Second Battle of Krithia (Cape Helles)

“On the morning of the 8th, orders were issued for the New Zealand Brigade to pass through the British Regulars, and advance towards the village.”

Bungled staff work somewhere, meant that at dawn the New Zealanders in arrears with several hundred yards of open ground which they had to cross under fire. “This distance was covered by platoon rushes. Here Lieut. Steadman was killed, and several casualties occurred.” They were in position for the attack.

“The Colonel came along: "Well, boys, the orders are to go ahead, and we have got to carry them out." The Regulars were not encouraging. "What! You are going to cross the Daisy Patch—God help you!”

“Not a man of the first wave faltered, most of them went down, but a few crossed the little field, and in the scrub beyond formed up some sort of a firing-line. The second wave came on, and were shot down to the last man. A third wave tried to cross, but it seemed as though all the Turkish fire was converging on them, and the pleasant field of daisies was full of agony. Yet men got across somehow …”

Some three hundred yards had been won but the crest was still some four hundred yards away. Another attack was ordered for 5pm.

“Death fell every-where—death and bloody wounds! The line went on for a hundred yards, then another hundred, little knots of desperate men crawled further. … some thirty others reached a place just below the crest.”

“The survivors scraped out little hollows, and lay still until night-fall. At nine o'clock an unauthorised order was passed along, and the exhausted remnant fell back on the line which had been won by the first charge in the morning.” [Excerpts From: O. E. Burton. “The Auckland Regiment.”]