The Suez! Canal Fight.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 18 May 1915, Page 2

The Suez! Canal Fight.

DESCRIBED BY A MAR.LBOBOUUJJ MAN. Private Donald Williams (of Picton Marlborough), in a letter to a relative resident in Levin, gives a description ol the fight on the Suez Canal in which his division (Nelson and Marlborough] bore the brunt of the Turkish attack. ■'We had our chance, nnd made the most of it," he writes; "onr Nelison Company (C) -was the only New Zealand force that actually did any fighting, and we had plenty as it was our Company that held the Canal at the point where the enemy tried to cross. The enemy's advance force here were ovei <)00, and when our chaps had finished their shooting they had got the most of them; the rest' were jtaken dv the Indians. Private Ham was shot through the back of the neck, but lingered for a day or two. Sergt-Major William. l , got a bullet through the shoulder, but ie now on duty again. He ie very proud of his tunic which still has the bullet hole in it. There -were several minor scratches. One man was blown out of his trench into the next one by a shell and was uninjured. Another chap had a bullet pass through hi* hat. Our major was tying up his booi Inoe wl>«n a bullet landed under his boot. We were very lucky com inn through aa -well as we did. .The'general lias since congratulated us on our behaviour,.and said we were very lucky in two ways; first, in that we had been placed where we had our chance to light, and secondly, in coming out with *o few wounded. We are all very proud to know that we have won our first bar for our medal. We may soon have the chance to add eome more. Wi wore all expecting another day or two's fighting, ijnt evidently + uey had quite sufficient. Their whole advance force was estimated at between twelve and fifteen thousand, and with killed wounded and prisoners they lust between three and five thousand. No doubt what they thought to do was to establish themselves on the Canal when the main body would come up to join them : but we were waiting for them, and gave them a surprise. Someof our chaps fired as much as fifty rounds. They came up in the dark for the W three or four hundred yards without any boots, so as to move as quietly as possible. We did not know that they were on the opposite bank till daybreak nnd then they got it hot and strong. They got so I'ar as to entrench in the silt o* the Canal as the tide was out at the time. I afterwards went over the battlefield and the sight would turn you up. The dead in some cases simply had the sand thrown over them, and there was a terrible stench about. 1 went out for about five miles to the enemy's main trench and then followed the line of their advance. The ground was simply covered with shrapnel and rifle bullets. T have sent some of them home. I found a knife in one of the trenches, this also T am sending on. The nearer T got to the Canal the more boot I saw that had been cast off; everywhere there wore pieces and parts of their equipment: water-bottles, haversacks, boots, caps and other gear. There was lots of crook ammunition that bad been thrown away: some bad wooden bullets and some no powder. A T o doubt the contractors in Germany had worked a swindle. The Turks were armed with German rifles.