SUVLA - Captain Oskar Teichman, RAMC, Attached Worcestershire Yeomanry, 2nd Mounted Division - Gallipoli had been without rain since May, until now, and the hot and humid nights were gradually becoming cooler.

Teichman described the day:

"During the morning one of our wells ran dry and we were limited to one water-bottle a day each and a little extra water per ten men for making tea. One was afraid of eating one's fill of bully beef, as it caused such a thirst. After lunch I obtained permission from the General for myself and orderly to walk over to Suvla " A " Beach, in order to fetch some warm clothes, as the nights were now cold. It was a distance of about 4 miles each way, by the route across the Salt Lake. There was a certain amount of risk, but that was certainly not as great as that of our usual position on the hill. Although parties were always shelled when crossing the open, I knew, from watching on previous days, that the Turks considered it a waste to shell single men. The only danger was from spares coming over from the trenches x miles to the east, but these we also had on our hill. We passed the position formerly held by the 32nd Field Ambulance, whose dugouts had been completely flattened out, and then followed the track over the lake, which was punctuated by dead mules. It had been found impossible to bury these animals, as the clay forming the bed of the lake was very hard and any party of men digging would have been immediately shelled. A tremendous thunderstorm suddenly came on, which made our progress across the lake very slow, as the dry clay became wet and slippery. On reaching our former camp we found the Quartermaster and three other officers whom we had left at Lemnos as a first reserve ; they had just arrived on a destroyer, so I promised to conduct them to Chocolate Hill. After my servant had collected a few things and we had had a good bathe, we commenced the return journey. Walking one behind the other, at an interval of two hundred yards. Chocolate Hill was reached without any incident. In the evening an order was read out that we were to stand to arms every morning at 4.30 a.m., as that was apparently the usual time for a Turkish counter-attack."

SOURCE:
Captain O. Teichman, "The Diary of a Yeomanry M.O. Egypt, Gallipoli, Palestine and Italy" (T. Fisher Unwin Ltd London, 1921), p.36.