Leon Uris (63 page)

The Ravine’s echoes were voluminous. Mellencamp was hit by a Turkish ambush a few hundred yards in. Chris quickly moved in the Maori Company and they overwhelmed the Turks and abandoned the silence with a haka war cry.

…At the same time Higby had achieved total surprise at the Farm, knocking it out in one big burst.

…Higby in, Mellencamp and the Maoris back.

…Malone kept the Maoris right in back of Reconn, expecting the Turks to take a big look in the Ravine. Old Joshua was right! Wham! Fifty Turks! The Maoris, at fixed bayonets, plunged into them while the Wellington Company swung around the battle and got behind the Turks.

No Turks escaped.

*  *  *

We assembled, once more. It was 2350. Would the Turks come again or call it a night? When would they know for certain that the Farm had been taken? We had a small comfort in that the Turkish phones were even worse than ours were, so they might not become alarmed at the loss of contact. Activity in the Ravine? About normal for a heavy night.

“Well, let’s get in there,” Malone said. “We won’t have to speculate long. They’ll know in another hour and a half what we’re up to when the Navy starts.”

We moved a little more quickly now, and not so wary of maintaining silence. Abdul knew we were in the Ravine…we only hoped he didn’t know how many of us were there.

There she is!

Steep, soft earth rivulets worn by centuries of water during the rainy season into perilous chimney-stack formations at the base of a dirty cliff.

Malone and Chris huddled with us for a big decision. Willumsen, Jeremy, and I could get Reconn up to the base of the cliff fore certain, so we wouldn’t have far to climb at dawn. This could give total surprise.

However, we stood more than a fair chance of getting hit by our own shells if they fell short, as they often did. However—and this is some bloody “however”—the closer we climbed to the plateau and waited, the shorter distance we’d have to go at dawn and the greater the chance of effecting surprise.

“Always in a case of not knowing whether to shit or go blind,” Malone said, “I opt for closing one eye and farting. We’re going to lose some men falling before you get to the base of the cliff.”

We agreed.

“Keep Reconn in A and B sections. Jeremy take the left
wall. Rory, go to the right chimney. Stop at the base of the cliff and wait for naval gunfire. If they are shooting straight tonight, then creep the platoon as close to the plateau as possible and hit it at dawn. Push in no more than fifty yards and make a defensive perimeter to give us time to get the rest of the battalion up.”

“Got it.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Who needs Willumsen most?” Jeremy asked me.

“You do,” I lied.

“You take him. One of my squad leaders is a cat burglar.”

Maybe it was because this was the big push or maybe the Navy was throwing extra hurt at the Turks, but nothing was ever to compare with the orange balls that erupted offshore turning the entire front into bursts of flashing sunlight, waves of blinding heat, shaking the ground under us, nearly sweeping us off our feet. They were blasting Chunuk Bair Plateau dead-on.

“The Turks have got to pull back off the plateau,” Malone said.

“Colonel, the shelling is giving us enough light to travel by,” Willumsen said.

“Chris,” Malone said.

“Sir.”

“Start up Reconn A and B. Have the Maori Company on standby. Daybreak is 0455. Maori starts their ascent at 0400 and waits at the base of the cliff.”

The Major gave two thumbs up, one to me and one to Jeremy. Up we started. Willumsen moved only by bursts of light, a few yards at a time. We were very good at picking out the next hand-and foothold. As the bombardment continued our confidence grew. Navy was absolutely saturating Chunuk Bair. If the Turks didn’t back down, they’d be in a state of shock for certain or, at the very least, their
communications would be knocked out. Easy Rory, I told myself, don’t get cocky. You thought you had walk-overs before.

We reached the bottom of the cliffs. Beneath us we could see the Maori Company begin their ascent.

I made the mistake of looking up at those last three hundred feet. I’ve got to share the last secret of my life. Even though I’m a South Island lad known for acts of derring-do, when I get beyond a certain height and I’m climbing upwards, I have to constantly gather myself. In other words, I was fucking frightened.

“Up we go, buddy system.” Willumsen said. Good enough for him, he was a mountain goat with snake eyes. My bloody knees were knocking and weak. We wormed our way up ninety-degree crevices each time a shellburst lit our way. It was the buddy system. The man above offered his hand to me and the man below pushed my ass up.

…
And don’t look down anymore!

…I wish I was in Dixie…hooray, hooray…Christ, man, your hand is sweating. None of that. Little wee hand and foot grips made for midgets and straining against gravity…

…Sorry, Georgia, not now. I’ve got to pay attention to what I’m doing. Some rock broke loose and skittered down under my feet. I felt Willumsen grab my shirt and hold me steady.

“Okay?” he asked.

“How much more?”

“We’re about halfway up.”

The other time Willumsen and I climbed this ascent, I was so exalted I almost ran to the top without thinking. The higher we got the more my legs ached and the ache began floating up my entire body. Gulps of air had to be fought for. My chest was too tight….

Rory, you’re aching and puffing because you’re locking yourself up. The lads below are waiting. You’re their leader. LEAD, DAMNIT, LEAD.

I stopped the line and told everyone to find something to sit on, and signaled Willumsen to come down to me.

“Do we hole up here or hit the top?” Willumsen said.

“You and me. We’ll go up and have a look. Serjeant Duneen!” I called.

“Right below, I hear you, Landers!”

“I’m going to the top with Willumsen. I’ll signal you by torch. Three dots repeated means stay put. One long flash of ten to twenty seconds and you come up!”

“Righto.”

You know, the last fifty yards had so much work and urgency attached to them, I forgot to stay afraid. God in heaven, though, it did feel good when Willumsen grabbed my wrist and pulled me over the lip and onto Chunuk Bair Plateau. I allowed myself the pleasure of eight or ten gorgeous breaths and a sip of water, then rolled onto my belly and scanned the Plateau. Jesus! The shelling had done its mark, pocking the entire field and now they were hitting at the far end. I could see no Turkish activity of any sort.

“Abdul’s gone,” Willumsen said.

“Don’t worry, he’s waiting out of sight. Can you see Jeremy’s lads?”

“I can. They’re waiting about twenty-five yards down.”

“Well, invite them up.”

I went back to the edge. “Serjeant Duneen!”

I pressed my torch in the long signal to come up. As Duneen’s head appeared, I grabbed him. “Call down to move the Maoris up. Tell the Major to come up and have a look. I think we may be able to position the battalion before daybreak.”

Duneen slipped down easily.

Over the way I could see Jeremy’s lads spilling over the top. Everyone tied rope around rock and thick brush anchors and began pulling men over the top.

Jeremy and Captain Matamata, the Maori commander, found me. “Matamata, give us a perimeter using Reconn as well. Don’t go in any more than twenty-five yards.”

“It’s wide open,” the captain said.

“Twenty-five fucking yards and not one fucking inch farther,” I explained. “Abdul’s just waiting for us to get stupid.”

Deep breaths, deep breaths.

Oh God, it was good to see Joshua Malone and Christopher Hubble!

Malone looked at our perimeter. “Nice,” he said, and checked his watch. Daybreak in fifty-two minutes.

“Willumsen,” he called.

“Sir.”

“Do you have a problem about going down to the bottom of the cliff now?”

“What kind of problem, sir?”

“Good lad. I want the machine guns from heavy weapons up here, next. Tell Captain Danielson to have Wellington and Auckland bring up the rear.”

Willumsen was over the side. Malone turned to us. “My thinking is that we put all the big machine guns on the edge here, then have the infantry and Reconn creep over the plateau. If we have to withdraw, I want those big Vickers to be able to cover us.”

It grew quiet as the naval shelling stopped. The sun rose from the direction of ancient Troy and spread its golden morning light over the Chunuk Bair Plateau! For the moment, it was ours!

In quick order a flare went up and we semaphored to the Apex. They acknowledged us. They knew where the Kiwi All-Blacks were. Malone and Chris danced quickly and firmly through our priorities.

…Have the Apex phone down to Corps and have Corps wireless to the Navy to cease shelling the Chunuk Bair Plateau area.

…Run a telephone line directly from the Apex up to Chunuk Bair.

Malone turned to the sea. Suvla Bay, a mile and a half up from Anzac Cove, was filled with landing boats and troops pouring ashore
without resistance!
The Suvla Corps bayonets beamed in the morning sun.

“Runner! Get Captain Matamata!”

“Yes, sir.”

Another runner came back from the forward line. “Colonel! We can see the Dardanelles!”

“Jaysus!”

We took off at a trot over the field till we reached the Reconn perimeter. There! Below! We could see it all…the Dardanelles into the Narrows and into the Sea of Marmara! There was no energy left to cheer. Behind us the Wellington and Auckland companies were coming over the top and fanning out.

Captain Matamata reported.

“Send two squads down to make contact with the Suvla Corps so we can seal off the Ravine.”

“Right.”

We relished the wonderment of seeing the Dardanelles before us, but this soon gave way to getting on with a lot of work. To our right and south the sounds of a major battle could be heard as the Aussies pushed for the German Officers’ Trench and the Nek with the purpose of tying down the Turks and keeping reinforcements from going to Suvla Bay.

“Phone line in from the Apex, Colonel.”

“Malone.”

“Major Quigley at the Apex. I have three brigades in ready. Shall we cross to you?”

“No, not yet. We need to connect with the Suvla Corps first. What’s going on down there from your point of view?”

“I don’t know, Colonel. They seem to be regrouping.”

“Come on, you bastards, up off that beach. Quigley, get back to me the moment they start moving inland.”

“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.