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Australians at Anzac Cove, December 17, 1915, from 'Gallipoli' by John Masefield. The Allied completed evacuating their positions at Suvla Bay and Anzac Cove on December 19.
Text:
Australians at Anzac two days before the evacuation took place.

Australians at Anzac Cove, December 17, 1915, from 'Gallipoli' by John Masefield. The Allied completed evacuating their positions at Suvla Bay and Anzac Cove on December 19.

Image text

Australians at Anzac two days before the evacuation took place.

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Saturday, May 8, 1915

"The British thought they had killed everyone but they hadn't. The shells fell too far behind the Turkish lines. The Turks were intact and ready for us. As soon as the bombardment finished we were ordered over the top. When we ran across the Daisy Patch toward the Turk line there was thousands of rifles and machine-guns trained on us. They were across open country 400 yards away. We were getting shot from all directions. It was just a mass of bullets. The ground was hopping with bullets like it was hailing. The Turks was all in trenches. All you could see was their heads. They weren't in the open at all. . . . There was a machine-gun trained across where I was. There were five chaps killed in front of me. One, two, three, four, five, as quick as that."

Quotation Context

New Zealander Hartly Palmer on his attempt to cross the 'Daisy Patch' against entrenched Turkish Infantry on May 8, 1915. Within days of the Allied invasion of Gallipoli on April 25, 1915, neither the Turks nor the Allies could advance, and struggled to reinforce their troops. Allied commander General Sir Ian Hamilton brought troops from Egypt and redeployed men of the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps who had landed at Gaba Tepe — Anzac Cove — south to the Anglo-French position at Cape Helles on the end of the Gallipoli Peninsula. Achi Baba, the objective, was a 709-foot high hill from which the Turks dominated the Allied position. The attempt to cross the open 'Daisy Patch' was a disaster for the men who tried. Joe Gasparich, another New Zealand survivor, referred to the Turkish troops as 'Jacko,', and observed that he was 'safe as houses' in his entrenchments.

Source

Voices of Gallipoli by Maurice Shadbolt, page 31, copyright © 1988 Maurice Shadbolt, publisher: Hodder and Stoughton, publication date: 1988

Tags

1915-05-08, 1915, May, ANZAC, ANZACs, Daisy Patch