HEROES.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 348, 24 November 1915, Page 7

HEROES.

TERRIBLE EXPERIENCES,

HOW ZEALANDERS FARED,

THE PHILOMEL DETACHMENT. Further details have reached the Docfnce Minister of the land ’operations in which three men of the Philomel lost their lives. The story :s most stirring one of heroic devotion to duty. The detachment formed a machinegun section attached to certain land operations conducted by coloured troops. The officer in charge of the detachment (Lieutenant Fitzadams MiJler) received orders a little before midday to retire, and after about a mile had been retraced the men begun to straggle. The heat was very great.

and the men showed the effects of it. There were halts „ of five minutes every twenty minutes to rest, but the men could not be allowed to throw themselves down because of the intense heat of the sand. On this account, the lieutenant kept on. as long as possible in the hope of coming o

some ambulance camels or of reaching

—. no wabout two miles and ahalf away, where shade and rest could be obtained. They fell in with two riding camels and one mule, and on those they placed five men and sent the guns on ahead. One man fell unconscious from the camel, and one able seaman had to bo taken off exhausted, and these were left in charge of an ambulance doctor who happened to come along. One of the two men died a few minutes afterwards. Then Able Seaman Bruce Sidney Beaglcy succumbed to heat stroke, and lie also was left in charge of the doctor. He had given up his opportunity of riding on a camel to a comrade. Ho died a little later and was buried.

When the little party reached a village they were aUI very done. One man was missing, Leading Seaman Talmay. who had gone off the' track about 200 yards to get shade, with a white soldier, and both were found dead. The lieutenant and two other seamen rested at the village, and then, very exhausted, pushed on, and arrived back at the ship with the guns that night. "The behaviour of the men was splendid throughout the whole day, and there was no word of complaint. ’ ’

A description of the terrible effects of the heat indicates the suffering the men must have endured. A ictims seem first to suffer very great exhaustion and loss of physical strength, by which they are unable to get on their legs, and when once down the heat of the sand did the remainder, and their comrades found they had hardly the physical power to draw them off the track.

1 Some words of praise are contained j in a fetter of Colonel A. M. S. Elsmie, who was i?i command. He said that he deeply regretted the death of the petty officer and the two men of the naval detachment. Apparently in their keenness to get into the firing line the men had doubled some distance, and this and the long march had knocked them out. The whole de- ■ taehment had borne its trials at this "abominable spot" so cheerfully, and all along had been so keen to do their duty, that he knew three excellent men had been lost. They had set a magnifient example to the Indian troops in whose section they..were living. and an example like that had a wonderful effect on the Indian soldiers, who thus realised the stuff of I which the Britisher was made. The men would not give in till they drop- j ped in their tracks. j The general officer coramaudng also j added a tribute to the bravery of the j men. and expressed his sympathy at j

the loss of “such fine fellows." Their loss was probably due to their very ardour to bring their gun into piny.