FIGHTING AT THE DARDANELLES

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 319, 26 October 1915, Page 3

FIGHTING AT THE DARDANELLES

THE FIGHT FOE CHIJNUS BAIS.

STRONG TURKISH COUNTER-

ATTACK,

SHRAPNEL FROM OUR GUNS

THE ENEMY REPULSED

(From Malcolm Ross, Official War Correspondent with the New Zealand Forces.) Iso, 3 Outpost, 12th August. There was no sleep that night for qui tired troops. Till dawn the English held the topmost trench, and with the New Zealanders and some of the loth Division in support below them. As, however, the Australians on the left had been held up in their attack, and a fresh column from the British 3Sth Brigade, also on the left, had been delayed in the difficult country, while the Gurkhas had had to retire from the ridge back some little distance, it became necessary to break off the engagement in order to reorganise the line. On Tuesday, in the half-light before the dawn, the Turks suddenly came pouring' over the crest of Chunuk Bair, and swooped down upon our position in superior numbers. As dawn broke we could see them bravely rushing down across the fire-swept slopes of Chunuk Bair into a gully to the right of our supports on Rhododendron Ridge. Every now and then a man would stagger and fail headlong down the slope, and remain prone on a bare patch, or rise and limp away into the scrub or one of the topmost trenches for shelter. Meantime the New Zealand guns had got to work with deadly accuracy. Shrapnel bursting on the upper slopes almost completely wiped out whole groups of the enemy scattered amongst the scrub. The big guns and the secondary armament on the cruisers were also at work, and shattered the topmost Turkish trenches with the forceful lyddite. It was too much for all but the bravest Turks, and presently numbers began to climb laboriously back up the slopes they had so valiantly charged down but a few minutes before. On these retreating Turks our shrapnel still played, and after the dust of each successive burst had cleared away there wduld be only two or three men where a few seconds previously there had boon a dozen or a score. These continued their flight, some bending down in an endeavour to escape notice, others limping along, and still others strolling slowly back with fatalistic unconcern. One wounded man came out of a hail of shrapnel 1 , limped up the slopes and over tlic crest of the slopes and over the crest of the rideinto safety on the Dardanelles side, though many a shot must have fallen about him. One became absorbed in his progress, and though ho was an enemy, felt almost pleased when finally his silhouette disappeared over the skyline. But even there was not safe, for many of our shells were dropping on the reverse side of the slope, and no doubt with deadly and demoralising effect, for there must have been many

The battle

Turks assembled there. The batt.'O raged throughout the whole morning, but the Turkish onrush had been stemmed by our gun-fire and by the rifles and machine-guns as well. It was. however, the gunners ’ day out, and they certainly took full advantage of it. There was scarcely a Turk left alive in that gully, nor on the slopes, though some had managed to crawl back into the trenches, and over the crest of Chunuk Bair. Later in the day I watched enthralled for some hours an intense bombardment of the ridge and the upper slopes of Chunuk Bair. The Turks had done a good deal of trench work along the ridge. On these works the lyddite non played with wonderful! effect, sending great clouds of dirt and smoke high into the air. The bursts took varied shakes, some columnar, others spreading out in' mushroom-like shape, no doubt in accordance with the resistance met with. On the edge of these sometimes one would see a sandbag or the body of a Turk hurtling high in the air, the man’s arms and legs spread-eagled against the sky. One Turk, his rifle flying after him, was hurled upward and outward, and fell over the steep face of the topmost ridge into a narrow ravine, where lay many of the dead of the previous day ’s fighting. All this was quite a cheering sight—so callous does one become in war. Presently there was a great burst of lyddite from one of the ship’s guns, and on the edge of the black cloud that rose right In the centre of a Turkish trench throe bodies went whirling heavenward in different directions, and with arms and legs extended foil somersaulting into the surrounding scrub. To these Allah had been merciful, for in an instant they had gone painlessly flying into their naradise.

At this time the bombardment was so intense that the enemy’s trenches must have become a veritable inferno. It was too much even for the fatalistic Turks, and presently they began to leave the trenches and bolt back over the ridge through the deadly burst of shrapnel. But even as they went others came on—singly and in twos and threes —towards the trenches our men had vacated. Some fell on the way, others survived, and gained comparative safety for the time being. These fellows may have boon driven on by their officers from behind the ridge, but in any ease their brave progress through such a tornado of lire could not but rouse our admiration. But on the whole more were now struggling slowly back than there were struggling forward, and many of the former were going back without their rifles—a sure testimony to the demoralising nature of our gun-fire. 'When day closed the Turks were sadly shaken on the battered crest of Chunuk Bair, but both sides had fought to a standstill. There is a point in human endurance at which the most intense battle along a narrow front must cease, and that point had now been reached. The gains were’entirely on our side. We had driven the Turks out of his advanced positions, and pushed our own line forward to a favourable point, and by God’s grace and our strong bayonet arm we still hope

(to plant our flag once more—-and this time permanently—on the crest of Chunuk Bair.