Pte Archie ‘Smiler’ Williams (Lilydale), 8th Battalion: At Anzac Cove. In his diary – ‘I had another close shave here. We used to have a lot of trouble with Turkish snipers. At the point where we were, their trenches were only about 200 yards away, and early in the morning when the sun was behind them we used to snipe them through their loopholes. One morning I started to plant a few in the Turks’ loop holes and must have ‘rang a bell’ for about a dozen started to use me for a target. One shot landed just in front of my loop hole, and bent down to pick up another rifle when a bullet came right clean through the loophole into the parapet behind me, so I concluded it was time to shut up shop.
Some of the Royal Irish Rifles were sent into the trenches with us here to get into the way of trench-fighting and bring us up more to our strength, and soon after this we were reinforced by the 24th Battalion, just arrived from Australia’.