Chapter IV – The Problem of Monash Valley
15th May, 1915] PROBLEM OF MONASH VALLEY 129
As he went up the road with Colonel White and Lieutenant Casey (his A.D.C.) they met Major William Glasgow, 75 of the 1st Light Horse Regiment, with some of his men on their way down. “Be careful of the next corner,” he said, “ I have lost five men there to-day.’’ Such warnings, which were constantly heard by anyone visiting the trenches, were usually little heeded. But this particular officer was not one who would give idle advice. When, therefore, they reached a traverse 200 yards below Chauvel’s headquarters, and some men behind the next barrier advised them to run to it, General Bridges, to the surprise of his companions, adopted the suggestion. His ordinary practice had been to expose himself without regard for danger, laughing down at his staff when they took cover, and asking “what they were getting down there for?” But he had apparently begun to realise that this impunity could not continue. 76
On this day, probably guessing from a certain vague tension in the valley that the danger was real, he acted upon the advice tendered The party ran three or four times between barriers, until they reached the one below Steele’s Post. Behind this was the dressing-station of Captain Thompson of the 1st Battalion. After talking a few minutes and lighting a cigarette Bridges went on, Thompson warning him to be careful. The general’s long legs disappeared in the scrub round the traverse, and the others were preparing to follow, when there was some sort of stir, and Thompson ran out to find Bridges lying with a huge bullet-hole through his thigh. Both femoral artery and vein had been cut, and, though Thompson instantly stopped the bleeding, the loss of blood had been very great. As they brought the general back into the shelter of the traverse, strangely changed from the bronzed healthy man who had passed a few seconds before, he said weakly, “ Don’t carry me down-I don’t want any of your stretcher-bearers hit.”
Colonel White had the traffic in the gully stopped, so that it should be clear to the Turks that the only movement was
75 Afterwards Maj.-Gen Sir T. W Glasgow, commanding 1st Aust. Div.
76 A few days previously, when a shrapnel shell had burst very near, Col Howse. one of his few intimate friends, had said, General, you’ll be caught if you go risking any more of those.” Nex:t day, when Col. White during a burst of shell-fire advised his chief not to "give the Turks the chance they wanted," Bridges had consented to take cover till the shelling was over.
130 THE STORY OF ANZAC [15th May, 1915
the carrying of a wounded man, and then the party moved slowly to the Beach. The Turks, whether by accident or by a forbearance which they sometimes showed, did not fire upon it. Bridges was taken at once to the hospital ship Gascon. But the whole blood-supply to the limb had been cut off, and nothing could save his life except complete amputation at the thigh, an operation which, it was considered, to a man of his years, must prove fatal. Before the Garcon left for Alexandria he knew he was dying. “Anyhow,” he said to Colonel Ryan, “anyhow, I have commanded an Australian Division for nine months.” He died before the ship reached port. His body was brought to Australia 77 and buried on the hill above the military college at Duntroon, which he had founded. Bridges’ habit of exposing himself to danger had made it from the first unlikely that he would survive many months: of fighting. Had he done so, it is probable that he would have emerged the greatest of Australia’s soldiers, as he was certainly the most profound of her military students. His powerful mind and great knowledge were supported by outstanding moral and physical courage, and also by a ruthless driving force, rare in students. Only in Haig and Allenby did Australians meet any commander whose forcefulness equalled that of Bridges. His defect as a leader-the inability to display those qualities which would make the ordinary man love and follow him-was finding its compensation in the conspicuous bravery with which, since the Landing, he had won the admiration of the troops.
Upon Bridges’ death the command of the 1st Australian Division temporarily passed, in accordance with the general expectation of those at Anzac, to Brigadier-General H. B. Walker, of the 1st Infantry Brigade, an officer who, by his directness, his fighting qualities, and his consideration for his men, had in a few weeks much endeared himself to the troops. This promotion left vacant the command of the 1st Brigade. Most of the battalions of the division were at this time commanded by officers who were either rather too old to possess the necessary vigour, or had been newly promoted in place of those killed, wounded, or unequal to the test of war.
77 Upon a suggestion made in Parliament by the Hon. Littleton E. Groom
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