GALLIPOLI AND GAZA

Hokitika Guardian, 3 January 1920, Page 4

GALLIPOLI AND GAZA

GENERAL RYRIE’S STORY

General Sir Neville Howse, V.C., and Major General Sir Granville Ryrie K.C.M.G., C. 8., V.D., were entertained in Sydney last week on their return from the front.

Applause lasted some time when General Ryrie rose to reply to the toast of his health. He opened by remarking that the only speeches he had made during the last five years had been short, sharp, and concise. They had been listened to, and there had been no interjections. (Laughter.) He would not bore them with any political items. They had had as much as they would need for a long time. (Applause.) He had arrived at the psychological moment when all the trouble and talking had ended. He was sorry not to have arrived sooner, but it was a relief to think the election was over.

General Ryrie then told of his days in Egypt, in Gallipoli, of the evacuation, and the great battles i n Palestine. He regarded the evacuation as one of the most marvellous feaths in military history. “Some people,” he said, “reckoned the Turks knew of this evacuation, and allowed jus to carry it out, Rut that is not so. The Turks knew nothing, because we saw them from our ships next day bombarding our trenches and charging with bayonets.” It wag a great relief to get away from Gallipoli, and we left just in time. There would haye been great loss among the Australians had wp remained longer, because the Turks were ranging on the Australians some 12-inch guns brought from Austria. And in a few weeks after the evacuation, the Australian position would have been untenable.

We moved away like a silent army, flitting in'the night. Every man had his feet padded. There were thousand of soldiers like this. It was done in order that the sound of their marching on. the hard roads on the still, calm night would not be heard by the alert enemy.” ' After Gallipoli, the General went to Egypt, and so much sand saw he there that even the sight of the beach at Manly upsets him. He never wants to see sand agan. BATTLES OF GAZA.

. His tlieme now was the first and second battles of Gaza, which, he said, did not reflect much credit on those in authority at the time. They were disasters. The first Gaza battle should never have been.

“My men,” he explained, “were in Gaza, and we had nothing to do but to take it. Suddenly I receved orders to withdraw from Gaza. It was difficult to withdraw. Men were scattered; it was dark; there were no telephones and no communications, and we could nob find the men nor they us. It was midnight before the army were assembled and taken out of Gaza. ■'The second battle was worse than the first. In this affair there were 17,000 killed and wounded, and all over nothing. There was absolutely no result. It was badly conceived, and badly carried out. i’erhaps I should not say these things rellecting, as they do on officers senior to myself. It was before general Allenby’s time. A different feeling oamo over tbo men when General Allenby took command. He is one of our greatest soldiers. His coming gave us confidence; before we did not know what we did. On the eve of the second battle of Gaza, I did not know what was expected of me. I found myself with cooks and batmen, but no soldiers; they had all been taken from me. I was alone. (Laughter).

A GREAT CHANGE. “Then came Beersbeba. And here the general told of the “most exhilarating moment” of bis life, when, mounted on “Plain Bill,” the gift of the North Sydney people, be charged for live miles in Melbourne Cup style. As be clashed along in record time, fowls went’flying, dogs barked, Bedouins fled, and children screamed. On he went, and on and on, with the screams of children the cackle of fowls, and the scared looks of the Bedouins accompanying him. '(Laughter). It was a great charge. (Renewed laughter). The Jordan Valley General ltyrie found the home of death. It was, he said, one of the most poisonous places lie had ever visited, and 80 per cent of some of the Australian regiments were prostrated by malaria. “There are today,” he said, “hundreds of thousands of Australian boys whose constitutions have been ruined by Jordan Valley. It put me into hospital, and I lost three stone. But I am back to 16 stone again.” (Laughter.) The opinion was expressed by the speaker that the Jordan Valley operations, in which General Allenby met with such success, were responsible in great measure for the termination of the war, smashing, as they did, the power of Turkey, and thus weakenng the Central Powers.

AUSTRALIANS CRITICISED. Lord Allenby,” General Ryrie ooneluded, “has been criticised for having ignored the work of the Australians in Egypt in speeches by him. Ido not know whether it was intentional, but he had some cause for being incensed against the Australians. An incident in which some 'Australians were the principal actors would have incensed any Commander-in-Chief. A man was supposed to have been shot by the Bedouins, whereupon Australians surrounded a village of the Bedouins at night and killed some of them. Incensed at this, Lord Allenby used some hard words. But he said to me afterwards he had wiped it all off the slate. Therefore anything done by Lord Allenby after that was an oversight. He is one of the best men who ever lived.”