13 December 1915

SUVLA - Lieutenant Owen Steele, Newfoundland Regiment, 88th Brigade, 29th Division - The plans were gradually leaking out to the officers and men. Many took an optimistic view of the challenges ahead of them.

"Nothing unusual occurred today. We continued our work as yesterday and made very satisfactory progress. It is now a certainty that we are evacuating, for stores are being shipped off all the time, also small lots of troops. It is rumoured that we are not evacuating the whole Peninsula but only that portion of the Line left of Chocolate Hill retaining the Anzac-Cape Helles portion. We are making full preparations in the Second Line, in case we have to fight a Rearguard action. And of all the Brigades in this vicinity this very responsible duty and honour has been placed upon the 88th Brigade to which we have the honour of belonging. But we are all hoping and expecting to have no difficulty in getting off without an action at all."

"

SOURCE:
O. W. Steele (edited by D. R. Facey-Crowther), "Lieutenant Owen WIlliam Steele of the Newfoundland Regiment: Diary and Letters" Montreal, McGill-Queen's University Press, 2002), p.108