A QUIET DAY AT ANZAC

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2540, 14 August 1915, Page 6

A QUIET DAY AT ANZAC

NEW ZEALAND CORRESPONDENT AT THE BATTLE FRONT "STARTLING ANNIE" AND OTHERS [By, Malcolm Ross, Official Correspondent with the New Zealand Forces in tho Daa-danelles.] Anzac, Juno 25-26. [In two dispatches Mr.'Ross describes his voyage from the advanced base to Auzac Bay, and a "quiet day" at that historic spot.'] "Wo found ourselres on board a. 'sweeper' from the North' Sea, and we steamed out through, the long booms, heading a course-for Anzac. Ono tried to get some sleep on the hard boards of the deck,. but towards midnight the scene became too fascinating for sleep. Imbros, a long silvery grey shadow in the moonlight, lay on our left, and far away on the the lights of a hospital ship gleamed against the loom of the land at Capo Helles. The setting moon mad© a. pathway of gold along our -wake. By 1 a.m. there was land ahead on our starboard bow, and ono bright light that seemed to be beckoning us on. The land was the heights so bravely -won and held above the little cove ivhere the Australians and New Zealanders landed on the historic morning of April 25. . As we ueared it other lights could be seen on the hillside. They were the lights of densely-popu-lated Anzac, or such parts of it as were Btill awake. A' continuous desultory crackle of rifle fire camo from the heights, and a mile lip the coast to tho northward the loud guns of a destroyer boomed as she sent shell after shell inland to a Turkish' position illuminated by her searchlight. Qnite close a red oross blazing in the centre of a band of green light marked a hospital ship waiting for her full load of sick and wounded. In the darkness—'the. moon had now dipped Into the Gulf of Saros —we scrambled into a motor pinnace, and in a. Jittle while wo were on the wharf at' Anzac, with the spoilt bullets from the .Turkish snipers singing over our heads and falling with a 'phut' into the water. A cloaked .'figure with a lantern in his hand singled us out and conducted us to little crannies in the midst of huge piles of stores. The night was warm, and there was an overpowering odour of cheese and tarpaulin, so two of us shifted to ail 'office' that was a gap in a huge pile of boxes. One dossed down on the earthen floor; the other stretched' himself on tho office table, and we . fell asleep with the crackle of rifle fire and the booming of guns in our oars. • , "The dawn came at 4.30, and tho walls of tho office resolved themselves into boxes of deal all stencilled "Biscuits 401bs.' On tho tented-roof dark patehes resolved themselves into constellations of flies. .AH about us were great piles of provisions and tho hundred and one necessities of an Army Corps. Behind were'the steep hillsides of Anzac burrowed and scarred and trenched beyond recognition. Looking up at the heights,- one wondered how they had ever' been stormed, <ind wondered, still more how they had ever been held in the face of superior numbers well entrenched. On the other hand, across the water the outlines of Imbros and of Samothraco grew clear in tho growing ■ light. ' 'Water-carts, pontoons, the keel of a sunken, boat, the tops of the masts and funnel of a small wrecked steamer, and the 'wharf erected bjj the Australian and Now Zealand' Engineers, also caught the eyo. The little waves of the Sea of Saros lapped tho sands, and in the water- at our ieet lay tho : distending body of a dead mule. Such was our introduction to Anzac Beach. , "Startling Annifl." "We sat'on some, saoks ■of produce making a breakfast of biscuit and jam. Tho rifle fire, of the night had died do mi, and we gazed contentedly at a beautiful- and peaceful scene. An officer came up and greeted the aiewcomers. 'It would be a lovely place for a week-end visit,' he said, adding, as if in after thought, 'if there were no war.' On tlie whole it looked as if our first day at- Anzac were going to bo a quiet one. ' Tho men, and .olficors too, wore bathing contenteiJly in the clear sea.' ; But presently there was a peculiar singing noise in the air'just over our heads, a foiid explosion and a. burst of bullets and broken shell in the water. This they told us was 'Startling Annie,' a Turkish gun in a hidden position away on our left, beginning' her daily morning hate. But few people seemed to tako any notice of her. Some of the men did not . trouble, to come, out of the water. They went -on bathing. A. non>-com, passing pointed to a hole in tho sack, on which I was sitting! "She sent one' in there yesterday," he said. Latter he Showed us a bit of the broken shell. To our mind the beach did not seem to be a healthy spot, but the almost diabolical nonchalonce of both officers and men made us stifle whatever feelings of fear we personally may have harboured. "Later 1 in the day we were shelled from tho other side with a different class of gun, which exploded shrapnel along the beacli and in the water, the shell itself bursting into many pieces. One exploded in front of General Godley's headquarters. That gun cleared the wharf, and sent the ■ majority of tho men to safts positions. I saw a big' chunk of one shell land within two yards of a man who waa digging; but he. went on digging, and another man ran to get the fragment as a curiosity. A piece of another shell came whizzing within a few yards of whore I was writing, and a man who picked it up burnt his fingers with it. No place seemed safe, except one's 'dugout,' and evon that was not safe. A few days previously a shell had plumped right into Colonel Braithwaite's dug-out, and Major Pinwill's dug-out had also been hit. _ "In the afternoon 'Startling Annie' came at us again. She had the range, and was making good practice. One shell landed amongst a group of men, killing two and wounding several others. A few minutes afterwards the men were about as usual, and another bathing party was in for a swim. In tho hospital, Which is really, a clearing station, Colonel Begg was having a very lively time. Some of his men have been killed, others wounded. Once a shell burst right in the tent while the doctors were operating. The patient, the operator, and the attendants were all covered in dust, but strangely enough no one was hit. The operating tent has simply been riddled with bullets, but recently the hospital people have made their positionmore secure by digging further into the hill. The Turks are not, of course,- wilfully shelling this hospital, as we call it; they are simply shelling our position, and we are in such a confined space that they cannot help occasionally hitting the hospital. The hospital ship, which lies just ofE .'Jiore, is easily withing their range, and can be _ seen from their observation post, but it is never shelled, though a shot aimed at our supply ships may sometimes go near it. Turks Fair Fighters. "Our fellows all regard the Turks as yery fair fighters, and, as a matter of fact-, the much-talked-aboiit . atrocities have been very fow and far between. I have refrained hitherto from writing anything in detail on this subject until I could make personal and definite inquiries, and, so far, though I heard innumerable stories about such deeds, I have been able to got confirmatory evidence of only two. New Zcalandors luny gram

wild rumours that may reach them about Turkish atrocities. We have also evidence that the Turkish doctors are doing all tliey ca.n for our wounded prisoners. They have several of our wounded and several prisoners at Constantinople. "That same evening the Turks treated us to a littles more shrapnol, and one shell burst right in front of us, amongst the bathers, one man getting a bullet through the throat. He was able to walk out of the water, and tho stretcherbearers carried him to tho dressingstation. Thus ended my first day at the war. It was what thov called 'a rather quiet day at Anzac.' '