Second Edition. IN THE DARDANELLES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIII, Issue 37, 13 October 1915, Page 6

Second Edition. IN THE DARDANELLES.

HEAVILY-CENSORED LETTER FROM MALCOLM ROSS. NOTHING NEW LEFT The letter Ts dated 7tli August, and as local lad’s letters dealing with the movements of the New Zealanders are of later date, only a few excerpts from New Zealand’s correspondent are here contained. Mr .Ross writes;— By the end of July preparations were well in hand, and things were happening up and down the long line of communications extending on the one hand from England, and on the other from New Zealand and Australia. Strange-1 looking craft like nothing ever seen before upon the face of the waters entered the harbors of islands in the Aegean—that once were Turkish. These were the new monitors. Cruisers bristling with gniis stood off sliord and bombarded the Turkish positions, not caring, apparently, about enemy submarines. Battleships came more warily into action, and sent their big shells hurtling into Asia, while our submarines rose gleaming like great porpoises beside the very quays of Constantinople. Troopships and sup-ply-ships came and went. The water that we drank and with which we shaved was fetched from London and Liverpool. We washed in sea water. The Ark Royal, with her seaplanes and the balloon-ships went bravely about their master’s business, and the Gulf of Saros was dotted with destroyers and trawlers, and drifters, and steam pinnaces. Day in and day out they braved the enemy’s shot and shell. And high above all these—often with the white fleecy puff's of bursting shrapnel dottink their winding courses—fle\w the graceful aeroplanes with their daring pilots and observers, mapping out the Turkish positions and dropping bombs. It was interesting to watch seven of them flying down the Dardanelles in the late evening, past Belles, and on to the island home. With such, aids and adventures did we once .mqre adjust qnr far-fUliig battle line. ~, A NEW FORCE. ! , ..In thb midst of it 'all one day divisions of the King’s new armies began 'to arrive—surfeited with a year’s ' ‘training; eager for action. They looked a likely lot—not possessing the Herculean strength of the Australians and the New Zealanders, but sturdy and tit. None doubted that they would give a good • account of themselves. With them came Gurkhas and Sikhs. Tile troops poured into Auscac Cove under the .cover of darkness and de-

ployed to right and left. On the evening before the great adr venture there were some | nervous' bursts of rifle fiie, as if the Turks had a premonition of coining danger. The destroyers guarding our flanks ah 'usual directed their waving searchlights ffthwart the Peninsula and sent in an , occasional, shell. Farther south the fhish of guns fiom ’ the sea could ho seen opposite the, Krithian heights. A y; gentle fjouth wind blew ahd lightning played from an angry cloud above Samothrace. Waking at 3 aim. one noticed a waning crescent moon above the heights of Anzac; the south wind had died down and the lightning had shifted from Samothrace to Irnbros. With dawn came pinnaces and drifters * and trawlers, hursts of rifle fire, and the occasional boom of a gun. The enemy had seen some Indian troops landing in the early dawn, and they commenced to shell the little pier. Gurkhas and Sikhs came in two barges, waited for the word to disem--1 hark, and then walked' calmly off the wharf with rifles, haversacks, and all their other belongings, one man trotting like a'Chinamau with his bundles; slung at either end of a pole balanced- , across his shoulder. A few Turkish shells fifed from the south fell short. Another gun fromjthe north also failed to reach the mark. Their shells fell harmlessly into the sea, lashing the water into foam. Just above us from; our back trenches on tbe crest ol the steep yellow cliff came the crackle of intermittent rifle fire, and the sharper pointed Turkish bullets in reply went with a melancholy whistling wall overhead. A gun in the north with a high explosive shell began to - get a better range on the landing, huf still without effect. On the right another gun was just missing a trawler, 'i he vessel moved away slowly. One shell almost got her ou the water-line. 1* inaJly, one Hit her on the deck fo’ard, and a little cloud of black smoke rose. Slowly the trawler turned her nose to sea and steamed away out of range. She was not seriously damaged.