The guns at Gaba Tepe had opened up soon after dawn and now others were joining in. The Australians quickly learnt the sequence. You heard the crump away to the south. Then you heard a whizzing sound, like a kettle going off the boil. Then there was the flash, just a pinpoint. Then the bang followed by a puffy white cloud and the whirr of pellets. The ground boiled and dust flew and men would cry in pain and others wouldn’t because they were now just lumps of quivering flesh.

"Gallipoli", (Sydney 2002), Les Carlyon, p. 147

Artillery was important to both sides. ‘We have the Turk’s guns sorted out to a tick here. In the morning one gun, we call it “Christian Awake” comes over the beach onto a certain patch and as a rule the boys are very careful as regards cover until she starts and stops... Then we knock about anyhow until her next period of fire, she never seems to alter it. Then we have “Gentil Annie”, “Hell Fire Mack”, “Jack Johnston” and the “Slug”. This one never fires until tea time or after.

J. Swan quoted in “Gallipoli, The New Zealand Story”, (Auckland 1998),  Christopher Pugsley, p. 259

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 last updated : 20/08/07

"Front-line artillery spotter with his periscope binoculars, assisted by an enlisted man at telephone", period picture reproduced from "Bloody Ridge", The diary of 2^nd Lt Mehmed Fasih, acting commander of the 7^th Company, 47^th regiment, 16^th Division, Northern Group of the 5^th army, (Istanbul 2003), translated by H.B. Danışman, p.227

 

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