February lo, 1916. 
LAND AND WATER. 
EVACUATION OF ANZAC. 
By a Naval Chaplain. 
THE personal impressions of one who saw the 
closing of an heroic chapter in the history of 
tlie war may be of some interest to those 
who have followed the conrse of the campaign 
in the Gallii^oh Peninsula. 
As a Naval Chaplain, I had the jnivilcge of being 
in a ship which took part in the covering of our troops 
at tiie Suvla Bay landing, and which, from August 7th 
to the ringing down of the curtain on December nitli, 
was almost daily lying off Anzac as a covering ship to tlu; 
New Zealand and Austrahan Forces. During those five 
months, a very strong feeling of comradeship sprang up 
between us in the ship and our colonial brothers on 
shore. Wc took an intense personal interest in their 
welfare. On two occasions officers from the ship 
visited the trenches, and several times officers of the 
New Zealand and Australian Divisions came out to the 
ship as our guests. 
We had the first definite news of the proposed 
evacuation of Anzac and Suvla a few days before the 
operations took place. The thought of the magnitude 
of the task was overwhelming. Many thousands of men, 
a great number of guns, a large quantity of ammunition 
and stores, the sick and the wounded, the animal trans- 
port, had all to be removed from a narrow front of twelve 
miles, from open beaches. Everyone of those beaches 
could be swept by the enemy's fire, and all this had to 
take place without the enemy being aware that a single 
man, or gun, or mule or waggon had been withdrawn. 
No wonder we shook our heads and doubted. How could 
it be possible to maintain such secrecy as would entirely 
deceive the enemy ? In some cases the opposing trenches 
were within whispering distance of each other, and the 
Nvhole shore from Brighton Beach to Suvla Point was 
under enemy observation. 
For the success of the withdrawal, calm weather was 
essential. The difficulty of conveying thousands of 
troops in boats and lighters from a gale-swept shore 
through a stormy sea to the waiting transports would be 
immense. Throughout the days, December i8th and 
i()th, there was a great calm ; there was scarce a ripple 
on the water. The nights were light, but from land and 
sea there arose a kindly mist ; not sufficient to hinder our 
movements, but tliick enough to hide them from the 
eneniy. During the day, the enemy could see transports 
waiting in Kephalo Bay, some eleven miles away. They 
could see lighters plying between the beach and the ships 
lying off Suvla and Anzac. But everything points to 
the fact that the Turks were completely deceived. The 
liglitcrs, they supposed, were being used in the ordinary 
daily routine of bringing stores to the beach, not of 
removing stores to the ships. 
Sunday, December 19th; was the critical day. A 
twelve-mile front was being held, with very few guns, 
against an enemy at least six times superior in mnnbers. 
Would they discover that ? li so, the evacuation would 
end in tragedy. The tension of that Sunday was great. 
From noon to i p.m. was an an.xious hour. The Turkish 
batteries suddenly began to shell Lala Baba and Hill 60 
very heavily. The bombardment of the latter position 
lowered our hopes. As we watched the heavy black 
smoke of th(; shells hanging in the still air, we thouglit 
tlie enemy had discovered all, and were preparing to 
launch an attack. On the other hand, the slielling of 
Lala Baba raised our hopes. However, after about 
an hour all w-as quiet again ; no attack of any kind 
had been attempted. Meanwhile, three monitors, a 
cruiser and two. destroyers had left Kephalo to take up 
positions off the south end of the Peninsula, and pro- 
ceeded, during that afternoon, to put the fear of God into 
the heart of tlie Turk. The land batteries at Helles 
co-operated. This bombardment lasted all through the 
afternoon, and developed into a fierce battle which went 
un far into tlie night. 
After dinner that Sunday evening, I went up on 
deck and stayed tliere, except for occasional intervals, 
vmtil 4.30 a.m. It was an ideal night for tlie operations. 
The moon was at its full, but a light mist lay over land 
and sea. Everywhere except at distant , Helles there 
was an imcanny quiet. The sea was dead calm. Some- 
times subdued voices were heard coming across the 
water ; a ship's bell, perhaps a mile away, was heard 
striking — seven bells, eight bells. ^lidnight was passed. 
Through the mist wi-re faintly to be discerned the ghostly 
forms of transports lying off the beach. At intervals the 
sliarp I'eport of a rifie would pierce the stillness, followed 
by the " tat-tat-tat " of a machine-gun. The eneniy 
were undoubtedly nervous ; possibly they were expecting 
an attack in force. How anxiously too, we watched for 
any sign that the withdrawal had been discovered. 
At 3.25 a.m. the strain was relaxed. A message 
came through from the last wireless station on the beacli 
at Anzac. "Evacuation complete"; not a single 
man, hale or wounded, left behind. All that remained 
were six guns which had been kept back in case of emergr 
ency, and were blown up at the last moment ; some odd 
stores of bully beef and biscuits, a few hospital tents 
and certain fixtures such as water tanks. At 3.26 a.m. 
there was a great heaving explosion under the trenches 
in the position known as the Nek, near Russell's Top. 
A mine connected up with the wireless station on the 
beach had been blown up. The explosion was followed 
by a most furious burst of rifle fire from the Turks which 
continued for forty minutes. To us it was ludicrous, yet 
weird and uncanny for we knew they were firing at empty 
trenches. Soon afterwards, a great fire blazed up on 
the beach at Suvla. Stores which were riot worth remov- 
ing had been soaked with petrol and fired. The peninsula 
for miles round was lit up, and the covering ships at 
Suvla stood out against the fierce light in sharp silhouette. 
At daybi^eak on Monday we could afford to laugh ; 
an operation unparalleled in military history had been 
most successfully carried out. And laugh we did, for 
at 6.45 a.m. the Turks began to shell the late Australian 
position at the Lonesome Pine, and afterwards attacked. 
Then they discovered for the first time that the tnMiches 
were empty ! Not even then did the enemy understand 
what had happened, for they continued desultory shcllin* 
all through the morning ; and that in spite of ouf fiaving 
begun at 7.15 a.m. to bombard odd collections of stores 
and the tanks on the beach at Anzac. By mid-day, the 
Turks had realised that we had withdrawn ; we could 
see them swarming over the chffs, in and out of the dug- 
outs. Later on parties of the enemy reached Lala Baba, 
and there an insolent German officer hoisted the German 
flag. Large bodies of Turks were seen coming across the 
Salt Lake. We opened fire on them with shrapnel, and 
were ourselves fired on by a field gun which the enemy 
troops had brought down with them. After a time we 
withdrew and once more lay off Anzac, now no longer 
a covering ship to the New Zealand and Australian 
Divisions. 
At 4.15 p.m., after evening quarters, we held a thanks- 
giving service on deck, and sang the To Deum — a thanks- 
giving to God for the entire success of the evacuation 
which might so easily have been a great tragedy; a 
thanksgiving too for the marvellous weather which had 
made the withdrawal possible. That evening was 
wonderfully beautiful. The sun was setting, a glowing 
ball of fire, behind rugged Imbros. Twilight came 
tpiickly. The moon was up, and as dayliglit died away 
the sea became all a-shimmer with silver light. A 
message came ordering us to return to our base. The 
screws began to churn up the quiet deep blue of the sea 
into foaming white, and soon we were under way — the 
last ship to leave Suvla Bay and Anzac. I stood in the 
stern of the ship and watched the land being swallowed 
up in the gathering mists. Three great fires were still 
burning on the beach, and as we drew further away, 
they became three twinkling stars. It was with a full 
heart that one thought of the heroes wiio had fought so 
valiantly and died so nobly ; who now lie buried on an 
alien shore. I commended their souls to the mercy of 
(iod, then turned and went below. So has ended an 
epic of heroism. 
That night a great gale sprang up from the south-west. 
T7 
