester Brigade[19] in the centre
who wrested two lines of trenches from the Turks; and then, carrying
right on; on to the lower slopes of Achi Baba, had _nothing_ between
them and its summit but the clear, unentrenched hillside. They lay
there--the line of our brave lads, plainly visible to a pair of good
glasses--there they actually lay! We wanted, so it seemed, but a reserve
to advance in their support and carry them right up to the top. We
said--and yet could hardly believe our own words--"We are through!"

Alas, too previous that remark. Everything began to go wrong. First the
French were shelled and bombed out of the _"Haricot"_; next the right of
the Naval Division became uncovered and they had to give way, losing
many times more men in the yielding than in the capture of their ground.
Then came the turn of the Manchesters, left in the lurch, with their
right flank hanging in the air. By all the laws of war they ought to
have tumbled back anyhow, but by the laws of the Manchesters they hung
on and declared they could do so for ever. How to help? Men! Men, not so
much now to sustain the Manchesters as to force back the Turks who were
enfilading them from the _"Haricot"_ and from that redoubt held for
awhile by the R.N.D. on their right. I implored Gouraud to try and make
a push and promised that the Naval Division would retake their redoubt
if he could retake the _"Haricot"_. Gouraud said he would go in at 3
p.m. The hour came; nothing happened. He then said he could not call
upon his men again till 4 o'clock, and at 4 o'clock he said definitely
that he would not be able to make another assault. The moment that last
message came in I first telephoned and then, to make doubly sure, ran
myself to Hunter-Weston's Headquarters so as not to let another moment
be lost in pulling out the Manchester Brigade. I had 500 yards to go,
and, risin