is I must set down cruel bad news about Gouraud. An accursed
misadventure. He has been severely wounded by a shell. Directly I heard
I got the Navy to run me over. He was already in the Hospital ship; I
saw him there. A pure toss up whether he pulls round or not; luckily he
has a frame of iron. I was allowed to speak to him for half a minute and
he is full of pluck. The shell, an 8-incher from Asia, landed only some
half a dozen yards away from him as he was visiting his wounded and sick
down by "V" Beach. By some miracle none of the metal fragments touched
him, but the sheer force of the explosion shot him up into the air and
over a wall said to be seven feet high. His thigh, ankle and arm are all
badly smashed, simply by the fall. We could more easily spare a Brigade.
His loss is irreparable. By personal magnetism he has raised the ardour
of his troops to the highest power. Have cabled to Lord K. expressing my
profound sorrow and assuring him that "the grave loss suffered by the
French, and indirectly by my whole force," is really most serious, as I
know, I say, "the French War Minister cannot send us another General
Gouraud."

_2nd July, 1915. Imbros._ Worked all day in camp. Birdie, with Onslow,
his A.D.C--_such_ a nice boy--came over from Anzac in the morning and
stayed with me the day, during which we worked together at our plan. At
night we all went over together to H.M.S. _Triad_ to dine with the
Vice-Admiral.

Birdwood is quite confident that with a fresh Division and a decent
supply of shell he can get hold of the heights of Sari Bair, whereby he
will enfilade the whole network of Turkish trenches, now hedging him
round. The only thing he bargains for is that G.H.Q. so work the whole
affair from orders down to movements, that the enemy get no inkling of
our intentions. The Turks so far suspect nothing, and Koja Chemen Tepe
and Chunuk Bair, with all the intervening ridge, are still unentrenched
and open to capture by a _coup-de-main_. Even if the naval objections to
Bulair could be overcome, Sari Bair remains the better move of the two.
With the high ridges of Sari Bair in our hands we could put a stop to
the Turkish sea transport from Chanak which we could neither see nor
touch from Bulair. The tugs with their strings of lighters could not run
by day, and as soon as we could get searchlights fixed up, they would
find it very awkward to show themselves in the Straits by night. As to
the enemy land communicatio