It is impossible to say exactly how many of the enemy were holding this particular portion of the coast; perhaps 500 to 1,000. They retired for an hour... Meantime, the main body had already begun to arrive on the beach... One boat, just as it landed, had the bottom blown out without a single man in it being hurt. Our men landed in very heavy kits and an accident in the boats might have been serious. It is believed that some men were drowned... 

By the time the first part of the main body was forming up on the beach... a fierce attack began, which lasted all day.... The only possibility was to hold on in the scrub... and dig in after dark... The toll has been really heavy... There were others, whom I will mentoin later on when the casualties have reached Australia, who died fighting like tigers; some who fully knew they would die. 

Source: Charles Bean. 17 May 1915. 'The First Report,' Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, No. 39. Department of Veteran Affairs. Anzac Portal. URL: http://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/history/conflicts/gallipoli-and-anzacs/events/battle-landing/war-correspondent-charles-bean. 

I saw one officer in charge of a machine gun who one knew for certain must be killed if the fight lasted. His men were crouching under cover of a depression a few inches deep on the brow of the hill. He himself was sitting calmly on top of the rise searching for targets... 

There was a moment's delay in gathering up rifles, and then over the hill they went. Dusk was falling and the enemy's battery happened at that moment to switch off.... 

The officer in question was there at his post next morning, when it became necessary to send a man down the hill on some business. Before the man had gone 20 yards, he was wounded. The officer walked down the hill at once to pick him up. Within a couple of seconds, the Turks had a machine gun trained on him and he fell, riddled with bullets. 

Source: Charles Bean. 17 May 1915. 'The First Report,' Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, No. 39. Department of Veteran Affairs. Anzac Portal. URL: http://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/history/conflicts/gallipoli-and-anzacs/events/battle-landing/war-correspondent-charles-bean. 

As usual, the medical arrangements were awful, and terribly mismanaged. There seemed to be no one in charge, in supreme authority, to direct the stream of the wounded... to any particular ship. Numbers were taken on board the warships, and there tended by the ship's surgeon, but of course the accommodation here again was limited.... 

But of course, many unfortunate wounded perished, who would have otherwise been saved... Any boats that did come off reported that things were going badly, and that we had enormous casualties, and the beaches were piled up with the wounded who could not be moved, and that the fire on the beaches from the enemy's shells and snipers was extremely heavy. 

Source: Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett, 25 April 1915. Diary. Department of Veteran Affairs. Anzac Portal. URL:  http://www.anzacportal.dva.gov.au/history/conflicts/gallipoli-and-anzacs/events/battle-landing/war-correspondent-ellis-ashmead-2. 

Frank and I were on the extreme left... There was a clear space of 100 yards to cross without a patch of cover. I can't realise how I got across it. I seemed to be in a sort of trance; the rifle and machine gun fire was hellish. 

I remember dropping down when we reached the trenches, looked around and saw Frank and three more men alongside me... I yelled out to the other four chaps: "This is suicide, boys. I'm going to make a jump for it!"

I thought they said, 'Alright, we'll follow.' I sprang to my feet in one jump.  

Source: Cecil McAnulty, 12 August 1915. Diary. Department of Veteran Affairs. Anzac Portal. URL:  https://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/speeches/august-offensive-last-gasp

Right beside me within a space of fifteen feet, I can count fourteen of our boys stone dead. Ah! It is a piteous sight. Men and boys who yesterday were full of joy and life, now lying there, cold — cold — dead — their eyes glassy, their faces sallow and covered with dust... Somebody's son — now merely a thing. 

Source: Sergeant Cyril Lawrence, 7 August 1915. Diary. Department of Veteran Affairs. Anzac Portal. URL:  http://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/history/conflicts/gallipoli-and-anzacs/events/digging-fighting-back/august-offensive-and-battle-lone. 

The moans of our own poor fellows and also the Turks as we tramped on their wounded bodies was awful...

The wounded bodies of both our Turks and our own... were piled up three to four deep... The bombs simply poured in, but as fast as our men went down, another would take his place.

We had not time to think of our wounded... Their pleas for mercy were not heeded... Some poor fellows lay for 30 hours waiting for help, and many died still waiting. 

Source: Private John Gammage, 12 August 1915. Diary. Department of Veteran Affairs. Anzac Portal. URL:  https://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/speeches/august-offensive-last-gasp. 

We landed on Gallipoli in what we were wearing and continued to wear it day and night until the socks were the first garments to become unwearable, and they were cast out and we went barefoot in our boots...

We got only sufficient fresh water, in fact, on some days barely enough to drink, so washing garments was out of the question, and so the only alternative was to get down to the beach and wash our garments and ourselves in the brine, which as far as our garments was concerned made little difference... 

There were parasites which caused an abominable itch to whichever party of the skin where they operated.  They lived and bred mainly in the seams of the inner garments and as there was no hot water or chemicals available for their control or destruction, the field was open for them to multiply and flourish. 

The best control means available was to wear the clothing inside out and then there were no seams next ot the skin for the pest to hide away in and breed. This I did with my flannel shirt, but I simply could not come at wearing my trousers inside out, even though many of the other men did. It simply looked too awful. 

Source: Sergeant Frank Boyes,  1914. Letter. Source 20 in 'Chapter 8.11: The Gallipoli campaign,' Oxford HASS 9. Oxford University Press: p. 313. 

As I write, dead quite reigns on the Peninsula; literally dead quiet. Not a shot from gun or rifle and the enemy are out in swarms over the plain! But they carry no arms; only stretchers and red crescent flags, for they are bearing away their wounded and are burying their piles of dead. It is by my order that the Turks are being left a free hand to carry out this pious duty.

The stretcher bearers carry their burders over a carpet of flowers. Life is here around us in its most exquisite forms. Those flowers! Poppies, cornflowers, lilies, tulips, whose colours are those of the rainbow. 

Source: Sir Ian Hamilton, 1920. '2nd May 1915,' Gallipoli Diary, Volume 1. George H. Doran Company: New York. 

Well, one day we heard definitely that the place was to be evacuated, and all became sore, blue, and depressed. Personally, for a couple of days, I walked about or sat and played patience and couldn't be bothered taking cover, hoping I would get shot. 

It sounds foolish now, but at the time, my mental condition was not quite normal I'm afraid... The suspense and strain on the last few days was terrible. Every minute you expected the Turk to drop to it that we were evacuating (and not landing more troops as he evidently thought) and plaster the beach with shells and the more you discussed it, the worst it looked... 

Then, one night, we got orders to leave. It was a simple process and consisted of turning out the lamp and walking out with a few things in a pack and my blanket and leaving everything else...

[We] marched to the wharf with the shells screaming over us all the time and got there safely. After a short wait, we embarked on a barge, but for some reason, waited an hour and a half at the wharf getting stone cold, and watching the shells burst over the water just where we had to go. This sort of things was not exactly soothing to the nerves...

At last, we got word to move, and strange to say, the shells stopped and we heard no more bullets while going to the ship and got safely on board. I found an empty seat and went to sleep at once. 

Source: Captain Eric Mortley Fisher, 22 November 1916. Letter.  Julia Horne, 21 December 2015. 'In their own words: Letters from ANZACS during the Gallipoli evacuation,' The Conversation. URL: https://theconversation.com/in-their-own-words-letters-from-anzacs-during-the-gallipoli-evacuation-52076. 

I understand i shall be one of the last to withdraw. I do, honestly speaking, sincerely hope so, as I wish to see the last of the affair. Let us hope we shall be successful. Many brave lives have already been sacrificed in this blunder. 

It is bitter to leave so many of our dead heroes in their lonely graves in this foreign soil. But necessity is imperative. We can do no good by staying here...

A feeling of great disappointment and depression has seized me because of this evacuation. It is one of the 'downs' of the war and we must accept it. 

Source: Captain Francis Coen, 16-19 December 1914. Letter. Julia Horne,  21 December 2015. 'In their own words: Letters from ANZACS during the Gallipoli evacuation,' The Conversation. URL: https://theconversation.com/in-their-own-words-letters-from-anzacs-during-the-gallipoli-evacuation-52076.