War Memoir of Robert Ellwood

Turnbull: When you were on Gallipoli according to the official history, on May 25 the regiment occupied reserve gully and had five men wounded and then about mid-day HMAS Triumph was torpedoed by a German submarine.

Ellwood: She was a decoy ship I think. I think there was a German submarine floating or running around that they didn’t know anything about and to find out where she was they put this decoy ship the Triumph and I saw – heard the explosion and saw it because we were up in the hills of course looking down into it and the thing that struck me at the time was there was a lot of flotsam but I couldn’t see any heads because it was so sudden – the explosion took place and uh the boat very very soon afterwards turned up her bottom and like a big huge whale and then she just dipped her nose and dived out of sight and left all the flotsam about but I couldn’t see any personnel. Which made we realise now that it must have been a decoy see. Is it officially mentioned that it was a decoy do you know.

Turnbull: It talks about all the crew being saved

Ellwood: Well yes, it is a funny thing. We never heard about anything. But I never, I saw the thing so did the Turks they sat up in their trenches. Some of them even sitting on the parapet looking at it and we were standing up in our trenches, a thing you would never do, you’d get your head blown off, and watching it and I never saw any heads at all or any boats at all floating around picking up any survivors. and I think it was a decoy that’s what I think about it.