ANZAC Day April 23rd

Gaba Tepe

On April 19th there was a stir aboard the transports. Word had come from G.H.Q. to cease practising the troops at disembarkation. Tugs and trawlers were all to take on coal and water. The Bacchante and Talbot had that day bombarded Turkish camps near Gaba Tepe. On April 20th came the order that the first movement of troops was to begin on the morrow.
The landing had been fixed for April 23rd.
But on the morning of the 20th such a wind sprang up that, despite the
20th-24th Apr., 1915] THE GABA TEPE PLAN 243
clear sky, none of the smaller craft could work in the harbour At 5 p.m. word arrived postponing the move for twenty-four hours. The same clear gale blew fiercely throughout April 21st, and that evening the move was again deferred. On the 22nd the wind moderated towards nightfall, and the cross-movements of troops between various transports began. On the afternoon of the 23rd many British transports sorted themselves out from the others in the crowded basin and moved between the other cheering troopships into the outer harbour. Many noticed, as they passed her, a certain old cargo steamer with two masts and a yellow funnel. Slung over her starboard side were half-a-dozen men on ropes, painting that side of the ship yellow. Her name was the River Clyde. A space near the bow still remained to be coloured. That evening General Birdwood, with the chiefs of his Staff, moved into the Battleship Queen, and General Bridges and his Staff into the Prince of Wales.
At dawn next day, April 24th, four ships, carrying chiefly the 1st Australian Infantry Brigade, sailed from Mudros and moved round the coast of the island into the Bay of Purnea on its northern side. A little after midday five more ships, carrying the bulk of the 2nd Brigade and the Indian Mountain Batteries, joined them. All day they lay there anchored, their heads to a stiff breeze. Three other transports, carrying landing-stages and horseboats, anchored in the next bay. Meanwhile in Mudros, immediately after midday, destroyers came alongside the transports of the 3rd Brigade and transferred half of the 9th Battalion to the Queen, half of the 10th to the Prince of Wales, and half of the 11th to the London. The men, with their full packs and rifles, clambered on board very quietly and disappeared below decks. Every alley-way and mess-deck in the ships was full of them. The Navy had insisted on feeding them; it would not let them pay for canteen stores; sailors, marines, and officers shared in the expense of providing extras from the ships’ canteens. In each ship the flat outside the captain’s cabin was crowded with infantrymen. The major of marines, or some senior ship’s officer, insisted on giving his cabin to the colonel. and other officers turned out of their bunks to give the Australian
244 THE STORY OF ANZAC [24th Apr., 1915
officers a rest. During the afternoon the ship’s chaplain held a service beneath the great guns on the wide quarter-deck. As soon as the troops were on board, at 2 p.m., the ships left port. Colonel MacLagan, commanding the 3rd Brigade which was to make the landing, said good-bye to General Bridges in the Prince of Wales, and boarded one of the destroyers. “Well, MacLagan,” said Bridges as they parted, “you haven’t thanked me yet.” “Yes, sir, I do thank you for the great honour of having this job to do with my brigade,” was the reply. “But if we find the Turks holding these ridges in any strength, I honestly don’t think you’ll ever see the 3rd Brigade again.” “Oh, go along with you!” said Bridges, laughing. The Queen Elizabeth led the line out of the harbour. The battleships Queen, Triumph, Prince of Wales, the cruiser Bacchante, and the battleships London and Majestic fell in behind her; after them came six destroyers; then the four transports of the 3rd Brigade, all keeping perfect interval. There was tumultuous cheering from the French ships moored in the harbour. An ancient French corvette, transfigured as a hospital ship, passed them, her men waving and shouting and the Australians making with varied success efforts to whistle the Marseillaise. Outside Mudros harbour the line divided. The Queen Elizabeth headed for the Dardanelles; the five battleships moved round the west of Lemnos; a destroyer came close abreast , of each transport ; and transports and destroyers headed directly for Imbros.
Just before dusk that evening the men of the 1st and 2nd Brigades in their transports in the Bay of Purnea saw, steaming slowly along the horizon to the west, a squadron of five warships. They passed gradually across the skyline, trailing a long streamer of smoke, until the night closed over them. They were the battleships carrying men of the 3rd Brigade to Gaba Tepe.