WITH QUEEN ALEXANDRIA'S OWN.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIII, Issue 38, 14 October 1915, Page 2

WITH QUEEN ALEXANDRIA'S OWN.

NIGHT ATTACK Ai A--Aw. A LETTEiT FHQM L ii N“JA. The following is a hue desenpliv o letter by Private A. E\aim to i.m mother in Stratford, Irom King George Hospital, Lom on ; xSo doubt you will be surprised to read the above address. Indeed, i am surprised to lie here my sell. I happened to get a bit of a smack on the left ioreluiger and was soul to Mudros (Lemnos), where the hospital was lull up, so we were put on Hoard the Aquitania with about dUUU others and brought «u here. Ihe wound is simply nothing at all and is about bee ’ter already. 11 it had been in New Zealand J would have just put a dab of varnish on it and gone on working, hut here it is dressed twice a day and they take a man’s togs irom him and rig him up in a blue suit lined with white, a red tie and sandals, and iced lus up like lighting cocks (so wo are 'too). Yes, they treat the wounded alright once they arrive in hospital, but Lord pity them before, and it takes over a fortnight to got here. U 1 course you can’t blame tue authorities, for they do their best ; they have so many to t.eal w itu. 1 am right alongside the Thames near Waterloo Elation, and urn see. St. TauJ s' quite c lose, and the Parliament iuniuuigs and Oryslal Palace and .London bridge hum where 1 am. Tne people here are all very good with tneir ears, and J believe they lake tne "walking" patients out every day. V\ neu i last wrote i told you that you could expect startling news, auu ere this aiii\es you win nave read tue largest ! casualty list ever pubhsiied in aeu Zealand. \Ve iiavc all been through Hell itself, am; a man is very lucky indeed to be here at ail. i shad start at tue beginning and try and give you a short account oi our doings. We received orders to be ready by 8 p.m. on tne night ol bill August to march out lor a general attack. Kquipment to be -UU rounds in bandolier, nilu with bayonet fixed (no ammunition in chamber or magazine), each man to carry two bombs, no coats or tunics, oli hours rations to he earned. Each unit on the Peninsula was detailed a certain piece of ground to work, and during the night wo were told that thousands more would he landed to reiulorcc us. Our particular sector was a table lop (plateau), about dOU feet high amt about half a mile from our present front, and from which the Turks had caused considerable trouble by sniping. Sharp to time we tiled oui silently and soloing through our trench bit deep. The only words spoken were by the parson, who stood on a corner and said: “Good luck buys and God bless you.” About IiUU yards along the trench and we walked into Turkish territory. Their piquet had already been engaged by tne Auckland Mounted fillies and settled, but our buys’ here lost four killed and one wounded. We were now under a heavy like tire Irom the Turks, out we kept to tiie lavme and inarched on. uu eiiner side of us were heavy barbed wire entanglements, tut as we knew that Hie ravine was us< d for transport purposes by bite Turks we knew mat it would nut be barbed. About IUU yards along Hie ravine we came to our objective. "Hie plateau, a clear climb oi about oUU leet at tins point. Well, we tackled it, digging steps with our eiitreneiniig tools and worked our way round Hie back ol tue position witu the intention ol driving the enemy over Hie lace; also culling oil their reinforcemeiils. At last we stole up to the top and peered over into an empty trench, which we jumped over and then we searched around m the darkness lor tne other trendies, all ui which we loiuid empty, so we had' gamed our objective with no losses to our own squadron, and we proceeded to entrench ourselves, as wo thought that perhaps the enemy trenches hi ay be milled. Alcan while the rest oi the* Peninsula was one constant crackle with rille lire, lor the whole position was being attacked at once. We had only commenced to dig in when we discovered that Hie Turks who hud men pied our position hud been drawn oh temporarily and were now returning, and that they were 'over lull strong as against UU ol us. We kept silent whilst they came on jabbering and calling uu “Allah, Allah” for help, hut old Allah had deserted them this time and we bagged the lot without bring a >hut. They seemed only too pleased to surrender and threw their arms, i iiteas. etc., down in a pile and kissed all hands and bowed and went through ad sorts of antics. We now raised a cheer, a sign that we had triumphed, which was°answered from several quarters, and then came the strangest thing of all, “a Maori haka,” and we knew that they too had gained their objective The Mounted Brigade had the honor of leading the Maoris into action for the first time since our lathers fought their lathers, for they are temporarily attached to us, and were acting as our supports, except m one position, where they were given 11 ” place. We now finished digging ourselves in, and when day broke we observed hundreds of boats out m the cove, and they had landed their thousands in the dead of night, there were all kinds of craft, from barges, pinnaces, transports, cruisers, destroyers, battleships, to monitors, ihen Britain began to speak, and broadside after broadside went into the 1 nrkmh trenches. During the day we consolidated our position and held it the following night without a counter-attack, for the Turks were on the run ioi miles around us. Next day we went

forward after being relieved to dig gun positions, for tire Indian mountain bat - ' tcry, and that night we wore supports to the Wellington Infantry. We put the night in at digging trendies again, but as day broke we found that we were only about two feet down owing to the hardness of the ground. I for- ' got to mention that nil this time we were under heavy rifle lire, and early in the evening George Nicholls, who .was working in shifts with me. got a 1 bullet iu the leg. We fixed him up, but as orders were to leave all wounded we placed him in a hollow for the night and got him atv ay early next morning. Before daylight our naval j and field guns, together with twenty- j five batteries on the beach, opened up ' a terrific bombardment, which lasted for four hours,- and was almost deafening. Our position now was in the front tiring line on the brow of hill 071, which was the objective of the general attack. Our guns evidently mistook us for the Turks (allhough they had the searchlights >n us'), and j I am sorry to say that iozens of <ur men went up with our own gunfire. Well, enough said about that, as it was tin accident. As soon as the bombardment ceased the Turks (knowing that our firing trench had been broken in), attacked first, throwing over hundreds of bombs and bombing us out into the open. Then they attacked us in huge numbers, but instantly our boys went at them and repulsed three attacks with very heavy losses on both sides. Not a man of ns expected to ■come out alive, but we fought on for dear life (to have attempted to retire would have been suicidal). Eight men out of ten in a small piece of trench which I was in were killed and at about 7 in the morning f got hit in the linger. The enemy had enfiladed the trench and a bullet struck my mate iu the heart, came out through the shoulder blade and into my finger, and finally lodged in the rifle, where it slid remains. Needless to say, my chum died in two minutes, whilst I put a rough bandage on and carried on with the game until we were relieved at 10 p.in. that night. , Poor old Tom James had Ids feet nearly blown off with a bomb, and will probably have it amputated at the knee. “Ad.” Sangster caught a shrapnel pellet in the stern and has a nasty limp. Nork Dewar got killed with shrapnel, in fact, we nearly all got something, and we don’t want to get into so hot a corner again. Remember, we had had practically no food or water all these days and no sleep and dressed in shirt sleeves only. | was so thirsty that I took a waterbottle oft my dead comrade an-.-, drank it. although it was bespattered with blood. Now, the scenes are too gruesome and too horrible o be repeated. Alert lying out in the honing sun lor IS (or more) hours with both leet blown off and without food or water. Others calling piteously tor stretehcr--1 bearers and water and neither could be got for them on account of Turkish ‘snipers and machine guns. ft all seems , a nightmare to me now. but 1 'ani not wanting anj 'more lo,r a w hile. When we'were tebev’ed iu the night we,tookidown as many w’onhded as we’ could under cover ol the darkne and then next- morning comes Ihe most painful ’thing q! all, the rob (fill very, one eager‘and straining ■io see who .is there -and 'V* 10 '* lw)ss " ing,. etc. .ilind this is art mu fits!; attack by any means, but it is bur first liaml; to hand battle lasting over a period of days, ft c lost our adjutant and our major both killed, and i better men one could not wish to work under. It hurt ns very much to learn taiie news, that the position that had cost us many men was lost by the North Laneashires, “Kitchener’s Army.” Talking of Kitchener’s Army, I don’t think-much of them at all. They are the most growling, grousing crowd, 1 ever saw. All halt developed, undersized, undej'fed boys, and it Britain wins the war it will be quantity and not quality that will do it (that is it what we have seen are a fair sample. I do believe that the regulars are good lighters, but the ’ferries and Kitchener’s men are a farce. It is a pity that the Colonies could not put a million of the same stuff ay their first troops in the field. Jhe little Guikhas are the boys too, and as keen as mustard. 1 saw one poor little chap get his arm broken with shrapnel, and as soon as it was bandaged we pointed to j the hospital on the beach, and he said: 1 “No. no,” and then he went through the motion of cutting a Turks neck w’ith his kukri knife and made oft lor the Turkish trendies. Jack Petrie came over on the same boat ,as ns. Poor' old Jack looks ,awful, and got another most’ painful wound through the arm and.chest. Bob Woods escaped again ; lucky beggar indeed. About our “touring army”: called, in at the town of Naples on our way over, and although we could not land , I had a good look around with the aid of my telescope. J saw Vesuvius hel-j cl,ing forth clouds of smoke (similar in Nganiahoe. Ihe Bay of Naples is j, perfect- picture, and the city. fj should say. is very line indeed with its ■ beautiful buildings and tree-covered , hill-sides. Of course, like all foreign ports, the native humhoats ply their wares tor sale around the mercantile boats. They found the Aqnitania a lilt le difficult to work, as her decks are over dlffl off the water. Then we called at Gibraltar, which seems rather a neat little place, and I should think it would he a rather pleasant place to live in. Of course we had seen enough of trims to he much interested in them, idso warships and submarines, and in |' a( ,t anything to do with war. It was fm,* on board the first night to he away from the bombs and ping, ping ol the bullets. M. v word what a difference, between living in dug-outs and trenches and living on board the largest I 3,-jti-li boat afloat (with its lilts and forced draught and all its luxuries). •\ml the meals; enough said, lor the (junard people certainly can cook a hit [i "r-

better than we can after all. In hos--1 pital here they are kindness itself, and we get- everything we want, hut I I nr ,l ess I shall he off back soon, as my finger is just about right. Tin* doctor took the nail off. and tiidn t he give me fits for a while. I. saw them dig several bullets and shrapnel pelIwts out of chaps on the boat, no anaesthetic at all. J think that that is 'over the odds. From what I have seen • u f England I like the country from 'Southampton, to London very much in‘deed. Every inch of it is beautiful 'and a picture in itsell, but London, so far as I can see is all chimney pots and smoke? but of course L have only seen it from the top of the hospital.