They were happy because they had been tried for the first
time in the war and had not been found wanting. They had been told to
occupy the heights and hold on, and this they had done for fifteen
mortal hours, under an incessant shell fire, without the moral and
material support of a single gun ashore, and subjected the whole time to
the violent counter-attacks of a brave enemy, led by skilled leaders,
whilst his snipers, hidden in caves and thickets and amongst the dense
scrub, made a deliberate practice of picking off every officer who
endeavoured to give a word of command or lead his men forward.
No finer feat of arms has been performed during the war than this sudden
landing in the dark, the storming of the heights, and above all, the
holding on to the position thus won whilst reinforcements were being
poured from the transports. These raw Colonial troops in those desperate
hours proved themselves worthy to fight side by side with the heroes of
Mons and the Aisne, Ypres, and Neuve Chapelle.
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