ery wild and seemed almost unaimed. Soon after 4
a.m. very heavy columns of Turks tried to emerge from the Ravine against
the left of the 29th Division. "It wanted to be the hell of a great
attack," as one of the witnesses, a moderate spoken young gentleman,
states. When the Commanders saw what was impending they sent messages to
Simpson-Baikie begging him to send some 4.5 H.E. shell into the Ravine
which was beginning to overflow. He was adamant. He had only a few
rounds of H.E. and he would not spend them, feeling sure his 18 prs.
with their shrapnel were masters of the field. At 6 a.m. out came the
Turks, not in lines, but just like a swarm of bees. Our fellows never
saw the like and began to wonder whenever they were going to stop, and
what on earth _could_ stop them! Thousands of Turks in a bunch, so the
boys say, swarmed out of their trenches and the Gully Ravine. Well, they
were stopped _dead_. There they lie, _still_. The guns ate the life out
of them.

It was our central group of artillery who did it. As that big oblong
crowd of Turks showed their left flank to Baikie's nine batteries they
were swept in enfilade by shrapnel. The fall of the shell was corrected
by the two young R.A. subalterns at the front, neither of whom would
observe in the usual way through his periscope. They looked over the
parapet because that method was more sure and quick, and the stress of
the battle was great. There is a rumour that both were shot through the
head: I pray it may be but a rumour. Out of all these Turks some thirty
only reached our parapets. The sudden destruction which befell them was
due in the main to the devotion of these two young heroes. At 7.30 a.m.
the Turks tried to storm again. Some of them got in amongst the Royal
Naval Division, who brought up their own supports and killed 300,
driving out the rest. Ninety dead Turks are laid out on their parapet.
Another, later, enemy effort against the right of the 29th Division was
clean wiped out. 150 Turks are dead there. But it is on the far
crestline they lie thick.

Every one of these attacking Turks were _fresh_--from Adrianople! Full
of fight as compared with their thrice beaten brethren. If the Turks are
given time to swap troops in the middle of fighting, we can't really
tell how we stand. Still; they are not now as fresh as they were. They
have lost a terrible lot of men since the 28th. The big Ravine and all
the small nullahs are chock-a-block with corpses. Th