WAR STORIES

Hokitika Guardian, 18 November 1929, Page 7

WAR STORIES

INFANTRY EIGHT IN DUST

STORM

LONDON, Oct. 3,

During the operations beyond Baghdad the 4th Soule Wales Borderers and Btli Cheshire Hcgiment on April 30th, 1917, attacked the • Turkish trenches covering the village of Adhaim on the eastern bank of the river of that name, which is a tributary of the Tigris. Borderers and Oheshires burst into the Turkish front line, bayoneting or capturing tho defenders, then rushed forward again. On the left the Chesliires, whose colonel was wounded, stormed a second line of trenches and pursued the Turks through and beyond the village.

Owing to an error of the map the Borderers lost direction and swept though a gap in the second line, overrunning some gun-pits further on where a gun was captured. 'I he two battalions, disorganised and rather intermixed and short of ammunition, came to a halt. They had advanced so fast and so far that lor the time they were isolated. And soon a violent dust storm arose and under cover of it a solid semicircle of Turkish infantry moved forward unseen to a counter-attack. Turkish guns opened enfilade fire before flic blow fell, almost without warning, upon our men, who, in places, carried on, a hand-to-hand fight to the death. A Lewis gun of the Ghosh ires did good -work and enabled a retirement to be made through the village; the right of the Borderers, which made a galant attempt to storm a Turkish battery, was overwhelmed.

SIKH CONTEMPT FOR TURKISH FIRE.

Tho third battle for Krithia saw some of the fiercest fighting of the Gallipoli campaign. On the left part of our front the I4th King George’s Own Sikhs on June 4th, 1915, held a position astride the deep, tortuous Gully Ravine ; it was their task to advance up it and along the .ground each side of it, linking up with the troops attacking to the right and left. Contemptuous of the' Turkish rifles and machine guns, .two companies went forward on the right and stormed the trenches which confronted them, bayoneting many of enemy and keeping pace with the British advance on this flank. When relieved next day only 16 officers and men of this detachment remained alive and unwounded.

On the left our main attack failed before the Turkish front - trench ; yet here the Sikhs went forward and gained some ground ,on the edge of tile ravine which tllCy held, under a murderous fire, all day.

In an attempt to strike tho unshaken enemy in flank by an advance up the ravine officers and men fell fast under the fire of machine guns concealed in the steep banks. But the survivors went on in short rushes and established themselves in a narrow gorge at the end of the Turkish trench after bitter fighting with the bayonet. Two machine guns were brought up and a barricade erected which was held until next day. Then those of the defenders who survived—the colonel, one other officer and 47 men—were heavily bombed hy the Turks from above and forced to withdraw.

The 14th Sikhs went into the fight with 15 British officers, 14 Indian officers, and 514 rank and file. Of these only three British and three Indian officers and 134 others came through unscathed.

SIEGE GUNS IN FRONTLINE. In a valley a mile north of Beugny, which is on the Bapaume-Cambrai road, four Gin. howitzers of the 244th Siege Battery were emplaced. About five o’clock in the morning of March 21, 1918, while it was still dark, the whole region was deluged with gas and high explosive. There was a respite when daylight came and the German guns lengthened their range, but about half-past one masses of men were seen moving about on the sky-line a mile and a half in front of the battery position. As soon as they were identified as Germans they were dispersed with heavy loss, for shell after shell was seen to burst among them. Now the enemy advanced in strength from Lagnicourt, but the fire of the howitzers held them in check, although the observing officers were driven from their posts by German machine-gun fire at rather close range. Our infantry were retiring through the battery position, and those gunners who could be spared took their rifles and manned shellholes behind the wire which protected the gun-pits. A German field gun which opened at a range of 1,500 yards was silenced. The four howitzers used 800 rounds on this day.

At dusk came the order to withdraw. After a great deal of trouble horses were borrowed and three of the heavy pieces were got away in the darkness.