ANZAC DAY.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2788, 5 June 1916, Page 3

ANZAC DAY.

THE AMAZING LANDING RECALLED

(By Captain C. K. W. llonn, Australian Official AV«r Corrospomii'iil, m tho ".Daily Mail.")

[On Uio anniversary of "Anzao Day" (tho Gallipoli landing) in London, Gaptain C. E. W. Bean, tho Australian ollicial win- correspondent, contributed to Hie ".Daily n peculiarly luuiiun and haunting reminiscence of tho events ol the morning of April 25. It is worth reading lor various reasons, most of which touch ourselves.] A year ago last- evening some of us leaned over tho vail of a transport in a barren niche on tho northern side ot .Loinnos, looldng over the darkening sea. A freshening breeze ruffled it. fl ll '} «r e y Montis in the north, gradually blackenin;, to night; a considerable anxiety to those who knew that before daylight came again our force and others—we were not quito sure how many landings were planned must have made their tooting on Gal ipoli. There was nothing in modern history to judge the chances by. Ave knew liow the Turks had been wiped out m attempting to push their boats across the Suez Canal. And if the sea were rough.

' Tho ship's gong was sounding the ofEcers' dinner when, across tho horizon, dimly seen beneath that cloud, moving elowly head to sea, crept a line of nvo grey warships. They moved out from behind the point of the land, ono after tho other, steaming north-eastward, trailing their long smoko behind them, -[-hey w ? 10 the ships .carrying tho Third Australian Brigade, which was to make the first rush up i the foothills at our particular land-ing-place. They were on their' way to Gallipoli. , . ... We watched those - live grey shapes nntu we could barely 6ee them in the dark, it was too late for news of them to reach the enemy now. The great attack had been launched. There was no turning back. One by ono tho figures which, lined tho rail turned and went down to the glaro of the saloon. . One turned in early that night pack, haversack, ivaterhottle, crammed to their capacity—and laid beside the bunk. Wo were to land with tbfi main body—first 'boatload between six and seven o clock. Through the open cabin scuttle cams the banter of men on deck —many of them slept around the hatches and in tho big horse lighters which wo earned on the well deck. ... ■ At midnight I awoke. A great silence was in tho ship, broken only by tho stamping of horses on some lower deck and by a subdued monotone of conversation from two men—mates evidently— outside my p.orthole. "Where have you been, Jim?" somebody asked.

"ife and Will liavo boon below luiTing a last yarn," was the answer. "Are we off yet?" asked a third voice, yawning. "Started moving ten minutes ago," said the first. I wondered what route we would take —north or south, of lmbros? If wo took tlio south we would almost be visible to eyes on tho peninsula ... I woke again. 'L'lie engines were going steadily. On deck the night was bitter cold. ~A largo island—in black velvet 6ilhouotte—was swimming by on our starboard side. So—wo are going north of lmbros. Best 6ight of all—tlio water, in which the moon shines alongside, is silkysmooth. The wind has dropped to a breath which faintly fails your check. Ahead—a single light; astern another. ' Dark shapes of the men stretched across the deck; some' face downwards. Here two mates quietly chatting; most of them sleeping like children. An hour later I went on dcck again. Wo were clearing the point of that island. Ten miles south of us must be the lino of Gallipoli, but you cannot s'ee it. In the channel, between tho island and whore ono knows the mainland must be, are two lights, one above the other. Are they a navigation light off lmbros or 6omo signal m connection with the British landing to be made this morning at the foot of the peniiwila? .... A light has flashed behind—low hills southwards. It hits flashed again, the glaro ol' it showing up soino undulating coastline in front of it—we cannot see the light' itself, but its halo, trwwllnjr to and fro like tho eyos of a startled snail.. Can they ■ have discovered us? There is no mistaking it—that coast must bo the peninsula and that glare a searchlight. A minute of breathless suspenso; Can it clear those hills .ind reach us?

Tho light has gone out and another has flashed out some way to the loft of it. . . . Only tlio halo of this 0110 also. . . . Gradually we realise that it cannot reach us; it is beyond bills, over in the Dardanelles. Aro the watchers there carrying out their nightly routine--this night'to them exactly its all other nights. Or have? they juit noticed something— ourselves? the British? the French? . . .

shapes moving through the dark? The moon is sinking very low. In the hour between the moonset and the sunrise. . . .

The moon is down. It is very dark. Not a spark in the ship. More ships' lights a!)cad ot us. We are moving up to them'. . A line of land is showing ahead, .faintly, against a paling sky. We aro turning. The shapes of ships ahead are growing; first a couple of merchant ships —then other ships ahead, warships and merchant ships. The lauding should he going on even now, and yet there is not a sign. . . .. What was that? Knock——a pause; knock, knock, knock—another pause; .knock,'knock, knock, knock,.knock-evei-so faint and far like the distant hammering of a wagon's axle-box heard miles awny through the bush. But though I had never heard it before I knew what that sound was. .Right months, night and day, it never ceased. Dawn, spreads its eiijuisile lemon-grey satin over the water. Far. inshore scattered. boats are rowing in many directions. Shells burst low down the hillsiile—surely the men are not far . . . until we saw a line of figures digging on the second ridge inland, and realised tliat they were ■not Turks, but our men. A' load of many tons floated from one's shoulders that moment.

But night found them still there, 011 that same skyline. A moment of elation, a pause for breath; aud (here came the Turkish attack in numbers always growing; the increasing hail of shrapnel from batteries none knew where; thicker and thickcr, hour after hour, until the torture grows almost beyond human endurance. The only consolations were—news of the 29th Division at Helles and the sound of the Navy's guns and the Indian Mountain Battery. Tho sound only—because none can Teally answer that fire. The clear duty is—to he slaughtered until nightfall on these exposed crests in order that darkness may find enough men still there to entrench and secure the line. ' And it did. In spite of fierce bursts of fighting to drive off the enemy who constantly crept up during the night, daylight found" a line of trenches—poor little rifle pits a: great part of it—but still sufficient to break in three days tho Turkish attack. • They cost nearly half tho Ist Australian Division—those first fierce days—and. the Kew Zealand and Australian Division lost heavily. And what divisions they weie. All the enterprise and adventure in two British Dominions curbed by four months fierce traininK in the desert, and controlled by a staff that they trusted and a leader they loved. They would not have grudged their offering could they have, foretold it to tho full-as some of them did, to my knowledge. They , would not have been satisfied to be out of '&• As thev said in the transport: J.ms is the job wo came foi."