FIGHTING AT THE DARDANELLES

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 319, 14 October 1915, Page 3

FIGHTING AT THE DARDANELLES

NEW MOVEMENT ON THE

PENINSULA.

ANOTHER LANDING

NEW ZEALANDERS IN A NIGHT

ATTACK.

(From Malcolm Ross, Official War Correspondent with the }\ T ew Zealand Forces).

No. 3 Outpost, 7t.li August

For some weeks now the armies at Cape Helles (have sat facing each other in the trenches. Since the big battle on the Achi Baba front at the end of June—when, at considerable cost, the Allies gained a thousand yards — and the subsequent advance of 400 yards, rio movement of any importance has taken place. With the New Zealand and Australian forces facing the. Turk on the ragged cliffs and ridges of Sari.Ba'r, the same conditions have applied. The Australians on the right, have sallied forth and, in unimportant skirmishes, have taken a trench or two; but there have been no encounters except oil minor importance. The threatened Turkish attack came to nothing. Not even Ramazan could induce the Turk to leave his trenches. For once religious fervour had to take a back seat to German tactics. Yet a 1 the time strategy and organisation were marching stealthily but steadily toward a grand climacteric on the Peninsula of Gallipoli. (NEW PREPARATIONS

By the end of July preparations were well in hand, and things were happening up and down the Ion? line of communications extending on the one hand from England, and on the other from New Zealand and Australia. Strangelowking craft like nothing ever seen before upon the face of the waters entered the harbours of islands in the Aegean—that once were Turkish. These were the new monitors. Cruisers bristling with, guns stood off shore and bombarded the Turkish positions, not caring, apparently, about enemy submarines. Battleships came more warily into action, and sent their biig shells' hurtling into Asia, while our, own submarines rcse gleaming like great porpoises beside the very quays of Constantinople. Troopships and supplyships came and went. The water that we drank and with which we shaved was fetched from London and Liverpool. We washed in sea water. The Ark Royal, with her seaplanes and the balloon ships went bravely about their master's business, ami the G-nilf of Saros was dotted wtih destroyers and trawlers, and drifters, and steam pinnaces. Day in and day out they braved the enemy's shot and shell. And high above all these —often with the. white fleecy puffs of burstij>jg shrapnel dotting their winding courses —flew the graceful aeroplanes with their daring pilots and observers, mapping out the Turkish positions and dropping bombs. It was interesting to watch seven of fihem flying down the Dardanelles in the late evening past Helles, and on

to the island home. With, such aids and adventures did we once more adjust our far-flung battle line. A NEW FORCE.

In the midst of it all one day rHvisioiis of the King's new armies began to arrive—surfeited with a year's tr.:ining; eager for action. They looko i a likely lot— not possessing the Herculean strength of the Australians and the New Zealanders, but. sturdy and fit. None doubted that they would give a good account of themselves. With them came Gurkhas and Sikhs. The troops poured into Anzac Cove under the cover of darkness and deployed to right, and left.

On the evening before the great adventure there were some nervous bursts cf rifle fire, as if the Turks; had a premonition of coming danger. The destroyers guarding our flanks as usual directed their waving searchlights athwart the Peninsula and sent in an occasional shell. Farther south the flash of guns from the sea. could be seen opposite the Krithian 'heights. A gentle south wind blew and lightning played • from an angry cloud above Samothrace. Waking at 3 a.m. one noticed a waning crescent moon above the heights of Anzac; the south wind had shifted from Samothrace to Imbros. With dawn came pinnaces and drifters and trawlers, bursts cf riflle fire, and the occasional boom of a gun. The enemy had seen some Indian troops landing in the early dawn, and they commenced to shell the little pier. Gurkhas and Sikhs came in two barges, waited for the word to disembark, and then walked calmly off the wharf with rifies, haversacks, and all their other belongings, one man trotting like a Chinaman with his bundles slung at cither end of a pole balanced . acrces hi s shculler. A few Turkish ! shells fired from the south fell short. Another gun from the north also failed to reach the mark. Their shells fell harmlessly into the sea. lashing the water into foam. Just above us from ' our back trenches on the crest of the steep yellow cliff came the crackle of intermittent rifle fire, and the sharper pointed Turkish bullets in reply went with a melancholy whistling wail over.! Van". !

A gun in the north with a high explosive shell began to get a better range en the landing, but still without effect. On the right another gun was just missing a trawler. The vessel moved away slowly. One shell almost "•• L . her on the water-line. Finally one hit her on the deck for'ard, and a little cloud of black smoke arose. Slowly the trawler turned her nose to sea and steamed away out of range. She was not seriously damaged. As the foi-enoon wore on a howitzer opened on Us from the centre of the Turkish position, one shell bursting on the Indian cemetery in front cf my dug-out and shaking the earth down on my writing pad. Some Indians digging a grave escaped miraculously. One of them picked up a chunk of the burst, casing from an adjacent mound, shewed it to a companion, and went on digging the grave! Another'of these howib.er shells burst with a loud noise

and much dust and smoke amongst

some men lower down the slipe. One

expected to see arms and legs flying and dead and wounded carried away. Strange 'to say, not a man was hit, and one New Zealander emerged from the cloud of smoke and earth and laughingly called out to his startled comrades. "Bring me a field dressing to. bind up me bloomin' nerves!" All

thi s noise, however, was but the prelude to the grand Wagnerian tumult of sound that later on was to strike terror into the heart of the Turk. BATTERING THE ACHI-BABA TRENCHES.

Looking towards Achi Baba eariy in the afternoon cue saw that the Turkish trenches were getting 1 a great battering. Tjhe wind was in the wrong direction, and we could net hear the bombardment, but. we could see the great bursts from, the exploded shells rising high above the summit of Achi Baba itself. The whole of the available artillery seemed to be in quick

action. A lengths 7 curtain of yellowish grey smoke rose from over the Turkish position, and drifted across the Dardanelles. Against thi s dull background the bursts of shrapnel with a bluish tinge in their whiter puffs were clearly seen. At intervals one of the huge sjhells from the new monitors would burst into a vast geyser-like column of blacker smoke and earth. This, together with the shrapnel, woul a be blown with the wind and gradually dissipated into the common curtain. "Lord help the poor Turk!" was a frequent expression among the watchers of this bombardment. Some of the Turkish shells were bursting near the edge of the cliff above the Lancashire landing, but the enemy's guns were far fewer than ours, and his supply of ammunition also, apparently, left much to be desired. The line of ships at Helles was silhouetted in the clear air against the horizon, and above the line scared the big balloon, spotting for the guns of the navy. NEW BATTLE BEGINS.

It was the afternoon of Friday. 6th August, and we had ascertained that a big attack was contemplated on the northern Turkish position. There were also rumours of another landing on a large scale just to the north of our farthest position on the extreme left —No. 3 outpost held by the Otago Mounted Rifles —who had been for some time in tjhe trenches —and a number of the Maori Contingent. As the New Zealand ers were on the left wing and that corner of ihe field promised to be special y interesting, I left An/ac in company with a general and one o~ Lis staff and walked through the long communication trench to tjhe outpost. Punctually at 5 p.m. a howitzer fired the first shot in the general bombardment that was to precede the attack. Battery after batterjy came into action, and the Turkish guns replied. The shells from the French seventy-fives in possession of the Turks, shrieked viciously over our heads a thigh velocity on their way to Anzac and some of the intervening positions. The bombardment continued furiously for half anh hour and then the crackle of rifH-Sre on ■'he rigfrt came as an intimation tnftt the

xVustralian attack had 'J

banging of the guns, the rattle of rifle fire, and the intermittent, popping of the machine-guns on both sides now

made a g:eat din

| At ibe outpost the Otago colonel was preparing to lead his men intobattle as soon as the shades of night . fell. He was, as ever, cheery and brave.. t In the dusk outside his dugout we sat | and chatted of the prospects of the J night attack. The men, he said, were ; eager and in high spirits, though they I knew there was stiff work ahead. We listened to two of them soberlv dis-

•cussing, with a strong Scottish accent, the question of whether on the eve of a battle a man should shake hands with his chum or not. With the old ('nvenanter spirit, they decided that there should be no such good-byes. With these words the gallant colonel buckled on his armour and went c.T w:Ji his regiment and a platoon of the Maoris into the darkness. He. succeeded in accomplishing the task that had

been him that nig'ht. and more. Sad to tell, he was shot through the head and spine after a dashing charge at the head of 150 of his men into a Turkish trench.