GALLIPOLI TO-DAY.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 January 1919, Page 1

GALLIPOLI TO-DAY.

THE BATTLEFIELDS REVISITED. The special commissioner in 1110 31 edit era nnean for tlio Sydney ‘‘Sim’s cable service, (Mr. Peacock) in his report on Gallipoli says : nApart from the wreckage of the old Anzac field, the most striking thing here is the immense strength of the Turkish defences. “Those of Gaba Tope are quite a study. Well sheltered, from the sea is a system of underground trenches, together with open commuiuiention lines and dug-outs. There are also comfortable officers’ quarters, in which some of the furniture remains. One trench, 12 feet, wide and 20 feet deep, is roofed close with heavy railway rails, and it is covered with several feet of earth. The whole place is honeycombed, the Turks evidently having been scared of another landing. “We found Beachy Bill’s gunpits m an olive-grove nearer Anzac, and the snipers’ posts and machine-gun positions. Evidently the grove was a big centre, for many communication trenches lead thither with telegraphs. “A low knoll between Gaba Tepe and Wilson’s Point is deeply entrenched, evidently having been used as snipers posts for enfilading the Aiizacs. One wonders how men lived for a single day, in view of the general enfilading fire. We had a large German artillery map, on which everything "as- accurately marked. From this point we could see clearly everything that had been done at Brighton Beach; Anzac Cove, Poppy Valley, mil Hell Spit. “There are many Turkish graves here from which bones are protruding. We saw at Poppy Valley many apricot trees and date palms which had sprung from the stones left by the Australians. The great Turkish monument near the Sphinx, surrounded with shell cases, records how the Turks drove the English into the sea. “Wo visited Koja Cliemen Tepe, and Hill 071, the scene of the August battles. It is-now a m.w of defences, trenches, and underground chambers. There are many skeletons exposed to view in places where floods have u ashed the earth off at the end. The large Turkish reserve and the camps in sheltered places in the woods, wellplanned and protected, showed the immense size of the defensive armies which the Turks bad gathered here.”