With Manchesters in the East

During the passage of this book through the press, the Author has been engaged overseas on active service, and has been unable to devote the necessary attention to the correction of the proofs, etc. Due allowance must therefore be made for such errors as have crept into the pages.

The Publishers have felt obliged to delete the numbers of the Territorial Battalions mentioned in the book, a fact which accounts for occasional vagueness in terminology.

CONTENTS

PAGE

PUBLISHERS' NOTE v

CHAPTER

I. EASTWARD HO! 1

II. THE SUDAN 12

III. GALLIPOLI 23

IV. THE AUGUST BATTLES AT CAPE HELLES 33

V. TRENCH WARFARE ON GALLIPOLI 45

VI. THE STRAIN 56

VII. THE LIMIT 65

VIII. LAST WORDS ON GALLIPOLI 71

IX. REVIVAL IN EGYPT 76

X. ON THE SUEZ CANAL 82

XI. SINAI 88

XII. THE TERRITORIAL IDEA 95

APPENDIX--EXTRACT FROM A LETTER FROM GENERAL WINGATE 100

INDEX 103

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The Battalion Officers on Mobilization, August 1914 Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

Lieut.-Col. H.E. Gresham 2

Arrival at Khartum, 2nd October 1914 10

General Sir F.R. Wingate, G.C.B., K.C., M.G. 14

Map of Gallipoli 24

(a) In Khartum Station } } 40 (b) In a Turkish Trench }

C Company, The British Camel Company 62

Group of Officers, Egypt, 1914 84

With Manchesters in the East

CHAPTER I

EASTWARD HO!

Our Battalion of the Manchesters was typical of the old Territorial Force, whose memory has already faded in the glory of the greater Army created during the War, but whose services in the period between the retreat from Mons and the coming into action of "Kitchener's Men" claim national gratitude.

Their earlier history hardly emerges from parochialism. Founded in 1859 and recruited mainly from the southerly suburbs of Manchester, the Battalion lived through the common vicissitudes of the English Volunteer unit. It knew the ridicule and disparagement of the hypercritical and cosmopolitan, the too easy praise of the hurried inspecting general, the enthusiasm of the camp fire, the chill of the wet afternoon on a wintry rifle range at Crowden. The South African War gave many a chance of active service, and infused more serious and systematic training in the routine of the yearly Whitsuntide camps. At that time everything depended on the Regular officer who acted as adjutant, and officers and men owed much to the inspiring energy of Captain (now Colonel) W.P.E. Newbigging, C.M.G., D.S.O., of the Manchesters, whose adjutancy (1902-1907) meant a great step in their efficiency. The letter "Q," which signifies success in all examinations required by the War Office, figured in the Army List after most of our officers' names during this vivid and strenuous phase. For the rest, the pre-War period turned mainly on the fortnightly camps and occasional Regimental exercises. Salisbury Plain, the Isle of Man, Aldershot and a few North Country areas are full of memories of manoeuvre and recreation in a peaceful age. Regimental exercises filled weekends in Cheshire or the West Riding.