Redemption - Leon Uris [277]
“We’d best not get excited,” Markham responded in what was being set up as British-officer-speaking-to-colonial posture. “Communications got a bit slapdash between Suvla Corps and Anzac. We’ll clear them up at a shipboard conference tonight.”
“Tonight?”
“Tonight,” Markham snapped back. “We’ll get the Suvla Bay people moving off the beach by morning.”
“Colonel Markham,” Malone said, minding his temper. “The Turks have their reserves below, deciding where to send them. If the Suvla Corps does not take Ridge 269 in the next two hours, they will run into two Turkish divisions who are going to—I guarantee—move in and occupy 269 tonight.
“I want to know what happened at the Nek,” Malone finished.
Markham’s mouth tightened. “The Nek is neither here nor there. I have come up with specific orders for you to release the New Zealand Brigades at the Apex and bring them over here, immediately.”
“I’m not sure I hear you right,” Malone said.
“We mean to hold Chunuk Bair. We’ll sort Suvla out in good time.”
“Colonel Markham, there has already been a massacre at the Nek.”
“Who told you that!”
“Colonel Monash…and now you want me to put the entire New Zealand Corps in a trap up here. I will not—repeat, not—bring over my brigades until we hook up with the Suvla Corps.”
“Major General Godley—”
“Fuck Godley.”
Markham took the field phone, got the Apex, and told them to bring on General Brodhead at Corps. He reported he had Malone’s refusal to send any more men over to Chunuk Bair.
“He wishes to speak to you,” Markham said, giving Malone the phone.
“Malone.”
“Brodhead here. Didn’t you understand your order?”
“I did.”
“Are you or are you not going to comply this instant?”
“Not until we have Suvla on our left flank and the Aussies on our right. Too breezy up here all by our lone-somes.”
“Let me speak to Colonel Markham.”
Markham listened and replaced the phone, then turned and looked about.
“Major Hubble,” Markham said.
“Yes?”
“Place Colonel Malone under arrest and have him escorted back to Corps.”
Well now, Christopher Hubble’s life, as they say, flashed before his eyes in the next few seconds.
“Sorry, Colonel Markham, I refuse.”
“Landers, place them both under arrest and remove them.”
“No, sir,” I said.
Colonel Joshua Malone put his big square timber-clearing hands on Colonel Markham’s shoulders and looked at him squarely. “You and Brodhead and Churchill and Kitchener and Stopford and Godley and Darlington have betrayed the manhood of Australia and New Zealand. You have brought them to this place and you have butchered them with your collective, deplorable incompetence. The farce of Gallipoli was always beyond the capabilities of all the King’s generals. I’m taking my people off Chunuk Bair. You’ve massacred enough men for one day.”
He took the phone up again. “Quigley…Malone here. Turks are out of the Ravine. Plug it up at both ends, I’ll be bringing the Kiwi All-Blacks back in about an hour.”
“Give me that phone!” Markham demanded.
“Get out of here, we have work to do. Major Chris. Go around our perimeter. We want an orderly withdrawal. Your people will be covered by the heavy machine guns. Donaldson, start moving Auckland down the hill. Make straight across the Ravine and up to the Apex. Apex is covering you.”
“Indeed I shall, Colonel Malone.”
“Willumsen.”
“Sir.”
“Better catch up with Major Chris. He’s itching for a fight and I don’t want him making any charges down the other side.”
Ignoring the stunned Markham, Malone set up our tragic withdrawal. When Markham finally did get to the field phone, it wasn’t working. I had disconnected it.
The Maori Company filtered back, waiting until the Aucklands were on the way down, then went over the side themselves.
At that bloody instant came the final betrayal!
God knows who! God knows why! Naval gunfire opened up again. I reconnected the phone as the explosions tore into the plateau and called to the Apex to get the firing stopped.
Wellington drifted back and down into the Ravine. Jesus! No Chris or Jeremy!
“The Plateau looks clear,” Malone