The First Day

• Clancy Baker, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2020

The first day
Date 25/4/1915 Tully Brown
It was a cold dark morning, we were about to land on the shores of a country I had never heard of; on a beach that would soon be a battleground for young blokes and their mates. Lots had fallen before we even reached the beach. I looked around in fear and I saw about 15 other boats around us. We were only in tinny’s but they
sure could hold a lot of men.

Then out of the blue we could see the beach, there were great big mountains and hills surrounding the beach. I looked around at all the boats and every third man was already dead, the snipers had the high ground before we even hit the shore. Then the whistle blew, all men were told to get out of the boats and run the last twenty metres to the shore. By the time I got to the shore there were only four left alive from my boat. We ran to the shore as fast as we could. When I reached the shore the bay was just red water with bodies floating everywhere.

Then we climbed the mountian well that that was the easy part once we got up there the Anzacs only had one battalion left. Within a couple of minutes it was daylight we started making our way up the mountains picking off all the snipers I had not killed a Turk yet; but that all changed when I caught something in the side of my eye it was a russell in the leaves and the next minute I had a barrel looking right down my face so I moved so fast the bullet missed me. Luckily I had a bayonnet fixed on the end of my rifle so I did the only thing I could think of.

I stabbed the turk, then I realised he was only a kid. I looked at his dog tag and it said he was only 16. I just remembered what the Lance Corperall said: ‘kill them before they kill you.’ So I kept on walking with my battalion. That kid was the same age as me probably had a girlfriend like me and a family like me. The Captain said ‘put stuff like that behind you and remember that they’re the bad guys.’ By the end of the first day we had captured the Gallipoli Pennisular and set up camp. What a disaster! I’ll probably write again tomorrow if i get time too.