THE ATTACK ON ACHI BABA

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2494, 22 June 1915, Page 5

THE ATTACK ON ACHI BABA

TERRIFIC BOMBARDMENT WHOLE LANDSCAPE VEILED IN SMOKE The following descriptive account by Router' 6 Agency of the .Allies' attack' on the Turkish position on Achi Baba and Krithia Heights, in Gallopoli, on June 4, covers tha same operations which were reported in a dispatch to the Hon. Jas. Allen, New Zealand Minister or Defence, and published in The Dominion on June 7. London, June 20. Renter's Agency supplies details of the lighting on the front at Achi Baba on Juno 4. For an hour, every British and French gun on the peninsula poured shell of various calibres upon the Turkish trenches, While the British battleships on the right and French on the left battered tie flanks. Tho whole landscape was obliterated unfler a curtain, of smoke. A tower at Krithia, which had survived the previous bombardments, toppled over, and the village was set on fire. An infantry charge began at noon. The first few trenches were easily taken. Tbo enemy, being dazed by the avalanche of shells, merely fired a few 580t.5 upward at the British soldiers who were stabbing down at them. A largo number were dead in tie trenches, victims of the shell fire. We had tho enemy fairly on the run for a time, until, our centre held the fifth trench. Armoured Motor-cars In Aotion. IVo armoured turret motor-cars of the Naval Air Service did useful work, but the roads are mainly unsuitable for this method of warfare. Using the two fairly good roads from Seddul Bahr and Cape Hclles to Krithia, which cut the enemy's trenches at right angles, light cars advanced crossing our trenches over special bridges, and ran close to tho enemy's lines. They opened machine-gun fire, but- the deep entrenchments of tlio enemy made further progress impossible, and the cars at the same time offered a good target for the enemy's guns. ■ Shells began to drop around them, but the motorists backed out of the danger zone. Tivo cars wore slightly damaged. Our centro dashed so far _ forward that it was unable to maintain all its ground, although the Naval Division fought with the utmost gallantry. The Turks reserved vigorous counterattacks until Sunday, when reserves camo up from beyond Achi Baba. Our men were very hard-pressed, and abandoned two of the conquered trenches. Thoy held the remainder of tho ground, repulsing the Turks with great loss. The storming of Achi Baba is a difficult problem. The hill presents a series of smooth slopes, terraced at intervals, and os difficult to mount as tho glacis of an old-fashioned fort. . A Turkish officer who was taken prisoner said: "Germany is our ally. Wo know our country's hours arc numbered, but we fight for hor as you would fight for yours."