Our Troops at the Dardanelles

Horowhenua Chronicle, 26 July 1915, Page 2

Our Troops at the Dardanelles

FRESH TALES FIUXM THE TRANCHES. A WOUNDED MAJO'R'S EXPEDIENCES. BRAVERY OF THE WOUNDED. [From Malcolm Ross, Official War Correspondent with the New Zealand Forces.] ■lth June. 'Major Loach, of the Ist Canterbury Infantry, whom I found in bed in the Anglo-American Hospital, had rather a bad wound on his leg behind the knee (The wound was, however, healing gradually, and he was quite cheerful. He had gone' with the l*>tli and 13th Companies of the Ist Canterbury lniantry on the Sunday night to reinforce tho left flank of the Australians, which was being severely handled by the enemy The Canterbury men dug right in and saved the position--a ridge running at right angles to the sea. If the Turks had got that ridge they would have wiped everything off the beach. It was a razor-back, and the position was such that the Turkish shrapnel went right over it unless it landed absolutely on the razor-back.

.Major Loach said the landing was about a mile north of the actual jjoht of Gaba Tepe, because the Navy peop'e knew that there was barbed 'wire ut the latter place. The height's fronting the beach were so steep tliat in places the troops had to haul tlieir a ;i----munitioii up with ropes. Th > whole army corps was situated in a narrow semicircle. Col. St'j-vy.t was k;ll<-.*l while looking for two .empuui ~ th:»t had previously gone up at 3 o'clock on the .Sunday afternoon, and that hail not come back. Major Loach -went to find where- these companies wvva, and to lead this others up to the position. He met the corporal, who was badly wounded, coming down, and lie told him ,that the colonel had been killed. He also learned from the corporal that Major Grant had died of a bad wound, and that Lieut Barclay (son of Dv Barclay, of Temuka) wan badly wounded and missing. Subsequently the 12th and KJtli Companies had to come back from this portion to the beach, and they were then ordered to occupy the extreme left, and to hold it at all costs. On the Monday they consolidated that position, and made a road up which they could carry ammunition. On Tuesday, t'.ie 12th Company went to the top of the hill to reinforce the Australians, and scouts were sent out on a reconnaissance as far as the Fisherman's Hut. On the Thursday the scouts made another reconnaissance, and the hi Ms farther to the north were occupied. Under cover of darkness. Major Loach led the 12th Company t<i occupy a rid go running towards the sea. and on Friday the position on the left was further consolidated. On Saturday he got badly hit in the leg, and had to leave for Cairo.

Tlie feat of the Canterbury men u seizing the hills on the left and in holding them in the face of severe opposi tion was one that required initiative, daring, and great tenacity, and it had a material influence upon the (situation during the early days of the Peninsula occupation. .Major Loach, who is now en route t'j New Zealand, says they had an awful experience removing the wounded during those first day's. They had to get them first of all on to the punts, and as there was no staging they hud to rig iiip planks. it was ordeal tor such of the wounded as could do it to walk those planks. Oth eis. of course, had to be carried. Subsequently there wa« the translere'ico from the punts to the ships, transports in some instances having to do duty for hospital ships. "The people that won iny admiration." said Major Loach.

'Mvere the stretcher-bearers. J3y Jove! I never thought they would work like that: and they were under fire practically the whole time. Even when I came away the Turkish shells were following us down to the shore, and not one shell at a time but a dozen. Our comparative safety lay in the fact that they burst a little too high, and also in the fact that some of them, instead of being lilled with shrapnel bullets, were filled with sawdust. Certain clips o£. cartridges were also found with neither cordite nor lead in them. On the Canal our men found similar clips in an abandoned box of cartridges. Silting on the ridge we watched these .shells bursting in the water. Yon could see the bite of broken shell and the head a« they burst in the wntor but could not see any bullets splashing."

"T met a doctor who had made a name for himself as a bacteriologist, and is an authority on tropic diseases in Egypt. He had come down from the Sudan to help -with tlio first nig rush of wounded. T was introduced to him as a New Zealander." "By Jovo!" he said with hearty spontaneity, "your men are splendid fellows I have never seen such soldiers. They come in here with the most terrible wounds, and there is never a murmur or a complaint from them. They arc truly heroic—both the New Zealanders and the Australians." Tt was the same story in all the other hospitals, both in Alexandria and Cairo. My own experience has been similar. J have seen wounds of all kinds probed and dressed, and there has never been a murmur, from the vast majority of patients. The Sudan doctor told me of one man—a Sergeant 'McKay, from Queensland—-"who in throe campaigns had stopped seven bullets. He was lying wounded in the Victoria College Hospital, and it was a treat to watch the delight with which he described a bayonet charge into the Turkish trenches. He would close hie eyes, put

his head back and conclude his description with "'Man it was grand; I would like to be into them again!" A STAFF OFFICER'S EXPERIENCE

At Alexandria i had a long talk with a New Zealand staff officer, who had gone through some interesting experiences. iJic said that military experts considered the- landing and tl;e. taking and holding of positions by the Australians and New ZealancWrs ao , Gaba Tepe as an almost impossible feat I At Cape Helles also the British were i given an exceeding difficult task io I perform, and at their landing two / battalions were wiped out. "1 saw 0110 j thing," he added, "done by the New > Zoalanders and Australians that will ) remain in my meniury as lung as I ) live. It was at the top of the hill on { the first day. There was a fight 'or , ' fire superiority. Our fellows worked/ gradually closer and closer until they: got within charging distance. Then through our glasses we could see them rush with lixed bayonets across a little green patch into the Turkish trend*. The Turks bolted, but our men leapoJ , . the trench and dashed, afkr thc-Ul \l\*.) the scrub. Then all we could ,«oo was their bayonets gleaming in the sunlight amongst the bushes. They came back—the bayonets not gleaming so brightly now— and occupied the Turkish "trench, only to be shelled uut a little later."

THE TURKISH FIRE. The Turkish guns according to a New Zealand staff officer, were well served, their observation gobd, and their -shooting really excellent, though so in? ot their howitzer ammunition did no: explode, and at tliits time they seemed to be using it rather sparingly. For their small arms and their field guns they appeared to have plenty of ammunition. On the point of some uf" the shells there was a little inscription in Arabic—"To the enemies of Turkey.' , When the men were well established in their places in the trenches on the heights they wera really safer than they would be on the beach. One day a crowd of Australians came down for a spell from the trenches to do a little road making. They said the beach was just as bad as the trenches, with the road-making thrown in. and they asked to be Kent back!" It was however not an uncommon sight to see some of the Australians and New Zeahmders enjoying a .swim in tlie sea with tHe shrapnel actually bursting orer them. The men were well fed, and each man seemed better pleased doing his own bit of cooking than when in a comfortable camp cursing the regimental cook! They got by way of luxuries tobacco, a. little rum. and bacon. TJic latter was a substitute for butter. All the w.'ilei- had to be taken asltore in lighters and conveyed to the men in their dug-outs and in tTie. trenches