FIGHTING AT THE DARDANELLES

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 338, 13 November 1915, Page 3

FIGHTING AT THE DARDANELLES

THE N.Z. FIELD ARTILLERY. BRIGADE IN ACTION. ACCURATE AND EFFECTIVE SHOOTING. (From Malcolm Ross, Official Correspondent with the N.Z. Forces.)

Gallipoli Peninsula, Sept. 3. Now that the campaign in Gallipoli has been in operation for some nineteen weeks, and our positions have materially changed, it becomes possible to give New Zealand readers some general idea of the extent and effectiveness .if the work done by the N.Z. Field Artillery. The brigade received extra training in Egypt, and did wll in practice there with the N.Z. Infantry and N.Z. Mounted Rifles. The right typo of men had been selected, and officers, gunners, and drivers, could not have been improved upon for the work they had to do. The drivers were mostly men from the country used to handling horses. The first battery to Ifand on the Peninsula was the howitzer battery. It landed during the night of 25th April. It should be explained that the configuration of this country is eminently suited to the modern howitzer, and it is a little strange that while in the western area the Germans should have been using this arm with effect and in such numbers, their allies in the Near East should have been so sparingly provided with it. Placed below the crest of a hill or in a gully it can be effectively fired upon enemy guns, trenches, or troops that cannot be reached by the flat trajecory ship or field guns, its fire being directed by an observer stationed as far away as 2,000 or yards, the directions being conveyed .by means of a field telephone quickly run out by the linesmen. At the outbreak of war New Zealand was the 'only one of the overseas Dominions in possession of these guns, and early in the operations the policy adopted Avas proved to be a wise one. This was the only howitzer battery landed with the force at Anzac, and from that day to this it has continued to do good work, daily giving assistance to the Australian Division as well as to the N.Z. and Australian Division. In all this time there was only one day on which the battery has not shot. Officers and men. often when il 7 .', have stuck to their work in the most plucky manner. A day or two after landing the battery destroyed the fisherman's hut." which during the early stages of the desperate fighting •harboured Turkish snipers. Shortly afterwards the howitzers did good workin Tepulsing an attack by the enemy on the left flank. In the engagement of Kith May they did excellent shooting, slaughtering large numbers of Turks as they came forward to the attack in the endeavour to fulfil Von Sanders's boast to drive 'the Australian and New Zealand troops into the sea. This, it will be remembered, was a night attack, but the enemy's positions had been previously registered by our guns, so that their fire even in the darkness was effective. They fired both shrapneJ and high explosive. The New Zea-

land howitzers continued daily doing useful work in any direction called upon until relieved by a Lowland battery. During the attack on the Sari Bair position, when there were few guns on the new front, the New Zealand howitzers* continued shooting from their old positions at Anzac. In 2G hours the N.Z. howitzer battery fired 1,600 rounds. Our howitzers also played a prominent part in the attacks in August on our extreme left. In conjunction with the heavy batteries of the 69th Brigade they took part in a fierce bombardment of the Turkish trenches, our one battery firing 300 rounds in an hour. Their shooting on this occasion was most effective, and the Turkish trenches were piled with dead. Unfortunately, the battery did not know of two flank trendies which the Turks had constructed, otherwise the attack might have been still further supported.

One instance of the accuracy of fire and the confidence of the gunners in their work may be given. It occurred only a few days ago, when a major of infantry telephoned calling attention to the fact that our howitzers were dropping shells into a Turkish trench only five yards in front of the position occupied by his men. He therefore asked the battery to cease firing at that particular trench. The reply was that this was being done purposely, as the battery commander fully trusted his men and his guns even with a margin of only five yards! One certainly could not wish for more aceur-

ate fire than that. It was done because the men in our forward trench had apparently run out of bombs aad were being severely dealt with by the enemy. Thft •Field Guns.

The first field battery of IS-pounders landed on Wednesday, 28th April, and at once sent two guns to the extreme >ft flank. Owing to the configuration of the country the field of action was. however, very circumscribed. In addition to this the proximity of Turkish snipers made the position somewhat ( untenable. One man was killed and several wounded, so eventually the section was withdrawn/and the whole battery placed in a more commanding position. This was a feat in which the engineers, the infantry, and the artillery participated, and it was accomplished with conspicuous sueeess. A road was made and the whole battery shifted up in one night up a gully and on +o the top of a steep hill that wa* practically a cliff. There were tk horses available, and 100 men with ropes sielntly dragged each gun up, under cover of the darkness, to its high emplacement, 500 ft above the level of I the sea. The weight of a gun is over tow tons. It was the N.Z. Mounted ' Rifles, their own horses aiso in Egypt, I who helped the gunners to manhandle their beloved guns up the 6ft track the engineers had made. The battery is now so placed as to afford a good cross-fire to the Australian front, with one section and to the New Zealand and Australian Division with the other section. This battery had a very wide field of fire, and it was in a covered position which the I enemy never exactly located. Consequent:'/ the casualties were few. and such as were must be attributed more

to good luck than to "good observation and good shooting on the part of the enemy. "Searching," it should be explained to the uninitiated, is permissible in areas where the fall of the shell cannot be seen by the observer, the battery commander, or the man in an aeroplane or balloon. This battery was repeatedly thanked by the Australian Infantry for the excellent supporting fire it afforded them, and especially 'on the occasion when our gallant comrades from the island continent, with great dash and her.'.'sm, attacked and captured the Turkish trenches at Lonesome Piie, on the right wing, on the night of 6th August. During this fight the battery fired some 500 rounds at a formidable wire entanglement, cutting it to bits and enabling the assaulting party to cross a locality where but for this feat they I must inevitably have been shot to pieces with machine-gun and rifle fire. It also, during this assault, prevented the Turkish reserves from coming up to counter-attack. With one gun firing high explosive it drove them out of a communication trench in a valley on the left, and with the other gun firing shrapnels mashed them in the open. The other section of this battery during the big fight from 6th to 10th August, took part in the operations of the Sari Bair force, doing good work by enfilading the ridge, and by shooting into localities that could not be seen by the other guns supporting this j force.

The second battery of 18-pqunders landed on 29th April Its field of fire was circumscribed, by very imp rtant. The O.C. guarded his observation station as if it were the jewel of all Asia, and with one look through an eyeglass, which with masterly muscular control he seemed to maintain as immovable as his own guns, he has been known to freeze up intruders who from this vantage point were only too often desirous of scanning the surrounding country. He was especially desirous that they shouM not "give away" his particular observation station, and in spite of all temptations he maintained it almost inviolate to the end. His battery covered the famous Quinn 's Post, and was the only one that could bring fire to bear on the Turkish trenches immediately to the north. I have in a previous article witten of the wonderIful work done by the battery, on tht night, of 19th May, when the Turkish host swept forward in a despernte counter-attack. On this occasion, between midnight and daylight, it fired 611 rounds of shrapnel at enemy trenches only 20 yards distant from I our own. The shell shrieked continuously over the heads of our mo:: crouching in their trenches, and throughout the night there was only one premature burst. As it was a dark night and the range only 1,00 yards, giving necessarily a very flat trajectory this, it will be seen, was at once a very daring and a very brilliant accomplishment. The feat involved accurate previous registration and accurate and careful "laying" on the part of the gunners. The slightest error, such as the short setting of a fuse owuld have been serious under sue] circumstances. Infantry, who on o-»rv sions are wont to complain that they do not get enough support from artil-

lery and at other times to growl because the guns jsre shooting too close must for ever remember this fine performance to the credit of the N.Z.F.A. This battery continued doing very good work in the same position until the middle of August, when, owing to tho extension of our lines, it was shifted to a position that shall be nameless, and by which time the major had become a colonel. Suffice it to say that in its new position it did excellent work in the recent bombardments of Hill 60 and Kabab Kuyu position. It also did good shooting when recently the N.Z. Artillery came to the assistanc of the 9th Army Corps in one of its attacks. Having concluded its part in the preliminary bombardment r.n that occasion, it switched on to Hill 00 and the volley beyond preparatory to the attack by the Australians and New Zealanders and a section of K. *s Army. It was afterwards split int<» sections and helped in the second attack of Hill (50.

Our thir-" Held gun battery landed at Helles in the beginning of May. Its work may be judged from a letter that reached Divisional Headquarters from the O.C. Infantry Brigade, of the famous 29th Division. "The officers in. the firing line on sth July," he wrote, "when the enemy mad their last attack on the Royal Fusiliers' Bluff and trenches near it, all report the excellent shooting of tli N.Z. field battery. Thev describe the shrapnl fire as most accurate from this battery, busting just beyond our trenches and sweeping ground and slopes over which the

enemy advanced.'' This battery returned to Anzac about 20th Aug-ist, landed in the night, and hurried out into the field of action. Notwithstanding the distance, the difficulties of transhipment, and the roughness of the country over which the guns had to be* takgn, at daybreak the battery was entrenched in its new position and registering on the Turkish trenches. One section was firing at 600 yards range during the attack on Hill (50. This was la daring and successful bit of work, though the Turks, of course, quicklyspotted a battery firing so close to their own lines. The fifth battery recently arrived from Cairo., landed, entrenched, and came into action in a night. Since its arrival it has been engaged in firing principally at enemy guns, and has done useful work. & In this brief and simply told story of the work of the N.Z. Field Artillery enough has perhaps been said to prove that our small Dominion has not been lacking in the material for the making of. efficient artillery, any more than it has been lacking in the efficiency of their training, but if further evidence of efficiency were required it might be found in some further letters that have reached th officer commanding the brigade. The first, dated 16th May, is from Major-General Gtodley, commanding the New Zealand and Australian Division. '' Flease convey to all your batteries now here." he writes, "my high appreciation of the excellent shooting they have made while in action here. AM commanders of all positions ore loud in their praises cf the support they had had from the howitzers and No. 2 battery, and on behalf of the whole division I wish to express to them our thanks for the good woTk that has led to such • substantial results." On 16rh May the serial r-rp-cer commanding the 20th Di'Vin wrote: "The 3rd N.Z. Field ArtiUcrv Battery has done excellent work, both in reconnaissance. occupation of ground, and in. act'on. Their selection and registration of targets has been thoroughly done, and their shooting in support of the infantry attack has been -,:-Por**>ly good."