at appeared one after another
along the Turkish lines. All through the morning the cannonade went
on.

By noon the Second Division of the French had on the left stormed and
captured all the Turkish trenches of the first two lines. Even the
Haricot Redoubt, with its damnable entanglements and its maze of
communicating trenches, was in French hands. On the right, however,
the First Division, after reaching their objective, had been
counter-attacked so effectively that they had fallen back. Again they
advanced; again they took the trenches; again they were driven out. It
began to look as if the victory upon the left would be fruitless, that
the position would become an untenable salient and the Haricot Redoubt
revert to the enemy.

At this moment a message was sent to say that the trenches must be
recaptured, and, when recaptured, held. There were still five hours of
daylight for this battle of the longest day. British guns and
howitzers were asked for and were lent at once. The bombardment was
resumed throughout that afternoon, and at half-past five it seemed as
if every gun on earth were pouring shells on the Turkish lines.

At six o'clock the third assault was delivered. In one trench there
was a temporary shortage of ammunition, but the enemy fought even with
stones and sticks and fists. A battalion came hurrying up from the
Turkish right to reinforce it, was caught on open ground by the
drumming 75's, and it melted away. Six hundred yards of Turkish
trenches were taken, and still the bombardment was continued in order
to ward off the counter-attack that was anticipated.

The smoke of the shells, which at dawn had been ethereal, almost
translucent, was now, in the sunset, turbid and sinister, yet the
sunset was very splendid, flaming in crimson streamers over Imbros,
tinting the east with rosy reflections and turning the peaks of Asia
to sapphires. It had a peculiar significance on this longest day of
the year, crowning as it did those precious five hours of daylight
that, for the French, had been fraught with such achievement. Slowly
the colour faded out, and now, minute by minute, the flashes of the
guns became more distinct; the smoke was merged in the gathering dusk,
and away over the more distant Turkish lines the bursts of shrapnel
came out like stars against the brief twilight. One knew the anxiety
there would be in the darkness that now was falling upon this 21st of
June, but in the morning we heard gladly