when they stood in the sea-water that was covering the decks of those
torpedoed troop-ships. It was now sung by every Australian voice, and
as those crowded troop-ships moved out from Lemnos they truly carried
"Australia," eager, untried Australia--where?

The next day showed to the world that "Australia would always be
_there_!" where the fight raged thickest. Her sons might sometimes
penetrate the enemy's territory too far, but hereafter, and till the
war's end, they would always be in the front line, storming with the
foremost for freedom and democracy.

The landing could not possibly be a surprise to the Turks; the British
and French warships had advertised our coming by a preliminary
bombardment weeks previously--the Greeks knew all about our
concentration in their waters--and wasn't the Queen of Greece sister to
the Kaiser?

There were only about two places where we could possibly land, and the
Turks were not merely warned of our intentions, but they were warned in
plenty of time for them to prepare for us a warm reception. The
schooling and method of the Germans had united with the ingenuity of
the Turks to make those beaches the unhealthiest spots on the globe.
The Germans plainly believed that a landing was impossible.

Think of those beaches, with land and sea mines, densely strewn with
barbed wire (even into deep water), with machine-guns arranged so that
every yard of sand and water would be swept, by direct, indirect, and
cross fire, with a hose-like stream of bullets; think of thousands of
field-pieces and howitzers ready, ranged, and set, so that they would
spray the sand and whip the sea, merely by the pulling of triggers.