The Nek
29 April 24
On 7 August 1915, the 3rd Light Horse Brigade launched a diversionary attack on Ottoman trenches in Gallipoli. The attack was a tragic failure, with more than 60% killed or wounded. This poem commemorates their sacrifice.
by W Bro Richard Herps
A narrow saddled stretch of ridge,
The Nek was like a pass or ridge.
No vegetation, scrub or trees
To shelter charging infantry.
The Turks were dug in firm and square
With multiple machine guns there,
And arcs of fire everywhere.
Light horsemen used as infantry,
No training offered needlessly.
A failure to co-ordinate,
To synchronise and ordinate.
A brief bombardment falling short,
Six hundred now without support.
Impassioned pleas to not proceed,
The order firm and so decreed;
And so they with acceptance paid
The price demanded by their raid.
They then into the trench’s walls
Did press and thrust and there install
Some artefacts of life and love
Too priceless to be souvenired
Or yet be lost or disappear:
Some photographs and wedding rings,
Bibles, books and precious things;
Dad’s pocket watch and silver chain
Returned to him to there remain;
Lockets with a loved one’s hair,
Wrapped within a goodbye prayer.
A lovely letter come from home
With thoughts of laughter and shalom.
A scribbled note filled with regret,
Enjoining her to not forget
Those songs unwritten and unsung,
And what they might with time have done.
Now are the trenches filled with men
Who anxiously await the when;
Nowhere hereabouts to hide,
This is only suicide.
Their feet upon the firestep,
Eyes to front and forward set.
All goodbyes and farewells said,
The enemy entrenched ahead.
Both hands on the weapon pressed,
Heart apounding in the breast.
Honour kept and duty owned,
Time cannot now be postponed.
Fathers and their only sons,
Forward now to take the guns.
Standing straight in lines abreast,
Leaping o’er the parapet.
Silence now gives way to cheering, Pride
and courage persevering.
All with mates and cobbers run,
Into lead-filled air and sun.
Falling, falling, everyone,
Those surviving almost none.
Underneath the wings of death,
Gone to their eternal rest.
Friendship and love remembered here,
Valour beyond the reach of fear.
Rising Sun Badge courtesy of the Australian War Memorial