...
At 4.53 a.m. there suddenly came a very sharp burst of rifle fire from
the beach, and we knew our men were at last at grips with the enemy.
This fire lasted only for a few minutes, and then was drowned by a faint
British cheer wafted to us over the waters....
The first authentic news we received came with the return of our boats.
A steam pinnace came alongside with two recumbent forms on her deck and
a small figure, pale, but cheerful, and waving his hand astern. They
were one of our midshipmen, just sixteen years of age, shot through the
stomach, but regarding his injury more as a fitting consummation to a
glorious holiday ashore than a wound; and a chief stoker, and petty
officer, all three wounded by that first burst of musketry, which caused
many casualties in the boats just as they reached the beach.
From them we learned what had happened in those first wild moments. All
the tows had almost reached the beach, when a party of Turks, entrenched
almost on the shore, opened up a terrible fusillade from rifles and also
from a Maxim.
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