AT GALLIPOLI PENINSULA.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 263, 2 August 1915, Page 4

AT GALLIPOLI PENINSULA.

BY A TAiHAPE BOY. WILLIE BERTENSHAW’S NARRATIVE. OF A DARING EXPLOIT. Some time ago we published an able and interesting lettcV from Mr Ueidonshaw who is with the Main Expeditionary Forces at the from.* Hereunder is a further communication received by his parents in Taihape a few days ago. The letter was commenced cm May 14th, unj it is a first hand report of the actual lighting, in that respect it is far rnorv; reliable and interesting than the second-hand stories from the ordinary war correspondents. It is a terse epitome of what took place shorn of ail the padding

and imaginings that only too often consittutc a larg e portion of a news-

paper man’s report, and it narrates iu turn the most thrilling tragedy and the grimmest of humour. Mr Bcrlen:sha\v writes as follows;

(With kind permission of the Censer) May 12th 1915. My Darling Mother,—l can just imaging how anxious you will be about me when you read the reports in the papters of our being in action, but don’t woiky, I am quite alright, and so is Norman, W e have had a fortnight at the front and believe me, some parts of it were; very hot. As a matter cf fact, sitting down now in comfort and writing to you and thinking It all over, I put it down as marvellous that both of us came out of it without a -cratch. What we have been through and th e sights we saw, well, I cannot find words to explain it The ever glorious Australians —their name will go /down in history! Thtej British Tommie was not to be compared with the wild Australian that landed on the coast of the Gallipoli Peninsula, and earned the r!dg e fc,r three miles at 'he point of the bayonet, under the heavy rifle and machine gun fire of the enemy. That magnificent charge, struck terror into the hearts of the Turks, who outnumbered the Australians by 15 to 1. But our losses were heavy, as was only to be exil/cted. Several boat loads were mowed down before they touched the beach. THE LANDING. The boats wer e towed ashore by pinnaces from the. warships and the destroyers, and were maimed by bluejackets .several of whom picked up the rifles of th e fallen Australians, jumped ashore and rushed up the hill. The ailoi’s off the destroyers say that landing was a sight that would live in ‘heir memory* for ever. Australians "ere falling in all directions only to

make room for more, n!?wer waiting ’o,r the command of their officers. As soon us the boats touched ths beach they jumped ashore and being told where the enemy were on the hillside, made one dash, driving the enemy back .yvejp th e hill and on to the flat. They had to retire on to the ridge as reinforcements were not coming fast enough, and there entrenched themselves. Our New Zealanders were then landed, and all day Monday and TuesIr.v fought side bv side with the Aus"mlians. B-.fh offered heavy ’ossos. But cur boys had landed. Lot Cie cue,my know they .were there ‘o step. On Tuesday night, May 3rd., the Turks attacked the New Zealandon the left flank but were repulsed with heavy losses. The Australians and Now Zealanders are one now; we call them “Our Boys.” WHAT PART I TOOK.

You will want to know what part I took in all this, so here goes: When our boys landed they carried three days’ iron .rations with thejm, which consisted of bully beef and biscuits, to carry them on untill stores could be landed ' and a base formed on the beach Three days after the first landing. lh c beach looked like a little township—piles of stores, mules tethered all along the beach, to say nothing of donkeys, too, who were’ doing 'good work. Dug-cut shelters were madT in side of hill for , the Headquarters and the General. The bluejackets worked hard, towing barges ashore leaded with stores, mules, and soldiers making wharves and anything that came in flier way.

On the) morning of the fourth day I made my first trip with three mules packed with stores up to the trenches. Shall I ever forget my first baptism of fire? No! Three miles I had to so up a gully with shrapnel shells falling' all round mo. But no matter how I felt, I had to go on. The boys in the trenches wanted the food and they must have it. I was not alone, though; there wer e three of us with three mules each in the convoy. The nearer to the tirenches we got the thicker th e bullets were flying round us. Reaching our destination we were received with cheers from the boys, half of whom had been for two days with only a biscuit, having lost theik rations. For ten days we worked night and day carting stores up to the right and left flank.

DEAD MAN’S GULLY. The gully which has to be traversed to get up to the right flank is now called “Dead Man's Gully,” and a fitting name for it, too. The enemy’s snipers gcjt behind ouir trenches and hide in the .hillside of the gully, and as wego up with the convey they snipe

|at us. 'Juliets have whi....ed dose L ‘ • to me tliar- 1 have gene i.la .... ; cold ail over and wondered it the next would do it. Oil Sunday, the bin May, the gully was impassable. T!ie lurks, finding out that our transports were carting stores up there, the]lad evt'ry j inch of it. But the stores had to go J up, also sacks and ammunition. The' sacks arc to build up th'3, trenches ? with. So we waited lor night. The . Generals had prepared to attack for . that uighl, 100. Funucluully at 7 . o’clock, the warships in the hay open- . ed lire on tUa enemy’s pcs!lien and • kept it up until 7.30. Whe,u they stopped, it was th e signal for our coys to . charge. It was about 10 n.nn before . iwe started with our convoy and the [battle was just at its height. The gul- . {ly was thick with bullets coming over I' from ih 3 enemy’s trenches and the snipers wcce hard at it. Dead and wounded were lying all over the path (men going up to the trenches.) The ! road was blocked with stretrhev-bear- | err. bringing down thewounded, and , we had to keep stopping to make room [for them. It was “Hell” in that gully that night, what with the noise of the firing and the groans of Uiq wounded and dying. M'e,u falling all round you., bullets whizsing past your nose, so close ns to make a draught. Many a one of us would have liked to turn back *hat night, but' we pushed ou thinking every minute would be our a]st. We were told to make; a dash for it and we did. We got there, God knows how. As soon as cur loads were off we made a dash back. Going round, one bend they turned a machine gun on ns. but they aimed too low and the. bullets were hitting the ground all round us. Aye! When you come to look on the funny side of it, : t makes you laugh. When you think of ns coming round that bend at the do aide and doing the hop, skip and a jump just as th e bullets hit the ground, I guess some cf us would tak a first prize now at the Lard Mayor’s snow in London for high stepping. We arrived back at the base in penny numbers, and looked round with anxious faces to see who was missing. We only lost 2 drivers, 3 wounded, and 13 mules, 7 being kill--d and 8 wounded. They don’t only give you a warm time going up to the trench es, but the bon gang ha.v#» vot Tie range of our depot on beach,and ocularly at mcal times they shower the’ beach with shrapnel, which causes us to crawl into our dug-cuts like -ahbits into their burrows. The other ■ day I crawled out of my dug-out to boll the billy", and had just lit thp. fire in cl stark the billy on when a. shrapnel burst and pelted all round me, riddling a kerosene tin of water.

The boys, e they come dwon from !-.h 9 trendies, don’t stay very long, as they reckon the are safW up in the trenches than down at the depot. One

poor fellow living in a dug-out not far

from curs ns lighting his f>"e for din-

ner and didn’t hem" a slmT burst, it -trud-T. hin’., and they put him on the •t-e'chef in pieces. TRAGEDY AND COMEDY It is nothing to witr is tragedy, drama, and con cdy all in live minutes at the depot. ller e is cue Instance: A shrapnel shell burst and killed an a.s.g. man by the water-tanks. A naval man 'rescued a wcumitj-d comrade off one of the barges under heavy shrapnel fire. Shrapnel shell burst, and. a man rushed into his dug-out and started to scratch cut. the dirt with his hands, just like a dog burrowing. Oil! I forgot to mention that was spent our first night ashore in the trenches. News was received that the Trirks were advancing, in a large body along the beach and every available man had to take to th e trenches to protect the Depot The first time in history, I think, that the nA.S.C. has manned the trenches, but' we were withdrawn the next morning. T don’t know how I look, but I know I feel ton years oldcir since I have been at the front. We expect to go back again in a week or two. A WELL-EARNED REST. At present we ar e enjoying a wellearned rest. I would like to tell you the why’s and wheyefer’s of cur rest but you know Mr Censor wculd soon scour it out. I don’t know but what. ; he won’t cut a big heap of this cut, but 11 hop e not. 1 Our boys are still holding on to their positions, and waiting for the E'.ritish and French troops to come up and join hands, then there will be a general carving up of the Turkey. I am afraid I have said as much as time will permit me, and not forgetting Mr Censor, but I can assure you it is a treat to be out of range of the bullets and shells for a while, the strain on the nerves was getting intense, ducking and dodging continuously. If you see Mr Aldridge tell him I saw Gus about three days age, when they came down from the trenches’ ! and he was looking O.K. H e had come i through his first fight’ and bayonet ■ charge without a scratch. [ Don’t worry about us’ but just hope . and pray for the best’ and may God kelp me to pull through it, when I go back. A CONTINUATION.

As '|l "Was unfortunate enough to •miss the mail with, my letter, I am going to give you a little more news. We are, back at Alexandria, in a Rest Camp’ If you could call it that. But let me go back to outr life on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Of course, for

you people sitting- at home reading the papers about the war, you cannot realizs what it is, the awful sights yon see and what you have to go through, shrapnel bursting all round you at th 8 Depot is nothing, hut one continual nerve-racking. strain of wondering when your turn is coming. When we leave, our dug-outs in th e , morning wo look upon it as our good luck if we return at night and are aide to talk •over the close shaves vvg have had. The “Dead Man’s Gully” was, as I have said previously, a death tray no could believe or realize what it ’ m. like unless they went up it. After tftfee cr four trips up it one got hardened and just looked upon death as a matter of course. On several occasions cue.dr perhaps 2cf the mules you wore, leading would he shot dead, and you would have to stop and unfasten the chains, that link thorn together, leave, their loads and push on. Msv sth was a day to remember. The Turks had planned (so we were informed by a Turkish major, who'redo into the, Depot and gave himself up) to give us an inflate shell firs on lit? right hand of the beach where all the mules and horseg wc~e tethered. This performance was to commence punctually at T p.nn, but they altered their plans and gave us a matinee in the afternoon. Sure, and it was hot, shell after •shell landed right in the midst of the miiics and horses, sweeping the beach clean. The dug-outs, even, were not safe. Shrapnel was falling inside, playing havoc. W e released as many mules as we could but it was too hot Dead men and dead xuues were lying all over nhe beach. Could you have seen it it would have made you shudder. Out of a batch of 150 mules, 63 were killed and 17 wounded. Nines ■ men were killed and several wounded. Every minute of the day you would expect the shrapnel to pick you off, it was one continual bobbing down cr falling fiaL

HISTORY-MAKING EXPLOITS May sth

Things were: not.going too good with the British and French troops on our -extreme right. The French having landed under heavy fire and great difficulties, tried to take, a hill, but had to ratibe. leaving two batteries of 8 .guns behind them. This was a sad loss, and bad work and a corps of Il.itish were seat to re-take tire guns. took them after three days’ hard fighting, but could not bold them, and

also had to retire leaving them behind

Word was received at our headquari ters that 3000 Australians and 3000 New Zealanders were to be sent round. Sir lan Hamilton was overheard to say that it was the Colonials who would .take. th e hill and guns, and hold them. They left about 2 a.in. on Wednesday morning, on May sth, being conveyed round to the right flank by the destroyers. The landed about 4 a.m. and by 7 a.m. the same morning they had taken the hill, recaptured uw. guns and haul them, themselves, into saAjty. Ic lock cur glori■ous boys three hour’s to do what the French and British failed to do in

tiiioc days. They say a was a glorious charge. AusAaiuns and New Zealanders fighting sicl-Cj by .side v.ith one determination, and that to ta-ks the liiii cx.u me guns, 'iiu.se vvuu were lie A e and saw .t say aac ironi me fjry common Janei.- u that great battle ite victory f-r cur bays v.as iifci.! in aouji. it .*t.s a sdconu glorious landing'. Our losses were very bc-avy. I heard that we lost 64 kille-d, 300 missing /.as good .as dead) and 400 wounded, to say nothing of the Australians’ loss which was heaviest. Ther e ar e - v -ery- few ieit now of the old Wellington .Battalion that came out with the Alain Body. Poor Lieut. Menteatli was killed in that fight, tie did great work!

There is one hig bond of friendship between the Australians mud Negv Zealanders now, and the .estrangement that existed between the two bcjiore this campaign has now gon e for ever. They sing our praise and we sing theirs.

We were ordered back on to our .boats, all the A.SLC.., Australians and n4w Zealanders, .and we left with our transports, horses and mules, straight for Alexandria to reorganise, as at jiresent, it is impossible to land wagons at Gallipoli, only pack mules could be used. So you can pretty we.ll guess what sort of country we have had to •contend with. W t q are camped about 10 miles out of Alexandria, 2 miles across the desert from the tramway. This w e traverse on donkeys and tvhen wee return from town at night there 5s generally a race home from the train on .donkeys.

Alexandria is a far welter town than Ca2r<y £ ao'x’e siv i'd^e'cj 1 , although 1 , course it doesn’t possess the ancient sights that Cairo does. I can assume you that the first day we were) paid w e spent a very irJrry night in town, and returned to camp in the early hours of the morning. It was a treat to get back into civilisation again, sind to fojL-get the ; horrors of war for awhile.

Our camp reaches for a*mile along the beach, so you can Imagine we have plenty of swimming. Now that we-have got everything working in ordey we don’t (have a bad time of it. Our daily routine is as follows: Reveille 4 a.m„ stables 4.15 am., exercis e hordes and mules until 6 o’clock, feejd up to 6.30, j dismiss stables 6.45, breakfast 7. Njext parade 19.-S0 a.m, stable's, dinner 12 ]

noon, stables 1.30 p.m, and 4 p.m., tea 5 p.m—finis. Wo do nothing in between stables, but lie] about, read or swim all day. We have an awful officer In charge of us at present, Lieut. Cameron, No cue. has any time for him. Ho was cnly ashore two days at Gallipoli and was se,ut hack to the shin for refusing to come out of his dugout on an order. Ms said tlio shrapnel was too dangerous. Of course the matter was as usual hushed up and he got off. Tim heat here is trying, but. th e sea. breeze makes It bearable. Must clos c now. Write again next week. Heaps cf love, WILLIE. NEW ZEALAND NEWS. f FATAL TRAM ACCIDENT. UNKNOWN MAN KILLED. WELLINGTON. This Day. A fatal tram accident occurred on Saturday nigrt. An unknown man, about fifty, walking- along Courtney Place;, was struck by a that' and thrown on his back. H,e was taken ot the hospital, where h e died.

MAORI WOMAN FATALLY BURNED

THROUGH CLOTHES TAKING FIRE.

A Maori woman, named Ngawine, wo hlivsd fourteen .miles from Manakau, was fatally burnt lost Monday through her cloths?; accidentally catch-

ing fire

A PROFESSED JOKER

SHOT BY A SENTRY

WELLINGTON, This Day

| About three o’clock yesterday morn!rg a man natnPjd Brewer sink in the shoulder by a sentry at Fort Dorset The authorities ar e reticent, but it s stated that Brewer said he was joking to see if th e sentry’s rifle was loaded, c<r if h e would use it. Brewer was conveyed to the Wellington Hospital. NATIONAL CABINET. LEADERS OF BOTH PARTIES. TO MEET LORD LIVERPOOL. IN CONFERENCE TO-DAY. WELLINGTON, This Day. The following statement was issued from Govern merit House late yesterday; Tlie Governor desires it to be known that h e lias invited the Right Hon. the Prime Minister and the Right Hon. the Leader of the Opposition, together with certain of their followers, '•o moot him in confoyenpe on the' I'Utiral situation at Government " r 'ujse. Hi', suggestion has ’'-■•mi readily accepted by both leaders opri thf> takes place this tMor.dsy) afternoon. BUTTER IN STORE. FORMER YEARS COMPARED. WF r LTNGTON. Tors Day. -vmtr figure" show th?; ... - I r,,, a *; the .. rmrts on July PI; Auckland, 2806 boxes; New Plymouth, 080; Patea 720; Wanganui, 637; Gisborne, 59; Wellington. 4360; Lyttelton, 1851; Tim. | am, 60; Dunedin, 588; total 11,29 y. The total on July 31st. 1914, was 22,644; July 31st, 1913, 13,872.