FIGHTING AT THE DARDANELLES

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 263, 24 July 1915, Page 3

FIGHTING AT THE DARDANELLES

FRESH TALES FROM THE TRENCHES. •A WOUNDED MAJOR’S EXPERIENCES. BRAVERY OF THE WOUNDED. (Prom Malcolm Ross, Official War Correspondent with the New Zealand Forces.)

June 4th

Major Loach, of the Ist Canterbury Infantry, whom I found in bed in the Anglo-American Hospital, had rather a bad wound on his leg behind the knee. The wound was, however, healing gradually, and he was quite cheerful. H e had gone with the 12th and 13th Companies of the Ist Canterbury Infantry on the Sunday night to reinforce the left flank of the Australians, which was being severely handled by th e enemy. The Canterbury men dug right in and saved the position—a ridge running at right angles to the sea. If the Turks had got that ridge they would have wiped everything off the beach. It was a razor-back, and the position was such that the Turkish shrapnel went right over it unless it landed absolutely on the razor-back. Major Loach said the landing was about a mile north of the actual point of Gaba Tepe, because the Navy people knew that there was barbed wire at the latter place. Th e heights fronting the beach wer e so steep that in places the troops had to haul their ammunition up with ropes. The whole army corps was situated in a narrow semicircle. Col. Stewart was killed while looking for two. companies that had previously gone up about 3 o’clock on the Sunday afternoon, and that had not come back. Major Loach went to find where these companies were, and to lead th e others up to the position. He met the corporal, who was badly wounded, coming down, and he told him that the colonel had been killed. He also learned from the corporal that Major Grant had died of a bad wound, and that Lieut. Barclay (son of Dr Barclay, of Temuka) was badly wounded and missing.

Subsequently the 12th and 13th Companies had to come back from this position to the beach, and they were then erdreed to occupy the extreme left, and to hold at all costs. On the Monday they consolidated that position, and made a road up which they could carry ammunition. On Tuesday, the 12th Company went to the top of th e hill to reinforce the Australians, and scouts were sent out on a reconnaissance as far as the Fisherman’s Hut. On the Thursday the scouts made another reconnaissance, and, the hills farther to th e north were occupied. Under cover of darkness, Major Loach led the 12th Company ot occupy a ridge running towards the sea, and on Friday the position on the left was further consolidated. On Saturday h e got badly hit in the leg, and had to leave for Cairo. The feat of the Canterbury men in seizing th e hit’s on the left and in holding them in the face of severe opposition was one that required ini-

tiative, daring, and great tenacity and it had a material influence upon the situation during the early days of the Peninsula occupation. Major Loach, who is now en route to New Zealand, says they had an awful experience removing the wounded during these first days. They had to get them first of all on to the punts, and as there was no staging they had to rig up planks. It was rather an ordeal for such of the wounded as could do it to walk those planks. Others, of course, had to b e carried. Subsequently, there was the transference from the punts to the ships, transports in some instances having to do duty for hospital ships. “The people that won my admiration,” said Major Loach, were the stretcher-bearers By Jove! I never thought they would work like that: and they were under fire practically the whole time. Even when I cam e away the Turkish shells were following us down to the shore, and not only one shell at a time, but a dozen. Our comparatively safety lay in the fact that they burst a little too high, and ailso in the fact that some of them, instead of being filled with shrapnel bullets, were filled, with sawdust. Certain clips of cartrdig.es were also found with neither cordite nor lead in them. On the Canal our men found similar clips. They had an Arabic mark on them, so apparently they were not made, in Germany. There would usually be three or four such clips in an abandoned box of cartridges. Sitting on the ridg e we watched these shells tmrsting in the water. You could see the bits of broken shell and the head as they dropped in the water, but could not see. any bullets splashing.” Amongst he wounded Major Loach saw was Colonel Peerless. A.M.C. (a Nelson man), who got a shrapnel bullet in the thigh; Captain Gresson, , who was taken to Alexandria rather badly wounded; Padr e Taylor, who went to Malta as cheery as ever; Colonel Plugge, who was wounded in the back; and Major Harrowed, who had both arms bound up. Morice, one of the Canterbury subalterns, died of wounds on th e way over. The Wellingon Battalion, Major Loach said; came up on the Tuesday afternoon and extended the left. He believed they were the last battalion to land, and so escaped the hottest fire of th e landing. The Aucklanders were th e first'of the New Zealanders to get ashore, and they went slap into the centre with heavy losses. , OTAGO MAN’S EXPERIENCES. The numerous hospitals at Alexandria were very full of wounded, and here it was that one found the worst cases. In the hospital hurriedly established in the Victoria College buildI i,ng> about jthree miles- hut of the [ town, I found an Otago man, Pvt. Mc- ; Pherson. A piec e of shrapnel had ripped him down the back, but he was making good progress and was very bright. He paid a high tribute to the bravery of the Australians. On one occasion h e saw som e fifteen or twenty of them entrench in a position right over the hill. They went out of their trench for some distance to do a bit of sniping, and. while they wer e cut two or three of their men were hit over. They, however, took no notice

of this and kept on sniping. Some Turks who were just over the brow of the hill then charged with fixed bayonets; but instead of turning and running for of their trnech the whole lot of them walked calmly backwards, firing at the Turks as they came charging on. Not only did they do that, but instead of leaving th e two men who had been knocked over four of the party got them by the arms and carried them right into the trench. OTAGO MEN ENFILADED.

On th e second Sunday, Private M'Pherson stated, three companies of the Otago Battaliin charged and took some Turkish trenches, but they were enfiladed by a machine gun and lost heavily. “Our adjutant,” said M'Pherson, “was shot that night. Moir, cur second in command .with about fifty men, got cut off in that attack, and when we retreated the O.C. thought they must have been captured or absolutely slaughtered. Two days later Moir turned up with what was left of his company. He had been holding (trenches that h e had (captured for those two days.” M'Pherson said he was sure that some explosive bullets were used. He, like everyone else,referred to the magnificent heroism of th e stretcher-bear-ers. They brought in even the hopeless cases. The staff were nearly all the tim e under fire. When he was coming down wounded he saw General Godley going up a gully where there was a great deal of sniping. A lot of the fellows, h e added, got shot going for water. In such rough country it was almost impossible to get rid of the snipers.

A TRIBUTE TO OUR WOUNDED. At this hospital I met a doctor who has made a nam e for himself as a baceriologist, and is an authority on tropic diseases in Egypt. He had come { down from the Soudan to beilp with 1 the first big rush of wounded. I was introduced to him as a New Zealander. “By Jove!” he said with hearty spontaneity, “your men are splendid fellows. I have never seen such soldiers. They come in her e with the most ter-' rible wounds, and there is never a murmur or a complaint from .them. They are truly heroic —'both the New Zealanders and the Australians. It was the same story in all the other hospitals, both in Alexandria and Cairo. My own experience has been similar. I hae seen wounds of all kinds probed and dressed, and there has never been a murmur from the vast majority of patients. The Soudan doctor told me of one man a Sergeant M‘aKy, from Queensland —who, in thre e campaigns, has stopped seven bullets. H e was lying wounded in the* Victoria College Hospital, and it was a treat to watch the delight with which he described a. bayonet charge mto the Turkish trenches. H e would close his eyes, put his head back, and conclude his description with “Man, it was grand; I would like to be into them again!”

A CONVALESCENT HOME. While in Alexandria I drove out to see the convalescent home that Lady Oodley has established the,r e as the result of private subscriptions that she has gathered and some assistance from the New. Zealand Government. It is in

cin excellent situation some distance cut of the town, and it gets the cool sea breeze. In thes e days when, the teremometer mounts to 115 deg. in the tents of the Cairo camps such a house forms an ideal place in which the New Zealand convalescens can rest and recuperate for a fortnight or three weeks before going back to the firing lin e or to whatever fate th e Gods or the Medical Board may send them. Colonel Esson, who is doing fine work: on the Q.M.G.’s staff, assisted Lady Godley in establishing the home on a satisfactory basis. It can accommodate about thirty men. A number of people in England have subscribed to the home. On e donor gave £3O, another £IOO. Lady Godley, who wears the unifrom of a Red Cross nurse, lives in. th e home, and takes charge of all the arrangements, which seem to be excellent.

WOUNDED CONVALESCENTS.

On a balconj', two young men were were plaj'ing draughts, and a third was watching them. One had been hit in the foot, another through thp leg above? the knee, and the third through the shoulder. Their names were Corporal Pike, Private Paskp, and Private Lowry. The corpora!, who belonged to the Wellington Infantry, said his lot landon the Monday morning, about 4 0 ’clock. They were held in reserve all the Monday, but were under shrapnel fire until they dug themselves in. On the Monday night they were shifted up as supports, but the shrapnel sent them down again that same night after two hours’ work. On the Tuesday morning they rtoved up on the extreme right, and the West Coast Company and two platoons of B Company took a hill anti held it in conjunction with the left flank of the x\ustralians. This height was about 400 ft sheer up. It was climbing it. that they lost most of their men. The Turks were on top of the hill when they got there, but they drove them out at the point of the bayonet. It was just a blind, mad rush T but the Turks had to quit. All that afternon they were fighting and digging in. “On one occasion the enemy charged a number of our fellows:/* said the corpora), “and they had to retire for a time. Then ,we made a counter-attack and drove them right off the hill. For two or three hours the. position was just hanging in the balance, but we held it. We were for four days like that, until we dug right in. 1 ” On the Tuesday night, the Turks attacked, blowing English bugle calls in an amusing manner. They were, however, repulsed, and for ten days the Colonials held the position. Then 1 young Pike got hit in the foot and had to be taken down to the beach.

Corporal Pike mentioned two very" plucky incidents that came under his own notice. Hales, in No. 2, was working a machine-gun, when it jammed. Lieutenant Bryant then went up. got the gun going again at'a critical time, and worked it himself. He (Pike) also saw* Corporal Woodhead (who had been an Imperial sergeant-major) carrying wounded out under heavy fire.