MEDICAL MEN'S TRIALS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2543, 18 August 1915, Page 6

MEDICAL MEN'S TRIALS

J AT THE DARDANELLES DOCTOR'S INTERESTING LETTER. Tlie following is the text of a letter received by the editor of the "Now Zealand Medical Guide" (Dr. Elliott) from a member of the Neir Zealand Medical Corps at the front:— "Gallipoli, 18th June, 1915. "I am afraid I have not let you know hoiv tilings were goin" so often as I might, but better late tian never. To sum up the -whole thing, for the last two months we have had a hell of a time. I cannot give you full details, but owing to the nature of the country here (very like tlie country behind Paekakariki) we have had to be within half a mile of the firing line the whole time, and for the last two months we have done all. our work under continuous fire. Rifle bullets and machineguns whistlo over us, shrapnel and lyddite from field guns have played on us the whole time, and occasionally 10-inc and 12-inch melinito shells from tli forts in the Dardanelles . burst aroun us. Our operating tent is a mos amusing sight; it is more liko a siev than a tent, and yesterday I had m sterilising orderly knocked over by bullet while at work. I have mad dug-outs for the patients that are fail ly secure—only one of them has bee killed, though several havo been wounc ed. I have lost five killecl and 1 wounded of my own men. The firs day of the landing nere all the bearer wore sent aslioro under O'Neill, an the tent divisions were on the trans ports to 1 attend to the wounded, wh were brought off in barges. The mei did wonderfully, and were the talk o the beach. We had all tho woundei who could be got at evacuated to thi ships by midnight the first day. O'Neill I am glad to see, got the D.S.O. will never forget the beach when arrived on it—dead men lying every where in heaps, just as they hail fallen The shrapnel and lire were terrific, an< it is marvellous how our men hung o] at all. I am afraid the casualty lis will be a big shock iu New Zealand. "Wo are now acting as a clearinj station on the beach, where we do al necessary operations. All carriage • o wounded is by hand, and it is ver; hard work for the bearers. Wo man aged to capture a dozen little donkey; from the Turks, and most leg wound, como down riding the donkeys. ' The; often ride right on alongside theoper atiug table. Wo have advanced dress ing stations along each flank, but il is usually impossible to bring tin wounded in till dark, as the county is full of Turkish snipers. I recommended one of the bearers for the D.U.M., and ho got it for bringing n mart in from in front of tho trenches. I have been very lucky myself, and though I have been hit twice—once by shrapnel and once by the fuse of a sheil —I have only been bruised. I had men killed all round here, and it is very curious the way they spin round and round before they fall, just liko rabbits. "Well, as I write this—which, I fear, is rather disconnected, being interrupted by the crack of bursting shrapnel and the roar of our own guns—l am in a dug-out looking out over tho Aegean Sea. It is caj.n as a lake and very blue. . : . Tho beach is a wild confusion of swearing menj "bucking mules, and falling biscuit boxes. Pinnaces from the warships (wliioh are in hiding somewhere) bustle round bringing in barge 3of supplies and taking off wounded to tho hospital ship in tho oiling. All water has to be brought ashore and carried up the hills. Since we have been here we have seen all varieties of warfare concentrated on a very small area. We have had greater naval bombardments than tho worn has ever seen; we have seen a big battleship sunk beforo our eyes; we have seen an enemy submarine sunk; we have seen aeroplane® (both enemy and our own) drop bombs and fight in the air, a German one being brought down smash. We have fought with shell, shrapnei of all sizes, rifles, machine-guns, howitzers, hand grenades, saps, and mines. We havo spriing mines under tho Turksj and have had their mines sprung under us—and all in au area of a few square miles. Well, the mail is just closing, so I will close this."