The War on Gallipoli.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIII, Issue 61, 10 November 1915, Page 5

The War on Gallipoli.

NOTES BY A RETURNED NEW | ZEALAND SOLDIER. THE ANZAC POSITION. t (By C.S.K.) j I .seem to remember reading recent- ' ly an article in which a newspaper correspondent candidly admitted that he could make no attempt to give : >u idea oi' the position occupied by the Australians and New Zealanders at Gaba Tepe. Although 1 intend to try to do so I admit that it is difficult to describe the position so that a person who has never seen any part of the Peninsula can get a clear idea of how the New Zealanders' tiring-line lies. (It should be noted that when "Any.ac" is used here it signifies the Gaba Tepe position as it existed at the end of .June. At the beginning of August the position was enlarged; but the present idea is to give some idea ol the place where the New Zealanders landed and consolidated themselves in the first place). The topography of the Peninsula seems largely of the one sort all over, and a prominent feature is a "cut-off." The hill Achi Baba rises more or less gently from Cape Holies, but at its highest it is cut oil', and its back face consists of high cliffs—just as if it had been cm off with a spade. Looking across, to the vicinity of Kilid Balir and Maidos the cut-off faces of hills face An/.ac At a good many points on the coast there are high cliffs. And the Anzac position is situated on a cut-off. It is on the lower slopes of the notorious Hill 971. From this high hill spurs run, very naturally, in all directions. The position lies across one of the main spurs, the one running to the sea. Behind the firing line the spur breaks up into a number of smaller spurs. But the main spur has been cut off. It has the appearance of having at one time run much further out to sea than at present it does, the presumption being that the sea and the weather have together gradually worn away the softer soil of the spur. What remains is a series of short gullies with quicklyrising beds and with sides never very much off the perpendicular. Often the ridge of the spur is worn away to the rock, and most often the sides of the gullies are in a state of perpetual slips. Here and there there is a shellow gully in which short scrub grows, these being most common on the seaward side of the main gully. The point where the land ceases to be "fair sheep country" and begins to be "gullies liable to slips" is practically the line of the firing-line round the whole position. The firing-line therefore, has a roughly circular shape, the ends resting on the sea. 1 'rising on spurs to the top of the main spur. (It must be remembered that I was merely a footie private, and that I have taken my impressions from a long distance, for one had his daily business to do, and there were parts of the firing-line which one never visited). The firing-line was just ahead of the top of the sides of the steep gullies Now one gets to it by means oi stairways cut out of the hill, but on the first day the soldiers had to scramble tip the' gully sides as best they could, and at points it was absolutely necessarv to use ropes to pull oneself up the almost perpendicular slopes, which are at the back of practically the whole position. In fact ' ropes are still in use at some points. ' It i s a matter of some difficulty to .ret from privates a clear statement of what happened; during an advance. This is not surprising, as during an advance one is so much engaged on the business in hand that one does not notice details of where he goes. But so far as I heard it appeared that the New Zealanders traversed all the small spurs-went across them, came down the slope of one spur, up the slope of the next and so on-they did not advance up the beds of the gullies. One soldier who described the advance was eloquently inarticulate as to the endless number of spurs there seemed to be; and after the endless switchback of the small spurs there was the strenuous work of scaling the side of the main gully, ft is now a generally accepted dictum that none but British men could have gained a footing on this steep locality; ami probably only British men could hold the position. OUCe occupied. Sitting down in the crullv, looking up probably 200 feet to the firing line, one was impressed with the slender-looking footing we have; a „d it seemed that it would be easy j for the Turk to come out in his tlvousI ands and push the British men hifi-n-eldv-piggeldv over into the gully, , and' following quickly, chase them IVoni spur to spur, ami finally sweep I an insignificant remnant into the sea. But for months the British mdn have held the position; and after tlje position W as properly consolidated there was never much chance of the lurks i breaking through, as the Turks learnt to their cost when they tried to do so. During the first three days the lurks had an outside sporting chance ol dmi„K the invaders off, when the firingline consisted of no better trenches than the individual "poz/aes" ot the soldiers; and they knew it and took full advantage of it. sending up attacks all through the night. But the , Antipodean Britons stuck to their .1 W ork like Britons, and to-day the • trench svstein is such that the line is prarticallv impregnable, unless the whole top of the gully is blasted away with Jack Johnsons. At Quinn s I ost. where a great deal of hot fighting was

done, the trenches are now such that the soldier is "safe as a house. "s The firing trench was previously open on top, but the use of bombs by the Turks made a change desirable and the trench was roofed over. The support trenches are tunnels hollowed out of the hill, with a good thickness of earth between the men's heads and the enemy's lire. The reserve "trendies" are platforms cut out of the side of the hill. These platforms were quite free from danger from shrapnel—owing to the slope of the hill the shells could not strike any part of it. Here also the effects of bombs were felt and now there is a roof, with a good coating of earth over each platform. At Courtenay's Post, next door, all the trenches are open, but the platforms are roofed over. Hero a new line of trenches has been built in a somewhat novel manner. A device was sent out from the front trench, and when it had proceeded a few yards branches were made right and left and iu time openings were made in the roof of the tunnels, making a new firing line, with the roof left on certain portions of the tunnel to give protection front heavy artillery lire. The earthworks jail along th ( > line are on an elaborate scale, ami the manning is also on a generous scale. A whole battalion would man the position, one company having ample men and to spare to iill the two front trenches, and the whole battalion was concentrated in such a manner that the furthest back man in the reserves had no further than a 'hundred yards to go to get into the front trench. And down in the gully, 'no more than half a mile away, there lay another battalion, which, technically "resting" at the time, could be Called upon if support were needed. iTaking everything into consideration, it is sale to presume that the Anzac [position can be held till Doomsday if 'necessary. General headquarters (jocularly called "hindquarters") is 'situated on the beach, and the little 'settlement which has grown up there 'presents a busy scene at almost all times of the day s