WITH THE ENGINEERS AT ANZAC

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2689, 8 February 1916, Page 6

WITH THE ENGINEERS AT ANZAC

■' —'' - SPLENDID WORK OF THE NEW ZEALANDERS * STIRRING INCIDENTS FACING: DEATH IN NARROW TUNNELS . (From. Mr.. Malcolm Boss, Qffiolal War Correspondent with the N.Z. Forces.) General Headquarters, Nov. 23. ■ From time to time; in various articles t .that have been written; about the fight- '• ing on the Gallipoli: Peninsula, referenco ! has been made to the assistance'that ! has, been given to the forces in the; field by the engineers.. English, Australians, arid- New Zealancfers alike - have done ; splendid. workV . .' -The Now Zealand Engineers consist of No.. 1 and 2 Field Companies, a field troop, and'a signal company. No. 1 Company landed oil. the memorable 2oth .of April, when the troops, having estabv lished a footing on the heights, of An- ' eac, had to dig in hastily. This company was sent out as soon as possible ; "to help tihe men to consolidate the positions gained—to connect rip bits, of j' : 'trenches, to make communication ; Frenches, aud to improve tihe trenches 'themeelves. This they did' on Walker's , Ridge, Pope's, Quinn's, audi Courtney's, by tho third day. Thoy did. it under " heavy,- fire, and during the first month. of the fighting that company, of 160 officers and men had no fewer than 50 casualties. - They were also engaged in ; making roads andi-traeliSj and m sinking wells.. ; Tho Field Troop came with the Mounted Infantry, on May 10, and commenced work on Russell's Top. They put the whole of that position L into a satisfactory."condition,, and exbonded it forwards by sapping. No. 2 i Company landed on June 3, and went Into Qumn's Post, which by that time had got into a very unsatisfactory state, ' it having been ibonibed and shelied by, 1. ' the Turks until ■ the position had become almost untenable. There they did magnificent work, often! being right out . in the front line without any infantry to help or protect them. Gradually they retrieved the whole of tihe front ;' tronoh, ■ and made it habitable again. _ That was a really fine piece of work, ' ' which' needed some training and skill. : .When they took on the job there was one bit of the' salient, whore it curved round—Jcnowii as "The ;Racecourse".—. ' . that could hot be occupied at all:' • Thtey continued their operations at Quinn's Post for two months. The mining operations were chiefly at Quinn's, and in time the place became a human warren. , ' ■ Tley had, of course, a lot of assistance ■ from skilled coal and gold minersbut tho general of operations and the firing of ; the charges"iwas". entirely ; an Engineers' job. The wholo.'front- was gradually proteoted hy mines, 1 and under- ■ ground warfare went on for three months continuously. ' "It is still going on tcMay—seven months from the date .of the landing! 11l all, thirty-three counter mines were the Turks not only being kept off, but, . pushed back along the whole front,' wliich, ac- ■ cording to the books, is an impossibility. Protective systems have also been put out at Pope's, Courtney's, and Rus-sell's-Top. On the latter position there" is 'a. good deal of mining and counter-. I mining. Over andl over • again I have ' wandered'-through these positions, above : ground and)'underground, and the more ; one sees of them the mors one'marvels , at the skill, the patience, the enterprise, ; and the hard' work of our. splendid sol- ; diers to whose lot this , difficult and I dangerous task has fallen. These jourheyings are somewhat dangerous,' for, though you are safe from rifle fire, you never know' when a shell or a bomb 'may come along,or when •an enemy .'- mine, may send -you 'hurtling' into,'the, air. ' In places you can hear 'the ;tapr' tapping of -the Turkish pickets on the .'. other side of a thin wall of clay, only > a few feet above or below or in .front of you. 'But it is a fascinating position, and one is drawn thither again and again. Yet, while we have done ;• ' so much to strengthen our position and to damage that of the'enemy ' by our ■ many explosions, the Turk—Excellent digger though lie is—has exploded only four mines at Quinn's, and only one of these has been effective. There havo been times when the pickets have met underground, and when, by the flicker- ; . ing light of a solitary candle, the miners have fired at one another, through a little hole, with revolvers. .The Turks with their one successful mine bagged . three of our men; but that was really before we started our system.' On occasions we have broken into the enemy's mines, "aiid have had encounters uiider- - ground , with bombs. There was one i Turk who used to come at us .again I and again. You could hear him in the* deathly silence of our_ own mine tapping away industriously like a woodpecker in a hollow tree. Eventually we got the woodpecker. His industry deserved a better fate. ' The Turks, a.< a whole, were very much afraid of our miners, and, accord-' ing to the tales of prisoners whom we I took, their me'i) could only v be'got to stay at the job by a promise that they : ' would be rewarded by being made corporals. '.One prisoner told us that he knew of twenty men killed, and several wounded \ Nerve-racking Work. Tho officer in charge of tho work as Quinn's, and who carried it out with extraordinary skill, is an' Englishman and a trained engineer—2nd .Lieut, the Hon. R-. P. Butler, who has been more than once mentioned in dispatches. The work undertaken was riot only of a nerve-racking character, but it-was also accompanied by grave dangers, not only from the inin« explosions, but also from the effects of gas. The explosive we generally employ is considered safe, while it is supposed to be especially suitablo for w.n-mining operations,'in ; tfeit its explosion does not develop ' , poisonous gases. Once, after exploding a mine, two officers and a private proceeded to examine- tho result, .when another explosion, presumably "a Turkish mine detonated by our own, took place. One officer was overcome by the fumes, and'the other was also affected by tho ; -gas. The private went to the rescue, and undoubtedly saved tho life of tho first officer,, 'for. he- managed to. drag, him',out bv his rovolver lanyard, which was- round his neck. Ho was nearly strangled by tho cord, as well as asphvxiated by the gas, but ho suhseouontlv recovered. Both officers had lost the use of their legs, as if they v;ero drunk with liquor. One job that' fell' to the New .Zealand Engineers was the making of Piers_ at Anzac. This -was . very, demoralismg work, for not only were they-in danger from dropping bullets, but thev were all the time under fire from Turkish shrapnel and high explosive shell fir". - On '' more than one occasion, whilo watching these operations, I havo seen men killed and wounded. Jhe Turkish batteries would open on tho Well, and there would have .to be a temporary cessation of work. But always the men went back to their iob, and,' needless to say, tho pier was com- - nleted in spite of the efforts of tho Turkish, or German gunners. The Engineers also did. a. .lot of work, in connection with th'e laying pipe-lines and tho .installation"-of* ghffines fpr pumping . from the' water banres up to the tanks onshore. Nearly s. mile of piping was put out along tho; heacli north and south. . ■ ■ Meanwhile the Signal Company had carried out it? lob /" U-

maintained almost constant communication through to every post, The lines j had to be put out through the scrubcovered hills and dales, and across positions that-' were constantly sniped i and often swept by heavy fire from the ! onomy's batteries and machine-guns. Time after time the wires were cut by I bullets, by. shrapnel, arid the burstmn of ordinary and high explosive shell, and time after time the men, with devoted heroism, went out and mended the breaks. On such expeditions each man took his life in his hands. I havo already told the story of how one signaller gained his V-C. for Gallantry and devotion to duty in this work—not only in doing the work itself under extreme difficulty and danger, but also in rescuing wounded under fire. But that is only. 0110 of tho many tales of devotion and heroism that might bo told. Necessarily there were a good many casualties in connection with this difficult undertaking, for the linesmen—especially in view of the superior positions held by the enemy—had to go in very exposed places, and were almost continuously under fire. Throughout the whole of these operations the sappers got\vory little rest. They were always on duty, and a great deal of their work was night work of a nerveracking kind. Some of their most trying jobs were the construction of entanglements in front of our. own trenches. That was. always night work, and naturally was responsible for a considerable number of tho casualties. All tho men, however, rose to'the occasion, and although they had not had a lengthy training, they brought a high degree of intelligence to bear upon whatever they took in hand, and were able to direct working parties even when all their officers I in the vicinity were knocked out. They could even tell the infantry officer what to do—the best manner of digging his trench, how high , his parapet should be, eto. Water In an' Arid Land. In the August advance the Field i Companies and the Field Troop were alloted. to various columns, . and tlioir chief job was to sink wells and to search for water in every possible place. Dur r ing the' first few days of the operations there was. a <water famine, and there is no doubt that, but for the splendid work they did then, backed up by the Q Department and the mule transport, the operations up the Aghyl Dere would have been in danger of breaking down. At-one stage the success of the major operation resolved itself into a question of water. These operations they carried out while the advance was going on, and during some very hot fighting; One or two of the wells were dug under heavy fire. The Turkish snipers also spotted them at their work. Only a few yards / away on one occasion I watched a 'sniper getting in some excel- . lent practice on three men who were well-diggiiig on tho fiat. One of the men ran for cover under an adjacent knoll; the others jumped into their own well'and hoisted a sheet of corrugated iron as a screen. Into this the Turkish sniper put more than one bullet. In .the first week of this fighting the brave Enginers sruffered 40 casualties. As soon as positions were taken, the Engineers went forward and helped to consolidate them, as they had done beimproving hastily-dug trenches, opening up communication trenches, and making traoks up the water-worn gullies and steep hill slopes, so that mule trains could carry up food, water, and Ammunition, and the stretcher-bearers bring down, the wounded with greater ease. . When the infantry and the mounteds finally took up their 6tand on the Apex and Rhododendron Spur, the Engineers found themselves confronted_ with a situation that it was very difficult to plan or do anything with. It was exposed from the front' and on both flanks. The front trench was only two feet doep. On the spur along the right flank there was no protection at all. The two sections had to be joined up. When the New Zealanders were on the crest of Chiuutk Bair the Engineers had started a communication trench, but that had to be •abandoned when the British company had to retire from the front position in which they had relieved tlie New Zealanders. By dint of great Ingenuity and much hard work both the apex and the spur -were made secure, and the posts are daily being improved, though the Turks right and left, and in front on the heights above, practically dominate the position. Stirring Episodes. During that first wonderful bayonetting nisn on the night of August G-7, in which the Mounted Brigade distinguished itself, the Engineers with the Maoris assisting, had to pull away the barbed iviivj entanglement; that went right across the Chailak Dere. They took with, them grappling irons, fixed them to the stakes and wires, and, under hot firo pulled the entanglements' down, so tihat our ' troops could speedily proceed on their conquering inarch up the valley. Of maiiy episodes that ■ occurred, I shall mention only two. On one occasion two of ,t.he sappers went out at night from Quinn's l'ost. and, with a gun-cotton charge, demolished a Turkish blockhouse. This action was' not only a gallant one, but it was most carefully oarriedl out with' tihe utmost precaution. They were out. for 35 minutes, groping about in the darkness. For that plucky act these men,—Hodges and Fear—were awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. The other episode is one that is probably unique in war. During the fighting in August two sappers were told off to a brigade to assist in trench work. After three weeks of splendid service, when the time came for them to go elsewhere, they received an ovation, the men loudly cheering them as they departed from the trenches. ■ Ono of the chief functions of the Engineers in. this campaign has been in setting an example to the infantry in work which the latter were able to pick up, and themselves carry on successfully after a time. Their example has been of very great valuo to the division. The result is that either brigade can now do for themselves in the advanced line things in which, at the beginning, they certainly needed an impulse to attain. That they were able so soon to do these things is undoubtedly in a largo'measure due to the initiative and the high standard of intelligence possessed 'by the colonial troops. . ..Needless to say, the Engineers received tho greatest assistance both from tho coal and tho gold miners of New Zealand and of Australia. The work which these men have done, and are still doing, must for evor' redound to tiheir credit. . Ono can wander for days in and out among the maze of saps and trenches that have been dug in the Anzac zono. They run in thousands of zig-zagging Z's and bending S's, across gully and ridge, and along the crest of .hills, where in places the edge is all too narrow. If you multiply the line of front by four you will probably get an idea of the length of digging that lias been done, There must bo well over sixteen miles of saps and trenches. It is worthy of mention that in tic New Zealand and Australian Division there is a water diviner—himself a practical enginoer—whoso services in this capacity have been of great valuo. In the various companies of the Engineers there is a. great deal of talent, some of tho men having real training as engineers, and even degrees. Amongst the sappers there are several extremely brainy and useful men. Altogether, the record of the New Zealand Engineers in this campaign is ono of which- the Dominion has every reason to bo proud. For distinguished services and gallantry they have already gained one Victoria Cross, ono D.5.0., and soven D.C.M.'s.