Redemption - Leon Uris [276]
“Yes, sir,”
“And Quigley. What’s going on with Monash?”
“Sorry to report that the Sixth Australian has been stopped cold at the German Officers’ Trench.”
Malone’s expression gave off a sense of foreboding.
At Anzac Corps, Lieutenant General Brodhead was furious that the four divisions landed at Suvla Bay had not moved inland to the surrounding hills, but he seemed more concerned with finding shelter from the sun, locating a suitable area for officers’ quarters, and settling on a safe place to set up their Corps command. General Stopford, chief of the Suvla Corps, remained aboard his command cruiser HMS Helmsley, relying on wireless to command his troops, although communications were very uneven.
Despite the lack of Turkish opposition at Suvla Bay, Stopford refused to order his divisions inland until he could build a line of trenches to ward off a Turkish counterattack. This was a direct countermand of the operational plan.
Stopford’s commander ashore, Brigadier Dove, seemed glad to deliver the message to Stopford that there was no need for him to come ashore for a few days. Dove agreed that he would remain on the beach and make defensive precautions until at least twenty thousand men were landed.
…At Anzac Corps, Brodhead became frantic but was unable to reach Stopford’s command ship. Finally, through wireless from a nearby destroyer, Stopford got the message to go on to the attack.
…After forty minutes of studying the map, Stopford sent a return message that he would not be pushed. He didn’t like what he saw from the deck of the Helmsley.
…While the Tenth, Eleventh, Fifty-third and Fifty-fourth divisions made tea on the beach, Brodhead demanded they take the hills before the Turks got to them.
…“Not without sufficient artillery ashore,” Stopford retorted.
As the Suvla Bay Corps dawdled to ineffectiveness, the Anzac line fell into perilous shape. The Kiwi All-Blacks were sitting alone on Chunuk Bair with twenty thousand Turks in the valley on their left flank and twenty thousand Turks in the valley on their right flank.
At the Nek, the guillotine had fallen!
Rather than calling off the attack until the Suvla Corps got moving, Brodhead made a horrendous error in judgment to capture the Nek at all costs, in order to keep the Turks guessing.
The Nek was in the heart of the Turkish defenses around Quinn’s Post. It was a long ridge some thirty yards wide and two hundred yards long…and steep cliffs dropped off both sides. Anyone trying to cross the Nek would have to come straight down the boulevard with no cover.
The Eighth Australian Light Horse moved in four lines some twenty to thirty yards into the Nek and into the most concentrated enfilade of machine-gun fire the world had ever known.
With the Suvla Corps not moving inland, further attack over the Nek was suicidal. Monash tried desperately to call it to a halt, but Brodhead overrode him and ordered the assault continued.
With the Aussie Eighth Light Horse littering the field with their dead and wounded, the Third Australian Light Horse was butchered, and, after them, the Tenth Australian Light Horse was cut to pieces advancing into solid sheets of bullets. No soldier penetrated as much as fifty yards into the Nek, but on they came until there was no one left to come.
By early afternoon, the Turks had rendered the assaults on the German Officers’ Trench and the Nek lifeless.
All that was left of the day was the Kiwi All-Blacks atop Chunuk Bair alone, the Ravine to their backs and some fifty thousand Turks ready to counterattack.
1530
Jeremy was out on a perimeter of shell holes with Reconn, the Maori, and the Auckland companies. The Wellington stayed in reserve. Captain Matamata came in with the chilling report that his patrol was unable to reach the Suvla Corps. They were still on the beach.
Colonel Markham, Brodhead’s adjutant from Corps, found his way to Malone, where Chris and myself were working.
“Why aren’t they moving off the beach?” Malone