CHAPTER VI

GUNS!


There was no bugle note, no cheer, but at a whistle the men swarmed out of
their trench and went uphill as hard as every they could go.

Their appearance was the signal for a tremendous outburst of firing on the
part of the Turkish snipers, and a moment later the two 77-millimetre
German guns which had been brought from Gaba Tepe changed the direction of
their fire from the beach to the advancing troops.

As the Australians went bursting through the scrub, snipers who had crept
in close during the night and hidden in the bushes and behind rocks broke
like rabbits out of gorse when the terriers are put in.

They were hunted down remorselessly, and not one of them escaped. Those
who were not killed outright were taken prisoners.

It was very fine while it lasted, and the men would have given anything to
go on. But Colonel Conway knew the risk too well, and as soon as they had
gained the summit of the cliff whistle signals from the sergeants stopped
them, and the order came to dig themselves in with all speed.

It is one thing to occupy a trench already made, quite another to dig one
under fire. There is no question of standing up and wielding the shovel as
if one were digging a garden. Men must lie down and scratch and scrape
until they get head cover, then gradually open up a narrow ditch into