I have, in fact, never seen the like of these wounded Australians in war
before, for as they were towed among the ships, while accommodation was
being found for them, although many were shot to bits and without hope
of recovery, their cheers resounded through the night, and you could
just see, amid a mass of suffering humanity, arms being waved in
greeting to the crews of the warships. They were happy, because they
knew they had been tried for the first time in the war and had not been
found wanting. They had been told to occupy the heights and hold on, and
this they had done for fifteen mortal hours under an incessant shell
fire, without the moral and material support of a single gun ashore, and
subjected the whole time to the violent counter-attacks of a brave
enemy, led by skilled leaders, while his snipers, hidden in caves and
thickets and among the dense scrub, made a deliberate practice of
picking off every officer who endeavored to give a word of command or to
lead his men forward.
No finer feat of arms has been performed during the war than this sudden
landing in the dark, this storming of the heights, and, above all, the
holding on to the position thus won while reinforcements were being
poured from the transports.
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