DARDANELLES

Taranaki Daily News, 6 July 1915, Page 4

DARDANELLES

fl TALKS FROM TIIK TUFA'OTIRS. t A COlll'nßAl.'S STORY. ' ,! lIKIinISM AXIJ SIOI.F-SAC'KTI'TOi;. „ (Vrom Malcolm Ross, Ollicial War c Correspondent with the* X.Z. Forces I v Cairo, May id. v Lance-Corporal Noel floss, who is in f hospital here suH'oring 'from shock I and an injured spine and log, had an » extraordinary experience. A shell ox- t ploded near him when lie was range- * finding on tin* Sunday, but lie went on < fighting, and later—on the Wednesday— < collapsed on the battlefield. After're- i maining uneonseious for sixteen hours I he eanie to on a hospital ship, and it 1 was a remarkable coincidence that on < awakening lie, found that ho bad been ticketed by an old schoolfellow—Dr. Aubrey Short. He had also lost bis hearing, apparently as the result of an exploding shell, but this be has now regained. He seems to have had a miraculous escape, for there was not even 11 scratch on him. His memory up to a certain point is perfectly clear regarding incidents and operations in those first few terrible days, and in various interviews he gave (lie subjoined account of his own observations and experience.?. There were, however, periods on the Tuesday, and also late on Wednesday, about which he "could not remember what bad bappened. His mind, so far as those are concerned, is an absolute blank. DAWX AXD THE BATTLIOFfKLD. . "We were," he said, "awakened at an early bour on the morning of Suni day, April 25. A man came tumbling down the gangway into the bold of the troopship in which we were, sleeping on the iron floor, and said that ho could hear the. guns. There was an immediate rush for the deck, and sure enough we could hear the bombardment almost like a continuous roll of thunder. What made it the more uncanny was the fact that, though we were only some five miles oil' shore, a low fiat mist was veiling both the ship and the land from our side. As the sun rose, however, and wo drew nearer to the Gailipoli Peninsula, the features of the country became startling]}' clear, and we saw great warships steaming up and down the coast, while others were stationary, shelling the , Turkish positions. We went close inI shore a mile or two from Gaba Tepe and steamed slowly along the coast. Pres- . ently, even without glasses, one could I see the figures running about on the. beach and in the fields back of the beach. The Australians had succeeded in landing their covering party, and i apparently were making some headway. ;• Through the glasses the firing-line be- . came more and more distinct. At one . now well-known .corner, marked on the . map as the 'Fishermen's Hut,' the attack , developed, and as the khaki line rushed . across an open field in extended order f could see now and again k man throw ii]i his hands and fall heavily. The, place 1 was occupied in due course, and—as we s found afterwards in our advance—the '. Turks had been driven from the adjacent contours at the point of the bayonet, t though most of them did not wait for .- the actual 'inoculation.' Their retirev ment along the whole front, whether intentional or not, was a, tactical one, ~ for by falling back they drew our men t i on into the scrub-covered country on the I, bills above.

"To realise tlic formation of the country you must imagine a series of hiils starting abruptly from the beach, and the first one, perhaps, 200 ft. high. These hills recede in parallels, each one higher than the other, until finally they attain a height of 700 ft. above sea-level. Thus it will be seen that the fight for us was always an uphill one. As we took each ridge, the Turks from an eminence higher still poured down a heavy fire upon us. Thus our army corps was visible to the Turks during almost our entire advance, whereas, they, retreating, were generally invisible to us, THE LANDING OF THE NEW ZEAI.AXDERS. ''To come back to our own landing, all this time the thunder of the. guns continued, and the rattle of rifle fire was incessant—like thousands of kettle drums beating ceaselessly, livery now end then the venomous spit of the .Maxims would add its quota to the \olumo of the great battle chorus. Present Iv came the. orders to disembark llad'i man then drank his fill of the v.ati r, taking as much as he could possibly hold, the idea, of course, being that a man under such conditions lastlonger without drinking, and so could sine his water buttle lor a time wheii it might lie sorely needed. liven in such a tense situation, the men were ready for a joke, and one member of oui company said that if it had been bee, instead of water with which they were making the experiment he could have carried away twice as much. Water, he said, somewhat damped the ardor in this strange experiment. 'in a little while a destroyer, grim and alert, glided alongside our ship, and a sailor on board asked if we 'wen ready for it.' it's pretty warm up there,' he added, 'but they've got them on the run.' The destroyer was towins large,. Ilat-bottomed punts. Into these we crowded, sitting as close togethei as it was possible to pack men. Wo had full equipment—two hundred round* of ammunition, three (lays' rations, a full water bottle, and even firewood Our burdens weighed between 801b ami !)()lb. Slowly the destroyer steamed in shore, towing the barges full of men, and when she got to the limit of lie; draught she east us off. It was a weird scene, as most of ais had queer, sonso, tiohs.in the Ipits the" bullets began to .whizz about usandatjii guns' continued to thunder from the. se;,; and the' hiddou--Turkish batteries,.oi)-, shore. The bullets came with a .sort ol a whistle. You know, the noise a hawk makes. ,It was like that. They landed with a 'phut' in the water between and alongside the barges. One man in our barge was bit in the jaw by a spent bullet. A picket boat, 'in charge of an immaculate middy, now c.uue up and rushed us further inshore. The barges—great heavy affairs-would not, of . ourse, go right up to the beach, and so most of us dropped over the side in water up to our armpits, and half swam half waded ashore. With our burdens of between Hull) and 0011) this was no joke. Formed up on the beach we were given no rest. A stall' officer informed Colonel Stewart that reinforcements were wanted on the right at the double. IN THE FIRING-LINE. "We discarded our packs, and by a tortuous path scrambled up io the firingline. Then the difficulties of the operation h"camc manifest. At this point the hills were covered with dwarf prickly holly and giant box shrubs, making pro--1 press dilliciilt, and adequate communication almost impossible. Gradually we got nearer the enemy's rifle fire, and his -hrapnel began to burst over us. So dillfcult was t-m* matter of c- nniunication that when we actually reached our ' sector of the line we had only about ten men left out of the company of l»40, the ' great majority of the others having ' missed the true lino of the ascent, and ' reached another * part of the fnuit. It , was the same with the Australians.. In

commanding officer, and found myself in a, Turkish trench with some Australians. We got some excellent practice by a few Turks coming down the slope on one of the opposite hills. Away on our flank one of our machine-guns was betraying itself by the incessant jet of steam that was rising from Ma ovorliealed water jacket. Shrapnel was hc-

ginning to burst about us thickly, and t soon of the eleven men in the trench f only four of us were left, so wedeeideit 1 that it was getting a little too hot for n comfort. Two of the others were only f wounded, and managed to make their i way to the rear. We four then skipped ] further along across a bare clay face, i Halfway across J missed my footing. 1 and slid for, perhaps a hundred feet on < to a path below. A sergeant on the ] opposite side, called to me, 'Don't coma ; down there; it's mined!' Rather annoyed, I replied, 'Well, catch me as 1 ge : up again.' However, I slid over th» place in safety, and, somewhat shaken, hut still sound in wind and limb, resumed my place in the firing-line. COMRADES IN ARMS. All that day this weird fighting continued, and the broken sectors; unable to communicate with each other, fought staunchly—Australians ami New Zealanders shoulder to shoulder—against great odds, and in many cases weiv, overwhelmed. But we hcid our ground in spite of everything. Every battalion had reached tin; firing line in disorder That was inevitable owing to the nature of the country and of the fighting Many of the trenches were fdled with miscellaneous squads made up of Australions and New Zealanders. Hitherto not the best of friends, the men from tle> two colonies now fought together lika demons, helped eacli other's wounded, shared each other's water bottles, ami died together, till, at the end of the day, those who had come through safely in strong terms expressed their mutual admiration and vowed eternal friendship. A SLEEPLESS NIGHT. "Night came at last, and as the sun dipped beyond the Gulf of Saros tho | i rifle fire slackened perceptibly and final- < ly only came in fitful bursts, these! ■ bursts, from whichever side they came, i being due mostly to 'nerves.' Then, as ' was their wont on this and the succced- ■ iug nights, the Turks started a violent ' shrapnel fire. Their shells, however, 1 were bursting high, and their effect for • this reason was considerably minimised. 1 At the same time the enemy observation ' was well conducted, and their better ' fire was well placed by some observers, - who in the daytime must have been able I to seo the whole of our base on the - beach and all our trenches.

"All that nvrht we got no sleep; about eight o'clock a fine but chilling rain began to fall. Added to (his, most of us were still moist with a clammy dampness as the result of our drenching in tho salt water in the early morning. We lay down as we were without blankets. Throughout the night rifle fire continued fitfully, bullets falling all around. By this time, however, we wore' quite used to this. At first you are inclined to duck when you.hear a bullet whistlinr overhead, but there is no use ducking because before you could lo so the. billet would be cither past you \or through you. With a shell it is different. You hear its screech in time, and duck for any cover that may be in the vicinity. The whistle of the shrapnel bullets is perhaps more uncanny than tho noise made by any approaching shell. The Queen Elizabeth was firing shrapnel with bullets about the size of small eggs. Some few bullets fell over us, and we picked up others in the abandoned Turkish trenches as we advanced. A 15-inch shell from 'The Lizzy' contains 20,000 bullets, and as an 18pounder field gun can cover-an area of 250 yards by 50 you can imagine how many acres of ground the shrapnel from the new battleship can dust up with one shot. ON THE LEFT FLANK. "We of the Canterbury Battalion had the left flank to look after, and though it proved a comparative sinecure on this night we had to be none tho less watchful. This was the position we took up; at nightfall after regaining the scattered units of our battalion. As was customary we stood to anus a little while before daybreak. Almost immediately the sun rose tjic rifle fire recommenced. A MOVING INCIDENT. "1 forgot io tell you that on the Sunday when I was using a range-finder 1 was the witness ofa strange and extraordinary incident. * The range-finder is in itself u powerful telescope. On our immediate front, that is on the left of our whole position, there were two ship's boats on the beach. In one a dead man sat in a dejected attitude with one arm thrown over the gunwale. In the other boat, half a mile from us, were a grout many bodies —Australians. Altogether, there Mere thirty dead men there—or at least ku wo thought at the time. As 1 looked through the glass 1 could see the body of an apparently dead sailor lying in a most life-like attitude, his white face turned as if he were gazing towards our position, his chin resting on hi?" hand. I thought little more about this

sad scene until the Monday afternoon, when, abont three o'clock, 1 had another look through the glass. Then I saw that the sailor had changed his position and was lyi:;<4—hi;; white cap still »" his head—with hi;; face turned to the sky. Ten minutes later 1 was thrilled to see :i figure detach itself from the ghastly heap and hobble along the beach, only to collapse a few yards away. The moment ho had moved a Turkish sniper had opened fire on him, and I could see tlio splash of several bullets in the water after they had gone paßt him. With four men T went along the beach to try and get him out, but we had hot' got more, than a hundred yards from our trench when the sand and stones near lis began to rise in dust iii ' Tcspoit'se. to aiTurkish fucilade. Other lmtfets"\Wriz-'' zqd past us into the sea. We then decided 'that it was best to go about our job itiorfe Warily, so, running frjmtn cover to cover, we got within hailing distance of the man 1 had soon. He was shot through both knees and was cheery, but almost done. Thero were four others, he said, out there, in the heap, still alive. The night before there had bc.ui eight, but four of these, had not lasted till dawn. All this time we had been drawing the fire of the Turks, and we dared not approach the wounded man. who was lying in the open, for fear of attracting the further attention of the Turks to him. By degrees ho manage.l to crawl to cover, and we got him back." ''Was this incident reported," I could not help asking. "Oh, no." replied the corporal, shiftily his semi-paralysed leg into an easier position by pushing it with his sound one, "that was only an ordinary all'air. Such incidents are happening every few minutes. There wer* scarcely enough cannon within our lines during those first few days when the Australian and New Zealand Arinv Corps stormed and held the heights of'Oaua Tope." "i'lvery live minutes deeds were per formed that wore worthy of the highest decoration known to military authorities. Looking back on those first days one has nightmare-like visions out of which stand clear some of the most consummately cool performances. "Toiling ii]) a slope in the early lion's of the morning we came across a wounded Australian officer. Ho was shot through the jaw and Had halted to have a rest half-way from the firing-line to i the dressing station. Ho was a ghastly ■ reject. n» he sat there with a caricature

if a grin on his poor shattered face, btffc ic had all his wits about him, and ho

told us in detail where we were moat wanted, what to do when we got there, and then he mercifully fainted just as a stretcher party came up to receive him. Everywhere it was the same, and one got positively blase about such incidents. Surely there could not be a hater example of pure coolness than the following incident, which I myself witnessed. A New Zcalander was carrying

a huge biscuit tin-full of water to the firing-line, and he had to pass over a very open space wh"— the bullets were positively raising the dust. One bullet neatly punctured a hole in the water tin which he was carrying on his shoulder, Now an ordinary man would at

least have taken co\*er. Instead he put both hands up ami stopped the holes where the water was going to waste, lie continued his advance and reached us with almost all the precious fluid. "Kvey evening the Turks energetically shelled' the beach where we had our ambulance dressing stations. Consequently the wounded were subjected to a fierce shrapnel firo as the stretcher parties went along the foreshore. This was too much of a good thing, and it was remedied by a strenuous staff officer (Colonel Chaytor) who got together a

fatigue party and, himself armed wiCi a shovel, built a well-consruetcd path

ider cover of C:c sheltering sandhills ar the beach.

'•On Wednesday all though the big attack the word kept coming back for more ammunition, more water, and more reinforcements. As the fresh men made

their way up the steep slopes they met an interminable string of wounded coming down to tlie beach. And had the sight been vouchsafed us a few months before we would doubtless all have had

ic stuffing knocked out of us for a mo-

lnenl or two at least. As it was, however, these cheerful cripples put new heart into the men, nnd they went into notion all the more determined to make ' good. One man I saw shot through tho groin pulling himself along in-a sitting position, sliding, scuffling down a slope. 'That's, pretty rough work,' I said smiling, but his answer was unexpected, 'lt's damn bad for my pants,' he said cheerfully. \ "At one stage a few hand grenades began to arrive in our trenches. They , were of two varieties, and there was i one. kind that smelt vilely and seldom went off. The other went off so quickly

that one didn't have time to know whether it smelt or not. One of the latter species landed in a trench alongside a corporal of the Wellington Battalllon (A. H. Piper). It had still an

inch ■of fuse to burn, so he held it quietly until it was almost gone—and then threw it back. Grenade-throwing at that sector stopped from that moment. 'That's what's meant by surprise effect,' said the corporal as ho resumed his rifle.

"Men do queer things when under excitement. Once I Baw an Australian dash out after a Turk with the bayonet. He got him too, but he tickled him with it first by way of preparation! * "Over on the right on the Sunday a panting bluejacket (now in khaki) flung himself down beside me, whispering, 'Give us a smack at 'em, Tommy, afore . I goes back to me boat.' And he emptied two of my clips at the green bushes opposite before he went back to explain why he had kept the cutter waiting for him. BRAVE STRETCHER-BEARERS. "The. stretcher-bearers alone did deedß of heroism that would have done credit to any army in the world. I saw one chap climb out of a trench during heavy fire, and, taking advantage of all the cover he could, get a wounded man under the arms and drag him back to the trench. Half-way back he was shot through the arm. He then hooked his sound hand through the man's collar and got him into the trench. And mind you, he did all this calmly. There was no mad rush about it. Ho used his brain all the time. Under all conditions tho stretcher-bearers were magnificent. Even as they were carrying the wounded along the beach to the. base they drew the fire of the Turks. During tho cqurse of the afternoon, they brought tho fltlwr four men whom I told you about; .back from tho heap of dead. These men had been lying there from half past jour- on the Suiiday morning until the same hour on Monday afternoon. I had better not give you details of their long vigil. THE GUNS AT WORK. "We bivouacked in the trenches and in holes in the cliff, and that evening (lie warships below us began a terrific bombardment. Shells shrieked continuously overhead and burst not far from us. For a while the Turkish batteries would be silenced, but in half an hour or so they would open up again frdm an entirely different position. They methodically shelled our wounded as they were being taken down to the dressing" .stations, aiid also the boats conveying (lie .wounded to the hospital ships. Several of our men slightly wounded yore killed on the beach after having been brought down from tho firing-line. The sh'ips replied, but it was very difficult to locate the Turkish positions, well screened as they were, in such difficult country. One of our ships in particular was loosing off broadsides almost continuously. At one time when her flr« . was focussed on a ridge on our left front I saw an object turning over and over in the air fifty feet up. It was a Tnflc'S leg. I could see the boot, a bit itf trouser leg, and a trail of unwinding ' puttee as this particular Turk was. performing his last and somewhat indeli- . eate high-kicking act. One would think , that such fire must be utterly demoralise ■ ing, but the enemy took a loj; 'tj{ .'shift-■.\ ing. So tremendous was the can'jionUcl'c'" that it shook down the cartli in" our'' '* trenches and deafened us in ft f4w"in)n-''"■■ utes, though we were a considerate? <risiancc"fTbm the ships. ,f ' ! ,«t.U'>!iM DEALING WITH, THE SNIPERS,<V«t ' "On-the -Monday men 'were still being. •. rushed ashore, and as they came they 1 'want flring:Jine. ftur. £ i 'position, wfi'^gradually*.^onsolidi^d.^' Water and ammunition were to be had . in plenty, atfd our comhiiinibtftions were ; restored. Snipers were still responsible , for many of the casualties, and I saw one queer incident. A sniper had been. worrying up during the morning, and i two Australians vowed in lurid langu- , i age that that they would stalk the begi gar, and stalk him thov did. They left . (he trench and crawled on all fours into the bush and disappeared. Presently ■ they reappeared, one of them wearing I a Turkish cap. They were lugging ' something through the bushes, and they, ; I pushed it gently over the sfeej). cliff. This was the sniper. 'Did you get'him 1 nil right?' we asked when th.cy,_,.c»Bie r buck to the trench. 'Oh, ves, .we igqfi,;, i him,' llioy replied, 'an' w< didn't hold,'ttp„« . blooniin' post-mortem, either. He l;jtJK- • e<l as he went over the cliff!' At ail-' i other singe of the fighting I saw Swo r v ' ; snipers who had been dislodged from 1 their hiding place rush down towards I our lilies in the direction of one of the dressing sations. Th,e firijt was wo«nded-*i nnd collapsed some yards short of it. .- t Tim second had genie' Berserk nnd Ah- - played all the bravery of fanaticism. s An Australian stwek him With a sheath f knife and so stopped his onward rush. the s'Hirs at "Work.;. - I ',,' s

"The Queen Elizabeth on one oecAtfqn. neting' with aeroplane control, aantja, v Tiirkinh transport in the Bt(jiit,'o(j th* I Dardanelles seven milea awftjy, of sight bey.on,d the hills on tV rijfin*. Jtind,near QAba Ttjpc. TbX#l d ftt'frWr

lird shot, striking the transport lips. It is not known if there "ly troops en board. This same, .', was not altogether one-sided, ipnel began to burst round about

ar the transports and warships. -> v. ;ht time one of the ships was us■r searchlight just ahead of our es on some open ground in front . i Turkish position, and early in the : ag this light brought fire upon >hip from some heavy guns, either ihe Goeben or on the shore on the ■ r aide of the hills. Tremendous col'

, . ..:s of water from the explosions of th.'.je big shells rose high above the ship, : '; luckily she was not hit. She imptly switched out her light, hoisted .• anchor, and steamed slowly away to another position for all the world like • .1 indignant lady who has been offended ~y someone beneath her notice.

"Our ships and guns were all painted in the weirdest manner. It seemed as if some post impressionist gone mad had been at work on them. They were covered with great slabs of brown, green, yellow, and any old color that even a collier would be ashamed to put on. The guns were also indiscriminately dabbed all over with a variegated coloring. The whole thing makes a blur so that it is difficult for an enemy to locate the guns or the vulnerable parts of the ship. One of the ships had a wave most artistically painted on her bow, so that, even when she was stationary, she seemed at a distance to be steaming a full speed. The field guns also in this modern warfare are treated with variegated coloring. It is on the principle, on which Nature has clothed the zebra, the tiger, and the giraffe for protection against an enemy. A TREMENDOUS ATTACK. Regarding Tuesday—though I have gone all through the fighting on that day—my mind is now a blank. On Wednesday there was a tremendous attack. The enemy tried to turn our left flank. They had received reinforcements the night before, and about 9 a.m. the lire became terrific. Our right was com. ■ paratively safe, but on the left about half a mile from the beach the enemy launched company after company, battalion after battalion, at our position, .till'we must have been opposed by at least two to three brigades. Machineguns played an important part in the operations. The Turks were led by the Germans and had a stiffening of German soldiers. They frequently used flatposed and explosive bullets. A captured German officer had the night before promised us some hot gunfire, and sure enough now we began to get it. The shrapnel began to be most effective and, on several occasions they found and maintained the range on our howitzer (pin emplacements on the beach. They teemed to have brought at leaßt three six-gun batteries into action against our one howitzer battery of four guns, which was under the personal supervision of i the Brigadier of the Field Artillery, Colonel G. M. Johnston. Thus Brigade Headquarters, and indeed Army Headquarters were subjected to shrapnel fire, and the harassed staff had no place to go where in.quiefj and safety they could work out their tactical scheme. Not only was this so, but on occasions at night the Turkish snipers penetrated our lines and took pot shots at the place where our staff was supposed to be. Our howitzer fire in default of a better target was used mainly against the infantry immediately opposed to us, and often the shells burst just in front of our own trenches and uncomfortably close. At times it was just possible to see men blown from the opposing trench and others hastily leaving their position. With their secondary armament the ships must have played havoc with the Turkish reserves and reinforcements a a they came up. THE SEAPLANES. "Away out in the offing between our shore - and the Island of Imbros that weird-looking ship the Ark fioyal lay at anchor or moved up and down as occasion required. She was a strangelooking craft—the first of her kind—but obviously wonderfully useful. Her one mast and funnel are placed right aft so that her forward deck is clear of all obstruction save for two large steam derricks. On this clear space were the hydroplanes that she mothered. From where we were we could see a derrick swing round, lift up and lower it into the water. Then presently we would see the graceful machine skimming through the calm sea at perhaps forty miles an hour before it 'lifted' and soar- , ed away over our position. The noise of the exhaust, no matter how high the 'plane flew, was clearly audible. The two floats beneath the main planes looked for all the world like the webbed feet of. some gigantic sea bird. The smoke from the exhaust trailed behind in a long white streamer as the plane soared in graceful spirals or else climbed straight to a safe altitude beyond, winging her way over the Peninsula on our front. Several times the Turks took pot shots at her, and the bursts of sharpnel like small puffs of cotton wool could be seen below her. Often we thought she must be hit, but apparently these shots were ineffective. Occasionally these plane reconnaissances were conducted under great difficulties, and on one occasion a plane returned to home and mother with twenty-eight bullet wounds in her wing surfaces. Sometimes a plane would come back so high up that even with our glasses we could not say whether she was hostile or not. The Turks were using the familiar German Taube, which, as the name signifies, is made with wings akin to those of a dove. The front edges of the planes are-bent backwards like the wings of a bird, and the back edges are serrated. Frequently when a Turkish bombardment was at its height one of our planes would soar away to seek out the enemy's gun position, and then the bombardment would cease automatically. Apparently the Turkish guns were particularly well handled, and the observation post, wherever it was, must have been a good one. Away on our left was a village marked on the map as Siveleh, and there we could see a mosque with a tall minaret. It was well within range, and later, casting all scruples aside, it was laid low and the village get on fire. This apparently upset the calculations and the work of the Turkish gunners to some extent, but only temporarily. v AS OBSERVATION POST. i " Far up at Cape Suvla, which is the southernmost point of a lareg salt-water lagoon, I could see through the rangefinder a hut, some cultivated ground, and -well-constructed earthworks above the beach. Watching more 'closely, I saw a string of camels, some horses and then 15 or 20 .men moving about between the hut and the earthworks. If this was as I expected— «n observation -post—it was all that was necessary to control the Turks' fire. Information regarding it was immediately sent to headquarters, and a warship proceeded slowly up the coast to investigate. Whether she bombarded the position or not 1 cannot tell—it is one of the things that I have forgotten. r< , "lEvery now and again word fame down our lines that the British 29th Division had made good progress, and would connect up with our lines. At one time we were told definitely when to expect them. Away down south we could see their transports and hear another battle raging, but up till the time I left thty had not got in touch with, as,' ex«Bp* perhaps by signal. Since then W 'T'fci;.*. *n..Tr fetva ininPiTun Never

that time. The 29th Division were driving the Turks from the south-west against us, and we were acting much in the same way as a groyne thrown out into a river, and turning this human tide into narrower confines, while at the same time saving the bank behind. As the Turks camo north the area for .them -was lessened, but I do not think j that there was any precipitate retreat ■on their part. Indeed, reinforcements ' seemed to arrive just as they were .wanted. A STRANGE BURIAL. '■' During lulls in the firing burial parties from our battalion were sent out, and Chaplain Taylor, of Nelson (since wounded), managed to give decent burial to some forty Australians who had fallen in the original landing. It was a pathetic scene. Down near the beach large graves had been dug, and as the bodies were lowered into them the chaplain read the military burial his voice drowned every now and then by bursts of shell or rifle fire. Tflcre, on the •far-away graves where these colonial soldiers are sleeping their last sleep, small ■wooden crosses, some of them, appropriately enough, made out of the wood of -ammunition bOjXes, tell how Private-So-aml-So laid down his life .six thousand miles from his home fighting a foe that a few days previously he Iliad not-the! slightest interest an. These graves are pathetic in their loneliness. They will never be seen by any of the relatives of the men buried there, and all that a 'mother or father in Australia or New /Zealand will receive as a memento will be a pathetic little collection from the pockets of their son. The chaplain ■.'olleeted these relics—from one, perhaps, ■a .pipe, from another a few letters or the family photograph, or from still another a man's pay-book, often as not stained with 'his own Mood. The last thing I remember is going out on a reconnaissance with 'Major Loach, after-,-wards severely wounded. He docs not know what happened to me any more than I do. When I regained consciousness after a long time I was on a hospital ship, quite deaf, and with a spine that .felt like a red-hot poker. On the ship I lost consciousness several times, and also in the hospital in Cairo. For five days and nights sleep was imipossible. I would not like to tell you about those nights on the hospital ship ■ —this with tears in his eyes—l cannot trust myself to speak of them just yet." At this stage a; fine-looking young Aucklander—off to a commission in the Black Watch—came up to tell us that a now list of casualties had come "n. Amongst the killed was the name of the corporal's dearest friend. He got up and walked away, ind that was the end of his story.