ON GALLIPOLI

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 144, 13 March 1919, Page 7

ON GALLIPOLI

FAMOUS BATTLEFIELDS REVISITED WHERE SLEEP THE BRAVE' (By H. Colliiison Owen, in the Londor "Daily Telegraph") The final act (o 0110 of the greatesi dramas of the war was cnacted on November 9, when, in cccordancoMvith' the twins of the armistice with Turkey, Briflsii troops landed unopposed to occupy the Gallinoli Peninsula. The contrast oetweoii this landing and that other famous and heroic 0110 of 1915 was ae great as can ho imagined. Our , men landed qs a deserted peninsula, peopled only by British dead and . by groat memories that will livo so long na our race endures. Thoy stepped ashoro immediately beneath the bows' of the'.River Clyde,, that, gallant and battered tramp from out df whose sides our men streamed under a etorra of machine-gun bullets. But there' was nothing to (inposo the landing this time., On the contrary, at the summit of lho v stecply-risinL' beach, which we captured at such heavy cost, stood a littlo group of Turks, looking down quietly on British troops, disembarking. They wcro Turkish artillerymen, wailing to hand over tho ,heavy guns'of Capo Holies,?which hayo <■ for long been standing ready in nnticiEfition of a renewed British attack on llio ardanelles. \ Grim Reminders. Wo left Mudros at four in the morning to see the landing, and arrived oft' Cape Helles about nine. l Lines of black drifters and mino-sweopers, including n .very efficient hew type just out from Home, wero cruising about on. their hazardous task of sweeping lanes through almost countless thousands of mines laid both by ourselves and by tho;. Tlio work of gathering in this deadly barrier has bean much greater than anticipated, and is .the eolc reason for tho delay' in thopassago of the .Allied Fleet to Constantinople. The first outward sign that wo were in such historic waters and approaching such hallowed ground was tho sight of a mast sticking up from, the, water pif-the,rocky, coastjof Imbros. This marked the spot where tho biff monitor Raglan and' the smaller one M2S went down when standing up hopelessly against the Goeben. and the Breslan at the time of their, ill-starred sortie last year. Later in the day, up' towards the ' Narrows, wo'saw the remains ,of -submarine Elu, which ran'.ashure when trying to ascond the straits, and was gallantly torpedoed from n launch by our own. men undffr heavy fire; ami a little , further up the' rusty bottom of the Turkish battleship Masaudieh, looking like an immense turtle, marked one of our ; submarino successes that caused much' . consternation ta the enemy at tho time: The destroyer took iti close to Cape Helles, and everybody on ltoard gazed. silently at the barren and repellent, coast that has made, such a tragic pago in our history. Some • there were on board who had been through most of those,events, and who fell: strangely indeed in approahcing f-o calmly and easily this "corner of a, foreign field that is for ever England," that was won and lost again at such a price. ■ Over the Fields of the Dead. We anchored just off "V"ilwach, where the 'River Clyde was run ashore, and immediately outside the breakwater formed by the stripped skeleton of an ancient French battleship, th&, Massena, and an .old hulk of a Mcssagereis Maritime steamer, which were grounded in this spot late in tho occupation of the Peninsula, in order to form a harbour against winter storms. As the lauding of tho troops ■was not expected for some hours it.was decided we should go ashore and visit] the ground which is compact- of si> much' British history. It was-strange indeed to set foot on that barren shore, realising how much we had paid to take it, and find it now completely deserted. Tho Turkish troops occupying had been removed some-days before, and for tliQ time being not a single Turk was to be seen. V beach along to Cape. Helles, and so to W beach, is as unlovely and barren a strip of, coast line as can be- imagined. . One- wondered again" how we had ever been able to land on it, and how; wo had been able to live and remain there. - Above us, to our right, the remains of. the old fort of Sedd-el-Bahr, which the fleet knocked to pieces in the first bombardment. We walked up the steep ground which had been held by massed machine-guns and Turkish riflemen, passed over old'.trenches, both our own and the enemy's, and ,saw new ones constructed in case of,the further attack . which for months past tho, Turks had been expecting. -"We walked to the top and beyond. the first'ridge, and looked down over the broad sweep of a valley •which dipped'and rose again up to the rounded crest of that sinister hill, Achi Baba, "a natural fortress that anybody ought to hold," as a. gunner officer re- • marked.. Every yard of .the ground we traversed holds the remains of our dead, but there wero no signs. of graves or crosses to be seen. We returned through the ruins of Sedd-el-Bahr village, and just below the front a French officer pointed out the spot where General .Gouraud, the victor of Champagne,'was wounded, when visiting a French hospital.' .'