At The Dardanelles

Taranaki Daily News, 22 July 1915, Page 6

At The Dardanelles

N.Z. CORRESPONDENT'S REPORT. A BUAVK XKW ZKALAXOKU.

JOl'liXAl.lvU IX TilK TKKNVIIIOS.

yl!y .MiiU-olm Koss, \\;ir lun i; L-poudi'iit. will) tin: New Zcahiml Fours)

One of tin: most extraordinary :un during Icats in tl'.i- W'iir has been i.vcom plttlicil i»v a young New Zealand, win. However.'is not. serving with tile Nu\ Wfiilmul Forces. Many people i« tliDominion will rciuem'ber •■Tiny" Jury berg, who, as a s.hoo/bo/, was a chain [lion swimmer. lie is now a tnll hlowj major, has licvn wounded three timed and has L.viee been mentioned in di s patcin s. ile was evidently born In be : soldier. Some time ago hi' went nut ti Mex.co and olleied his services to I lu era. Huerta, did not want liiin. so hi went and fought with Villa on the op jH/site side. Returning to Kngland, li< joined the Naval Jirigade; fought a .vulwerp; was wounded: received hi' captaincy, and was mentioned in des patehes. Afterward', lie came out wit' the Urigade to the Dardanelles. W'hei an attack was about to lie delivere. filltl:er di/.vn the ■ eiiin-'.iia. il hceaiin licccssii'V to make a demonstration op posite the Uuiair lines, so that reinforce mollis would not be sent from that. quar tcr. It was decided to despatch tlirei boat loads of men to light tires on tin bea.h, so a-s to draw the lire ef th< eneinv in the liulair lines, and engage their' attention "bile the marines land ed at Cape Hollos. I'Ycyberg was t< command the landing party. I!e, however, pointed out to Major-'ooneral l'ari: that this meant sacrificing the lives o tile men, not one of whom would hi likeiy t.<> ioluni alive, and Ile suggest ed that he, himself, should be allowed f( perfoi ill the mission of swinini i"K ashore It was theiefore ai ranged that on Apri 24 he was to go iu the destroyer Kennel and male a reconnaissance. This wai done, the destroyer being fired at bi the Turkish Keld 'batteries and maxima On the following evening three cutter: and two picket boats were lojded wit'l men as if fc a night landing, .tnd I'rey berg, having had his >kiu painicd khaki got into the Kennet, which was to dro] him iu the sea about half a mile fron the shore. By this time night had faU ell. there was a faint moonlight, fl the uncertain light it was not easy ti judge distance, and young rreyberj found that he was in for 11 swim of twi miles, with three oil llare.- and twi Holmes,' lights, which he earned in i waterproof 'bag. with sufficient air in i to support the weight in ine water. II also carried, attached to a licit ronni his waist, a small revolver and a slientl knife. He was put into the water sum time about midnight. ami he judged tlia it took h'm a:; hour :'!id R-ho.lf to swiii lishore. ' TTe had to dodge the ordinal-; landing-place where there were barbed wire entanglements, and landed on ; rugged bit of beach. l'rom there 'li crawled inland for a quarter of a mil to a .plate where on the previous (la, he had noticed some trendies. The proved to the dummy trenches, and h ecuhl hear the Turks talking and scm , them staking matches to ''g l ' 4 tliv'r I cigarettes in tlic lines higher tip. T«ic water had been Ibitterlv cold, and lie. now fl'it r-yuijlkiliis or cramp, so hj..: crawled i>ack to the beach, lit one of • his (lares, and dived back into the sea. t The, -ahirnv was at on;e given in Be Turkish trenches and firing commenced. ' He swam further along the beach, land- 1 ed again, and lit a second flare. Tie ! repeated the -performance a third time still further along the shore, the K ':i net meantime having opened fire over the, other lights with her 12-pounders and maxims. Having safely accomplish. , crl his mission, Major 'Freybcrg started , to swim back on a lir.e .iue south, as arranged, steering by a compass on !:is i wrist, to a, wpot .where, it had been ar- j I ranged the Kennet wo'.ild pick Mint up. The Kennet. however, was not there, and I he had to float about for nearly an hour. The day before tliev had seen a shark following the destroyer—seveial of these brutes having no doubt 'been attracted by the dead bodies front the transport Manitou, which met her fate in these waters—and when a great porpoise ro r e before him alliout half-wav .acro=s. he admits that he got an awful fright. After .floating around for about un hour, and all firing having by that time ceased, he started to swim in the direction in which he thought the Kennet might Jie. and present, in answer to In■cooces,' the destroyer came along and , picked him up. This uncertain floating around in the dark—the moon having gone down—was the worst part of the whole adventure. Subsequently Major I 1 reyberg was sent "r by the General, who thanked him. nnd toM him he would hear more about his v:-rv plucky action Tn the fighting at Antwerp voung Fn-yber# wae wounded in the * rHit arm, and after tbis last adventure lie was twice wounded at Cape Helles while leading his men. One bullet entered Jus foroiinu and come out nnar the elbow, severing the medial nerve. He was also bit in the leg. Such was his story quite modestlv told. When I saw hint he had lost the use of his left hand, but he was oIT hack to the Dardanelles by the first steamer. In company with him was "Sammv" pbrystal, whom recent Christ's College boys will well remember. Chrvstal was put m Africa somewhere when the war fame out, to the Dardanelles. He was also wounded at Cape Helles. Bv all the ordinary laws of direction the bullet should have gone through hi, stoiiiaen. But it, cut a, track from oiie side right round the front of his Iwtlv- and came out at the other side. Chr'yßtul also was convalescent, and was again en roi,to for the 'Dardanelles to boj; f or " how" '"f W ® B W* toi«» 'he 'on Asquith. j of »•- Primp Ministpr uf ' E .and, was wounded white fighting under Major T'reyibcrfi-. the young N*ew Zealandc.r, Colonel Richardson, formerly Master Gunner Richardson, in Wellin<'

ton—is the D.A.Q.M/i. ol the Brigade, ami has (lone splendid work. lie has proved liin-.xeW a elever organiser, lie, also, lias been mentioned in despatches, and his promjtion Iras been rapid. •June 2. The liiijsher. in whatever part of the world lie n.ay lie. must hove his own new-paper press. Scarcely had the New Zealand ti'cnpships left Wellington Harbor win .1 the Tahiti Times and ether journals began to appear. Some cranky ■ lid hai.-1-press and type of a more or le s nnmlcM'iipt and dilapidated character -were pressed into service, ami in l.lii' naiiow coiilines of his cabin the e.itior. printer anil ■publisher three silicic gentlemen rolled into om —in making :i si'pieme ell'ort to maintain his equilibrium du-ing rongii weather, would iind himself gra'.ibing an ink roller or making "pie'' out of his latest leading article. Koine i.f these troopship newspapers were illustrated, and well illustrated. H is. however, a, far erv from Wellington Harbor to the Dardanelles, and in such stirring times as the prcntt one would think that our men would not liother about printing newspapers for themselves. Yet the Callipoii Peninsula his its own newspaper .press, knder the liie of the Turkish shrapnel and high explosive .shells -at least three newspapers ire printed in the vicinity of Caba Tope and Cape llclles. One of the. i 1 is in 1-Toti li—"Tradi'it a I'usage des troupes francaises par oi'dre du (icneral commandant en cliel' le torus K.vpeditionaire Mediterranean.'' It is a small one-page double-column sheet, and i- ii:. in. itself mainly with the news (if the dav from Paris.

The Eagi'sli newspapers lire a little mi re air.'bitious, and. it may lie added, a little more humorous, not to sa.v frivolous. The Englishman can no more curb his sense of 'humor amid the grim realities of war than lie can fail to drive home a bavonet charge against the enemy. And so it hanpens that we have the 'Dardanelles Driveller (price one drink.) makiui? its appearance on May IT. 1 :n.">. It has the usual births and deaths notices; for instance:

r.inTir, On Muv in. at Clidstone Villa, t-'ie wife of .John .Jones, oj' twin sons. DKATII. I'll May 10. at (Hailstone Villa. Joliii Jones. Then there is a theatrical notice:— "V. Thcat ri': twice daily. "Annie from Asia.' a. screaming farce." , This, how ever, ieipiires explanation. At regular periods, once a day, a Turkish gun ilsed to hurl -dieils right across the peninsula from the Asiatic shore. These shell, made a lot of noise, but seldom did any damage, and " Annie from Asia " ibeeame known as a screaming farce. They fell over a beach marked on tile mail as \7' Another beach is known as "V" Uracil. Jt was a very long"i proportion lor the -Jflth Division, as may lie gathered from the fol-

lowing poem: " V " IVach. the Scottish P.ordcror cried. While panting up the stoop hillside, •' Y ■' lieaeh! To call this thing a bear li is still', It's nothing' hut a clilT, Why beach? In a previous article I referred to Anzae I'eaeii. which the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps took and held in the face of tremendous odds, and to the w'ning of the. name out of t'l'-c initial letters of the coi'ps. Apropos, the following advertisement from the -Dardanelles Driveller is worthy of a wider cir<.u!"tion

Au/.ac! Anzae!! Anza.-!!! The Great Stickfast! Limaiivor Sanders,writes: " [ts gluti; or.:; powers exceeded all my expect; tions.'' Knver Pasha writes: "The bottle yo kindly sent me sufiices all my needs, do NOT want any more. 1 iinil a littl goes a long way." Xo Army Should lie Without it! Try It To-day. Anzac! Anzac!! The re is a new soil" advertisedj" Itchy Koo." To anyone who has bee I in a campaign—especially in the Eastthe advertisement conveys a little worl of meaning. j The l>.irdanelles Driveller 110 doub fulfils its mission. The il'eninsula I'res adopts a more serious style, and, inci dentally, it gives some interesting cn tracts from n Turkish newspaper, Th Taii'ne, setted in a eaptured trend In these one can Pee the crooked ban of the German diplomatist. For ir stance, it is reported that our troop have been driven into the sea! and tlia the beach Kedd-el-Ilalir lias been .purga of their presence. The following para graph, translated iroin the Turkish will interest and no doubt amuse Ne\ Zcahnders: '• Tile enemy has sufTerei a ■on ,p!cte defeat, cannot make an; .resli attempt. lie can neither brin; up fresh troops, nor try to aeeomplisl anything with his demoralised soldiers In a word, another similar decisive de feat will close the question of tin Straits for good. The <>rrek* will con gratulate themselves on having escaped this disaster. Information is still lacking as to the composition of the enemy's forces: but it appears, from indications received from Europe, that they must consist chiefly of black men from Africa and Australia. Thus the Straits, for the first time in history, has had to endure an attack by cannibals." This was written, presumably, before the Turks asked for an armistice to bury between 4000 and 5000 dead in front of the Australian-New Zealand trenches. The Tanine, however, seem 3 to have changed its tune a few davs later.' ''The obstinate British," it says, ( '• have not admitted their defeat, in spite of the blows they have received. They have come on ajßlill. Tn this .we recognise some of the peculiarities which have been noted li.v the {'let-mans in Flanders. The (British, when fighting, show an astonishing persistence and obstinacy "which are peculiar to them. In the most desperate situations thev will not allow that t'hev -are beaten, anil persist to the end. ' This useless obstinacy has usually oa-ascd them such terrible losses ill Flandt.s that the English newspapers from time to timo uW?V vMiiplamfs. 4 s for thf present useless persistence, 'it is not for us to complain of it. The more obstinate they are. the worse blows thev will re ceive. and that will assure the final r S ult.»

In its first leading article. The Driveller editor anticipates his critics it giving certain reasons why lie should be allowed to remain alive. He Says the literary supplement will lie on a level never vet attained in Sedd-el-Bahr, and that the poetry will lie such as can oulv be inspired by the Aegean or the Plain of Troy. One paragraph announces the reason the Turks had no rearwards during the retreat from Sedd-el-Tlfthr was because thev could not trust them! There is also, as a matter of course, a printiM2 press at W orl: at General TTcadmiarter,. In the iss'ie of General lioiitlne Orders t>v General Sir lan Hamilton unnciiv* n, O f.dlowin?: "r n f, ider t- >n;trk tile good work done by 'he 1-l-rM, Tlat(rt)mi) Gurkha Rifles in "r-'""""" |W on the coast west '.f K'"<lnn. *l>c Oeneval Commanding has onle:-ed that this (bluff will i n future new na-vtM mv prmo|n.ntlv on H.e mn-,» in connexion with these operations.