GALLIPOLI TO-DAY.
IMMENSE STRENGTH OF- > TURKISH DEFENCES. LONDON, January 9. The Special Commissioner in the Mediterranean for the Sydney '"Sun's" cable service (Mr Peacock), in his report on Gallipoli, says:— Apart from the wreckage of the old Anzac field, the most striking thing here is the immense strength of the Turkish defences. Those of Gaba Tepe are. quite a study. Well-shelterecl from the sea is a system of underground trenches, together with open communication Jines and dug-outs. Thoi'e are also comfortable officers' quarters, in which some of the furniture remains. One trench, 12ft wide and 20ft deep, is roofed close with heavy railway rails, and it is covered with several feet of - earth. The whole place is honeycombed, the Turks evidently having been scared of another landing. We found Beachy Bill's gunpits in an olive-grove nearer Anzac, and the snipers' .posts and the machine-gun positions. Evidently the grove was a big rest centre, for many communication trenches lead thither with tclographs. A low knoll between Gaba Tepe and Wilson's Point is deeply intrenched, evidently having been used as snipers' posts for enfilading the Anzacs. One wonders how men lived for a single day, in view of the general enfilading fire. We had a large Gorman artillery map, on which' everything was accurately marked. From this point we could see clearly everything that had been done at Brighton Beiich, Anzac Cove, Poppy Valley, and Hell Spit. There are many Turkish graves here, from, which bones are protruding. We saw at Poppy Valley many apricot troes and date palms which had sprung from the stoneß left by the Australians. The great Turkish monument near the Sphinx, surrounded with shell cases, records how the Turks drove the English into the sea. We visited Koja Chemen Tepe and Hill 971. the scene of the August battles. It is now a maze of defences, trenches, and underground chambers. There are many skeletons exposed to view in places where floods hnve washed the earth off at the bend. The large Turkish reserve and the camps in sheltered places in the woods, well-; planned and protected, showed the immense size of the defensive armies J which the Turks had gathered here, i
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Press, Volume LV, Issue 16427, 22 January 1919, Page 4
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365GALLIPOLI TO-DAY. Press, Volume LV, Issue 16427, 22 January 1919, Page 4
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