dressing, and when one had time to think, one's thoughts
generally took the shape of wondering how the men were keeping the
Turks off. It was useless to be sentimental, although many of my
friends were amongst those injured; the work just had to be done in
the best way possible.

One night a strong wind got up, just like our "Southerly Busters," and
in the middle of it all firing began on our left. I heard that the
Turks nearly got into the trenches, but they were beaten off and
rolled right round the position--passed on, as it were, from battalion
to battalion.

It was very interesting to watch the warships bombarding Turkish
positions. One ship, attacking Achi Baba, used to fire her broadside,
and on the skyline six clouds would appear at regular intervals, for
all the world like windmills. On another occasion I watched two ships
bombarding the same hill a whole afternoon. One would think there was
not a square yard left untouched, and each shot seemed to lift half
the hill. Twenty minutes after they had ceased firing, a battery of
guns came out from somewhere and fired in their turn. They must have
been in a tunnel to have escaped that inferno. One day we were up on
"Pluggey's" while our beach was being shelled; at last the stack of
ammunition caught fire and was blazing fiercely until some of the men
got buckets and quenched the fire with sea water most courageously.
Later a shell landed among a lot of dug-outs. There was quietness for
a bit; then one man began scraping at the disturbed earth, then
another; finally about six of them were shovelling earth away; at last
a man appeared with his birthday suit for his only attire. He ran like
a hare for the next gully, amid the yells of laughter of all who
witnessed the occurrence. I think he had been swimming, and being
disturbed by "Beachy," had run for a dug-out only to be buried by the
shell.

That was the extraordinary thing about our soldiers. Shelling might be
severe and searching, but only if a man was hit was it taken
seriously. In that case a yell went up for stretcher-bearers; if it
was a narrow squeak, then he was only laughed at.

That beach at times was the most unhealthy place in the Peninsula. Men
frequently said they would sooner go back to the trenches. One day we
had five killed and twenty-five wounded. Yet, had Johnny Turk been
aware of it, he could have made the place quite untenable. I saw one
shell get seven men who were standing in a group. T