THE FIGHT FOR CHUNUK BAIR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1465, 28 October 1915, Page 3

THE FIGHT FOR CHUNUK BAIR.

STRONG TURKISH COU NTER-ATTACK. SHRAPNEL FROM OUR GUNS. THE ENEMY REPULSED. (From Malcolm Ross, Official Correspondent with the New Zealand Forces.) No. 3 Outpost, August 12. There was no sleep that night for our tired troops. Till dawn the English held tin: topmost trench, and with the New Zealanders and some of the 13111 Division in support below them. As, however, the Australians on the left had been held up in their attack, and a fresh column from the British 3SUI Brigade, also on the left, had been delayed in tire difficult country, while the Gurkhas bad had to mire from the ridge back some little distance, i! became necessary to break oil the engagement in order to reorganise the line. On Tuesday, in the half-light before the dawn, the Turks suddenly came pouring over the crest of Chunuk Bair, and swooped down upon our position in superior numbers. As dawn broke we could see them bravely rushing down across the fire-swept slopes of Chunuk Bair into a gully to the right of our supports orr Rhododendron Ridge. Every now and then a man would stagger and fail headlong down the slope, and remain prone on a bare patch, or rise and limp away into the scrub or one of the topmost trenches for shelter. Meantime the New Zealand guns had got to work with deadly accuracy. Shrapnel bursting on the upper slopes almost completely wiped out whole groups of the enemy scattered amongst the scrub. The big guu*- - and the secondary armament on the cruisers were also at work, and shattered the topmost Turkish trenches with the forceful lyddite. It was too much for ail but the bravest Turks, and presently numbers began to climb laboriously back up the slopes they had so valiantly charged down but a tew minutes before. On these retreating Turks our shrapnel still played, and after the dust of each successive burst had cleared away there would be only two or three men where a few seconds previously there had been a dozen or a score. These continued their flight, some beuding down in an endeavour to escape notice, others limping along, and still others strolling slowly back with fatalistic unconcern. One wounded man came out ol a hail of shrapnel, limped up the slopes and over the crest of the ridge into safety on the Dardanelles side, though many a shot must have fallen about him. One became absorbed in his progress, and though he was an enemy, felt almost pleased when finally his silhouette disappeared over the sky-line. But eveu there he was not safe, for many ol our shells were dropping on iff- reverse side of the slope, and no doubt with deadly ami demoralising effect, for there must have been many Turks assembled there. The battle raged throughout the whole morning, but the Turkish onrush had been stemmed by our gunfire and by the rifles and machine guns as well. It was. however, the gunners’ day out, and they certainly took advantage of it. There was scarcely a Turk left alive in that gully, nor on the slopes, though some had managed to crawl back into the trendies, and over the crest of Chunuk Bair. Later in the. day I watched enthralled for some hours an intense bombardment of the ridge and the upper slopes of Chunuk Bair, The Turks had doue a good deal of trench work along the ridge. On these works the lyddite now played with wonderful effect, sending great clouds of dirt and smoke high into the air. The bursts tool: varied shapes, some columnar, others spreading out in mushroom-like shape, no doubt in accordance with the resistance met witlr. On the edge of these sometimes one would see a sandbag or the body of a Turk hurtling high in the air, the man'sat ms and legs spread-eagled against the sky. One Turk, his rifle flying after him, was hurled upward and outward, and fell over the sleep face or the topmost ridge into a narrow ravine, where lay many of the dead of the previous day's lighting. All this was quite a cheerbig sight—so callous does one become iu war. Presently there was a great burst ol lyddite from one of the ship’s guns, and on the edge of the black cloud that rose right in the centre of a Turkish trench three bodies went whirling heavenward in different directions, and with arms and legs extended fell somersaulting into the surrounding scrub. To these Allah bad been merciful, for in an instant they had gone painlessly flying into their paradise. At this time the bombardment was so intense that the enemy's trenches must have become a veritable inferno. It was too much eveu for the fatalistic Turks, and presently they began to leave the trenches and bolt back over the ridge through the deadly burst of shrapnel. But even as they went others came on—singly and in twos and three— towards the trenches our men had vacated. Some fell on the way, others survived, and gained comparative safety for the time being. These fellows may have been driven on by their officers from behind the ridge, but in any case their brave progress through such a tornado of fire could not but rouse our admiration. But on the whole

more were now struggling slowly back than were struggling madly forward, and many of the former were going back without their rifles—a sure testimony to the demoralising nature of our gun fire. When day closed the Turks were sadly shaken on the battered crest of Cbunuk Bair, but both sides had fought to a standstill. There is a point in human endurance at which the most intense battle along a narrow front must cease, and that point had now been reached. The gains were entirely on our side. We had driven the Turk out of his advanced positions, and pushed our own line forward to a favourable point, and by God’s grace and our strong bayonet arm we still hope to plant our flag once more—and this next time permanently—on the crest of Cbunuk Bair. THE MEN WHO CAME BACK A TALE OF HEROISM AND ENDURANCE. BACK FROM THE VALLEY OF THE DEAD. GAI.UPOW PI?NTNSni,A, I St Aug. The other day three men of the Wills, haggard and worn, and with their eyes bulging in their sockets, came back literally out of the valley of death. For a fortnight following the attack on Cbunuk Bair, they remained iu the Valley of the Sazli Beit, living on what food they could get from dead men's haversacks and water drawn from a Turkish well. The story they tell is one of absorbing interest. To begin with they got .food from a dead Gurkha’s haversack, and afterwards some biscuits from the haversacks of their own dead comrades. They stated that a sergeant of the North Lancs., wounded in both arms, and four men of the Fifth Wilts Rifles were still alive in the valley. They were pretty certain that there were no others alive in the valley. An officer, a corporal, and five of their comrades, they said, died from

starvation and thirst. Originally there were 200 of them, but most of them got out on the night of the lolh-uth August. During the stay of these men in the gully they saw Turks on several occasions. During the last three days the Turks were busy putting barbed wire and sand bags at the top of the gully. The Turks refused to take them prisoners or to give them water. On the night of the nth 12th the Turks took away a lot of arms and ammunition. A major, a captain, a lieutenant, the men stated, were dead in the gully. The Turks stripped one of their wounded of all but his body belt and left him in the sun. They shot a private of the 6th North Lancs, who was very tar gone, but it seems pretty clear that bis case was hopeless, and that they did this simply to put him out of bis misery. The men reached a trench which at onetime had apparently been in the hands of the New Zealanders. A private of the sth Wilts got wounded while trying to escape on the night of the 10th. He was shot in both legs. His comrades did the best they could <or him and bound up his wounds, but alter nine days he succumbed. As soon as possible after the return of these men, one of them was mounted on a donkey and guided a search party in the night time. This party found the trench as stated, with the articles inside it exactly as described by the returned men, and also the body of the dead Gurkha. They also found the body of the major, but did not find any of the other men. On the day following their return, when the men had somewhat recovered, they were able to give some further information. One man was killed and one wounded in trying to escape towards the sea. For three days nothing more was attempted but looking after the wounded. Then one of the men suggested to the lieutenant that that there was no use waiting any longer ; but the lieutenant refused to go, saying it would be murder to leave the wounded. This brave fellow seems to have sacrificed his own life through staying on to assist the wounded. At his instance, the three men remained for three more days in the valley. Once the men tried to get out of the valley by way of a precipitous slope leading to Rhododendron Spur, but were fired upon by balf-a-do/.en Turks, on the opposite side of the valley, and once from their own trenches, our men evidently mistaking them for Turks. Turkish patrols were beard on the night of the 25U126th, their voices being distinctly audible, but they did not see the British soldiers, who subsequently escaped as staled.