THE GREAT ADVENTURE.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 43, 21 February 1916, Page 2

THE GREAT ADVENTURE.

ANZAC - SUVLA EVACUATION.

TURKO - GERMAN FORCES OUT

WITTED.

A HISTORIC OPERATION

(From Malcolm Ross, Official War Correpondent with the N.Z. Forces.) 25th December.

With the mud of the GallipoK 'trenches still clinging to their boots, some of the New Zealanders, who but a few days ago were in the firing-line braving shot and s-hell and bombs, and the bitter blasts of the Dardanelles, are once again treading the sands of Egypt, and basking in the warm sunshine of its peaceful skies. Where the Main Force is or where it is going to it is perhaps not advisable at the moment to state; but the chances are that some little time must elapse before it is again in the firing-liine. Meantime the evacuation of the Anzac-Suvla zone without the loss of a single man in the final operation must be filling the whole military world with wonder. The evacuation from tjjie Anzac position was a particularly" brilliant feat, for, |at Anzac, there was no harbour, and it meant getting off from a most difficult situation, dominated by the enemy, and by way of an open shore swept by shell fire. If in storming and holding the original position at Anzac the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps won golden laurels, they have undoubtedly added to their renown by the manner of leaving it. The operation will probably stand out in military history for all time as a triumph of strategy, secrecy, and organisation. Up to this date it is unique in history. If a month ago anyone should have said we could have got off from Anzac ■md Suvla without loss, he would liavr been pT-utod as a madman. Tuf-borities thought evaluation an !'•••

possibility. Others who thought it possible estimated tho toss at from ten to "freer] thousand men. Tlv greater, optimists even Aver? prepared to hear of losses. Arrangements were made fo leave behind certain field ambulances to attend to our wounded, knowir>." that tbo Rod Cross men would be wel l treated by the Turks. Even the field ambulances that were io be left r---. safly evacuated with the rest of ibe troops. SAYING THE GUNS. T have f»]roadv in r-'-cabled messages th-'t the first visib 1 ' signs of the evacuation were the cluing of tlu? hosriitals of aM tho sick a ll ■ 1 wounded and the depplrture of half the cjuns and personnel of the field batteries. Strict orders were issued thot r r movements of troops, guns, and material must be made only under cover of darkness.

On the night of Friday, the- 10th December, some seventeen guns from the New Zealand batteries rumbled pns 1 tlie No. 2 Outpost, and n\\ along t-li*j bench rond to the piers at Walk?-' Ridge. These little wharvos constitute el i!i ( . ii-.o f»nd onlv land'-)»;-placo n-? possessed that could not be observer 1 by the Turkish gunners, but they mnr lr desperate attempts to get them, and r the end almost succeeded. Th 0 obsor vers ccu'd ri\*obably see the masts of sunken steamer that formed a part c'' our "harbour," and, taking this ° his line, "Beachy Bill", got a fow shells almost on to the wharf. As a general rule, he was short, and his shells dropped harmlessly on to a point between the pier and Anzac, or plumpled into the open sea. The Anzac wharf, however, came under a deadly hail of shrapnel and high explosive and, of late, "Beachy" had inconsiderately taken it into his head to fire in the night time. That same night a number of the Australian guns also were parked under the shelter of Walker's Eidge. The New Zealand guns were covered with 120 blankets, but the Australian guns remained uncovered. During the following night a ship arrived and took away thes e guns. The men did not know where they were going, or what the movement meant. They might have been bound for Salonika! Next day