The following instance, related at a local ceremony on Anzac Day (says the N.Z. Times), illustrates the grim humour displayed throughout tlie Gallipoli campaign by the men of Anzac :—The scene is a forward trench in close contact with (lie enemy. Shell, machine gun. and bomb and rifle fire have made a heavy toll upon the staunch defenders. An enemy shell, well directed, lands in the trench. When 1 lie dust and smoke fumes clear sufficiently we find that still more of those who were with us in life a moment before have gone West. Remaining is Private with a severe shoulder wound. He is propped up in the trench crowded with casualties, and made as comfortable as possible. Those unhurt, of course, nre concerned with watching the developments out in front per medium of a periscope. Private , the wounded hero, feeling a moisture on his face, rubbed it with his disengaged hand. Looking at the hand he found it besmeared with blood, caused by splinters and dirt raised by the burst of the shell perforating the skin. Glancing along the trench (a short one hurriedly dug like all those in the early stages of Gallipoli) he espies the periscope. Looking once more at his hand bv way of reassuring himself that something really is amiss, he addresses the man with the periscope in this manner, “Hi, Harry, pass the darned periscope along for a jiff, Jacko’s (nickname for the Turk) not game to come while I see if my head’s still on.” These incidents created in men a great love for one another, and made the Hell of Anzac hearable.
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Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2577, 8 May 1923, Page 4
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271Untitled Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2577, 8 May 1923, Page 4
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