AT GALLIPOLI.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 July 1915, Page 6

AT GALLIPOLI.

AUSTRALIANS AND NEW 2EALANDEUS IN ACTION. TALES FROM THE TRENCHES. A GLOWING PACE IN IMPERIAL HISTORY. "THi: WHITE GHURKAS." (From Malcolm Ross, oiiieial war cor- - respondent with the N.Z. Forces.) Cairo, May 20. To the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, acting in conjunction with English, French, and Indian troops, has been allotted what up to the present is undoubtedly the most picturesque, as it is the most hazardous undertaking of the war. In that undertaking our men have already earned immortal glory, and have added to Imperial history a glowing page of heroism and self-sacrifice.

Streams of wounded have been arriving here, and though new hospitals have been quickly organised on a huge scale all are already full almost to overflowing. It is the same at Alexandria, aw' even at Port Said wounded are being treated in all the hospitals. Other wounded have been taken to .Malta.

In the brief space of time at my disposal since arriving here, I have visited seven hospitals, and have found the great majority of the wounded cheerful in a remarkable degree, and most grateful for all that is being dune for them. Doctors and nurses, of whom there! are all too few for such a percentage of casualties, are working morning, noon, and night, and the women of Cairo—both English and French—have responded nobly to the call for help.

When our men were leaving Lemnos for the actual front they were told by an ex-New Zealandor that a dozen ship's would take them down, but that they would be able to come back in live or six. They knew they were in for a tough job. It proved than anyone expected. The casualties are largely in excess of the estimated percentage. The magnifient courage and fighting qualities displayed by Australians and New Zealandcrs alike have astonished the most experienced soldiers, and have drawn forth unstinted praise from the famous war correspondents of the London press. Indeed, so terrible was their onslaught that the Turks proptly named them 'the White Ghurkas." The mime will probably stick. In one hospital the English Tommies, when a batch ,of wounded colonials was brought in. sut up in their beds anil cheered "the While, Ohurkas."

It was the Australians who had the post of honor in the colonial landing, and they it was who broke the back of the first resistance, though at a terrible sacrifice. Every New Zealandcr is unstinted in his glowing praise of how, after being riddled with shot and sheil in the boats, they dashed up the beach and into the Turkish trenches with the bayonet, scarcely baiting to fire a single shot. It was the only thing to do under the circumstances.

Later in the. day, in storming the heights, the Australians and New Zealandcrs got mixed up and fought shoulder to shoulder under any oflieer who happened to be there. This also was inevitable, because the nature of the country prevented dose touch being kept in that first terrible climb through the scrub, all the time under shot and shell from a well-placed enemy in superior positions, and superior also in numbers. As they went forward up cliff after cliff and on from height to height, "against the cold machines"—a hail of bullets and fierce shrapnel fire—these young colonial troops, in action for the first time, might well have faltered or even retreated. But never for one instant did their courage fail nor the speed of their splendid assault slacken. Competent critics have declared it to have been the finest feat in the war, and men who were at Mons have told me that there was nothing like it, even in French's famous retreat.

The Turks, well trained in the school of German ('rightfulness, did not scruple to set all the rules of modern warfare at naught, even to the extent of using explosive bullets, poisoning the water, and firing on the wounded. For all this the colonials exacted a terrible retribution, and little or no quarter was given during the first few days of fighting on those grim wooded heights above the Gulf of Saros. Headquarters stall', olliccrs, men, and stretcher-bearers never spared themselves, but fought on bravely through the long days and longer nights, never dreaming of defeat, thinking only of victory.

Before these, lines can reach the NewZealand press, the early descriptions cf the fight will already have become familiar to readers, who will already know something of the splendid heroism and marvellous endurance of their troops. But there are many Mnes to be added yet, and even a twice-told tale of such a glowing epic will send the blood tingling through the veins again. Tt is an epic that will he handed down to succeeding generations in Australia and New Zealand, and that will survive as long as the British people remain on the face of the earth. Tt is scarce too much to say that nothing finer has ever occurred in warfare. It is a feat before which the achievements of the ancient Creeks and Romans pale into insignificance, and it will be my endeavor, in this and subsequent articles, in the plain and simpl" language of the soldiers themselves, to give the people of New Zealand some adequate idea of the glorious deeds of her brave sons. IN TOUCH WITH WAR. _ After leaving Aden we began to get in touch with the war. A junior officer" came down from the bridge at midnight and woke up a friend sleeping on deck. "It might interest you to know," be said, "that we have just passed through a Turkish mine-field, on which half a dozen sweepers, protected by two cruisers, were at work." 'The friend thanked him, and lay awake for ail hour or so, listening for an explosion. ''At Suez a young naval lieutenant came on board on crutches. He had his foot in splints, rather badly shattered, a bullet wound' in his arm, and a healed cut on his check from another Turkish bullet. They had been on a "political show" to a village in the Red Sea. On the beach were two Arabs—very peaceful in their dewing robes. They were German decoys. Before the ship's boat could land 'Pinkish bullets were whizzing into the landing party. Two men were killed and otheis wounded. The bullets were so"tnosed, and as they went through the boat before finding their human billet, it may be judged that the wounds weic ratliir serious. The Turks paid ln'yr for this. The canal, which we went through with the l-rdgc sand-bagged, was a wonderful sight. !•■ ■ in these days when history is bei- . ten "in lightning flashes" in t: bundles one must not stop to \vr'-' •'••inter that! in other rr.:.r. Would '■■:■ ■ h. lease inter- i **■

At Port Said we landed late at night and endeavored unsuccessfully to glean some reliable hews about the fighting of our men in the Dardanelles. Next morning a big Castle liner, with a green stripe and red crosses along her sides and a Red Cross flag at her masthead, poked

her nose in the canal and steamed slowly past our anchorage. At every point were men with bandaged hands and heads waving ns a cheerful greeting. In other cabins there were others who could not raise a face to the window. A mother and her husband were anxious abo.;f their son in the Ist Canterbury Itrgi iiieiit, which, they surmised, was v'ui' the other New Zealand Forces at i:eDardanelles. "Have you any New '/.\~,i----landers on board?" 'we slniuleil across the water. Yes, they had. Thcpaic:,;, dashed round to where the wounded wo.v being landed, and found a group already standing about or lying on the grass. They were war stained, but cheery. They were mostly English Tommies and Australians. There was one New Zoalander among them. He was a private named Jsherwood, of the Ist Canterbury, but born in Wellington, and he was nursing a bandaged hand, through which a Turkish bullet lias found its way early in the fight. In his other hand he had tli.boot of a chum with two hides in it, through which an enemy bullet had bored its way. 'That boot will find its w.iy back to New Zealand. The mother ask 'd if lie knew her son. Strangely cnoiigii, she had picked upon the one man in sJI the ship out of her son's company. The son, he was able to tell her, was wounded, but alive and likely to recover soon. The mother had to leave in half an hour for Kngland. The father was going to the front. Next day he spent searching unsuccessfully through the several widely separated military hospitals for his son. On the second day they had an accidental and extraordinary meeting, lint lli.it is another storv, ami not fur publication. While the wolinded were being landed from the hospital at Tort Said some English ollicers and men el' the Dorscts, en route, to the Persian ilulf, landed for a br*r run ashore. T had a few words with a young lieutenant—a mere lad—but to-day lie was not bothering about the war. What he wanted to know was where were the golf links! When the time came for action in "The Gulf," however, he was just t!>:> type of young sporting Englishman who would be leading a forlorn hope if necessary. Yet the contrast, between the stained wojinded returning from the (ill lipoli Peninsula, and this clean-looking, neatly-uniformed young Englishman going out to war, but now looking for a golf links at Port Said, set one thinking about our race, and how it must he that in the end Ihe modern Huns will lie no match for them. Such sang froid is surely an asset.

On. tin; train to Cairo, in t.b" same yr.r riiigc with mo, was 'a wounded corporal. Ho was a young Scotsman who n;id joined the Australians in Perth, where In; happened to be when the eull for men ramo. ' His testimony is the more valuable because, though' of the Australians, lie was not himself a colonial, ami had not been long out from Homo. Describing the wonderful valor shown in tl:c landing and throughout each succeeding day, he said, ••that we should have a rough time, hut that the work ha.il to be done, and the Australians and ,\rt /Valandcrs did it, not thinking at !'.<> time that we were doing anything virc much out of the ordinarv." \\'i" were told," he added, ''that the warships would take us there, but that they would re.i, take ns back. I got hit after about six hours' fighting. It was hard lines, and 1 was inclined to grumbh ab.mt being p-l out of action so soon .if' -r eight or nine months of training." -Did you feel the suspense of the waiting very much'.'" I asked. "Yes," he replied, "it was just like a nightmare. That feeling, however, soon wore off when the time for action came. You had a sort of idea that the bullets were there, but that they would not touch you. The first lot went ashore in the early morning, with bayonets fixed, cheering and shouting 'Australia!' I don't think the Turks like the sound of that word now! Our men did not wait to fire, but dropped their packs and rushed upon the Turks with the bayonet. As they had no cover, it was the only thing to do. Jinny wen: hit in the boats, and mamfell in the bayonet charge, but thenwas never a sign of faltering; the gaps were filled up from behind, and such of the Turks as were not bayoneted turned and fled from the trench.' Here the first niaehine-gun was captured by the Australians. Deeds of great valor that would have won the Victoria Cross' on any past battlefield were being done m every hand. One man who had got safely from the boats went boldly, single-handed, for nine or ten Turks with his bayonet, and such of them as he did not get left their machine-gnu which had all the time been playing on the landing boats. The 'middies' and the sailors guiding the boats were splendid. One man I saw urging his men forward was shot through the leg. He never stopped cheering his men on. He was afraid if he did so that it might put a damper upon the troops. He'need not have worried about that, as he himself soon discovered." DEEDS OF HEROISM. Amongst the deeds of heroism tha*. came under this young Scotnian's notice a few may be cited. A platoon had lost all its officers in advancing on a position, and found an officer of another companyreturning from further up the slope. The ollicir remarked that there were tv o more wounded farther on. Two men from the platoon sprang up and said: "We'll get them." The others, all the while under fire, waited for them, but they never came back. When the platoon advanced later in the day they found the four lying dead side liy side. The fighting at this stage was at very close quarters.

At another place a lance-corporal of . the !tth Battalion was working a inaeh- ; ine-gnn, "with an officer a, few yards ; on his right giving him the range.' The whole of his gun section were laid low ' by the Turkish lire. The corporal got i hit in the hand. He bound it up and ! went on firing. Then he was bowled over by a shot in the leg. The oilier took the wounded corporal's place iuj.il carried on with, the gnu. "J .; 011 - t kIK , M . how he got on," said the young Scot. Doctors right up in the'firing line did splC'did, work, So did the stretcherbearers. Even Uin pai'Hoiis were in the thick of it. A Catholic priest helped fo carry out the wounded. "Why don't you have a go yourself, father"?" Haiti a passing private. Later on, it is stated, the reverend father was seen charging forward with a rifle in his hand anil using language that was scarcely priestly, and not to be found anywhere in the prayer book. One of the'doctors—l lo not know who he wits," added the lanecorpora!, "after he had used up nearly all his clothes for bandages, went ill with the rifle." DOWN A DEADLY GULLY. Down one gully all the day long came li stream of Australian and New Zealand wounded. There was only slight shelter, and the Turks had the range of it. Some of the wounded were wounded again, and some of them were killed. It was down this cleft in the steep hillside tlr.it niy friend had come. It is a wonder any of them were left alive, for it was swept with rifle and shrapnel fire. "Both the Australians and the New Zeulanders," I said my friend, "will go through with iiuythmg. If they are told to get there, no matter what they are up against, they will go through with it, and no < questions asked." "Is it true," I queried, that the Australians, in their excess of zeal and energy, went too far?" "Perhaps they did," lie answered; "but, anyhow, they never came back—they heldtheir ground."