I can tell you I was not sorry that they were not game enough for the last attack. Well, you can just imagine the pluck and endurance of our men after about four months’ fighting to get into a hole like that and come out successfully. They are heroes, every one.
I was fortunate to escape practically whole, although losing my other officers wounded and killed. Well, mother, I hope you are all well. As for myself, I feel a little tired, but with a couple of nights’ rest I will be fit for them again.
In fact, Symons had been wounded. At one point during the fighting a Turkish bullet had shattered the butt of his rifle, peppering his left hand with splinters. Ten days after the 7th Battalion left Lone Pine, Lt. Col. Elliott filed an official recommendation for the Victoria Cross for the gallant commander of D Company.
Symons remained with his unit until 28 August when he was admitted to 1st Australian Casualty Clearing Station suffering from gastroenteritis. Evacuated to England, he arrived at 3rd London General Hospital in Wandsworth on 12 September in an enfeebled state, his weight having shrunk from 12 to 8 stone. He spent two months in hospital and one month in a convalescent home. It was while recovering from sickness that he learned of his VC award. The citation, carried in the London Gazette of 15 October, stated:
For most conspicuous bravery on the night of August 8–9th, 1915, at Lone Pine trenches, in the Gallipoli Peninsula. He was in command of the right section of the newly-captured trenches held by his battalion, and repelled several counter-attacks with great coolness. At about 5.00 a.m. on the 9th August a series of determined attacks were made by the enemy on an isolated sap, and six officers were in succession killed or severely wounded, a portion of the sap was lost. Lieutenant Symons then led a charge and retook the lost sap, shooting two Turks with his revolver. The sap was under hostile fire from three sides, and Lieutenant Symons withdrew some 15 yards to a spot where some overhead cover could be obtained and in the face of heavy fire built up a sand barricade. The enemy succeeded in setting fire to the fascines and woodwork of the head cover, but Lieutenant Symons extinguished the fire and rebuilt the barricade. His coolness and determination finally compelled the enemy to discontinue the attacks.
Symons had recovered sufficiently by 4 December to attend a Buckingham Palace investiture where he received his Cross from the King. Among the recipients was Percy Hansen VC, MC, who had won his Cross at Suvla Bay. As he pinned the VC on Symons’ tunic, the King remarked: ‘I am proud to decorate an Australian with this Cross. You may be interested to know that the intrinsic worth of this bronze cross is only 5 1⁄2 d. I hope you will live long to wear it.’
Fred Tubb had been in the old Australian frontline for two days when three companies of his battalion filed passed on their way to reinforce the Lone Pine position. Initially held back in readiness to assault the Turkish trenches on Johnston’s Jolly, his company had been consigned to the role of spectators.
Yet those forty-eight hours had taken their toll. Few had been able to sleep and Turkish shellfire had already reduced their number. On August 8 the commander of B Company, 7th Battalion, noted in his diary:
0540. Shells are falling thick amongst us; one fell on my back after striking a few feet away … Tired and sleepy, we are all fagged; the strain is wearying. Just lost my Sgt Major Baker from nerves and shock. Pvte Willis also. Another Sgt Major of B Coy outed. It is stiff luck for just as I get the Coy going I lose the men I need most …
His company, bolstered three days earlier by the arrival of fifty reinforcements, remained in reserve in the Pimple throughout a tense afternoon made increasingly uncomfortable by the attention of the Turkish gunners. Tubb recorded that ‘Shrapnell [sic] is coming like out of a watering can, splattering all round me as I wait for instructions’.
At last, orders came for him to advance into the Lone Pine trenches. Sending one platoon into the firing line at 8.00 p.m., he followed with the remainder of his company and reported to Brig. N.M. Smyth. He was given command of a captured trench on the left of the position and then followed a depressing night as he and his men watched a steady stream of dead and wounded men being carried past them on their way out of Lone Pine. In his diary he provided his own concise account of his stay in the captured position:
Monday/Tuesday 10/8/15. Here I am sitting down in a dugout near the beach ready to go to Lemnos or Mudros. (I am wounded but not too bad.) It would take a book to describe what happened since yesterday morning. I have no notes of it but can supply most particulars. At Stand To, 0400 yesterday the fun started. I was whipped round with my Coy to the firing line. The enemy was attacking. Well they attacked us three times but we licked them. I was put in charge of the 7th firing line section. We had a ding-dong scrap which off and on lasted till 4 in the afternoon when we were relieved by the 5th Bn and what was left of us came down to this bivouac. We went in 670 strong and we came out 320. All the officers except the CO and Capt Layh were hit, even the Q. Master Hopkinson. I was extremely lucky and feel grateful for being alive and able to write. Four of the old officers, Capt Ross, Lt Swift, Hornby and Kurring came to me after we had been going for some time. Lt West, Fisher and Young, Edwards and Capt Ross were outed. My luck was in, all the time. It is miraculous that I am alive. Three different times I was blown yards away from bombs. Our trenches were filled with the dead, mostly ours. Burton of Euroa deserved the highest award for his gallant action for three times filling a breach in the parapet till they killed him. Dunstan and Oates, Ellis, Caddy, Webb, Silver, Keating also did magnificent work. Ellis was killed whilst throwing back enemy bombs before they exploded… . We were glad to get out … I cannot write of details but many of our brave boys were blown to pieces. As fast as we put men in to fill the breaches they were out. I kept sending for reinforcements and bombs, all our bomb throwers were killed and so were those that volunteered to fill their places. To cut a long story short, we beat the enemy. Three times he attacked. Once he nearly got us. We yelled and yelled and the black devils turned and we knocked ’em over like rabbits. I was wounded three times but got my injuries attended to and kept going. I am suffering a bit now from reaction. The doc has fixed my head, and arm up. My left eye is painful but otherwise I am fit … I reckon I’ll be A1 again in a week for my injuries are slight. By jove it was some scrap and a lot more of our good old 7th are gone. The Brigadier came to see me this morning, congratulating me, etc. My haversacks are shattered; the iron rations inside one of them are smashed to pieces. Anyway the CO is very pleased with me and so is the Brigadier so I feel happy as Larry.
Tubb had replaced Symons in command of the Goldenstedt’s barricade when the latter was ordered to retake the lost posts in Jacob’s Trench. He had ten men with him, two of whom, Corporals Webb and Wright, were given the task of smothering or throwing back any enemy bombs while the remainder manned the parapet. According to Charles Bean, the Australian Official Historian:
A few of the enemy, shouting ‘Allah’, had in the first rush scrambled into the Australian trench, but had been shot or bayoneted. Tubb and his men now fired at them over the parapet, shooting all who came up Goldenstedt’s Trench or who attempted to creep over the open. Tubb, using his revolver, exposed himself recklessly over the parapet, and his example caused his men to do the same. ‘Good boy!’ he shouted, slapping the back of one of them who by kneeling on the parapet had shot a sheltering Turk. As the same man said later: ‘With him up there you couldn’t think of getting your head down.’
But one by one the men who were catching bombs were mutilated. Wright clutched at one which burst in his face and killed him. Webb, an orphan from Essendon, continued to catch them, but presently both his hands were blown away, and, after walking out of the Pine, he died at Brown’s Dip. At one moment several bombs burst simultaneously in Tubb’s recess. Four men in it were killed or wounded; a fifth was blown down and his rifle shattered. Tubb, bleeding from bomb-wounds in arm and scalp, continued to fight, supported in the end only by a Ballarat recruit, Corporal Dunstan, and a pers
onal friend of his own, Corporal Burton, of Euroa. At this stage there occurred at the barricade a violent explosion which threw back the defenders and tumbled down the sandbags. It was conjectured that the Turks had fired an explosive charge with the object of destroying the barrier. Tubb, however, drove them off, and Dunstan and Burton were helping to rebuild the barrier when a bomb fell between them, killing Burton and temporarily blinding his comrade. Tubb obtained further men from the next post, Tubb’s Corner; but the enemy’s attack weakened, the Turks continuing to bomb and fire rifles into the air, but never again attempting to rush the barricade.
Like Symons’ defence of the same sector, Tubb’s stand came at a critical moment and certainly prevented a Turkish breakthrough at this point. In a letter to the sister of Cpl. F. Wright, who was killed alongside Tubb, Col. Elliott cited the gallantry shown by Tubb, Dunstan, Burton, Webb and Wright. He concluded:
I recommended all these boys for the VC. Tubb, Dunstan and Burton got VCs, Webb the Distinguished Service Medal [sic]. No doubt, had your brother lived, he would have got the DCM if not the VC. There are so many brave deeds that it is almost impossible to receive recognition for them.
The London Gazette of 15 October carried the citations for the three VCs. Tubb’s read:
For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty at Lone Pine trenches, in the Gallipoli Peninsula, on 9 August 1915. In the early morning the enemy made a determined counter-attack on the centre of the newly captured trench held by Lieutenant [sic] Tubb. They advanced up a sap and blew in a sandbag barricade, leaving only one foot of it standing, but Lieutenant Tubb led his men back, repulsed the enemy, and rebuilt the barricade. Supported by strong bombing parties the enemy succeeded in twice blowing in the barricades, but on each occasion Lieutenant Tubb, although wounded in the head and arm, held his ground with the greatest coolness and rebuilt it, and finally succeeded in maintaining his position under very heavy bomb fire.
The joint citation for Burton and Dunstan stated:
For most conspicuous bravery at Lone Pine trenches, in the Gallipoli Peninsula, on August 9th, 1915. In the early morning the enemy made a determined counter-attack on the centre of the newly captured trench held by Lieutenant Tubb, Corporals Burton and Dunstan, and a few men. They advanced up a sap and blew in a sandbag barricade, leaving only one foot standing, but Lieutenant Tubb, with the two corporals, repulsed the enemy and rebuilt the barricade, although Lieutenant Tubb was wounded in the head and arm and Corporal Burton was killed by a bomb while most gallantly building up the parapet under a hail of bombs.
As the storm broke around Tubb’s barricade, the northern sector at Sasse’s Sap, a key artery leading into the heart of the Australian-held portion of Lone Pine, became the focus of renewed Turkish pressure. A bombing attack against the sap which formed the junction between the 3rd and 4th Australian Battalions began shortly after 4.00 a.m. as part of the Turks’ general assault. It was preceded by intense machine-gun and rifle fire which ripped through the sandbag barriers and shattered the improvised periscopes serving as an early warning system.
While every man who could be spared was attempting to replace the wrecked barricades, the Turks succeeded in bombing their way into Sasse’s Sap. A bold counter-attack swiftly sealed the breach. But the relief was only temporary. A second powerful thrust swept over the 41⁄2-ft tall barricade and Turkish infantry began pouring unchecked along Sasse’s Sap towards the centre of Lone Pine on a line leading directly to the 1st Australian Brigade’s advanced headquarters together with that of the battle-weary 3rd Battalion.
The battalion’s adjutant, Capt. Owen Howell-Price, was the first to detect the threat to the sector’s main command post. As the first streaks of dawn lit the grey sky, he pushed a periscope over the sandbag parapet in headquarters trench and was shocked to see Turks advancing along the nearby Sasse’s Sap. Leaning over the parapet, he emptied his revolver into them while his batman, Pte. P.H. Ward, opened fire with his rifle. Turning to the men closest to him, Howell-Price ordered a party to climb out and strike at the Turks in the flank while also preventing any advance across the open. Six men, Lt. E.W.G. Wren, Sgt. W. Adams, Pte. J. Hamilton, Pte. T. Jenkin, Pte. V.B. Perkins and Pte. Ward, scrambled out on their dangerous mission as Howell-Price launched his own counter-attack. Accompanied by Brig. Gen. Nevill Smyth, who had won a VC fighting the Dervishes in Kitchener’s reconquest of the Sudan, Maj. D. McConaghy, senior surviving officer of the 3rd Battalion, and a member of the Brigade Staff, Howell-Price rushed to the entrance of Sasse’s Sap. They arrived just in time. The Turks were 15 yds away, advancing three-deep, in column formation. In a remarkable confrontation, resembling a Hollywood-style Wild West shoot-out, Howell-Price and his distinguished band fired into the leading ranks. Howell-Price accounted for at least three while one Turk narrowly missed him. Taken by surprise, the Turks were thrown into total confusion by the fire from Lt. Wren’s party. A well-aimed shot by Pte. Ward killed a Turkish bomber whose missile exploded among his own men. A similar fate befell those Turks who attempted to bomb the 4th Battalion positions from Sasse’s Sap.
Most prominent among the handful of Australian sharp-shooters lying out in the open was a 19 year old from Penshurst, New South Wales, whose courage had already been noted during the Lone Pine fighting. John Hamilton had gone over the top with the 3rd Battalion on the first day, and during the bitter fighting which followed he played a key role in the bombing duels which became such a deadly feature of the battle. As well as hurling improvised jam-tin bombs at the Turks, Hamilton, like Keysor of the 1st Battalion, picked up enemy bombs and threw them back before they exploded. One of his fellow bombers, Sgt. C.O. Clark, explained:
It was soon perceived that a couple of seconds elapsed between the landing of the cricket ball bombs and the explosion. So the policy of returning the bombs was adopted with most satisfactory results, although the practice occasionally led to casualties in our own ranks.
The extraordinary spirit of the Australian bombers was revealed by Lt. A.F. Burrett:
Two of my bombers – Norton and Hamilton – the latter won his VC there – were up on the parapet throwing bombs as fast as they could light them. One burst prematurely in Norton’s hands, and blew both of them to fragments. We sent him back to the dressing station. Next morning a doctor said to me: ‘Good God! It’s wonderful. That man Norton is the gamest thing that ever breathed. After I had finished fixing him up for the beach he said “Goodbye Doc, old sport. Sorry I can’t shake hands.”’
Having survived innumerable bomb fights which maimed and killed so many of his comrades, Hamilton proved himself equally adept with a rifle. From an exposed position on top of the parapet, he sniped the Turks as they attempted to bomb the Australians from Sasse’s Sap. Alone of the six who had ventured into the open under Howell-Price’s orders, Hamilton held his position. Protected by a few sandbags, he lay out on the parapet observing Turkish movements and shouting back instructions telling his comrades where to direct their bombs. For six hours he continued to target the Turks as well as sniping anything that moved along the sap.
By 10.00 a.m. the danger had passed sufficiently to allow Hamilton to slip back into the 3rd Battalion’s headquarters trench. Shortly afterwards his unit was relieved by the 1st Battalion. In three days’ close-quarter fighting, the 3rd had been reduced to a shadow of its old self. Of the 883 men at the time of the assault, less than 300 marched out.
When so many had performed feats of daring and acts of courage were commonplace, it was perhaps an invidious task to single out individuals for honours. Even so, the awards to members of the 3rd Battalion were miserly in the extreme. Howell-Price’s gallantry and initiative was recognised by the award of a Military Cross and his batman, Pte. Ward, received a Distinguished Conduct Medal. The consistent valour of John Hamilton could not, however, be ignored. Throughout the defence he had shown scant regard for his own safety, and his repeated acts of bravery had materially affected the outcome of the fighting in his se
ctor. On 15 October 1915 the London Gazette announced the award of the Victoria Cross to No. 943, Pte. John Hamilton. Inexplicably, given the number of witnesses, the citation ignored his bombing exploits. It stated:
For most conspicuous bravery on the 9th August, 1915, in the Gallipoli Peninsula. During a heavy bombing attack by the enemy on the newly captured position at Lone Pine, Private Hamilton, with utter disregard of personal safety, exposed himself under heavy fire on the parados, in order to secure a better fire position against the enemy’s bomb-throwers. His coolness and daring example had an immediate effect. The defence was encouraged, and the enemy driven off with heavy loss.
The arrival of the 1st Battalion for its third and final tour on the morning of 9 August marked the return to Lone Pine of one of Anzac’s most legendary and popular characters. Alfred Shout, a captain of eleven days and a veteran of the Boer War, had proved himself one of the most resourceful junior leaders in the 1st Australian Brigade, where his name was already a byword for courage. In the thick of the fighting since the landing, he had been twice wounded and twice honoured with a Military Cross, the first to a member of the 1st Battalion, and a mention in dispatches. Universally admired, he combined daring with a highly developed tactical awareness. According to one of his men, ‘He never risked his life for no purpose, but just to see him walking calmly along the trenches in the thick of an attack, or stalking through the undergrowth as though there were no such things as bullets, was enough to give a man a good heart for fighting’.
It was an inspiring brand of leadership which affected all who came in contact with him. Charles Bean, the Official Australian War Historian who was at Anzac as a war correspondent, wrote: ‘Since the day of his arrival he had been the heart and soul of this section of the firing line, and his invincible buoyancy and cheerfulness had been a great help to the men.’
VCs of the First World War Gallipoli Page 21