Second Edition. The Dardanelles

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 28, 2 June 1915, Page 6

Second Edition. The Dardanelles

HEAVY TURKISH LOSSES.

ACCOUNTS FROM PRISONERS.

rfNITBT) PrßS* ABBOjOIATTOS (Received 1.40 p.m.)

London, June 1. The Press Bureau states that prisoners who have arrived in Egypt declare that the losses at Galiipoli were terribly heavy. The twentieth regiment; was almost annihilated, all the officer* except the Colonel being killed or captured. The Fifteen and Fifty-sixth Regiments lost almost as severely. The loss of officers generally was very heavy, and the gaps were filled up by naval officers and military cadets. The attacks at Krithia were most costly for the Turks. Limau Pasha ordered an attack at night with empty 'magazines, using the bayonet only. The 'Allies, with flares and searchlights, repeatedly caught 'sight of them in close formation, and the machine guns and rifle fire at point blank range punished them terribly. One' captured officer said that' only 120 could ' be' collected out of a- regiment of 1000 strong. The Allies' mountain guns more than once caught the Turks assembling for attack, and kept them for minutes under shrapnel, . inflicting heavy losses.

An Arab officer said: "The landing was costly and difficult: When the Allies, had established themselves on the Peninsula, it was our turn to suf-fer-heavier losses or capture. A fortnight ago the Turks had at least forty thousand killed and wounded."

Other prisoners stated, that two battalions attacked each other at Gaba Tepe, losing heavily and ultimately stampeding. The British machine-gun fire Was particularly well directed, and the naval guns were most effectives They, heaviest shells bursting in the trenches paralysed the men near-by. Some prisoners admit it is not known in the least why Enver Pasha and Talaat Bey went to war.

Others curse Germany heartily