the first authentic hotel on the Gallipoli peninsula
THE NEK CEMETERY
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Others were
not so luckly on this desastrous Saturday, 7th August 1915. The first and
second wave was composed of the 8th Australian Light Horse
Regiment and by 4.40 am 234 men lay killed or wounded
no more than 30 meter in front of their own trench :
The men of the
first wave put their feet onto pegs or in niches cut in the trench wall, while
those in the shallow saps crouched ready to scramble out. Then on the order
from White –“Go!”- they climbed up with their colonel in the lead.
The moment they rose above ground level rifle fire and long machine-gun bursts
swept through them.
"The Nek", (Kenthurst 1996), Peter Burness, p. 101
Captain George
Hore, a barrister, got further than most in the second line. He said he bent
down low and ran as hard as he could. He could see the trench ahead aflame
with rifle fire. Bullets kicked up dust around him. Hore felt a ‘sting’ in
his shoulder. He flung himself down, alone. He would have been picked off
easily had he not fallen near a fold in the ground and the swollen body of a
Turk killed in the attack of June 30. He crept close to the corpse as though
it were a perfumed angel. What should he do? Rush the Turkish trench alone ??
A bullet struck him in the foot and removed that option. He edged his way
back to the Australian line and lived.
"Gallipoli", (Sydney
2002),
Les Carlyon, p. 405
IF STONES COULD SPEAK - ANZAC
revolver then gave the order and led out the next wave. Once again a furious
fire erupted from the Turks opposite and the Western Australians’ attack was
torn away: The roar and smoke of the rifle and machine-gun fire had been
joined by a Turkish 75mm field gun bursting shrapnel over no-man’s-land.
"The Nek",
(Kenthurst 1996), Peter Burness, p. 113
Last updated : 01/02/08
Of the 10th
Australian
Light Horse
Regiment, which made up the 3rd and 4th wave, 138 men lay killed or
wounded
in no-mans' land by 05.20 am :
Major
Tom Todd, who was in command of the third line, steadied himself, gripped his