The Dardanelles

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 20, 29 December 1915, Page 5

The Dardanelles

A MID-WIMTER STORM. TERRIBLE PLIGHT OF TROOPS. FROZEN DEAD AT THE LOOPHOLES, FRIEND AND FOE SUFFER 1 ALIKE.[United Prkss association.] (Received 9 a.m.)- . * London, December 28. Mr Ward Price, writing on December 13, says.: The Turkish artillery lire, which was due to the opening of a railway,* is increasing. Rig guns have been' drawn by bullocks along the solitary road, but they were so slow in getting into position that the smaller guns, which are now manned by expert Austrian and German artillerymen, are bombarding the beaches at Helles daily at a six-mile range with six-inch explosives, but it is surprising how little damage has been done, although they can bombard from three sides with absolute precision. The weather, however, is more capable of giving trouble than the Turkish, artillery. A recent storm caught the light vessels which were sheltering in KOphalos Bay- in Imbros, and also damaged the breakwaters which the. British constructed at Suvla. Helles and Kephalos Bay by sinking old sand-filled ships. The hurricane from the 27th to the 29th was a terrible trial to the Britishers, Australians and Aew who were penned in the narrow trenches on the naked ridges. It first rained in torrents for twelve hours, and then came a piercing frost, and drenched overcoats became so stiff that they stood up themselves, and the water froze around the men’s feet as they slept from utter exhaustion. Some were only kept alive by working all night long with picks and shovels. After the night came a blizzard, and the men, iii a frozen condition and buffetted by the wind and sleet, were hardly able to move and keep the circulation of the blood ahve. They endured agonies. Sentries watching at, the loopholes wei'f found dead at their posts, being f rozen rigid, with their fingers still clutching their rifles in an iron-fast grip, and their blackened faces still leaning under a sackcloth of curtains' against the loopholes. Never since the .Crimea' have British' troops endured such an oi’deal. Those who doubted that the Australians could endure exposure may rest assured that they stood the trial well. The Turks suffered worse, being without blankets andwaterproof sheets, and they had to sleep in their overcoats. When the twelve-hour cloudburst turned the gullies into raging torrents many of the dead bodies of the Turks were washed down with carcases of mules and sundries in equipment. The Turkish trenches were so flooded that the men vei e forced to-get out and lie in the open, where we shot them, though the lingers of some of our men were too frozen to pull the triggers. As an officer said: “We could only grin at the Turks.” Fortunately, the weather ha? since set fair, and now a .spell of mild Riviera weather >is enabling the hooded trenches to be repaired, the parapets to be re-built, and the smashed jetties to be mended. .